LGBTQ+ rights ‘going backwards’ around world, warns UK envoy
Gay and transgender rights are going backwards in parts of the world, Britain’s first special envoy on LGBTQ+ Rights has warned, as Hungary implements an anti-gay law and equality reforms in Singapore and Bermuda are blocked.
Hungary recently passed a law banning the “promotion” of homosexuality or gender identity to minors, following in the footsteps of Russia, while in February Singapore’s highest court dismissed a challenge to the city-state’s gay sex ban.
Earlier this month, London’s Privy Council – the highest court of appeal for British territories – ruled that Bermuda’s ban on same-sex marriage was allowed under the island’s constitution. “It’s important to realise that there are some countries where human rights issues are a real concern, where they are going backwards,” Nick Herbert told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a video call.
Herbert, a 58-year-old British peer, was appointed as the country’s first ever Special Envoy on LGBTQ+ Rights last year. In June, he will lead Britain’s first global LGBTQ+ conference, aimed at promoting legal reform and tackling violence and discrimination.
