Reports had surfaced about a week ago that an openly lesbian blogger in Syria had been kidnapped. Well, it turned out that the blogger never existed. Instead, she was the creation of an American man who is currently going to school in Scotland. He is defending his fake blog, saying that no one was harmed by the deception.

Two lgbt bloggers in ( Read more... )

The United Nations voted, effectively, to endorse the idea that homosexuality is a valid reason to execute people ( Read more... )

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39118941/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

Apparently nobody else has posted this story yet, so I will.

This is actually really scary, that there are places in the world-- that our country is friendly with-- that would kill a man for being gay (not to mention all the other ways that Saudi Arabia craps on human rights in ( Read more... )

Israeli police say a gunman entered a youth club for gay teens in central Tel Aviv on Saturday night and sprayed the interior with automatic rifle fire, killing three people and injuring 11.

Well this is unexpected.The Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled on Tuesday that "transvestites" (their word) are equal citizens and therefore are allowed the same benefits as everyone else. In this case transvestite is used to mean anyone from people with intersex conditions to effeminate men ( Read more... )

Have any of you studied abroad/lived/stayed extensively in a foreign country where homosexuality is forbidden? Will you share your experiences? I want to study abroad in an Arabic-speaking country, particularly Egypt, but, uh...I'm wondering how many issues I'm going to have as a queer American woman over there.

2 gay men killed in BaghdadHomophobic violence is apparently on the rise in Baghdad - the killing of these two comes only days after officials found the bodies of four men with "perverts" and "puppies" (a slang term for gay men) scrawled on their chests. High-ranking clerics continue to condemn homosexuality - punishable by 7 years in prison - and ( Read more... )

This isn't LGBT related, but it does relate to gender roles, religion, and violence, so I thought I would share.

First, we see that a 75-year-old Saudi Arabian woman is to receive 40 lashes and four months in prison, for having the audacity to mingle "with two young men who were reportedly bringing her bread." Here's another story for the ( Read more... )

Article here.

Excerpt:

The "improved" security situation in Iraq is not benefiting all Iraqis, especially not those who are gay. Islamist death squads are engaged in a homophobic killing spree with the active encouragement of leading Muslim clerics, such as Moqtada al-Sadr, as Newsweek recently revealed ( Read more... )

Editor's note: CNN agreed to change the names of the two men in this article to protect their identities.
( Read more... )