We selected 24 cartoons that describe 2015 from an LGBT perspective: which is your favorite?
United States, marriages without borders
26 June: the Supreme Court states that same-sex marriages are legal everywhere in the United States. It is a historic turning point for the recognition of civil rights in a country that, however, is still struggling to overcome racism.
Gay marriage, Ireland says “yes”
22 May: Irish people are called to the polls to decide if marriage rights have to be extended to homosexual couples. Referendum is a triumph for the “yes”: 62.1% of voters are in favor of the enlargement of rights.
Anti-gay movements do not give up
Even if more and more countries recognize families based on a same-sex couple, the homophobic opposition remains strong and combative: religious and political forces, as the Russian government, are in the forefront in spreading lies and misinformation.
The big hoax of “Gender Theory”
Manif pour tous in France, Sentinelle in piedi in Italy and other fundamentalist Christians groups invent a giant conspiracy to frighten ordinary people: gays want to destroy sexual differences through schools!
Catholic Church doesn’t abandon homophobia
3 October: Krzysztof Charamsa, a Polish priest and theologian, makes his coming out to protest against homophobia in the Catholic Church. Many homosexuals are disappointed by Pope Francis: they had a lot of expectations, but the actual openings are few.
Transphobia wants to conquer toilets
In the United States the debate on the right of transgender people to use public toilets matching their gender identity becomes increasingly violent. There are a lot of transphobic cartoons, while the trans-friendly ones are unfortunately rare.
North Africa, between silence and repression
6 September: in Tunisia a young man is arrested on charges of sodomy and subjected to degrading anal tests. Although the debate on the decriminalization of homosexuality is now open in North Africa, sexual diversity remains a taboo.
Willis, a gay-friendly feminist in Tunisia
Which are the best kittens to share on social networks? Obviously those of Willis, the most popular Tunisian cartoonist who continues to crank out delicious and scathing feminist denunciations against Islamist fundamentalism, misogyny and homophobia.
West Africa, between arrests and protests
March: 10 boys in Ghana shoot porn movies for some European manufacturers, but are not paid. The police tries to arrest all of them when they protest. Meanwhile, many Africans protest against Obama’s gay-friendly soliciting, that is judged hypocritical.
East VS West, clash of hypocrisies?
In the East and in the West, homosexuality is also exploited: the US army boasts its LGBT-friendly policies while killing defenceless civilians; meanwhile, some Indians define homosexuality alien to their history and they defend its penalisation (section 377).
France, inactive gays can donate blood
4 November: the French Ministry of Health announce that, by the next spring, homosexual men will be able to donate blood with the requirement of a yearlong celibacy. A step forward, but this discrimination remains unjustified.
Gay and lesbian sex: red-pencil cartoons!
There are always a lot of sexual references in cartoons about LGBT people. Even in the Charlie Hebdo issue published after the 7 January shooting, a Georges Wolinski’s strip celebrates, in his own way, lesbian sex.
