LGBTQ Breaking News Service

Diplomats from 40 countries on Monday called for the protection of LGBTQ rights in Poland.

The ambassadors’ letter was published on the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.

It was signed, among others, by the US ambassador in Warsaw, most of Poland’s European Union partners, as well as representatives from the European Commission and the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).

“We express our support for the efforts to raise public awareness of issues affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community and other communities in Poland facing similar challenges,” the letter read.

“To shield communities in need of protection from verbal and physical abuse and hate speech, we need to jointly work on an environment of non-discrimination, tolerance and mutual acceptance,” it said.

The rights of minorities have become a flashpoint in recent years in Poland, led by the conservative populist Law and Justice (PiS) party which campaigns against what it calls “LGBT ideology”.

According to PiS party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, gay people pose a threat to the traditional family. President Andrzej Duda equated “LGBT ideology” with communism.

With support from the government, several regions have also declared themselves free from “LGBT ideology”.

The Council of Europe said in December last year that Poland’s record for LGBTQ rights was the worst in the EU, noting that leading politicians had made the situation even worse in recent years.

Tensions between Warsaw and Brussels have escalated in recent years over moves seen as undermining the independence of the judiciary, media freedom and the rights of women and LGBTQ people.

The EU adopted at the end of last year a new rule of law mechanism that ties respect for the EU’s core democratic values with EU funding.

Yet the mechanism hasn’t entered into force yet and the government is currently eying €36 billion of European funds aimed at mitigating the impact of the pandemic.

An all gay men’s chorus in Wales have released an video giving their take on gay dating in 2021.

The South Wales Gay Men’s Chorus, founded in 2008, released the video on their YouTube channel in an effort to give an entertaining insight into the dark realities of gay dating apps.

Composed by Dr Gareth Churchill, the video is a unique collaboration from various singing members of the group across South Wales.

Hitting notes from the comfort of their own home due to Covid restrictions, that hasn’t stopped the group from creating a well needed pick-me-up for viewers to enjoy.

Craig Stephens, Chair of the committee said that attending the sessions was a great reliever of stress and a form of therapy for him.

“For me personally I had a job with quite a lot of responsibility and on a Thursday evening I would kind of sing away my stresses of the week and get ready for the weekend,” he said.

“It was really therapeutic.

“We have open evenings normally twice a year. Some people like it and stay and some people don’t. I think a lot of people would recognise it as being some kind of therapy.”

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The video posted in April this year comically references the experience of gay men dating on Grindr. Grindr is a leading dating app catered towards gay men and can be quite difficult to navigate, as the lyrics in the video suggest.

In a non-Covid world, the chorus would travel allover the UK to sing and perform for various charities and Pride events. So far, the chorus have performed in countless venues in Cardiff and across Wales.

The Chorus are always looking for new members. If you’re keen to lend your vocals to this talented bunch send them an email at gaychorus@gmail.com

It’s mid-May, and believe it or not, bonus season continues to roll on. This time around, an elite boutique law firm has entered the arena, and has, once again, beaten the market rate for bonuses doled out in Biglaw. Selendy & Gay routinely kills it — and time and again, the firm is more than willing to share its success with associates through big bonuses.

“Since our founding, Selendy & Gay has been a market leader in associate compensation,” partner Andrew R. Dunlap wrote in an email to associates. “This year, we intend to exceed the market once again.” Before we get to the bonus amounts the firm is offering to associates, here’s a little reminder about the going market bonus scale, set by Davis Polk in March:

Here’s what the Selendy & Gay bonus scale looks like (full memo on next page):

These are the total bonuses for each class year at the firm, with the overage on market bonuses in parentheses:

• Class of 2020: $13,800 ($1,800)
• Class of 2019: $18,400 ($2,400)
• Class of 2018: $36,800 ($4,800)
• Class of 2017: $50,600 ($6,600)
• Class of 2016: $59,800 ($7,800)
• Class of 2015: $68,080 ($8,880)
• Class of 2014+: $73,600 ($9,600)

As noted above, special bonus payments at Selendy will be made on May 31 and September 15, and they come in addition to bonus payments at year-end, which are not lockstep, but based on performance.

Congratulations to everyone at Selendy & Gay who will be taking home these extra special special bonuses.

(Flip to the next page to see the full memo from Selendy & Gay.)

Remember everyone, we depend on your tips to stay on top of important bonus updates, so when your firm matches, please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Matches”). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

And if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts (which is the alert list we also use for salary announcements), please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish. Thanks for all of your help!

Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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The horrifying murder of a 20-year-old gay man in Iran has shed new light on how the criminalization of consensual same-sex sexual conduct and gender non-conformity perpetuates systemic violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI), said Amnesty International in a detailed analysis issued to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersex-phobia and Transphobia. His murder also highlights the urgent need for the Iranian authorities to enact and implement laws to protect the human rights of LGBTI people. 

Friends of Alireza Fazeli Monfared, who identified as a non-binary gay man, told Amnesty International that he was abducted by several male relatives in his hometown of Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, on 4 May 2021. The next day the relatives informed his mother that they had killed him and dumped his body under a tree. Authorities confirmed that Alireza Fazeli Monfared’s throat was slit and announced investigations, but none of the suspected perpetrators have been arrested to date.

Alireza Fazeli Monfared’s brutal murder exposes the deadly consequences of state fuelled homophobia and is a tragic reminder of the urgent need to repeal laws that criminalize consensual same-sex relations and gender non-conformity

“Alireza Fazeli Monfared’s brutal murder exposes the deadly consequences of state fuelled homophobia and is a tragic reminder of the urgent need to repeal laws that criminalize consensual same-sex relations and gender non-conformity. These laws foster a permissive climate for homophobic and transphobic hate crimes and legitimize violent, including deadly, attacks against people on the grounds of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.,” said Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

“The Iranian authorities’ brazen disregard for the lives and safety of LGBTI people and the prevailing climate of impunity for such crimes raise the alarm that his murder could go unpunished.

