Botswana scraps gay sex laws big victory for LGBTQ rights Ai | CNN

Contents:

• ANTI-GAY PROTTS HELD AGAST BOTSWANA LGBTQ BILL
• CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BOARD ADOPTS SOCIAL STUDI TEXTBOOKS THAT CLU GAY RIGHTS AFTER WARNGS OM ERNOR
• BOTSWANA SCRAPS GAY SEX LAWS BIG VICTORY FOR LGBTQ RIGHTS AI
• A W FOR GAY RIGHTS BOTSWANA IS A ‘STEP AGAST THE CURRENT’ AI
• BOTSWANA SCRAPS GAY SEX LAWS ANOTHER BIG VICTORY FOR LGBT RIGHTS AI
• BOTSWANA PRINT VOWS TO HONOUR GAY RIGHTS JUDGMENT
• MALAYSIA CUTS SHORT MIC FT AFTER BRISH BAND SLAMS ANTI-GAY LAWS, SGER KISS MALE BANDMATE
• BOTSWANA APPEALS URT UPHOLDS LG THAT CRIMALISED GAY SEX

ANTI-GAY PROTTS HELD AGAST BOTSWANA LGBTQ BILL

"Now, followg the lg that the two sectns the penal s mt be leted, we know very well and we felt that is gog to legalise homosexualy. Backed by relig groups, the monstrators marched across the cy to voice their opposn to a bill that aims to ply wh a 2019 urt lg favour of LGBTQ held signs readg "we say no homosexualy" and "protect our children".

Gay sex had been banned sce 1965 the socially nservative Ain natn, where offenrs uld face up to seven years prison. A Southern California school board on Friday adopted a social studi curriculum that clus gay rights that was approved by parents and teachers after ially rejectg . “Unr the headg ‘Protts, ’ one paragraph discs gay rights California and unr the headg ‘Court Cas, ’ there are two paragraphs that discs the urt s that allowed gay marriage California.

CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BOARD ADOPTS SOCIAL STUDI TEXTBOOKS THAT CLU GAY RIGHTS AFTER WARNGS OM ERNOR

She said a supplemental rource lists Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist and polician who was assassated 1978, along wh San Francis Mayor Gee Mosne.

BOTSWANA SCRAPS GAY SEX LAWS BIG VICTORY FOR LGBTQ RIGHTS AI

Milk was believed to be the first openly gay person elected to public office California.

Backed by relig groups, the monstrators marched across the cy to voice their opposn to a bill that aims to ply wh a 2019 urt lg favour of LGBTQ held signs readg "we say no homosexualy" and "protect our children" bill "would open floodgat of immoraly and abomatn", said Pastor Pulafela Mabiletswane Siele of the Evangelil Fellowships of Botswana, a Christian group, liverg a petn to the parliament. Relign 'weaponised'Gay sex had been banned sce 1965 the socially nservative Ain natn, where offenrs uld face up to seven years bill that is expected to be discsed the g weeks remov the related provisns om the penal . Bundi charg 24 people wh 'homosexual practic' anti-gay crackdownReceivg the petn on behalf of parliament, opposn lawmaker Wynter Mmolotsi said MPs would take to nsiratn the views of the church.

The lg jt a month after Kenya’s high urt upheld s laws crimalizg homosexualy. The se was brought to urt March by Letsweletse Motshidiemang, a 21-year-old stunt at the Universy of Botswana, who argued that society had changed and that homosexualy was more wily accepted, lol media reported. While homophobic attus ntue to prevail parts of the untry, Botswana’s LGBTQ activists and supporters have marked some victori for the movement recent years.

A W FOR GAY RIGHTS BOTSWANA IS A ‘STEP AGAST THE CURRENT’ AI

Tudays’ historic lg is w for LGBTQ activists and supporters a untry – and regn – where homosexualy remas largely taboo. Out of 54 Ain untri, at least 31 of them have enacted laws makg illegal to have gay sex, acrdg to the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA). Mozambique removed anti-gay laws 2015, while São Tomé and Cape Ver have also abolished laws crimalizg gay relatnships.

Although Kenya stck down the change to the law that crimaliz homosexualy May – and remas a eply nservative and relig society – s urts has shown some pennce recent years regardg LGBTQ matters.

BOTSWANA SCRAPS GAY SEX LAWS ANOTHER BIG VICTORY FOR LGBT RIGHTS AI

However, attempts to further crimalize homosexualy have been taken untri cludg Uganda, South Sudan, Bundi, Liberia, and Nigeria over the last five years, acrdg to an Amnty Internatnal report. In some Ain untri, nservative lears ntue to spread harmful and false rhetoric, which they “openly and falsely acce LGBTI dividuals of spreadg HIV/AIDS and of ‘nvertg’ children to homosexualy, ” acrdg to the report.

