ILGA World conference comes to Long Beach to talk LGBTQ+ rights
Hundreds of international LGBTQ+ activists will converge on Long Beach next week for the ILGA World conference. Approximately 600 human rights defenders, United Nations and government representatives, scholars, and funders, will meet to discuss and learn about the state of LGBTQ+ rights around the world. “People around the world still face violence and discrimination because […]
Healthcare For All: LGBTQ-Inclusive Health Cover Is A Must In Corporates
The LGBTQ community has been fighting for its rights in the corporate world for a long time. For most people, work is often stressful, and the additional burden of hiding the most basic identity from the world could be mentally and emotionally exhausting. People from the LGBTQIA community are often faced with stigma, discrimination, hostility […]
eSwatini court refuses to recognise LGBTQ rights group
A court in eSwatini, Africa’s last absolute monarchy where homosexuality is still banned, has rejected a bid by the country’s leading LGBTQ rights group for official recognition, the group said Saturday. The judges “continually state that the organisation wants to sell sex to the public. This is nowhere found in the mandate and vision of the […]
“Two-spirit musicians show with RSO a beacon to Indigenous, queer youth Social Sharing “
When the Buffalo Girls took the stage in Regina Saturday night, the show wasn’t just about their music. Alongside their songs were anecdotes about life and about their experience as a musically talented, two-spirit couple to provide comfort to two-spirit youth walking the same path. The Buffalo Girls are a trio of musicians: Cris Derksen, a Cree Juno-nominated cellist and composer, her wife Rebecca […]
Weaponized grooming rhetoric is taking a toll on LGBTQ community and child sex abuse survivors
Some conservatives have begun using words like “grooming” often associated with child sex abuse. Such rhetoric hurts the LGBTQ people, particularly gay men who have long been accused of predatory behavior. Careless use of words connected to child sex abuse diminishes the experience of survivors, advocates say. Grooming, a term associated with adults who sexually […]
Brave Ukrainian student flees to Edinburgh after LGBT+ safe spaces disappear due to war
A brave Ukrainian student has fled to Edinburgh after his country became extremely unsafe for the LGBT+ community. Nick, a 22-year-old journalism student from Kyiv says he is “physically and emotionally destroyed” by what is happening in his wartorn home country. The student’s family are still stuck in Ukraine. Nick was attending Tavrida National V.I. […]
It’s only 25 years since being gay stopped being illegal in Australia
When Tasmania decriminalised homosexuality on 1 May 1997, it became the last Australian state to do so. Today, LGBTIQ+ advocates there say there’s still work to be done, particularly to protect Australians who are transgender and intersex. The late 1980s were tough for Rodney Croome. Aged in his 20s and not long after coming out […]
GREENS SAY THEY WILL TAX BILLIONAIRES TO FUND LGBT ELECTION POLICY PROMISES
The Australian Greens party on Sunday unveiled its LGBTQI election policy, which includes $900 million in forward estimates to implement its policies for the community. The plan will be funded by the party’s proposed billionaires tax and corporate super-profit tax. Out Senator Janet Rice told Star Observer that between Prime Minister Scott Morrison using LGBTQI […]
Romania must reject Hungary-style anti-LGBT bill, rights groups say
Romanian human rights groups on Friday condemned a bill approved by the Senate which bans so-called gay propaganda in schools, saying it would legitimise discrimination against the LGBT community, mirroring measures seen in Hungary and Russia. The groups urged parliament’s lower house, which has the final say, to reject the bill that bans the use […]
Release of the First Annual Interagency Report on Advancing LGBTQI+ Human Rights
Today we released the first-ever public report on the U.S. government’s implementation of the 2021 Presidential Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons (LGBTQI+) Around the World. The report details our efforts to protect and promote the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons globally over the past year. […]
Canada lifts restrictions on gay men donating blood
Canadian health officials have lifted restrictions on gay and bisexual men donating blood following years of LGBTQ and advocacy groups accusing the federal health department of discrimination. Canada Health announced Thursday that it has eliminated the current ban on men from donating blood if they have had sex with another man within the past three […]
LGBTQ+ Muslims on finding queer joy: “It’s important to show future generations”
“I didn’t know you could be LGBTQ+ and Muslim” is a statement I overheard not too long ago. For the speaker, a religious identity (one of practised faith) felt juxtaposed alongside one of queerness. Whether it was a comment born out of naivety or ignorance, its passing sentiment had bothered me, as I thought: “Can […]
Albania’s Pioneering LGBT Activist: ‘We Should Not Be Second-Class Citizens’
When Xheni Karaj started to engage in LGBT activism 13 years ago, she was barely aware what activism was – and the relevant organizations were still at a very grassroots stage. At 21, she thought she was perhaps the only lesbian in Albania. Her teenage years were marked by a depression that reflected a fear […]
Protests greet homophobic TV interview in Martinique
In Martinique, human rights defenders quickly protested against a local television station that broadcast a sidewalk interview containing LGBTphobic conspiracy theories related to France’s April 24 presidential election. On March 22, Kanal Martinique Télévision (KMT) broadcast interviews about the then upcoming presidential elections, including references to persistent rumors and conspiracy theories about President Emmanuel Macron, […]
After years of progress on gay rights, how did the US become so anti-LGBTQ+?
