Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Australia Hosts LGBTQ Rights Conference

by Phil Mercer

   Sydney --

   Australia Wednesday is hosting one of the world's largest LGBTQ Human
   Rights Conferences. The event is part of Sydney WorldPride 2023, which
   half-a-million people are expected to attend.

   Discrimination and abuse are the focus of the three-day human rights
   conference that is one of the centerpieces of the festival in Sydney.

   The conference runs March 1-3 and brings together dozens of Australian
   and international experts. Organizers say it will highlight the
   "horrific abuse" of people in 70 countries where being gay is illegal.

   There has been significant social change in Australia over the years.
   Marriage equality laws were passed in 2017 and the age of consent for
   homosexual and heterosexual sex is the same. But in dozens of other
   countries being gay is illegal.

   Anna Brown, chief executive of the advocacy organization Equality
   Australia, told VOA that homophobia is rife.

   Brown said that, "Around the world we see LGBTQ+ people criminalized
   because of who they are or who they love. There're still 70 countries
   that criminalize same-sex sexual acts and we need to make sure that as
   a community we move forward together."

   She listed the actions still needed, including, "ending conversion
   practices that try and tell LGBTI people that we are somehow disordered
   or broken; protecting LGBTI people seeking safety and asylum; First
   Nations justice; and responding to these increasing threats to trans
   and gender-diverse inclusion, including in places like Australia, the
   US and UK."

   WorldPride promotes LGBTQ rights around the world. It was first staged
   in Rome in 2000 and has also been held in Jerusalem, London and Madrid.

   The next festival will be in Washington, DC in two years.

   One of the highlights of Sydney WorldPride 2023 was the Sydney Gay and
   Lesbian Mardi Gras parade last Saturday. Anthony Albanese became the
   first Australian prime minister to march in the event, joining 12,500
   others.

   Albanese said his government is committed to ending inequality based on
   sexuality or identity.