Today is International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, which has established itself as the single most important date for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons to unite globally and is aimed at decision makers, the media and public to promote LGBTI rights. In the spirit of unity and promoting these rights, we’ve put together some snapshots of our relevant work.

Documenting Discrimination and Calling for Action

Since 2012 we have produced six major publications looking at discrimination felt by LGBTI persons in Kenya, Malaysia, Belarus, Sudan, Ukraine and Solomon Islands.

Sudan
In our Sudan report, published in 2014, we were the only external source at the time to provide testimony directly from the gay community in Sudan, which is driven underground by criminalisation and persecution. [Read more]

Ukraine
In our Ukraine report, published in 2015, we assessed how LGBT rights became politicised in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. We found that LGBT rights was seen as something that would have to be accepted in exchange for European integration rather than something that was embraced. In testimony gathered for the report, a Kyiv resident told us, “We’d rather have a gay pride in the streets of Kyiv than Russian tanks”. [Read more]

In each of these publications we outline a series of recommendations, calling on the respective country government as well as the international community to do more to promote the equal rights of LGBT persons.

Equal Rights Review
In 2013, our bi-annual journal the Equal Rights Review had a special focus on Equal Rights to Family Life. Its articles looked at marriage equality in Indonesia and Ireland among others. And in its testimony section, Gina Wilson outlined her experiences of discrimination as an intersex person alongside her journey to becoming the president of the largest organisation working for intersex rights in Australia, Oll Australia. [Read more]

Supporting LGBT Activists

Last year we awarded Mauro Cabral, trans and intersex activist with our annual Bob Hepple Equality Award. Cabral has played an invaluable role over the last 20 years in promoting trans and intersex rights. One of his most significant roles includes reforming part of the International Classification of Diseases by the World Health Organization which had classified trans and intersex conditions as illnesses.

By celebrating his achievements through the Award we aimed to both reinforce and recognise his work. [Read more]