The Graphic Truth: Worlds apart on LGBTQ rights

LGBTQ+ rights are not distributed equally around the globe. While some countries are taking progressive steps towards equal rights, just as many are implementing discriminatory and dangerous anti-LGBTQ legislation. From Latin America to Oceania, members of the LGBTQ+ community still face repression, imprisonment, and even death threats.

On the positive side: A Japanese court ruled last week that a ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, paving the way toward legalization. Also, in 2022 we saw Cuba and Switzerland add themselves to the list of countries that recognize same-sex unions.

Meanwhile, Uganda signed the world’s toughest anti-LGBTQ laws in May, mandating the death penalty for homosexual acts and 20-year prison sentences for anyone who promotes homosexuality. In the US, there are currently 491 anti-LGBTQ bills in state legislatures. While not all of them will become law, they all hurt the LGBTQ community – both domestically and globally. After all, each domestic effort also reflects a weakening US resolve to stand up for LGBTQ rights on the global stage.

We take a look at the landscape of rights for same-sex couples around the globe.

More from GZERO Media

Happy young couple hide behind paper hearts to kiss.
IMAGO/Pond5 Images via Reuters

ChatGPT is a prude. Try to engage with it about sex or other risqué topics, and it’ll turn you down. The OpenAI chatbot’s usage rules specify that even developers who build on the platform must be careful to design their applications so they’re age-appropriate for children, meaning no “sexually explicit or suggestive content,” except for scientific and educational purposes. But the company is reportedly now looking into its blue side.

The MI6 secret service headquarters on the bank of the River Thames at Vauxhall in London.
PA Images via Reuters Connect

Microsoft has revealed that it has its own artificial intelligence that’s just for spies.

This artist s conception symbolically represents complex organic molecules, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, seen in the early universe. These large molecules, comprised of carbon and hydrogen, are considered among the building blocks of life.
IMAGO/piemags via Reuters Connect

Google updated one of its most potential artificial intelligence applications, an AI model called AlphaFold — and the latest version can model “all of life’s molecules,” the company said last week.

Will AI further divide us or help build more connections? | GZERO AI

In this episode of GZERO AI, Taylor Owen, professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University and director of its Centre for Media, Technology & Democracy, takes stock of the ongoing debate on whether artificial intelligence, like social media, will further drive loneliness—but at breakneck speed, or help foster meaningful relationships.

Demonstrators hold a rally to protest against a bill on "foreign agents" in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 13, 2024.

REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze

Police in Tbilisiviolently arrested at least 20 people on Monday at peaceful protests outside parliament, where the inflammatory “foreign agents” law was being rushed through committee. Having passed its third reading, the bill will go to a final vote Tuesday. It now seems all but inevitable to become law, opening questions about how far the ruling Georgian Dream party will go to cement its control.

Israel-Gaza situation has Biden facing bipartisan criticism | Ian Bremmer | Quick Take

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: When the war started, the US was not aligned on Israel policy with all of its allies out there. Increasingly today it is, with the entirety of the G7 and with allies in the Gulf, in the Middle East. And a US policy—like its policy on Ukraine—where the US is leading but is coordinating security policy with everyone, is a much stronger policy than one where the Americans are by themselves. Biden is now in a position where he's increasingly by himself internationally, and he's also increasingly by himself at home.

Michael Cohen is questioned by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger in Manhattan state court on May 13, 2024, in this courtroom sketch.

REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg

Disgraced attorney Michael Cohen testified for over four hours on Monday about his role in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to control negative stories about him during the 2016 election, including paying off former adult actresses Trump allegedly slept with.