April 2016 was a dark time for Bangladesh’s LGBTQ+ community. On April 25, 2016, Bangladesh’s top gay rights activist, Xulhaz Mannan, was brutally murdered along with actor Rabbi Tonoy, identified by the local media as Tanay Mojumdar. Both are figureheads, pillars in Bangladesh’s thriving LGBTQ+ community.
A study claims that people are more biased against atheists expressing their lack of belief versus theists expressing their beliefs, particularly in the workplace environment. "Explaining anti-atheist discrimination in the workplace: The role of intergroup threat" authored by Kimberly Rios, Leah Halper, and Christopher Scheitle was published in a journal by the American Psychological Association (APA), APA Psycnet, on March 4, 2021.
A Christian woman who is a regular debater at Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner in the United Kingdom was recently stabbed by an unidentified assailant. A video that captured the incident has been circulating online. The video, published by The Daily Mail on July 25th, shows a man recording a usual Sunday morning at the Speakers’ Corner.
In Ohio, a Catholic-run school, Mt. Saint Joseph University (MSJU) confirmed that they would be hosting CNN’s town hall meeting where President Joe Biden will attend. The university confirmed the meeting on Tuesday, July 20; the town hall meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 21.
In Lakewood, Colorado, Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, had won a partial victory in a 2018 Supreme Court case for refusing to design a wedding cake for a gay couple on account of his own religious beliefs. Now again, he finds himself being the subject of another case regarding state discrimination laws for refusing to bake a birthday cake for a trans woman.
In a landmark decision earlier this month, Saudi Arabia amended their "Law of Procedure before Sharia Courts'' to allow women to live independently without permission from their male "guardian(s)".
On June 7, the Madras High Court in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu banned any medical attempts to "cure" or change the sexual orientation of a person in a significant upholding of LGBTQIA+ rights in the state. The court has also issued directives to sensitize society and various branches of the state, including police and judiciary, to remove prejudices against them.
The Beijing Olympics, to be held on February 4th, 2022, has been called to be boycotted by human rights groups across China. In light of the leak of Xinjiang Papers in 2019, the Uyghur genocide, Hong Kong and Tibet protests, China has been under constant scrutiny by the world for its’ questionable stand against human rights abuse reports from across the country.
On April 28th, 2020, Mubarak Bala (age 37), an Ex-Muslim atheist and President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was apprehended at his home and then taken to the northern state of Kano. There he faced blasphemy accusations from religious figures. Blasphemy is punishable by death in the region where sharia law is enforced on Muslims despite Nigeria’s own Constitution.
