In June, the Japanese Diet, the national legislature of Japan, passed its first-ever law on sexual orientation and gender identity. It seeks to “promote understanding” and avoid “unfair discrimination.” The law states that “all citizens, irrespective of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, are to be respected as individuals with inherent and inviolable fundamental human rights.” While a good start, the measure falls short of the comprehensive nondiscrimination legislation called for by a number of Japanese rights groups.
The legislation obligates the national government to draw up a basic implementation plan to promote understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and to protect them from “unfair discrimination.” It also stipulates that government entities, businesses, and schools “need to strive” to take similar action.
A first draft of the bill had to be shelved following opposition from conservative members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which included prejudiced statements and political posturing. But in early 2023, LGBT rights groups united to revive the bill, launching a new Group of Seven (G7) engagement group, Pride7, to establish a dialogue between civic groups and G7 governments about LGBT-related policies. With encouragement from peer G7 nations, the LDP submitted a revised bill to the Diet on May 18, a day before the G7 summit began in Hiroshima. But again, facing opposition from lawmakers, the bill was subject to delays and revisions.
The long journey for equality for Japan’s LGBT community is not over. This new law, while advancing the rights of LGBT people, falls well short of ensuring them equal protection from discrimination.
In an address to Russia’s Duma last month, Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy summed up his government’s rationale for a recent onslaught of discriminatory legislation and government action targeting the LGBTQ+ community in the country.
The occasion was the introduction of a bill to outlaw gender-affirming care and surgery and gender ID changes in the country.
“This is another step in protecting national interests,” Tolstoy told the Duma on June 14.
Referring to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine starting in February last year, Tolstoy said, “We are implementing this because Russia has changed since the beginning of the special military operation. And those guys who today defend our country with weapons in their hands, they must return to another country, not to the one that was before.”
For Vladimir Putin and his rubber-stamp parliament, the war in Ukraine is an effort not only to remake Russia geographically but an opportunity to transform the country into a Greater Russia free of the “moral decay” and “pure Satanism” they say has infected the country since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
“We are preserving Russia for posterity, with its cultural and family values, traditional foundations, and putting up a barrier to the penetration of Western anti-family ideology,” Tolstoy said during the bill’s first reading in June.
The new law is the latest in a slew of government actions aimed at erasing LGBTQ+ identity in Russia.
In December, Putin signed legislation banning “LGBT propaganda,” which includes any public reference to “non-traditional lifestyles,” along with a crackdown on the conflated sins of “pedophilia and gender reassignment.”
Bookshops have been forced to remove LGBTQ+ content from shelves, while gaming and streaming platforms have pulled down content, including same-sex pornography. Google was fined in May for refusing to remove LGBTQ+ videos from YouTube in Russia.
The same law has been used to target consensual sex among LGBTQ+ people in the country. In May, a 40-year-old German teacher was convicted of violating the law for inviting a 25-year-old man to his hotel room for sex. In March, a same-sex couple was prosecuted for going public with their relationship on TikTok.
Earlier legislation, including a law passed in 2013 that placed a limit on LGBTQ+-affirmative content disseminated to minors, has been used to shut down Pride marches, detain activists, and lay the foundation of the culture of fear overwhelming the LGBTQ+ community in Russia today.
The latest legislation would ban gender-affirming care for trans people of any age in the country and overturn the ability of trans individuals to change gender on official documents.
Richard Volkov, a 26-year-old trans musician from Moscow, told Reuters trans men he knows in Russia are scrambling to change IDs and start hormone treatment.
“This is the worst thing my country could do,” he said from Sagarejo in Georgia, where he fled after the war began. “It seems that if I simply tell myself that I exist, I am already violating the law.”
36-year-old Elle Solomina, another trans political refugee in Georgia, calls the pending legislation a purely “fascist law.”
“I have not found any explanation for it,” she said in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, “except that in a totalitarian system, the population must live in fear.”
Russia has granted gender ID changes since 1997, four years after it decriminalized homosexuality in the wake of the Soviet Union’s breakup.
