The “radical feminist” group helping push Ohio’s trans bathroom ban
A “radical feminist” group called the Women’s Liberation Front, that has helped shape anti-trans laws nationwide, has also played a role in a proposed Ohio law that would ban transgender people in schools and on college campuses from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity and appearance, emails obtained by the Ohio Capital Journal […]
UK minister claims Rwanda is safe for gay migrants – these queer organisations disagree
A UK minister has claimed that Rwanda is a “progressive” country where LGBTQ+ migrants will be safe, despite warnings from queer charities. Illegal migration minister Michael Tomlinson praised Rwanda’s record on LGBTQ+ rights on Tuesday (23 April) after the UK government passed its controversial bill to send asylum seekers to the East African nation. Despite the UK government itself admitting […]
Legislating Identity: A Critical Analysis of the Anti-LGBT Bills in Kenya and Ghana
Recent Afrobarometer survey data (Round 8, 2019-2021) paints a stark picture with 86% of Kenyans and 93% of Ghanaians expressing intolerance towards the LGBT community. This high level of intolerance exists despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guaranteeing non-discrimination based on sexual orientation. Furthermore, across Africa, laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual activity remain commonplace. Contrarily, South […]
QueerMandu
There’s a new rainbow rising over Nepal. This is Sandip Roy in Kathmandu. The Himalayan country has always been known for tourism – Mountains forests old capital cities and Buddhist stupas. As Nandini Lahe-Thapa, the officiating CEO of Nepal Tourism Board puts it Nepal has three-in-one appeal. NLT1: Speaker1: The nature, culture and adventure products. And out […]
Wales is latest UK nation to pause puberty blockers for under-18s
Wales has become the latest UK nation to pause the use of puberty blockers by under-18s. The physically reversible hormone blockers, which suppress unwanted elements of puberty for young trans teens, will no longer be available to new patients, following a decision by NHS Wales. The decision comes in the wake of the publication of […]
Tokyo Rainbow Pride Celebrates 30 Years
Over the weekend in Japan, 15,000 people took part in the 2024 Tokyo Rainbow Pride parade, one of the biggest LGBTQIA+ events in Southeast Asia. All colours of the rainbow could be spotted throughout the Shibuya district on Sunday April 21st as a huge crowd of people walked through the city in celebration of Japan’s […]
New Queer Future Beckons for Former Sydney Police Station
Not-for-profit Qtopia has applied to permanently transform a former police station into the Sydney Centre for Queer History and Culture. Along with Create NSW—the NSW Government’s arts and culture driver—Qtopia has submitted plans to permanently dedicate the building at 301 Forbes Street as a celebration of queer culture. The building is of particular significance to […]
New federal rule bars transgender school bathroom bans, but it likely isn’t the final word
A new rule from President Joe Biden’s administration blocking blanket policies to keep transgender students from using school bathrooms that align with their gender identity could conflict with laws in Republican-controlled states. The clash over bathroom policy and other elements of a federal regulation finalized last week could set the stage for another wave of […]
Louisiana education chief tells schools to ignore new Title IX rules for transgender students
Louisiana’s top education official on Monday instructed schools to ignore new Title IX rules unveiled by the Biden administration, warning that extending the civil rights law’s protections to transgender students may violate existing state and federal law. The Education Department last week issued a final set of sweeping changes to Title IX — which prohibits […]
Lawsuit in London to allege Grindr shared users’ HIV status with ad firms
Grindr faces the prospect of legal action by hundreds of users who will allege that the dating app shared highly sensitive personal information, including in some cases their HIV status, with advertising companies. The law firm Austen Hays is to file a claim on Monday in London’s high court alleging that the US owner of […]
Dominica court overturns anti-sodomy law
The High Court of the Caribbean island nation of Dominica has ruled that Dominica’s law against consensual same-sex intimacy is unconstitutional. The judgement against the anti-sodomy law was announced via Zoom this morning. With this decision, the number of nations with anti-LGBTQ laws has dropped to 65. Cara Shillingford represented the claimants. The Attorney General’s […]
In the Olympics of Drag, Taiwan just took the gold
For Taiwan, which often finds its international participation constrained – barred from a World Health Organization membership and competing under the “Chinese Taipei” flag at the Olympics – the triumph of Nymphia Wind, a charismatic drag queen from Taiwan, on Season 16 of RuPaul’s Drag Race American television reality competition is a moment of significant […]
In Australia, women-only app becomes latest front in war over trans rights
Sydney, Australia– Sall Grover says she did not think twice when she blocked Roxanne Tickle, a transgender woman, from her Australian-based women-only app Giggle for Girls. “It did not register, as we get men trying to enter all the time. Mr Tickle passed our AI facial recognition test, which was deliberately set at 94 percent […]
Gov. Greg Abbott Wants to ‘End’ Trans Teachers Expressing Their Gender in Texas
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suggested that he wants to end transgender and gender nonconforming individuals from expressing their gender while teaching in the state. At a speech delivered Friday at the Young Conservatives of Texas convention, Abbott described a report of a high school teacher who wore feminine clothing rather than clothing that matched their gender assigned […]
Venice Biennale platforms LGBTQ , outsider and Indigenous artists
Outsider, queer and Indigenous artists are getting an overdue platform at the 60th Venice Biennale contemporary art exhibition that opened Saturday, curated for the first time by a Latin American. Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa’s main show, which accompanies 88 national pavilions for the seven-month run, is strong on figurative painting, with fewer installations than recent editions. […]
In Japan, US book on transgender surgery for young people sparks threats, heated debate
