This No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) news digest rounds up some of the week’s top LGBTI rights stories for the week ending 25 April:
How a gay student’s suicide after being outed is helping Japan’s LGBT community speak up
Star Online, 24 Apr 2019
The name of a gay student who died after being outed may remain known to only a small number of people – his immediate family, friends, classmates, and the university where he studied – because even in death, his privacy is considered important in Japan. But his death four years ago is changing the legal and social landscape for the LGBT community in a nation where, as the saying goes, “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down”.
Polish leader: LGBT rights an import that threatens the nation
CityNews, 24 Apr 2019
The chairman of Poland’s conservative ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has called the LGBT rights movement a foreign import that threatens the Polish nation. Kaczynski, Poland’s most important politician, also said “everyone must accept Christianity” and that questioning the powerful Roman Catholic in Poland is unpatriotic.
Coalition takes a tougher line on gay conversion therapy after Labor promises ban
The Guardian, 24 Apr 2019
The Coalition has suggested it will work to discourage gay conversion therapy just a day after Scott Morrison poured cold-water on Labor’s push to stamp the practice out. In a response to peak LGBTIQ group Equality Australia, the Morrison government has committed to work with the states “to ensure such practices are not supported or occurring”.
‘Stigma does not go away’: Mumbai’s dedicated LGBT health clinic
The Guardian, 23 Apr 2019
Vivek Sharma has travelled 20km from his home to the congested eastern suburb of Mumbai for his HIV treatment. But the journey is no hardship for the 23-year-old student. “My file was shifted to this clinic. I am so happy that this has finally happened. ”Sharma, who is bisexual, is waiting in the reception of a clinic believed to be India’s first specifically for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community, having transferred his treatment from a government hospital closer to home.
US supreme court to consider LGBT employment discrimination
The Guardian, 22 Apr 2019
The supreme court will decide whether the main federal civil rights law that prohibits employment discrimination applies to LGBT people. The justices said on Monday they will hear cases involving people who claim they were fired because of their sexual orientation. Another case involves a funeral home employee who was fired after disclosing that she was transitioning from male to female and dressed as a woman.
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