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The international war on LGBT people
The international war on LGBT peopleOpinions
By Fred Hiatt Editorial page editor July 12 at 5:57 PM
As Americans gathered in cities across the country to celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriage, several thousand Turks also tried to march in support of rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. ... Police in Istanbul attacked them with water cannons and rubber pellets.
The repression reflected the narrowing of freedom under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan; in past years, Turkey was the site of the largest gay pride marches in the Muslim world. ... But Turkey is hardly alone in vilifying, isolating and threatening LGBT people. While 25 countries and territories now allow gay marriage, 75 nations treat homosexual behavior as a crime.
In 10 countries, it is punishable by death — and even where it is not, just being gay is often fatal. A May U.N. report found “continuing, serious and widespread human rights violations perpetrated, too often with impunity, against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.” ... “Since 2011, hundreds of people have been killed and thousands more injured in brutal, violent attacks,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights reported.
What’s the right way to think about this global dichotomy? Overseas practitioners of bigotry sometimes plead for cultural or religious understanding: Just as they don’t tell us how to run our country, they say, we should show respect for their traditions. Of course killing transgender people is wrong, they might argue, but why should they be forced to legalize practices they find offensive?
By Fred Hiatt Editorial page editor July 12 at 5:57 PM
As Americans gathered in cities across the country to celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriage, several thousand Turks also tried to march in support of rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. ... Police in Istanbul attacked them with water cannons and rubber pellets.
The repression reflected the narrowing of freedom under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan; in past years, Turkey was the site of the largest gay pride marches in the Muslim world. ... But Turkey is hardly alone in vilifying, isolating and threatening LGBT people. While 25 countries and territories now allow gay marriage, 75 nations treat homosexual behavior as a crime.
In 10 countries, it is punishable by death — and even where it is not, just being gay is often fatal. A May U.N. report found “continuing, serious and widespread human rights violations perpetrated, too often with impunity, against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.” ... “Since 2011, hundreds of people have been killed and thousands more injured in brutal, violent attacks,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights reported.
What’s the right way to think about this global dichotomy? Overseas practitioners of bigotry sometimes plead for cultural or religious understanding: Just as they don’t tell us how to run our country, they say, we should show respect for their traditions. Of course killing transgender people is wrong, they might argue, but why should they be forced to legalize practices they find offensive?
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
From neanderthals who refuse to have any global vision. "Survival of the species" I get trumped at me from the bigots who are in personal denial of the magnamous predicament facing a global human population of 8 billion. "Tradition" and/or "religion" get cited, doubly ignorant. And of course, the narrow idiocy of "religious freedom" to act on bigotry just makes me want to 
