Church in Wales to vote on blessings for same-sex marriages
Same-sex couples can now have their marriage blessed by the Church in Wales after a vote was held. However, the church will still not marry same-sex couples. Former Dean of St Albans, the Very Reverend Jeffrey John, supported the change but described it as a “halfway house” that did not go far enough. The Evangelical […]
2023 European Games host Council refusal to withdraw anti-LGBT resolution puts EU funding at risk
The Council in Malopolska, which includes Kraków, has voted to re-affirm its status as an “LGBT-free zone”, despite the European Union (EU) threatening to remove billions of euros in funding which could affect preparations for the 2023 European Games which it is due to stage. Malopolska passed a resolution in 2019 which declared itself an […]
The Supreme Court could allow attacks to marriage equality just as they are with abortion
The five right-wing justices of the Supreme Court who decided to uphold Texas’s anti-abortion law last week are sending a strong signal about the shaky future of LGBTQ rights, including marriage equality. Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas cleared the way for a new law in Texas — which […]
Local walking tour takes deep dive into the world of Hong Kong’s LGBT community
Beneath a rainbow-coloured umbrella, tour guide Michael Tsang Chi-fai addresses a rapt audience about a four-hour walk ahead. “We’re going to visit different places you may have never been to, but they’re each significant to the LGBT community,” he said. On a humid Saturday morning, more than 20 people gathered for a walking tour centred […]
Thousands protest for social justice, inclusion in Germany
Thousands of activists protested Saturday in Berlin for a more inclusive and progressive society, the German news agency dpa reported. Over 350 organizations including Amnesty International, Fridays for Future, pro-women rights and refugee support groups had called for the march through the German capital three weeks before the country’s national election on Sept 26. The […]
US transport secretary Pete Buttigieg and husband show off new babies
Buttigieg, the first openly gay US cabinet member, and his spouse Chasten told The Washington Post in July that the two were trying to adopt ‘We are delighted to welcome Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to our family,’ Buttigieg wrote on Twitter Saturday’s photo received several hundred thousand likes on Twitter within just a […]
Myanmar LGBTQ Makeup Artist Swaps Beauty Salon for Border Hideout and Revolution
Until the military takeover on Feb. 1, cosmetics, fashion and beauty design were the most important parts of May Oo’s daily life. For more than a decade, he loved to visually transform people’s appearance through his skills. His passion turned him into one of Yangon’s most highly sought-after makeup artists. His customers included celebrities and […]
Poland’s chief rabbi: ‘LGBTQ+-free zones is against Halacha’
“Creating LGBTQ+ free zones is against Halacha,” Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich said at the kickoff for The Agudah – The Association for LGBTQ+ Equality in Israel’s new “Pride in the Living Room” series of events. The Agudah is hosting and supporting dozens of these events in countries all over the world, ranging from Brazil, […]
Prejudice And Pride: Georgia’s LGBT Community Finds New Strength After Violent Attacks
In July, a planned LGBT Pride March in Tbilisi was called off after right-wing protesters attacked activists and journalists, whom they accused of spreading “anti-Georgian sentiments.” Dozens of people were injured and a TV cameraman died after being brutally beaten. In the wake of the violence, LGBT activists have not backed down from pushing for […]
LGBTQ Governor Who Backed Bolsonaro Now Wants Brazil’s Top Job
The presidential hopeful favored by investors in what’s shaping up to be a divisive and brutal election campaign in Brazil is the 36-year-old governor of a conservative state who just came out as LGBTQ. Eduardo Leite rode President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing wave into office in 2018, winning over financial markets with a program of fiscal […]
60% of transgender people in Scotland experience workplace harassment, survey says
LGBT Health and Wellbeing said 60% had experienced harassment, with most not reporting it because of a lack of confidence that managers were able to deal with transphobic bullying. The group said 40% of those surveyed said their trans identity had a negative impact on their job prospects, and 41% felt their workplace was trans […]
Lil Nas X honoured for unflinching commitment to ending LGBT+ youth suicide
Lil Nas X is adding another award to his packed mantle after The Trevor Project announced he has been named their suicide prevention advocate of the year. The honour, announced Wednesday (1 September), is the LGBT+ suicide prevention organisation’s first time giving such an award – which is timely given that September is the start […]
Russian troops pretend to crush a gay man with concrete block in shocking theatre performance
The performance was shown as part of an anniversary celebration for a local patriotic military club at the Dobrynin Palace of Culture in Yaroslavl on Sunday (29 August). As an unsuspecting audience looked on, cadets in camouflage fatigues hoisted a shirtless man above their heads and placed a concrete block with the inscription “death to […]
Maritime medal awarded to sailor who championed LGBT+ rights
Second Officer, Paul Owen, is the first recipient of the Merchant Navy Medal for championing LGBT+ rights. The 53-year-old from Blackpool helped to create the Pride in Maritime network while he was seconded from the Royal Flees Auxiliary to umbrella body Maritime UK. The network educates and enables individuals and companies to learn more and […]
Nearly half of LGBT renters behind on rent fear eviction in next two months
About half of LGBT U.S. renters who are behind on their payments fear eviction in the next two months, according to research released by the University of California-Los Angeles’s Williams Institute. The Williams Institute compiled a brief examining housing stability during the coronavirus pandemic using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Pulse Survey. The research […]
