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Russia investigating Duolingo for allegedly spreading ‘LGBTQ propaganda’

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RUSSIA

Opening screen on the popular learning app that teaches more than 40 languages to more than 60 million users worldwide. It has been accused of allegedly spreading “LGBTQ propaganda” by the Russian government media watchdog agency. (Screenshot)

The Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media agency, abbreviated as Roskomnadzor, has launched an investigation into the language learning app Duolingo for allegedly spreading “LGBTQ propaganda.”

The popular learning app teaches more than 40 languages to more than 60 million users worldwide.

Russian media news outlet Novaya Gazeta reported that a complaint, filed by a group Radetel, based in Novosibirsk in central Russia, and claims on its social media and website that it is on a mission to protect “public morality, culture and traditional values,” accused the learning app of violations of Article 5 the Russian “on the protection of children from information harmful to their health and development” law which specifies the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relations as detrimental to children’s health and development.”

Russian state media outlet TASS reported that Roskomnadzor confirmed that the agancy would be investigating Duolingo for potential “distribution of information that promotes LGBTQ.”

For its part as defined on its website, Duolingo states: “Duolingo believes deeply in diversity and representation. This made it a no-brainer to include all types of characters of different ages, ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations.”

The app’s statement goes on reading: 

“The second reason is our learners. Something really unique about Duolingo is the extremely vast and diverse audience for our content: Language learners of all ages, from all around the world. Yes, that’s a lot of people. And with such a broad base of learners, we have a responsibility to reflect and relate to the experiences of all kinds of people, LGBTQIA+ folks included.

Of course, characters are also much more compelling when they’re relatable, not only because of their dreams and their flaws but also who they love. So when we create Stories, which are written first in English and then adapted to other languages, we aim to make our content entertaining and relatable for learners worldwide. This is a fun and oftentimes difficult challenge. We’re proud to have our characters, especially our LGBTQ characters, help us do that.”

Radetel, which referred to members of the LGBTQ community as “sodomites” in its complaint to Roskomnadzor, said that “outraged” parents had brought Duolingo’s LGBTQ “propaganda” to its attention, adding that they had said they didn’t know how to explain the sentences to their primary school-age children “without traumatizing them,” Novaya Gazeta reported.

An annual meeting of judges of the Russian Supreme Court and all courts of general and arbitration jurisdiction, the leadership of the Supreme Court’s Judicial Department and representatives of federal authorities in February 2023. (Photo courtesy of the Russian government)

(Human Rights Watch) – Russian courts have issued the first known extremism convictions arising from the 2023 Supreme Court ruling designating the “international LGBT movement” as extremist, Human Rights Watch said on Feb. 14. The Supreme Court ruling, which was handed down on Nov. 30 but became public only in mid-January 2024, indicates that many more convictions may follow. 

The Supreme Court ruling also declared the rainbow flag a forbidden symbol of the “LGBT movement.” Displaying the flag is the basis for administrative penalties in at least three cases that courts have tried in recent weeks. In late January, a court in Nizhny Novgorod sentenced a woman to five days detention for wearing rainbow-colored earrings after an individual accosted her and her friend in a cafe. Also in late January, a judge in Volgograd region handed down a fine over a rainbow flag published on a social media page. In early February, a court in Saratov fined a woman for posting a rainbow flag on social media.

“The Supreme Court decision opened the floodgates to allow arbitrary prosecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, along with anyone who defends their rights or expresses solidarity with them,” said Tanya Lokshina, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “For years, Russian authorities tried to erase LGBT visibility, and now they have criminalized it.”

At least three groups supporting LGBT rights have shut down their operations for fear of prosecution. Other consequences of the ruling have included a series of police raids of gay clubs, incidents of self-censorship, and an uptick in requests for legal advice from remaining LGBT support groups, which have now turned to working clandestinely. 

The Supreme Court ruling and prosecutions flowing from it are discriminatory, violate a wide range of rights, and should be overturned, Human Rights Watch said.

