Indonesia: ‘Suspected Lesbians’ Detained | Human Rights Watch

As of this posting I am not aware of any change is status concerning this incident.  It highlights well, that we have a long way to go in the fight for equality on the world stage where the ramifications are much greater. Following the story is a discussion of Aceh's "Special Status agreement" and the direct influence of Sharia on the laws in the province.  Why I choose to include this narrative despite the date.

Indonesian authorities should immediately and unconditionally release two women arrested on suspicion of being lesbians in Aceh province, Human Rights Watch said today. The arrests under Islamic bylaw are contrary to the rights to nondiscrimination and fundamental freedoms under Indonesia’s constitution and international human rights law. 

On September 28, 2015, the Wilayatul Hisbah, or Sharia police, arrested the two women identified as AS, age 18, and N, age 19, when the police saw the pair hugging in a public place in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital. A police official told reporters that they “suspected the women were lesbians.”

“The arrest of two women in Aceh for everyday behavior is an outrageous abuse of police power that should be considered a threat to all Indonesians,” said Graeme Reid, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights program director at Human Rights Watch. “The Indonesian government needs to press Aceh to repeal its discriminatory new by-laws.”
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Aceh’s criminal code, which went into effect in September 2014, prohibits lesbianism and sodomy. These offenses do not exist in the Indonesian national criminal code. The Acehnese by-laws extend Sharia, or Islamic law, to non-Muslims, and the criminal code permits punishments of 100 lashes and 100 months in prison for consensual same-sex sex acts.
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Aceh’s parliament drafted the Principles of the Islamic By-law, while the province’s official Islamic Affairs Office drafted the Islamic criminal code. These by-laws apply not only to Aceh’s predominantly Muslim population, but to about 90,000 non-Muslim residents, most of them Christians and Buddhists, as well as domestic and foreign visitors to the province.

Indonesia: ‘Suspected Lesbians’ Detained | Human Rights Watch

Kenya: Pervasive Homophobic Violence in Coastal Region | Human Rights Watch

A report by Human Rights Watch detailing Kenya's treatment of the LGBTQ community by police in the coastal region of that country.

Mobs in Kenya’s coastal region have repeatedly attacked people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, PEMA Kenya and Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. In at least six incidents between 2008 and 2015, mobs in the coastal counties of Mombasa, Kwale, and Kilifi have attacked or threatened lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people or health workers serving the LGBT community, without sufficient response from authorities.

The 70-page report, “The Issue is Violence: Attacks on LGBT People on Kenya’s Coast,” is based on research conducted in 2014 and 2015 by Human Rights Watch and PEMA Kenya, a community organization in Mombasa that provides support to gender and sexual minorities on human rights, health, HIV/AIDS, and economic well-being. The groups documented rights abuses against members of sexual minorities in Kenya’s coast region, including mob violence, assault, rape, incitement to violence, and inadequate protection. The groups identified ways the Kenyan authorities could improve their response to these abuses.

“For many LGBT people in the coast region, safety is a daily concern,” said Esther Adhiambo, executive director of PEMA Kenya. “While police treatment of LGBT people has improved in recent years, discrimination remains a major problem. LGBT peoples’ justified fear of reporting hate crimes to the police means that violence continues with impunity.”

The authorities’ response to mob attacks and other forms of anti-gay violence has been limited. Officials rarely condemn the attacks. Police, even in the few instances in which they provide protection to victims, have not arrested anyone for participating in or inciting these attacks.

Kenya: Pervasive Homophobic Violence in Coastal Region | Human Rights Watch

Singapore Court Wants Teenage Blogger Held for Psychiatric Review - The New York Times

To borrow a sentiment from my esteemed co-host,  "That's a pretty weak god you got there that can't take a little teasing from a 16 year old."

A Singapore court ruled on Tuesday that a teenage blogger who was convicted of obscenity and insulting religious feelings after he posted a video criticizing the late leader Lee Kuan Yew this year should be held for two weeks pending a psychiatric examination.

The teenager, Amos Yee, drew international attention when he was arrested for posting the video shortly after Mr. Lee, the founding father of modern Singapore, died on March 23.

The case has highlighted Singapore’s strict limits on speech and has drawn criticism from human rights groups, which said the treatment of the 16-year-old, including more than a month in detention and the possibility of at least 18 months in reformative training, was unduly harsh.

In Singapore, offenders under 21 can be sentenced to reformative training, in which they are housed separately from adult inmates and given “a structured environment of discipline,” according to the Singapore prosecutor’s office.

It is not prison, but it is “akin to detention and usually applied to juvenile offenders involved in serious crimes,” according to the office of the United Nations’ human rights agency.
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Human Rights Watch has called on Singapore to exonerate and free Mr. Yee.

Likewise, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Southeast Asia said on Tuesday that it was concerned about Mr. Yee’s physical and mental health in detention. It called for his immediate release, saying that “the criminal sanctions considered in this case seem disproportionate and inappropriate in terms of the international protections for freedom of expression and opinion.”

Singapore Court Wants Teenage Blogger Held for Psychiatric Review - The New York Times