The release of the U.S. State Department's 2013 Human Rights Reports highlights continued human rights abuses directed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations around the globe. Here is a short list of ways that you can stay informed and lend your voice to the global LGBT community. More generally you can show your support by using the power of social media to send messages of support to those communities that are facing the harsh reality of discrimination.
Uganda:
The Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law has put foreward ways in which the international community can offer support to the Ugandan LGBT community after the signing of the Anti-Homosexuality bill.
- Organize worldwide demonstrations in different cities around the world calling for the law to be repealed.
- Call on Multinational companies that have businesses in Uganda to go public about their concerns on the bill and their future economic engagements in Uganda.Issue statements condemning the passage of the Bill and calling on President Museveni to repeal it.
- Engage with any non-LGBTI partner organizations in Uganda that you may collaborate with or whom you fund to issue statements condemning the passage of the AHB and its implications to the work of Non Governmental Organizations.(NGOs).
Russia:
Human Rights First has released a fact sheet detailing the spread of similar anti-gay laws in Russia's neighboring countries. To learn more about Russia's crackdown on human rights you can download, "Convenient Targets: The Anti-“Propaganda” Law and the Threat to LGBT Rights in Russia."
Join Human Rights Watch and continue to pressure Russia to repeal its anti-gay law, and demand that the International Olympic Committee not reward serious human rights abusers with hosting the Olympics in the future.
Donate to the Russia Freedom Fund to provide financial support directly to groups working to end discrimination and violence in Russia based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
