Salon: Queer rights are human rights: Fighting for freedom is polarizing the world

In much of the world, gay rights, and recognition of sexual and gender diversity, appear to be progressing. In Europe, the United States, Latin America and Australasia, acceptance is growing of the idea that queer rights are human rights. Still, in large parts of the world, people face rape, murder and torture if they are perceived to be openly homosexual or transgendered. [...]

The global situation suggests increasing polarization, both between and within states. As the authors of a 2016 report on state-sponsored homophobia point out, some Latin American countries have been leaders in legal recognition of queer rights, yet “the region shows the highest levels of violence and murder against LGBTI population, and in the most of the cases [sic] impunity is the rule.”

Progress is always ambiguous: South Africa has constitutional recognition of the need to prevent discrimination based on sexuality, and has legalized same sex-marriage; Australia has neither. Yet the real-life experience of most queer South Africans is almost certainly more difficult than for most Australians. [...]

Governments and religious leaders both create and reflect public opinion, and there are few issues where different attitudes are as stark. Research suggests that more than 80 percent of the population of some western countries accept homosexuality, whereas the figure drops below 10 percent across much of Africa and the Middle East. [...]

In 2016, the U.N. Human Rights Council appointed an “independent expert” to find the causes of violence and discrimination against people due to their gender identity and sexual orientation, and discuss with governments how to protect those people. At its best, the United Nations can create what U.S. scholar Ronnie Lipschutz called “an incipient global welfare system,” able to provide global norms and rules, and to prevent local opposition to basic human rights principles. U.N. resolutions can be used by local activists in lobbying governments, and an increasing number of U.N. agencies, led by UNDP and UNESCO, are incorporating queer issues into their agendas.

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