Under Russian criminal law, a person found guilty of displaying extremist group symbols faces up to 15 days in detention for the first offense and up to four years in prison for a repeat offenseParticipating in or financing an extremist organization is punishable by up to 12 years in prison. The authorities may include individuals suspected of involvement with an extremist organization in the countrywide “list of extremists” and freeze their bank accounts. People deemed to be involved with an extremist organization are barred from running for public office. Draft legislation further expanding the notion of “justifying extremism” has passed first reading in Russia’s Parliament.

The Supreme Court’s perverse decision to accept the “international public LGBT movement” as a fictional defendant in this case was compounded by their denial of all requests by LGBT activists to participate, followed by the claim that “the defendant party failed to appear.” The court also refused to consider numerous appeals lodged by LGBT rights activists, saying that only the parties to the case had the right to appeal the ruling. By using the twisted legal fiction that there was an identifiable defendant called the “international LGBT movement” to contest the case, the Supreme Court denied all Russian LGBT persons and their allies directly impacted by the decision any due process rights, including by refusing to disclose the text of the judgment or reasons for the decision. 

The text of the ruling, which was later seen by a regional media outlet in the course of a court case and published in January, states that the rainbow flag is the movement’s symbol. Because Russian law enforcement practice treats even old social media posts that are still available online as grounds for prosecution, thousands of people, and most likely more,who have posted the rainbow flag over the years face the risk of prosecution. The ruling states that 281 “active participants” in the movement have been personally identified, but it does not clarify how or by whom.

The Supreme Court ruling is the most recent example of authorities’ long record of misusing Russia’s broad and vague anti-extremism legislation to prosecute peaceful critics and members of certain religious groups, Human Rights Watch said. Hundreds of people have been wrongfully prosecuted under criminal extremism legislation, according to the SOVA Research Center and the list of political prisoners released by prominent human rights group Memorial. 

Since a court banned three organizations affiliated with political opposition leader Aleksey Navalny as “extremist” in 2021, Navalny and five of his supporters have been sentenced to prison on a range of extremism charges for legitimate activism, while dozens more have received fines and short-term jail sentences. Six members of Vesna, a democratic youth movement, have been in pretrial custody since June 2023 on various spurious charges, including extremism. Hundreds of Jehovah’s Witnesses have been jailed since the organization was banned as “extremist” in 2017.

Editor’s Note: On Feb. 16, it was announced that opposition leader Aleksey Navalny had died in a Russian Penal Camp. 

The Russian Federal Prison Service said early Feb. 16 that Navalny felt unwell after a walk and lost consciousness. An ambulance arrived, and its crew tried to rehabilitate him but was unsuccessful, it added.

Navalny was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism, and in December was moved from a different prison to the highest-security level facility in the country near the Arctic Circle. The “special regime” penal colony prison in the town of Kharp, which is about 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow, is in a remote area known for its severe winters.

Navalny has been imprisoned since January 2021, when he returned to Russia after recovering from a poisoning that he blamed on Putin, who has denied trying to kill Navalny with a nerve agent.

The Supreme Court ruling has drawn strong criticism internationally. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights deplored the ruling, stating that “the law must never be used to perpetuate inequality and discrimination,” and saying that Russia should repeal laws that discriminate against LGBTQ people.

Five U.N. human rights experts reminded Russian authorities that under international human rights law, peaceful advocacy and expression of sexual orientation and gender identity can neither be considered “extremist” nor legitimate grounds for administrative and criminal prosecution.

“The ruling has no basis in reality; it is filled with conspiracy theories, false and unsubstantiated claims, and hateful stereotypes; and it seeks to impose ‘traditional values’ ideology through repressive criminal law,” Lokshina said. “The only way to remedy this travesty of justice is to vacate the recent convictions and reverse the absurd ‘extremism’ designation.”

