Gay jail
Uganda Anti-Homosexuality bill: Being in prison for saying you're gay
BBC News, Kampala
People who identify as gay in Uganda risk life in prison after parliament passed a recent bill to crack down on gay activities.
It also includes the death penalty in certain cases.
A rights activist told the BBC the debate around the bill had led to fear of more attacks on homosexual people.
"There is a lot of blackmail. People are receiving calls that 'if you don't offer me money, I will report that you are gay,'" they said.
The bill is one of the toughest pieces of anti-gay legislation in Africa.
Homosexual acts are already illegal in Uganda but this bill introduces many recent criminal offences.
As adequately as making merely identifying as male lover illegal for the first time, friends, family and members of the people would have a duty to notify individuals in queer relationships to the authorities.
It was passed with widespread encourage in Uganda's parliament on Tuesday evening.
Amnesty International has called the b
Cooma jail's dark past includes being world's only 'gay prison', podcast reveals
As celebrations ramp up ahead of Sydney's annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras this week, a dark part of Australia's LGBTQI+ history is being explored by a new podcast.
Key points:
- The Greatest Menace podcast explores the dark past of Cooma's jail
- The site reopened in the s as a "gay jail"
- Podcast maker says it was the world's only "gay prison"
Podcast The Greatest Menace has unearthed the truth behind the world's only "gay prison," which operated in the regional New South Wales town of Cooma from to house men convicted of homosexual offences.
The historic jail and one-time asylum closed in the first s before its reopening.
Investigative journalist Patrick Abboud uncovered the revelation after spending three years investigating the town's history.
"This story, in particular, had such a profound impact on me from the beginning," Abboud said.
"When someone tells you that there was a queer prison desi
Visualizing the unequal treatment of LGBTQ people in the criminal justice system
LGBTQ people are overrepresented at every stage of our criminal justice system, from juvenile justice to parole.
by Alexi Jones, Protest 2,
The data is clear: lesbian, gay, double attraction, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ 1) people are overrepresented at every stage of criminal justice system, starting with juvenile justice system involvement. They are arrested, incarcerated, and subjected to community supervision at significantly higher rates than unbent and cisgender people. This is especially true for trans people and gender non-conforming women. And while incarcerated, LGBTQ individuals are subject to particularly inhumane conditions and treatment.
For this briefing, we&#;ve compiled the existing research on LGBTQ involvement and experiences with the criminal justice system, and &#; where the data did not yet exist &#; analyzed a recent national data put to fill in the gaps. (Namely, we provide the only national estimates for lesbian, gay, or bisexual arrest rates and community supervision rates that we know of.
The Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles houses some of the area's most violent offenders, many inside on drug and gang related charges.
But existence is a little easier for some behind bars where there is a special wing just for gay and transgender inmates.
It's the only one of its courteous in a major city, and L.A. Weekly writer Ani Ucar says that it was made to protect these prisoners from the violence and harassment they might face in the general population side of the jail.
"There was no racial divide among the inmates, there were no gang politics," she says. "They made it a safe vacuum for themselves."
It was created in after an ACLU lawsuit forced the Department of Corrections to create this wing. Today, about inmates reside in the facility.
Despite the fun that was on display when she was visiting, Ucar says that it is still a jail where some men told her it's not all fun and games.
"When you talk with any of them individually, they'll tell you it is hell in there for them," she says.
Many came to this wing on drug-related charges, and several talked about their p