International Gaze

Cameroonians are attacked by police, politicians, the media and even their own communities if they are suspected of having sexual relations with a person of the same sex, four human rights organizations said in a joint report released earlier this month.

The government should take urgent action to decriminalize such consensual conduct and to ensure the full human rights of all Cameroonians, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, said Alternatives-Cameroun, l’Association pour la défense des droits des homosexuels, Human Rights Watch, and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

A Saudi diplomat has asked for political asylum in the United States, claiming his life is in danger if he is returned to Saudi Arabia from the United States.

The report by NBC News quoted the diplomat, Ali Ahmad Asseri, as saying that Saudi officials have ordered him back to his country because he is gay and had become a close friend to a Jewish woman. Asseri in a letter also reportedly criticized the role of militant imams in Saudi society.

Thousands marched in Argentina’s Gay Pride parade Nov. 6, celebrating the country’s status as the first in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage and vowing to campaign for new rights for transgender people.

More than 500 same-sex couples have been married since President Cristina Fernandez signed the law on July 21, said Esteban Paulo, president of the Argentine Lesbians, Gay, Bi, and Transgender Federation.

After a 27-year courtship, two men on July 30 became the first gay couple to wed under Argentina’s historic same-sex marriage law – the first of its kind for a Latin American nation.

Jose Luis Navarro, 54, and Miguel Angel Calefato, 65, tied the knot in provincial Santiago del Estero in an early morning ceremony where a civil registry official used a pen to cross out “man and woman” on the marriage license and wrote in “contracting parties.”

A French amateur soccer club has refused to register a gay player, leading a gay soccer organization to ask the French Football Federation to impose sanctions.

The organization, Paris Foot Gay, said FC Chooz should be punished “to help the football world to realize that homophobia is as bad as racism and anti-Semitism”

Mexico’s Supreme Court has upheld a Mexico City law allowing adoptions by same-sex couples, drawing jubilant cheers from gay advocacy groups and angry protests from Roman Catholic Church representatives.

The justices voted 9-2 against challenges presented by federal prosecutors and others who had argued the law fails to protect adoptive children against possible ill effects or discrimination, or to guarantee their right to a traditional family.

Pope Benedict XVI, in Barcelona earlier this month, directly attacked Spanish laws that allow gay marriage, fast-track divorce and easier access to abortions as he dedicated the city’s iconic basilica, the Sagrada Familia.

It was the second time in as many days that Benedict criticized the policies of Spain’s Socialist government and called for Europe as a whole to rediscover Christian teachings and apply them to everyday life.

Serbian police promised to protect embattled gay groups facing threats of violence from extremists before a planned Oct. 10 Pride march.

The event will be Serbia’s first since right-wing organizations broke up a 2001 event and forced the cancellation of last year’s gathering over security concerns. The parade is seen as a test for pro-Western officials, who are seeking EU membership for the Balkan country.

A Serbian gay group has asked to meet with the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, to seek his help in curbing anti-gay violence.

The Gay-Lesbian Info Center says in a statement posted on the group’s website that gay people “are suffering violence on a daily basis” and that many assailants justify attacks with religious beliefs.