title: Zoo

text: The position of most modern zoos in Australasia, Asia, Europe, and North America, particularly those with scientific societies, is that they display wild animals primarily for the conservation of endangered species, as well as for research purposes and education, and secondarily for the entertainment of visitors. The Zoological Society of London states in its charter that its aim is "the advancement of Zoology and Animal Physiology and the introduction of new and curious subjects of the Animal Kingdom." It maintains two research institutes, the Nuffield Institute of Comparative Medicine and the Wellcome Institute of Comparative Physiology. In the U.S., the Penrose Research Laboratory of the Philadelphia Zoo focuses on the study of comparative pathology. The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums produced its first conservation strategy in 1993, and in November 2004, it adopted a new strategy that sets out the aims and mission of zoological gardens of the 21st century. When studying behaviour of captive animals, several things should however be taken into account before drawing conclusions about wild populations. Including that captive populations are often smaller than wild ones and that the space available to each animal is often less than in the wild.


title: Zoo

text: Conservation programs all over the world fight to protect species from going extinct, but many conservation programs are underfunded and under-represented. Conservation programs can struggle to fight bigger issues like habitat loss and illness. It often takes a lot of funding and long time periods to rebuild degraded habitats, both of which are scarce in conservation efforts. The current state of conservation programs cannot rely solely "on situ" (on-site conservation) plans alone, "ex situ" (off-site conservation) may therefore provide a suitable alternative. Off-site conservation relies on zoos, national parks, or other care facilities to support the rehabilitation of the animals and their populations. Zoos benefit conservation by providing suitable habitats and care to endangered animals. When properly regulated, they present a safe, clean environment for the animals to increase populations sizes. A study on amphibian conservation and zoos addressed these problems by writing,


title: Zoo

text: Whilst addressing "in situ" threats, particularly habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, is of primary importance; for many amphibian species "in situ" conservation alone will not be enough, especially in light of current un-mitigatable threats that can impact populations very rapidly such as chytridiomycosis [an infectious fungal disease]. "Ex situ" programmes can complement "in situ" activities in a number of ways including maintaining genetically and demographically viable populations while threats are either better understood or mitigated in the wild


title: Zoo

text: The breeding of endangered species is coordinated by cooperative breeding programmes containing international studbooks and coordinators, who evaluate the roles of individual animals and institutions from a global or regional perspective, and there are regional programmes all over the world for the conservation of endangered species. In Africa, conservation is handled by the African Preservation Program (APP); in the U.S. and Canada by Species Survival Plans; in Australasia, by the Australasian Species Management Program; in Europe, by the European Endangered Species Program; and in Japan, South Asia, and South East Asia, by the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the South Asian Zoo Association for Regional Cooperation, and the South East Asian Zoo Association.


title: Zoo

text: Besides conservation of captive species, large zoos may form a suitable environment for wild native animals such as herons to live in or visit. A colony of black-crowned night herons has regularly summered at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. for more than a century. Some zoos may provide information to visitors on wild animals visiting or living in the zoo, or encourage them by directing them to specific feeding or breeding platforms.


title: Zoo

text: In modern, well-regulated zoos, breeding is controlled to maintain a self-sustaining, global captive population. This is not the case in some less well-regulated zoos, often based in poorer regions. Overall "stock turnover" of animals during a year in a select group of poor zoos was reported as 20%-25% with 75% of wild caught apes dying in captivity within the first 20 months. The authors of the report stated that before successful breeding programs, the high mortality rate was the reason for the "massive scale of importations."


title: Zoo

text: One 2-year study indicated that of 19,361 mammals that left accredited zoos in the U.S. between 1992 and 1998, 7,420 (38%) went to dealers, auctions, hunting ranches, unaccredited zoos and individuals, and game farms.


title: Zoo

text: The welfare of zoo animals varies widely. Many zoos work to improve their animal enclosures and make it fit the animals' needs, but constraints such as size and expense can complicate this. The type of enclosure and the husbandry are of great importance in determining the welfare of animals. Substandard enclosures can lead to decreased lifespans, caused by factors as human diseases, unsafe materials in the cages and possible escape attempts (Bendow 382). However, when zoos take time to think about the animal's welfare, zoos can become a place of refuge. There are animals that are injured in the wild and are unable to survive on their own, but in the zoos they can live out the rest of their lives healthy and happy (McGaffin). In recent years, some zoos have chosen to move out some larger animals because they do not have the space available to provide an adequate enclosure for them (Lemonic, McDowell, and Bjerklie 50).


title: Zoo

text: An issue with animal welfare in zoos is that best animal husbandry practices are often not completely known. Especially for species that are only kept in a small number of zoos. To solve this organizations like EAZA and AZA have begun to develop husbandry manuals.


title: Zoo

text: Many modern zoos attempt to improve animal welfare by providing more space and behavioural enrichments. This often involves housing the animals in naturalistic enclosures that allow the animals to express more of their natural behaviours, such as roaming and foraging. Whilst many zoos have been working hard on this change, in some zoos, some enclosures still remain barren concrete enclosures or other minimally enriched cages.


title: Zoo

text: Sometimes animals are unable to perform certain behaviors in zoos, like seasonal migration or traveling over large distances. Whether these behaviors are necessary for good welfare however is unclear. Some behaviors are seen as essential for an animal's welfare whilst others aren't. It is however shown that even in limited spaces, certain natural behaviors can still be performed. A study in 2014 for example found that Asian elephants in zoos covered similar or higher walking distances then sedentary wild populations. Migration in the wild can also be related to food scarcity or other unfavorable environmental problems. However a proper zoo enclosure never runs out of food or water, and in case of unfavorable temperatures or weather animals are provided with (indoor) shelter.


title: Zoo

text: Animals in zoos can exhibit behaviors that are abnormal in their frequency, intensity, or would not normally be part of their behavioural repertoire. Whilst these types of behaviors can be a sign of bad welfare and stress, this isn't necessarily the case. Other measurements or behavioral research is advised before determining whether an animal performing stereotypical behavior is living in bad welfare or not. Examples of stereotypical behaviors are pacing, head-bobbing, obsessive grooming and feather-plucking A study examining data collected over four decades found that polar bears, lions, tigers and cheetahs can display stereotypical behaviors in many older exhibits. However they also noted that in more modern naturalistic exhibits, these behaviors could completely disappear. Elephants have also been recorded displaying stereotypical behaviours in the form of swaying back and forth, trunk swaying or route tracing. This has been observed in 54% of individuals in UK zoos. However it has been shown that modern facilities and modern husbandry can greatly decrease or even entirely remove abnormal behaviors. A study of a group of elephants in Planckendael showed that the older wild-caught animals displayed many stereotypical behaviors. These elephants had spent part of their lives either in a circus or in other substandard enclosures. On the other hand, the elephants born in the modern facilities that had lived in a herd their whole life barely displayed any stereotypical behaviors at all. The life history of an animal is thus extremely important when analyzing the causes of stereotypical behavior, as this can be a historical relict instead of a result of present-day husbandry.


title: Zoo

text: Some zoos have used psychoactive drugs, such as Prozac, in attempting to stop animals from exhibiting the behaviors.


title: Zoo

text: The influence on a zoological environment on animal's longevity is not straightforward. A study of 50 mammal species found that 84% of them lived longer in zoos than they would in the wild on average. On the other hand, some research claims that elephants in Japanese zoos would live shorter than their wild counterparts at just 17 years. This has been refuted by other studies however. Such studies might not yet fully represent recent improvements in husbandry. For example, studies show that captive-bred elephants already have a lower mortality risk then wild-caught ones.


title: Zoo

text: Climatic conditions can make it difficult to keep some animals in zoos in some locations. For example, Alaska Zoo had an elephant named Maggie. She was housed in a small, indoor enclosure because the outdoor temperature was too low.


title: Zoo

text: Tsetse flies have invaded zoos that have been established in the tsetse zone. More concerning, tsetse-borne species of trypanosomes have entered zoos outside the traditional tsetse zone in infected animals imported and added to their collections. Whether these can be controlled depends on several factors: Vale 1998 found that the technique used in placing attractants was important; and Green 1988, Torr 1994, Torr et al. 1995, and Torr et al. 1997 found the availability for specifically needed attractants for the specific job to also vary widely.


title: Zoo

text: Some critics and many animal rights activists claim that zoo animals are treated as voyeuristic objects, rather than living creatures, and often suffer due to the transition from being free and wild to captivity. However, ever since imports of wild-caught animals became more regulated by organizations like CITES and national laws zoos have started sustaining their populations via breeding. This change started around the 1970s. Many cooperations in the form of breeding programs have been set up since, for both common and endangered species. Emma Marris, writing an opinion piece for The New York Times, suggested zoos "stopped breeding all their animals, with the possible exception of any endangered species with a "real" chance of being released back into the wild ... Eventually, the only animals on display would be a few ancient holdovers from the old menageries, animals in active conservation breeding programs and perhaps a few rescues. Such zoos might even be merged with sanctuaries."


title: Zoo

text: In some countries, feeding live vertebrates to zoo animals is illegal under most circumstances. The UK Animal Welfare Act of 2006, for example, states that prey must be killed for feeding, unless this threatens the health of the predator. Some zoos had already adopted such practices prior to the implementation of such policies. London Zoo, for example, stopped feeding live vertebrates in the 20th century, long before the Animal Welfare Act. Despite being illegal in China, some zoos have been found to still feed live vertebrates to their predators. In some parks like Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain Village, live chickens and other livestock were found to be thrown into the enclosures of tigers and other predators. In Guilin, in south-east China, live cows and pigs are thrown to tigers to amuse visitors. Other Chinese parks like Shenzhen Safari Park have already stopped this practice after facing heavy criticism.


title: Zoo

text: In the United States, any public animal exhibit must be licensed and inspected by the Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Depending on the animals they exhibit, the activities of zoos are regulated by laws including the Endangered Species Act, the Animal Welfare Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and others.


