Switzerland divided over new law against homophobia

GENEVA - For gay rights campaigner Jean-Pierre Sigrist, the new law being voted on in a referendum in Switzerland on Sunday might have stopped him getting beaten up 4 decades ago.

"And maybe I would not have been laughed at when I went to the police," said the 71-year-old, who believes the law will be "an added safeguard against homophobia."

The new law would widen existing legislation against discrimination or incitement to hatred on ethnic or religious grounds to include sexual orientation.

The change was passed by the Swiss parliament in 2018.

But the populist right wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) and the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU), a small party based on Christian values, are opposed.

Critics of the law, who have forced a public referendum on the issue, believe it will end up censoring free speech.

Eric Bertinat, a UDC local lawmaker in Geneva, told AFP that he believed the law was "part of an LGBT plan to slowly move towards same-sex marriage and medically assisted reproduction" for gay couples.

UDF chief Marc Frueh has called it a "censorship law."

But Sigrist, founder of Switzerland's association of gay teachers, said it would counter growing intolerance.

The retired teacher said he supports freedom of expression, "but not the freedom to say anything at all."

All of Switzerland's major parties except the UDC, the biggest political force in parliament, support the law.

NO TO 'SPECIAL TREATMENT'

Under the new law, homophobic comments made in a family setting or among friends would not be criminalized.

But publicly denigrating or discriminating against someone for being gay or inciting hatred against that person in text, speech, images or gestures, would be banned.

The government has said it will still be possible to have opinionated debates on issues such as same-sex marriage, and the new law does not ban jokes -- however off-color.

"Incitement to hatred needs to reach a certain level of intensity in order to be considered criminal in Switzerland," Alexandre Curchod, a media lawyer, told AFP.

But he admitted that there could be exceptions "if it can be shown that, under the cover of artistic production or joking, someone is in fact engaging in incitement."

Gay rights campaigners are divided over the legislation.

A group called "No to Special Rights!" is opposed, arguing that the gay community does not need special protection.

"I fight for the acceptance and normalization of my sexuality. But for me that also means not asking for special treatment," said Michael Frauchiger, co-head of the group.

Opinion polls show that the Swiss as a whole are broadly in favor of the law, but that the margin between supporters and opponents has narrowed in recent months.

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Scotland pardons gay men convicted under homophobic laws

LONDON - Gay and bisexual men in Scotland prosecuted for consensual same-sex activity will receive an automatic pardon under a law which came into effect on Tuesday aiming to correct a "historic wrong".

The law will cover anyone convicted for same-sex activity which is no longer illegal, ranging from gay sex to kissing or flirting, and those affected can apply to have their former police record 'disregarded' or wiped clean.

Hundreds of men in Scotland were living with criminal records as a result of such discriminatory former laws, estimated LGBT+ rights group Equality Network, which said the convictions had hampered careers and overshadowed men's lives.

"We know of people who were prosecuted as late as the early 1990s for things like kissing their boyfriend in the street," said director Tim Hopkins, adding that for men prosecuted in earlier decades especially it could have been "devastating".

"A conviction like this could have meant the end of your career, it could have meant losing your friends, it could have meant losing your family, all of those huge impacts," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"The pardons and the disregard can't undo all of the harm done by these discriminatory laws but they do at least give some comfort to people."

Scotland legalized same-sex activity between men in 1980, though it was not until 2001 that the age of consent was equalized between gay and heterosexual couples.

Thousands of men are thought to have been prosecuted for consensual same-sex contact over the last 150 years, said the Equality Network.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon offered a public apology to those convicted in such cases for a "historic wrong" as the draft law was first published in 2017, and it was passed unanimously by Scottish parliament the following year.

The new bill will pardon all those affected, including those that are no longer living.

However, they must apply to have their criminal records wiped, a free process that the government and campaigners say it necessary because the offences are so wide-ranging it is not possible for authorities to proactively identify them.

The bill is wider-ranging than a similar law introduced in England and Wales, which only automatically pardons those who are dead and which has also been criticized for not including all of the former offences used to target gay men.

"There is no place for homophobia, ignorance and hatred in modern Scotland," said justice secretary Humza Yousaf in a statement on the eve of the law coming into effect.

"This legislation makes good on the commitments made by the First Minister, who gave an unqualified apology for the now outdated and discriminatory laws, and for the harm they caused to many."

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Taiwan parliament to vote on Asia's first same-sex marriage bill

TAIPEI - Taiwan's parliament began debating Asia's first gay marriage law on Friday as conservative lawmakers launched a last-ditch attempt to scupper the most progressive bill in favor of a watered-down "civil-union" law. 