20 states sue over Biden admin school, work LGBT protections
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Attorneys general from 20 states sued President Joe Biden’s administration Monday seeking to halt directives that extend federal sex discrimination protections to LGBTQ people, ranging from transgender girls participating in school sports to the use of school and workplace bathrooms that align with a person’s gender identity. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert […]
Banned and blocked: LGBT+ websites censored from Russia to Indonesia
When Russian cities started banning Pride marches, LGBT+ rights activist Mikhail Tumasov took to the internet to make sure his organisation kept its voice. But state authorities were quick to catch up. Tumasov said the country’s internet regulator had tried repeatedly to shut down his group’s website under the terms of Russia’s 2013 “anti-gay propaganda” […]
Amend rules to punish police personnel who harass LGBTQIA+ community, Court directs Tamil Nadu
The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to amend the conduct rules applicable to police personnel and provide for punishment to those who harass either the people belonging to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and such others’ (LGBTQIA+) community or harass non-governmental organisations that support such community members. Justice […]
Romania’s LGBT community sees gains, ongoing rights struggle
The last person jailed for being gay in Romania walked free in 1998. The country decriminalized homosexuality three years after that, in 2001, while reforming its laws to qualify for membership in the European Union. The 20th anniversary of the abolishment of Article 200, which authorized prison sentences of up to five years for same-sex […]
LGBT Afghans are on the run, afraid they could be stoned to death under Taliban law
Ahmadullah says the Taliban beheaded his boyfriend on the day they entered Kabul. “We were in a restaurant having breakfast when we heard about the Taliban,” he told the ABC, referring to the morning of August 15 when Taliban forces surrounded the Afghan capital. “I told him, ‘Go home and when you reach home call […]
OPINION: Social media is a weapon of mass LGBT+ destruction that must be disarmed
Pride month ended this year with Europe divided. A rainbow curtain now cuts across the European Union, with Hungary’s anti-LGBT+ law just the latest sign of an increasingly sharp frontier in the fight for LGBT+ rights. All eyes are now on Brussels and the fightback by the European Commission. But they should also be focused […]
Afghan Gay Men Are Terrified. Taliban Continue to Hunt, Betray, Out, Rape, Beat, Murder, Cause Suicides…And That’s Just the Last 2 Weeks
Taliban are going door-to-door looking for journalists, interpreters and LGBTQ+ people. The longest war the US has ever been in was not won by US. We are hard pressed to explain the amoral economic drivers and it’s obvious the way it is ending is far from graceful or humane. Most Americans agree it is time […]
Finland to consider conversion therapy ban after overwhelming public demand
A citizens’ initiative to ban sexual orientation and gender identification conversion therapy is moving forward to being considered by parliament after it gathered the needed 50,000 signatures within only a month. In all likelihood, such therapies will be prohibited and the ban would apply to both children and adults. In its programme, the current government […]
No End to Chechnya’s Violent Anti-Gay Campaign
The Russian LGBT Network has reported that in May 2021, Chechen-speaking men abducted Ibragim Selimkhanov in Moscow and forcibly returned him to Chechnya’s capital Grozny, where authorities interrogated him about gay people in the region. This is the latest chapter in Chechnya’s relentless assault on sexual and gender minorities. In 2017 and 2019, Chechen authorities […]
6 Sentenced to Death in Bangladesh for Killing of Gay Rights Activist
The activist Xulhaz Mannan, who had started a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender magazine, was hacked to death in a machete attack in 2016. DHAKA, Bangladesh — Six men said to belong to an Islamist militant group were convicted and sentenced to death on Tuesday over the 2016 killings of a prominent Bangladeshi gay rights […]
LGBTQ Students Find Hope In New Affirming School: The Magic City Acceptance Academy
For back-to-school shopping, Elliot likes to hit up one of his favorite thrift stores with his mom. They often go thrifting together, and so far, the rising 11th grader has picked out three shirts, all in the same style: navy blue, short-sleeved button-ups. “I like to call them beach dad shirts,” Elliott said Elliot is […]
Attacks on LGBTQ+ community across UK spark fear
The government data for England, Wales and Scotland has revealed that since 2015, hate crimes related to sexual orientation and gender identity have increased. In the year to March 2020 in England and Wales, sexual orientation hate crimes rose by 19 per cent to 15,835, and transgender identity hate crimes by 16 per cent to […]
Colonial Williamsburg adds gay and transgender reenactments
Colonial Williamsburg is bringing a slice of gay and transgender history to life this Fall. Starting in October, a new musical called Ladies of Llangollen will be featured, based on diary entries, letters, and poetry of two women who ran away from Ireland and eloped in Wales during the 18th century. The Colonial Williamsburg foundation […]
‘Love is not divisive’ – Vigil celebrates BYU’s LGBTQ community
More than 150 people gathered for a candlelit vigil in support of BYU’s LGBTQ community in Salt Lake City on Saturday night. The “Bury Your Weapons” vigil was organized in response to a speech given by Jeffrey Holland, in which he condemned BYU faculty and students who have advocated for LGBTQ issues on campus. Holland, […]
Motsoaledi frees gay Ugandan couple after arrest in KZN
Durban – Home Affairs Minister Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi and the department’s director-general Livhuwani Makhode have released a Ugandan couple detained for being in South Africa illegally due to their sexual orientation. Motsoaledi and Makhode were ordered to release Herbert Mafadi and Luzake Musana last month after they approached the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg […]