World News

A Kenyan gay magazine has exposed male sex trafficking between Kenya and the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Identity magazine says that gay and bisexual Kenyans are being lured from universities with promises of jobs only to end up as sex slaves. [ Read more → ]

The ‘ex-gay’ religious movement has expanded beyond its American origins throughout the world. Now the same lies pushed by the same American "ex-gay" propagandists are finding an audience in the Caribbean. [ Read more → ]

The United Nations has produced its first ever report on LGBT rights, calling for the decriminalization of same-sex relations between consenting adults, and includes a call for protection and recognition of the self-identified gender of transgender persons. [ Read more → ]

BOGOTA, Columbia -- A Catholic Archbishop on Tuesday strongly criticized a family court judge's decision to allow Chandler Burr -- a former contributing editor to U.S. News and World Report and columnist for The New York Times -- to adopt two Colombian boys, suggesting that because Burr is gay, he may become sexually attracted to his children. [ Read more → ]

Turkish Cypriot leaders have bowed to pressure from Members of the European Parliament (MEP), and have agreed to repeal a law outlawing homosexuality. Dervis Eroglu, the leader of the Turkish Cypriot government in the northern part of Cyprus said he would sign a repeal of the ban into law. [ Read more → ]

An Islamist group called for a Muslim lesbian author to be killed and invaded a discussion on Islam in Amsterdam last week. The mob threw eggs and called for Irshad Manji’s neck to be broken. [ Read more → ]

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is to be quizzed directly tomorrow over anti-gay laws. The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton, told activists on Tuesday that she would raise the discriminatory laws at the EU-Russia summit. [ Read more → ]

A gay Iraqi has been refused Norwegian asylum and told to “go home and be discreet.” The High Court accepted that Azad Hassan Rasol was gay and that gay men in Iraq are at risk, including at risk of being killed, but it ruled that Rasol ‘must comply with Iraq’s socio-cultural norms’. [ Read more → ]

Prop 8's finished -- or at least, oral arguments in the appeals court are all done. Now a ruling on California's marriage ban could come at any minute. A couple in Hawaii sues for marriage; Scotland may reform its marriage laws; Australian legislators are moving towards equality but the battle's still far from over. [ Read more → ]

Believed to be the world’s first intersex mayor, Councillor Tony Briffa has been elected in Australia., winning in the City of Hobsons Bay in the suburbs of Melbourne at the end of November. [ Read more → ]

Malawi's government announced Thursday that it was reviewing a number of laws, including its anti-gay and anti-lesbian laws. The announcement led to the headline 'Malawi makes U-turn on disputed laws on media, gays' in local newspaper. [ Read more → ]

GLOUCESTERSHIRE, England — Roger Crouch, a former director of children’s services and anti-bullying advocate for youth, died last week as the result of suicide, according to David Dooley, the Deputy Coroner for Gloucestershire. [ Read more → ]

Belgium has become the second country in the world to select an openly gay leader. Elio Di Rupo will lead a government, ending 540 days of post- election brinksmanship between the parties of the Dutch-speaking north and French south. [ Read more → ]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The Puerto Rican Senate has approved an amendment to the island's penal code that would strip protections for LGBTQ persons in the hate crime statues. [ Read more → ]

Prop 8's back in court -- but why, exactly? I'll answer all your questions about what's going on this time. Plus, the backstory behind the most effective -- and adorable -- marriage equality video ever made. Prop 8's legal team celebrates a bill in Nigeria that would throw you in prison for over a decade just for witnessing a gay couple getting married. All that, plus robot marriage, and one gay couple looks back on their 50-year romance in a new book. [ Read more → ]

Nigeria's Senate has passed an "anti-gay marriage" bill, extending its scope by also criminalizing gay clubs and organizations, and making public displays of affection between gays punishable with 10 years imprisonment. [ Read more → ]

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom -- Roger Crouch, the father of a 15-year-old boy who killed himself in May 2010 after apparently suffering from anti-gay bullying, and who then turned tragedy into a campaign for greater awareness and prevention of bulling in Britain's schools, has died. [ Read more → ]

A vote on Nigeria's proposed anti-gay law is scheduled for next week, according to the group Nigerian LGBTIs in Diaspora Against Anti Same Sex Laws. [ Read more → ]

Students at the Etobicoke School of the Arts, a specialized public arts and academic high school in Toronto, broke into cheering and wild applause on Friday when the student council president debuted a personal video from Lady Gaga aimed at encouraging an end to bullying. [ Read more → ]

St. Petersburg's parliament on Wednesday said it would review a controversial bill banning so-called "gay propaganda that targets children." The law -- which has been slammed by critics as too discriminative -- has been postponed in order to clarify its wording. [ Read more → ]