Across the globe, a staggerg 70 UN member stat – almost half of which are Ai – still crimalize same-sex relatns between two nsentg adults, acrdg to ILGA’s 2019 state sponsored homophobia report. Advot have nceled a regnal gatherg of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) activists Indonia’s pal, Jakarta, rponse to harassment and ath threats om Mlim nservativ.

Tshekiso Tebalo/Agence France-Prse — Getty ImagJune 11, 2019In a momento se that prompted celebratn among gay people and civil rights activists around the ntent of Ai, Botswana’s High Court overturned laws on Tuday that crimalized the lg was livered only weeks after the High Court of Kenya upheld laws that crimalize gay sex, unrsrg the wi differenc how L. Said, “We are not lookg for people to agree wh homosexualy but to be tolerant. Deliverg the lg, Judge Michael Lebu said the laws were “discrimatory” toward gay people and vlated Botswana’s Constutn, argug that overturng them was a matter of protectg human do the rt of Ai pare?

BOTSWANA PRINT VOWS TO HONOUR GAY RIGHTS JUDGMENT

]South Ai beme the first natn on the ntent to crimalize homosexualy 1998, when the Johannburg High Court led that the natn’s sodomy laws vlated the untry’s newly adopted, post-apartheid 2010, several more untri Southern Ai have crimalized same-sex relatns, cludg Mozambique, Angola and Lotho. In 2006, South Ai legalized gay marriage, beg the fifth untry the world to do chang often followed general efforts to reform the penal and mpaigns by public health officials to unter the spread of H. V., said Neela Ghoshal, a senr rearcher wh Human Rights said that broad societal movements, such as the end of apartheid South Ai the 1990s or the Arab Sprg uprisg that began Tunisia 2010, had also created space for gay rights movements to spe South Ai’s tolerant laws, gay and transgenr people rema the target of vlence there, exemplifyg the wi dispari some Ain untri between what the legal says and how the thori choose to enforce some untri, Ms.

Ghoshal said, longstandg laws crimalizg homosexualy are not enforced at all, while untri that have never had anti-gay laws, there remas social stigma, vlence and noted that Kenya — where the High Court upheld laws that crimalize gay sex last month — people the pal were largely tolerant while those parts of the untrysi tend to be more ernments have taken an active role crackg down on gay people.

Ghoshal said, movements for gay rights were stifled after the Arab Sprg by the rise of Print Abl Fattah el-Sisi, and the police began to target activists.

MALAYSIA CUTS SHORT MIC FT AFTER BRISH BAND SLAMS ANTI-GAY LAWS, SGER KISS MALE BANDMATE

Siarly, Uganda’s legislature has adopted hostile posns toward gay people, part fluenced by nservative evangelil Christian misters, said Adotei Akwei, the puty director for advocy and ernment relatns for Amnty Internatnal. A Ugandan urt stck down a punive anti-gay law 2014, but left open the possibily that the measure uld be Akwei said that the Botswana cisn was “a wonrful step agast the current” a ntent that largely “has had a very nservative and hostile view of L.

BOTSWANA APPEALS URT UPHOLDS LG THAT CRIMALISED GAY SEX

Many of the anti-gay laws have been place sce the 19th century, when Ai was rved up to loni by European powers. Homosexualy had been illegal Botswana sce the late 1800s, for stance, when the terrory was led by Bra and lled Bechuanaland. Bra had crimalized male homosexualy sce 1553, and extend siar polici to the loni veloped around the the time Bra began to crimalize homosexualy, 1967, anti-gay stigmas and laws had bee well entrenched former loni, often cludg piec of the Victorian language that the Brish left behd.

Around the world, more than half of the natns that crimalize homosexualy were once Brish Ain ernments have found the laws eful, Mr. Conservative relig nstuenci, both Christian and Mlim, have also fluenced some ernments: While evangelil Christiany is fluential Uganda, nservative Islam has helped shape attus toward gay people Sudan and Somalia, where homosexualy is punishable by there prospects for further change?

Many Kenyans hold strong anti-gay views — 90 percent of Kenyans said society should not accept homosexualy, acrdg to a 2013 Pew survey — and the judg last month’s cisn Kenya argued that homosexualy clashed wh tradnal attempt to strike down Botswana’s anti-sodomy laws failed 2003, but activists ma “cremental” progrs later, said Anna Mmolai-Chalmers of Lbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana.