Growing Rights In Some Countries And Worsening Or Removal of Rights In Others

There seems to be a link between growing rights for LGBT's in some countries and worsening or removal of rights in others. Every advance seems to be accompanied by a backlash. To a certain extent that is what is happening on a global scale now--the advances that are being made in some parts of the world encourage a backlash in other parts of the world.

There are more than 75 countries where homosexuality is still criminalised. Forty-two of them are former British colonies so we can see where the legacy comes from. The number of countries legalising same-sex marriage continues to grow, with Denmark, Brazil, France and New Zealand just some that joined more progressive countries that had legalised earlier.

There are some places in the world where LGBT rights are worsening. In Iran, a place where homosexuality is punishable by death, this year the country's official who works on human rights described homosexuality as "an illness that should be cured". Gay rights are no better in many other Middle Eastern countries. There are 28 African countries where homosexuality is illegal.

Parts of Latin America remain the standard for equality for LGBT rights. Argentina's Gender Identity Law 2012 allowed the change of gender on birth certificates for transgender people. It also legalised same-sex marriage in 2010, giving same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex couples, including the right to adopt children. Uruguay and Mexico City also allow equal marriage and adoption.

In Asia, LGBT groups are making progress, if slowly. Last year, Vietnam saw its first gay pride rally and this year's event will launch a campaign for equality in employment. There is rumour that the country's ministry of justice has backed plans to legalise gay marriage, after the ministry of health came out for marriage equality in April.

In Russia, gay rights are moving further away from other European countries. Gay teenagers are being tortured and forcibly outed on the Internet against a backdrop of laws that look completely out of step with the rest of Europe. In what is being described as rolling the "status of LGBT people back to the Stalin era", President Putin has passed a number of anti-gay laws, including legislation that punishes people and groups that distribute information considered "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations". The country also now has powers to arrest and detain foreign citizens believed to be gay, or "pro-gay".

We have a US president who supports gay marriage, and now a pope who, if not exactly signing up to equality for all, is at least starting to talk in language less inflammatory than his predecessor. "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?" he told an assembled group of journalists on the papal plane back from his tour of Brazil. Then he went on to criticise the gay "lobby" and said he wasn't going to break with the catechism that said "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered". Still, for a brief moment it looked like a minor breakthrough.

There is a widening gap currently between those places in the world where strides are being made for equality and those where a raft of anti-homosexuality legislation is coming into force. Perhaps the dichotomy is inter-connected whereas one movement moves toward improvement the other is proportionately challenged. There is no denying that whether positive or negative, the energy around homosexual equality is running high. Who knows where we will end up?

Russia’s Severe Stance On LGBTs

On June 30th of this year, Vladimir Putin signed an ‘anti-homosexual propaganda’ bill into law. The bill imposes jail terms and fines of up to 200,000 rubles for those found guilty of disseminating propaganda that may cause a ‘distorted understanding’ that gay and heterosexual relations are ‘socially equivalent’. This bill has already sparked bullying, vigilante violence and even murder targeted towards LGBT people –  especially teens across Russia.

An alarming dilemma facing the world is the upcoming winter Olympics that are to be held in 2014 in Sochi, Russia. The new laws apply to both tourists and athletes who will be attending the Olympics in Sochi.

The three Olympic values are “Friendship, Respect and Excellence” – along with the four Paralympic values; “Determination, Inspiration, Courage and Equality’. The IOC values document goes further to define equality: ‘Everyone has basic rights and emotional needs, no matter whether we have disabilities or belong to a different race, religion or sexuality. We uphold the idea of commonality and sameness although we are all different.”

The new Russian law and the Olympic values are at complete odds with one another. Does sending LGBT athletes to Sochi, Russia put them at risk? Is there anything we can do?

Unless you happen to work for the IOC or the Russian government, there’s not a great deal you can do directly. Would personal activism or collective activism stand a chance of making an impact?

What would hurt those in power is the potential international embarrassment of having a prestigious event such as the Winter Olympics either taken from them and awarded to another country, of falling flat on its face due to a widespread athlete and tourist boycott. Both would be a disaster for Russia, a fiercely proud nation. The fact is that without outside pressure, Russia will be in no rush to repeal the repellent homophobic laws that they’ve just instated.

It is entirely understandable that some people are clamoring for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics, given the horrific events unfolding in Russia. However, the reality is that a boycott would have very little impact beyond depriving athletes of an opportunity to compete. For a boycott to have any meaningful impact, it would necessitate the participation of a large proportion of competing nations. It is unlikely that more socially conservative countries would take such a strong stand for LGBT rights. What you would be left with in the aftermath of a half-hearted boycott would be a raft of disappointed athletes and very little progress in the fight back against the oppression perpetrated by the Russian government.

Nikolai Alekseev, the public face of Russian LGBT activism, has decided to organize Sochi Pride to coincide with the event. This is a highly risky course of action, given the latest legislation imposing a federal ban of Pride rallies. However, it is also an extremely clever idea. After all, even if we assume that Putin is not genuine when he promises that the “anti-gay propaganda bill’ will not apply to visiting delegations to the games, it will leave the Kremlin in an incredibly difficult position with little room for maneuver in a situation when international activists join local campaigners to march for an end to the madness. Arresting scores of activists from all over the world would be nothing short of a PR disaster for Putin and the Russian government.

You could also argue that a far more effective way forward would be for the athletes to stage a protest at the games themselves. While it is a universally accepted notion that the lines between politics and sport should not be blurred, it is perhaps worth asking whether the dire situation in Russia nullifies that principle.

The International Olympic Committee has spoken out, saying it has received assurances from the “highest level” of Russian government that athletes and spectators will be exempt from the anti-gay legislation. There is growing support that the Olympics should not be used as a political statement. It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out with the current climate in the world of emerging support for the human rights of LGBTs.