Obama lifts ban on US entry for those with HIV

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writer – Fri Oct 30, 7:16 pm ET

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Friday the U.S. will overturn a 22-year-old travel and immigration ban against people with HIV early next year.
The order will be finalized on Monday, Obama said, completing a process begun during the Bush administration.
The U.S. has been among a dozen countries that bar entry to travelers with visas or anyone seeking a green card based on their HIV status.
“If we want to be the global leader in combatting HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it,” Obama said at the White House before signing a bill to extend the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program. Begun in 1990, the program provides medical care, medication and support services to about half a million people, most of them low-income.
The bill is named for an Indiana teenager who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion at age 13. White went on to fight AIDS-related discrimination against him and others like him and help educate the country about the disease. He died in April 1990 at the age of 18.
His mother, Jeanne White-Ginder, attended the signing ceremony, as did several members of Congress and HIV/AIDS activists.
In 1987, at a time of widespread fear and ignorance about HIV, the Department of Health and Human Services added the disease to the list of communicable diseases that disqualified a person from entering the U.S.
The department tried in 1991 to reverse its decision but was opposed by Congress, which went the other way two years later and made HIV infection the only medical condition explicitly listed under immigration law as grounds for inadmissibility to the U.S.
The law effectively has kept out thousands of students, tourists and refugees and has complicated the adoption of children with HIV. No major international AIDS conference has been held in the U.S. since 1993, because HIV-positive activists and researchers cannot enter the country.
Obama said that by lifting the ban, the U.S. will take a step toward ending the stigma against people with HIV/AIDS, something he said has stopped people from getting tested and has helped spread the disease. More than 1 million people live with HIV/AIDS in the U.S., and more than 56,000 new infections are reported every year.
Obama noted his own effort several years ago to help combat the stigma. During a 2006 visit to Kenya, his father’s native country, then-Sen. Obama and his wife, Michelle, publicly took an HIV/AIDS test.
The 11 other countries that ban HIV-positive travelers and immigrants are: Armenia, Brunei, Iraq, Libya, Moldova, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Sudan, according to the advocacy group Immigration Equality.
Several such groups welcomed Obama’s announcement.
Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality, said the ban pointlessly has barred people from the U.S. and separated families with no benefit to public health.
“Now, those families can be reunited, and the United States can put its mouth where its money is: ending the stigma that perpetuates HIV transmission, supporting science and welcoming those who seek to build a life in this country,” said Tiven, whose organization works for fairness in immigration for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive people.

What does the Bible actually say about being gay?

Confused how two groups of church-goers can have such conflicting views about whether it’s OK to be gay?

Both sides of the debate about homosexuality in the church, which threatens to split the worldwide Anglican Church, hold their views sincerely and after much study. So how can their views be so contradictory?

The Bible makes very few mentions of homosexuality – lesbianism isn’t mentioned at all in the Old Testament – and as the examples below show, interpretations of the verses that do exist differ hugely.

Following each of the verses below is a brief illustration of what a hardline pro- and anti-gay position might be. (Most Christians hold views somewhere in between these two stances.)  An illustration of the division can be seen by what either side might say about the friendship in the Old Testament between David and Jonathan. One verse reads: ”I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; dear and delightful you were to me; your love for me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women.”

PRO-GAY
A pro-gay position might be that this is a clear indication that King David had a gay relationship, and to pretend otherwise is naive.

ANTI-GAY
An anti-gay opinion might be that the friendship between the two men was exactly that – a very close and loyal allegiance.

Similarly, the tale of Sodom is often debated. In it, Lot has two angels staying in his house. The men of Sodom surrounded the house.”They called to Lot and asked him where the men were who had entered his house that night. ‘Bring them out,’ they shouted, ’so that we might have intercourse with them.’”

To protect his visitors from an act which Lot describes as “wicked”, he offers the crowd his two virgin daughters instead. The crowds are not satisfied and break the door down – the angels then make the intruders blind and Sodom is eventually destroyed by “fire and brimstone”.

ANTI-GAY

An anti-gay argument might say this story demonstrates the immorality of homosexuality, as has been accepted for generations, hence the term sodomy. Elsewhere in Genesis, God says of the men: “Their sin is very grave.” It’s an example of behaviour degenerating.