But the tide has turned since those liberalizing policies accompanied Russia’s brief opening to the West.
Now Vladimir Putin is invoking the bad old days of the Soviet Union in a call to form a new institute to study LGBTQ+ behavior at the state-run Serbsky Psychiatric Center, notorious in mid-20th century Soviet Russia for its mental and physical torture of dissidents.
Georgia’s annual LGBT+ Pride event was evacuated by the police on Saturday after hundreds of counter-protesters stormed the site. In a statement, organisers of the festival in the capital of Tbilisi announced that they had been forced to shut down the annual festivities after the authorities failed to maintain the perimeter.
“Today’s developments indicate that today’s planned events were pre-coordinated and agreed upon between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the violent group Alt-Info,” Tbilisi Pride said.
Smoke rose above the site, a field just outside the city, as LGBT+ rainbow flags were burned and right-wing activists danced to traditional Georgian folk music. Attendees had been told to board buses for safety moments before.
A court in the Kurdistan region of Iraq dealt independent civil society a blow on May 31, 2023, by ordering the closure of Rasan Organization over “its activities in the field of homosexuality,” Human Rights Watch said today. Rasan is the only human rights organization willing to vocally support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), in addition to its work on women’s rights and domestic violence.
“Shuttering Rasan is not only an attack on civil society in Kurdistan but is also a direct threat to the lives and wellbeing of the vulnerable people they support,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “By closing Rasan, the government has sent a clear message that it does not respect freedom of association.”
Tanya Kamal Darwish, CEO of Rasan Organization, told Human Rights Watch that the purported reason for closing the group down was not because of its activities, but because the judge took issue with its logo, which contains the colors of the rainbow. The court order states that “the expert committee confirmed that the logo of the organization is a complete expression of its activities in the field of homosexuality.”
Rasan has appealed but is unable to continue operating while the appeal is pending.
The closure of Rasan is part of a broader pattern of oppression and targeting of LGBT people and activists by local Kurdish authorities in recent years. Human Rights Watch has previously documented the targeting of LGBT people online and violence against LGBT people by armed groups in Iraq, including the regional government.
The closure is the result of a lawsuit filed against Rasan in February 2021 by Omar Kolbi, a member of the Kurdistan Parliament, who accused Rasan of “promoting homosexuality,” and “engaging in activities that defy social norms, traditions, and public morality.” Kolbi also submitted a complaint to Barzan Akram Mantiq, the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Department of Non-Governmental Organizations, an official body responsible for registering, organizing, and monitoring all nongovernmental organizations in the region.
After the suit was filed, local police issued arrest warrants for 11 LGBT rights activists who were either current or former employees at Rasan based on article 401 of the penal code, which criminalizes “public indecency.”
“The Department of Non-Governmental Organizations is supporting MP Kolbi’s complaint against us, but that is backward,” Darwish said. “The department should have been supporting us, not standing against us.”
Darwish said that the trial, which took place last year, focused on the activities of Rasan and never mentioned any issues with the group’s logo. “They were asking about our activities, and we told them what we do,” Darwish said. “We focus on human rights. Anyone who comes to us with a problem we help without any discrimination.”
Rasan found out about the issue with the logo only when the court decision was published. “We weren’t expecting them to take any action against us, since we weren’t doing anything illegal. They used the logo as an excuse because they couldn’t find anything illegal in our activities,” Darwish said.
Rasan, which has operated in Sulaimaniya, a city in the Kurdistan region, for nearly two decades, has faced increasing threats and official retaliation for its activism and work. The group provides legal, psychological, and social support for women and LGBT clients, raises awareness of LGBT and women’s rights, and collects and compiles data relevant to LGBT people and gender-based violence.
In September 2022, members of the Kurdistan Regional Parliament introduced the “Bill on the Prohibition of Promoting Homosexuality,” which would punish any individual or group that advocates for the rights of LGBT people. Under the bill, the vague provision against “promoting homosexuality” would be a crime punishable by imprisonment for up to one year and a fine of up to five million dinars (US$3,430). The bill would also suspend, for up to one month, the licenses of media companies and civil society organizations that “promote homosexuality.”
