Governments around the world are using laws to silence LGBTQ civil society. OutRight Action International has launched their latest report entitled The Global State of LGBTI Organizing: The Right to Register which highlights a phenomenon that governments are trying to silence a growing movement for equality by preventing formation & registration of LGBTQ civil society organizations. This has been happening amidst an intense crackdown & large-scale arrests of LGBTQ people around the globe over the last year in places like Russia, Egypt, Indonesia, Tanzania & more. The report finds that LGBTQ organizations are unable to register or cannot be found in 85 of 194 countries. Maria Sjodin, Deputy Executive Director, OutRight Action International stated, “History shows that progress on LGBTIQ rights have come through activism & visibility. When states suppress LGBTIQ organizations, they are really trying to stop LGBTIQ people from gaining basic human rights & equality.” Dr Felicity Daly, Global Research Coordinator & author of the report concluded, “The data we have collected for this study shows that in many countries LGBTIQ organizations are unable to register in the same ways that organizations serving any other population can. We found that currently there are 55 countries where LGBTIQ organizations cannot register & 30 countries in the world that have no organizations openly serving LGBTIQ people. Hopefully when this analysis is revised in years to come these statistics will have decreased & we will be able to measure even greater growth of strong & sustainable organizations serving LGBTIQ people.”
The study finds that many organizations globally cannot register if they explicitly state their aim to serve LGBTQ people or address their concerns. Governments often deny registration on religious & moral grounds to limit the fundamental freedom of assembly & have gone so far as to call LGBTQ organizations a threat to national security which of course is what the Trump administration is attempting to achieve is America.
For More Info: outrightinternational.org
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I'm so angry and saddened by this report...but grateful for the information on the state of LGBTQ around the globe.
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