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.
Contents:
- GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
- GAY RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
- “GAY RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS”: THE FRAMG OF NEW INTERPRETATNS OF INTERNATNAL HUMAN RIGHTS NORMS
- CLTON TO UNED NATNS: "GAY RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS"
- ‘GAY RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS, AND HUMAN RIGHTS ARE GAY RIGHTS’: HILLARY CLTON
- GAY RIGHTS
GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
* gay rights and human rights *
The term LGBTI refers to a broad tegory of people, cludg those who intify as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr or tersex, although we regnize that there are many terms around the world that are ed by people to fe their sexual orientatn or genr inty. She is also the Pacific Islands Reprentative on the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn Executive Board and Chairperson of the South Pacific MSM (Men Who Have Sex wh Men) Network Group. E., for lbians, gays [homosexual mal], bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons); seeks to elimate sodomy laws; and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life.
(Although the term gay is monly ed reference to homosexual mal, is also ed more generally to refer to homosexual mal together wh some or all other orientatns wh the LGBTQ muny.
GAY RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
Gay rights movement, civil rights movement that advot equal rights for LGBTQ persons—that is, for lbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons—and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life. * gay rights and human rights *
) Gay rights prr to the 20th century Relig admonns agast sexual relatns between dividuals of the same sex (particularly men) long stigmatized such behavur, but most legal s Europe were silent on the subject of homosexualy and bisexualy. Dpe Paragraph 175 and the failure of the WhK to w s repeal, homosexual and bisexual men and women experienced a certa amount of eedom Germany, particularly durg the Weimar perd, between the end of World War I and the Nazi seizure of power.
In the Uned Stat this greater visibily brought some backlash, particularly om the ernment and the police: the ernment often fired gay civil servants, the ary attempted to purge s ranks of gay soldiers (a policy enacted durg World War II), and police vice squads equently raid gay bars and arrted their patrons. In the Uned Stat the first major male anizatn, found 1950–51 by Harry Hay Los Angel, was the Mattache Society (s name reputedly rived om a medieval French society of masked players, the Société Mattache, to reprent the public “maskg” of homosexualy), while the Dghters of Bilis (named after the Sapphic love poems of Pierre Louÿs, Chansons Bilis), found 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Mart San Francis, was a leadg group for women. In Bra 1957 a missn chaired by Sir John Wolfenn issued a groundbreakg report (see Wolfenn Report) remendg that private homosexual liaisons between nsentg adults be removed om the doma of crimal law; a later the remendatn was implemented by Parliament the Sexual Offenc Act.
In the 1970s and ’80s, gay polil anizatns proliferated, particularly the Uned Stat and Europe, and spread to other parts of the globe, though their relative size, strength, and succs—and toleratn by thori—varied signifintly.
“GAY RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS”: THE FRAMG OF NEW INTERPRETATNS OF INTERNATNAL HUMAN RIGHTS NORMS
The purpose of this chapter is to explore the velopment of the amg of the rights of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) persons and sexual orientatn and genr inty terms of a human rights paradigm. This s-long procs volved many... * gay rights and human rights *
Now headquartered Geneva and renamed the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA World), plays a signifint role ordatg ternatnal efforts to promote human rights and fight discrimatn agast LGBTQ and tersex persons.
This support, along wh mpaigns by gay activists urgg gay men and women to “e out of the closet” (ed, the late 1980s, Natnal Comg Out Day was tablished, and is now celebrated on October 11 most untri), enuraged gay men and women to enter the polil arena as ndidat. In addn, 2019 Lori Lightfoot beme the first openly gay person to be elected mayor of Chigo, and two years later Pete Buttigieg beme the first openly gay bet member Amerin history.
At the lol and natnal levels, the number of openly gay policians creased dramatilly durg the 1990s and 2000s, and 2009 Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir beme prime mister of Iceland, which ma her the world’s first openly gay head of ernment. In Ai, Asia, and Lat Ameri, openly gay policians have had only limed succs wng office; notable electns to natnal legislatur clud Patria Jiménez Flor Mexi (1997), Mike Waters South Ai (1999), and Clodovil Hernans Brazil (2006).