Momentum for adopting the bill appears to have stalled, but in the context of repeated targeting of LGBT people, local LGBT rights activists fear it could be quickly revived and passed at the whim of local authorities.
“By going after Rasan, authorities are effectively scapegoating activists working to protect among the most vulnerable members of society, who should not fear reprisals for speaking up about abuses,” Coogle said. “The Kurdistan Regional Government should take immediate steps to ensure that organizations like Rasan are permitted to operate freely and cease harassment and targeting of LGBT advocates.”
As the UK government fights to save its Rwanda asylum plan in the Supreme Court, a gay man from the country reports on the dangers facing the community there.
On Thursday (29 June), the Court of Appeal ruled that the government’s much-criticised plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful. Prime minister Rishi Sunak and home secretary Suella Braverman have indicated that they intend to challenge the ruling.
On the same day, the government’s Illegal Migration Bill, which backs up the Rwanda plan, suffered heavy defeats in the House of Lords.
Innocent Uwimana – whose name has been changed to protect his identity – is a gay man from Rwanda who migrated to the UK about 20 years ago.
He knows first-hand what life is like for LGBTQ+ people in Rwanda, and it’s for this reason that he is so disturbed by the UK’s proposal.
As debate rages on about the bill, Innocent set about finding out what life is like right now for queer people in Rwanda. Here, he reports on conversations during which he found that stigma and abuse are still a part of every-day life for LGBTQ+ people in the East African country.
‘We don’t understand how the UK government would send LGBTQ+ people here’
However, same-sex marriage is prohibited and LGBTQ+ people are not protected from discrimination by any specific legislation.
LGBTQ+ people face stigmatisation and abuse there every day and there are many other factors that fuel hatred against them, especially religious and cultural factors.
Protesters outside the Home Office in central London. (NIKLAS HALLE’N/Getty)
I’ve had a chance to speak to a group of Rwandan LGBTQ+ people who currently live in the country, and who have faced discrimination their entire lives because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
“We don’t understand how the UK government would send LGBTQ+ people here knowing that they will face discrimination. Although the country’s recent human rights advances have been ‘enormous’, not all Rwandans are able to enjoy them equally,” one person told me.
The people in the group explained the tactics used to discriminate anyone perceived to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
Religion and culture are used as arguments to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people
Protesters demonstrate against deportation flights to Rwanda outside the the Royal Courts Of Justice in London. (SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images/Vuk Valcic)
The UK government has to understand that Rwandans’ conceptions of the world are substantially shaped by their religious beliefs, that religious ideas heavily shape their attitudes and behaviours.
On tope of that, homophobia has evolved into a rallying cry that mobilises the masses by urging them to guard themselves against westernisation. Political and religious leaders, as well as social media influencers, justify discrimination against LGBTQ+ people on the grounds of culture.
They claim that homosexuality and non-heteronormative gender identities are not part of African culture and that they were brought to Africa by Western countries (especially the US and European nations) as a way to impose their beliefs on the continent.
Some also claim that Western countries intend to wipe out the African population by promoting homosexuality and preventing people being in heterosexual relationships in which they can have children.
Innocent was finally free to be himself when he arrived in the UK. (Envato Elements/PinkNews)
However, there is historical evidence of same-sex relationships and gender expression versatility as they are well-documented in many places in Africa, including Rwanda.
For example, in Rwanda, cyabakobwa (men behaving and crossdressing as women) and ibishebago (women behaving and dressing as men) were tolerated and they lived in peace in the communities in pre-colonial times.
But, unfortunately, this is no longer the case, and LGBTQ+ individuals have to hide or are forced to flee to other countries.
The controversial cases of a Rwandan fashion star and a social media influencer
The people I spoke with noted recent, well-documented cases of violence against LGBTQ+ people and people simply perceived to be part of the community.
