OutRight & World Pride Equality

World Pride events continue in NYC throughout June designed to shine a spotlight on LGBTQ issues globally including in countries where Pride events cannot take place for security, legislation or capacity reasons. There are still 68 countries & several territories that still criminalize LGBTQ relationships & in a handful the death penalty can be applied. In 55 countries LGBTQ organizations cannot legally register & in 30 countries LGBTQ organizations don’t exist at all, whether registered or unregistered. Jessica Stern, Executive Director of OutRight Action International stated, “Fifty years after the symbolic first Pride at the Stonewall riots, Pride continues to serve as a symbol of the global movement for LGBTIQ equality. In New York, the anger & determination which sparked the first riots have been replaced by celebration. Yet, in far too many places around the world, where violence & murder of LGBTIQ people remains a daily reality, Pride, in the vast variety of forms it takes, continues to be an expression of protest & defiance, an affirmation of our existence & a message to authorities that they can not get away with denying us our basic rights…For even in countries with long histories of Pride, in countries which have been heralded as champions of LGBTIQ equality, a backlash has been growing. Although trans women were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots, trans rights have lagged behind & now, 50 years later, are coming under even more attack. Evidently, we have quite the battle ahead before LGBTIQ people everywhere can live free to be who they are, love whom they choose, free from fear of violence, hate & persecution.”
For More Info: outrightinternational.org
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