International Gaze

The United Nations Human Rights Council endorsed the rights of LGBT people for the first time ever June 17, passing a resolution hailed as historic by the U.S. and other backers and decried by Russia and some African and Muslim countries.

The declaration was cautiously worded, expressing “grave concern” about abuses because of sexual orientation and commissioning a global report on discrimination against gays.

Uganda’s Parliament on May 11 was forced to drop plans to debate a controversial bill that once proposed the death penalty for some gays and lesbians.

U.S. leaders and rights groups have denounced the bill in hopes Parliament will reject it. Internet petitions have gathered more than 1.4 million signatures.

Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that civil unions between same-sex couples must be allowed in this nation with more Roman Catholics than any other.

In a 10-0 vote, with one abstention, the justices said gay couples deserve the same legal rights as heterosexual pairs when it comes to alimony, retirement benefits of a partner who dies, and inheritances, among other privileges.

Serbia’s Constitutional Court has banned a neo-Nazi group as part of the country’s attempts to curb far-right extremists.

The court ruled June 2 that the group known as Nacionalni Stroj, or National Order, was a “secret organization” whose work is contrary to the country’s laws.

The vast majority of countries have become more accepting of gays, with the exception of Russia and former communist bloc countries, according to a new study.

Compiled by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center, the study examined general trends in attitudes toward homosexuality in more than 30 countries. Five surveys were conducted in different countries between 1988 and 2008.

The United Nations, marking International Day Against Homophobia, released a pamphlet and video decrying anti-gay discrimination and violence in the world.

IDAH is observed annually on May 17 – the date chosen to commemorate the World Health Organization’s decision in 1990 to remove “homosexuality” from its list of mental health disorders.

The California-based Williams Institute will hold a four-day conference in Belgrade, Serbia, on “Justice in the Balkans: Equality for Sexual Minorities” later this month.

The conference will feature scholars with the think tank, as well as the U.S. ambassador to Serbia, retired justices from Australia and Poland, the chief of the delegation of the European Commission in Belgrade and activists with a number of LGBT equal rights organizations.

About 150 people held a gay Pride march in Romania, hours after a few dozen anti-gay activists held a rally condemning homosexuality.

There were no clashes or incidents during the June 4 march, which was attended by U.S. Ambassador Mark Gitenstein, British Ambassador Martin Harris and Swedish Ambassador Anders Bengtcen.

More than 30 people, including gay military activist Dan Choi and Chicago queer activist Andy Thayer, were arrested May 28 in Moscow during the sixth attempt by LGBT Russians to hold a Pride parade in their capital.

According to the group Gay Russia, right-wing extremists clashed with activists gathered in front of the Kremlin, resulting in the arrests of 18 pro-gay and 14 anti-gay demonstrators. A police spokesman for Moscow City police said the gay group did not have permission to stage a parade.

They found Noxolo Nogwaza’s body in a drainage ditch choked with trash and high reeds. The lesbian activist had been repeatedly stabbed with broken glass and beaten so severely with chunks of concrete that her teeth had been knocked out.

Activists say the death here late last month highlights an alarming rise in homophobic violence in some of the country’s most impoverished areas.