PRO-GAY
Of course the men’s behaviour was wicked, but it was wicked because it’s a tale of sexual assault and rape. When Jesus mentions Sodom, hundreds of years later, it appears to be in a context of a discussion of hospitality, rather than one of sexual morality.

There are several verses in the Bible which are similarly contested – there are however a much smaller number of seemingly clear statements. The most famous of them is probably from Leviticus:”You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination.”

ANTI-GAY
An anti-gay position would be that this line is unambiguous. It is also repeated elsewhere in the book. The speaker of the words is God, so this is an explicit indication that homosexuality is wrong in God’s eyes. It was one of the sins that justified God in giving the land of Canaan to the Israelites

PRO-GAY
A pro-gay argument might say that other verses in the same book forbid a wide range of sexual activities, including having sex with a woman who is having her period. This is an indication that the passage embodies specific cultural values rather than God’s law.

There is some debate about how relevant rules in the Old Testament are to Christians. Some would say they are binding, since Jesus said he did not come to abolish the old laws. Others would say that Jesus set Christians free from the old laws, highlighting instead that people should love God and their neighbour.  Jesus himself says nothing explicitly about homosexuality. There are though two statements by him which have been interpreted as having a bearing on the subject.  “[A] man shall leave his father and mother, and be made one with his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.”

ANTI-GAY
This indicates Jesus saw heterosexual relations as the proper way of behaving.

PRO-GAY
Jesus is actually talking about the sanctity of heterosexual marriage

Later in the same conversation, after Jesus has spoken about divorce, the disciples say to him it is better not to marry at all. Jesus says: ”That is something which not everyone can accept, but only those for whom God has appointed it. For while some are incapable of marriage because they were born so, or made so by men, there are others who have themselves renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven. Let those accept it who can.”

PRO-GAY
This shows that Jesus is more concerned with people looking after their own relationship with God, than with enforcement of rules. The reference to being “born so” indicates that heterosexual marriage is fine for those who are heterosexual, but it’s OK to be different. Again and again Jesus reaches out to those on the margins of society, like prostitutes and tax collectors, to include them.

ANTI-GAY
Jesus here is actually talking about people who were born incapable of having children, or people who were castrated – not about gays. He is actually saying that marriage and chastity are both within God’s purpose. Jesus does appeal to the sinners, but once he has called them, he tells them to go and sin no more.  The letters of St Paul provide the other traditional support for the position that homosexuality is sinful. He writes: ”God has given [people who worship false gods] up to shameful passions. Their women have exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and their men in turn, giving up natural relations with women burn with lust for one another; males behave indecently with males and paid in their own persons the fitting wage of such perversion.”

Paul later writes: ”Make no mistake: no fornicator or idolator, none who are guilty either of adultery or of homosexual perversion, no thieves or grabbers of drunkards of slanderers or swindlers, will possess the kingdom of God.”

PRO-GAY
A pro-gay position might be that the word Paul uses for homosexual here could alternatively be translated as “male prostitute”. In any case, Paul’s writings are clearly of his time, and there are plenty of other verses which people have no difficulty in ignoring – for instance: “a woman brings shame on her head if she prays or prophesies bare-headed; it is as bad as if her head were shaved.” This should be viewed like that.

ANTI-GAY
Anti-gay argument might say this line is crystal clear in establishing that Christianity and homosexuality are incompatible. Paul is actually quite clearly referring to homosexual behaviour, and includes lesbianism. You can’t just pretend that St Paul, who did so much to influence our understanding of Jesus, didn’t know what he was talking about. He’s clear that homosexuality is an offence against God and against people’s own bodies.

Part of the reason the views diverge so much is because Christians think of the Bible differently. Some see it as literally the word of God, divine inspiration which humans should not question. Others see it rather as a book which is a witness to God’s message, but one which was written by humans and thus has flaws.  Trying to find common ground between the two positions is no simple matter – one of the reasons that Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is having such a tricky job keeping everyone on board.

Quotations are taken from the New English Bible.

In the order they are cited in the article, these are the references used. All quotations taken from the New English Bible.