title: Zoo

text: Additionally, zoos in several countries may choose to pursue accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), which originated in the U.S. To achieve accreditation, a zoo must pass an application and inspection process and meet or exceed the AZA's standards for animal health and welfare, fundraising, zoo staffing, and involvement in global conservation efforts. Inspection is performed by three experts (typically one veterinarian, one expert in animal care, and one expert in zoo management and operations) and then reviewed by a panel of twelve experts before accreditation is awarded. This accreditation process is repeated once every five years. The AZA estimates that there are approximately 2,400 animal exhibits operating under USDA license as of February 2007; fewer than 10% are accredited.


title: Zoo

text: The European Union introduced a directive to strengthen the conservation role of zoos, making it a statutory requirement that they participate in conservation and education, and requiring all member states to set up systems for their licensing and inspection. Zoos are regulated in the UK by the Zoo Licensing Act of 1981, which came into effect in 1984. A zoo is defined as any "establishment where wild animals are kept for exhibition [...] to which members of the public have access, with or without charge for admission, seven or more days in any period of twelve consecutive months", excluding circuses and pet shops. The Act requires that all zoos be inspected and licensed, and that animals kept in enclosures are provided with a suitable environment in which they can express most normal behavior.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Singapore has evolved over the decades. Homosexuality is legal for both males and females, with the former being officially legalised in 2022 and the latter having always been legal. Prior to 2022, same-sex sexual activity between males were "de jure" illegal under the British colonial-era Section 377A of the Penal Code. The law had been "de facto" unenforced for decades. Sexual activity between women were always legal. In February 2022, the Court of Appeal in the Supreme Court reaffirmed that 377A cannot be used to prosecute men for having sex with other men, and that it is "unenforceable in its entirety".


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: On 21 August 2022, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that the Government intended to repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code, effectively ending criminalisation both "de facto" and "de jure". On 22 August 2022, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam added that the Constitution would be amended to protect Parliament's right to define marriage instead of the judiciary, which is the Supreme Court of Singapore, leaving open the possibility for Parliament to legalise same-sex marriages or civil unions through a simple majority. On 29 November 2022, the repeal of Section 377A of the Penal Code was officially passed in Parliament.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: Same-sex marriages are currently not recognised in the country, including the adoption of children by same-sex couples, although a gay Singaporean man with a male partner in 2018 won a landmark appeal to adopt a child that he had fathered through a surrogate. In 2018, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung reassured the LGBT community that discrimination against the LGBTQ community at work, in housing and education will not be tolerated. Since 2019, protections against anti-gay violence and aggravated discrimination were also put into legislation; Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam stated that "LGBTQ persons, non-LGBTQ persons, we are all equal. We are not any lesser by reason of our sexual orientation."


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: Singaporean society is generally regarded as conservative. Despite this, LGBT pride festivals such as Pink Dot have taken place every year since 2009 with increasing attendance amounting to the tens of thousands. In line with worldwide trends, attitudes towards members of the LGBT community among Singaporeans are slowly changing and becoming more accepting and tolerant, especially among the young.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: Singapore law inherited from the British Empire in 1871 prohibited sodomy regardless of sex. As such, heterosexual and homosexual anal or oral sex was illegal. In 2007, such sexual activity was legalised except for sex between men. The punishment was two years' imprisonment.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: Back in 2018, Attorney-General Lucien Wong declared that he still had the legal power to prosecute under Singapore's Section 377A. This statement was made amid public debate over the law and in response to opinions of former attorneys-general that the public prosecutor had, in effect, been limited from pursuit of such cases. Wong said that while "the public prosecutor did not pursue cases between consenting adults and in private places as it was not in the public interest" an attorney-general could direct that such a prosecution be mounted, "if reports are lodged with police, particularly in relation to minors". The statement was made prior to the ruling by the Singapore Court of Appeals that the section was unenforceable as a proscription of same-sex sexual activity. Public indecency and protection of minors were the only cases pursued under the section from 2007, even prior to the ruling.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In June 2019, at the Smart Nation Summit, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reiterated that Singapore would keep Section 377A "for some time" saying, "Whatever your sexual orientation is, you're welcome to come and work in Singapore... You know our rules in Singapore. It is the way this society is: We are not like San Francisco, neither are we like some countries in the Middle East. [We are] something in between, it is the way the society is."


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: While Singapore courts ruled in 2022 that section 377A was entirely unenforceable as regards private consensual same-sex sexual activity, police are able to act on reports of public indecency (public acts by persons of any gender) from the community. Prosecution under this section of any matters involving minors is also still possible. All recent prosecutions under the section—between 2007 and 2013—were incidences of these types.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: On 21 August 2022, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced at the National Day Rally that the Government intended to repeal Section 377A, noting that there would be significant risk of the law being struck down in future legal challenges "on the grounds that it breaches Article 12 of the Constitution – the Equal Protection provision". Lee added that the repeal would be deliberated through Parliament. After a two-day debate on 28 and 29 November, Section 377A was officially repealed in Parliament.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: After an exhaustive Penal Code review in 2007, oral and anal sex were legalised between opposite-sex persons and between women. The changes meant that oral and anal sex between consenting heterosexual and female homosexual adults were no longer offences. However, Section 377A, which deals with these sexual acts, continued to criminalise them between consenting men. Despite this, the section has not been enforced since at least 2007. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stated amid the debates on the changes to the section that the law would not be proactively enforced. The parliamentary debates and the prime minister's statement played a role in the 2022 ruling of the Court of Appeal in the Supreme Court that the law was unenforeable.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In his concluding speech on the debate over the partial repeal of Section 377A, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told MPs before the vote that "Singapore is basically a conservative society... The family is the basic building block of this society. And by a family in Singapore, we mean one man, one woman, marrying, having children and bringing up children within that framework of a stable family unit."


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: Section 377A states that: "Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or abets the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years." According to the United States Department of State, and Human Dignity Trust, the last attempted prosecution for consensual same-sex sexual activity occurred in 2010. Between 2007 and 2013, all nine convictions under 377A provisions, involved minors or public acts of gross indecency.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: Section 354 provides that if any person uses criminal force on any person intending to outrage, or knowing it would be likely to outrage, the modesty of that person, he shall be imprisoned for a maximum of two years, or with fine, or with caning, or with any two of such punishments. Crimes charged under section 354 require some physical contact involved.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: If the victim of an entrapment operation uses a symbolic gesture to signal intention to have sexual activity with the police decoy, he can be tried under Section 294 of the Penal Code, which covers the commission of any obscene act in any public place to the annoyance of others, subject to a maximum of three months imprisonment, a fine, or both.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: According to documentation by National University of Singapore sociologist Laurence Leong Wai Teng, from 1990 to 1994, there were 11 cases where gay men were charged for soliciting. They were fined between $200 and $500.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: Prior to 2022, human rights activists had called for the repeal of Section 377A, arguing that it infringes on privacy, the right to life and personal liberty, the latter two of which are constitutionally protected. In 2007, the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) called for the repeal of Section 377A.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In 2012, Tan Eng Hong was found in the company of another man, and was initially charged with Section 377A but later pled guilty to a lesser charge. Tan decided to pursue his case against Section 377A on the grounds that it was inconsistent with Articles 9, 12, and 14 of the Singapore Constitution. These articles guarantee the right to life and personal liberty, and provide that all people are entitled to equal protection before the law. In deciding whether an appeal of Tan's case could be heard in the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal found that Section 377A may "arguably" violate the right to equality before law as offered in Article 12. The ruling however did not go into the merits of the case on technical grounds.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: Tan's case was heard in the Supreme Court jointly with another appeal challenging Section 377A, and a ruling was given on 29 October 2014. The ruling upheld the country's ban on same-sex relations between consenting adult men. The court held that Section 377A does not violate Articles 9 and 12 of the Singapore Constitution. The applicant's attorney argued that Section 377A criminalises a group of people for an innate attribute, though the court concluded that "there is, at present, no definitive conclusion" on the "supposed immutability" of homosexuality. The court ultimately held that law reforms permitting private homosexual sex were a question for the Singapore Parliament to address.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In September 2018, following the high-profile repeal of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code by the Supreme Court of India, more than 50,000 people, including a former attorney-general and several former diplomats, signed a petition called "READY4REPEAL" urging the repeal of Section 377A as part of a major penal code review. However, government officials at the time refused to do so. Diplomat Tommy Koh and former Attorney-General Walter Woon have called on members of the LGBT community to challenge the law.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: Soon after the repeal of Section 377 in India in 2018, a Singaporean DJ, Johnson Ong Ming, filed a suit with the High Court arguing that Singapore's Section 377A is "in violation of human dignity". Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 377A of the Singapore Penal Code are effectively identical, as both were put in place by the British Empire, raising hopes in Singapore that the discriminatory law would be struck down as well. Singapore's High Court gave the petitioner until 20 November to submit his arguments.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In November 2018, LGBT rights activist Bryan Choong Chee Hong filed another case with the Supreme Court, arguing that Section 377A is "inconsistent" with portions of Singapore's Constitution, and "is therefore void". According to court documents, the petitioner argues that Section 377A is inconsistent with Article 9, Article 12, and Article 14 of the Constitution.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: A third legal challenge was launched in September 2019 by Roy Tan Seng Kee, a retired medical doctor. Tan stated in a statement that, "by institutionalising discrimination, it alienates [LGBT people] from having a sense of belonging and purposeful place in our society, and prevents them from taking pride in Singapore's achievements."


