Brunei Brings in Stoning to Death for Gay Sex, Despite Outcry

THE GUARDIAN: Shock among LGBT community in tiny southeast Asian kingdom as nation moves towards strict sharia law

Brunei’s small underground LGBT community have expressed shock and dismay over Brunei’s plan to bring in the punishment of death by stoning for adultery and gay sex.

The laws were scheduled to be introduced on Wednesday in the tiny south-east Asian kingdom ruled by the all-powerful Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.

The new punishments, which also include amputation of hands and feet for thieves, will make Brunei the first country in east or southeast Asia to have a sharia penal code at the national level. Several mostly Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia also adhere to sharia law. » | Kate Lamb in Jakarta and agencies | Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Piers Challenges Journalist Who Is Against LGBT Lessons in Schools | Good Morning Britain

At least five schools in the UK have suspended LGBT lessons due to parent protests as they feel the teachings are age-inappropriate. Ex-Ofsted head Sir Michael Wilshaw and journalist Dilly Hussain debate whether or not these teachings are acceptable in schools.

President Pence? That Vision Should Terrify Women

THE GUARDIAN: The news that Karen Pence is returning to work at an anti-gay Christian school should remind us of the vice-president’s dangerous bigotry

President Pence would turn America into The Handmaid’s Tale

Karen Pence is not just the wife of the US vice-president, she’s an empowered career woman in her own right. While her husband works tirelessly alongside Trump to make America white again, Karen Pence, it was announced this week, is returning to her old job teaching kids art.

Or rather, she’s going to teach heterosexual kids art, and they shouldn’t expect to draw any rainbows.

The Christian school in northern Virginia where Pence will be working requires its teachers to agree that they won’t engage in or condone “homosexual or lesbian sexual activity” and “transgender identity”. The school also reserves the right to expel or refuse to admit students if they or their parents participate in, support, or condone, homosexual or bisexual activity. A policy that seems to chime perfectly with the vice president’s own bigoted worldview – Pence has a long history of homophobia and transphobia. » | Arwa Mahdawi | Saturday, January 19, 2019

A Christian Case for LGBT Rights

From one of Canada's highest-profile social conservatives to supporter of same-sex marriage, Michael Coren discusses his change of heart in his book "Epiphany." The Agenda speaks with Coren about casting off condemnation and embracing compassion for the LGBT community.

Meet Iran's Gay Mullah Forced to Flee the Country - BBC News

In Iran, homosexuality is banned and punishable by execution under its strict code of sharia, or Islamic law. In a country dominated by the religious class, being gay is taboo, and especially among the establishment. One Iranian gay cleric, who conducted gay weddings in secret, was forced to flee the country, and has been threatened with death. BBC Persian's Ali Hamedani reports. Video Journalist: Kelvin Brown

Amir Ashour, the Queer Face of Iraq (June 2016)

Interview with the founder of IraQueer, the first movement to come out openly in the country torn by sectarian militias and partly controlled by Isis. Ashour, who lives in Sweden, has reported about the very dangerous life of the LGBT community in his native country during a meeting organized in London in the Baker & McKenzie Law Firm.

Amir Ashour - BBC Interview

IraQueer's Executive Director, Amir Ashour talks about our work and the influence of the travel ban on the LGBT+ movement in Iraq/KurdistanRegion

Forbidden Talk: The LGBT Community In the Middle East

Description Recently pride marches were cancelled in Turkey due to threats from ultra-nationalists and this August, Iran plans to hold a conference to discuss Islamic Human Rights principles which will exclude LGBT rights...which begs the question, is the LGBT community at greater risk now than ever before, in the region?

OhMyHappiness »

Forbidden Talk - Homosexuality in the Middle East (2014)

Homosexuality in the Middle East remains a highly controversial issue. We discuss what being gay means for people from the region, whether they believe it is compatible with religion, and if there could be a change in people's attitude in the near future.

