Six Nations in the Americas Still Criminalize LGBT2SQIA+ People. That Could Soon Change.

     The global fight for LGBT2SQIA+ rights continues in 2023. 2022 saw a historic number of victories in 27 nations around the world. In the Americas, the biggest victories came in the form of decriminalization of same-sex sexual relationships. In a back-to-back series of court rulings, the Caribbean island nations of Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Barbados saw their old, largely unenforced laws punishing consenting adults with prison time because of who they love struck down.

     With these rulings, the number of nations in the Americas that still have these laws on the books dropped by one-third, to six. While, like in the aforementioned three countries, the laws are largely unenforced, they loom large in the daily lives of LGBT2SQIA+ individuals who call these countries home. Also like the aforementioned three, all six are Caribbean nations: Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Guyana.

     In the former five island nations, the maximum penalty is ten years imprisonment, incarceration in a mental institution, and/or hard labor. In Guyana, the maximum penalty is life imprisonment. Nearly all of these laws are from the colonial era. While, as previously stated, largely unenforced, the Americas are supposed to serve as a beacon of democracy and human rights around the globe, and even having these laws directly contradicts that supposition.

     However, the momentum to change this is behind us. After three court decisions in neighboring countries, rising anti-colonial sentiment in the Caribbean, a re-established diplomatic advocacy for LGBT2SQIA+ rights globally on the part of the United States, and a growing human rights movement across Latin America and the Caribbean (including our expansion to Latin America), it has become clear that the end for this outdated, discriminatory legislation is inevitable.

     In Europe, same-sex sexual relationships have been decriminalized in every nation, while they are obviously not criminalized in Antarctica. In the Americas, as well as in Oceania, a handful of nations on each continent still outlaw the practice with unenforced laws that are easy enough to have repealed. The majority of nations in Asia have decriminalized loving who one loves, and Africa could soon follow suit. If, by 2030, the death penalty for LGBT2SQIA+ individuals is completely abolished worldwide, every nation on five continents has decriminalized same-sex relationships, and the overwhelming majority of African and Asian nations have done the same, it will be safe to call the 2020s a historic decade for LGBT2SQIA+ rights and for human rights.

     Don't just keep the faith; spread it.

We're Expanding to Asia

 

     Africa has seen so much progress in the realm of LGBTQ rights over the past decade. The death penalty, while still on the book in a few countries, is only ever applied to LGBTQ people in territory controlled by terrorist group al-Shabaab, which is growing weaker by the month. Nations like Angola, Namibia, Gabon, and Botswana have repealed laws that criminalize LGBTQIA+ people, and every mass arrest made in the name of hyperreligious hatred in places like Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania now garners international outrage and global views shift in favor of human rights. When even nations like Morocco and Tunisia want to protect people persecuted for their sexual orientation, we have no reason to give up hope as we fight for change.

     Needless to say, more work remains to be done. However, with all the momentum seen in Africa, it is time to expand our efforts to include Asia. As nations like Bhutan, Thailand, and Taiwan make great strides and nations like Vietnam, Malaysia, India, and Nepal serve as battlegrounds for major LGBT court cases and legal processes, nations like Brunei and Indonesia are working to criminalize people who already face social stigma, with Brunei passing a law in 2019 that allowed LGBT people to be stoned to death. 

     Meanwhile, with the exception of Israel, the situation in the Middle East is the worst in the world. Iran is the only nation in the world known to hand down death sentences to LGBTQ people, and most other countries in the region hand out long prison sentences and/or brutal beatings and lashes. If revolution can take place in the United States and Western Europe, then evolution that has been seen in Africa can certainly capitalize on the baby steps that have been taken.

     In 2023, we will update our website to include organizations, petitions, videos, and other actions focused on Asia as well as Africa. The world has come so far, and we need to continue the push for dignity and for justice.

We're Expanding to Latin America

          Africa has seen so much progress in the realm of LGBTQ rights over the past decade. The death penalty, while still on the book in a few countries, is only ever applied to LGBTQ people in territory controlled by terrorist group al-Shabaab, which is growing weaker by the month. Nations like Angola, Namibia, Gabon, and Botswana have repealed laws that criminalize LGBTQIA+ people, and every mass arrest made in the name of hyperreligious hatred in places like Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania now garners international outrage and global views shift in favor of human rights. When even nations like Morocco and Tunisia want to protect people persecuted for their sexual orientation, we have no reason to give up hope as we fight for change.