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: All three cases were dismissed by the High Court on 30 March 2020 in a closed-door judgement by Justice See Kee Oon.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: On 21 August 2022, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that the government would table a motion in Parliament to repeal Section 377A, effectively decriminalising male homosexual acts. On 20 October 2022 the government tabled the bill, which is expected to be debated in Parliament on 28 November 2022. After a two day debate, Section 377A of the Penal Code was officially repealed in Parliament on 29 November 2022.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: Singapore currently does not recognise same-sex relationships in any form (such as marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships). In the National Day Rally for 2022, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that while section 377A will be repealed, the current heterosexual definition of marriage may be enshrined in the Constitution of Singapore.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: On 22 August 2022, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam clarified that the Constitution will be amended to protect Parliament's right to define marriage, instead of the judiciary, which is the Supreme Court of Singapore, leaving open the possibility for Parliament to change the definition of marriage through a simple majority in the future, such as legalising same-sex marriages or civil unions. He clarified that the definition of marriage will not be enshrined in the Constitution, stating that "any political party or group that wants to push for same-sex marriage will be able to do so." – if they have a simple majority. Consequently, on 20 October 2022 the government tabled a draft constitutional amendment, which will be debated by the Parliament on 28 November 2022 along with a bill repealing Section 377A. The amendment was passed on 29 November 2022.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In December 2018, the sole exception was permitted when a gay Singaporean won the right to adopt a child he had fathered in the United States through a surrogate. The Singapore High Court overturned a 2017 ruling in which a district judge had ruled the man could not legally adopt his son because he was conceived through in vitro fertilization (which is only limited to heterosexual married couples) and brought to term through surrogacy, which is banned.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In January 2019, in response, the Minister for Social and Family Development, Desmond Lee, told the Parliament that he was looking to strengthen Singapore's adoption laws to prevent more same-sex adoption cases and that it did not support "the formation of family units with children of homosexual parents through institutions and processes such as adoption". However, this statement has not been made into a law. Under Singapore law, children born out of wedlock are considered illegitimate, and thus are not eligible for certain social benefits, unless the child is legally adopted.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In 2018, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung reassured the LGBT community that discrimination against LGBTQ community at work, in housing and education will not be tolerated.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In 2019, the "Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act" was amended to protect the LGBT community from religiously-motivated violence. Legal action can be taken against a religious group or its members for urging violence against certain "target groups". The Explanatory Statement states: "The target group need not be confined to persons who practise a certain religion. The target group may be made up of atheists, individuals from a specific racial community, who share a similar sexual orientation, or have a certain nationality or descent like foreign workers or new citizens."


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In 2022, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam confirmed that now LGBT people were protected against threats or acts of violence.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: Prior to 2003, homosexuals were barred from being employed in "sensitive positions" within the Singapore Civil Service. In the past, some conscripts in National Service were encouraged to attend conversion therapy. In the past, some Singaporean conscripts who openly declared their homosexuality were excluded from officer training, and others are refused security clearances needed to perform certain roles in the army.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In January 2006, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) granted S$100,000 (US$61,500) to Liberty League, an organisation affiliated with the "ex-gay" movement, to promote conversion therapy. The organization says it "promotes gender and sexual health for the individual, family and society". However, due to pressure from gay rights activists, Liberty League returned this grant to the ministry, and the organisation has been defunct since 2014.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In May 2020, then-Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong indicated the government's position against conversion therapy in a written reply to a question from Nominated Member of Parliament Anthea Ong. The reply reads, "(The Ministry of Health) expects doctors and other healthcare professionals to practice according to evidence-based best practice and clinical ethics, and to consider and respect patients’ preferences and circumstances (including sexual orientation) when providing care... members of the public can submit a formal complaint to the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) if a doctor is acting unethically or providing inappropriate treatment." Nevertheless, he added in a separate statement that the Ministry of Health had not received any such complaint from self-declared LGBTQ patients in the past three years.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: Despite the legal conditions in the country, Singaporean government representatives have previously spoken positively of the conditions faced by LGBT citizens at a United Nations anti-discrimination committee, stating that "homosexuals are free to lead their lives and pursue their social activities. Gay groups have held public discussions and published websites, and there are films and plays on gay themes and gay bars and clubs in Singapore."


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: The Singapore Media Development Authority prohibits the "promotion or glamorization of the homosexual lifestyle" on television and the radio. Among other things, this means that advertisements targeting the LGBT community, such as those for treatment of HIV/AIDS, are not allowed to be broadcast.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In July 2019, Singaporean rapper Joshua Su, better known as The G3sha, came out as gay in a new song titled "I'm OK" that highlights his childhood, the homophobia he faced, and coming to terms with his sexuality. Days later, he pulled out of a TEDx radio talk in protest after he was censored and asked not to make "sensitive" comments about his sexuality. Reports indicate that another Singapore gay rights activist was barred from speaking in 2018 at a TEDx radio talk.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: A 2005 poll by the Nanyang Technological University found that 69% of Singaporeans viewed homosexuality negatively, whilst 23% positively. In 2010, these numbers had changed to 64.5% negatively and 25% positively.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: According to 2013 polling by the Institute of Policy Studies, 78% of Singaporeans opposed same-sex marriage.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: A 2018 opinion poll found that 55% of Singaporeans supported Section 377A. On the other hand, a third of Singaporeans declared themselves more accepting of same-sex relationships and human rights than five years prior.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In 2019, a poll conducted by YouGov with 1,033 respondents showed that about one-third (34%) of Singaporeans backed same-sex partnerships, while 43% opposed their legalization, and the remaining 23% were uncertain. Support was more notable among younger respondents: 50% of people aged 18 to 34 supported civil partnerships and 20% were opposed. In contrast, only 22% of those aged 55 and over supported. 41% of university degree holders agreed with the legalisation of same-sex partnerships, whereas only 26% of respondents without a university degree were in favour. Of those who considered themselves "very much" religious, only 23% supported civil partnerships. 51% of people who considered themselves "not at all" religious expressed support. Apart from irreligious people, majority support for same-sex partnerships was also found in respondents who identified as LGBT (71% against 22%) and those who personally knew a person in a same-sex relationship (52% against 33%).


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: A survey conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies between August 2018 and January 2019 revealed that Singaporean society was still largely conservative but becoming more liberal on LGBT rights. The survey showed that more than 20% of people said that sexual relations between adults of the same sex were not wrong at all or not wrong most of the time, a rise of about 10% from 2013. Around 27% felt the same way about same-sex marriage (up from 15% in 2013) and 30% did so about same-sex couples adopting a child (up from 24% in 2013).


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: A 2019 poll conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies found that opposition to same-sex marriage in Singapore had fallen to 60%, down from 74% in 2013. The poll also found that nearly six in ten Singaporeans aged between 18 and 25 believed same-sex marriage is not wrong.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In June 2019, an online survey conducted by Yahoo Singapore asked 887 Singaporeans how they would react to a number of LGBT-related situations. When asked about an LGBT family member coming out, 53% of the respondents said they would react negatively: 14% expressed a "strongly negative" response, while 39% reported a "somewhat negative" reaction. When asked about a colleague coming out, 53% reported a positive reaction, while 46% reported a negative reaction. When asked about the marriage of Li Huanwu—the grandson of Singapore's founding prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew—to his partner, Heng Yirui, 54% reacted negatively to the marriage. Meanwhile, 46% reacted positively to it. When asked about Pink Dot SG, 55% of respondents said that they strongly or somewhat support Pink Dot Singapore, but the remaining 45% opposed it. 80% of Singaporeans agreed that LGBT people face discrimination.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In June 2019, an online survey conducted by Blackbox Research revealed that 56% of Singaporeans were opposed to other countries following Taiwan's example in legalising same-sex marriage, while 44% answered "yes". When asked on how they felt that more than 300 same-sex couples were married in Taiwan the first week after the new law was passed, about 49% of those surveyed felt positive about the statement, with 14% feeling "strongly positive" and 35% feeling "somewhat positive". Conversely, 51% responded negatively to this, 20% felt "strongly negative" and 31% were "somewhat negative". The respondents were also asked about how they felt concerning the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Bhutan. About 55% of respondents felt positive, with 15% feeling "strongly positive" and 40% were "somewhat positive". Conversely, about 44% responded negatively, 11% felt "strongly negative" and 33% felt "somewhat negative".


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In 2022, an Ipsos survey found that only 44% of Singapore residents support the retention of section 377A. Furthermore, 20% oppose the law its entirety, up from 12% in the last 2018 survey. For the remaining 36%, 32% said they neither support nor oppose the law, while 4% preferred not to say.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: In May 2019, a study by the National University of Singapore estimated that there were 210,000 men who have sex with men in Singapore. The study estimates were more than double the previous estimates of 90,000 MSM, and said they could be at risk of a concentrated epidemic of HIV.


title: LGBT rights in Singapore

text: Pink Dot SG is an annual event that started in 2009 in support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Singapore. In recent years, record crowds of approximately 28,000 have attended the rally, with a heavy bent toward younger demographics. On 29 June 2019, during the 11th Pink Dot, Lee Hsien Yang, the brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, as well as his wife and second son Li Huanwu and Li's husband, Heng Yirui, attended the event. On 18 June 2022, People's Action Party (PAP) MP Henry Kwek attended the 14th Pink Dot. Kwek's attendance was the first time that a MP from the governing PAP has physically shown their support for the event.


title: Danish krone

text: The krone (; plural: "kroner"; sign: kr.; code: DKK) is the official currency of Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands, introduced on 1 January 1875. Both the ISO code "DKK" and currency sign "kr." are in common use; the former precedes the value, the latter in some contexts follows it. The currency is sometimes referred to as the Danish crown in English, since "krone" literally means crown. Historically, krone coins have been minted in Denmark since the 17th century.


title: Danish krone

text: One krone is subdivided into 100 "øre" (; singular and plural), the name "øre" is probably derived from the Latin word for gold. Altogether there are eleven denominations of the krone, with the smallest being the 50 øre coin (one half of a krone). Formerly there were more øre coins, but those were discontinued due to inflation.