In 2019, the Atlantic ran an opinion piece titled “The struggle for gay rights is over”. Written by the rightwing academic James Kirchick, the piece was obviously meant as a provocation, but its argument that “for those born into a form of adversity, sometimes the hardest thing to do is admitting that they’ve won” was […]
Ship stewards make history with same-sex marriage in Antarctica
Two research ship crew members, Eric Bourne and Stephen Carpenter made history on Sunday 24 April as the first same-sex couple to get married in icy Antarctica. Same-sex marriage has been legal in the British Antarctic Territory since October 2016. According to the National LGBT Rights Organisation, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) reviewed same-sex marriage […]
The documentary film depicting the beginning of the political organization of the Brazilian LGBT movement
Called “When We Dare To Exist – History of the Brazilian Gay Movement +”, the feature film that brings the vision of activists from the 70s and 80s, about the historical paths of this movement, will be shown on Thursday (04/28), at 6 pm, to guests at Teatro Alcione Araújo – Biblioteca Parque, in downtown […]
How LGBTQ Life in China Has Gotten Tougher Under Xi
China’s LGBTQ community has long had to deal with not only societal prejudice but also pressure from the state: censorship, surveillance and intimidation, at times even detention by police. During the early 2000s, though, it looked like things might be changing. Gay clubs flourished in big cities and community groups sprang up to offer social […]
Life in Scotland is getting worse, say young LGBT+ people.
Life for LGBT+ young people in Scotland is “worse now than it has been for a long time”, according to a report that highlights growing concerns about homophobia in public spaces, bullying in schools and transphobic media coverage. The five-yearly report from the campaigning and advocacy group LGBT Youth Scotland found a sharp decrease in […]
Russia Fines Meta for Spreading ‘LGBT Propaganda’ After Banning Facebook and Instagram.
Russian courts might have banned Facebook and Instagram access across the country just a month ago, but that’s not going to stop those same courts from fining them anyway. A Russian judge slapped Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta Platforms, with a 4 million rouble fine (roughly $53,500) on Tuesday for failing to take down […]
Torture won’t fix me’ Protestors gather in Cardiff against transgender conversion therapy.
Protestors gathered in the centre of Cardiff to oppose conversion therapy for transgender people all over the UK. Organised by south Wales based group, Trans Aid Cymru, the demonstrators said they were there to fight for full legal protections for transgender, intersex and non-binary individuals from conversion therapy. The protest, which was led by activist […]
Air Force updates physical fitness testing guidelines for transgender airmen.
The Air Force updated its requirements Thursday to permit transgender airmen to skip the annual physical fitness test while they undergo gender-confirmation surgery. The policy itself is actually not new, Bree Fram, president of Servicemembers, Partners and Allies for Respect and Tolerance for All, told Stars and Stripes by email Tuesday. But the update puts […]
‘Are You Ok?’ project gives voice to transgender kids in South Dakota.
In the first half of 2022, bills in state legislatures targeting transgender individuals are already outpacing 2021 legislation according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The exponential growth of anti-transgender legislation over the last few years inspired one Santa Fe-based photographer to begin the Are You Ok? project to share the stories of those […]
Anti-LGBTQ Attacks Increase Dramatically In Ireland.
In Ireland, the slew of unsettling news for LGBTQ people continues to mount. Most recently, a gay man was assaulted in the capital city of Dublin. Twenty-three-year-old Evan Somers, an openly gay rugby player, was attacked by a “marauding gang” in the parking lot of a supermarket during the pre-dawn hours of April 10 after […]
Disney is refusing to cut LGBTQ scene in Doctor Strange 2, Saudi Arabia says.
Saudi Arabia has asked Disney to cut “LGBTQ references” from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness before it can be screened in the kingdom, an official said on Monday – but denied earlier reports that the film has been banned. Disney has so far declined the requested edits to the Doctor Strange sequel, slated […]
French Guiana: “500 euros, the price of my life!”.
The 76crimes editorial staff is looking back at a homophobic attack suffered almost a year ago by our colleague, Moïse Manoël-Florisse, in Saint-Laurent du Maroni, French Guiana, on the evening of 6 April 2021. A young delinquent who had been harassing Moïse for several weeks chased him in the middle of the street, with a […]
What does Europe’s right want?
The last time we had met, Ronald Reagan’s deregulation tsar Chris DeMuth reminded the audience, it was “the last week of normal life in Europe to date”. In February 2020, the National Conservatism conference had assembled in Rome, just as the first cases of Covid-19 were detected there. Back then, a line-up of 26 speakers […]
Judge blocks Montana’s transgender birth certificate law
HELENA, Mont. — A Montana judge on Thursday temporarily blocked enforcement of a law that required transgender people to have undergone a “surgical procedure” before being allowed to change their sex on their birth certificates. The law was part of a growing list of Republican-controlled states including Alabama that have moved to restrict transgender rights […]
Katherine Deves’s trans women comments ignited another round of culture wars – and added another nail in the coffin of democracy
America’s second president John Adams famously said: “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” A bit rash, perhaps — and Adams was more philosopher than politician, a man given to bold statements. More than two centuries after he said […]
America is drowning in anti-LGBTQ attacks. Where is the Left’s lifeboat?
This week, Democratic state Sen. Mallory McMorrow gave a powerful floor speech in response to a colleague who in a fund raising email to supporters accused McMorrow of grooming and sexualizing children. “I sat on it for a while wondering why me,” she said. “Because I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme. […]