During a trip to Rwanda’s capital Kigali home secretary Suella Braverman claimed Rwanda is “one of the world’s safest countries”. (Getty Images)
One example is that of a famous DJ and social media influencer who has been accused of being a lesbian. Despite her denial, she has been attacked in the media by religious leaders and other social media influencers, demanding she be arrested or beaten up.
‘We hope the UK government will hear our voice’
Rwanda is clearly a country from which most LGBTQ+ people want to get out, to live in a place where they can be free and themselves. So why would the UK government think it is safe to send queer people there?
The people I chatted to were surprised that a country like the UK, previously known for pushing the human rights agenda, was now deliberately planning to send people to a place where it is known that they will face stigmatisation and discrimination.
When I asked the group what they sought to achieve, they said: “We hope the UK government will hear our voice and don’t put other people in a situation many others want to get out of.“
Ivan Miadini said it was like a scene out of the Old Testament.
He and his husband were walking their dog a week ago Saturday night in Drogheda, north of the Irish capital in Dublin, when a gang of teenage boys starting verbally abusing them, calling them “f****t bastards”, “queers” and “pedophiles.”
“They threatened to kill us, rape our dog and told us to go back to our own countries,” Miadini told the Independent. “They were going to chase us off the island.”
The incident escalated as the teenagers started hurling stones at the couple and their dog and then physically attacked them. Both men were punched in the head and face. One man suffered a broken nose.
The attack lasted over a minute.
Despite the violence, Miadini managed to record most of the incident — he said the boys knocked his phone from his hands twice — and he posted it online in hopes local residents would come forward with information about the attackers’ identities.
Remarkably, the couple hasn’t contacted cops.
Referring to the state police in Ireland, Miadini told a local radio station, “I didn’t film with the intention of sharing it with the Garda. I think there is another way to go here.”
“I am sharing this with various outlets, with people I know to share it among themselves so we can find out who these people are and see what their situation is.”
“I really want to know before taking this further down the line.”
A local Garda source told the Irish Mirror police are aware of the video online and that it was a “shocking” attack. He hopes the couple comes forward.
“These teenage gangs should not get away with this,” he said. “There is no excuse for such vile homophobic and racist abuse.”
Imelda Munster, a member of the Irish Parliament representing Drogheda, said she’s spoken to the victims and condemned the attack.
“These are two law-abiding citizens going out for a walk with their dog when they are attacked in broad daylight because of who they are.
“Under no circumstances should these thugs get away with this. It was a frightening incident and everyone in Drogheda is shocked and angry.”
For their part, the couple, who recently relocated from Dublin, think their attackers should avoid jail time and be directed on a path to community service.
“I don’t think the solution here is just to throw the book at them with a criminal prosecution,” Miadini said.
“If these young people aren’t educated, they will grow up to carry out worse assaults.”
“Hopefully it doesn’t take root,” said Miadini, “because that kind of hate can only grow.”
The Supreme Court in Nepal has issued an interim order enabling the registration of same-sex marriages, a move which has been described as a “significant step towards marriage equality” in the country.
The interim order was issued by the Supreme Court on Wednesday (28 June), asking the government to establish a separate register of marriages for same-sex couples in the country, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The US embassy in Nepal wrote on Twitter: “This decision is a significant step towards marriage equality and recognition in Nepal that marriage is a fundamental right.
“With the recognition of full marriage equality, Nepal will continue to be a leader in protecting all citizens against discrimination.”
While same-sex marriage is still not yet fully legal in Nepal, activists have said that the move is “very significant” for same-sex couples and “third gender” people. “Third gender” people are officially recognised in Nepal as of 2007, and can list their gender on ID including passports. The gender has been included in Nepal’s census since 2021.
“This is a very significant development, as same-sex as well as third genders and their partners can register their marriages. They will be entitled to the same rights as heterosexual couples,” LGBTQ+ rights activist and former parliamentarian Sunil Babu Pant said.
“Parliament may take a while to pass the marriage equality law, but this order gives a practical solution to members of the sexual and gender minority communities who wish to register their marriage legally.”
