Why banning anti-LGBT ‘conversion therapy’ isn’t enough
Lawmakers around the world have proposed new legislation to ban ‘conversion therapy’ – attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. In Canada, for example, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said banning conversion therapy was a “top priority” for his government, while lawmakers in Australia, France, Ireland, New Zealand, and Spain have also called […]
Anti-LGBT violence and discrimination ‘remain high,’ EU report says
Levels of “fear, violence and discrimination remain high” for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people in Europe, according to a survey published Thursday by the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA). Even though more LGBT people feel able to be open about their identities, 43 percent of those asked felt discriminated against in the 12 […]
US Navy grants first waiver for transgender service member to serve under their preferred gender
The US Navy has granted a waiver allowing a transgender service member to serve “in their preferred gender” for the first time since the military enacted a transgender ban. “The acting Secretary of the Navy has approved a specific request for exemption related to military service by transgender persons and persons with gender dysphoria,” Navy […]
These queer Muslims are finding ways to stay connected, focused and safe this Ramadan – even under lockdown
Halfway through Ramadan, Sabah Choudrey, a “reluctant activist on most things trans, brown and hairy” and the co-founder of Trans Pride Brighton, says they’re still figuring things out. “I’ve been thinking about a new routine every three days, and sometimes it stays the same and sometimes it changes but it’s OK,” Sabah tells PinkNews. “Especially […]
LGBT+ asylum seekers are sharing bedrooms with strangers during coronavirus
The Covid-19 pandemic is revealing how our dysfunctional asylum and immigration system is failing to support people in need. The system prevents people from accessing health services and puts LGBT+ people at risk of harassment and loneliness at the best of times. Now, people’s safety and lives are being put at risk. Stories of people […]
Morocco Instagram influencer apologises for role in outing of gay men
A transgender Instagram influencer blamed for a wave of homophobic attacks in Morocco apologised on Wednesday for encouraging her followers to download dating apps that were then used to locate and publicly out gay men. Naoufal Moussa – known online as Sofia Taloni – told her 620,000 followers in Instagram live streams to download apps […]
Costa Rica lawmakers criticize efforts to delay gay marriage
Lawmakers and government officials in Costa Rica on Wednesday chided fellow politicians trying to delay a landmark gay marriage ruling from taking effect, an effort which ended in a punch-up between members of a leading political party. Costa Rica’s constitutional court voted in August 2018 to legalize gay marriage, with the ruling to take effect […]
Contact tracing South Korea’s latest coronavirus outbreak exposes LGBT+ people to hate
A new coronavirus outbreak in the South Korean capital, Seoul, has also seen a rise in homophobic hate speech. The southeast Asian nation has achieved enviable results in flattening the coronavirus pandemic curve. But the latest outbreak has seen around 79 cases linked to nightclubs and bars that one patient visited a week ago. The […]
‘No one wants to be tested:’ Social stigmas are crippling coronavirus containment
Public health officials around the world have agreed that testing and contact tracing are vital to containing the coronavirus pandemic. But for many people, coming forward to get tested — let alone revealing the personal information of friends, family and close associates — is more terrifying than getting Covid-19. In South Korea, where gay marriage […]
Uganda court sets bail hearing for 19 LGBT detainees
May 18 is the new date when 19 members of Children of the Sun Foundation (CosfUganda) who were arrested at the Cosf shelter are expected to be delivered at Nsangi Magistrate’s Court. “You’re hereby directed to produce the above mentioned accused in the magistrate’s court of Nsangi on the 18th day of May 2020 at […]
LGBT community hit hard by COVID-19 lockdown in Lakhimpur
The LGBT community in Assam’s Lakhimpur district is hit hard by the impact of nation-wide COVID-19 lockdown. The victims are four transgender persons in the district who are facing starvation due to loss of their income caused by the ongoing lockdown. The four persons staying in a rented house at Kaivarttagaon in 14th Mile under […]
Michigan woman at center of transgender civil rights case dies at 59
The Michigan woman at the center of a high-profile transgender rights case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court has died, her family said. Aimee Stephens, 59, who had kidney disease, had been in hospice care at home in recent days. She passed away Tuesday, her brother-in-law John Pedit said. Stephens’ case was argued before the […]
LGBT+ adults in US are more than twice as likely to be homeless
Almost one in five LGB adults in the US has experienced homelessness at some point in their lives. Moreover, trans people are even more likely to be homeless. That’s according to a new national study by the respected LGBT+ research organization, the Williams Institute. It shows that homelessness does not only affect LGBT+ young people […]
