BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | First gay 'marriage' Pakistan

Contents:

• GAY PAKISTAN: WHERE SEX IS AVAILABLE AND RELATNSHIPS ARE DIFFICULT
• 5 SAFT PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2019 (AND THE MOST DANGERO)
• HOMOSEXUALY: THE UNTRI WHERE IS ILLEGAL TO BE GAY
• PAKISTAN JAILS UPLE OVER GAY MARRIAGE ALLEGATN

GAY PAKISTAN: WHERE SEX IS AVAILABLE AND RELATNSHIPS ARE DIFFICULT

Homosexualy⚢✖ Illegal (imprisonment as punishment)Gay Marriage⚭✖ UnregnizedCensorship✔ No censorshipNon-bary genr regnn✖ Not legally regnizedDiscrimatn✖ Illegal some ntextsEmployment DiscrimatnVari by RegnHog DiscrimatnVari by RegnDonatg Blood✖ Banned (fe ferral)Conversn Therapy✖ Not banned. "In almost all s charg will be dropped, Iqbal says, but the boys will be forced to get married by their ocsnally, though, Pakistani parents do rencile themselv to children enterg a long-term gay and Ali are one such uple who have ma thgs work, agast the odds. But there will still be private spac where gay Pakistanis n exprs their sexualy of the nam of the ntributors have been changed to protect their n hear more on this story on BBC Rad 4's Crossg Contents, on Thursday 29 Augt at 11:00am or on Assignment on the World Service on the same day.

The journalists looked at the top 150 most-vised untri the world by the number of g tourists, then ranked them g eight factors, cludg laws agast gay relatnships, legal protectn agast discrimatn and more. “In 2018, India managed to annul Sectn 377, a Brish lonial-era law prohibg ‘unnatural acts, ’ orr to legalize nsensual gay sex, ” says Fergson, who pots out that ancient Indian lerature such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana have many referenc to LGBTQ+ hero cludg transgenr warrrs and two queens who ma love orr for one queen to get pregnant wh an heir for their kgdom. “Iran ma #6 on the x, due part to s extreme punishments for homosexualy, which clu 100 lash for homosexual terurse or the ath penalty, and 31 lash for same-sex acts other than terurse, ” says Fergson.

5 SAFT PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2019 (AND THE MOST DANGERO)

“Historilly, Barbados and some other Caribbean islands have had poor anti-LGBTQ+ legislatn and practic, largely left over om the Brish occupatn which put the laws place and rerced anti-gay attus. Unfortunately, thgs may soon be gettg even worse for the LGBTQ+ muny, as the Ugandan ernment has recently lled to retroduce an anti-homosexualy bill, which would clu the ath penalty for same-sex acts, the midst of the recent murr of a gay Ugandan activist.

Nowadays, the availabily of smartphon and certa applitns have ma possible to fd members of the same muny om distanc and plac not possible [*], a 33-year-old man, intifi as gay but is married to a woman. Sce Pakistan’s nceptn, regardls of new rearch or unrstandg, every hoehold and stutn has accepted a dichotomo terpretatn of both sexualy and genr and has duced that homosexualy is a s that means natnal and relig exists, however, a world unbeknownst to those who choose not to look, a world that liv only shadows.

HOMOSEXUALY: THE UNTRI WHERE IS ILLEGAL TO BE GAY

Many report an unshaken belief that Allah ma LGBTQ+ dividuals viant bee of a past mised, while many believe to be an immoral viancy where they have no optn but to adhere to the norms of the society to get back on the straight (heterosexual) rults many homosexual men gettg married, by choice or force, to heterosexual women early age. “Unr the weight of homophobia, heteronormativy and genrism, they are forced to adopt a liftyle acrdg to society’s assigned genr rol and expectatns, ” wr child psychiatrist Hassan Majeed on how Pakistan fails s LGBTQ+ youth by enforcg straight norms unr the guise of Pakistan, the argument of moraly is extremely skewed, regardls of your genr or sexualy.

