In Syria, there are quite a number of LGBTI refugees in the camps.
I'm sorry, in Jordan, in the camps, fleeing from Syria.
Some of those folks are fleeing because things are getting worse for
LGBTI communities.
But some of them are there because things are just plain worse, and
their villages are under fire.
So, it's an interesting complexity of things.
The situation of LGBTI people internationally
varies as you might imagine quite a lot.
It's kind of a funny moment for us here in the US because things are pretty much
getting really a lot better in the gay community here in the US, right?
We have gay marriage, we got rid of Domo, we have all kinds of great things coming.
We may have the end of employment discrimination soon.
And so in the US there's a little bit of a feeling, of well phew,
now we're done with that, which I can really understand.
But in the rest of the world,
things are actually getting a little bit worse in some place.
There are actually 76 countries in the world,
where it is a criminal infraction to be lesbian or gay.
Now, some of them have the law on the books but
it's not clear that it really means anything.
So in Singapore where we live,
there is a rule on the books that makes it a crime to be gay.
But, when I was there a few years ago I dropped into a gay bar that had
a nice rainbow flag outside and lots of advertisements and
it looked pretty much like your average gay bar in a US city.
So, it appears that that rule is not being enforced particularly in
Singapore though it still is on the books.
But in other countries, it is quite severe.
And some of those countries, it comes from a religious perspective and
sometimes it's a political perspective.
So in Iran, you are subject to the death penalty if it
is determined that you are LGBTI.
And, I think it's pretty clear that most of that arises out of
[SOUND] okay that's totally not okay, sorry.
Arises out of religious beliefs and
the same is true in a few primarily Catholic countries.
On the other hand in Uganda,
there is really an increasing anti-gay feeling and
many people feel that where that comes from is Evangelical Christian
movements in Uganda, much of which is not local in its genesis.
It comes from either the US or other countries who are sending in
missionaries in this particular approach and their view about
being gay is pretty punitive.
In Russia by contrast, have you all been following the sort of drama in Russia?
So in Russia, there's a legislation passed now that speaking
about gayness where a child could hear, is now a crime.
There was also a piece of legislation that is pending in that would allow
the government, in fact, mandate the government to take away the children
of people who were found to be lesbian or gay, bisexual, transgendered.
So, that includes your biological children,
your adopted children, children that you are helping to parent.