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More Mixed Signals from Pope Francis; Church of England Wrestles with Rifts; Faith Groups Lobby Pro & Con on Irish Referendum; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…e group did not get a private meeting with Pope Francis, but was given VIP tickets to the pope’s weekly audience in St. Peter’s square. Religion News Service reports that several bishops, including “San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone – point man or the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ battle against gay marriage – had written a letter to the Vatican on their behalf.” A group of LGBT Catholics from London who met up with the New Ways…

Authoritarian Populism Vs Human Rights, The Campaign Against ‘Gender Ideology’ and More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…’, which was coined by the Vatican in response to the outcomes of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, and the 1995 Fourth International Women’s Conference in Beijing. The conclusions of the two conferences, which explicitly recognised the importance of reproductive health as a driver of sustainable development and called for the empowerment of women, went against the Vatican’s negotiating position. The…

International Protest of Anti-Gay Persecution in Chechnya Grows; more in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

Russia: Anti-Gay persecution in Chechnya generates international protest International attention and protest continued to be focused on reports of anti-gay detentions, torture and violence in Muslim-majority region of Chechnya. From the New York Times: Homosexuality is taboo in Chechnya and the mostly Muslim surrounding areas of the Caucasus region in southern Russia. “This society is highly homophobic,” said Ekaterina L. Sokiryanskaya, Russia pr…

‘No Room’ for Gays in Country that Worships God [Kenya] | Churches Fight to Keep Sexuality Out of Sex Ed [S. Korea] | Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…Convention to Eliminate all forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The treaty bodies that monitor these three international covenants have all called to uphold the right to accurate information, including about sexual health. Some religious groups, however, have pressured the government to exclude information about LGBT people from the sex education curriculum. For example, in…

Morality Police, Jihadists, Religious Competition, Grindr, & Americans Abroad: Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…Crimes reports that police in Beirut are using messaging apps on the cell phones of arrestees to try to entrap other gay men. In related news, the smartphone app Grindr, which allows gay men to find each other, announced it would permanently disable an option that allowed people to see their distance from other users. There have been reports that police in Egypt and Iran have used Grindr to hunt and arrest gay men. Jamaica: Activist Drops Challen…

Burning Man: Religious Event or Sheer Hedonism?

By Lee Gilmore

…llar annual budget is funded almost exclusively by ticket sales, and these tickets are not cheap (ranging this year, for example, from $210-$300 depending on time of purchase). This pays for the basic infrastructure as well as expenses like a hefty per-person/per-day use fee charged by the Bureau of Land Management. In addition, a significant portion of each year’s budget is set aside to fund many of the large-scale art installations various parti…

Saving Teens from Obama: When Bible Study Goes Wrong

By Vyckie Garrison

…waste American money to buy their expensive oil when we could have our own cheap oil?” “Why is he trying to make rich people poor?” “How is it right to punish rich people for working hard and realizing the American Dream?” It was late on a Friday night and I was tired, so I half-heartedly responded by explaining that there are other factors to consider in every charged question she’d been armed with. But I wondered, “Why the hell was the Salvation…

Vatican Considers ‘Disordered’ Language; HBO Doc on LGBT Persecution in Russia; Nigerian Bishop Shifts on Anti-Gay Law; Arson at ‘Open Mosque’ in South Africa; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…lice reportedly detained the pair at a bus stop and confiscated Mr. Cole’s phone. They then used images they found on the phone as evidence to arrest and convict Mr. Cole for homosexuality. Homosexuality is a criminal offense in Morocco, and relations outside of marriage can also be punishable by law. Italy: Mayors Resisting National Govt on Registering Gay Couples Several mayors are pledging to disobey the Interior Minister’s announcement that ga…

Catholic Archbishop Takes On Jesuit Magazine’s Slam on “Ecumenism of Hate”; and More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…Indonesia’s first public caning for homosexuality and sparked considerable international outrage. Flogging as punishment is also recognized under international law as a form of torture, but that doesn’t seem to have deterred Acehnese authorities so far. So what prompted the decision to end floggings in public? Media reports suggest that Acehnese leaders are now worried that videos of May’s flogging, which were widely circulated online, make the pr…

Indonesia Allows Abusive Sharia Laws to Stand; Kenyan Priest Joins Challenge to Anti-LGBT Laws; Dominican Republic Bishop Slams ‘Gender Ideology’ at OAS; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…continent and beyond with the argument that they violate commitments under international human rights agreements. Now, with the UK voting to leave, they believe it has sent the signal that countries can walk away from multinational agreements when they no longer likes the rules. Given how important European institutions have been in promoting LGBT rights both in the region and worldwide, “anything that puts a hold on European progress causes conce…