Reveller takes part in a Pride parade in Kathmandu, Nepal on 10 June 2023. (Sanjit Pariyar/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Couple Surendra Pandey and Maya Gurung told AP that they married in a Hindu ceremony six years ago. However, their marriage is not legally binding. They told the outlet that they were “relieved” to finally be able to register their marriage.
Gurung said: “I am overwhelmed with joy because of this decision and it is a day of commemoration for our community.
“This court ruling has established that we are equal citizens of this country.”
A 24-year-old man has been charged in connection with the stabbing of a university professor and two students during a gender studies lecture in Canada, in what police say was a “hate-motivated incident”.
Geovanny Villalba-Aleman, an international student who had recently graduated from Waterloo University in Ontario, is alleged to have carried out the “planned and targeted” attack “motivated by hate related to gender expression and gender identity”, police said in a press release.
About 40 students were attending the class on Wednesday (28 June) when a man stabbedthe 38-year-old professor, a 20-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man, police said.
The victims sustained serious but not life-threatening injuries.
Villalba-Aleman has since been charged with aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, and mischief under $5,000.
“It is both sad and disturbing that this incident has occurred during Pride month,” Waterloo regional police service chief Mark Crowell said at a press conference on Thursday (29 June).
“We hope that this incident does not diminish from these celebrations but, instead, encourages us all to come together to continue to celebrate and inspire love over hate.”
In a statement on Twitter, the president of the university, Vivek Goel, said that the campus will continue to fly Pride and Two-Spirit flags until the end of July in response to the “hate-filled” attack.
“Professor Katy Fulfer and two students in her gender studies course were attacked because they were exploring society and gender,” Goel wrote.
“That this hate-filled attack, due to gender expression and identity, happened at the end of Pride month is even more painful.
“Our world is increasingly polarised and there are those who try to intimidate the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. They want us to be afraid – afraid to learn, afraid to share, afraid to speak our truths.
“We won’t let this deter us from proclaiming our values of inclusion and openness.”
Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, tweeted that he strongly condemned the “despicable” and “vile” incident.
A trans woman living in Moscow is scared for her safety as Russia moves to ban gender recognition and trans healthcare.
Mihelina moved to Moscow from Georgia to study performative arts and music. It used to be “one of the most liberal cities and queer friendly,” she tells PinkNews, via translation by Queer Svit co-founder Anna-Maria Tesfaye.
“Now, every day, I hear slurs and threats towards me,” she goes on.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, president Vladimir Putin has clamped down even further on LGBTQ+ people in Russia. Trans people have been considered internal enemies, with fresh efforts to take away their rights to healthcare, legal recognition and participation in society.
“All of this made homophobes and transphobes feel more comfortable and basically made them think they can do anything,” Mihelina says.
“For example, two days ago, we were walking around in one of the central parks in Moscow, and two men came to us and said, ‘You have two minutes to leave this park or else’.
“Then, we went to the [underground], and someone called my friend a ginger c**t for no reason.”
Mihelina, who uses she/him pronouns, has been left “worried and scared s**tless”. She’s particularly concerned for his future given a new bill that seeks to ban trans people from updating their official gender marker, particularly with Russia tightening its conscription for the war effort.
She eventually made contact with Queer Svit, an LGBTQ+ support group which, among other things, is helping trans people to obtain legal recognition while they still can.
Mihelina, a Georgian trans woman living in Moscow, says the situation for LGBTQ+ and trans people is “getting worse and worse” in Russia. (miliyollie)
“Before Queer Svit happened, I thought that the only option I had was suicide… I was very confused, and I didn’t know what I should do” Mihelina says.
“Every day, a new law project or law would be passed. It’s not only concerning queer people, but in general. They were all insane… I felt absolutely hopeless and I didn’t know what to do.
“But then I found that Queer Svit has this initiative where they help people like me with changing their gender marker.
“Honestly, when they said they would help me, it made me cry because I was unable to find money then, and my parents were not very helpful. They didn’t want to help me with this, and I was terrified.”
Russia moves to ban trans healthcare and gender recognition
On 14 June, Russian lawmakers gave initial approval to a bill that would ban gender-affirming healthcare as well as changing one’s gender marker in official documents, such as passports, and public records.
