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TOPIC: lgbtq

LGBTQ Plus

New Study Finds High Levels Of Anti-LGBTQ+ Discrimination In Buddhism

We tend to think of Buddhism as a religion devoid of commandments, and therefore generally more accepting than others. The author, an Australian researcher — and "genderqueer, non-binary Buddhist" themself — suggests that it is far from being the case.

More than half of Australia’s LGBTQIA+ Buddhists feel reluctant to “come out” to their Buddhist communities and nearly one in six have been told directly that being LGBTQIA+ isn’t in keeping with the Buddha’s teachings.

These are some of the findings from my research looking at the experiences of LGBTQIA+ Buddhists in Australia.

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I’m a genderqueer, non-binary Buddhist myself and I was curious about others’ experiences in Australia since there has been no research done on our community before. So, in 2020, I surveyed 82 LGBTQIA+ Buddhists and have since followed this up with 29 face-to-face interviews.

Some people may think Buddhism would be quite accepting of LGBTQIA+ people. There are, after all, no religious laws, commandments or punishments in Buddhism. My research indicates, however, this is not always true.

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Anti-Gay Law Leaves Nowhere To Turn For Uganda’s LGBTQ+

Disowned by their families, evicted by their landlords, and persecuted by the state, LGBTQ Ugandans have fewer and fewer places to turn.

KAMPALA — Just two days after the Ugandan Parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act in March, Sam received a call. Her landlord asked her to leave the house she had been renting for almost two years in Kyebando-Kanyanya village, about 4 miles from Kampala.

When Sam, a lesbian who prefers to be identified by one name for fear of stigmatization, asked why she was being evicted, her landlord asked to meet her the following day in the presence of the local chairman (a village leader). She declined, asking for a one-on-one meeting. At the meeting, Sam’s landlord told her that her son, a human rights lawyer, warned her the new law would punish landlords who rent rooms to “homosexuals.”

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The "Magical Towns" Of Mexico, A Tourism Trap Paid By Marginalized Locals

The Patio de la Estrella neighborhood being hailed as a "magical" place in Córdoba, Mexico is a perfect example of "touristification," where the most vulnerable residents suffer the consequences.

CÓRDOBA — In this city in the central Mexican state of Veracruz stands the El Patio de la Estrella neighborhood, which has long been inhabited by a variety of marginalized populations, including people of African descent, women and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Since 2016, locals in Patio have been resisting forced eviction attempts as part of an ongoing gentrification process. But recently, the pressure has multiplied, after Mexico's Ministry of Tourism has named Córdoba as a “magical town.”

✉️ You can receive our LGBTQ+ International roundup every week directly in your inbox. Subscribe here.

The resident of the neighborhood face harassment from both the police on the street, and the Córdoba City Council, which has been trying to get them to leave to build a shopping center.

“We know that with their gentrification policies they are going to destroy this space," says Lx Santx, a resident of Patio de la Estrella. "This is my home, my safe port, the place where a large part of my personal, family, and community identity has been built.”

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How I Learned To Call You 'Son' — A Mother's Awakening To A Non-Binary World

Journalist Daniela Pastrana thought she knew how to be a mother — until her child came out as non-binary. Pastrana's journey to acceptance took her through Mexican history and deep into herself and her own prejudices.

MEXICO — While Gen Z is generally more aware that biology and gender identity are not necessarily connected, their families have a long way to go to learn — or unlearn — old habits and a new language to communicate with.

✉️ You can receive our LGBTQ+ International roundup every week directly in your inbox. Subscribe here.

Journalist Daniela Pastrana took us into the privacy of her own home, as she travels to the ancestral roots of Mexico and talks with experts in search of answers on how to be a non-binary mother.

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Society
Camilo Pardo Quintero

Sexual Violence In War: Listening And Healing — And Never Again

Three women who were victims of sexual violence during the Colombian Civil War recount their stories of struggle and survival. They speak up in the hopes that the judiciary will open a new case to bring justice to them and many more survivors of sexual abuse perpetrated during the conflict.

BOGOTA – Jennifer, Ludirlena and Diana suffered a living death at the hands of their aggressors. It was their self-love and resilience that saved them, after experiencing sexual violence during the nation’s civil war.

The Colombian government forgot about these women. But now, they are champions in a battle towards justice and dignity. With different perspectives, they manage to find a connection, something that will unite them forever: advocating so that no one else experiences what they endured.

All sides in the war perpetrated sexual violence. But in the case of these three women, it was specifically the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and United Self-Defences of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary groups who exerted power over their bodies, through the cruelty of their crimes.

These were not isolated incidents and, to the shame of our society, they remain a massive, forgotten outrage.

According to official records, during the war in Colombia there were 15,760 victims of sexual violence. Of that total, 61.8% were women, and another 30.8% were young girls and teenagers. Unfortunately, underreporting plays a significant role in these numbers. Organizations such as the Network of Women Victims and Professionals, the collective Focal Groups - Men Victims of Sexual Violence and the British organization All Survivors Project estimate that the real number may be as much as three times higher.

The three protagonists in our story show how armed conflict has marked the lives of thousands of women in Colombia. They are three voices among many that have come together to demand the opening of a "macro-case," or investigation into sexual violence through Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), which would uncover the patterns of sexual and gender-based crimes among armed groups which have devastated entire communities.