Hundreds of gay rights supporters gathered despite heavy rain near Taipei's parliament as a mammoth legislative debate got under way over an issue that has bitterly divided the island.

Parliament is up against a ticking clock.

Taiwan's top court has ruled that not allowing same-sex couples to marry violates the constitution. Judges gave the government until May 24 this year to make the changes or see marriage equality enacted automatically. But they gave no guidance on how to do that.

With that deadline fast approaching, three bills have been tabled for Friday's vote -- which also happens to be the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

The most progressive is the government's bill, the only one to use the word "marriage" and to offer limited adoption rights. 

It is backed -- begrudgingly -- by gay rights groups who see it as the closest thing to full equality with heterosexual couples, despite its limitations.

Opponents have tabled two other versions which avoid the word marriage, offering something closer to same-sex unions with no adoption rights.

Conservative and religious groups have been buoyed by a series of referendum wins in November, in which voters comprehensively rejected defining marriage as anything other than a union between a man and a woman. 

FAMILIES DIVIDED

In a Facebook post President Tsai Ing-wen said she recognized the issue had divided "families, generations and even inside religious groups". 

But she said the government's bill was the only one that respects both the court judgement and the referendum.

"Today, we have a chance to make history and show the world that progressive values can take root in an East Asian society," she added in a tweet.

Tsai's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds the majority in parliament, occupying 68 out of 113 seats.

But there is no guarantee her own lawmakers will vote for the more progressive bill, especially as many fear being punished by conservative voters at the ballot box in January.

One of the rival bills was proposed by a DPP lawmaker. And a last-minute amended version of the government's bill has been tabled by fellow lawmakers in the party, dropping the phrase "same-sex marriage".

However, it still lets same-sex couples join an "exclusive permanent union" and apply for a "marriage registration" with government agencies.

LGBT COMMUNITY IN LIMBO

Taiwan's LGBT community has been left in limbo the last two years, with many couples planning weddings ahead of the May 24th deadline but unsure of what marriage equality will look like.

"The world is watching to see if Taiwan's parliament will write a new page in gender equality or deal another blow to Taiwan's hard-fought democracy, human rights and the rule of law," said Jennifer Lu, a spokeswoman for Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan.

"For the gay communities what matters the most is whether we can legally get married on May 24 and be listed as the spouse in ID cards, to be treated and respected as the 'spouse' in the whole legal system ... and whether same-sex families can obtain legal parental rights for their children."

Cindy Su was one of thousands of gay marriage supporters gathered outside parliament on Friday ahead of the debate. 

"We are just a group of people who want to live well on this land and who love each other," she told the crowd.

But opponents warn that "forcefully" passing a gay marriage law will intensify tensions.

"The cabinet's bill ignores the referendum results and that is unacceptable," said Lai Shyh-bao of the opposition Kuomintang party, who proposed one of the bills backed by conservatives.

aw/jta/ecl

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Gay ‘joke’ triggers calls for sports to help LGBT+ players come out

KUALA LUMPUR—Sports should promote openly gay competitors to help others come out, LGBT+ rights activists said on Wednesday, after the second Australian sportsman in a month caused an online storm over an LGBT+ post.

James Faulkner's Instagram photo of "dinner with the boyfriend", with the hashtag #togetherfor5years, led to global media reports that he had become the first Australian cricketer to come out and a wave of supportive comments.

But the 29-year-old later clarified that the "boyfriend" was a house mate and Cricket Australia said Faulkner had made a "joke" that was "take out of context".

"You should spend some time volunteering at one of the suicide prevention charities out there," wrote Twitter user @wild0scar. "I suspect you've done serious harm turning 'coming out' into joke."

The online backlash highlighted how difficult and rare it is for professional sportsmen and women to come out as gay, LGBT+ campaigners said, as sport is commonly seen as one area where homophobia and gender stereotypes persist.

Australian rugby fullback and devout Christian Israel Folau was set to lose a multi-million dollar contract in April after a social media post that said gay people would go to "hell" if they did not "repent".

"It is still difficult for athletes to come out as homosexual due to the fear of discrimination, marginalisation and possibly accusation by their national sports body for tarnishing image," said Suki Chung, an LGBT+ rights campaigner.

Athletes often keep their sexuality secret for fear that teammates, fans and coaches would look at them differently and that judges might give them poor scores because of their sexuality, said Chung of Amnesty International in Hong Kong.

A growing number of high-profile athletes have come out in recent years, such as British diver Tom Daley, as public acceptance of LGBT+ people grows in much of the world.

But it still takes courage.