title: Danish krone

text: The krone is pegged to the euro via the ERM II, the European Union's exchange rate mechanism. Adoption of the euro is favoured by some of the major political parties; however, a 2000 referendum on joining the Eurozone was defeated with 53.2% voting to maintain the krone and 46.8% voting to join the Eurozone.


title: Danish krone

text: The oldest known Danish coin is a penny () struck AD 825–840, but the earliest systematic minting produced the so-called () minted by Harald Bluetooth in the late 10th century.


title: Danish krone

text: Lund (now in Sweden) was the principal minting place and one of Denmark's most important cities in the Middle Ages, but coins were also minted in Roskilde, Slagelse, Odense, Aalborg, Århus, Viborg, Ribe, Ørbæk and Hedeby. For almost 1,000 years, Danish kings – with a few exceptions – have issued coins with their name, monogram and/or portrait.


title: Danish krone

text: Danish coinage was generally based on the Carolingian silver standard, with 12 "penning" to a "skilling" and 20 "skilling" to a pound; later on, 16 "skilling" to a mark. The metal content of minted coins was subject to debasement over the centuries, an easy way to generate income for the monarch and/or the state. Taxes were sometimes imposed via the coinage, such as by the compulsory substitution of coins handed in by new coins handed out with a lower silver content. As a result of the debasement, the public started to lose trust in the respective coins. Danish currency was overhauled several times in attempts to restore public trust in the coins, and later issued in paper money.


title: Danish krone

text: Several different currency systems have been used by Denmark from the 16th to 19th centuries. The "krone" (lit. "crown") has existed as early as 1513 as a unit of account worth 8 marks. In more general use until 1813, however, was a "krone" or "schlecht daler" worth rigsdaler, 4 marks, or 64 skilling.


title: Danish krone

text: The modern-day krone was introduced as the currency of Denmark in January 1875. It replaced the rigsdaler at a rate of 2 kroner = 1 rigsdaler. This placed the krone on the gold standard at a rate of 2,480 kroner = 1 kilogram fine gold. The latter part of the 18th century and much of the 19th century saw expanding economic activity and thus also a need for means of payment that were easier to handle than coins. Consequently, banknotes were increasingly used instead of coins.


title: Danish krone

text: The introduction of the new krone was a result of the Scandinavian Monetary Union, which came into effect in 1873 (with the coins being adopted two years later) and lasted until World War I. The parties to the union were the three Scandinavian countries, where the name was "krone" in Denmark and Norway and "krona" in Sweden, a word which in all three languages literally means ‘crown’. The three currencies were on the gold standard, with the krone/krona defined as of a kilogram of pure gold.


title: Danish krone

text: The Scandinavian Monetary Union came to an end in 1914 when the gold standard was abandoned. Denmark, Sweden and Norway all decided to keep the names of their respective and now separate currencies.


title: Danish krone

text: Denmark returned to the gold standard in 1924 but left it permanently in 1931. Between 1940 and 1945, the krone was tied to the German Reichsmark. Following the end of the German occupation, a rate of 24 kroner to the British pound was introduced, reduced to 19.34 (4.8 kroner = 1 US dollar) in August the same year. Within the Bretton Woods System, Denmark devalued its currency with the pound in 1949 to a rate of 6.91 to the dollar. A further devaluation in 1967 resulted in rates of 7.5 kroner.


title: Danish krone

text: In 2014, it was decided to stop printing of the krone in Denmark, but the work would be outsourced, and on 20 December 2016, the last notes were printed by the National Bank.


title: Danish krone

text: Denmark has not introduced the euro, following a rejection by referendum in 2000, but the Danish krone is pegged closely to the euro (with the rate 7.46038±2.25%) in ERM II, the EU's exchange rate mechanism. Denmark borders one eurozone member, Germany, and one other EU member, Sweden, which is legally obliged to join the euro in the future (though Sweden maintains that joining ERM II is voluntary, thus avoiding euro adoption for the time being).


title: Danish krone

text: The Faroe Islands uses a localized, non-independent version of the Danish krone, known as the "Faroese króna" pegged with the Danish krone at par, using the Danish coin series, but have their own series of distinct banknotes, first being issued in the 1950s and later modernized in the 1970s and the 2000s.


title: Danish krone

text: Greenland adopted the Act on Banknotes in Greenland in 2006 with a view to introducing separate Greenlandic banknotes. The Act entered into force on 1 June 2007. In the autumn of 2010, a new Greenlandic government indicated that it did not wish to introduce separate Greenlandic banknotes and Danmarks Nationalbank ceased the project to develop a Greenlandic series. Still, Greenland continues to use Danish kroner as sole official currency.


title: Danish krone

text: Historically, Greenland under the colonial administration issued distinct banknotes between 1803 and 1968, together with coins between 1926 and 1964 (see Greenland rigsdaler and Greenland krone).


title: Danish krone

text: Faroe Islands and Greenland have their own IBAN codes (FO and GL, while Denmark has DK). Transfers between the countries count as international with international fees, outside EU rules.


title: Danish krone

text: The design of the coin series is intended to ensure that the coins are easy to distinguish from each other:


title: Danish krone

text: The series is therefore divided into three sequences, each with its own metal colour. This division into colours has its roots in history. In earlier times, the value of the coins was equivalent to the value of the metal from which they were minted: gold was used for the coins of the highest denominations, silver for the next-highest, and copper for the lowest coin denominations. This correlation between colour and value has been retained in the present coin series (see examples to the right). The 50-øre coins are thus minted from copper-coloured bronze, the 1-, 2- and 5-krone coins from a silver-coloured cupronickel alloy, and the 10- and 20-krone coins from golden aluminium bronze.


title: Danish krone

text: The coins differ in terms of size, weight and rim. Within each sequence the diameter and weight of the coins increase with their value. The 50-øre and 10-krone coins have smooth rims, while the rims of the 1- and 5-krone coins are milled. The rims of the 2- and 20-krone coins have interrupted milling. The 1-, 2- and 5-krone coins have a hole in the middle. Use of these various characteristics makes it easy for the blind and sight-impaired to tell the coins apart.


title: Danish krone

text: The coins of the programme have the same size and metal composition as the regular coins of their denomination.


title: Danish krone

text: The first series, 20-krone coins featuring towers in Denmark, ran between 2002 and 2007 and spawned ten different motifs. Upon selecting the towers, importance had been attached not only to display aesthetic towers, but also towers with different form, functions and from different regions of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The last coin depicting the Copenhagen City Hall was issued in June 2007, marking the end of the series.


title: Danish krone

text: A second series of 20-krone coins, starting in 2007 with twelve different planned motifs and ten already released by November 2011, shows Denmark as a maritime nation in the world, featuring iconic Danish, Faroese and Greenlandic ships and like the previous series of tower coins, the series reflect various landmarks in shipbuilding in the three countries.


title: Danish krone

text: In 2005, Danmarks Nationalbank issued the first in a series of five 10-krone commemorative coins with motifs from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales. The motifs depicted on the coins were chosen to illustrate various aspects and themes central to the fairy tales with the fifth and final fairy tale coin inspired by The Nightingale being issued on 25 October 2007.


title: Danish krone

text: In 2007, as the fairy tale series ended, a second series of three 10-krone commemorative coins was introduced, celebrating the International Polar Year. Featuring motifs of a polar bear, the Sirius Sledge Patrol and the Aurora Borealis, the coins aimed to accentuate scientific research in the backdrop of Greenlandic culture and geography. The third and final coin entitled 'Northern Lights' marked the completion of the series in 2009.


title: Danish krone

text: Most Danish banknotes (with a few exceptions) issued after 1945 are valid as payment. Banknotes have since 1945 been issued with the values: 5 kroner, 10 kroner, 20 kroner, 50 kroner, 100 kroner, 200 kroner, 500 kroner & 1000 kroner.


title: Danish krone

text: The Jens Juel series was issued from 1975 to 1980. It was replaced in 1997. Every note had a painting made by Jens Juel on the obverse side.


title: Danish krone

text: The process of designing the 'Bridge' banknotes was initiated in 2006 by the Danish National Bank. The theme of the new banknotes is Danish bridges and the surrounding landscapes, or details from these landscapes. Danish artist Karin Birgitte Lund has chosen to interpret this theme in two ways: bridges as links between various parts of Denmark and as links between the past and the present. The present is represented by the bridges, the past by five distinctive prehistoric objects found near the bridges. Among the new security features is a window thread ("Motion") with a moving wave pattern. Another feature is a new, sophisticated hologram that reflects light in different colors. The new banknotes also have the traditional security features such as the watermark and the hidden security thread.


title: Danish krone

text: Within context, some of the banknotes have figurative meanings with the 100-krone note sometimes referred to as a "hund" (dog) shortening the word "hundrede" (a hundred). The 500-krone note can be referred to as a "plovmand" (ploughman) because previous circulations of the note featured a picture of a man with a plough and the 1000-krone note, too, can be referred to as a "tudse" (toad) taken from a wordplay on the word "tusinde" meaning a "thousand". The 1000-krone note may also be referred to as an "egern" (squirrel) because the 1972 series version of the note featured a squirrel.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Dawn Michelle Staley (born May 4, 1970) is an American basketball Hall of Fame player and coach, who is currently the head coach for the South Carolina Gamecocks. Staley won three Olympic gold medals with Team USA as a player and later was head coach of another U.S. gold-medal winning team. Staley was elected to carry the United States flag at the opening ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics. After playing point guard for the University of Virginia under Debbie Ryan, and winning the gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics, she went on to play professionally in the American Basketball League and the WNBA. In 2011, fans named Staley one of the Top 15 players in WNBA history. Staley was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012. She was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.


title: Dawn Staley

text: While still a WNBA player, she started coaching the Temple University Owls women's basketball team in 2000. In eight years at Temple, she led the program to six NCAA tournaments, three regular season conference championships, and four conference tournament titles.


