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Muslim Indonesian province to punish gay sex with 100 lashes with cane
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Lawmakers in a conservative Muslim Indonesian province passed a law Saturday that punishes gay sex by public caning and subjects non-Muslims to the region’s strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law. Human rights groups have said the law violates international treaties signed by Indonesia protecting the rights of …
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Indonesian province considers caning for gay sex
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Men and women caught having homosexual sex could be publicly caned in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province if an Islam-inspired draft law is approved this week. Lawmaker Moharriadi Syafari said a majority of provincial lawmakers supported criminalizing gay sex…
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Kazakhstan politician: Gays can be identified by colored pants, DNA test
A politician in Kazakhstan has claimed “blood tests for degeneratism” can identify gay people while calling for homosexuality to be criminalized, describing it as a threat to national security. Standing before a poster claiming “homosexuality is a threat to the nation,” Dauren Babamuratov, leader of the nationalist “Bolashak” movement, petitioned the government …
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Nepal’s LGBT community parades for same-sex marriage
KATMANDU, Nepal — Hundreds of Nepal’s LGBT citizens are parading through Nepal’s capital to celebrate Gaijatra, a Hindu festival gleefully overtaken each year by the country’s gay community and cheered by onlookers. Thousands of Nepalese lined the cobblestoned streets of Katmandu’s old city Monday to catch a glimpse of those parading, some carrying banners…
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Vietnam’s LGBT community celebrates pride, softening attitudes toward gays
HANOI, Vietnam — The streets of Hanoi were awash with rainbow flags on Sunday as an estimated 300 gay rights advocates celebrated the nation’s largest gay pride event to date. AFP reports that members of Vietnam’s LGBT community cycled and danced through the capital urging an end to discrimination against the LGBT community in a country where …
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Chinese man suing clinic for performing electric shock gay conversion therapy
BEIJING — A gay Chinese man said Thursday he was suing a psychological clinic for carrying out electric shocks intended to turn him straight, as well as the search engine giant Baidu for advertising the center. The Beijing LGBT Center, which campaigns for gay rights, said it was the first court case involving so-called conversion therapy in China. China declassified …
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Singapore won’t destroy two gay themed books, titles to return to public libraries
SINGAPORE — Two children’s books dealing with gay subjects won’t be destroyed after all and will be restored to Singapore’s public libraries, an official said Friday. Minister of Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim had said in mid-July he supported the state-run National Library Board’s decision to pulp three books deemed to have inappropriate …
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Singapore backs call to destroy gay-themed books
SINGAPORE — A children’s book inspired by a real-life story of two male penguins raising a baby chick in New York’s zoo has been deemed inappropriate by state-run Singapore libraries, and the conservative city-state’s information minister said he supports the decision to destroy all copies alongside two other titles. The National Library Board, which runs 26 public libraries in Singapore…
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Record attendance at Pink Dot rally in Singapore amid religious opposition
SINGAPORE — Thousands of gay rights activists gathered in downtown Singapore on Saturday for an annual rally that came under unprecedented criticism from religious conservatives, with one influential Christian pastor calling on the government to ban the event. Previous Pink Dot rallies have been held without much opposition. But as they grew…
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George Takei sees movement toward gay pride beginning in Japan
TOKYO — George Takei said he needed courage and anger to come out as gay and to join the equal rights movement for sexual minorities in the U.S., and he hopes his Japanese counterparts will do the same to make their society more equal. Takei said he has noticed a movement beginning in Japan, though the country of his ancestry has a long way to go.