Homophobia in politics on the rise, Human Rights Watch warns
Political homophobia is on the rise around the world, warns global human rights organisation Human Rights Watch. As the NGO writes on its website, LGBT rights in Europe have recently become a polarising issue used for political purposes.
The examples of Poland and Hungary, according to HRW, show the limits of EU membership for states that violate its basic norms. The organisation cites recent developments in these two countries, led by far-right nationalist governments there. Polish President Andrzej Duda passed legislation last year just before the presidential election that bans same-sex marriage and child adoption and restricts the teaching of sex education in schools. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his government, in turn, in the context of verbal attacks on sexual minorities, have restricted any depiction of homosexuality or gender reassignment in schools and the media, and banned the sale of books mentioning LGBT near school buildings and churches (aswe wrote recently on LUI). Outside of Europe, Human Rights Watch cites other examples from around the world. In 2014, there was a dispute at the UN over the creation of a mandate focused on sexual orientation and gender identity, which was opposed by African countries and Russia in particular.
The organization also cites the arrest, imprisonment and torture of LGBT people in Egypt, the persecution of gay people under laws banning the promotion of homosexuality and pornography in Malaysia or Indonesia, and the ban on same-sex marriage in Honduras. Human Rights Watch has also highlighted developments in Ghana, Africa, where the political establishment there is planning a law that would prohibit identifying as LGBT under severe restrictions, and where in May nearly two dozen people were arrested for attending a workshop on LGBT rights. South Africa's Swaziland, HRW reports, is in turn refusing to officially register LGBT organisations here. In North African countries such as Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, local regimes have used the epidemic to persecute homosexuals who allegedly gathered illegally. The organisation also recalls the need to cancel the pride in Tbilisi, Georgia, in early July after far-right activists attacked participants and journalists covering the event and destroyed the organisers' office.
"LGBTs are becoming a powerful symbol in the rhetorical clash between traditional values and human rights. LGBT rights are projected as a marker of modernity, foreign influence, and an attack on family and tradition," the organization writes in its conclusion. "The attack on LGBT rights brings political credit, but the brunt of the fallout is borne by individual LGBT people."