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Society
Kayhan London

After Gay Sex Tape, Iran Regime Now Faces "State Of Intimacy" Revelations Of Woman In Hijab

A scandal of the secret gay life of a senior Tehran official set off ricocheting accusations in the regime. Now compromising photos have emerged of a top state broadcasting manager with a female employee, who nonetheless kept her hair covered. The piousness of the Islamic Republic is ever more called into question.

This article was updated August 21, 2023 at 5:35 p.m.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, a state that touts itself as a defender of morality, is facing more revelations about the sexual shenanigans of its officials. Like the circulation of a gay sex tape earlier this summer, an Instagram profile named as Radio Gilan is behind the X-rated disclosures, meant above all to show the vile hypocrisy of a regime that beats, imprisons and even executes ordinary folks for deviating from Islamic moral norms.

In the latest incident, Radio Gilan has published pictures, purportedly showing a director of the state broadcasting body in a "state of intimacy" with a female employee of the organization. Whatever else might have happened, as the pictures show, at least she kept her Islamic headscarf hijab on!

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In The News
Chloé Touchard and Anne-Sophie Goninet

Drone Hits Moscow, Big Chinese Bankruptcy, Eiffel Leap

👋 Wai!*

Welcome to Friday, where a Ukrainian drone attack hits a building in central Moscow, China’s second-largest property developer files for bankruptcy, and a man gets arrested for parachuting off France’s most famous monument. For our special Summer Reads edition of Worldcrunch Today, we feature an article by Singapore-based newspaper The Initium — and three other stories from around the world on China.

[*Bodo, India, Nepal & Bengal]

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LGBTQ Plus
Eduardo Robaina

A Hostel Hides Spain's Dark Past: Franco's LGBTQ Prison Colony

The Canary island of Fuerteventura is a popular seaside tourist destination, but further inland are the remains of Spain's dark past of LGBTQ+ persecution.

TEFÍA — The Tefía Penitentiary Agricultural Colony on the island of Fuerteventura, in Spain's Canary Islands, was used to imprison homosexuals and others accused by the Vagrancy and Loitering Law. The law — and the accompanying labor camps like Tefía — were used by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco to "rehabilitate" social outcasts.

The facilities are in perfect condition, and the area is well-maintained as it now serves as a hostel. New buildings have been constructed around it, but the main one remains the same.

✉️ You can receive our LGBTQ+ International roundup every week directly in your inbox. Subscribe here.

"This solemn and beloved isolated land of Fuerteventura is a desert," wrote Miguel de Unamuno during his exile on the island in 1924. He was sent there by Primo de Rivera due to his continuous attacks on him and the king. Almost a century later, the landscape depicted by the writer through his words remains unchanged.

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This Happened
Worldcrunch

This Happened — August 10: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Is Sworn In

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice on this day in 1993. She was the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, following Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, appointed in 1981. Ginsburg was nominated by President Bill Clinton.

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LGBTQ Plus
Bao Bao

A Dark Journey Into Hong Kong's World Of LGBTQ Conversion Therapy

As advocates in Hong Kong work to spread the word that being LGBTQ+ is not an illness, conversion therapy centers like New Creation continue to harm and traumatize those who want to get "out of the gay life." Members of the LGBTQ+ community struggle to reconcile their faith and their orientation in a society that continues to be institutionally homophobic.

HONG KONG — Alvin Zhang has kept a diary for 18 years.

Flipping through the pages, he sees where he wrote, in large letters, "Weak emotion vs strong reason" at the top of the page. "There are two of me; one of me is actually so evil," he writes on one page. "I hate this 'me', I have to deal with this 'me'", "I am so hurt inside," he continues.

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LGBTQ Plus
Horacio Convertini

Born Intersex, Mutilated To Become "Normal"

María Candelaria Schamun's body tells a dramatic, brutal story. The pages of her heartbreaking new book hold the memory of her pain, her scars, of the screams she muffled and finally let rip.

"Within my mutilated body lives another being. An erased being. A disappeared being. My body is a plural one, a shelved ID card, a court file, the loneliness of a hospital room. I inhabit a body that was baptized as Esteban, the name of the first martyr of Catholicism. I am Candelaria. I am Esteban. I am both," writes Schamun in Ese que fui, expediente de una rebelión corporal, or "The one I was, the record of a corporeal rebellion."

At 41, after having worked in visual and TV journalism with great talent and passion, Schamun now lives in a Buenos Aires town with 1,000 inhabitants, surrounded by dogs, horses and chickens.

✉️ You can receive our LGBTQ+ International roundup every week directly in your inbox. Subscribe here.

Her life with her partner, the vegetable garden and a quiet rhythm of routine has perhaps been as healing as the testimony she has finally been able to put into words after almost a lifetime of silences.

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In The News
Worldcrunch

Worldcrunch Magazine #42 — Beyond Sexile

July 17 - July 23, 2023

This is the latest edition of Worldcrunch Magazine, a selection of our best articles of the week from the best international journalists, produced exclusively in English for Worldcrunch readers.

>> DISCOVER IT HERE <<

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