GZERO's coverage of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 78)
Scroll to the top

{{ subpage.title }}

A protester is seen carrying a Canadian rainbow flag.

Reuters

Hard Numbers: LGBTQ travel warning, drug deal on ice, weaker growth spurs rate hopes, bees hit the road

1 million: In response to a growing number of US state laws that discriminate against LGBTQ people, Canada has issued a travel warning for anyone visiting the southern neighbor. At least 1 million of Canada’s 40 million people openly identify as LGBTQ.

Read moreShow less

The Graphic Truth: Worlds Apart on LGBTQ Rights

LGBTQ+ rights are not distributed equally around the globe. While some countries are taking progressive steps toward 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.

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.

Read moreShow less
What Eurovision means to Ukrainians at war
What Eurovision means to Ukrainians at war | GZERO World

What Eurovision means to Ukrainians at war

Where else will you find banana-inspired wolves, dubstep rapping astronauts, or earworms about vampires? It’s Eurovision, of course: the 70-year-old song contest that pits nations against each other in an annual spectacle of camp, kitsch, and catchy melodies.

But for Ukrainians – who have won the contest three times in the past 20 years – the contest is about something much more.

On GZERO Reports, we visit a secret Eurovision watch party outside of Kyiv, a drag party in New York City, and look at how Eurovision is more political than you – or those wolves, astronauts, and vampires – could imagine.

Read moreShow less

A map showing countries in Africa and Asia that criminalize same-sex acts, by degree of punishment.

Paige Fusco

The Graphic Truth: Criminalizing LGBTQ love

Last week, Uganda’s parliament passed legislation that criminalizes identifying as LGBTQ, which puts individuals at risk of life imprisonment, or in some cases, even death. Similarly, draconian legislation over identifying as LGBTQ is under consideration in Ghana, and VP Kamala Harris’s visit to Zambia this week – for a summit celebrating democracy – is stoking anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. As of 2023, many parts of the world are still unsafe for the LGBTQ community, as same-sex acts are deemed illegal in 65 countries, from Latin America to Oceania. The death penalty is a possibility in 11 countries worldwide. We look at the range of penalties in Africa and Asia, the two continents with the highest number of countries criminalizing same-sex acts.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff walk to a helicopter on their way to Cape Coast in Accra, Ghana, Tuesday March 28, 2023.

Misper Apawu/Pool via REUTERS

What We’re Watching: Zambia warns against anti-LGBTQ protests, AI scares tech leaders

Zambia warns against anti-LGBTQ protests ahead of Harris’s arrival

Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema is warning against anti-LGBTQ protests ahead of US Veep Kamala Harris’s visit Friday, part of a three-nation Africa tour aimed at shoring up US relations across Africa.

While in Lusaka, Harris will (virtually) address the Summit for Democracy, a Biden-crafted international conference designed to bolster democratic institutions and norms amid rising global authoritarianism. But dozens of Zambian opposition MPs claim the summit also aims to introduce gay rights to the country.

The opposition Patriotic Front Party reportedly plans to hold protests before the summit, but Hichilema has called for calm and for a dialogue with his opponents. Earlier this month, he vowed to maintain Zambia’s laws criminalizing consensual same-sex acts, which carry a life sentence.

This isn’t the first time gay rights have come up during Harris’s tour. In Ghana, she noted that LGBTQ rights are human rights but did not discuss the proposed Ghanaian bill to criminalize LGBTQ identification and advocacy. Harris’s visit also follows Uganda’s adoption last week of a draconian law that criminalizes identifying as LGBTQ, which could involve the death penalty in some cases.

Read moreShow less

A sculpture of the World Cup trophy is pictured in front of Khalifa International Stadium in Doha.

Reuters

Will politics or soccer win Qatar's World Cup?

Sunday is the day half the world has been eagerly awaiting for four years. The men's soccer World Cup — the most-watched event of the most popular sport on the planet — kicks off in, of all places, Qatar.

Read moreShow less
Paige Fusco

The Graphic Truth: LGBTQI identification vs. social acceptance

International polls often gauge what percentage of a given population identify as LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex). But the willingness of people to divulge their gender identification and sexual preference is likely influenced by social and cultural attitudes towards LGBTQI people. In Saudi Arabia, for instance, where same-sex sexual acts can be punishable by death, no one is going to be upfront about their sexual proclivities. We look at the percentage of people who identify as LGBTQI in G20 countries, as well as how each of these countries rank on UCLA Law School’s LGBTI Social Acceptance Index.

This comes to you from the Signal newsletter team of GZERO Media. Subscribe for your free daily Signal today.


Subscribe to our free newsletter, GZERO Daily

Latest