CLTON TO UNED NATNS: "GAY RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS"
Lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people Sat Vcent and the Grenad face bias-motivated vlence and discrimatn their daily life, Human Rights Watch said a report released today. The legislature should repeal the untry’s lonial-era laws that crimalize nsensual same-sex nduct and pass prehensive civil legislatn prohibg discrimatn based on sexual orientatn and genr inty. The 58-page report, “‘They Can Harass Us Bee of the Laws’: Vlence and Discrimatn agast LGBT People Sat Vcent and the Grenad,” expos the physil and verbal asslts, fay vlence, homelsns, workplace harassment, bullyg, and sexual vlence that sexual and genr mori face unr the shadow of discrimatory laws. Those rponsible for mistreatment clu people close to LGBT people – fay members, neighbors, workers, classmat, and teachers – as well as strangers and police officers. * gay rights and human rights *
The issu emphasized by gay rights groups have varied sce the 1970s by time and place; different natnal anizatns have promoted polici specifilly tailored to their untry’s i.
Other issu of primary importance for the gay rights movement sce the 1970s clud batg the HIV/AIDS epimic and promotg disease preventn and fundg for rearch; lobbyg ernment for nondiscrimatory polici employment, hog, and other aspects of civil society; endg the ban on ary service for gay and lbian dividuals; expandg hate crim legislatn to clu protectns for gays, cludg transgenr dividuals; and securg marriage rights for same-sex upl (see same-sex marriage). Ary’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (1993–2011), which had permted gay and lbian dividuals to serve the ary if they did not disclose their sexual orientatn or engage homosexual activy; the repeal effectively end the ban on homosexuals the ary. Hodg), and 2020 the Court termed that firg an employee for beg homosexual or transgenr was a vlatn of Tle VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964), which prohibs discrimatn on the basis of sex (Bostock v.
At the same time, same-sex civil partnerships are by and large the norm wh the untri of the European European nventn on human rights system first stck down legal provisns crimalisg male homosexualy 1981, through a challenge of the offendg laws by a Northern Ireland activist Dudgeon v UK.
‘GAY RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS, AND HUMAN RIGHTS ARE GAY RIGHTS’: HILLARY CLTON
Some natns – signifintly, those wh a Brish lonial past the Caribbean, Ai and Asia – almost fe themselv terms of their opposn to such judicial the bate about gay rights be creasgly ternatnalised, the rear-guard actn for transigent untri is to e parliament to legislate so-lled natnal valu.
In the same ve, after the murr of Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato earlier this year, Print Barack Obama and the secretary of state Hillary Clton issued statements urgg a full vtigatn.
GAY RIGHTS
The polil signal om the US was unmistakable: "gay rights" are human rights that not only mand a legimate place wh the muny of natns, but require practil steps to be secured.
“State-sponsored homophobia and the nial of the right of assembly Central and Eastern Europe: The ‘boomerang’ and the ‘richet’ between European anizatns and civil society to uphold human rights. The fight for lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) human rights took not one but two cril steps forward this week wh Print Obama’s release of a Printial Directive on LGBT rights followed closely by Secretary of State Hillary Clton’s ternatnal human rights day speech at the Uned Natns Geneva, Swzerland. From the so-lled rrective rape of lbians to proposed legislatn to stute the ath penalty for homosexualy, LGBT people around the world face the daily threat of vlence simply for who they are.
From people like Jean-Cl Mbe, jailed Cameroon for 3 years on spicn of homosexualy, to the LGBT muny of Uganda, who fear the passage of a dranian new anti-gay law, the actns by the Obama Admistratn uld make all the difference. The laws are vaguely word, have broad latu, and sgle out nsensual gay sex the “sexual offens” sectn of the crimal that is otherwise rerved for crim like rape, ct, and sexual asslt. Along wh Domi, Guyana, Grenada, Jamai, Sat Lucia—the other five untri the Caribbean that crimalize gay sex—Sat Vcent and the Grenad ntu to be an outlier a hemisphere that has chewed the crimalizatn of nsensual gay sex.