LGBT News and events indexed — Equal Eyes

South Africa: Gay rights in the classroom

Several South African women have been murdered for being lesbian, in most African countries you're a criminal if you're gay, and in Sudan and Mauritania you can be put to death for homosexuality. Meanwhile the University of Western Cape graduated its first students from the continent's first course on sexual orientation and the role of educators in dealing with sexual orientation issues in the classroom.  Read More

School teacher Who Referred To Student As “Fag Number One” Quickly Fired

A photography teacher at a school in Helsingborg, Sweden has learned the hard way why you shouldn’t hurl antigay slurs at students. “When I found out what the photographer said, I felt that this required immediate action,” the principal told media. “He did not respect our values and offended a student. As an adult, you must think about what you say to students.” Read More 

Chile’s LGBT movement marches united

Chile has celebrated a historical moment: for the first time, the LGBT movement marched united to demand equal rights. Although collaborating will always be difficult, the success of this march has added new momentum into the LGBT movement in Chile and stands for a powerful collaborative force. Just days ago, the front was awarded a grant by UNESCO and the Chilean National Institute for Human Rights, which aims at strengthening collaboration between NGOs.   Read More

'The Red Umbrella Diaries' Documentary Shares Stories Of Queer Sex Workers

Why do individuals make the decision to engage in sex work? The Red Umbrella Diaries is different from other explorations of sex work because its driven by first person stories and though we collaborated with filmmakers who are not sex workers, we had the final say about the content and representations in the film. It's also unique in the spectrum of sex worker media representations because of the variety of people in the film - all are LGBTQ identified, three are women of color (one of whom is trans), and two are men. Read More

Gays complain of HIV prevention overdose

Homosexuals in the Chennai, India have complained that they are being given overdoses of messages on HIV prevention and that programmes concerning the community should address their psychological needs more.

Though the study says that gay men in India have an HIV seroprevalence rate that is 22 times higher than the country's general population, those surveyed have a different take. "It is better not to keep concentrating on HIV... I think it is important to raise the low self-esteem of MSMs," one of the interviewees said.  Read More

Free Health Care Service From The Şişli Municipality

For the first time, Şişli, Istanbul, Municipality initiated free health care services for the LGBTI communities. LGBTI individuals will be able to benefit from health care services for free and, if they would like to do so, using nicknames rather than disclosing their identities. Read More 

Half of HIV+ Gay Men Don’t Take Life-Saving Drugs

A survey from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows dramatic deficits in treatment among those at highest risk of HIV infection. The reasons why men don’t get—or stick with—treatment range from cost to misperceptions about the toxicity of current drug therapies to the enduring stigma of HIV. Read More

Surveying Nepal’s Sexual and Gender Minorities: An Inclusive Approach

In a recent survey of sexual and gender minorities in Nepal over 60% of respondents reported experiencing abuse or discrimination.

The survey utilized Nepal’s inclusion of a third gender category in its national census, the first such attempt in the world. LGBT people in Nepal face many obstacles, including widespread bullying in schools, lack of protection from discrimination by employers, paucity of programming for reproductive health of lesbians, and the lack of sensitive HIV healthcare for transgender women and gay men who are at exponentially higher risk of HIV infection than the general population.  Read More 

Can the Catholic Church Help End HIV?

This year National Latino AIDS Awareness Day coincides with new conversations happening around two very important areas of HIV prevention for Latinos: PrEP and stigma. A shift in tone from the Catholic Church could result in how Latino families embrace their loved ones who happen to be gay, lesbian or transgender.

What does this mean for Latinos and HIV?
It means that the stigma around being gay may be coming to an end. It means that Latino men and women may feel safer to come out of the closet to their family, their community and to a church that will not only tolerate them, but embrace them. It means that we may be closer than ever to ending HIV by reducing the stigma surrounding what it means to HIV-positive.  Read More

Young U.S. Catholics overwhelmingly accepting of homosexuality

Fully 85% of self-identified Catholics ages 18-29 said in a 2014 Pew Research Center survey that homosexuality should be accepted by society, compared with just 13% who said it should be discouraged. Older age groups are less likely to favor acceptance. But even among Catholics ages 65 and older, 57% say that homosexuality should be accepted.  Read More

Meanwhile, antigay politician Rick Santorum claims young people support LGBT rights only because gay activists have kept them from hearing the alternative view. Read More 

Conservative Cardinal Who Clashed With Pope Francis Confirms He Has Been Ousted

A top cardinal told BuzzFeed News that the worldwide meeting of church leaders coming to a close in Rome seemed to have been designed to “weaken the church’s teaching and practice” with the apparent blessing of Pope Francis. 

Internal discontent among conservatives inside church leadership began to simmer over in the weeks leading up to the synod. In an apparent attempt to mollify anglophone conservatives, the Vatican released a new translation of the report that changed the phrase “welcoming homosexual persons” to “providing for homosexual persons” and made other small changes, while leaving the versions in all other languages unchanged. Read More

Church should not fear change, pope says at synod close

Pope Francis has closed an assembly of Catholic bishops that revealed deep divisions on how to respond to homosexuality and divorce, saying on Sunday the Church should not be afraid of change and new challenges.

The working session of the gathering ended on Saturday night with a final document that reversed a historic acceptance of gays by the Church made just a week earlier -- a result some progressives see as a setback for Francis. Read More