LGBT Rights

Homosexuality, as a sexual orientation, is an enduring

pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions
primarily or exclusively to people of the same sex. It also
refers to a persons sense of identity based on those
attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a
community of others who share those attractions. Societal
attitudes towards same-sex relationships have varied over
time and place, from expecting all males to engage in samesex relationships, to casual integration, through acceptance,
to seeing the practice as a minor sin, repressing it through
law enforcement and judicial mechanisms, and to proscribing
it under penalty of death. However, the rise in support for
same-sex marriage over the past decade is among the
largest changes in opinion on any policy issue over this time
period.
In recent years, the world has seen enormous human
rights gains with respect to sexual orientation and gender
identity and expression. Yet, there have also been
substantial setbacks ranging from discriminatory
legislation, to impunity for brutal violence against lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people.
Seventy-six countries still criminalize homosexuality in some
way, while virtually every country in the world retains legal
provisions that impinge on the rights of transgender people
exposing them to some of the highest rates of violence of
any group of people in the world.
Charles Radcliffe, chief of the Global Issues Section at
the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR) says that hostilities toward LGBT people are deeply
ingrained in societies and that changing those mindsets and
protecting those people is the duty of governments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_homosexuality#Histor
iographic_considerations
http://www.people-press.org/2013/03/20/growing-support-forgay-marriage-changed-minds-and-changing-demographics/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kyle-knight/lgbti-rightsaround-the-w_b_5820598.html