title: Dawn Staley

text: On May 7, 2008, she was named head coach for women's basketball at the University of South Carolina. Staley built South Carolina from the ground up. In her first six seasons as head coach, she improved her program's record every year, winning the SEC in 2013–2014. In late 2014 her team achieved the program's first #1 ranking, making her only the second individual to both play on and coach a #1 ranked team. Staley has gone on to lead South Carolina to six SEC regular season championships, six SEC tournament championships, eight Sweet Sixteens, four Final Fours, and two NCAA Women's Basketball National Championships.


title: Dawn Staley

text: On April 2, 2020, Staley became the first person to win the Naismith Award as both a player and a coach. She also won the other three major National Coach of the Year awards after she led her team to a 32 win season and a final ranking of #1 in both major polls.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Staley served as the United States women's national team head coach from 2017–2021, finishing with a perfect 45–0 record, before returning full time to South Carolina. In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Staley won her first gold medal as head coach for Team USA, and fourth overall, winning all six games.


title: Dawn Staley

text: On April 3, 2022, Staley led the Gamecocks to their 2nd national title with a 64–49 win over UConn, finishing the season 35–2 and being ranked #1 in both major polls for the entire season. Staley again would be named Naismith Award winner as the best coach in the nation for 2022.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Staley was named the national high school player of the year during her final season at Murrell Dobbins Tech High School in Philadelphia.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Staley attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, from which she earned her degree in Rhetoric and Communication Studies. During her four seasons in college, she led her team to four NCAA Tournaments, three Final Fours and one National Championship game. She was named the ACC female athlete of the year and the national player of the year in 1991 and 1992. Staley finished her college career with 2,135 points and held the NCAA record for career steals with 454 (which has since been broken by current record holder, Natalie White). She finished her career at Virginia as the school's all-time scoring leader and as the ACC's all-time leader in assists at 729, but those records have since been broken by former UVA stars Monica Wright and Sharnee Zoll, respectively. Her number 24 is retired at UVA.


title: Dawn Staley

text: In 1994–1995, after graduation, Staley played professional basketball in France in Tarbes, Italy, Brazil, and Spain before joining the ABL and then the WNBA.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Staley was named to the USA Basketball Women's Junior National Team (now called the U19 team). The team participated in the second Junior World Championship, held in Bilbao, Spain, in July 1989. Team USA lost their opening game to South Korea in overtime, then lost a two-point game to Australia. After defeating Bulgaria, Team USA lost another close game, this time to Czechoslovakia by three points. The team followed that loss with a victory against Zaire, but dropped its final game to Spain, again by three points. Staley averaged 10.8 points per game and recorded 14 steals over the course of the event, both second-highest on the team. The Americans finished the tournament in seventh place.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Staley was named to the team representing the United States at the World University Games held during July 1991 in Sheffield, England. While the American team had won gold in 1983, they finished with the silver in 1985, in fifth place in 1987, and did not field a team in 1989. The team was coached by Tara VanDerveer of Stanford. After winning opening games easily, Team USA faced China in the medal round. The Americans shot only 36% from the field, but limited the Chinese to just 35%, and advanced to the gold medal game by a score of 79–76. There they faced Spain, who had won all seven of their previous tournament games. However, Team USA defeated them easily, 88–62, to claim the gold medal. Staley averaged 4.9 points per game for the tournament.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Staley competed with USA Basketball as a member of the 1992 Jones Cup Team that won the Gold in Taipei.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Staley played for Team USA throughout her career. In 1994 she competed in the World Championships and was named the USA basketball Female Athlete of the Year. She led the 1996 team to an undefeated record of 60–0 and the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. She was also a member of the 2000 Olympic team that defended the gold medal.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Staley was selected to represent the United States at the 1995 USA Women's Pan American Games, but only four teams committed to participate, so the event was cancelled.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Staley was named to the United States national team in 1998. The national team traveled to Berlin, Germany, in July and August 1998 for the FIBA World Championships. Team USA won a close opening game against Japan, 95–89, then won their next six games easily. In the semifinal game against Brazil, Team USA was behind as much as ten points in the first half, but went on to win, 93–79. The gold medal game was a rematch against Russia. In the first game, the Americans dominated almost from the beginning, but in the rematch, Russia took the early lead and led much of the way. With under two minutes remaining, Team USA was down by two points, but rallied and then held on to win the gold medal by a score of 71–65. Staley hit two free throws with ten seconds left to extend a three-point lead to five, then hit another free throw with three seconds left in the game to seal the 71–65 victory. Staley averaged 7.0 points per game and made a record 52 assists.


title: Dawn Staley

text: In 2002, Staley was named to the national team which competed in the World Championships in Zhangjiagang, Changzhou, and Nanjing, China. The team was coached by Van Chancellor. Staley scored 4.9 points per game, and recorded a team-high 24 assists. Team USA won all nine games, including a close title game against Russia, with the teams separated by only one point late in the game.


title: Dawn Staley

text: She won a third gold medal with Team USA at the 2004 Games in Athens. Her Olympic performance led to her being named 2004 USA Basketball Female Athlete Of The Year at the end of the year. Before the Games, she was selected to carry the flag of the United States during the parade of nations at the opening ceremony.


title: Dawn Staley

text: In 1996, she joined the Richmond Rage of the American Basketball League (ABL) and led the team to the ABL finals in 1997. The following season, the team moved to Staley's hometown of Philadelphia. Staley was named the 1996–1997 All-ABL first team and the All-ABL second team, the following season.


title: Dawn Staley

text: In the 1999 WNBA draft, Staley was selected with the ninth overall pick by the Charlotte Sting. In 2001, she led the Sting to the Championship game of the WNBA playoffs.


title: Dawn Staley

text: On August 1, 2005, Staley was traded to the Houston Comets. Staley announced before the start of the WNBA season that she would be retiring after the Comets season was over. The Comets made the playoffs and faced the Sacramento Monarchs in the first round. The Monarchs swept the Comets and won the series 2–0, ending Staley's career. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in the fifteen-year history of the WNBA.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Staley had no interest in coaching when she was initially approached by the athletic director of Temple University, Dave O'Brien. She was on the Olympic team at the time which was attending the Final Four in Philadelphia. O'Brien, mindful that Staley was a Philadelphia native and star basketball player at Philadelphia's Dobbins Technical High School, talked her into visiting the campus, where she was guided to a conference room with a dozen people who were treating her visit as a job interview. When they asked her if she saw herself as a coach she replied "no, not at all". She initially resisted offers to become the coach. O'Brien changed his tactics and challenged her to identify some ways to turn the program around. She was still playing in the WNBA at the time and her friends told her it would be impossible to continue to play and coach. That challenge convinced her she should give coaching a try, and accepted the position of head coach at Temple. In her first season, 2000–01, Temple advanced to the WNIT. In 2001, 2002, and 2004, her teams won the Atlantic 10 tournament to qualify for the NCAA tournament.


title: Dawn Staley

text: In the 2004–05 season, Staley's Owls went 28–4, including a perfect 19–0 against Atlantic 10 opponents. However, they lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to Rutgers University. Staley reached the 100-win plateau in the A-10 Semifinals vs Xavier University that season, becoming the fastest coach in women's basketball to achieve that feat.


title: Dawn Staley

text: On May 7, 2008, it was confirmed by Temple University that Staley would leave Temple for the recently vacated coaching position at the University of South Carolina. She left Temple with the best overall record of 172–80, along with six NCAA appearances and four Atlantic 10 titles.


title: Dawn Staley

text: At South Carolina she started rebuilding a program from scratch, suffering through two losing seasons at the start of her tenure. Starting with 10 wins during the 2008–2009 season, she led the program to ever better finishes in each subsequent season, leading to the program's first number 1 ranking and Final Four appearance during the 2014–2015 season. They picked up where they left off a year later, going undefeated in SEC play; however, they were upended in the Sweet 16 by Syracuse.


title: Dawn Staley

text: In 2016–17, the Gamecocks repeated as SEC regular season and tournament champions for the third year in a row, and advanced to the second Final Four in school history. They defeated conference rival Mississippi State in the national championship game to win the first national title in school history. Staley became the second African American to lead a women's basketball team to a national championship; Carolyn Peck had coached Purdue to the 1999 national championship. After the 2017 win, "The Post and Courier" listed Staley first in their ranking of the 25 most powerful people in South Carolina sports.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Under Staley the program has captured five SEC regular season championships, six SEC tournament titles, three Final Fours, two NCAA National Championships, seven sweet sixteen appearances, five SEC player of the year awards and five SEC freshman of the year awards. Staley herself has been awarded SEC coach of the year five times.


title: Dawn Staley

text: In 2020, Staley led the Gamecocks to a 32–1 season, winning yet another SEC regular season, and tournament championship. The Gamecocks finished #1 in both major polls, before the NCAA Tournament was cancelled. Staley swept the National Coach of the year awards in 2020, she is the first person to win the Naismith award as a player, and also as a coach.


title: Dawn Staley

text: In 2021, Staley led her team to a third Final Four, before losing a controversial game to Stanford 66–65. Staley's Gamecocks signed the #1 class for the upcoming 2021–22 season. On October 15, 2021, Staley signed a massive seven-year, $22.4 million contract extension with South Carolina, making her the highest paid Black college basketball coach in the country.


