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How Schools in South Korea Can Help LGBT Youth Thrive

Lee Bo-reum found school almost intolerable. As a young woman, she was outed to her peers as a lesbian, and was ostracized and bullied by her classmates for her sexual orientation. As the mistreatment persisted, she eventually became depressed and…
News

Updated Submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Review of the Combined State Party Report for Indonesia - 80th Session, September 2021

Indonesia ratified the CCEDAW in 1984.[1] Discriminatory by-laws and regulations (CEDAW Articles 1 and 2)  In its eighth periodic report, the Indonesian government stated, “The equality of all Indonesian citizens as well as their rights to non-…
News

Ghana: LGBT Activists Face Hardships After Detention

Extreme Anti-LGBT Bill Stokes Hostility

(Johannesburg) – Arbitrary arrests and detention of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Ghana, and a proposed draconian anti-LGBT bill are causing serious economic hardship and psychological stress for LGBT people, Human Rights…
Area 51 Police Station, Ho, Ghana: A.G, a lesbian, was held here for 22 days from May 20, 2021 with four other lesbians after being arbitrarily arrested at a human rights workshop in Ho, Volta region. © 2021 Wendy Isaack/Human Rights Watch, 15 July 2021
Report

“I Thought of Myself as Defective”

Summary Park Beom-seok, a 22-year-old gay man, suspected that he might be gay when he was eleven or twelve years old. Still, he struggled to find support in his school environment. Classmates in middle school used “gay” as a slur, targeting boys who…
News

Once Bullied, LGBT South Koreans Advocate for Inclusion

Former Students Share Their Stories to Press for Change

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students in South Korea are bullied and harassed by both students and teachers in schools. When they seek help and support from teachers or counselors, they are often instead “outed” to other teachers or…
G Lee, an LGBT person in South Korea © 2021 Human Rights Watch
News

South Korea: LGBT Students Face Bullying, Discrimination

Isolation and Lack of Support Put Young People at Risk

(Seoul) – Young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in South Korea experience isolation and mistreatment in schools, Human Rights Watch and the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School said in a…
A schoolgirl stands next to a stream
Video

School is not a friendly place for LGBT students

(Seoul, September 14, 2021) – Young lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in South Korea experience isolation and mistreatment in schools, Human Rights Watch and the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale…
News

Protest Demands End to Harmful Surgeries on Intersex Children

Hospital Should Halt Medically Unnecessary Surgeries

Protesters picketed Weill-Cornell, a private institution that is part of the New York Presbyterian Hospital system, earlier this month, demanding the hospital cease medically unnecessary surgeries on children born with intersex traits, and investigate…
Demonstrators gather for an #EndIntersexSurgery protest outside Weill-Cornell hospital in New York City in August 2021. 
News

No End to Chechnya’s Violent Anti-Gay Campaign

Kidnapping, Interrogation Exposes Brutal Intent

The Russian LGBT Network has reported that in May 2021, Chechen-speaking men abducted Ibragim Selimkhanov in Moscow and forcibly returned him to Chechnya’s capital Grozny, where authorities interrogated him about gay people in the region. This is the…
Campaigners protest for LGBT rights in Chechnya outside the Russian embassy in London, Britain on June 2, 2017.
News

Political Homophobia Ramps Up

During Pride month in June, LGBT rights once again became a flashpoint in Europe, where the rights of LGBT people have become a wedge issue, deployed for political effect. This simmering conflict is coming to a head between Hungary and Poland and the…
Demonstrators wrapped in LGBT and European Union flags are seen on August 30, 2020 in Warsaw, Poland. © 2020 Aleksander Kalka/NurPhoto via AP
News

Video Captures Vicious Transphobic Attack in Cameroon

Repeal Anti-Homosexuality Law, Protect LGBT People

A brutal attack on two transgender women in Cameroon occurred just weeks after a court ordered the women, Shakiro and Patricia, released from prison pending their appeal of a five-year sentence on arbitrary “homosexuality” charges. The attack is a…
Patricia and Shakiro, two transgender women who were convicted in May of "attempted homosexuality," record a video after their release to thank those who supported them in Douala, Cameroon, July 16, 2021.
News

Homophobic Ghanaian ‘Family Values’ Bill is Odious and Beggars Belief

Russia, Nigeria, Uganda and Hungary have all passed odious laws in recent years that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Ghana’s proposed legislation takes bad parts from all of these and adds some.

Sometimes the human capacity for cruelty takes my breath away. A recently proposed bill on “sexual rights” and “family values” in Ghana is a case study in extreme cruelty. Ghanaian MPs are considering legislation that is so onerous it beggars…
A young lesbian woman at an LGBT community center in Accra, Ghana.
News

Uzbekistan: Forced Anal Testing in Homosexuality Prosecutions

President Should Immediately Prohibit Torturous Exams

(Washington, D.C.)—Authorities in Uzbekistan have subjected at least six men to forced anal examinations between 2017 and 2021 in order to prosecute them for consensual same-sex relations, nine human rights groups said today. Forced anal examinations…
Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev speaking in Qingdao, China on June 9, 2018. © 2018 AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko.”
News

"Clean the Streets of Faggots"

Digital Targeting of LGBT People by Middle East/North Africa Governments

Sarah Hegazy, an Egyptian queer feminist, raised a rainbow flag at a concert in Cairo. Rania Amdouni, a Tunisian queer activist, protested deteriorating economic conditions and police brutality in Tunis. Mohamad al-Bokari, a Yemeni blogger in Saudi…
Sarah Hegazy, Egyptian LGBTQ activist, photographed by a friend who wished to remain anonymous, at a Mashrou’ Leila concert in Cairo in 2017 © 2020 anonymous.
News

The Trouble With the ‘LGBT Community’

When I met a former independent Lebanese parliament member, she asked me, “How can we mobilize the LGBT vote in Lebanon?” She wanted to understand why the Lebanese “LGBT community” had not voted as a block in the 2018 parliamentary elections to oppose…
LGBT activists in Beirut, Lebanon shout slogans and hold up a rainbow flag as they march to demand equal rights in a country gripped by economic and financial crisis, June 27, 2020.
News

Argentina Recognizes Non-Binary Identities

Decree Allows for Third Gender Option in Identification Documents

Starting July 21, 2021, Argentina’s National Identity Document and passports now include a third gender category, “X,” allowing people to choose to be designated other than female or male. The move makes Argentina the first country in Latin America to…
President Alberto Fernández (center) with other authorities and members of social organizations, form an 'X', at the Bicentennial Museum in Casa Rosada, Buenos Aires, Argentina, on July 21, 2021
News

Panama’s Gender-Based Lockdown and the Resilience of Transgender Activism

An Interview with Pau González of Hombres Trans Panamá

I. Introduction On April 1, 2020, the government of Panama introduced a gender-based lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This meant that women and men were only allowed to do essential shopping on alternate days. The country’s Health…
Pau González. © Alexandra Gil
News

Lawmakers Are Harming LGBTQ+ Youth

In just the past six months, more than 110 bills have been introduced in state legislatures attempting to roll back transgender rights, most of them targeting transgender youth. At the same time, legislative efforts to actively protect the…
Protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on Oct. 8, 2019.