     Needless to say, more work remains to be done. However, with all the momentum seen in Africa, it is time to expand our efforts to include Latin America, and, more broadly, to the Americas as a whole. In Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Guyana, old laws criminalizing same-sex sexual activity remain on the books but are not enforced; in Grenada, the last nation in the Americas to enforce these laws, such enforcement happens very rarely. In countries like Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, and Venezuela, same-sex marriage is constitutionally banned. In other nations, youth are subject to conversion therapy and state-sanctioned violence while discrimination and hate crimes go unpunished.

     However, this is beginning to change. Decriminalization has been proposed in virtually every nation that still criminalizes same-sex relations. Court decisions and/or legislation could soon legalize same-sex marriage or civil unions in Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Barbados, Cuba, Curaçao, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Peru. Nations are beginning to strive for full LGBT2SQIA+ equality where a decade ago regression was popular progress. If revolution can take place in the United States and Western Europe, then evolution that has been seen in Africa can certainly be mirrored by a similar revolution in Latin America.

     Later this year, we will update our website to include organizations, petitions, videos, and other actions focused on Latin America as well as Africa. The world has come so far, and we need to continue the push for dignity and for justice.

Indian LGBT2SQIA+ Residents Get Right to Sex Reassignment Surgery as Numerous Landmark Court Verdicts Await

     February 2022 has been a major month for LGBT2SQIA+ rights around the world, from bans on conversion therapy in Israel and New Zealand to a law criminalizing transgender people being struck down in Kuwait. On February 17th, 2022, India got its first major victory of 2022 for the 250 million or more LGBT2SQIA+ people who live there when the Indian Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment announced that gender-affirming care would henceforth be covered by insurance in the country.

     LGBT2SQIA+ rights in India have been evolving rapidly. In 2018, same-sex sexual relations were still illegal in India. That year, a court ruling struck down this ban and instituted an equal age of consent for same-sex individuals. Things only got better: oddly enough, in spite of the ban, discrimination covering gender identity and expression had been banned since 2014, the same year a third gender option was legalized, while homosexuality and transgenderism had never been classified as illnesses by the Indian Psychiatric Society. In 2018, lesbians gained access to IVF, discrimination in the provision of goods and services was banned, and discrimination in all other areas was banned by state- and government-funded bodies. In 2019, Indians were given the right to change their legal gender with sex reassignment surgery. In 2020, same-sex couples in India were granted unregistered cohabitation. In 2021, conversion therapy was banned by law.

     Meanwhile, Indians are eagerly awaiting three landmark court decisions, one of which could protect intersex minors from invasive procedures, another of which could lift restrictions on MSMs (men who have sex with men) donating blood, and a final one that could legalize same-sex marriage. If these efforts are successful, the next steps will be to legalize LGBTI military service, allow joint and international joint as well as stepchild adoption by same-sex couples, and allow automatic parenthood on birth certificates for children of same-sex couples. With the crisis in Ukraine, the United States may soon designate India a major non-NATO ally. If this occurs, I'm calling on the United States to press India to allow all Indians to serve their country in uniform.

     If the outcome of these court decisions is favorable, it would represent the most rapid progress for the LGBT2SQIA+ community ever made. India is home to 1.4 billion of the world's 7.9 billion people, or 18 percent. Roughly one in six Indians are LGBT2SQIA+, which represents three percent of the global population. 250 MILLION people are LGBT2SQIA+ residents of India; securing the rights of these individuals would represent a major step forward for social justice and human rights.

Countries Around the World Declare War on Gay "Conversion Therapy"

     In December 2021, conservative commentator Matt Walsh made an outlandish claim even by Matt Walsh standards, that Canada had "outlawed Christianity and nobody even noticed." What really happened was that Canada banned gay "conversion therapy," which is a widely discredited pseudoscience commonly called "praying the gay away" that looks at being gay as a choice and tries to guilt people into hiding their sexuality. This cruel practice has a higher link to drug abuse, alcoholism, homelessness, and suicidal tendencies than most forms of childhood abuse do. The main perpetrators are parents, who give their kids no choice in the matter except being put out on the streets.