This outlook of immoraly, cludg wh the gay muny, leads to a plethora of issu cludg psychologil torment and sexual tratn, that turn lead to more societal problems such as sexual abe and privileged class, however, learns and approach life om a different perspective, one that reflects the liberal-progrsive thought of the Wtern natns and accepts the labels of LGBTQ+ and choos to intify as such. “I was happy for them, but that moment, I felt so sad and heartbroken that we [ Pakistan] will never get to experience that, ” said Sama, a 28-year-old self-intifyg non-bary person livg Lahore about the crimalizatn of homosexualy India. 25-year-old Omar, an archect om Islamabad, talked about how he broke away om straight iends who through subtle ments ntued to make him feel guilty, shameful, and somehow rponsible for his homosexualy.

Even if they say they support you, they barely regnize your stggl and make seem like your flt and uldn’t re ls if we died, ” Omar one of the hight rat of suicis the untry, Pakistan’s gay muny fac a nstant threat wh their hoeholds, let alone the outsi world. “Even if the law changed, which never will, tst me, the people are so brawashed to perceive the word ‘homo’ as the worst [of the ss] that they will burn you and then be reward for by hundreds of lns. He shared some of the abive experienc he has had at the hands of olr men over the past few years and how he is unable to report them jt bee of beg gay himself: “He threatened me sayg he’ll tell my father I was gay.

PAKISTAN JAILS UPLE OVER GAY MARRIAGE ALLEGATN

The Pakistani people have a lot to learn as they fight not jt the homophobia and ep-rooted patriarchy, but also the prevailg tn, extremism, fah, and even the are some who are challengg the stat quo and g out of the dark closets ways that have proven to be somewhat impactful. On 31January 2016, was reported that a picture of gay Che uple Sun Wenl and Hu Mgliang kissg on a bridge Changsha, Cha and appearg the 29 January edn of the Internatnal New York Tim, was censored by blankg out the Pakistani edn [R1.

Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Kamala Harris has been a vol supporter of LGBTQ rightsUS Vice-Print Kamala Harris who is on a tour of three Ain untri - Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia - has drawn cricism over her support for LGBTQ Ghana, a speech llg for "all people be treated equally" she appeared to cricise a bill before the untry's parliament which crimalis advocy for gay rights and propos jail terms for those that intify as lbian, gay, bisexual, or untry's Speaker Alban Bagb later lled her remarks "unmocratic" and urged lawmakers not to be "timidated by any person" Tanzania, a former mister spoke agast US support for LGBTQ rights ahead of the vis and Zambia some opposn policians have threatened to hold is homosexualy still outlawed? In the same month, the high urt Barbados stck out laws that crimalised gay July last year, the urts Antigua and Barbuda clared a law crimalisg same-sex acts between nsentg adults Febary 2021, Angola's Print Joao Louren signed to law a revised penal to allow same-sex relatnships and ban discrimatn on the basis of sexual 2020, Gabon reversed a law that had crimalised homosexualy and ma gay sex punishable wh six months prison and a large fe.

Mozambique and the Seychell have also scrapped anti-homosexualy laws recent there are untri where existg laws outlawg homosexualy have been tightened, cludg Nigeria and 's parliament recently passed a law to crack down on homosexual activi, promptg wispread source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Campaign agast LGBTQ rights some Ain untri has tensified recent weeksAnd some untri, efforts to get the laws removed have May 2019, the high urt Kenya upheld laws crimalisg homosexual acts. And many plac, breakg the laws uld be punishable by long prison of the 53 untri the Commonwealth - a loose associatn of untri most of them former Brish loni - 29 have laws that crimalise homosexualy. Although the origal Brish laws applied only to men, untri that crimalise homosexualy today also have penalti for women who have sex wh Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (Ilga) monors the progrs of laws relatg to homosexualy around the says the ath penalty is the legally prcribed punishment for same-sex sexual acts Bnei, Iran, Mrania, Sdi Arabia, Yemen and some northern stat of five untri - Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, Somalia, and the Uned Arab Emirat - there is no legal clary and the ath penalty uld be source, AFPImage ptn, An Indian gay rights activist protts agast a urt lg 2013 upholdg a law which crimalis gay repealed the ath penalty for nsensual same-sex sexual acts observers note that the risk of prosecutn some plac is mimal.