New Report Demonstrates Chilling Effects of Nigeria’s ‘Anti-Gay Law’

2nd July 2015 | PEN OutWrite | One Comment

PEN America and the Leitner Center team up to shine a light on repressive anti-LGBTI laws

NEW YORK— Eighteen months after its passage, Nigeria’s “anti-gay law” has sharply curbed freedom of expression, assembly, and association in Africa’s largest democracy, according … Read More

Falling | Jude Dibia

16th May 2015 | PEN OutWrite

Illustration: Kajsa Nilsson

Read in French here

Sasha was thirteen years old when he first heard the word wanker. He had no idea what the word meant. At first he thought he had misheard the common curse word “waka” that … Read More

The same-sex marriage referendum and the embrace of love | Colm Tóibín

16th May 2015 | PEN OutWrite

Image Eric Kilby, Embrace Sculpture

In 1996, after I had published my novel The Story of the Night, which is in part an account of the love between two men, I received a private letter from one of the most powerful … Read More

Queer Stories | Beatrice Lamwaka

15th May 2015 | PEN OutWrite

Image: Kajsa Nilsson

The two lovers giggled as they walked on Kampala Road, I started writing one morning. Wait a minute! The second sentence should not be about a same sex couple. And they should not be scantily dressed. These … Read More

True Wheel | USA

15th May 2015 | PEN OutWrite

Dir: Nora Mandray Curated by Future Shorts

True Wheel is part of a trilogy of short documentaries filmed in Detroit about DIY movements that have sprouted in our the city’s industrial era.

At first sight, Detroit appears as a … Read More

Umunthu | Malawi

15th May 2015 | PEN OutWrite

Dir: Mwiza Nyirenda

Curated by Future Shorts

I made the film with the understanding that the issue of homosexuality in Malawi has been divisive, emotional and its debates, Black or White. Rarely did parties, engage in more thoughtful … Read More

Mummy Busi | South Africa

15th May 2015 | PEN OutWrite

Dir: Iris Lebrun

Curated by Future Shorts

Each year in South Africa thousand of women are raped. In the province of Gauteng near Johannesburg, a single mother is trying to raise her four daughters in that tough environment.

… Read More

Freedom of things to be Expressed | Mehran Rezaei & Babak Salimizadeh

15th May 2015 | PEN OutWrite

Illustration: Kajsa Nilsson

A phenomenological comment on Freedom of Expression, Case of Iranian ‘Queer’[1] Mehran Rezaei & Babak Salimizadeh

Introduction “One of those professors went to the class and told her students that homosexuality is a good thing…She is a sociologist… … Read More

James | Ireland

15th May 2015 | PEN OutWrite

Dir: Connor Clements Curated by Future Shorts

James focuses on a boy in Northern Ireland isolated by his sexuality, alienated from his family due to his parent’s marital troubles, the title character “James” reaches out in desperation to his teacher … Read More

The Goat | South Africa

15th May 2015 | PEN OutWrite

Dir: John Trengove Curated by Future Shorts

The Goat is a short film that was born out of research I was doing on Ukwaluka, an ancient and widely practiced coming-of-age ritual in South Africa. Xhosa boys between the ages of … Read More