Anti gay laws fuelling rise in global homophobia
Punitive and discriminatory anti-gay laws are fuelling rising homophobia around the world, the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, told the TUC Congress in Liverpool.
Recent EU findings revealed that violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people is on the rise.
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:
“Despite the progress that has been made in the struggle for LGBT equality here in the UK and around the world, countries such as Russia, India, Nigeria and Uganda continue to use the law to stigmatise and criminalise LGBT people.
“This has resulted in a shocking rise in deliberate, sustained and violent attacks on LGBT people and their ostracisation from mainstream society.
“Such abuses of human rights must continue to be challenged by the trade union movement to secure social justice for all.”
Lee Williscroft-Ferris NASUWT, moving the motion, said:
“Every time a South African lesbian suffers so-called corrective gang rape; every time a gay man in Russia is abducted and tortured; every time a Ugandan activist is killed in their home for bravely defending the rights of their LGBT compatriots; every single abuse of the human rights of an LGBT person, wherever it occurs, is a stain on humanity.
“It is simply not acceptable for us to ignore the plight of LGBT people in other parts of the world.
“It’s absolutely imperative that we use our influence to put pressure on our Government to take decisive action and call for an end to the persecution of LGBT people whether here or elsewhere in the world.”
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