‘The volume has been turned up on everything’: Pandemic places alarming pressure on transgender mental health
The surgery was supposed to be a turning point. Brenda Emery spent a year preparing for the vaginoplasty. To save up for it, she took jobs in food service straight out of college and moved in with her mother. She talked at length to therapists and medical experts to make sure the procedure to modify […]
Ugandans face summons over LGBT torture charges
A Ugandan town councilman and a Ugandan prisons officer have been summoned to face criminal charges of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment connected to the arrest of 20 men at an LGBT homeless shelter in March and their imprisonment for 50 days. The 20 arrested members of LGBT advocacy group Children of the Sun […]
LGBTQ+ People In Beirut Are Suffering As Lebanon Continues to Bleed
Lebanon, a country ravaged by war for 15 years, had its most devastating blast on August 4, 2020. The blast killed 180 people, injured more than 6,000, and has rendered 350,000 people homeless. The blast that is being reported to have created seismic waves equivalent to a 3.3 magnitude earthquake felt as far as one […]
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BAN ON CONVERSION THERAPY TO BE SHAPED BY SURVIVORS
Following Queensland’s banning of conversion therapy last week, Star Observer spoke to South Australia’s Shadow Human Services Minister, Nat Cook, about her draft bill to ban conversion therapy in South Australia and what can be learnt from Queensland’s legislation. Last month, Adelaide media outlet InDaily reported that under new legislation being proposed by Nat Cook, […]
Belarus’ marginalised queer community ‘will still face hatred and violence after Lukashenko’s regime is over’, activist warns
A queer activist in Belarus has warned that even if efforts to remove despot Alexander Lukashenko prevail, the country’s LGBT+ community faces a long road to liberation. Belarus has been gripped by protests since the official result of an August 9 election allegedly returned Lukashenko to a sixth term in office, with an overwhelming – […]
Donors free trans woman from jail in Cameroon, help her in new career
C., the trans woman in eastern Cameroon who is being helped by this blog’s Not Alone Project, has been released from prison early and is preparing for training as a hairdresser, a career that she hopes will replace the income she previously earned as a sex worker. C. had been sentenced to a year in […]
Nollywood demonises queer people
In 2014, the former president of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan passed into law a Bill that became the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act. The passage of the law gave way to heightened attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people by mobs who said they were working for the president. Over the past six years, […]
Will SAPS finally release LGBTIQ hate crimes stats?
South African Police Commissioner Khehla Sithole has indicated that the SAPS is committed to releasing crime statistics that specify LGBTIQ hate crimes. But are these even being recorded as such? On Friday, Sithole, alongside other senior officials such as Police Minister Bheki Cele, addressed the media at the release of the quarterly crime statistics. The […]
Czech Republic in danger of following in the homophobic, transphobic footsteps of Poland and Hungary, campaigner warns
After years of progress towards equality across Europe, LGBT+ campaigners across the continent have faced a bruising few years – with politicians in Poland openly stoking anti-LGBT+ hatred to their own ends, while in Hungary the right-wing government led by Viktor Orban is legally erasing recognition of transgender people. In the Czech Republic, campaigners are […]
‘My spirit broken’: Mexicans battle to ban conversion therapy
MEXICO CITY (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When she was 15 years old, Paola Santillan was raped by two men who claimed they would “take the lesbian” out of her. She kept the experience a secret for 10 years. “I lived that stage of my life in confinement. I lived it in fear, with uncertainty, with […]
Ancient Viking warrior given a hero’s burial may have actually been ‘transgender, non-binary or gender fluid’
Three years ago, the ornately dressed remains of a high-status Viking warrior from the mid-900s were discovered alongside swords, spears and two slaughtered horses in Birka, Sweden. Following studies, it was assumed that the remains of the Viking warrior were those of a female – a finding that threw into question a once commonly-accepted view […]
Poland: LGBT+ activists and nationalists face off
Hundreds of Polish nationalists and defenders of gay rights faced off in central Warsaw on Sunday, amid a deteriorating situation for the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) community. Both groups shouted abuse at each other in front of Warsaw University’s main gate. A line of police officers separated them. The nationalists burnt a […]
An inclusive move: Reserved seats for transgenders in Kolkata
Kolkata’s transgender commuters will now have designated seats in some of the city’s public buses. The movement to reserve at least one bus seat for the third gender was officially launched on Sunday. The person behind the idea is 23-year-old Sobhan Mukherjee, who was nicknamed “Kolkata’s padman” two years ago for setting up sanitary napkin […]
UK Black Pride ‘celebrates black queer voices’ as coronavirus forces 15th anniversary event online
UK Black Pride – Europe’s largest celebration for LGBTQ people of African, Asian, Caribbean, Latin American and Middle Eastern descent – didn’t let a little thing like a global pandemic stop celebration of its 15th anniversary on Sunday. Instead, the festivities moved online, with a variety of performances, DJs sets and speakers taking part via […]
Lebanon’s oldest queer advocacy group is already back to work helping the community in the wake of the deadly Beirut blast
The offices of Lebanon’s oldest LGBT+ advocacy group were almost destroyed in the devastating Beirut blast, but staff are already back providing vital support to the queer community. Founded in 2001, Helem is a non-governmental organisation based in Beirut, and is the oldest group in Lebanon fighting for justice and equality for LGBT+ people. The […]
