7 openly gay lears have served as heads of state. Latvian print Edgars Rkēvičs is the latt

Contents:

• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• GAY RIGHTS AROUND THE WORLD: THE BT AND WORST UNTRI FOR EQUALY

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

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. Dpe major chang laws and norms surroundg the issue of same-sex marriage and the rights of LGBT people around the world, public opn on the acceptance of homosexualy society remas sharply divid by untry, regn and enomic velopment. However, while took nearly 15 years for acceptance to rise 13 pots om 2000 to jt before the feral legalizatn of gay marriage June 2015, there was a near equal rise acceptance jt the four years sce legalizatn.

In South Korea, for example, those who classify themselv on the iologil left are more than twice as likely to say homosexualy is acceptable than those on the iologil right (a 39-percentage-pot difference).

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. But even untri like France and Germany where acceptance of homosexualy is high, there are differenc between supporters and non-supporters of key right-wg populist parti such as Natnal Rally France and Alternative for Germany (AfD).

GAY RIGHTS AROUND THE WORLD: THE BT AND WORST UNTRI FOR EQUALY

In 25 of the 34 untri surveyed, those who say relign is “somewhat, ” “not too” or “not at all” important their liv are more likely to say that homosexualy should be accepted than those who say relign is “very” important. Same-sex relatns are punishable unr article 338 of the penal by up to two years Algerian urt on September 3, 2020 sentenced two men to prison terms and 42 others to spend terms after mass arrts at what the police alleged was a “gay weddg.

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. In January 2019, Artak (Adam) Arakelyan, 19, a queer activist, was subjected to abe and discrimatn at a ary draft board, where officers varly ed homophobic slurs to scribe him, mocked him, and threatened to out him to his father.

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. The Sarajevo Open Center (SOC), a lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and tersex (LGBTI) and women’s rights group, rmed Human Rights Watch that observed an crease onle threats agast activists around the time of the march.

In 2020, Print Bolsonaro acced the World Health Organizatn of centivizg homosexualy through s sexualy tn guil, while the Mister of Edutn nounced sexualy tn and attributed homosexualy young people to “maladjted fai. ”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.

Article 29 of the Constutn of Bundi explicly bans same-sex Augt, Print Evariste Ndayishimye ma a televised speech which he scribed homosexualy as a “curse” and claimed that gay people were rponsible for Covid-19. 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.

Between October 2019 and April 2020 alone, at least seven trans women and two gay men were murred El Salvador, wh tails the s suggtg the killers had been motivated by hatred based on the victims’ genr inty or sexual orientatn. 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.

Authori creasgly e Indonia’s anti-pornography law as a pretext for police raids and prosecutns of LGBT May 2019, a former police brigadier filed a lawsu agast the central Java provcial police, claimg he had been fired for beg gay.

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. In July 2019, Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court led that two women will receive pensatn om a Facebook er who posted a vio of them kissg on the social media platform whout their permissn, and soliced homophobic ments.

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 years. 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. 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.

In Augt 2019, the Paltian Authory police spokperson announced a ban on activi by the Paltian lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) group Al-Qaws for Sexual & Genr Diversy Paltian society and vowed to prosecute s members. 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.

In December 2019, a urt fed femist and LGBT activist Yulia Tsvetkova 50, 000 bl (US$665) for vlatg the “gay propaganda” law over LGBT-iendly and femist posts two social media groups which she admistered. Sdi Arabia has no wrten laws ncerng sexual orientatn or genr inty, but judg e prcipl of undified Islamic law to sanctn people spected of mtg sexual relatns outsi marriage, cludg adultery, extramaral and homosexual sex. 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 March 2020, police arrted rints of a shelter for homels LGBT youth near Kampala and charged 20 gay and bisexual men and transgenr women wh “a negligent act likely to spread fectn of disease, ” as well as “disobedience of lawful orrs. 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.