Tunisia recognizes first LGBT association

Progress in struggle for sexual minority rights

Tunis – The Tunisian association for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights ‘Shams’ has become the first one of its kind to be officially recognized by the interior ministry as part of a law on associations. The move marks progress in the sensitive issue of sexual minorities in the country.

The association’s deputy chief Ahmed Ben Amor said that Tunisia’s LGBT community no longer needs to hide and that the population must unite in the struggle against homophobia tendencies and for minority rights. Most of the work in this sector has been done online, given the anonymity of the web. However, the path towards equality between all genders and sexual orientations is still long in Tunisia, given that existing laws are susceptible of several different interpretations and applications due to subjective concepts such as ”decency”

Source – ANSA Med