World Rugby’s proposed ban on transgender women sparks outcry
Citing recent research, a 38-page World Rugby transgender working group draft document is proposing a ban on transgender women from playing women’s rugby. An anonymous leaked the draft document to The Guardian. Windy City Times was unable to obtain the document for verification. This proposal has sparked an outcry among rugby players world-wide, including the […]
Small Lithuania has outsized role as EU faces Belarus crisis
Lithuania is relatively small by European Union measures, but it is playing an outsized role as protesters in neighboring Belarus face a brutal law enforcement crackdown following a presidential election they say was rigged. As the EU’s foreign ministers meet Friday to discuss the crisis, the Lithuanian government’s strong pro-democracy voice rooted in decades of […]
‘The Watermelon Woman’ and other lesbian movies you need to see
Looking for some choice lesbian movies to watch in the lazy, hazy days of quarantine summer 2020? Well, good news is that there are plenty of choice lesbian movies to check out there. These movies will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you swoon all over the place. From popular choices like Carol […]
‘Be You’ Video Beautifully Captures the Essence of LGBTQ Community
“The words independence and freedom mean different things to different people. On August 15, 2020, India celebrated its 74th Independence Day. However, the free expression of love and the fact that who you are is still a luxury that only a few can hope for. For decades, those deemed as LGTBQ, had their right to […]
First pan-African virtual Pride event takes place to share LGBT+ stories
The first pan-African virtual Pride event takes place on Friday aimed at bringing together LGBT+ Africans to share their stories of challenge and success from a continent where they are often criminalised and persecuted, the event’s organiser said. Broadcasting live on social media channels YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, Pride Afrique 2020 features speakers including Botswana’s […]
Qatari official claims queer Snapchat content is a ‘deviation from Allah’
Qatari journalist Na’ima ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Mutawa’a, who serves as media advisor to the staunchly anti-LGBT+ country’s foreign ministry, made the claims in an article for Al Sharq, a pro-regime newspaper. The article, which was written in June, was translated into English earlier this month by the Middle East Research Institute (MEMRI). In the article, al-Mutawa’a […]
Fears of LGBTQ repression as Shanghai Pride is cancelled
The organisers of Shanghai Pride have unexpectedly announced that the event is suspending its work after 11 years, fueling concerns about a growing LGBTQ crackdown in China. “Shanghai Pride regrets to announce that we are cancelling all upcoming activities and taking a break from scheduling any future events,” the volunteer group said in a statement […]
Queensland becomes first Australian state to outlaw gay conversion therapy
Queensland has become the first state in Australia to criminalise so-called gay conversion therapy after regional lawmakers voted on Thursday to make the practice illegal. Under the new law, healthcare professionals could face up to 18 months in jail for attempting to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity using practices such […]
Cartier faces scepticism over China ring ads featuring same-sex couples
A new Chinese commercial for a Cartier ring has drawn scepticism for portraying people who viewers believe were meant to be gay couples as family or friends. The 60-second clip shows several groups of people, including a man and a woman being obviously romantic, as well as two men cycling together, and two women. The […]
Anti-gay Christian group forced to pay out after ‘demoralising’ atmosphere drove worker to porn and a damaging stroke
A worker at an anti-gay Christian group has been awarded compensation after stressful working conditions drove him to watch pornography and suffer a stroke. Michael Bowker, 47, was the office national officer for Family Voice Australia, a Christian lobbying group which campaigned against same-sex marriage and sex work. He collapsed at work in April 2016 […]
MASS ARREST OF LGBT PEOPLE MARKS TURNING POINT FOR POLAND
As BIRN reveals harrowing testimony about the mass arrests in Warsaw on Friday and amid subsequent actions by the police, LGBT activists warn that Poland is at a crossroads. “I arrived at the Copernicus monument at around nine in the evening, and I was just speaking to people when suddenly a group of policemen appeared. […]
University that bans gay students on ‘morality’ grounds replaces boss with another homophobe
Jerry Falwell Jr, a key evangelical Trump ally, agreed to step aside from his position at the private Virginia Christian university this month after long-running concerns about his conduct reached new heights when he posted a photo of himself with his arm around a woman with his trousers unzipped and underwear exposed. He was placed […]
A short history of Kamala Harris’ support for the LGBTQ+ community
Presidential candidate Joe Biden has named senator Kamala Harris as his Vice President running mate. Harris has made history, becoming the first black South Asian American woman to be nominated for the role. With an impressive record backing LGBTQ+ policy, the Californian Democrat senator has quickly became a popular choice as Biden’s running mate, even […]
UNDER OLYMPIAN PRESSURE: LGBT RIGHTS IN JAPAN
The long-awaited Japan 2020 Olympics is finally in full swing— or it would be if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn’t forced the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to postpone the event to 2021 (hopefully). The Olympics would have brought renowned athletes and thousands of tourists to the East Asian island nation, which was predicted to boost both […]
At Pride Exhibit, Shanghai’s LGBT Artists Vie to Be Seen, Not Silenced
Many of Yang Yiliang’s works are similar to Chinese folk art: Traditional motifs including flowers and animals are intricately cut from red paper, symbolizing happiness, fortune, and prosperity. But a closer look may reveal nuances involving same-sex intimacy. “The red color of paper-cutting represents marriage,” Yang told Sixth Tone, describing his piece, titled “Paper Grooms.” […]