“We urge the Iranian authorities to conduct a prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigation into Alireza Fazeli Monfared’s murder and take urgent action to protect LGBTI people from discrimination, harassment, assaults and other abuses from state and non-state actors.”

According to individuals interviewed by Amnesty International who had known Alireza Fazeli Monfared for months or years prior to his murder, including his partner and a close friend, he had faced years of homophobic and transphobic harassment and death threats by several male relatives because he did not conform to the binary socio-cultural gender stereotypes and “norms” in Iran. According to these informed sources, he had never reported such incidents to the police out of a fear of facing violence and prosecution at the hands of the authorities.

LGBTI people in Iran face pervasive discrimination, live in the constant fear of harassment, arrest and criminal prosecution, and remain vulnerable to violence and persecution based on their real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.

Under Iran’s Islamic Penal Code consensual same-sex sexual conduct is criminalized and punished by penalties ranging from flogging to the death penalty.

We’ve come a long way in advancing the rights of the LGBT+ community who remain disproportionately affected by HIV. But on International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia (Idahobit), I fear the UK is stepping away from its commitment to help safeguard and protect LGBT+ people around the world.

Progress on global LGBT+ rights and the HIV response continues to be slow, uneven, and chronically underfunded. According to the Global Philanthropy Project (GPP), between 2017-2018, donor government funding on LGBT+ issues accounted for just 0.04 per cent of all international development efforts. There is however a very strong need and rationale for the government to fund new intiatives.

Even before Covid-19, the HIV response was in a very precarious position. Despite being preventable, approximately 690,000 people annually still die from an Aids related illness. New HIV transmissions are being increasingly concentrated amongst marginalised groups, including the LGBT+ community. Covid-19 has led to massive disruptions in the HIV response. Across facilities surveyed by the Global Fund, HIV testing fell by over 40 per cent in 2020.

One of the central reasons why the HIV response is off-course is that we have not successfully addressed the hostile environment that marginalised communities face – 71 jurtistictions still criminalise same-sex sexual activity. The criminalisation of homosexuality legitimises prejudice and exposes people to hate crimes, police abuse, torture and family violence. Until LGBT+ identities are fully decriminalised, these communities will continue to have a heightened vulnerability to HIV and Aids.

For example, transgender people are 49 times more likely to acquire HIV compared to the general population, with a global estimate of 19 per cent of transgender women living with HIV.

Thankfully we know what works and what we have to do. Since the start of the HIV response, the leadership of affected communities and civil society organisations has been critical. This is from peer support, delivering services and working to reform punitive laws. But by looking to cut the aid budget by a third, the UK government has decimated the very funding needed to advance LGBT+ rights and get the HIV response back on track.

This includes cutting the government’s funding to UNAids from £15m a year down to just £2m a year. A cut of more than 80 per cent. This mirrors drastic cuts across the board for civil society organisations doing critical work in supporting marginalised communities.

UNAids plays a leading role in driving policy reforms to strengthen the rights of the most marginalised people, including the decriminalisation of LGBT+ communities. UNAids supports marginalised communities in advocating for the advancement of their human rights.

It also leads on crisis responses during human rights violations. For example, to secure the release of people arrested in crackdowns for being from the marginalised communities most affected by HIV, including LGBT+ people. This work is key in helping prevent countries from sliding into persecutory policing and securing the dignity and health of vulnerable people in many parts of the world

The organisation’s impact is so huge because it is catalytic – UNAids makes sure that countries’ HIV funding is well spent, develops best practice and helps countries reform laws, like LGBT+ criminalisation, that stand in the way of beating Aids. Investing just £15m a year into UNAids is a relatively small amount of money but can have a truly transformational impact.

Only a month ago, the government strongly endorsed UNAids’s new strategy which proposes bold action on fighting stigma, discrimination, violence and punitive laws. Its work aligns closely with the government’s own development priorities. But by now looking to cut their funding by over 80 per cent, the government risks jeopardising this very work they’re meant to be championing.

As we approach next month’s UN High Level Meeting on HIV and Aids, to deliver on the promise to Leave No One Behind, the government must act now. It must safeguard critical funding and urgently return to the 0.7 per cent aid spending commitment.

Dozens of ambassadors to Warsaw on Monday (17 May) called for the protection of LGBT rights in Poland, whose record on the issue was found to be the worst in the EU by an international watchdog.

Gay rights have become a flashpoint issue in Poland in recent years under the governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which campaigns against what it calls “LGBT ideology”, likening the promotion of gay rights to a form of communism.

“We express our support for the efforts to raise public awareness of issues affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community and other communities in Poland facing similar challenges,” the open letter said.

“To shield communities in need of protection from verbal and physical abuse and hate speech, we need to jointly work on an environment of non-discrimination, tolerance and mutual acceptance,” it said.

The letter was signed by diplomats from 40 countries, including the US and most of Poland’s EU partners, as well as representatives from the European Commission, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and other organisations.

In December, the Council of Europe classed Poland’s record for LGBT rights as the worst in the EU and said leading politicians had made the situation even worse in recent years.

PiS party chief Jarosław Kaczyński has said gay people are a threat to the traditional family and President Andrzej Duda has equated “LGBT ideology” with communism.

With support from the government, several regions have also declared themselves free from “LGBT ideology” in Poland.