Thousands of revelers attended Jerusalem’s Gay Pride parade under police protection on Thursday, bringing the rainbow flag to the traditionally conservative city. More than 10,000 people attended the parade through central Jerusalem, police said, with dozens of roads closed off by security two years after a 16-year-old girl was stabbed to death by an ultra-Orthodox Jew during the event.
The Haitian Senate has approved a law that would make it a crime to “publicly demonstrate support” for gay rights. The bill still has to head over to the lower house, but if greenlit, the law would make it a crime to take part in or even to witness to same-sex unions. People who even attempt to take part in any same-sex marriage would face criminal charges with up to three years in prison for “the parties, co-parties and accomplices” to a same-sex marriage.
These past weeks have seen demonstrations of LGBT Pride across the world, from small, community-based event to the gigantic citywide parties. But the biggest thing that differentiates them is the social and legal status of the people marching. In some Pride parades, police, army and government officials have marched alongside LGBT citizens, while in other countries the participants risk harassment, imprisonment or even violence, simply for being out in their identity.
An apartment in a typical Soviet-style gray block in one of the Kyiv’s suburbs with a rundown backyard hardly sounds like an ideal place to live in, but 28-year-old Svyastoslav Smyrnov is happy with his new home. This four-room place houses seven people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.
Thousands of people were expected to march through central Jerusalem Thursday afternoon in the city’s 16th annual LGBTQ pride parade. This year’s March for Pride and Tolerance will be held under the banner of “LGBTQ and Religion,” and is expected to draw some 4,000 participants to the capital city.
EU countries roundly condemned a witch hunt against gay people in the Russian republic of Chechnya earlier this year, but only a few governments are willing to help those fleeing persecution. According to the Russian LGBT network, an NGO that has been hiding over 60 gay Chechens at secret locations in central Russia, it briefed almost 20 EU countries on the situation in April.
A young entrepreneur in India is playing matchmaker, arranging marriages between gay singles in a country where homosexuality is still technically illegal. Urvi Shah, 23, launched the International Marriage Bureau for Gays and Lesbians (IAGM) in 2015. Since then, IAGM has helped 21 couples in India, and more than 100 couples internationally, form long-term partnerships and marriages.
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