Ugandan lesbian covers Time: 'We are here to stay'

In what’s being celebrated as a monumental moment of visibility for Uganda’s beleaguered LGBT community, one of the nation’s leading LGBT activists graces this week’s cover of Time magazine’s Europe edition. 

Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, an out lesbian and co-founder and editor of Uganda’s first LGBT publication, Bombastic, tells The Advocate she hopes the cover will not only bring awareness to the plight of LGBT Ugandans, but help people around the world realize that LGBT people are their friends, neighbors, and family members. 

“Now many people will know about the struggles LGBT people go through in Africa and the world over. They will realize that the people they hate most are actually the people they love most when they get to read the article. They could be hating on their beloved family and friend without knowing they are LGBT,” Nabagesera said.  Read More 

Norway: Tooji on Eurovision, sexuality, and why he’s banned from Iran

The name Tooji should be synonymous to keen Eurovision fans with the world’s biggest display of wind machines, costume reveals and key changes. Either for his song, his disappointing final result or his off-screen drama involving 2012 host country Azerbaijan’s controversial human rights record, the Norwegian entrant certainly had an interesting experience.

He explained that in addition to wanting to voice his support for the protests and rights for marginalised communities — an issue that is of great importance and significance for him — he wanted to shine a light on his native Iran’s human rights record. It was something that resulted in Tooji being banned from ever returning to his native land.

Fighting for the rights of women, children and LGBTI people is a cause that comes naturally to Tooji, not only because of personal experiences in Iran with his family, but also because of bullying during his childhood in Norway. “I think it’s just basically being a human. How could I not be interested in standing up for human rights? As a human race we want to be told how to think and we want these boxes to tick and clear lines to follow,” he said. Read More

Japan: 7.6% of Japanese people identify as LGBTI

Japan has an LGBTI population of 7.6%, according to a recent survey. This is equivalent to one in every 13 persons or 9.67 million people.

Advertising company Denstu polled 69,989 adults aged 20 to 59. A similar survey in 2012 found that only 5.2%, or one in 19, Japanese people identified as LGBTI. Dentsu said their methods had changed so it would be difficult to directly compare the 2012 and 2015 results, but it noted that more LGBTI people were daring to come out as society changed. Read More

Japan: Gay Rights Movement Gains Steam

To get a local council here to grant symbolic recognition to same-sex couples, the main pitch wasn’t about civil rights but about sharpening the ward’s cutting-edge image at home and abroad: “We need to be on par with London, New York and San Francisco as a cultural center,” said Ken Hasebe, who pushed the issue for 3 years as an assembly member in Tokyo’s Shibuya district.

His success this spring in passing the ordinance—the first of its kind in Japan—illustrates how changes under way in the West are having ripple effects elsewhere, even in deeply conservative countries like Japan. Many activists see the ordinance as a monumental step, however, because it has helped ignite a public discussion about long-ignored issues such as antigay discrimination.

Mr. Hasebe said he avoided painting same-sex partnerships as a human-rights issue to appeal to a wider audience and avoid arguments with conservative assembly members.

“I told them, only we, Shibuya, could be so bold and diverse,” the 43-year-old said in an interview. The ward, with about 200,000 residents, is known for its street fashion and youth culture, but isn’t considered a particularly gay area. Not only did the strategy work in the assembly, but Mr. Hasebe also pulled off a surprise win in April’s elections for ward mayor, beating a candidate from an established party who wanted to roll back the same-sex recognition. Read More

Chinese Sexologist Opens Up About the Future for China's LGBT Community

Li Yinhe, born in Beijing in 1952, is a sociologist, sexologist, and LGBT activist and has studied sexuality in China for over four decades. She is also considered a pioneer of gender studies and advocate of sexual openness in China. She shared with us the huge changes she has seen in China, throughout the entire country as well as within the LGBT community.

“I believe the changes [in attitudes towards sex] have been huge. In the past, sex was only a way to produce children and expand your family. Since the implementation of family planning, this was bound to change since families were only allowed to have one child, or two in the countryside. Now people have sex for their own enjoyment rather than just as a means to procreate,” Li says.

“I remember about 20 years ago, in the People’s Daily, homosexuality, prostitution, and drugs were all supposedly linked to social evils. This was the media’s attitude towards the LGBT community before, and a main reason for discrimination against the LGBT community.”