POLAND

Wojciech Szelag (TVP screenshot)

BY ROB SALERNO — A newscaster on Poland’s public television service delivered an apology for his and the network’s previous vicious and dehumanizing coverage of LGBTQ people and issues, after Poland’s new government replaced the far-right editorial board of the broadcaster.

News host Wojciech Szelag acknowledged that TVP had frequently demonized LGBTQ people and delivered his apology ahead of a segment in which he interviewed two queer activists.

“For many years in Poland, shameful words have been directed at numerous individuals simply because they chose to determine for themselves who they are and whom they love,” Szelag said. “LGBT+ people are not an ideology, but people, specific names, faces, relatives, and friends. All these people should hear the word sorry from this place today. This is where I apologize.”

Poland’s new center-left government took office in December, ending eight years of government by the extremely right-wing Law and Justice Party that strongly opposed LGBTQ rights. The new government under Prime Minister Donald Tusk has moved to reshape institutions that the previous government had filled with party cronies, which caused controversy when the government fired the TVP management. TVP had long been accused of having become a mouthpiece for the Law and Justice Party.

Some liberals accused the government of repeating the mistakes of the right, but the government insists it is simply trying to restore editorial balance.

Bart Staszewski, one of the LGBTQ activists that was interviewed on the program said the apology was evidence that Poland is moving in the right direction.

“Today, first time in Polish TV, after eight years of right-wing government, the LGBT+ activists appeared in live broadcast. I was seating there and heard journalist shaking voice. He made an apology after years of portraying LGBT-people  a threat to Polish nation in the same studio. I was moved. Apology an important part of reconciliation. This is Poland I want to fight for… Thank you,” Staszewski wrote on X.

Straszewski later posted an image of an old broadcast in which Szelag said “LGBT ideology destroys family,” as evidence of how far the network had come.

Tusk has made several promises to the LGBTQ community as part of his election platform and coalition government agreement. He’s promised to institute a hate speech law, legalize same-sex civil unions and legalize abortion — all issues that were strongly rejected by the previous government. 

It’s not clear at present when or if these proposals will become law, as the Law and Justice Party still holds the presidency with its veto power, at least until elections expected next May.

UNITED KINGDOM

19-year-old Summer Betts-Ramsey appeared before a magistrate at Willesden Magistrates Court on Feb. 13, charged with attempted murder and possession of an deadly weapon in public after she allegedly stabbed an 18-year-old transgender woman at who was with friends headed to the Harrow Leisure Center for a roller-skating party.

Metropolitan Police Detective Inspector Nicola Hannant, who is leading the investigation, said:

“This was a shocking and violent attack and we continue to support the victim and her family as she recovers from her injuries. At this stage, we are treating this as a transphobic hate crime and we know this will cause significant concern.

Since the incident occurred, we have been working tirelessly to identify those responsible and are making good progress with our investigation.

We have already arrested four people however we continue to appeal for anyone who may have been in the area or who believes they have further information to come forward and speak to us. We have increased police patrols and would encourage people to approach these officers with any information or concerns.”

According to Hannant, the victim was subjected to transphobic slurs before being stabbed 14 times. She was rushed to hospital for treatment and subsequently discharged.

The attack comes just over a year after a pair of 15-year-olds stabbed trans teen Brianna Ghey, 16, to death in a park near her home in Birchwood. The teens, Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, now 16, were both handed life sentences earlier this month.

The Metropolitan Police have dedicated LGBTQ points of contact across London who can offer advice and support. Their contact details can be found here: (Link)

IRAQ

The transgender blogger and make-up artist known as ‘Simsim,’ shown in this interview with Iraqi media outlet Al Walaa in 2020, spoke candidly about the threats he faced regularly because of his appearance. (YouTube screenshot)

An unnamed security official with the Al-Qadisiyah Governorate, told Iraqi media outlet Shafaq News that a trans blogger was killed after being repeatedly stabbed in the center of the city of Al Diwaniyah, the capital city of the governorate that is located roughly 100 miles southeast of the country’s capital city of Baghdad.

