News
India Supreme Court reinstates sodomy law
LGBT advocates describe ruling as ‘setback’


Indian LGBT rights advocates in Mumbai on Dec. 11, 2013, protest the Supreme Court of India’s decision to reinstate the country’s sodomy law. (Photo courtesy of Kabi)
This decision overturns a 2009 Delhi High Court ruling that decriminalized homosexuality in the world’s second most populated nation. India’s top court also said only lawmakers can repeal the colonial-era sodomy law that has been in place since 1860.
NDTV reported LGBT rights advocates who had gathered outside the court began to cry when they heard the ruling. Others gathered in the streets of Mumbai to protest the decision.
NDTV said the Naz Foundation Trust, an HIV/AIDS advocacy group that sought to overturn the sodomy law, plans to challenge the ruling.
“It is a tragedy that this judgment forgets the vision of the founders of the Indian republic which was so eloquently captured by the Delhi High Court,” a group of Indian LGBT advocates that includes Voices Against 377 and the Alternative Law Forum said in a statement.
Sapna Pandya, president of KhushDC, a group for LGBT South Asians who live in the Washington metropolitan area, also criticized the decision.
“Today’s ruling is a setback,” Pandya said.
Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association applauded the ruling.
“What India’s Supreme Court has done is entirely right,” he said on his Twitter account. “Homosexual conduct should be contrary to public policy everywhere.”
More than 70 countries continue to criminalize consensual same-sex sexual activity. Homosexuality remains punishable by death in Mauritania, Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and northern Nigeria.
“To criminalize the criminalization of LGBT status is not cultural imperialism,” said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power on Tuesday as she spoke to a group of LGBT rights advocates the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission brought to the U.N. for the 65th anniversary of the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “To deny gays and lesbians the right to live freely and to threaten them with discrimination and even death is not a form of moral or religious Puritanism. It’s in fact barbarism.”
President Obama earlier in the day made a veiled reference to anti-gay persecution during his speech at the memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Canada
Canadian LGBTQ group cancels WorldPride participation over Trump policies
Egale Canada cites need to ‘safeguard our trans and nonbinary staff’

Egale Canada, one of Canada’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organizations, announced in a Feb. 6 statement that its members will not be attending any events in the U.S., including WorldPride set to take place in Washington from May 17-June 8, because of policies put in place by President Donald Trump.
The statement says the decision not to come to the U.S. resulted in its cancellation of plans to attend a meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women at U.N. headquarters in New York in March, at which it planned to discuss LGBTQ related issues.
“After deep consideration, we have decided not to engage in-person in this year’s Commission on the Status of Women or any other UN, OAS (Organization of American States or global convergings, including WorldPride, taking place in the United States in the foreseeable future,” the statement says.
“This decision is foremost based on the need to safeguard our trans and nonbinary staff who would face questionable treatment at land and aviation borders to attend such convenings, and to stand in solidarity with global colleagues who are experiencing similar fear around entry to the U.S.,” the statement continues.
“It is also founded in the unique situation that has been thrust on Canadians (and citizens of other countries) regarding economic warfare and threats to our national sovereignty,” according to the statement. “We cannot in good conscience engage in a process of disentangling our organization from the U.S. goods and services (as we have recently released in a statement) and then proceed to travel to the U.S.”
The Egale Canada statement marks the first known time that an international LGBTQ rights organization has declared it will not come to the U.S. to attend WorldPride because of the controversial policies adopted by the Trump-Vance administration, which so far have included a roll back of programs and policies in support of transgender people.
State Department
Protesters demand US fully restore PEPFAR funding
Activists blocked intersection outside State Department on Thursday

Dozens of HIV/AIDS activists on Thursday protested outside the State Department and demanded U.S. officials fully restore President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief funding.
The activists — members of Housing Works, Health GAP, and the Treatment Action Group — blocked an intersection for an hour. Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell told the Washington Blade that police did not make any arrests.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Jan. 24 directed State Department personnel to stop nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for 90 days in response to an executive order that President Donald Trump signed after his inauguration. Rubio later issued a waiver that allows PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the freeze.
The Blade on Wednesday reported PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down because of a lack of U.S. funding.
“PEPFAR is a program that has saved 26 million lives and changed the trajectory of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic,” said Housing Works CEO Charles King in a press release. “The recent freeze on its funding is not just a bureaucratic decision; it is a death sentence for millions who rely on these life-saving treatments. We cannot allow decades of progress to be undone. The U.S. must immediately reaffirm its commitment to global health and human dignity by restoring PEPFAR funding.”
“We demand Secretary Rubio immediately reverse his deadly, illegal stop-work order, which has already disrupted life-saving HIV services worldwide,” added Russell. “Any waiver process is too little, too late.”
News
Blade welcomes spring intern
Jaylon Curry-Hagler studies journalism at University of Maryland Global Campus

The Washington Blade on Thursday welcomed Jaylon Curry-Hagler as its spring intern.
Jaylon is studying journalism at the University of Maryland Global Campus. Jaylon also grew up in the D.C. area, and previously launched an independent magazine for local DIY creatives.
“As a queer, trans woman of color, I find it more important than ever to give a voice to those within the community and be unapologetic in holding the powers at be accountable as we move toward a future that challenges us to be stronger and connect with one another,” said Jaylon.
Jaylon’s internship with the Blade will end on April 30.
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