· March, 2009

Stories about LGBTQ+ from March, 2009

Serbia: Anti-Discrimination Law Controversy

  14 March 2009

Belgraded writes about a proposed new anti-discrimination law: “In short, The Churches don’t like two articles – one concerns person’s right to change religion. This is the same reason we can’t keep our mobile phone number if we switch to a different mobile carrier here in Serbia. Both the Churches...

New Citizen Media Projects Foster Rising Voices in Ivory Coast, Liberia, China, Mongolia, and Yemen

  12 March 2009

Of the 270 project proposals we received from activists, bloggers, and NGO's all wanting to use citizen media tools to bring new communities - long ignored by both traditional and new media - to the conversational web, the following five are most representative of the innovation, purpose and goodwill that Rising Voices aims to support. Please join me in welcoming our new Rising Voices grantees.

Armenia: Homophobia

  12 March 2009

The Armenian Gay & Lesbian Association of NY posts a short video of a recent presentation on homophobia in Armenia. Unzipped: Gay Armenia comments on the video in a separate post which also includes an excerpt detailing a documented case of rape in the Armenian army.

Azerbaijan: Controversial Book Banned

  12 March 2009

Unzipped: Gay Armenia reports that the controversial book, Artush and Zaur, which details a love story between two men — one Armenian and one Azerbaijani — has been banned in Baku. The blog also says that bookshops selling the novel have been closed down.

Barbados, Jamaica: Homophobia?

  11 March 2009

Living in Barbados gets candid about Jamaica's “uncompromisingly hostile attitude towards homosexuality”, saying: “The bottom is not falling out of Jamaica because of gays.”

Syria: Anti-LGBT Campaign Sparks Heated Debate

This weekend the Syrian blogosphere warmed up for a new confrontation. A group of bloggers launched a campaign against the spread of blogs advancing LGBT rights, and the response came quick. LGBT is controversial everywhere, but within a society that is conservative in its majority, the topic gets much more sensitive and hotly-debated, writes Yazan Badran.

Armenia-Azerbaijan: Artush and Zaur

After the publication of a controversial new novel in Azerbaijan, Blogian posts an interview with its author while Unzipped: Gay Armenia says that a book discussion will be held in Baku on 11 March. Artush and Zaur, the story of the homosexual love affair between an Armenian and Azerbaijani in...

Jamaica: Double Standard

  5 March 2009

As the Jamaican Prime Minister reasserts his vow not to yield to pressure from lobby groups “to ‘liberalize'…unjust laws which overly scrutinize and punish some men for engaging in consensual sexual practices with each other”, Long Bench maintains that his position is an “irresponsible double standard.”