Rights organizations call for international leaders to condemn anti-LGBT bill

LGBTQ rights also continued to make a splash: The proposed anti-LGBT law is a “deeply discriminatory bill [that] would be a huge setback for human rights and another nail in the coffin for [redacted] rights in Egypt,” Amnesty International’s North Africa Campaigns Director Najia Bounaim says. The bill, which stipulates a prison sentence of 5-7 years for individuals found guilty of LGBT activity, would also allow authorities to publish the names of those convicted in national newspapers as a means of “publicly shaming” them. Meanwhile, Shawn Gaylord writes for Advocate that the “crackdown” on Egypt’s LGBT community is partly a strategy “to obscure the government’s myriad policy failings.” He urged US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to be among the world leaders to condemn the draft law.