On May 14, 2016, The Telegraph reported: Despite a general global trend towards the decriminalisation of homosexuality, it is still illegal to be a lesbian or bisexual woman in almost a quarter of countries across the world today, according to a new report.
Barbados, Morocco, Dominica, Maldives, Indonesia and Sri Lanka are just a few of the places where homosexuality is classified as a criminal act.
A survey by the Human Dignity Trust (HDT), a charity that supports challenges to anti-gay laws worldwide, has revealed the devastating ways in which the laws against homosexuality impact millions of vulnerable homosexual women.
In some countries, women had endured sexual and physical violence, rape and abuse from the police as well as state-sanctioned family and community abuse – all purely based on their sexual orientation or being a suspected homosexual.
Seventy-eight per cent of women surveyed in India said they had felt suicidal, or had experienced some form of violence, just for being gay.
Lesbian and bisexual women are particularly vulnerable to violation of their human rights, a result of their sexual orientation and gender.
Most have no option but to be forced into heterosexual marriages, meaning they may have little or no control over their sexual and reproductive choices – and resulting in a life time of undocumented and state-sanctioned rape.
Economically, homosexual women are also disadvantaged as a result of their gender. In the majority of countries that still see homosexuality as a criminal offence, men are the breadwinners.
Read more at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/rape-murder-and-abuse-the-penalty-for-being-a-gay-woman-today/