Significant Part of LGBT Community to Support Le Pen in Upcoming Elections – Poll

Despite the tension over the National Front, polls show a significant part of LGB community will support Marine Le Pen in the first round of the election on Sunday

Chechnya Opens World's First Concentration Camp for Homosexuals since Hitler's in the 1930s Where Campaigners Say Gay Men Are Being Tortured with Electric Shocks and Beaten to Death

MAIL ONLINE: Chechyna has opened the first concentration camp for homosexuals since Hitler / Prisoners reportedly tortured with electric shocks and some beaten to death / One of those who fled said prisoners were beaten to force them to reveal other members of the gay community / Comes after 100 gay men were detained and three killed in Chechyna last week

Chechyna has opened the first concentration camp for homosexuals since Hitler, where campaigners say gay men are being tortured with electric shocks and beaten to death.

It comes after it was claimed 100 gay men had been detained and three killed in Chechnya last week.

A report by Novoya Gazeta said authorities had set up several camps where homosexuals are killed or forced to promise to leave the republic.

One of the camps is reportedly at the former military headquarters in the town of Argun.

Svetlana Zakharova, from the Russian LGBT Network, told MailOnline: 'Gay people have been detained and rounded up and we are working to evacuate people from the camps and some have now left the region.

'Those who have escaped said they are detained in the same room and people are kept altogether, around 30 or 40. They are tortured with electric currents and heavily beaten, sometimes to death.' Read on and comment » | Thomas Burrows for MailOnline | Monday, April 10, 2017

'Mr Gay Syria': Changing Perceptions of a Suppressed Community

Gay USA: Resisting President Trump

Gay, Trans and Illegal in Lebanon - BBC Pop Up

Homosexual sex is still technically illegal in Lebanon due to an article that prohibits sex against the “laws of nature”. This article has been used in the past to prosecute LGBT people, but has a rare ruling in a recent case sparked a new future for the country’s LGBT community? Benjamin Zand finds out for BBC Pop Up.

BBC World – Iran's "Sex-change" Solution

Ali Hamedani, BBC World service reporter, visits Turkey to meet LGBT exiles who have fled Iran in fear of being forced to change gender

Georgia Pastor's Mind Blown by European Atheists

A Finnish television network recently filmed a Southern Baptist pastor as he visited secular Nordic countries and struggled to come to grips with widespread LGBT rights and atheism.

USA: Wilders Rails Against Islam and Endorses Trump at LGBT Republican Event

Leader of Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) Geert Wilders attended an LGBT event as part of the Republican National Convention programme in Cleveland, Ohio, Wednesday.

Gun Sales On The Rise among LGBT Community after Attack

Anderson Cooper Grills Bondi on LGBT Support

Saudi Arabia Insists UN Keeps LGBT Rights Out of Its Development Goals

THE INDEPENDENT: The Saudi Foreign Minister says LGBT rights are 'counter to Islamic law'

Saudi Arabia is insisting the UN removes gay rights from the organisation’s Global Goals, saying it is “counter to Islamic law”.

The protest comes from the Saudi Foreign Minister, Adel Al-Jubeir, who told the UN General Assembly that “mentioning sex in the text, to us, means exactly male and female. Mentioning family means consisting of a married man and woman,” AP reported.

He stated Saudi Arabia has the right not to follow any agenda that runs “counter to Islamic law”.

The Sustainable Development Goals program sets a series of “ambitious targets” for the UN’s 193 member states, related to poverty, equality and ending climate change.

However, overt references to LGBT equality were removed from the final agreement, Pink News reports.

The goals pledge to ensure that “human rights and fundamental freedoms are enjoyed by all, without discrimination on grounds of race, ethnicity, colour, sex, age, language, religion, culture, migration status, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic situation, birth, disability or other status.”

Homosexuality is illegal under Sharia law in Saudi Arabia and punishments for those engaging in same-sex relationships include execution, chemical castration and imprisonment. » | Samuel Osborne | Tuesday, September 29, 2015