New Zealand survey shows LGBTQ kids face tougher home life and more likely to need state care
Disproportionately high rates of LGBTQIA+ young people in New Zealand are involved with government child agency Oranga Tamariki and face greater challenges growing up than other youth, a recently published report has found. The report, Youth19, is part of the Youth2000 Survey Series, looking at the wellbeing of young people who have interacted with Oranga Tamariki – rainbow and takatāpui (Māori who identify with diverse sexes, genders and sexualities) communities in particular. Tabby Besley, managing director of InsideOUT, a national organisation that supports rainbow young people, said the data was some of the first of its kind in Aotearoa, but presented unsurprising results.
“It’s obviously not nice to see but it’s important data to do advocacy work.” The report found that more young people from rainbow and takatāpui communities reported involvement with Oranga Tamariki – 14% compared with 9% for other young people.
The report also found higher rates of rainbow and takatāpui youth living away from their parents, and lower rates of feeling cared for by their parents. One in three said they did not feel safe at home, and two in three reported depression and serious thoughts of suicide.
German diplomat arrested in Brazil for alleged murder of husband
A Brazilian Judge has ordered that German Consul Uwe Herbert Hahn should be held in custody in connection with the alleged murder of his husband in Rio de Janeiro — denying defense claims of diplomatic immunity, according to CNN Brasil.
Rio police first took Hahn into custody on Saturday after his husband, Walter Henri Maximilien Biot, 52, was found dead in an apartment in the Ipanema neighborhood, police said. Video showed Hahn being escorted by Brazilian police outside a police station in Rio on Sunday.
Brazilian judge Rafael de Almeida Rezende cited alleged attempts to tamper with evidence among the factors in his decision to keep the diplomat in custody.
According to the decision, obtained by CNN, “the apartment was cleaned before the forensics team carried out its examination, a fact that by itself demonstrates that the release of the suspect in custody could lead to serious encumbrances to the collection of evidence.”
The judge’s order describes the crime scene and states “several lesions on the victim’s body originating from blunt-force trauma, with one of the [lesions] compatible with a foot stomp and the other with the deployment of a cylindrical instrument (supposedly a wooden club).”
Being gay is not a disease, Vietnam tells its medical workers to end anti-LGBTQ discrimination
Being gay is not a disease, Vietnam has told its doctors, as it called on medical workers to end discrimination against the LGBTQ community. Campaigners told AFP on Tuesday the statement was a major step forward for LGBTQ rights in the Southeast Asian nation, where gay, bisexual and transgender people have long felt marginalized.
In an official document released last week, the health ministry said that “homosexuality cannot be ‘cured’, does not need ‘to be cured’ and cannot be changed.”
It urged medical professionals to be “respectful” of gender and sexual orientation after receiving reports of doctors claiming they could treat gender minorities. “Do not consider homosexuality, bisexuality or being transgender a disease,” it said. Although Vietnam is seen as relatively progressive on LGBTQ issues compared with some other countries in Asia, misinformation about sexual orientation and gender identity is widespread.
According to a Human Rights Watch report published in 2020, some children are taught by both teachers and parents that being gay is a mental illness. Nguyen Thi Kim Dung, officer at Vietnam’s Center for Supporting Community Development Initiatives, said some young LGBTQ people were being taken by their parents to doctors to try and “cure” them. Many also faced discriminatory questions when attending regular appointments, and were put off getting medical checkups, she added.
But this “is an official acknowledgement to LGBT people that they have the right to go to medical establishments, and that they have the right to be treated equally,” she said.
