LGBULLETIN #153 – THE WEEK IN LGBTI NEWS (27 MAR – 2 APR 2020)

This is a brief selection of news showing how Covid-19 is affecting LGBTI communities worldwide. Share more stories at [email protected]

Worldwide

• Pride organisations around the world have come together to organise a ‘Global Pride’ event on Saturday 27 June 2020 amid Covid-19 cancellations
• Aids 2020 conference will take place virtually to help mitigate the spread of Covid-19
• Joint statement from organisations working on faith and SOGIESC issues

Europe and Central Asia

• ILGA-Europe have cancelled its annual regional conference, as countries across the world take unprecedented measures to slow down the Covid-19 pandemic
• Gay couple in France asked to leave apartment building because ‘homosexuals are the first to be contaminated’ by coronavirus
• Top London drag queen to livestream ‘camp and fun’ show to help lift our spirits during lockdown

North America

• Lorena Borjas, mother of Queens’ trans latinx community, has died due to Coronavirus
• New brief highlights special challenges faced by LGBTQ elders in health crisis
• Nearly 100 2SLGBTQI organisations call on the Government of Canada for funding amid COVID-19 pandemic

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Panama adopts alternating days for men and women to go out shopping; no clear provision for nonbinary people
• Trans people organize popular pots and baskets to alleviate the economic consequences of the health emergency

Oceania

• NGOCHR and Rainbow Pride Foundation Fiji call on stopping victim-blaming Covid-19 patients

 Asia

• Asia Pacific Transgender Network launches survey on community needs during Covid-19 pandemic
• UNAIDS issues rapid survey on the needs of key populations and young people living with HIV in Asia and the Pacific in the context of Covid-19
• Activists in India reach out to trans community in absence of any government help

Africa

South African drama about a gay apartheid conscript released early for limited streaming during Covid-19 lockdown

Singapore: Court upholds criminalisation of same-sex activity between men

Singapore’s high court has dismissed three appeals arguing that the country’s criminalisation of same-sex sexual activity between men was unconstitutional.

As ILGA World’s State-Sponsored Homophobia report points out, Section 377A of the country’s Penal Code provides for jail terms of up to two years for a man found to have committed an act of “gross indecency” with another man. In October 2014, the Court of Appeal declined to remove the provision from the books, stating that reform would have needed to come through Parliament. Following the 2018 historic ruling from India that decriminalised consensual same-sex sexual activity, activists mounted new challenges to the law, but their appeals were dismissed.

“In declining to strike out this archaic and discriminatory law, the court has reaffirmed that all gay men in Singapore are effectively un-apprehended criminals,” commented Téa Braun, director of the Human Dignity Trust.

“I am of course disappointed, but my eye is firmly on the road ahead,” said Bryan Choong, one of three men who challenged the law. “I’ll be studying this judgment closely with my lawyers.”

Hungary: Government moves to ban legal gender recognition

On Trans Day of Visibility, Hungary’s Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén submitted a draft bill to make it impossible for citizens to change their legal name and gender marker.

This comes a day after Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was granted far-reaching power to “rule by decree”, and just two weeks after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) communicated a case of 23 trans people who have been unable to update their documents since 2018.

Transvanilla, a local group representing the 23 applicants to the ECHR, said in a statement that it “condemns the bill, which denies trans people the right to gender recognition, violating their right to self-determination and countering national and international human rights standards.”

A statement from a coalition of Hungarian organisations has called on the government to remove “provisions on transgender people from the bill”. The group claims that no official name and gender amendment permits have been granted in three and a half years, apparently to give the government time to adopt a “single, more transparent regulation” in line with calls from Hungary’s Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights and the Constitutional Court. Instead, it would seem that the government has used this period to ramp up its anti-trans rhetoric and legislation.

The new law would also replace “sex” on national identity documents with “sex at birth”, firmly stating that it cannot be changed later in life.

Reactions at the international level have started coming in.  The LGBTI Intergroup at the European Parliament called the move by the Hungarian government “a deliberate attack against the trans community”; ILGA-Europe argued that “exploiting emergency measures should not be used to bypass court decisions”, and OII-Europe pointed out how  “this hostile act targets trans, as well as many non-binary and intersex people and permanently undermines their human rights”. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights also weighed in, calling  on the Hungarian parliament not to adopt the provision.

