The time 2023 was characterized by a serious international assault on LGBTQ rights as well as unanticipated difficulties and advancement. LGBTQ communities rose up and fought again against hatred for themselves and areas all over the world despite the hard push back.
Queer tyranny was started by some anti-LGBT political figures and liberal organizations in Russia, Uganda, and Italy. The Supreme Court’s decision to forbid same-sex unions in the largest politics in history left India with the biggest letdown of the year in October.
People who have sex with men and their physical partners continue to be at risk for public health as the Mpox virus spreads through China and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the Guardian.
There were some remarkable historical moments, wins, blessings, and upsets that provided a glimmer of hope for 2024 despite criminal setbacks and nations cracking down on LGBTQ rights.
In an investigation into the New South Wales Police Department’s management of dislike murder cases over the course of 40 years, Australia made a historic choice in December. In a report published on December 18, investigation director John Sackar concluded that officers had not properly looked into crimes, including 32 feared murders of queer and transgender people. American scientist Scott Johnson was one of the murdered gay men, and the Bay Area Reporter covered him in relation to the four-part docuseries “Not Let Him Go” being released on Hulu.
The second-ever Arria solution meeting of the United Nations Security Council was held to discuss the safety of LGBTQ people in war zones and conflict zones. According to the B, a coalition of nations led by the United States and the U.N. LGBTI Core Group addressed the problem in March with the overwhelming support of the majority of representative state. A.R. But, Roshaniya, an LGBTQ Afghan business, criticized the council in a Facebook post dated January 1, 2024 for omitting LGBT Afghans and gay rights from the draft resolution for the peacebuilding process of Afghanistan.
In June, the United Nations granted Inter Pride, an global alliance of LGBTQ Pride organizations, advisory position.
Victor Madrigal-Borloz and Graeme Reid, who began his three-year name as the new impartial professional on defense against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and identity identity on November 1, were bid farewell by the U.N. Human Rights Council. Gay Costa Rican man Madrigal-Borloz spent almost six years serving as the organization’s next LGBTQ professional. Vitit Muntarbhorn, a queer Thai person, succeeded him. Reid is a seasoned West African gender equality freedom activist who previously served as the director of HRW’s LGBTQ Rights Program.
Religion
Throughout the year, Pope Francis pushed the Catholic Church close to accepting LGBTQ Catholics. Surprisingly, it occurred in the 50th anniversary season of Dignity/USA, an LGBTQ Catholic organization. Francis said homosexuality isn’t a crime last January, shortly after Dignity/SF celebrated its 50th anniversary, according to the Associated Press. The pope instructed gay Christians to continue worshiping, according to the New Ways Ministry, an lobbying group for LGBTQ people, in October. Francis welcomed transgender individuals to the chapel for baptism in November.
Eventually, the pope announced in a beautiful manner in December that priests are now permitted to bless same-sex couples.
The connections between democracy and gender equality freedom
Politics is in danger all over the world, according to a statement from UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, an LGBTQ think tank. In September, a record titled “Democratic Complacency and LGBTI Rights” was released. “80% of the global population now lives in a country that is experiencing some restriction on freedoms, which is the highest proportion since 1997,” according to data analyzed for the report by the LGBTI Global Acceptance Index and the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute. Attacks on LGBTQ rights can lead to political complacency, and anti-LGBTI discrimination and policies may weaken democratic norms and institutions, according to some of the report’s key findings.
Additionally, more nations that were once pro-LGBT, like Argentina and Spain, abruptly switched to right-wing institutions last month. Queer and transgender rights gained over the past ten years were in danger of being undone by the social shift. Other nations, like Belgium and Lebanon, which were either pro-LGBT or queer-friendly, are also moving toward liberal institutions or cultural political views.
According to Openly, Argentina swore in anti-LGBT right-wing republican Javier Milei as its new leader in December. Milei, who was elected in November, has been compared to far-right figures like former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and previous American president Donald Trump. Since the early 2010s, Argentina has been a pioneer in advancing Transgender right in Latin America. The Washington Blade reported that the Argentinians ‘election of well-known Transgender activist Esteban Paulón to Congress was a sign of hope. Paulón is the state of Santa Fe.
According to Reuters, Spain, which legalized same-sex unions in 2005, rolled up constitutional protections for gay and trans people in December 2016.
The Gay area was one of many organizations that fought up against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reform in Israel, which has had a far-right state for centuries. According to the New York Times, the contentious scheme would weaken LGBTQ Israelis ‘right because many of them were obtained through legal decisions. Israel’s Supreme Court rejected adjustments to the court rules earlier this year.
1,200 people were killed in Hamas ‘wonder assault on Israel on October 7, which also sparked the ongoing war between the two countries, which has claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians. Some have criticized Israel’s defense response to the attack because the intense fighting in Gaza is killing human life. Liberal LGBTQ organizations in the U.S. have staged significant rallies around the world and joined Arab supporters, such as the Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, in calling for a continuous peace. Antisemitism situations have increased concurrently, according to Euronews.