II Samuel 1:26

Genesis 19:4-5

Leviticus 18:22

Mark 10:7-9

Matthew 19:11-12

Romans 1:26

I Corinthians 6:9

Courtesy BBC News Thursday, 23 October 2003

Australia sees largest public demonstrations for same-sex marriage in nation’s history

MELBOURNE — August 1 saw the largest public demonstrations for same-sex marriage in Australia’s history take place throughout the continent.

In Melbourne alone, an estimated 5,000 people took to the streets to demand that the federal government introduce same-sex marriage, making this the largest single show of support for marriage equality ever in Australia.

In addition to the thousands that participated in marches and rallies, over 200 couples across the nation participated in illegal same-sex wedding ceremonies, setting what organizers believe to be a world record for the largest number of participants in a mass illegal wedding ceremony.

Despite the nationwide show of support for marriage equality, delegates at the Australian Labor Party’s national conference in Sydney today effectively voted for no change to the party’s policy regarding marriage, maintaining the definition as a union between a man and a woman.

“Although the decision of the ALP delegates was disappointing, I think politicians from all sides now understand that this is not an issue that’s going to go away.  Today’s rallies put it clearly on the national agenda,” said Tim Wright, co-convener of Equal Love, the organizer of the Melbourne rally.  “Marriage equality is rapidly spreading throughout the world and we’re going to be back here year after year until we get it in Australia.”

MEDIA CONTACT: Tim Wright, Equal Love, 0400 967 233
http://www.equallove.info

Some photos from the National Day of Action in Melbourne available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/equallove/

Homosexuality immoral, but not criminal: Religious leaders

4 Jul 2009, 0216 hrs IST, TNN – TIMES OF INDIA

DELHI/MUMBAI:

In the first flurry of reactions, religious leaders appeared to be slamming the de-criminalization of gay sex. But while mostconservative scholars and clerics remain opposed to homosexuality as an article of faith, many say that they aren’t advocating making it a criminal act as Section 377 of IPC did.

Writer and philosopher Deepak Chopra told TOI from his home in New York, ‘‘A new morality must evolve that is based on a true understanding of human nature, that is also consistent with its biology. Homosexuality has been part of the human condition for as long as human beings have existed. The Delhi High Court should be congratulated for making a decision that finally catches up with our times.’’

Then, while Delhi Catholic Archdiocese has described homosexuality as ‘‘unnatural’’, it says it has nothing against its de-criminalization. Spokesperson of Delhi Catholic Archdiocese, Father Dominic Emmanuel, told TOI,‘‘Homosexuality is a sin — as opposed to a crime. But we believe that those who indulge in it should be treated with respect and compassion.’’

In a newspaper article, Father Dominic was even more forthright. ‘‘It needs to be made clear that the Christian community does not (repeat it does not) treat people with homosexual tendencies as criminals. Nor does it believe that they can be regarded on par with criminals. Therefore, the church has no serious objection to the repealing of Section 377.

‘‘The Vatican’s stand on this is quite clear: Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided’,’’ wrote Father Dominic.

Similarly, some Muslim clerics and scholars, too, favour de-criminalization of homosexuality, saying that while Islam does not permit homosexuality, this doesn’t mean it should be equated with criminality.

‘‘The Quran condemns homosexuality, but doesn’t prescribe any punishment for it. It’s a sin, not a crime. Sin is between Allah and the sinner, but crime concerns the entire society. So, sexual minorities should be left to their conscience. They are answerable to Allah for their act and should not be treated as criminals,’’ said Islamic scholar Asghar Ali Engineer.

Maulana Abu Zafar Hassan Nadvi, a cleric, too accepts that since the Quran is silent on the punishment for homosexuality, it should be treated as an irreligious, immoral act. ‘‘Every non-religious act is not liable to be punished. Just as we don’t pronounce death for atheists, homosexuals should be left alone until they get reformed,” said Maulana Nadvi.

Some clerics maintain that since Indian state is secular, it should not press for laws guided by religions. ‘‘Why should we expect that what applies in Saudi Arabia or Iran must also apply in India in regard to punishment for homosexuality? As a religious person, I condemn homosexuality. But I don’t have the right to declare homosexuals criminals,’’ said Maulana Zaheer Abbas Rizvi, a Shia scholar and member of the All India Ulema Council.