United States: Idaho Governor signs legislation targeting trans and intersex persons

Just hours before the start of Trans Day of Visibility, Idaho Governor Brad Little signed into law two bills aimed at limiting the rights of trans and intersex people within the state, ignoring widespread calls to veto the legislation.

The “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act”, also known as House Bill 500, bars trans and intersex women and girls from participating in high school athletics divisions consistent with their gender, and puts any student whose sex is “disputed” at risk of  invasive testing of “reproductive anatomy, […] levels of testosterone, […] or genetic makeup.”

Several political and business leaders, human rights defenders, and athletes have spoken out against the bill. The bill was also criticised for being based on “flawed assumptions”  and stereotypes to justify the exclusion of trans and intersex athletes, and for adopting “sex verification” techniques.

The second bill adopted by Little, House Bill 509, bars persons from amending the gender marker on their birth certificates one year after birth. Idaho legislators passed a similar bill in 2018 but it was then struck down by a US District Court.

“Although medical experts, sport governing bodies, and Idaho’s major employers have spoken out against these two bills, Governor Little has instead sided with discrimination,” said Alex Schmider, Associate Director of transgender representation at GLAAD.  “Both laws are unconstitutional”, added Human Rights Campaign, “and will result in litigation at the cost of the Idaho taxpayer, which is particularly appalling during these uncertain times.”

Uganda: police arrest 20 LGBT people living in a Kampala shelter

Ugandan police have charged 20 LGBT persons with disobeying social distancing regulations to curb the spread of Covid-19. Those arrested were living at a shelter assisting LGBT youth with skills development, healthcare and legal assistance, and human rights defenders in the region maintain that the public health regulations have been used as a pretence for targeting members of our communities.

Among those arrested, 14 gay men, two bisexual men and four trans women have already appeared before a court, and were taken to prison. They are set to appear in court again at the end of April. Lawyers are currently trying to secure their release on bail, but the current lockdown is likely to make the procedures more complicated. The charges they face carry a sentence of between two and seven years.

“They are always using alternative charges to arrest people for unnatural offences so it [coronavirus] just worked perfectly for them,” said Patricia Kimera, a lawyer with Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), defending the group. Representatives of HRAPF were also temporarily detained upon arriving at the shelter to investigate the matter.

Frank Mugisha, the Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, said the arrests were “initially around homophobia and transphobia because neighbours reported them and so the security forces came and raided them. Now they are putting them in prison where they will be more at risk.”

Chile: 2019 most violent year on record for LGBTI communities

2019 was the most dangerous on record for people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities in Chile, according to the annual report on hate crime and discrimination statistics released by LGBTI advocacy organisation Movilh.

Figures have risen for six years in a row, according to the human rights group. In 2019, 1103 incidents were documented across every region of the country, in a 58% rise from 2018. Most of the cases consist of various “acts of institutional exclusion”, though 5 murders, 73 attacks and 69 instances of hate speech were also recorded.

In the last three months of 2019 alone, 32 cases of violence perpetrated by police against our communities were also reported, ostensibly in response to the civil unrest across the country. These figures update those that were presented to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights earlier this year and, according to Movilh, show “an unprecedented breakdown since democracy was reinstated”.

Despite the harrowing statistics, however,  the report also contains positive news: “Unlike in 2018, “said Movilh spokesman Oscar Rementería, “the Government reacted to the abuses suffered by LGBTI people at the hands of civilians to publicly condemn them, while it helped the community support more than 90% of the victims”. A significant drop was also noted in the number of physical assaults, negative media campaigns and hate speech incidents.

Police appeal after trans woman bashed by mob of young men https://t.co/runqjKf8Tz #LGBT #nsw #sydney pic.twitter.com/lMMddWJLP0

— QNews (@qnews_media) March 30, 2020

Australia: homeless trans woman assaulted by group of young men

Sydney police are searching for a group of teenagers who assaulted a 31-old trans woman who had been living in her vehicle by a car park in one of Sydney’s northern beaches.

According to reports, the woman was attacked near the Dee Why Surf and Lifesaving Club by “around 15 young men” who punched and kicked her until she was unconscious. She suffered numerous cuts, bruises and a concussion, but survived the ordeal.

Police have called this a “targeted and brutal attack” and are calling on anyone with information about the group to come forward as the investigation into the incident continues.

“Police are keen to speak with any person who witnessed the incident, or were involved,” said Northern Beaches crime manager Michael Boutouridis.