The police official told Shafaq News: “Simsim, 28-years-old was killed by unknown assailants with several sharp knife stabs near the mural roundabout in the center of Diwaniyah city.” The official went on to note “the killers escaped to an unidentified location and the forensic team took the body to complete the legal formalities.”

Iraq has witnessed a series of assassinations of trans people, Shafaq News noted. One of the most prominent cases was the murder of NOOR BM, a popular TikTok figure who was shot dead by an unknown gunman in Baghdad in September 2023.

Last August, Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission has ordered media outlets and social media companies that operate in the country to refer to homosexuality as “sexual deviance.”

Homosexuality is legal in Iraq, but violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity remains commonplace in the country.

JAPAN

(Photo courtesy of Tacaquito Taqui Usui)

In a landmark ruling last week, the Okayama Family Court’s Tsuyama Branch recognized a trans man’s petition to legally change his gender without having first undergone sterilization.

Japanese media outlet The Mainichi reported that the plaintiff, 50-year-old Tacaquito Usui, a farmer from a rural area of the prefecture of Okayama, legally change his gender without having first undergoing sterilization, after the Supreme Court’s presiding judge, Yukihiko Imasaki, ruled the requirement unconstitutional this past October.

But while the Supreme Court did issue a ruling on sterilization surgery, the high court is re-evaluating the requirement that a person’s genitals must conform in appearance with those of the gender they identify with.

The Okayama court judged that the man fulfilled the appearance criterion, the same conclusion it reached in his first petition, due to factors including his having undergone hormone therapy.

The Mainichi reported Usui, operates a farm in the village of Shinjo, where he lives with his 46-year-old partner and her son, aged 13. With Usui’s gender now legally recognized, the pair will be able to fulfill their long-held wish to marry.

“I want to thank my family. I feel a new life is beginning,” Usui said in a press conference after the decision.

Usui was assigned as female at birth and has said that he felt uncomfortable being treated as such from a young age. After becoming an adult, he was diagnosed with gender identity disorder. Usui told reporters the latest outcome “left me feeling society has changed” and that he is “moved by the progress that has been made.”

Additional reporting by Rob Salerno, the BBC, PinkNewsUK, Human Rights Watch, Novaya Gazeta, Agence France-Presse, The Mainichi, Shafaq News and Euronews 24.

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Australia

Lesbian tennis player from Russia defects to Australia

Daria Kasatkina has publicly criticized war in Ukraine

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Daria Kasatkina (Screen capture via Tennis Channel/YouTube)

A Russian tennis player who came out as a lesbian and publicly criticized her home country’s war against Ukraine has defected to Australia.

“My application for permanent residency has been accepted by the Australian government,” said Daria Kasatkina in an Instagram post on March 28. “Australia is a place I love, is incredibly welcoming and a place where I feel totally at home. I love being in Melbourne and look forward to making my home there. As part of this, I am proud to announce that I will be representing my new homeland, Australia, in my professional tennis career from this point on onwards.”

The Telegraph reported Kasatkina in 2023 said she left Russia because she did not feel safe “as a gay person who opposes the war.” Kasatkina’s partner is Natalia Zabiiako, a Russian Olympic figure skater who was born in Estonia.

“Obviously, there are parts of this decision that have not been easy,” said Kasatkina in her Instagram post. “I want to express my thanks and gratitude to my family, coaches, and everyone who has supported me throughout my tennis journey to date.”

“I will always have respect and fond appreciation for my roots, but I am thrilled to start this new chapter in my career and my life under the Australian flag,” she added.

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Argentina

LGBTQ seniors in Argentina face uncertain future

President Javier Milei’s policies have disproportionately impacted retired pensioners

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Puerta Abierta a la Diversidad is Argentina's first home for LGBTQ seniors. (Photo courtesy of Puerta Abierta a la Diversidad)

Editor’s note: International News Editor Michael K. Lavers will be on assignment in Argentina and Uruguay through April 12.

