Where are LGBT rights improving?

Parts of Latin America remain the standard for equality for LGBT rights. Argentina's Gender Identity Law 2012 allowed the change of gender on birth certificates for transgender people. It also legalised same-sex marriage in 2010, giving same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex couples, including the right to adopt children. Uruguay and Mexico City also allow equal marriage and adoption, and last week Colombia recognised its first legal same-sex civil union (not "marriage").

In Asia, LGBT groups are making progess, if slowly. Last year, Vietnam saw its first gay pride rally and this year's event will launch a campaign for equality in employment. On Tuesday, it was reported that the country's ministry of justice has backed plans to legalise gay marriage, after the ministry of health came out for marriage equality in April.
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In Malawi, the president Joyce Banda announced in 2012 that laws criminalising homosexuality would be repealed – she has since distanced herself from that, although there has been a moratorium and there have been no prosecutions. "So it's not just the global north where things are moving forward. In some parts of the world where you'd least expect them, things are getting better," says Stewart.

The number of countries legalising same-sex marriage continues to grow, with Denmark, Brazil, France and New Zealand just some that joined more progressive countries that had legalised it earlier. Last month in the US, where Barack Obama publicly supports equal marriage and it is legal in several states, the supreme court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (which prevented the federal government from recognising marriages between gay couples) as unconstitutional. And of course England and Wales now has the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013.

Where are LGBT rights worsening?
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After the death of Lembembe, gay-rights groups said they couldn't continue their work unless they are given protection by international donors who fund the fight against HIV/Aids. "We have all decided to stop our work in the field because our security is at risk," said Yves Yomb, executive director of Alternatives-Cameroun. "We have no protection from the police and we feel that our lives are at risk."

Sharing a border with Cameroon, Nigeria's anti-gay laws are becoming ever more draconian. It recently passed a bill outlawing same-sex marriage, punishable with a 14-year prison term. "Nobody in the country is seriously asking for gay marriage," says Stewart from the Kaleidoscope Trust. "There is no reason to legislate against it, when homosexual sex is already illegal. It also has more concerning provisions that ban the formation of groups that support LGBT rights and a series of provisions that if you know a homosexual but don't turn them in, you are aiding and abetting. That isn't on the statute books yet but it seems likely that it will pass in some form."

Politicians in Uganda are attempting to pass a similar bill, at one point seeking to punish homosexual relationships with the death penalty; people found guilty of being gay will now face life imprisonment, and anybody – parents, teachers, doctors – who suspects someone in their care is gay will be punished if they do not report them.
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  * Government criticised over efforts to safeguard civil partnership bill
  * Q&A: Peter Tatchell
  * The same-sex marriage bill does not live up to its aspiration of equality
  * Interactive Gay rights in the US, state by state

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 1. Journalist and political activist Julie Bindel explores what it means to be gay in the era of same-sex marriage and equal rights, from picket line to picket fence.
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