Said Deepak Chopra, ‘‘What is religion? And what is morality? Religion is nothing more than cultural mythology…A religion that gets frozen and is not consistent with our current understanding of evolution, biology or cosmogenesis ceases to serve people and becomes a self-righteous, immoral force in society. Hence all religions have become quarrelsome, divisive and idiotic.’’

Gay sex ‘not criminal’ in India

02 July 2009 – courtesy BBC news

A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ruled that homosexual intercourse between consenting adults is not a criminal act.

The ruling overturns a 148-year-old colonial law which describes a same-sex relationship as an “unnatural offence”.

Homosexual acts were punishable by a 10-year prison sentence.

Many people in India regard same-sex relationships as illegitimate. Rights groups have long argued that the law contravened human rights.

Delhi’s High Court ruled that the law outlawing homosexual acts was discriminatory and a “violation of fundamental rights”.

The court said that a statute in Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which defines homosexual acts as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” and made them illegal, was an “antithesis of the right to equality”.

‘India’s Stonewall’

The ruling is historic in a country where homosexuals face discrimination and persecution on a daily basis but it is likely to be challenged, says the BBC’s Soutik Biswas in Delhi.

It also promises to change the discourse on sexuality in a largely conservative country, where even talking about sex is largely taboo, our correspondent says.

Gay rights activists all over the country welcomed the ruling and said it was “India’s Stonewall”.

New York’s Stonewall riot in 1969 is credited with launching the gay rights movement.

“It [the ruling] is India’s Stonewall. We are elated. I think what now happens is that a lot of our fundamental rights and civic rights which were denied to us can now be reclaimed by us,” activist and lawyer Aditya Bandopadhyay told the BBC.

“It is a fabulously written judgement, and it restores our faith in the judiciary,” he said.

Leading gay rights activist and the editor of India’s first gay magazine Ashok Row Kavi welcomed the judgement but said the stigma against homosexuals will persist.

“The social stigma will remain. It is [still] a long struggle. But the ruling will help in HIV prevention. Gay men can now visit doctors and talk about their problems. It will help in preventing harassment at police stations,” Mr Kavi told the BBC.

But the decision was greeted with unease by other groups.

Father Dominic Emanuel of India’s Catholic Bishop Council said the church did not “approve” of homosexual behaviour.

“Our stand has always been very clear. The church has no serious objection to decriminalising homosexuality between consenting adults, the church has never considered homosexuals as criminals,” said Father Emanuel.

“But the church does not approve of this behaviour. It doesn’t consider it natural, ethical, or moral,” he said.

In 2004, the Indian government opposed a legal petition that sought to legalise homosexuality – a petition the high court in Delhi dismissed.

But rights groups and the Indian government’s HIV/Aids control body have demanded that homosexuality be legalised.

The National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) has said that infected people were being driven underground and efforts to curb the virus were being hampered.

According to one estimate, more than 8% of homosexual men in India were infected with HIV, compared to fewer than 1% in the general population.

Join us and celebrate Diversity with PRIDE!

The 5th Annual COLOMBO PRIDE  festival offers a diverse range of activities which will no doubt be loads of fun as well as extremely educational and relevent to today’s evolving social and cultural pehneomena.  Join us and celebrate Diversity with PRIDE!

PROGRAMME

28th June: “Rainbow Kite Festival” – come fly with us on the beach at Mt. Lavinia! Venue: Mt. Lavinia Beach (Sunshine Cabanas next to Lavinia Breeze): Kite flying (4pm till 6pm) Sundown dance (till 8pm) – Food and cash bar will be available throughout the Kite Festival! Entrance: FREE

30th June – 02nd July: “Rainbow Visions” – LGBT Art and Photo Exhibition. Venue: Barefoot (Daily:10a-10p) Entrance: FREE

30th June – 02nd July: “Celluloid Rainbows” – LGBT film festival. Venue: Barefoot (7pm-10pm) Entrance: FREE EQUAL GROUND is grateful to the BRITISH COUNCIL and OUT IN AFRICA for its contribution and support of “Celluloid Rainbows” – LGBT film festival.

