As Edgars Rkēvičs be the first openly gay print Latvia’s history, here’s a glimpse at other openly gay heads of state om around the world.
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LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
The followg untry profil are rived part om sectns of theHuman Rights Watch 2021 World Report that relate to the rights of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr and (LGBT) people. * lgbt countries *
Human Rights Watch has documented anti-LGBT vlence and threats faced by gay men and trans women Antigua and Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda has unrgone LGBTI sensizatn trag to better protect the rights of LGBTI people, facilated by Caribbean 2016, followg s UN Universal Perdic Review, the mister of social transformatn announced that she was willg to troduce to Cabet a remendatn to repeal the buggery laws, but as of 2021, they rema place Antigua and November 2019, the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversy and Equaly announced planned to lnch a legal challenge agast the crimalizatn of private, nsensual same-sex sexual activy. Belas’ 2017 Law on the Protectn of Children om Informatn Harmful to their Health and Development may be ed to rtrict dissematn of ntral or posive rmatn about lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people as “discredg the stutn of the fay. ”Print Bolsonaro and other public officials subscribe to the notn that children are beg “doctrated, ” cludg by teachers, wh so-lled “genr iology, ” a vacuo tch-all term tend to note an ill-fed gay and femist nspiracy to wreak havoc on tradnal valu.
In rponse, May 2020, Bolsonaro vowed to send a bill banng “genr iology” to the Natnal Congrs, but has not yet done January 2020, the Supreme Court upheld eedom of exprsn and vated a lg by a R Janeiro judge orrg Netflix to take down a special featurg a “gay J. Dpe Colombia’s strong legal protectns on the basis of sexual orientatn and genr inty, the human rights ombudsperson has raised ncerns about high levels of vlence agast lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr rponse to the Covid-19 panmic, on April 8, 2020 the ernment of Bogotá tablished a genr-based quarante. ”For several months, Egyptians livg wh HIV, cludg gay men, faced obstacl to accsg HIV treatment as they feared retrievg their meditn om fever hospals, the only centers where people livg wh HIV n accs lifavg meditns, after the ernment signated them as treatment centers for Covid-19.
In spe of this law, lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) activists succsfully held the first ever “Eswati Pri” event June 2018, wh hundreds marchg the streets of Mbabane support of LGBT October 20, 2020, the Eswati High Court heard a challenge om Eswati Sexual and Genr Mori (ESGM) agast the Eswati Registrar of Compani’ refal to register ESGM as a pany. The amendment f “aggravated homosexualy” to clu serial offenrs or persons wh a prev nvictn for homosexualy, persons who admister dgs or substanc orr to have “unlawful rnal nnectn” wh a person of the same sex, persons havg same-sex relatns wh someone unr the age of 18 or wh a person who has a disabily, or a person wh HIV havg same sex sexual relatns.
People around the world face vlence and equaly—and sometim torture, even executn—bee of who they love, how they look, or who they are. Sexual orientatn and genr inty are tegral aspects of our selv and should never lead to discrimatn or abe. Human Rights Watch works for lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr peopl' rights, and wh activists reprentg a multiplicy of inti and issu. We document and expose ab based on sexual orientatn and genr inty worldwi, cludg torture, killg and executns, arrts unr unjt laws, unequal treatment, censorship, medil ab, discrimatn health and jobs and hog, domtic vlence, ab agast children, and nial of fay rights and regnn. We advote for laws and polici that will protect everyone’s digny. We work for a world where all people n enjoy their rights fully. * lgbt countries *
Article 401 holds that any person who ms an “immost act” public n be imprisoned for up to six months, a vague provisn that uld be ed to target sexual and genr mori, although such s have not been the years, thori have not held acuntable perpetrators, cludg secury forc, of kidnappgs, torture, and killgs of people perceived as gay and transgenr. The clu a 2015 High Court lg favor of the Natnal Gay and Lbian Human Rights Commissn a se volvg eedom of assembly and associatn, which has been appealed by the ernment and currently awas rolutn at the Supreme Court; a 2018 Appeals Court lg prohibg forced anal examatns; and lgs affirmg transgenr and tersex people’s rights. There were no publicly known s of persons sentenced to ath 2020 or recent years for homosexual Court of Appeal Nouakchott on March 4, 2020, nfirmed the nvictn of eight men for “mtg cent acts” and “cg bchery, ” but rced their sentenc to six months prison.
Morocn law also crimaliz what refers to as acts of “sexual viancy” between members of the same sex, a term that thori e to refer to homosexualy more generally, and punish them wh prison terms of up to three April 2020, multiple dividuals nducted a mpaign of onle harassment of prumed gay and bisexual men. It ed panic among people who sought to protect their privacy due to the social stigma toward homosexualy and the legal prohibn of same-sex a memorandum published October 2019, the Natnal Human Rights Council, a state-appoted body, remend crimalizg nsensual sex between non-married adults.
Lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) rights n vary om untry to untry. Below is a list of untri who have ma the greatt stris when to protectg the rights of LGBT people. * lgbt countries *
Sce the crimalizatn of homosexualy Mozambique 2015, and spe of a November 2017 urt cisn that clared unnstutnal a law wh vague “moraly” provisns that had been ed to jtify nyg registratn to LGBT groups, the ernment has still not registered the untry’s largt such group, Lambda.
Nigerian law crimaliz same-sex nduct as well as public show of same-sex amoro relatnships, same-sex marriag, and the registratn of gay clubs, societi, and December 2019, 47 men were put on trial for public displays of affectn wh members of the same sex, an offence that rri a 10-year jail term unr the Same Sex Marriage Prohibn law, enacted 2014. Polish thori’ crackdown on LGBT rights activists tensified 2020, particular on Augt 7, when hundreds of monstrators gathered outsi the Warsaw offic of the Campaign Agast Homophobia, an LGBT rights group, to prott an orr to arrt a non-bary activist named Margo Szutowicz acced of g damage June to a tck promotg false anti-LGBT propaganda. Vcent and the Grenad, Sectn 146 punish “buggery” wh 10 years prison, and Sectn 148 punish an “act of gross cency wh another person of the same sex” wh five years July 2019, two gay men filed a se challengg the crimalizatn of private, nsensual same-sex sexual activy.
However, activists reported that dividual bans on public LGBTI events ntued to be imposed the May 2020, the Ankara prosecutor’s office opened a crimal se agast Ankara Bar Associatn after filed a plat agast the head of Turkey’s Relig Affairs Directorate for a homophobic January and Febary 2021, police cracked down on stunts prottg Print Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s appotment of an amic closely aligned wh the ernment as rector of one of Turkey’s top universi. In April 2020, the UN Human Rights Commtee, followg s review of the Uzbek ernment, lled on to repeal the same provisn and exprsed ncerns about “ntug reports of discrimatn, harassment and vlence, cludg extortn, arbrary arrt, torture and sexual abe, agast lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr persons by State officials and private dividuals, cludg plac of privatn of liberty, and about the mandatory disclosure of private medil rmatn. LGBT and LGBTQ+ have several addnal variatns, cludg LGBTQ, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIA+, and 2SLGBTQIA+ (Two-spir, lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer, qutng, tersex, and asexual, wh the + reprentg pansexual, agenr, genr queer, bigenr, genr variant, and pangenr).
While openly lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr world lears are still a rary, there are a few who are breakg barriers. * lgbt countries *
Another of the world's most gay-iendly untri, Swen has legalized both marriage and adoptn for same-sex upl, stalled anti-discrimatn protectns for both genr inty and sexual orientatn, end nstutnal protectns agast discrimatn, and crimalized vlence agast LGBTQ+ people. The term “homosexualy, ” while sometim nsired anachronistic the current era, is the most applible and easily translatable term to e when askg this qutn across societi and languag and has been ed other cross-natnal studi, cludg the World Valu Survey.
And Poland, supporters of the erng PiS (Law and Jtice), which has explicly targeted gay rights as anathema to tradnal Polish valu, are 23 percentage pots ls likely to say that homosexualy should be accepted by society than those who do not support the erng party. 1/11 Cred(Guillermo Gutierrez Carrasl/SOPA Imag/LightRocket/Getty Imag)View as articleJune 1 marked the start of Pri month, acknowledged by untri across the globe as a time to memorate the LGBTQ+ Pri month is wily celebrated, LGBTQ+ rights are still subject to bate much of the world, wh many untri divid over gay marriage, genr-affirmg re for transgenr mors and other legislatn affectg the LGBTQ+ muny.
* lgbt countries *
Lawmakers Latvia’s legislature elected Rkēvičs to serve as print wh 52 vot May, makg him the European Unn’s first openly gay head of 2014, Rkēvičs tweeted that Latvia “mt create a legal amework for all kds of partnerships, I will fight for , I know that there will be mega hysteria right away, but #Proudtobegay. Addnally, same-sex upl are not allowed to adopt Febary 2019, Brnabić and her partner weled their first child via artificial sematn, acrdg to the Varadkar4/11 Cred(Peter Morrison/AP)View as articleLeo VaradkarCountry: IrelandPosn: Prime MisterTime Office: June 2017-PrentLeo Varadkar beme Ireland’s first openly gay prime mister when he took office 2017.
”Next:Xavier Bettel5/11 Cred(Geert Vann Wijngaert/AP)View as articleXavier BettelCountry: LuxembourgPosn: Prime MisterTime Office: December 2013-PrentXavier Bettel is the first openly gay prime mister of Luxembourg, a largely Roman Catholic natn.