Argentina has undergone significant changes in its economic and social policies since President Javier Milei’s inauguration in December 2023. These changes have had a significant impact on various sectors of society, especially retirees and the LGBTQ community.

Mercedes Caracciolo, a 79-year-old sociologist and lesbian activist, shared her experience with the Washington Blade on how the new measures have affected her quality of life.

“Since Milei’s arrival in government, which began with a brutal devaluation, I am more careful in my spending than I was before,” she said.

Although Caracciolo has additional income from rental properties, she recognizes the situation is much more critical for those who exclusively depend on a pension.

With more than 7 million people receiving pensions, many find themselves “scratching the poverty line” due to the loss of purchasing power. The libertarian government’s economic policies have drastically affected their welfare, leading to a wave of protests across the country.

The reduction of social programs and the lack of LGBTQ-specific public policies have deepened the difficulties that seniors already face. The loss of economic stability particularly affects those who have historically lived on the margins, with fewer job opportunities and limited access to a decent retirement. Many older LGBTQ people, who have spent their lives unable to form traditional families, now find themselves without a support network and with an increasingly less present State.

The advance of conservative discourses has also generated a climate of insecurity and fear.

“There is no more sense of security and stability in old age,” Graciela Balestra, a psychologist who is the president of Puerta Abierta a la Diversidad, the first home for LGBTQ seniors in Argentina, explained. “Many LGBTQ+ retirees fear that there are fewer and fewer rights. They see what is happening in Argentina and globally with the advance of the right wing, and they feel that what they worked so hard to achieve is in jeopardy.”

In addition to economic difficulties, the LGBTQ community has faced additional challenges.

Caracciolo noted many supportive spaces have had their government subsidies reduced or eliminated, weakening community networks essential to the well-being of LGBTQ seniors.

“Community networks are also weakened because many of them require state support for certain types of expenses,” she noted.

Balestra warned about the psychological impact.

“Obviously it impacted mental health. There is much more anxiety, there is fear. People who say ‘I’m afraid they’ll kill me’ or ‘I’m afraid to show myself,'” she said. “Before, they used to walk down the street holding hands with their partner, and now they don’t do it anymore. A lot of hopelessness.”

For Balestra, the concern goes beyond the LGBTQ community.

“The economic issue, the rights issue, the fear that something similar to the dictatorship will return. All of this is very scary. And besides, the hopelessness of believing that this is going to continue, that it is not going to change even in the next elections,” she said.

Civil society organizations have denounced an “adjustment” in policies related to gender and diversity that Milei’s government has undertaken. Pride marches in Argentina have become a stage for protests against the president’s policies, especially over his speeches that activists consider hateful towards the LGBTQ community.

Balestra stresses the fear is not only individual, but collective.

“Human rights no longer exist anywhere, women no longer have the place they used to have, they are once again objectified, machismo is on the rise again,” she said. “This brings a lot of despair to older people.”

Despite the climate of uncertainty, Balestra emphasizes resistence forces are still in force.

“We continue working, as always,” she said. “For 25 years at Puerta Abierta we have been doing reflection groups, cultural workshops, social meetings, all with respect to being able to make LGBT people aware of their rights. We never stop meeting, but lately we are talking more and more about these things that we had already left a little behind. The issue of coming out, fear, visibility. Now we have to talk about it again.”

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Africa

Report: Anti-LGBTQ discrimination has cost East African countries billions

Open for Business highlights Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda

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(Bigstock photo)

The economies of four East African countries are losing more than $5 billion a year because of discrimination against LGBTQ people.

The 80-page report that Open for Business, a coalition of leading global organizations that champion LGBTQ inclusion, released in late March focuses on Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. It attributes the losses to anti-homosexuality laws, and predicts more economic costs if lawmakers implement other harsh anti-LGBTQ measures.