     It's no wonder why banning it is a high priority for LGBT2SQIA+ rights activists around the world. Matt Walsh claims to be a staunch supporter of Israel, among the holiest places on Earth. So, why is Walsh being so silent about the fact that, by his own standards, Israel banned Christianity, too, when they announced on Valentine's Day 2022 that doctors in the country would be banned from performing conversion therapy, building on a 2014 ban on conversion therapy in the nation's hospitals. Surely the Cradle of Christianity banning Christianity would be front-page news, right? Or maybe it's that Matt Walsh is exaggerating like anti-LGBT2SQIA+ people have always done. First, decriminalizing homosexuality was an attack on Christianity. Then, gay marriage was an attack on Christianity. Now they say banning conversion therapy is an attack on Christianity. The greatest threat to Christianity is telling an increasingly tolerant world that tolerance and Christianity are mutually exclusive.

     It's not just Israel. France passed a ban in January 2022, and, like Israel, New Zealand passed a ban in February 2022. Meanwhile, bans are pending in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and numerous other nations. These bans are all on track to go into effect by the end of the year. The past three months have been the most productive in the global fight against conversion therapy in history. How's that, Matt?

Landmark Studies Confirm Nearly 1.3 Billion People Are LGBT2SQIA+

     The recent study showing that 7.1 percent of Americans identify as LGBT2SQIA+ has conservative Christian groups freaking out. According to their version of math, that means EVERYONE IN AMERICA WILL BE GAY BY 2047!!! That's so wrong on so many levels. Yes, the number of LGBT2SQIA+ people in the United States has doubled in the past decade. Not all of these people are new community members: in 2012, gay marriage was a 50-50 split issue, while American support for gay marriage currently sits at nearly 85 percent. People overwhelmingly feel more comfortable coming out to friends and family. If you ask theocracies in the Middle East that punish homosexuality with death, they'll tell you they have no gay people there; I know personally that that's not true. Bisexuality was the fastest-growing sector of the LGBT2SQIA+ community, with four percent of Americans identifying as bisexual. Honestly, the real percentage of Americans who are bisexual has to be close to triple that. Having a college boyfriend or girlfriend is synonymous with having a same-sex partner in one of America's worst-kept inside jokes. If you "experimented" in college, you are bisexual whether you'd care to admit it or not.

     The percentage of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit, queer, intersex, asexual, and other gender and sexual groups in the United States is at three percent for Baby Boomers and a whopping 21 percent for the late Millennial/early Gen Z age group, progressively increasing among each generation in between. With this in mind, it is safe to say that one in six Americans are LGBT2SQIA+. That's the same number that a survey of Indian citizens got in 2021. 

     This is a pretty consistent rate that, if applied across the world, means that there are likely nearly 1.3 billion people who identify as LGBT2SQIA+. That's a huge number of people, and it is concrete proof that rights for gender and sexual groups are among the most important causes related to social justice and human rights on the face of the Earth.

Does Thailand's Progress Finally Signal Hope For The LGBT2SQIA+ Community?

     Thailand's beautiful beaches, fascinating forests, and cheap costs have long made it a favorite for travel by foreigners eager to see the world. As the times change in the Western world, Thailand has never been far behind and is sometimes ahead of the game.

     With protests that have called for expanding democracy, the relaxation of laws governing abortion, an increased focus on environmental protection, and only three executions being carried out in the past nearly twenty years, Thailand has made significant progress in appealing to more liberal-minded travelers and residents alike.

     Now, progress for the LGBT2SQIA+ community is intensifying. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 1956, and an equal age of consent was instituted in 1997. Homosexuality was declassified as a mental illness in 2002, open military service was allowed in 2005, anti-discrimination laws were passed in 2015, adoption by same-sex singles was established, and the right to change gender surgically has always existed. 

     In 2020, a public consultation was launched regarding a slew of proposed initiatives: civil unions, marriage, the right to change gender legally, and joint and step-child adoption for same-sex couples. Thailand could follow Taiwan and Bhutan in blazing a trail for LGBT2SQIA+ rights in Asia, if you raise your voices!!!