Criminalization
Russia ended the year by outlawing the whole LGBTQ movement after criticizing anyone who dared to challenge Russian President Vladimir Putin, including gay journalists and celebrities.
Studies of LGBTQ plates and events being raided in Moscow and Russia’s historical center, St. Petersburg, surfaced as soon as the law was passed. Some LGBTQ Russians left the nation. Queer-friendly businesses and human rights organizations that hadn’t already left gathered and moved operations out of Putin’s reach.
Elena Kostyuchenko, a former Novaya Gazeta award-winning Russian journalist, as well as Elena Milashina and Russian British blogger Masha Gessen, were targets of Putin’s attention. According to Kostyuchenko, a gay who recently wrote and published her narrative “I Love Russia: Reporting from savage Country,” she was poisoned in an effort to end her life. In Grozny, the capital of the Soviet republic, Milashina was savagely attacked in July as she was traveling to a court hearing for an activist for animal rights. Miragina had been one of those journalists who had exposed Chechnia’s detention and torture of mainly gay men in 2017. The Russian government sued Gessen in November for disseminating “false information” about Russian military ‘deeds in Ukraine.
Maxim Lapunov, one of Russia’s “gay clean” subjects, was the target of its constitutional battle at the European Court of Human Rights. According to Mamba Online, the jury likewise found Russia’s investigation into the matter to be insufficient.
The Anti-Sexuality Act 2023, the most harsh LGBTQ law in the world, was passed by Uganda in May. The death sentence for “aggravated homosexuality” is stipulated by regulation. Yoweri Museveni, the chairman, signed the law in May. It was the pinnacle of a 14-year campaign to make sexuality outlawed for gay people in East Africa.
The United States, the World Bank, and various organizations imposed sanctions on Uganda totaling billions of dollars. Go limitations were put in place for important politicians in charge of the law. The Convening for Equality Uganda, a group of Ugandan LGBTQ and human rights activists, challenged the Constitutional Court’s decision on December 18 to close the season. LGBT campaigners are awaiting the ruling from the court.
The Anti-Homosexuality Act case was heard by the prosecutor for the second time today. 2014 saw the B. A. R. claimed that a formality led the jury to invalidate an earlier version of the bill that Museveni had signed into law at the start of that year.
The Supreme Court of Kenya overruled a challenge to its earlier ruling upholding the government’s registration rights for Transgender businesses. This sparked anti-LGBT demonstrations across the nation and the discussion of the Family Protection Bill 2023. According to Africa News, if the bill is passed, LGBTQ people who have spent 50 years in prison in the nation, where being gay is currently illegal, would be further criminalized.
Family obligations
Under the ultra-conservative government of Italy’s new prime minister, Georgia Meloni, which is the most far-right since Benito Mussolini (1922–1943), the country moved in August to remove non-biological same-sex parents from birth certificates. Unknown Milanese gay men fought back and were granted permission to at least record their foreign-born children, according to Openly.
Anti-LGBT and bias demonstrations
Gay protesters were imprisoned in Afghanistan and the Philippines.
Faraidun Fakory, a member of the LGBTQ gaze movement in Afghanistan, was held by the Taliban for more than 50 days, according to media reports, Facebook posts, and Afghani LGBTQ rights firm Roshaniya in November and December. He was let go on December 23. If a military court convicts Fakory of the 11 claims against him, he could be put to death. Among the Taliban’s accusations against Fakory, they claim that he is an enemy fighter who has fought the Muslim Emirate of Afghanistan. The second LGBTQ Afghan corporation to be founded in the nation, Paiwand 34, is run by Fakory. According to Pink News, LGBTQ Afghans pleaded with the U.N. in October to look into the Taliban’s mistreatment of Afghan gay and transgender people. There has n’t been any progress on the investigation.
According to Human Rights Watch, Filipino drag designer Amadeus Fernando Pagente, also known as Pura Luka Vega, was detained for his performance of “Ama Namin,” a stone rendition of the Lord’s Prayer, that resembled Jesus Christ dance. The achievement, which was videotaped in July, went viral. It attracted the interest of Philippine government. Vega was detained and accused of “indecent or unethical performs, scenes, acts, or shows that offend any contest or faith.” If found guilty, Vega faces charges and incarceration.
Due to their aid for the LGBTQ community, British rings found themselves in hostile province in Indonesia and Malaysia last season. At a music in Indonesia in November, anti-gay demonstrations against Coldplay broke out, according to the Associated Press. Fans protested in July after right singer Matty Healy’s on-stage kiss with bassist Ross MacDonald and tirade against the nations anti-LGBT laws.
According to Semafor, China closed its final Gay facility in the nation, the Beijing LGBT Center, in May.
Threats and violence were directed at Pride celebrations in Tbilisi and South Korea by right-wing anti-LGBT activists as well as attempts by the government to halt operations.
Malaysia began intensifying assaults against locations where Gay people congregate. The most recent incident involved the December imprisonment of five trans women and a massage parlor attack.