The bill still needs to go through the state duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, before it lands on Putin’s desk, but there’s little doubt that the legislation will pass quickly because about 400 of the 450 members of the Russian parliament, from all political factions, are listed as its authors, according to Russian independent media outlet Mediazona.
Queer Svit has received more than 500 requests from trans people like Mihelina who need help, Tesfaye says. The number has increased at least fivefold lately, because “people are freaking out”.
“Trans people are already marginalised,” Tesfaye says. “If – well not even if, it’s just when – they pass this law, it means these people will be unable to find a job, to get medical help, to have gender-affirming therapy and definitely surgeries. [It will] also increase the level of transphobia.
“This increases the level of any type of crime – hate crime, murders. I don’t think we can even process the levels of problems. It’s horrible.
“I don’t think I can even understand the catastrophe that will happen even though I know it will happen. It’s just impossible to realise how inhumane this law is.”
The anti-trans law is yet another blow to Russia’s beleaguered LGBTQ+ community
Putin, lawmakers and the Russian Orthodox Church have embarked on a decade-long campaign to preserve what they deem the country’s “traditional values.”
This crusade saw tightened restrictions under Putin’s so-called LGBTQ+ propaganda law, preventing queer representation in mass media.
The law, which was first introduced in 2013 under the guise of protecting children, was revised in December to prohibit the dissemination of information on LGBTQ+ and trans identities to people of all ages.
Amid this onslaught of state-run hate, LGBTQ+ activists have fled the country, queer organisations have been persecuted and social media influencers arrested.
The Russian health ministry has been instructed by Putin to establish a psychiatric facility to study the “social behaviour” of LGBTQ+ people, independent news outlet Meduza reported.
Mihelina would ‘love to leave Russia right now’, but the trans woman can’t because of family obligations and her studies. (miliyollie)
Health minister Mikhail Murashko announced the move while answering questions in the duma during the first reading of the bill.
LGBTQ+ groups fear the statements are a sign that Russia is preparing to roll out forcible conversion therapy. The pseudo-scientific practice has been widely condemned by medical organisations, LGBTQ+ advocates and human rights groups worldwide and has been compared to torture by UN experts.
Mihelina doesn’t have “any words to describe this madness”. She would “love to leave this country right now”, but she can’t because of family obligations and her studies.
She says music is what keeps her afloat – she’s “obsessed” with hyperpop, and artists such as Arca and Sophie.
Suicide is preventable. Readers who are affected by the issues raised in this story are encouraged to contact Samaritans on 116 123 (www.samaritans.org), or Mind on 0300 123 3393 (www.mind.org.uk). Readers in the US are encouraged to contact the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255.
North America’s largest metropolis, Mexico City, also hosts the continent’s biggest Pride parade and festival. While the LGBTQ+ community is impossible to ignore in June, what about the other months of the year?
Visitors can see queer couples holding hands and kissing in shopping centers, streets, and parks. Another common site is murals and graffiti. But a closer look at the spray paint can reveal something about CDMX’strans community.
Te amo trans = I love trans people
Graffiti supporting women’s rights, specifically including trans women and lesbians, are common along Paseo de Reforma, one of the main avenues of the city. Over 90,000 women and girls marched down the street on International Women’s Day to the Zócalo, the capital’s central square.
The women demanded an end to violence against women – and trans women and lesbians were in the crowd. And as they marched, more graffiti appeared along the route.
Transfeminista = Trans feminists
While Mexico also has an issue with women who explicitly want to exclude trans women from the community, like in the United States, they’re a minority. Now and then, you can see “Rad Fem” graffiti, but you’re more likely to see a pro-trans statement or writing from a trans person about acceptance.
Las trans no borramos a nadie = Trans people don’t erase anyone
As you travel around the city, you’ll also see signs like the one from the boardgame Scrabble that cleverly uses the game’s tiles to make a statement: “Transgender. Cisgender. Same points. Same value.” But take a moment to stop and admire the graffiti too.