04th July: WORKSHOP ON SEXUALITY – National Youth Coalition/EQUAL GROUND Venue: EQUAL GROUND Entrance: FREE

05th July: “Rainbow PRIDE” – the Annual PRIDE Party. Venue: Rhythm ‘n Blues (8pm onwards) Tickets: Rs.1,000 GET IN BEFORE MIDNIGHT! (GATES CLOSE AT 12 MIDNIGHT )

AN APPEAL FOR COLOMBO PRIDE 2009

Dear Friends,

We have pleasure in presenting the 5th COLOMBO PRIDE festival which will run from 28th June till 5th July 2009. COLOMBO PRIDE began quite modestly with a PRIDE party in 2005. At the time no one thought the event would take off the way it has. Catering only for a maximum of 100 persons COLOMBO PRIDE 2005 surprised all by surpassing the 100 mark with an attendance of over 325 persons. Riding on the crest of this success. COLOMBO PRIDE 2006 saw the launch of a weeklong celebration featuring events such as MotherSon, a one man play by Jeff Solomon, a LGBT Film Marathon, Kite festival, Party and theatre workshops which attracted even bigger crowds than 2005. 2007 and 2008 were even more successful than in the past with over 2000 persons attending PRIDE celebrations last year! As always, COLOMBO PRIDE offers a safe space for people to be themselves and celebrate their sexuality with PRIDE with other like minded persons.

Each year, Colombo PRIDE debuts a new and innovative event to launch COLOMBO PRIDE week. Last year’s Drag Show “I have a Dream” and the LGBT Photo and Art Exhibition took Colombo by storm! Both events were very well attended and went further to mainstream LGBT issues than before. This year RAINBOW RUNWAY will launch COLOMBO PRIDE 2009. This will be the first ever queer fashion show in Asia. Its purpose is to provide an inclusive and accessible opportunity for up and coming fashion designers to showcase their creativity with a focus on LGBT fashions. Each designer will present a selection of clothes, accessories and shoes created with the queer community in mind.

As with COLOMBO PRIDE in the past, the weeklong festival will include RAINBOW VISIONS (the LGBT Photo and Art Exhibition), CELLULOID RAINBOWS (the LGBT Film Festival), the Rainbow PRIDE Party and the Rainbow Kite Festival on the beach. This year’s Film Festival will be dedicated to Harvey Milk, “the mayor of Castro Street”. As in the past, we appeal to you for your donations to assist us with the expenses of putting on these 5 events for the LGBT community here in Sri Lanka. Most of our events are totally free of charge to enable all members of the community to attend. Ticket prices for both RAINBOW RUNWAY and the RAINBOW PRIDE Party are at a nominal Rs.1,000 (US$8.40) to offset some of the costs we will incur for these events.

Due to the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka, this year we are launching COLOMBO PRIDE with a charity event. All proceeds from RAINBOW RUNWAY will be donated to ACT (http://www.actlanka.org) for the relief and rehabilitation of the Internally Displaced Persons in the North of Sri Lanka. We are particularly welcoming International Sponsors for all COLOMBO PRIDE 2009 events.

Your donation to COLOMBO PRIDE 2009 will be greatly appreciated. Cheques and wire transfers in any currency are preferred. Please get in touch with equalground@gmail.com for bank details and mailing address.

For US donors: Please make your tax deductible cheques payable to the Tides Foundation – India Fund. On the memo line you should write EQUAL GROUND.

Mail it to:

Paul Knox501 West 123rd Street, #19H New York, NY 10027  USA.

We thank you for your kind consideration and invite you to be a part of our celebration!!!!

EQUAL GROUND & COLOMBO PRIDE Organising Committee

EQUAL GROUND launches Counseling service!

13^th January 2009: EQUAL GROUND is happy to announce the launch of its trilingual counseling service focusing entirely on LGBTIQ issues. Last year, thanks to a grant from the American Jewish World Services, EQUAL GROUND was able to train several volunteers to assist the organization with the first Counseling service in Sri Lanka dedicated to the LGBTIQ community.

CALL US 6 days a week, and speak to a friendly voice regarding your troubles. Trained Volunteers speaking English, Sinhala and Tamil will gladly assist you when you call.