title: Dawn Staley

text: In 2022 the Gamecocks were #1 in both polls for the entire season, they would go on to defeat 14 ranked teams, including Stanford, UConn, NC State Oregon, Maryland, Duke, LSU, Tennessee, and Georgia. In the NCAA tournament, the Gamecocks defeated Howard, Miami, North Carolina, Creighton, Louisville, and then UConn again. Staley is the first coach to defeat Geno Auriemma, Tara VanDerveer and Kim Mulkey in the same season. Staley was again named Naismith Award winner, and coached the National Player of the Year Aliyah Boston.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Dawn Staley served as an assistant coach for the USA National team in 2006, a team in transition. Lisa Leslie, who had led the team in scoring in the 2004 Olympics, the 2002 World Championships, the 2000 Olympics, the 1998 World Championships, and the 1996 Olympics was no longer on the team. Sheryl Swoopes was available but hampered by injuries, with Staley transitioning from player to coach. Newcomers Sue Bird, Candace Parker and Diana Taurasi picked up the slack, but it was a team in transition. As an additional challenge, some members of the squad were unable to join the team for practices due to WNBA commitments. The team started out strong, winning each of the six preliminary games, including the game against Russia. In the quarterfinals, the USA team beat Spain 90–56. The semifinal was a rematch against Russia, but this time the Russian team prevailed, 75–68. The USA faced Brazil in the bronze medal game, and won easily 99–59.


title: Dawn Staley

text: During the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Staley served as an assistant coach under Team USA head coach Anne Donovan and helped the Americans win their fourth straight gold medal in women's basketball and sixth in their past seven Olympic appearances.


title: Dawn Staley

text: After coaching Team USA to a gold medal at the 2007 Pan Am games, she served as head coach to the U17 Team in 2014 and the U19 Team in 2015, winning gold medals at the U18 Americas Championship and the U19 FIBA World Championship. The USA basketball organization awarded her the code national coach of the year award as a result of the U 19 gold-medal. She shared the award with Sean Miller who coached the U19 men's team to a gold medal.


title: Dawn Staley

text: She served as an assistant coach under Team USA head coach Geno Auriemma for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and helped the Americans win their sixth straight gold medal in women's basketball and eighth in their past nine Olympic appearances.


title: Dawn Staley

text: At the 2020 Summer Olympics, Staley won her first Gold medal as Team USA's Head coach, winning all six games, and extending her record to 45–0; Staley has also coached Team USA to gold medals in the 2018 World Cup in Spain, and two gold medals in the 2019 and 2021 FIBA AmeriCup.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Her parents, Clarence and Estelle Staley, moved to North Philadelphia from South Carolina in the 1950s, when they were still teenagers. They married young and in 1967 moved into a three-bedroom, single-bath row house, where they raised five children—three boys, Lawrence, Anthony, Eric, and two girls, Tracey, and their youngest daughter Dawn. Staley now heads the Dawn Staley Foundation, which gives middle-school children a positive influence in their lives by sponsoring an after-school program at the Hank Gathers Recreation Center. The Center focuses on academics and athletics and sponsors basketball leagues and other fund-raising activities.


title: Dawn Staley

text: Staley owns a Havanese dog named Champ, who has his own Twitter account, and frequently visits practices.


title: Illyria

text: In classical antiquity, Illyria (; , "Illyría" or , "Illyrís"; , "Illyricum") was a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula inhabited by numerous tribes of people collectively known as the Illyrians. Illyrians spoke the Illyrian language, an Indo-European language, which in ancient times perhaps also had speakers in some parts of Southern Italy.


title: Illyria

text: The geographical term Illyris (distinct from "Illyria") was sometimes used to define approximately the area of northern and central Albania down to the Aoös valley (modern Vjosa), including in most periods much of the lakeland area. In Roman times the terms Illyria / Illyris / Illyricum were extended from the territory that was roughly located in the area of the south-eastern Adriatic coast (modern Albania and Montenegro) and its hinterland, to a broader region stretching between the Adriatic Sea and the Danube, and from the upper reaches of the Adriatic down to the Ardiaei.


title: Illyria

text: From about mid-1st century BC the term Illyricum was used by the Romans for the province of the Empire that stretched along the eastern Adriatic coast north of the Drin river, south of which the Roman province of Macedonia began.


title: Illyria

text: In Greek mythology, the name of Illyria is aetiologically traced to Illyrius, the son of Cadmus and Harmonia, who eventually ruled Illyria and became the eponymous ancestor of the Illyrians. A later version of the myth identifies Polyphemus and Galatea as parents of Celtus, Galas, and Illyrius.


title: Illyria

text: Ancient Greek writers used the name "Illyrian" to describe peoples between the Liburnians and Epirus. Fourth-century BC Greek writers clearly separated the people along the Adriatic coast from the Illyrians, and only in the 1st century AD was "Illyrian" used as a general term for all the peoples across the Adriatic. Writers also spoke of "Illyrians in the strict sense of the word"; Pomponius Mela (43 AD) the "stricto sensu" Illyrians lived north of the Taulantii and Enchele, on the Adriatic shore; Pliny the Elder used "properly named Illyrians" ("Illyrii proprii/proprie dicti") for a small people south of Epidaurum, or between Epidaurum (now Cavtat) and Lissus (now Lezhë). In the Roman period, "Illyricum", a term which signified a broader region than Illyria, was used for the area between the Adriatic and Danube.


title: Illyria

text: The prehistory of Illyria and the Illyrians is known from archaeological evidence. The Romans conquered the region in 168 BC in the aftermath of the Illyrian Wars.


title: Illyria

text: The earliest recorded Illyrian kingdom was that of the Enchele in the 8th century BC. The era in which we observe other Illyrian kingdoms begins approximately at 400 BC and ends at 167 BC. The Autariatae under Pleurias (337 BC) were considered to have been a kingdom. The Kingdom of the Ardiaei began at 230 BC and ended at 167 BC. The most notable Illyrian kingdoms and dynasties were those of Bardyllis of the Dardani and of Agron of the Ardiaei who created the last and best-known Illyrian kingdom. Agron ruled over the Ardiaei and had extended his rule to other tribes as well. As for the Dardanians, they always had separate domains from the rest of the Illyrians.


title: Illyria

text: The Illyrian kingdoms were composed of small areas within the region of Illyria. Only the Romans ruled the entire region. The internal organization of the south Illyrian kingdoms points to imitation of their neighbouring Greek kingdoms and influence from the Greek and Hellenistic world in the growth of their urban centres. Polybius gives as an image of society within an Illyrian kingdom as peasant infantry fought under aristocrats which he calls in Greek "Polydynastae" (Greek: Πολυδυνάστες) where each one controlled a town within the kingdom. The monarchy was established on hereditary lines and Illyrian rulers used marriages as a means of alliance with other powers. Pliny (23–79 AD) writes that the people that formed the nucleus of the Illyrian kingdom were 'Illyrians proper' or Illyrii proprie dicti. They were the Taulantii, the Pleraei, the Endirudini, Sasaei, Grabaei and the Labeatae. These later joined to form the Docleatae.


title: Illyria

text: The Romans defeated Gentius, the last king of Illyria, at Scodra (in present-day Albania) in 168 BC and captured him, bringing him to Rome in 165 BC. Four client-republics were set up, which were in fact ruled by Rome. Later, the region was directly governed by Rome and organized as a province, with Scodra as its capital.


title: Illyria

text: The Roman province of "Illyricum" replaced the formerly independent kingdom of Illyria. It stretched from the Drilon river in modern Albania to Istria (Croatia) in the west and to the Sava river (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in the north. Salona (near modern Split in Croatia) functioned as its capital.


title: Illyria

text: After subduing a troublesome revolt of Pannonians and Daesitiates, Roman administrators dissolved the province of Illyricum and divided its lands between the new provinces of Pannonia in the north and Dalmatia in the south. Although this division occurred in 10 AD, the term "Illyria" remained in use in Late Latin and throughout the medieval period. After the division of the Roman Empire, the bishops of Thessalonica appointed papal vicars for Illyricum. The first of these vicars is said to have been Bishop Acholius or Ascholius (died 383 or 384), the friend of St. Basil. In the 5th century, the bishops of Illyria withdrew from communion with Rome, without attaching themselves to Constantinople, and remained for a time independent, but in 515, forty Illyrian bishops renewed their loyalty to Rome by declaring allegiance to Pope Hormisdas. The patriarchs of Constantinople succeeded in bringing Illyria under their jurisdiction in the 8th century.


title: Illyria

text: The name "Illyria" only disappears from the historical record after the Ottoman invasion of the Balkans in the 15th century, and re-emerges in the 17th century, acquiring a new significance in the Ottoman–Habsburg Wars, as Leopold I designated as the "Illyrian nation" the South Slavs in Hungarian territory. The term "Illyrian" was sometimes used for the language they spoke. Several armorials of the Early modern period, popularly called the "Illyrian Armorials", depicted fictional coats of arms of Illyria.


title: Illyria

text: The name "Illyria" was revived by Napoleon for the Illyrian Provinces that were incorporated into the French Empire from 1809 to 1813, and the Kingdom of Illyria (1816–1849) was part of Austria until 1849, after which time it was not used in the reorganised Austro-Hungarian Empire.


title: Illyria

text: The Illyrian movement was a South Slavic cultural and political campaign by a group of young Croatian and Serbian intellectuals during the first half of the 19th century, that led to Yugoslavism.


title: Illyria

text: William Shakespeare chose a fictionalized Illyria as the setting for his play "Twelfth Night". (In the modernized film spoof "She's the Man", this function is served by "Illyria High School" in California.) Shakespeare also mentioned the region in the Part 2 of the play "Henry VI".


title: Illyria

text: An extensive history of Illyria by Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange, was published by Joseph Keglevich in 1746.


title: Guanajuato

text: Guanajuato (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato (), is one of the 32 states that make up the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 46 municipalities and its capital city is Guanajuato.


title: Guanajuato

text: Guanajuato is in central Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Jalisco to the west, Zacatecas to the northwest, San Luis Potosí to the north, Querétaro to the east, and Michoacán to the south. It covers an area of . The state is home to several historically important cities, especially those along the "Bicentennial Route", which retraces the path of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla's insurgent army at the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence. This route begins at Dolores Hidalgo, and passes through the Sanctuary of Atotonilco, San Miguel de Allende, Celaya, and the capital of Guanajuato. Other important cities in the state include León, the state's biggest city, Salamanca, and Irapuato. The first town established by the Spaniards in Guanajuato is Acámbaro while the first to be named a city is Salvatierra.


