International LGBT Roundup: Hong Kong Celebrates Pride, and Moscow's Mayor Obsesses Over Gays

A world first: Hong Kong celebrated its first pride rally this weekend, with more than 1,000 paradegoers stopping traffic to "celebrate love."  Of course, Moscow's mayor this week had a different take on his own city's attempts to host a pride parade.  And LGBT groups in Africa are coming together to urge the continent to do more to fight against HIV/AIDS.  All in all, a busy week around the globe.  To the roundup!

Hong Kong: Homosexuality was finally decriminalized in 1991 in Hong Kong, but stigma has remained large and has kept many a number of LGBT folks in the closet.  But those closet doors came busting down this weekend, with Hong Kong's first-ever gay pride rally. According to Time, "For a few hours, a city that usually seems immune to surprises watched in awe as approximately 1,000 paradegoers stopped traffic, filled the streets and spread their message to 'celebrate love.'"  Ariel Wong, a 21-year-old student at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said that he came out this weekend to show that queer people are normal people, too.  Parade organizers are hopeful that this becomes an annual event, and that it may spill over to other cities in the region, too.  And, who knows, maybe it will help push forward progress for China's gay community, too.

Senegal: This week marked an annual conference by the International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA).  Yet, Africa's handling of HIV/AIDS when it comes to the gay community it terribly inadequate, with only 7 African countries including men who have sex with men (MSM) in their HIV/AIDS prevention work.  The results of this bare horrific facts across the continent:  MSM in Africa are nine times more likely to be HIV positive than their heterosexual counterparts.  "Same-sex practicing people have always been excluded from major African policy meetings because of homophobia," said Joel Nana, Program Associate for Southern and West Africa with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.  In an effort to address this exclusion, LGBT activists held a three-day conference in Senegal (prior to the ICASA gathering) to demand an urgent response to the HIV pandemic affecting their communities.

Russia:  From Russia, with love?  Well, there's not much love coming from Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov toward LGBT rights supporters.  Mayor Luzhkov again affirmed his opposition this week to any form of gay rights organizing in his city, warning a European television/variety show that its homosexual performers better not organize, assemble, or plan any marches.  "We do not allow gay parades," the mayor said.  Doesn't get any less subtle than that, folks.  Organiser of Moscow Gay Pride Nikolai Alekseev reacted immediately to the words of Moscow Mayor, "We are not going to surrender our right to freedom of assembly and expression because it is given to us not by Mayor Luzhkov but by the Constitution on this country."  Now that's an organizer talking!

United Nations: We wrote about this here and here, but this week saw a formal statement presented to the UN that will call on all governments around the world to ensure that sexual orientation and gender identity are not subjected to criminal penalty, and that individuals are not executed, arrested or otherwise detained because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.  The statement was submitted by France, and has been endorsed by every member of the European Union.  Who hasn't signed the statement so far?  The Vatican.  United States.  Sudan.  Saudi Arabia.  Yemen.  Iran.  Which begs the question -- why is the Vatican and the United States keeping such repressive company?  But not all is lost...efforts are underway to push the U.S. to sign onto the statement, and protests continued this week against the Vatican for its failure to endorse a statement that protects LGBT people from being systematically brutalized by oppressive governments.