A military coup, backed by the United States, ousted a democratically elected government in Honduras on June 28, 2009. It has arrested, without trial, thousands of democracy activists.
More than 50 activists from the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP) have been killed, and there are more than 100 other violent deaths related to the coup and curfews.
The lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, trangender and intersex (LGBTI) community is being particularly targeted.
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The NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages has refused to change a transsexual man’s documents unless he undergoes life-threatening surgery.
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On March 10, 2009, three days after Mardi Gras, 34-year-old Veronica Baxter was arrested by Redfern police. She was charged with six counts of supplying a prohibited drug and held on remand at the all-male NSW Silverwater Metropolitan Reception and Remand Centre.
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Two weeks ago, Norrie won the right to have “non gender specific” written on zie's (non-gendered pronoun) birth certificate.
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Forty-five people attended a Womens Action Abortion Coalition (WAAC) forum on February 6. They discussed the need to reanimate the campaign for women’s right to control their own fertility, in the wake of the charging of a Cairns couple in April 2009 for using the abortifacient, RU486.
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I had the good fortune to attend a lesbian wedding in Sydney’s Waterfall National Park on January 10. Activist Georgina Abrahams married Journey, her partner of five years, in a ceremony conducted by a monk, Dada Prana, and a nun, Didi, of the Ananda Marga.
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When the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Legislative Assembly passed a civil unions bill, on November 11, 2009, granting same-sex couples the right to legally binding ceremonies, speculation abounded about how long it would last.
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How to Make Trouble and Influence People By Iain McIntyre Breakdown Press, 2009 270 pages, $29.95 Available from www.breakdownpress.org>
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Sex workers took to Sydney’s streets on November 13 to demand they be included in discussions about proposed changes to sex work laws. Sex work was decriminalised in New South Wales 13 years ago, bringing many positive changes to sex worker conditions.
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Rallies for marriage equality will be take place across Australia on November 28. The protests will launch a National Year of Action for same-sex marriage.
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A gay Bangladeshi couple have been battling to gain citizenship in Australia for 10 years. The Refugee Review Tribunal knocked back their claims three times, and three times a higher court has overturned the rulings.
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Following the bigger-than-expected turn-out across Australia for the August 1 national day of action for marriage equality, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) activist groups are gearing up for a big year in 2010.