If you need assistance please do contact us.

Sri Lanka shuns UN declaration on gay rights

From the Sunday times 21st December 2008

Sri Lanka has refused to sign a historic UN Declaration that urges member-states to decriminalize homosexuality.

Sixty six countries were signatories to this UN Declaration which condemns all forms of violence against homosexual persons and urges UN member states to take necessary measures to put an end to all criminal penalties against them.

Homosexuality is an offence under the Penal Code in Sri Lanka with carries a punishment of upto two years in prison. However local gay rights activist and director and founder of Companion on a Journey, Sherman De Rose said that they strongly oppose the move by the Government.

“We are against the fact that we are being called criminals in our own land. We are not criminals, we are citizens. It is totally incorrect to call us criminals. We have the right to live and be treated as normal human beings”, he said.

He added, “We have no right to stand by British law of the colonial era”.

Sponsored by France, the Declaration was backed by the 27 member European Union. The US, the Vatican, Russia and China, along with all Islamic countries, refused to sign the Declaration.

The non-signatories also included seven of the eight members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC): Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka. Nepal was the only SAARC signatory.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that more than half of the world’s remaining legislation against sodomy and homosexuality were mostly relics of British colonial rule going back to a single law on homosexual conduct that the British imposed on India in 1860.

The 66 signatories to the General Assembly Declaration were: Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Montenegro, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

An unprecedented gay rights declaration was submitted to the UN General Assembly by Argentinean ambassador Jorge Arguello, representing a third of the world body’s 192 countries.

“We urge states to take all the necessary measures, in particular legislative or administrative, to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests or detention,” the draft document says.

The appeal is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states in Article One that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

The document reaffirms “that everyone is entitled to the enjoyment of human rights without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

The 66 countries that signed the document “are deeply concerned by violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms based on sexual orientation or gender identity,” it said.

They are “disturbed that violence, harassment, discrimination, exclusion, stigmatization and prejudice are directed against persons in all countries in the world because of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

The signatories “condemn the human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity wherever they occur,” especially “the use of the death penalty on this ground,” as well as their “arbitrary arrest or detention and deprivation of economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to health.”

After the draft was read, Netherlands Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen and French Human Rights Minister Rama Yade held a high-level meeting to support the resolution.

“In this 21st century, how can we accept that people are hunted down, jailed, tortured and executed because of their sexual orientation?” asked Yade.

Yade, a Senegalese-born Muslim, acknowledged that the task would be “difficult.” Efforts to gather support for the text sometimes faced outright hostility, she said.

“The funeral pyres of intolerance are and have always burned everywhere,” she added before noting that homosexuality is still banned in 77 countries. Homosexuality is punishable by death in seven countries — Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Verhagen hailed the document’s historical significance.

“For the first time in history, a large group of member states speaks out against discrimination based on sexual orientation,” he said.

“With today’s statement, this is no longer a taboo within the UN. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is firmly on the agenda of the United Nations.”

European Union member states, Brazil, Israel and Japan were among the signatories. But China, the United States and Russia refused to accede the declaration.

The Vatican considers the declaration a legitimate effort to stop the crackdown on homosexuality. But it worries that condemning anti-gay discrimination and biases will favor gay marriage, gay adoption or artificial insemination.

If Delhi can do it, so can we! The five most improved places for gay tolerance

The five most improved places for gay tolerance

Delhi

The Indian capital has a flourishing scene and this year celebrated its first gay pride march. Homosexuality remains illegal under a British law from 1860, but this now faces a constitutional challenge in the High Court.

Shanghai

Homosexuality is legal in China and a fast growing scene exists in its most Westernised city.

Tel Aviv

Israel is the only Middle-Eastern country to support gay rights legislation, and the country attracts gay people from Palestine and Lebanon. Tel Aviv has a growing scene and is tolerant and gay-friendly for both men and women.

Cape Town

Homosexuality was legalised in South Africa in 1994 and in 2006 it became the first African country to legalise gay marriage. Cape Town is proud of its expanding gay scene.

Havana

It is nearly 50 years since Castro declared homosexuality “a bourgeois perversion” and all laws against it have now been overturned. Cuba is a popular destination for gay men and women and there is a busy scene.