title: Guanajuato

text: Guanajuato is between the arid north of the country and the lusher south, and is geographically part of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, the Mexican Plateau. It was initially settled by the Spanish in the 1520s due to mineral deposits found around the city of Guanajuato, but areas such as the Bajío region also became important for agriculture and livestock. Mining and agriculture were the mainstays of the state's economy, but have since been eclipsed by the secondary sector. Guanajuato has particularly seen growth in the automotive industry. The name Guanajuato comes from Purépecha (or in older orthography "quanax huato"), which means “frog hill”.


title: Guanajuato

text: Guanajuato is in the center of Mexico, northwest of Mexico City, bordering Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Michoacán, Querétaro, and Jalisco. It is the 20th-largest of Mexico's states, with an area of 30,589 km². It has an average altitude of above sea level, with its territory divided among three of Mexico's physical regions, the Sierra Madre Oriental, the Mexican Plateau and the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. The Sierra Madre Oriental in Guanajuato consists of the Sierra Gorda and the Sierra del Azafrán in the northeast. The Mexican Plateau extends through the center of the state. It is subdivided into various regions parted by low-lying mountain chains such as the Sierra de la Cuatralba and the Sierra de Cubo. The Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt crosses the state in the south and includes the Bajío area, the Altos de Jalisco and the valleys area in the far south. The state is crossed by several mountain ranges with mountains between 2,300 and 3,000 meters high. Mountain ranges average 2,305 meters and flat areas lie at around 1,725 meters above mean sea level. Other important mountain ranges include the Sierra Gorda to the north, the Sierra de Guanajuato in the southeast, the Comanja in the northwest and the Codorniz in the east.


title: Guanajuato

text: The state is divided into five regions, taking into consideration geography and climate: Altos de Guanajuato, La Sierra Central, Bajío, La Sierra Gorda, and Los Valles del Sur. The Altos de Guanajuato, in the north, are a chain of forested mountains interspersed with pastures, small fields and areas with cacti and other desert plants. They begin near the border with San Luis Potosí, and extend south to Dolores Hidalgo, San Miguel de Allende, and the Querétaro border. This area's altitude varies from 1,800 meters to peaks over 2,900, such as La Giganta and La Sierra del Cubo. The climate is mostly semiarid with a rainy season in the summer, with average temperatures between 15 and 20 °C. Winter lows often reach 0 °C or lower with frosts. Wildlife is found mostly in the most rugged and inaccessible areas and includes deer, coyotes, eagles and rattlesnakes.


title: Guanajuato

text: La Sierra Gorda is shared between Guanajuato and Querétaro and is considered an important biosphere. This area is the most rugged in the state where most of the natural areas and small villages remain intact due to their inaccessibility. The Sierra Gorda is part of the Sierra Madre Occidental, with extreme variations in its geography and climate. The rugged terrain means that there are a wide number and variety of micro-climates, although average temperatures vary only between 16 and 19 °C. It lowest point is a canyon called Paso de Hormigas in Xichú at 650 meters above sea level with a very warm climate suitable for tropical fruit. The highest point is Pinal de Zamorano at 3,300 meters, followed by El Picacho de Pueblo Nuevo, El Zorillo and El Cuervo, all above 2,700 meters. The largest changes are seen in arid versus wetter zones, which can often be relatively nearby, with foliage changing from rainforest to pine forest to desert landscapes. In 1997, the federal government declared the Sierra Gorda region in Querétaro a Biosphere Reserve, with Guanajuato's portion added in 2007. On the Guanajuato side, it covers 236,882 hectares over the municipalities of Xichú, San Luis de la Paz, Atarjea, Victoria and Santa Catarina. Culturally, the Sierra Gorda region is the far western part of La Huasteca, which extends over parts of Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo and Veracruz.


title: Guanajuato

text: The Sierra Central is a series of low, gentle mountains in the center of the state that are part of the Sierra Madre Occidental. They cover 12 municipalities: Ocampo, San Felipe, León, Silao, Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo, San Miguel de Allende, Irapuato, Salamanca, Santa Cruz de Juventino Rosas, Comonfort and Apaseo el Grande. Wild vegetation runs from tropical rainforest to arid grasslands with cactus, with cypress trees along rivers and other surface water. Wildlife includes raccoons, quail, rabbits, skunks and migratory birds. The land is productive, especially for fruit orchards producing guavas, tejocote, apples, limes, quince and more. Desert fruits such as cactus pears (tuna), garambullos and xoconostle are also produced commercially.


title: Guanajuato

text: The state's best-known geographical region is the Bajío, a relatively low and flat area of between 1,700 and 1,800 meters that surrounds the Lerma River and its tributaries. Centered in Guanajuato, parts also extend into Querétaro and Jalisco. This low area is the source of its name, coming from the Spanish word "bajo" or low. The Bajío is filled with rolling hills and interrupted by the occasional chain of low mountains such as the Gavia and the Culiacán. Before the Spanish arrived, this area was covered in dense forests of holm oak and mesquite trees, but mining's need for wood fuel eventually cleared them. Today, the area is the center of most of the state's agriculture and industry since the terrain allows for highways and large farms, which produce grains, vegetables and fruit. This farmland is considered some of Mexico's most productive.


title: Guanajuato

text: Los Valles del Sur, also called the Valles Abajeños, are valleys located in southwestern Guanajuato, bordering Michoacán. This area is distinguished by the large number of Purépecha place names and covers the municipalities of Valle de Santiago, Yuriria, Tarimoro, Apaseo el Alto, Moroleón, Uriangato, Santiago Maravatío, Acámbaro, Jerécuaro, Coroneo and Tarandacuao. The area is part of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, with elevations ranging between 1,700 and 2,000 meters. The soil is fertile due to its volcanic base, producing crops such as sorghum, wheat, corn and vegetables. The land also produces building materials such as tezontle and black sandstone. In the higher elevations, there are forests of pine and holm oak but these have been much reduced by deforestation. The more arid areas have mesquite, nopal and other desert plants. There are several small lakes, the best known being Lake Yuriria as well as canyons and cave systems, some of which were used for ceremonial purposes by pre-Hispanic peoples. It is also the home the Siete Luminarias de Valle de Santiago, a set of seven inactive volcanic craters in the northwest and southwest of the Santiago Valley. The volcano cones rise abruptly out of the ground with craters up to one kilometer across. Locals call the formations "holes" ("hoyos") and they are named La Alberca, La Cíntora, Estrada, Blanca, Alvarez, Solís and Rincón de Parangueo. La Cíntora and Rincón de Parangueo contain cave paintings and evidence that people once lived in the craters. La Alberca ("The Pool") is a crater lake open to the public for swimming, rowing or boating. The name of Siete Luminarias ("Seven Lanterns") comes from an imagined prehistoric time when the seven were active at once.


title: Guanajuato

text: The state has about 1,500 bodies of surface water, along with underground aquifers in most parts of the state. Its principal lake is Lake Cuitzeo, on the border with Michoacán and the Yuriria. Several of the Siete Luminarias craters have also developed crater lakes, especially La Joya, Parangueo and Olla de Zìntora. The most important river in Guanjuato and one of the most important in the country is the Lerma, along with its tributaries Guanajuato River, La Laja, and Turbio. The Lerma river basin covers 81% of the state (center and south); the Pánuco River basin (north of the state) and Cuitzeo Lake cover the remainder. The Lerma is regulated by various dams in part to control the fact that it ran very high in the rainy season and very low in the dry season. These dams include the Ignacio Allende, la Purísima, Solís, La Gavia, Conejo II and Santa Ifigenia.


title: Guanajuato

text: Climates in the state are grouped by precipitation and average temperatures into three major groups. The semiarid climate is characterized by the fact that evaporation often exceeds precipitation. Most of the vegetation in these areas is arid grassland with desert plants such as nopal. These climates cover about 40% of the state, mostly in the north. Semiarid temperate regions are found in the municipalities of San Felipe, San Diego de la Unión, San Luis de la Paz, part of Dolores Hidalgo and San José de Iturbide, where precipitation varies between 400 and 500 mm and the average temperature is between 16 and 18 °C. Semiarid semihot climates can be found north of Dolores Hidalgo, around León and in areas near Celaya. In these municipalities, rainfall averages between 600 and 700 mm and the average annual temperature is between 18 and 20 °C. Temperate climates are judged by the presence of holm oak and pine forest, pine forests and/or pine forests with meadows. Humidity varies in these forest regions. Temperate semi-moist areas are mostly found in the southeast municipalities of Apaseo, Coroneo and Jerécuaro and in the center of the state. Precipitation varies from 600 to 700 mm and the average temperature is between 16 and 18 °C. Temperate and somewhat humid climates have rainfall averages of between 700 and 800 mm, with temperatures between 16 and 18 °C. These can be found in Pénjamo, Coroneo, Jerécuaro and parts of Guanajuato (municipality) and Dolores Hidalgo. Temperate climates with the most humidity are in Santa Rosa and municipality of Guanajuato. These have rainfall averages over 800 mm and average temperatures under 16 °C. Hot and moist climates in the state have temperatures ranging from 18 to 22 °C and are associated with tropical rainforest, with some grassland. These climates are subdivided into two types, one that receives less rainfall with a significant dry season and one that is wetter. The drier type is found in Abasolo, Irapuato, Salamanca and Romita. In total, these hot and relatively moist climates can be found in about 40% of the state.


title: Guanajuato

text: From the beginning of the colonial period, much of Guanajato's environment suffered greatly from the mining techniques and intensive agriculture the Spanish introduced. The process has been ongoing since then to modern times. Before the conquest, the state was covered in forests, but mining requires large amounts of fuel to process minerals, so they were cut down for fuel and construction projects. Agriculture leached nutrients from the soil, caused erosion, and introduced plants, animals and diseases that have had a large impact.