A decision by a conservative-leaning newspaper in Japan to defy threats and push ahead with the translated publication of a book critical of gender-altering procedures for young people has stirred debate over their exposure to life-changing decisions and the different views on freedom of expression. Earlier this month, Sankei Shimbun Publishing released the Japanese-language version of Irreversible Damage: […]
Learning Love and Loyalty in the AIDS Crisis
David called me on Saturday, April 23, 1994, to tell me Bill died that morning at 8:35. Now it was over. The inevitability, the feelings of resignation, concern, fear, and despair would all merge into a sense of great loss. Mostly, I felt calm, even numb. I was glad to know Bill died peacefully and […]
Jeremy Corbyn calls for an end to the ‘horrors’ of anti-trans discrimination
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has shared a message of support for transgender people everywhere. The Islington North MP told the Council of Europe that there had to be an end to the “horrors of transgender discrimination”, in his speech on Thursday (18 April). A parliamentary assembly was held for the Council of Europe to […]
Nepal Promotes LGBT-Friendly Tourism With First International Rainbow Conference
The first International Rainbow Tourism Conference opened here on Saturday, with Nepal offering itself as a safe and respectful destination in South Asia for the sexual minority community. The single-day international conference was organised by Mayako Pahichan Nepal, a non-governmental organisation. “This pioneer event organised by Mayako Pahichan Nepal in collaboration with Nepal Tourism Board […]
California judge agrees to second look at language in proposed transgender initiative
A California judge weighing potential prejudice in the title and summary of a proposed ballot measure concerning transgender children is considering his ruling after a Friday hearing. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Stephen Acquisto already had issued a tentative ruling in favor of the state Attorney General’s Office, deciding that the title of the proposed […]
Scotland Pauses Transgender Medications For Minors
Scotland has paused all new prescriptions of transgender medications such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors, the latest in a string of developments in Britain pumping the brakes on transgender medical services for minors. Scotland’s only youth gender clinic, the Sandyford clinic in Glasgow, which is operated by Scotland’s National Health Service (NHS) […]
Trudeau’s 2024 budget includes $150 million to promote ‘2SLGBTQI+’ ideology at home and abroad
The Trudeau government plans to expand ‘equity groups’ to include people who identify as ‘2SLGBTQ+’ and to spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to promote its ‘Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan’ and ‘embed’ LGBT issues in the Canadian government. The Trudeau government’s 2024 budget features plans to spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to […]
Mathabatha Joba’s podcast empowers queer voices
The airwaves buzz with a new and exciting podcast called ‘LivenInspirewithMathabatha’ hosted by an advocate for the LBGTQ+ community Mathabatha Joba every Wednesday from 19:00-20:00 on MyneighborhoodTV. The producer of the podcast Onkemetse Matlahaku said the podcast provides a safe space for members of the queer community to share their stories, both triumphant and challenging. […]
Biden’s new Title IX rules protect LGBTQ+ students, but avoid addressing transgender athletes
The rights of LGBTQ+ students will be protected by federal law and victims of campus sexual assault will gain new safeguards under rules finalized Friday by the Biden administration. The new provisions are part of a revised Title IX regulation issued by the Education Department, fulfilling a campaign pledge by President Joe Biden. He had […]
Burundi’s president says gay people should be stoned
Burundi’s president said gay people should be stoned, amid a larger crackdown on the LGBTQ community in the East African country. “If you want to attract a curse to the country, accept homosexuality,” Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye said in a question and answer session with journalists and the public last Friday, according to Reuters. “I even think that […]
LGBT Ghanaians await court ruling on restrictive new law
ACCRA (Reuters) – Members of Ghana’s LGBT community and activists are waiting to see whether the West African country’s president will sign into law a bill that would further restrict their rights and likely worsen the persecution many face. Kwame, a gay man who spoke to Reuters on the condition his real name was not used, […]
A Second Trump Presidency Would Be A Nightmare Scenario For Transgender People
Jules was driving to their friend’s house in St. Petersburg, Florida, last year when a police officer pulled them over for a busted taillight. Jules wondered if the officer saw their “Say Gay” sticker — a small protest to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill — and nervously handed over their driver’s license. […]
Puberty blockers paused for under-18s in Scotland
Scotland’s only youth gender clinic has paused prescribing puberty blockers for under-18s. Prescriptions for under-18s currently on the waiting list are to be blocked following the decision by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC). The Sandyford Clinic in Glasgow also said that patients aged 16 and up would no longer receive hormone treatments until they […]
Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf confirms trans women will be protected under new misogyny laws
The Scottish government are set to introduce a bill to address prejudice and violence against women and girls – which rightly includes trans women and girls – before the current parliamentary term ends in 2026. The First Minister said that “anyone affected” by misogyny would be safeguarded, no matter their gender identity. Speaking to BBC’s Good Morning Scotland, he said: […]
Travel warning issued for LGBTQ+ tourists in Greece. Where in Europe is safest for queer people?
Following a travel warning issued for LGBTQ+ tourists in Greece, these are the European countries that are most welcoming to queer people. When same-sex marriage was legalised in Greece back in February, LGBTQ+ campaigners celebrated. Now, though, the British Foreign Office has issued new travel advice for queer people travelling to the country. An update, […]