"One big challenge is the lack of visibility of role models," said Ryan Silverio of ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, an LGBT+ rights group based in Manila, although he said swimming, basketball and volleyball do have openly LGBT+ athletes.

"The LGBT+ community that play sports need more people to look up to, to be inspired into coming out and achieving their sporting goals."

While the growing number of participants in the global Gay Games, which began in 1982, was proof of change and is helping to foster understanding and support, sports bodies should boost policies to end discrimination, LBGT+ advocates said.

(Reporting by Michael Taylor @MickSTaylor; Editing by Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit https://news.trust.org)

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International Day against Homophobia

An LGBT activist attends a rally against Homophobia and Transphobia in Kiev, Ukraine on Wednesday. May 17 is International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, which is celebrated in 130 countries to highlight challenges and encourage lawmakers to make better policies that would address discrimination faced by the LGBT community.

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Gay Americans are shaken, unbowed by nightclub attack

NEW YORK - For many Americans, gay bars and nightclubs have long served as a place of refuge, a carefree place filled with like-minded souls away from the relatives, employers or anyone else who might judge them disapprovingly, or worse.

The massacre at a gay nightclub in Florida was seen as a jarring reminder of the discrimination they can still face, giving some renewed cause to march through city streets on Sunday in the Gay Pride events that fill the June calendar.

What compelled Omar Mateen to kill people dancing and mingling at Orlando's Pulse nightclub in the early hours of Sunday in the deadliest shooting spree in U.S. history is still being investigated. But the killer's father told NBC News his son had become angry after seeing two men kissing in Miami recently.

President Barack Obama, gay-rights groups and parade goers at Gay Pride events on Sunday cast the killings as an affront to the civil liberties of gay people after a string of hard-fought legal successes, including the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling a year ago that all 50 states must allow same-sex marriage.

"An incident like this brings the hatred that does exist out there to the forefront," Craig Baldwin said as he joined hundreds of people gathering in Washington, D.C., for the annual Gay Pride festival on Sunday, where people were by turns somber and defiant. A 39-year-old director for the Shakespeare Theater Company, Baldwin was handing out stickers that said "Shakespeare - Boys Kissing Boys Since 1592."

"It is a reminder of what we have to do to spread love, not hate," he said.

Julie Sibbing, 53, choked back tears as she discussed the shooting, saying it was important for her not to skip the parade.

"There is risk in this life and we're not going to let hate win," she said. "We've got to be amongst the family today. Everybody is suffering. I think we all kind of want to be together today."

In Orlando, leaders of groups that service LGBT residents announced an effort to raise money for the victims of the shooting had amassed more than $430,000 within hours.

"We will love and support the victims even as we join to eradicate the hatred that lies at the core of this violence," said Mary Meeks, a prominent Florida civil rights lawyer.

FLOWERS AT STONEWALL

Gay Pride parades in cities across the United States have grown out of the marches in 1969 protesting the police raids at the Stonewall Inn, a long-standing New York City bar that served gay people who were otherwise ostracized from society.

Rebecca Triglianos and Nicole Martin, a couple from Irvington, New York, contemplated the growing pile of flowers on Sunday outside the bar, a designated National Historic Landmark for its role in the gay-rights movement.

"This is a meeting space, we came here to celebrate marriage equality so we would come here to mourn a loss as well," said Triglianos, referring to the jubilant crowds that spontaneously gathered at the Greenwich Village bar a year ago to celebrate the Supreme Court's marriage decision.

Obama evoked the important role that bars and nightclubs have played in gay American life in his somber remarks on the attack at Pulse.

"The place where they were attacked is more than a nightclub," he said. "It is a place of solidarity and empowerment where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds, and to advocate for their civil rights."

Some older Americans recalled the widespread public indifference that greeted the early years of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, in which thousands of gay men died, and saw in the outpouring of sympathy following Sunday's attack a welcome sign of changed times.

"The younger gay community has never really witnessed anything as devastating on the community as the older community did with HIV," said Raymond Michael Sharpe, 55, a bartender at another Orlando gay club. "This time, we have the support of the whole world behind us, thank God."

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Dalai Lama says no problem with gay marriage

WASHINGTON - The celibate Dalai Lama has thrown his considerable moral weight behind gay marriage, condemning homophobia and saying sex was fine as long as it was consensual.

The Buddhist monk offered his views on the hot-button social issue during his latest tour of the United States, where he was welcomed Thursday in Washington by top lawmakers and offered the customary prayer that opens each Senate session.

The Dalai Lama, in an interview, said that gay marriage was up to each government and was ultimately "individual business."

