Human Rights Watch: Anti-gay laws promote vlence, discrimatn St. Vcent

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS
• HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: ANTI-GAY LAWS PROMOTE VLENCE, DISCRIMATN ST. VCENT
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL
• LGBT RIGHTS AI: WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?

GAY RIGHTS

FeaturedStonewall RtsConstant Raids at Gay Bars The 1960s and precedg s were not welg tim for lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) Amerins.

For such reasons, LGBT dividuals flocked to gay bars and clubs, plac of refuge where they uld exprs themselv openly and […]Read more about Stonewall Rts. Vcent to overturn anti-gay laws om the lonial era that have led to a recent wave of vlence and genr discrimatn on the small Caribbean island. Homosexualy ntu to be crimalized the former Brish lony after many hundreds of years, leavg LGBTQ dividuals wh ltle if any legal protectns while vlent crim were beg mted wh impuny, the report said.

Standg crimal s on the island put nsensual gay sex the same tegory as crim like rape, ct, and sexual asslt, although there have been no recent nvictns unr the law. Many of the terviewe said job hirgs and firgs were beg largely termed by sexual orientatn, while other gay people lucky to have jobs faced sexual harassment the workplace. "The crimalizatn of gay sex giv tac state sanctn to the discrimatn and vlence that LGBT people experience their daily liv and pels many to look abroad to live eely and fulfill their dreams, " said Cristian González Cabrera, gay rights rearcher at Human Rights Watch.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: ANTI-GAY LAWS PROMOTE VLENCE, DISCRIMATN ST. VCENT

Six other Wtern natns -- cludg Domi, Grenada, Guyana, Jamai, and Sat Lucia -- ntue to crimalize gay sex, wh penalti as weighty as a prison for "gross cency wh another person of the same sex.

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.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

(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 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.

ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

Ined, his poem “Two Lov” (1894), Lord Aled (“Bosie”) Douglas, Osr Wil’s lover, clared “I [homosexualy] am the love that dare not speak s name.

” Homosexual and bisexual men and women were given voice 1897 wh the foundg of the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee (Wissenschaftlich-humanär Komee; WhK) Berl. 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. The gay rights movement was begng to w victori for legal reform, particularly wtern Europe, but perhaps the sgle fg event of gay activism occurred the Uned Stat.

LGBT RIGHTS AI: WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?

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.

Groups such as the Human Rights Campaign, the Natnal Gay and Lbian Task Force, and ACT UP (AIDS Coaln to Unleash Power) the Uned Stat and Stonewall and Outrage! 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. In the Uned Stat, gay activists won support om the Democratic Party 1980, when the party add to s platform nondiscrimatn clse a plank cludg sexual orientatn.

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.