The report notes Uganda is losing $2.4 billion, or 5.2 percent of its GDP, annually because of the Anti-Homosexuality Act that took effect in 2023. Open for Business last October revealed the country had already lost $1.6 billion in foreign direct investment, donor aid, trade, tourism, public health and productivity after President Yoweri Museveni signed the law.

Kenya is losing $1.5 billion, or 1.38 percent of its GDP.

The report warns that enacting the pending Family Protection Bill would cost the country an additional $6.3 billion, or 5.8 percent of its GDP, annually. Opposition MP Peter Kaluma, who has introduced the measure, in January claimed the Biden-Harris administration had blocked it and vowed to have fellow MPs pass it after U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Kaluma is a strong supporter of Trump and the Republican Party’s opposition to LGBTQ rights and other far-right conservative ideologies.

Tanzania is losing $1.1 billion, or 1.33 percent of its GDP, because of anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Rwanda is losing $45 million, or .32 percent of its GDP.

Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda unlike the other three countries, but consensual same-sex sexual relationships remain taboo. Queer Rwandans also face stigma, discrimination, social exclusion, and arbitrary detention.

“A series of private member bills in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania have threatened to pull the region back in terms of progress and human rights for LGBTQ+ people, and damage both the ease of doing business and their international reputation,” states the Open for Business CEO Dominic Arnall.

Arnall notes his organization’s extensive engagement with businesses across East Africa over the last five years has always linked harmful anti-LGBTQ laws to impacts on a country’s investment prospects.

“The finding lays bare an uncomfortable truth: That laws that harm the LGBTQ+ community are standing in the way of prosperity and growth for all citizens in the region,” he said.  

The report calls for LGBTQ inclusion as part of the region’s broader economic development agenda.

The Open for Business report notes anti-gay violence and discrimination in Tanzania has been on the rise since the late-President John Magufuli came to power in 2015. The country’s punitive anti-homosexuality law with a 30-year prison sentence for consensual same-sex sexual relations was already in place, but queer Tanzanians were generally not systematically targeted.

“Reporting of neighbors or community members for suspected homosexuality is frequent and law enforcement officers have been known to pose as members of the LGBTQ+ community to entrap and blackmail LGBTQ+ individuals,” states the report.  

It also notes the Tanzanian government’s crackdown on websites and social media accounts that promote LGBTQ rights and threatening the arrests of administrators who allow such content. The report concludes this suppression has caused queer people to live in fear and isolation.

Religious organizations, particularly Christian churches in Tanzania, also champion anti-LGBTQ rhetoric by encouraging their followers against tolerating homosexuality and transgender people. Politicians, meanwhile, use anti-LGBTQ narratives to gain support during campaigns.

While Rwanda stands out as the only East African country in which homosexuality is not criminalized and has foreign donors implementing programs that target the queer community, discussing LGBTQ rights in public is rare and same-sex relationships are not legally recognized. The Open for Business report notes this situation creates legal ambiguity and a fragile social environment for queer Rwandans.

“Several LGBTQ+ rights organizations have emerged in recent years, mostly in Kigali, although they do not always identify themselves as LGBTQ+ associations and are rarely formally registered, making it difficult for them to receive funding,” reads the report.

The Rwandan government has rejected calls to criminalize homosexuality, which it considers a “private matter.” It has also been adamant against efforts to protect queer people for fear of domestic opposition and a desire not to politicize the issue like in neighboring countries.

Kenya, like Rwanda, has for a long time been considered more receptive of queer people, “as long as LGBTQ members are not ‘too loud.’”

Anyone convicted under Kenya’s colonial-era sodomy law could face up to 14 years in prison. Efforts to enact a harsh anti-homosexuality law and anti-LGBTQ protests that religious leaders, politicians, and activists have organized have increased homophobia in the country.

“LGBTQ individuals report significant difficulties in securing formal employment, which pushes many of them into more precarious livelihoods in the informal sector,” states the report.

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