"If two people -- a couple -- really feel that way is more practical, more sort of satisfaction, both sides fully agree, then okay," he told an online talk show by veteran radio and television host Larry King.

The Dalai Lama said though that people should still follow their own religions' rules on sexuality.

"But then for a non-believer, that is up to them. So there are different forms of sex -- so long (as it is) safe, okay, and (if both people) fully agree, okay," the Dalai Lama said in English.

"Bully, abuse -- that's totally wrong. That's a violation of human rights," he said.

The Dalai Lama is Tibet's exiled spiritual leader and one of the most prominent leaders in Buddhism.

Gay marriage has won growing acceptance in the Western world and Latin America. But no predominantly Buddhist nation allows gay marriage, although several places with Buddhist influence including Nepal, Taiwan and Vietnam have increasingly debated the issue.

The Dalai Lama, who fled his Chinese-ruled homeland for India in 1959 and later won the Nobel Peace Prize, has prided himself on progressive positions and described himself as a feminist.

But his past comments on gay rights have occasionally bothered some of his Western audiences. In one of his books, the Dalai Lama, while not explicitly criticizing homosexuality, said that sex should only involve "organs intended for sexual intercourse."

'The leading nation'

The Dalai Lama, whose meeting on February 21 with President Barack Obama was angrily condemned by China, separately told lawmakers that one of his main goals was "preservation of Tibetan culture."

Offering advice as a "longtime friend" of the United States, the Dalai Lama said that he considered the nation to be "really a champion of democracy, freedom."

"These traditional values are, I think, very, very relevant in today's world. After all, you are the leading nation in the free world, So, (show) self-confidence," the Dalai Lama said.

The Dalai Lama sat between House Speaker John Boehner, who said he wanted to show bipartisan support for the Buddhist monk, and the Republican leader's often bitter rival Nancy Pelosi, a longtime activist on the Tibetan cause. He later met top senators.

"What is happening in Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world," said Pelosi, the leader of Obama's Democratic Party in the House of Representatives.

More than 120 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in recent years to protest what they describe as a stifling Chinese control over their religious, cultural and political freedoms. Obama called for the protection of Tibetans' rights in a statement after his meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Reflecting on mortality

In contrast to his meeting with Obama, which the White House took pains to portray as private, the Dalai Lama was accompanied in his talks at Congress by Lobsang Sangay, who was elected in 2011 as the prime minister of Tibetans in exile.

The Dalai Lama told the lawmakers that he had transferred his political role to the elected leader.

While the globe-trotting monk has been instrumental in throwing a worldwide spotlight on Tibet, he has increasingly been looking ahead to the future of the movement without him.

The Dalai Lama appeared to reflect on his own mortality as he served as the guest Senate chaplain.

Offering prayers to the Buddha "and all other gods," the Dalai Lama recited what he described as "my favorite prayer," which he recites daily for inner strength.

"As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain to help dispel the misery of the world," he said.

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Candle-lit vigil for gay rights after Italy youth suicide

ROME - Hundreds of gay rights activists held a candle-lit vigil at Rome's Colosseum Wednesday to call for a law against homophobia after a youth threw himself off the 11th story of a building in the Italian capital.

Some 500 activists and protesters holding candles, flowers and placards reading "I am gay" and "No Homophobia" demanded action after the latest in a series of suicide acts by gay students which have shocked the nation.

"This is a moment of pain for the homosexual community. These suicides are too much, they reveal a world of solitude and gay suffering," said LGBT activist Vanni Piccolo.

"We are calling for a real commitment from the institutions and not just words," he said.

The death this week of the 21-year-old known publicly as Simone D. followed two other youth gay suicides this year in Rome.

"We are here to launch a message against loneliness, we have to look after our young, gay or otherwise in this city and country," said Aurelio Mancuso, head of the Equality Italy association.

"We need a national plan to combat youth marginalisation," he said.

In his suicide note, Simone reportedly wrote that "Italy is a free country, but there are homophobes and those like that must search their consciences."

"Simone's tragic gesture, and leaving a note which was also a condemnation, reminds us of the country's inability to give people of diverse sexual orientations equal dignity," said Senate vice-president Valeria Fedeli, who attended the vigil.

Parliament must "approve a law against homophobia ... as quickly as possible, to restore equality, freedom and respect to Italy," she said.

In September, Amnesty International slammed Italy's lack of legislation against crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity as "unacceptable", saying it fell foul of international human rights laws.

Italy's lower house began in July to debate a bill which would outlaw homophobic hate crimes but it met opposition from Catholic figures within the centre-right who complained such a law risked curtailing freedom of speech.

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