Pushback: The Current Wave of Anti-Homosexuality Laws and Impacts on Health

We are at an extraordinary moment in the struggle for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) rights. Full citizenship rights, including those related to marriage equality, parenting, and health care are increasingly available to LGBT persons, couples, and families in countries as diverse as South Africa, Argentina, Spain, and the UK. 2013 was also a watershed year for LGBT rights in the US. Marriage equality advanced in a number of states and the landmark US Supreme Court decision United States v. Windsor ruled that much of the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional—lifting the restrictions on full federal marriage rights for same-sex couples [1]. Though prejudice and discrimination against LGBT people remains a reality in all countries, the force of the law, and of the view that homosexuality is a normal variant of human sexuality, appear to have shifted decisively. Globally, however, the situation remains markedly diverse, highly contentious, and the subject of vigorous debate in public fora, the media, and political life. While the European Union has mandated decriminalization of homosexuality as a requirement for membership, The Russian Federation enacted highly discriminatory legislation against homosexual ‘‘propaganda’’ in 2013, and used the EU stance on acceptance of homosexuality as a wedge issue to reduce support for European integration in Ukraine, and other states it seeks to influence [2]. The Indian Supreme Court in 2013 reversed a New Delhi High Court ruling that had struck down India’s colonial era anti-sodomy laws, effectively re-criminalizing same-sex behavior between consenting adults [3]. The Delhi High Court decision had been advanced by India’s National AIDS Control Organization, NACO, on the grounds that the sodomy statute was a barrier to HIV prevention services, and hence the decision was also widely seen as a setback for India’s HIV response [4]. A wave of harsh and discriminatory legislation has further criminalized a range of activities in several African states, including Nigeria and Uganda, where homosexual relations were already illegal before the current legislative efforts began [5]. The Nigerian law, ostensibly put in place to ban same-sex marriage, includes a range of restrictions on freedom of assembly, speech, and association, which prompted UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Hon. Navi Pillay, to point out that the law violates human rights statutes and treaties to which Nigeria is signatory [6]. Pillay’s comments during a recent official visit to Nigeria are telling: