United Nations

In its review of the U.S.’ record on civil and political rights released earlier this month, the United Nations Human Rights Committee condemned a flood of discriminatory state legislation restricting the human rights of LGBTQ

The committee’s summary was first reported on by Human Rights Watch.

“The United States ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1992. Every four years, the HRC reviews laws and policies in countries that have ratified the treaty to evaluate where they are in compliance with the treaty and where they fall short. The review of the US was postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic, making this the first review of the US in nine years.

Among the worrying U.S. laws are those restricting access to gender-affirming care and prohibiting transgender children from participating in school sports or using bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. Also concerning are laws banning books as well as prohibiting classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity, LGBT people and their families in schools.

In its concluding observations, the committee expressed concern about laws limiting transgender people’s access to healthcare, athletics and public accommodations, and restricting discussions of race, slavery, sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. It underscored the prevalence of discrimination against LGBT people in the U.S., including in housing, employment, correctional facilities and other domains. 

The committee also condemned derogatory speech aimed at LGBT people, including from public officials, and violence against LGBT people and members of other minority groups.”

Russia

TNT Music, which is owned by parent company Fonbet, the largest sports betting company operating in Russia and Kazakhstan, altered a video of the South Korean K-Pop boy band Seventeen’s hit song “God of Music” that showed a rainbow.

 TNT Music transformed the rainbow featured in the original video into a gray cloud. 

According to the English-language Russian news outlet the Moscow Times, TNT Music appears to have erred on the side of caution after a Moscow court fined its owner Fonbet TV 1 million rubles ($10,800) in July for violating the country’s draconian “LGBT propaganda law” when it aired Finnish singer Alma’s music video for the song “Summer Really Hurt Us.”

In a March 2019 article in British publication Gay Times, Alma confirmed she is a lesbian and in a relationship with Finnish poet and human rights activist Natalia Kallio.

The channel faces another fine of up to 16 million rubles ($174,000) on four administrative charges of spreading “LGBT propaganda” among minors, according to Russian state media. 

The Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, abbreviated as Roskomnadzor, has been directed to ban any websites that contain information about LGBTQ identities or anything that could be construed as promoting LGBTQ related materials.

According to the Moscow Times, there was fear that the rainbow and an all-boy band would provoke Roskomnadzor into fining TNT again.

Latvia

In a Nov. 9 vote, Parliament voted to allow same-sex couples to establish civil unions-partnerships, which gives same-sex couples in this Baltic state legal recognition, but fewer rights than married couples.

The country’s Prime Minister, Evika Siliņa, issued a statement applauding the actions by lawmakers.

“This is a good day. Society has taken an important step in creating a modern and humane Latvia. With the Saeima supporting the introduction of registered partnerships, the state has fulfilled its legal obligations and given a clear signal that all families are important. Thanks for the intelligent vote!” the prime minister said.

The action by Latvia’s Parliament comes five months after lawmakers in Estonia approved a law that extended marriage rights to same-sex couples in that Baltic nation. However, while the new law allows hospital visiting rights, as well as some tax and social security benefits, the law falls short in other critical areas say LGBTQ rights activists.

Speaking with Reuters, Kaspars Zalitis, a gay rights activist, noted same-sex couples would still not be able to adopt children and would continue to face inheritance issues.

“This is a great beginning … Latvia is not one of the six countries in the European Union that have no recognition for same-sex couples,” he said.

European Union

A new global call for civil society organizations projects with a projected total budget of 36 million euros ($38.47 million) under a expanded program on Human Rights and Democracy (part of NDICI/Neighborhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe) was announced on Nov. 7.

The present Global Call for Proposals targets:

• “Fair, Accountable and Inclusive Trade and Business – Flagship Action on Business and Human Rights, Forced and Child Labour and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights;”
  • Global, regional or multi-country projects targeting high-risk sectors, value or supply chains that will contribute to the accompanying measures of the upcoming Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence Directive and Forced Labor Regulation.
  • CSOs will be better equipped to monitor, report, access remedies, partner with the private sector and/or social partners and advocate for the implementation of relevant EU and international human rights principles and legislations. Projects financed will contribute to the sustainable implementation of the Global Gateway Strategy by reinforcing relevant social and environmental standards.
• “Global actions on human dignity, non-discrimination and inclusion;”
  • Projects will promote equality, inclusion and respect for LGBTQ+ persons at global, regional or national level and more specifically in Sub-Saharan countries where consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults in private are criminalised. Priorities will include advocacy for anti-discrimination laws, support to social inclusion and empowerment of CSOs working on LGBTIQ rights.
  • Promote Freedom of Religion or Belief, and prevent and combat discrimination, intolerance and violence on grounds of religion or belief through regional projects. Under this lot, intersectionality between freedom of religion or belief and gender issues is encouraged. 

Projects will be global, multi-country or regional. The lead applicants should be international organizations given the size of the grants and geographic scope, with at least one local co-applicant and mandatory financial support to local organizations.

France

Attorneys representing Groupe des familles LGBT filed a criminal complaint against Seattle-based Amazon Prime for replay of the Sept. 24 soccer match between teams Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille, where homophobic chants were clearly audible.

