White House Names Jessica Stern as Next US Envoy for Global LGBT Rights
(WB) The White House on Friday announced it has named Jessica Stern as the next special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBT rights abroad. Stern for the past 11 years has been the executive director of OutRight Action International, a global LGBTQ advocacy group. The White House in its announcement notes Stern is also […]
Canada’s Senate puts LGBT conversion therapy bill on hold for summer
OTTAWA, June 30 (Reuters) – A pledge by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ban LGBT conversion therapy has been delayed until at least September, after an attempt to recall the Senate over the summer to deal with the bill failed late on Tuesday. Canada’s Senate, or upper chamber, held special sittings earlier this week […]
Poland could face legal action over its controversial ‘LGBT+ free zones’
The European Commission is studying the possibility of legal action against Poland over its “LGBT-free zones” in some towns, several EU sources have said. As the “guardian of the treaties” binding the European Union together, the commission could launch an infringement procedure against the country, which is ruled by a right-wing, socially conservative government whose […]
Venezuelan activists say there is little to celebrate this Pride month
Activists in Venezuela say there is little to celebrate this LGBTI Pride month, which they say is behind in South America on legislation protecting members of the LGBTI community. Venezuela still bars same-sex marriage and child adoption by same-sex couples, among other laws that some countries in the region such as Colombia and Brazil allow. […]
Spain’s Cabinet Approves Draft of Transgender Rights Law
The Spanish Cabinet on Tuesday passed a draft bill on LGBTQ rights that will seek parliamentary approval to allow transgender people over 16 to freely change their gender and name without doctors or witnesses intervening in the process. The proposal could still change during a lengthy parliamentary debate of the legal draft. But if its […]
Poland should copy Hungarian LGBT law, says Polish minister
WARSAW, June 28 (Reuters) – Poland should copy a Hungarian law that bans schools from using materials seen as promoting homosexuality, the Polish education minister said in comments published on Monday, as the nationalist government attacks what it calls “LGBT ideology”. Hungary’s premier, Viktor Orban, has outraged other European Union leaders with the law, with […]
France could ease path to parenthood for single and lesbian women
When Benedicte Blanchet, a 40-year-old who lives in a Paris suburb, decided that she wanted to have a child on her own and not wait to meet the right man, nothing prepared her for the costly obstacle course that was to follow. Under existing laws in France, which are among the strictest in western Europe, […]
A Glimmer of Hope: India Court Issues Guidelines for Protection of LGBTQ Community
Before the Obergfell v. Hodges judgment finally declared homosexual marriage as an individual’s fundamental right across the United States, various state and circuit courts ruled in favor of this right. A similar ray of hope seems to be rising for the LGBTQ community in India when Justice Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court gave […]
377: The British colonial law that left an anti-LGBTQ legacy in Asia
For much of the past two centuries, it was illegal to be gay in a vast swathe of the world – thanks to colonial Britain. Till today, colonial-era laws that ban homosexuality continue to exist in former British territories including parts of Africa and Oceania. But it is in Asia where they have had a […]
Israel’s ‘First Lesbians.’ It Hurts When You’re All Alone in the World
For a long time Hana Klein thought she was the only lesbian in Israel, and maybe in the whole world. She was born in 1951, grew up in Tel Aviv and at 11 realized that her feelings were a bit different from those of her girlfriends. But she didn’t know why. Klein says that in […]
LGBTQ troops and vets go to war with homophobia in Ukraine
The silence inside a makeshift cinema in the heart of Kyiv was shattered with the crash of a windowpane. Fireworks flashed. Homophobic attackers were attempting to besiege the screening of a film about the lives of LGBTQ people. The assailants threw tear gas and pyrotechnics. A member of the audience jumped up onto the windowsill […]
Malawi’s LGBTI Community Marches, Petitions Government for Change
BLANTYRE, MALAWI – In Malawi, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and inter-sex (LGBTI) community Saturday held their first ever pride parade in the capital, Lilongwe, pushing for recognition by the government, legalization of same-sex marriage and equal access to health care. During the parade, marchers carried placards with messages like; “We Are Also […]
Czech President Zeman calls transgender people ‘disgusting’
PRAGUE, June 27 (Reuters) – Czech President Milos Zeman, commenting on a Hungarian law that bans LGBT material from schools, told a television interview on Sunday that he finds transgender people “disgusting”. Zeman, who has often espoused views outside the mainstream, was responding to a question about the law Hungary passed earlier this month, which […]
Guatemala: 3 Killings of LGBT People in a Week
Unidentified assailants killed two transgender women and one gay man in Guatemala in separate attacks within the span of one week, including Andrea González, the leader of a trans rights organization, Human Rights Watch said today. The Attorney General’s Office should conduct prompt, thorough, and independent investigations into these cases to bring those responsible to […]
Liverpool attacks: ‘Things must change or LGBT people won’t feel safe’
“It’s 2021, things are supposed to be better for us now,” says 19-year-old Josh Ormrod. Josh is a music student from Buxton, living in Liverpool, and he’s bisexual. In the early hours of 17 June, he was beaten up outside a bar in the city. The photos he shared of his injuries, posted on Instagram […]
Dutch leader tells Hungary: If you don’t like LGBT rights, you can leave the E.U.