According to HRW, online threats forced France’s LGBTQ professional Jean- Marc Berthon to postpone a planned trip to Cameroon for security reasons. Due to the issue of the Indonesian Ulema Council, the nation’s most powerful Muslim organization, U.S. LGBTQ analyst Jessica Stern was forced to withdraw her journey to Indonesia in 2022.
In an October letter, almost 250 American LGBTQ organizations urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s administration to reiterate its dedication to LGBTQ rights everywhere. The United Kingdom again led the world in promoting trans and gay rights. The letter was written in response to remarks made by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman that were anti-LGBT and anti–women. In a case change on November 13, Braverman was let go. The following morning, she sent a harsh withdrawal text.
Two nations that had previously been ruled by anti-LGBT officials unexpectedly switched to leaders who support LGBTQ rights.
After defeating Bolsonaro in the 2022 elections, Brazil’s former democratic president Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva was re-elected to office on January 1, 2023. According to the Blade, Silva reiterated his aid for Brazil’s Gay area with President Joe Biden in February.
In the primaries held in October, Poland’s Law and Order Party lost. Donald Tusk, a pro-EU prime minister who was elected by the Poles, pledged to defend Gay people. The ECHR ruled last month that Poland’s refusal to permit same-sex people to file their relationships violated their privileges. The judge ruled that the nation had acknowledge their connections. A trans self-determination costs and a same-sex union bill are both currently being processed by Tusk.
Lithuania even experienced a shift in perspective. According to an ECHR decision that the law violated the right to free expression, the authorities repealed its Russian-styled anti-homosexual advertising law in October.
According to Social Europe, Romania was given a similar decision in May to acknowledge same-sex woman’s relationships. The judge’s decision also included Russia, which outlawed same-sex relationship in 2021.
Politics
In 2023, the United States released one more minister. The Senate confirmed queer Seattle native Roger Nyhus on November 16 to serve as ambassador to Barbados, the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda. He was also appointed to the Commonwealth of Dominica in Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Nyhus was appointed the 10th Gay adviser after receiving assurance. Sean Patrick Maloney, a queer former congressman from New York, was proposed in May to represent the United States at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, but the Senate has not yet confirmed his nomination.
The first openly gay president of the European Union was even welcomed. According to the BBC, Edgars Rinkevics was sworn in as Latvia’s innovative leader in July.
Advancement of justice
Despite the harsh criticism, there was still advancement toward justice for Transgender citizens worldwide in 2023.
According to HRW, Japan passed a bill in July that encouraged Gay education and outlawed prejudice. According to the Japan Times, some Chinese provinces outlawed the vacation of LGBTQ people without their permission.
The first national technique for LGBTIQ+ people will be prepared and published in October, according to Dan Juvan, Slovenia’s state minister at the department of labor. According to a media release from ILGA-Europe on October 27, Juvan unveiled the program at the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association- Europe yearly event in Ljubljana, Slovenia’s money.
Civil unions and union justice
The Tamil Nadu state was advised by the great judge in the Indian state of Madras to officially recognize same-sex relationships in November, giving hope to the couple, even though India’s top judge declined to rule in favor of such a union in October, according to The Times of India. The state’s administration has not yet acted.
According to HRW, Estonia made history in June when it became the first nation in Central Europe to allow same-sex unions.
Latvia legalized same-sex legal organizations in November.
Nepal was the next Asian nation to formally permit same-sex unions. In November, the nation married its second partners.
According to four favorable court decisions, LGBTQ Hong Kongers were optimistic about wedding justice in 2023 despite China’s crackdown on the democracy movement there. According to NPR, the court ruled in favor of defending same-sex couples ‘estate, cover, and parenting rights. In September, Hong Kong’s highest court also mandated that the government recognize similar sext unions within two years.
Gender equality freedom
The New York Times reported that nonbinary determine Jes Ociel Baena and their spouse were killed in their home in November. Between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023, 321 trans people were killed worldwide, according to the Trans Murder Monitoring Global Update for TransGender Europe.
Transgender people witnessed a backlash against sex education in Canada, with thousands of people protesting the gender policies of American schools on the streets of the Northern American nation, as the B. reported A.R. According to Deutsche Welle, Russia outlawed gender reassignment surgery in July.
In 2023, transgender persons were granted some freedom. The Japanese Supreme Court declared in October that the nation’s requirement for transgender people to undergo cleaning in order to formally change their gender was illegal.
Decriminalization
In 2023, homosexuality was decriminalized in the Cook Islands and Mauritius, two little island nations.
Retribution
According to Euronews, the Austrian Ministry of Justice proposed setting aside more than $36.5 million (33 million) for gay people who were persecuted or found guilty of consensual homosexual acts between 1971 (when homosexuality was decriminalized but discriminatory laws were put in place) and 2002.
Have you got any tips on global Gay information? Call or email Heather Cassell at the following numbers: 415-517-7239.
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