title: Guanajuato

text: Today, the state contains 21 protected areas that extend over 63,611 hectares in 26 municipalities. These include Sierra de Lobos, Siete Luminarias, the Silva Dam, Megaparque de Dolores Hidalgo, Cuenca de la Esperanza, Las Fuentes, Peña Alta, Pinal de Zamorano, Parque Metropolitano, La Joya Crater, Lake Yuriria, Las Musas, Culiacán and La Gavia Mountains, Sierra de los Agustinos, Sierra de Pénjamo, Cerro de Cubilete, Cerro de Amoles, La Purisima Dam, Arandas Mountain, La Soledad Dam, and the upper basin of the Temascatío River. Another protected area is the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve. In Guanajuato, it extends over 236,882 hectares and contains 182 bird species, 42 mammal species and 84 plant species, including two recently discovered ones, "Beaucamea compacta" and "Calibanus glassianus". The park contains a number of species in danger of extinction, including the black bear and the puma. The climate is semiarid with variations in temperature due to altitude changes, but most of the area is covered in tropical forest in which many plants lose leaves during the dry season from November to May.


title: Guanajuato

text: In the pre-Hispanic era, the Bajio saw the most human development due to the fertility of the soil and the presence of surface water for agriculture. The oldest group to inhabit the area were the people now known as the Chupícuarios, who dominated the center of the Bajío area and were active between 800 BCE and 300 CE. Their largest city is now the site called Chupícuaro, and their influence was widespread being found in the modern states of Zacatecas, Querétaro, Colima, Nayarit, Hidalgo, State of Mexico, Michoacán and Guerrero. Chupícuaro cities were associated with the Toltec city of Tula and when this city fell, these agricultural cities of Guanajuato also went into decline. This and a prolonged drought cause these cities to be abandoned between the 10th and 11th centuries with only the Guamares left ethnically.


title: Guanajuato

text: Then Chichimeca and other nomadic groups entered the area. These nomadic indigenous groups are generically referred to as Chichimeca, but in reality they were a variety of ethnicities such as the Guachichiles, Pames and Zacatecos. These groups were warlike, semi nomadic and did not practice significant agriculture, nor did they construct cities. Part of the state was also inhabited by the Otomi but they were mostly displaced or dominated by the Purépecha in the southwest and the Chichimeca in other parts. By the 16th century, most of Mesoamerica was dominated by either the Aztec Empire or Purépecha Empire, but Guanajuato was under the control of neither. It was on the northern border of the Purépecha Empire with southern Guanajuato showing significant cultural influence in the southern valleys, and Aztecs had ventured into the area looking for minerals. However, most of the state was dominated by various Chichimeca tribes as part of what the Spanish would call the "Gran Chichimeca". These Chichimeca were mostly nomadic with some scattered agricultural communities, mostly in the north.


title: Guanajuato

text: As the area of Guanajuato lies on the boundary of the arid north of Mexico, at first relatively few Spanish came to settle - as opposed to points south, which had much more abundant rainfall and indigenous labor. The first Spanish expedition to visit the Guanajuato area, led by Cristóbal de Olid in 1522, arrived in the Yuririhapúndaro and Pénjamo areas. The discovery of silver and gold in the area of the city of Guanajuato spurred Spanish settlement of the area in the 1520s and 1530s.


title: Guanajuato

text: Following the Spanish arrival, native tribes retreated to the most inaccessible areas of the Bajío and to the mountain ranges in the state, resisting the invaders, attacking settlements and travelers along the routes that connected Spanish settlements and mining camps. The Spanish were unable to force the natives of this area (unlike the more settled indigenous peoples) to work, and brought African slaves and indigenous peoples from other areas to work the haciendas and mines. The colonization efforts in the eastern part of the state began in 1542 when Spanish land-grants were issued for the Apaseo and Chamácuaro areas. In 1555 San Miguel el Grande was founded to protect roads linking mining camps and cities with Mexico City to the south-east. The Villa de León was founded in 1576 to counter attacks by the indigenous peoples. But through the first centuries of the colonial period, the city of Guanajuato dominated because of its mines. The official name of the state is "Guanajuato, Estado Libre y Soberano" (Guanajuato, Free and Sovereign State). "Guanajuato" comes from Purépecha "Quanaxhuato", which has been translated as both "place of frogs" and "places of many hills". The coat of arms of the state is that of the city of Guanajuato, as granted by Carlos I of Spain ().


title: Guanajuato

text: In 1590 the Villa de San Luis de la Paz was founded and named after the peace ("paz") treaty between the Spanish and the Chichimeca. With the Spanish occupying most of the most productive land and its resources, the indigenous of the area became extremely impoverished. This eventually allowed the Spanish to negotiate peace with chiefs in exchange for basic goods such as blankets, clothes and food. This would bring temporary truces. Evangelization efforts would bring longer-term submission. Franciscans and Augustinians worked to gradually modify the worldview of the Chichimecas and others until many moved out of the mountains and into other settlements and professed, at least nominally, the Catholic faith. However, the indigenous remained extremely marginalized and poor, losing both their language and their culture until most eventually intermarried with outsiders to produce mestizos.


title: Guanajuato

text: Through the Spanish colonial period, most of the area's wealth came from mining, with much of the agriculture springing up to support the mining communities. The height of mining came in the 18th century, mostly from the mines in the hills around the city of Guanajuato, leading to the construction of a large number of notable civil and religious buildings in the same area. The extremely fertile Bajío area became a major agricultural area for New Spain. Both mining and agriculture brought in more Spanish and Criollos to take advantage, as well as mestizos and some African slaves to work the mines and fields, making the area's population grow rapidly and eventually concentrate in urban centers. The area became an intendancy () or province in 1786, when the authorities divided New Spain into twelve parts.


title: Guanajuato

text: Despite the riches the area produced, most lived in oppression and poverty at the end of the 18th century, working on haciendas and in mines while a few, mostly European-born Spaniards, lived in opulence. Not only the indigenous, mestizo and Negro slaves were having problems with the social order. Many Criollos or New World-born Spanish were marginalized by the Spain-born. One of the first rebellions against colonial rule came in 1766, when a group attacked the Caja Real in Guanajuato city to protest high taxes. In 1767, there were protests against the expulsion of the Jesuits by the Spanish Crown. These were put down with extreme force, but they spurred conspiracies, and groups organizing against colonial rule, especially in San Miguel el Grande and León.


title: Guanajuato

text: Numerous plans were made, but few were carried out or had impact until 1809. In that year, a group consisting of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Ignacio Allende, Juan Aldama, Miguel Domínguez and more, began to plan an armed revolt against the colonial government. In 1810, the plot was discovered and Hidalgo decided to put their plans into action in September instead of the planned date in December. On 15 September, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla declared the Grito de Dolores in the town of Dolores (Hidalgo). Hidalgo, accompanies by Ignacio Allende, left Dolores with about 800 men, half of whom were on horseback. Just through sheer numbers, Hidalgo's army had some early victories, going through the economically important and densely populated province of Guanajuato. One of Hidalgo's first stops was at the Sanctuary of Atotonilco. There, Hidalgo affixed an image of the Virgin to a lance to adopt it as his banner. He then inscribed the following slogans to his troops' flags: "Long live religion! Long live our most Holy Mother of Guadalupe! Long live Ferdinand VII! Long live America and death to bad government!" The extent and the intensity of the movement took viceregal authorities by surprise. San Miguel and Celaya were captured with little resistance. On 21 September 1810, Hidalgo was proclaimed general and supreme commander after arriving to Celaya. At this point, Hidalgo's army numbered about 50,000. However, because of the lack of military discipline, the insurgents soon fell into robbing, looting and ransacking the towns they were capturing. On 28 September 1810, Hidalgo arrived at the city of Guanajuato. The town's Spanish and Criollo populations took refuge in the heavily fortified Alhóndiga de Granaditas granary defended by Quartermaster Riaños. The insurgents overwhelmed the defenses in two days and killed an estimated 400–600 men, women and children. Fighting associated with the War of Independence would return near the end of the conflict. Military commanders Luis de Cortázar and Anastasio Bustamante joined forces with Agustín de Iturbide and took the city of Guanajuato on 8 July 1821, declaring the entire state independent of Spanish rule. In 1824, Guanajuato was officially proclaimed a state of Mexico by the Constitutional Congress of Mexico.


title: Guanajuato

text: The years after the end of the War of Independence were extremely unstable, and would continue to be unstable through most of the rest of the 19th century. Dolores and San Miguel adopted the names of Dolores Hidalgo and San Miguel de Allende in honor of those who began the independence movement and in 1826, the first constitution of the state of Guanajuato was adopted. Like much of the rest of the country, Guanajuato was affected by the prolonged fighting between Liberal and Conservative factions as well as the foreign incursions that dominated the 19th century. Guanajuato's status vacillated between state (when Liberals were in charge) and department (when Conservatives held the upper hand). Under Liberal ideals, educational institutions such as the Colegio de la Santisima Trinidad and the Colegio de la Purisima Concepción were secularized and under control of the State. In 1847, General Gabriel Valencia raised an army of 6,000 men to fight the U.S. invasion of Mexico. In 1848, in opposition to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, General Marian Paredes, General Manuel Doblado and priest Celedonio Dómeco de Jarauta revolted, taking the state capital, but they were defeated and Domeco was executed by firing squad. In 1855, Conservative Manuel Doblado, then the governor of Guanajuato, forced Juan Álvarez out of the presidency after he took power from Antonio López de Santa Anna. In 1858, the government under President Benito Juárez moved from Mexico City to the city of Guanajuato before moving again to Manzanillo and then Veracruz during the Reform War. During this three-year period, the state would vacillate various times between the Liberals and Conservatives. In 1863, it was taken over by the French as they installed Maximilian I as emperor of Mexico. Maximillian did not reign long but the governor he appointed for Guanajuato, Florencio Antillón remained in Guanajuato until 1877.