The dispute between a number of European Union leaders and Hungary over LGBT rights grew emotional after a meeting on Thursday, with Hungarian leader Viktor Orban’s peers warning him that there was no place for discrimination in the bloc. “If you don’t like it, there is also an alternative: Leave the Union,” Dutch Prime Minister […]
Turkey police bash LGBT pride parade in Istanbul
Turkey’s far-right ruling party, which is known for its frequent homophobic remarks, sent its police to attack a peaceful LGBT pride parade in Istanbul on Saturday. Turkey’s government has become increasingly authoritarian and hostile to gay rights, bashing activists over the years. Government officials have accused gay-rights activists of being “deviants,” and the ruling AKP […]
Respect LGBT rights or leave EU, Hungary’s Orban told
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had some strong words for his Hungarian counterpart, Victor Orban on Thursday (June 24) – respect LGBT rights, or leave the European Union. The dressing down came after bloc leaders confronted Orban over a law that bans schools from using materials deemed to promote homosexuality. “It is my intention, on […]
Japanese Olympic Committee names first transgender member
A transgender former fencer hailed a “massive change” in Japan’s LGBTQ awareness after being appointed to the Japanese Olympic Committee’s board of directors just weeks before the Tokyo Games. Fumino Sugiyama, who was a member of Japan’s fencing team until retiring at the age of 25 and coming out, became the JOC’s first openly transgender […]
Hong Kong court ruling overturns anti-LGBT housing policy
Married same-sex partners will be allowed to own subsidised housing together in Hong Kong after a landmark High Court ruling on Friday, a major stride for LGBT rights in the financial hub. Hong Kong does not recognise same-sex marriage but individual couples can challenge discriminatory policies in court. Hong Kong’s subsidised housing policies, which do […]
Transgender job quota law seen ‘changing lives’ in Argentina
A law reserving 1% of Argentina’s public sector jobs for transgender people will transform everyday life for the country’s trans community, LGBT+ activists said on Friday after Congress gave final approval for the measure. Senators in the South American country, which already has some of the world’s most progressive trans rights legislation, voted overwhelmingly in […]
Ray Yeung has been telling queer Asian stories for years and people are finally taking notice
In the ongoing conversation about LGBTQ representation, sometimes the need to expand beyond the American zeitgeist gets lost. Last year, writer/director Ray Yeung managed to do just that with his critically-acclaimed film Twilight’s Kiss. In it, Yeung confronted two hereto-little investigated areas of queer life: Aging queer seniors, and the LGBTQ community in China. For […]
School principal ‘tried to censor’ queer graduate’s moving valedictorian speech. It backfired, spectacularly
Bryce Dershem was sharing his turbulent experience of coming out at Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees, New Jersey, when his microphone was muted. Wearing a Pride flag draped around his graduation robes, Dershem congratulated his classmates for successfully making their way through school before speaking about his own journey. “For so long, I believed […]
Germany’s Merkel criticises Hungary’s anti-LGBT bill
BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday criticised Hungary’s planned new law to ban the dissemination of materials in schools on homosexuality and gender change.
PrEP decreases HIV incidence by nearly 80% in west African men, despite suboptimal adherence
HIV incidence among west African men taking PrEP fell by 79%, when compared to an earlier cohort of men who did not have access to PrEP. This is despite adherence not being optimal for most men, especially among those taking event-driven PrEP. This PrEP demonstration study was conducted in four west African cities by Dr. […]
Fans make pro-LGBT protest at Germany-Hungary football game
Uefa blocked the Allianz Arena from lighting up in rainbow colours, due to an anti-gay law passed in Hungary. In protest, a spectator wearing a German shirt ran onto the pitch with a rainbow flag while the Hungarian anthem was played before the game. Other fans also waved multi-coloured flags during the group stage match. […]
Cultural Closet: It’s a challenge for LGBT Asians to come out to relatives in their homelands
Xiukui Ji, a then-22-year old Chinese international student at the University of Arizona, was on the phone with his sister when he told her, “Oh, by the way… I’m gay.” “I knew it! I knew it from the fifth grade!” Ji remembers his sister telling him. His interest in musicals, his lack of interest in […]
How Relationships Can Turn Faith Leaders Into LGBT Allies
A grassroots group in Kenya has found a slow-but-effective formula for converting anti-LGBT faith leaders into LGBT advocates. Penda* did not feel worthy of a seat at the table with the 15 religious leaders she found herself nervously sitting across from, seven of them Christian, eight of them Muslim. “Before I attended that forum, I […]
Ministry takes aim at LGBT with changes to shariah law
PETALING JAYA: The religious affairs ministry is proposing amendments to widen the scope of an existing shariah law used against people who are alleged to have insulted Islam. In a statement, deputy minister in the prime minister’s department (religious affairs) Ahmad Marzuk Shaary said the Syariah Criminal Procedure (Federal Territories) Act 1997, a provision that […]
Polish education minister says LGBT march ‘insult to public morality’
Poland’s education minister said on Wednesday a march held in support of equal rights for LGBT people was an “insult to public morality” and questioned whether participants were normal, prompting angry protests from the opposition. Thousands joined last Saturday’s march through central Warsaw to call for an end to discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and […]