Making Headway… Slowly

Down in Puerto Rico there is some movement in LGB rights.

Puerto Rico takes first step toward equal rights for all
LGBTQ Nation
By Associated Press
July 5, 2017

Puerto Rico‘s governor has created the island’s first government advisory board to champion LGBTQ issues and protect the rights of that community.

Gov. Ricardo Rossello said Wednesday that he’s striving to make the U.S. territory more diverse and inclusive. He is leader of a party known for being socially conservative.

Rossello said the board will submit a progress report every six months.

Currently, as in all U.S. territories save for American Samoa, same-sex marriage is legal in Puerto Rico, although a marriage equality ban was briefly reinstated by an antigay district judge last year until a federal appeals court restored the right.

However, the headline is misleading because…

However, as the Washington Blade reported, Puerto Rico’s senate rescinded transgender protections this past April, making it illegal for transgender students and people who work in the island’s Senate to use the bathroom or wear clothing that corresponds to the gender with which they identify.

Transgender Puerto Ricans can legally change their gender marker on their driver’s licenses, although not on their Puerto Rico-issued birth certificates. They can change their names on those documents, however, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Thump, thump, once again were hear the bus diving over of us.

---

Last week I wrote about crusade against LGBT people in Chechnya well now the leaders of Chechnya and Russia speak up about the killings and concentration camps.

Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov: Families should kill their gay relatives
Pink News UK
By Benjamin Butterworth
19th July 2017
Chechnya’s leader Presdient Ramzan Kadyrov has defended honour killings of gay men.

Speaking to HBO, the Chechen president said that he would defend the rights of families to murder their gay relatives.
[…]
In the TV interview, he declared: “If we have such people here, then I’m telling you officially, their relatives won’t let them be, because of our faith, our mentality, customs and traditions.
“Even if it’s punishable under the law, we would still condone it.”

And in Russia Trump’s idol said,

Putin spokesman backs Chechnya leader’s call for gay purge to ‘purify our blood’
LGBT Nation
By Jeff Taylor
July 17, 2017

Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s spokesman Dmitry Peskov defended Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov for his comments during an interview with HBO about gay people.
[…]
Peskov’s response amounts to a shrug and a, “Nothing to see here, folks.”

After saying Kadyrov’s words are often taken out of context, Peskov stated that “nothing out of the unusual was said there,” TASS reports.

Chechnya is a federal subject of Russia, and since April reports have been coming in about the abduction and abuse of gay and bisexual men.