According to the French English-language news outlet Le Monde, During the match between the bitter rivals, thousands of Paris Saint-Germain supporters chanted homophobic slogans referring to their opponents. An Agence France-Presse reporter covering the game said the chanting in PSG’s Parc des Princes stadium went on for around 10 minutes.

Four PSG players, including Randal Kolo Muani and Ousmane Dembélé, were given suspended one-match bans for also chanting insults directed at the Marseille players while celebrating their 4-0 thrashing of their opponents.

In the legal complaint filed, Groupe des familles LGBT noted that under the French criminal code, that while broadcasters are not responsible for offensive content that may occur during a live match they are liable for content offered on replay.

The complaint says that during the replay, “you can hear several chants from fans coming from the stands, some of which are distinctly homophobic in nature.” Two other LGBT rights groups, Mousse and Stop Homophobie, have said they will also join the complaint against Amazon for public insults and incitement to hatred or violence against people based on their sexual orientation.

An Amazon spokesperson told AFP the match was no longer available on Prime Video at the time the complaint was announced and that, as a broadcaster, it did not condone the comments or behavior of certain fans. 

“Homophobia has no place in sport or in society, and we condemn it, like all forms of discrimination, in the strongest possible terms,” the spokesperson said.

Poland

In March 2019, local elected officials of the Polish conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party passed a regional government resolution backed by Radosław Brzózka, who led a vocal and vitriolic anti-LGBTQ campaign. Brzózka, is now chief of staff to Education Minister Przemysław Czarnek, who labeled LGBTQ people, “deviants who do not have the same rights as normal people.”

Earlier this month after the threat of pulling 3.6 million Polish zloty ($867,955) in funding by the European Union the local council rescinded the 2019 resolution.

According to the Polish investigative journalism media outlet OKO.press, in Świdnik, Jakub Osina, a local elected official announced that the resolution has now been repealed and replaced with one that makes no mention of LGBTQ issues but pledges to protect “the moral development of the young generation and the institution of the family based on Christian values.”

In September 2021, the executive branch of the EU, the European Commission, sent letters out to the governors of five of Poland’s provinces warning that pandemic relief funds totaling over 126 million euros ($150 million) will be withheld over anti-LGBTQ measures passed in their jurisdictions.

Poland has seen a resurgence in the past three years of rightwing religious ultra-conservative groups backed by nationalistic extremists in this heavily Catholic country of 38 million, which have led to passage of measures to restrict pride parades and other LGBTQ-friendly events from taking place.

Proponents of these measures claim the necessity of the provinces to be “free of LGBTQ ideology” saying this is mandated by average Poles as well as by the anti-LGBTQ views of the Catholic Church.

ILGA-Europe, a Brussels based advocacy group promoting the interests of LGBTQ and intersex people, at the European level, in a statement it sent to the Washington Blade in June 2021 after the EU letter was issued, noted that both Hungary and Poland, another EU country in which lawmakers have sought to restrict LGBTQ rights in recent years are at odds with the EU position on LGBTQ people.

“For quite some time now, we’ve been informing EU ministers about systematic breaches of EU law committed by Hungary and Poland, which impact on LGBTI rights and the lives of LGBTI people,” says ILGA-Europe.

The threat of losing funds led many Polish local authorities to begin repealing the resolutions local non-profit Polish news outlet Notes from Poland reported.

Indonesia

Roughly a hundred conservative Muslims took to the streets of the Indonesian capital city protesting the upcoming concert by British rock band Coldplay on Tuesday at Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno stadium.

The protestors are angered by the group’s support of the LGBTQ community. Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin has been known to wear rainbow colors and wave gay Pride flags during performances.

The Asian leg of Coldplay’s “Music Of The Spheres World Tour” has been a sell out in every major city on the tour. The AP reported that more than 70,000 tickets were scooped up in less than two hours when sales opened in May as Jakarta is one of the band’s top streaming hubs with 1.6 million fans in the city.

The Associated Press reported that demonstration was organized by Islamist group the 212 Brotherhood Alumni, whose name refers to the Dec. 2, 2016, mass protests against the polarizing Christian politician Basuki Tjahaja Purnama. The crowd chanted “God is Great” and “We reject Coldplay” as they marched to the heavily guarded British Embassy in Jakarta.

“We are here for the sake of guarding our young generation in this country from efforts that could corrupt youth,” Hery Susanto, a protester from West Java’s city of Bandung told Associated Press journalist Fadlan Syam. “As Indonesian Muslims, we have to reject the Coldplay concert.”

Novel Bamukmin, a protest coordinator, gave a speech criticizing the government for allowing the band to hold a concert in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country. He said if the concert was not canceled, thousands of protesters would confront the band on its way from the airport.

“Coldplay has long been a strong supporter of LGBT and its lead singer is an atheist,” Bamukmin said, standing on the top of a truck, “We must reject their campaign, their concert here.”

Security concerns in this deeply conservative nation have previously caused other Western musical artists who support the LGBTQ community to cancel their scheduled shows.

Lady Gaga canceled her sold-out show in Indonesia in 2012 over security concerns after Muslim hard-liners threatened violence if the pop star went ahead with her “Born This Way Ball” concert.

Additional reporting by Human Rights Watch, the Moscow Times, Agence France-Presse, Le Monde, Reuters, OKO.press, the Associated Press, and the BBC.