Li emphasizes the increasing visibility of the LGBT community, and how much more frequently they are now mentioned in state media. This wasn’t the same even 10 years ago, when everybody was convinced that no one was gay, and so they had never met someone who purported to be homosexual. The LGBT community back then was completely invisible. Read More

US: My daughter, Caitlyn Jenner, and Laverne Cox

Blogger Marlo Mack, who chronicles raising her transgender daughter, captures the hope that has spread by the positive media surrounding Jenner and Cox. In a recent post, Mack shared what happened when her daughter was able to meet Ms. Cox:

Laverne waved her Hollywood wave at the crowd, thanked us graciously, and then looked down at the little girl blocking her path. “Well, hello,” she said. “I’m M.,” my daughter said. Laverne smiled down at her. “Hello, M.” “And I’m trans,” M. said. I don’t think Ms. Cox saw that coming. Read More

At UN, tennis legend says human rights and sports ‘a perfect fit’

Tennis legend and equality activist Billie Jean King has had a stellar career in sports, identifying the boundaries that divide people and tearing them down. She was the first woman athlete to win over $100k in prize money & the first professional athlete to be “outed” as gay. She remains a steadfast supporter of issues at the heart of the UN – fair play, tolerance and building “a world where we are all united; no borders.”

Despite the hurdles that she encountered on and off the court, the idea of social inclusion has always formed the core of Ms. King’s personal and professional philosophy – a philosophy that brings sports and human rights issues together in an effort to harmonize understanding. The more we get to know each other, she says, the better chance the world has for peace.

In an interview ahead of the commemoration of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, Ms. King, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights icon, told the UN News Centre that human rights and sports are, in fact, “a perfect fit” for each other.  Read More

Op-ed: How do you change the deeply held beliefs of a nation? Here’s one strategy.

The transformation over the last 20 years in how Americans view gay people is the result of one of the most successful social justice movements of modern time.
How did we build this broad social consensus that it is wrong to discriminate against gay people and unfair to exclude same-sex couples from the freedom to marry? The chief engine of this extraordinary change has been the wider discussion, greater visibility and increased awareness of shared values, understanding and empathy generated by the freedom to marry movement.

After some losses and blows to our efforts, we decided to overhaul the messaging in 2010. Working with partner organizations and movement supporters, we combined polling data research with the lessons learned through experience to figure out what messages and messengers could help build the majority we were seeking.

Research showed us that we had to shift our emphasis from abstract talk of rights and benefits to more personal connections tied to values. We had to touch the heart as well as the mind. Rather than focusing on, for example, how exclusion from marriage can mean denial of health coverage, Social Security or other critical legal protection, we talked more about the love and commitment that are at the heart of the desire to marry for gay and non-gay couples alike. We needed to highlight our connectedness. Read More 

Latin America: Study finds many against gay marriage

A study called "Religion in Latin America" etermined that most of the religious population does not approve of same-sex marriage. The work was conducted by the polling Pew Research. The research aims clarify the positions of Latin American religiosity and Hispanics in the United States.

The survey captured the differences in perception between Catholic and Protestants on the continent as well as the breakdown by country.

Hispanics are less conservative than Latin Americans in terms of attitude and sexual and social behavior, with 46% support for equal marriage and only 34% opposed. Read More 

When a man asks people to translate a hate message he's received, their response is unforgettable.

As part of an experiment, a man asks for help translating a Facebook message he has received.
There's a man in Lithuania who speaks only English. The message is in Lithuanian. He can't read it, so he asks some locals to translate it for him. 

As he asks one person after another to translate the message for him, two things become obvious.
1. He's received a message full of hate speech.

2. Translating it for him is breaking people's hearts.

It's nearly more than these people can bear. Watch/Read More

‘Boys Love Manga and Beyond’ defends shifting sexual identities in Japanese media

The academics contributing to “Boys Love Manga and Beyond” come to the defense of the genre known as “boys love,” which first appeared in Japanese manga — involving male-male romantic and sexual relationships — but has now expanded into animation and games. 

Produced primarily by and for females, it has come under increasing attack over the past two decades, initially by gay male activists and later due to changes in government legislation that restricted its availability to minors in Tokyo.

A number of the essays take a dry approach, presenting the historical lineage of the genre — which can be traced back to texts such as “The Tale of Genji” — and meticulously outlining its many subgenres. Remaining chapters, however, present lively discussion that addresses the producers and consumers of boys love media in Japan. Read More 

Margarita, with a Straw: an Indian bisexual coming-out story

“I am naked in this film,” says director Shonali Bose.

It’s Bose’s unwavering commitment to vulnerability that makes her new film, Margarita, with a Straw, both tender and jubilant.

The film’s 19-year-old protagonist Laila (played by Kalki Koechlin, above) lives at home with two loving parents and an annoying little brother. She is mildly bored with school, writes lyrics for a band, and has an unrequited crush on the lead singer. But that’s where any resemblance to a John Hughes sleepover flick ends.

Laila has cerebral palsy and lives in India. A creative writing scholarship propels her across the globe to New York City where she discovers snow, central heating and her nascent sexuality. Read More