Germany becomes the fifth country in the world to ban conversion therapy
Germany has become the fifth country in the world to ban ‘conversion therapy’ of LGBT+ minors. The new vote in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, confirms a ban which the German government imposed in December last year. Under the ban, it is illegal to carry out ‘conversion therapy’ on anyone under 18. The law also forbids […]
Gender-based lockdown rules that fuelled rise in violence against transgender people to be lifted
Gender-based lockdown rules in Bogotá, Colombia, will be lifted after they fuelled a wave of violence against transgender people living in the city. Bogotá’s mayor, Claudia Lopez, said in a virtual press conference on Friday (May 8) that the rules, which have been in place for a month, will be lifted as of tomorrow. The […]
South Korea struggles to contain new outbreak amid anti-gay backlash
Authorities in South Korea are struggling to contain a new coronavirus outbreak linked to the capital’s nightclub district as a backlash against the country’s gay community increases, prompting fears LGBT people will fail to get tested out of fear of being outed. South Korea had been praised for its innovative efforts to contain the pandemic, […]
Opinion: Little Richard’s Queer Triumph
It was during a 1966 concert in Paris when Little Richard, drenched in sweat, told a mostly white audience, “I’m ready, ready, ready teddy, I’m ready, ready, ready teddy!” He took off his soaked shirt and the men and women pleaded for it as he swung it over his head like a helicopter, carefully considering […]
Canada to memorialize LGBT victims of Cold War-era ‘gay purge’
Todd Ross was a naval combat information operator on the HMCS Saskatchewan in 1989 when he was called out over the public address system, escorted off the destroyer by officers and told he was the subject of an espionage probe. Over the next 18 months, Ross was given six polygraph tests and interrogated about his […]
Franklin Graham Is Taking Down His N.Y. Hospital, but Not Going Quietly
The last patients have been discharged from the Central Park field hospital run by Samaritan’s Purse, the evangelical organization led by the Rev. Franklin Graham. Its white tents will soon be dismantled and sent to new makeshift coronavirus wards as far away as Ecuador and Alaska. Doctors and nurses from Samaritan’s Purse treated more than […]
From Sex Worker Mothers to Lesbian Parents: The Changing Face of Motherhood in India
‘You’re not complete as a woman unless you become a mother.’ With these brilliantly misleading words that every woman in India must have heard at some point of her life begins Pooja Pande’s book ‘Momspeak: The Funny, Bittersweet Story of Motherhood in India’. This spectacularly inane piece of wisdom is of course attributed to all […]
Flexible Salafis: The Growing Political Power of ‘Woke,’ Modernist Islamism
Imam Omar Suleiman rarely talks about da’wah – the Islamic duty of proselytization. He never talks about Islamist designs for an Islamic state. Instead, America’s leading Islamic cleric speaks about broad political change, employing the language and ideas of progressivism. In fact, Suleiman, president of the Yaqeen Institute, is not just a preacher; he is […]
Radical Russian Imperial Movement Expanding Global Outreach
The Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), a white supremacist group based in St. Petersburg, is increasingly expanding its outreach beyond Russia through the establishment of transnational networks with like-minded neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups, experts on the group warn. RIM adheres to an ultranationalist ideology and aims to bring Russia’s tsarist rule back. The group is […]
Brazil’s Supreme Court throws out rules that limit gay men donating blood
Brazil’s Supreme Court has overturned rules that limit gay and bisexual men from donating blood in a decision considered a human rights victory for LGBT+ people in the country. The move came as more nations review restrictions on blood donations imposed during the 1980s HIV/AIDS crisis, with some countries imposing blanket bans, some waiting periods […]
25 wedding photos show the very first LGBT couples to marry in their countries and the stories behind them
In February, 27-year-old Sharni Edwards and Robyn Peoples, 26, became the first gay couple to legally marry in Northern Ireland. The country is the world’s latest to legalize same-sex marriage. “Our love is personal but the law which said we couldn’t marry was political,” Peoples said, according to the BBC. “While this campaign ends with […]
LGBT groups launch petition to allow cross-national same-sex marriage
Scores of volunteers from LGBT groups in Taiwan embarked on a signature campaign Saturday to petition the government on laws that restrict same-sex marriage between couples from different countries, under certain circumstances. The initial goal is to obtain 10,000 signatures on the petition, which asks government to remove the restrictions so that all same-sex couples […]
The millennials changing the face of sex education in Vietnam
Tu Nguyen never had a formal sex education (sex-ed) class at his school in Hanoi, nor was he trained as an educator on the subject, but he and his team have set out to change the face of sex-ed in Vietnam. Tu, Linh Hoang, Thu Ha and Ngoc Nguyen cofounded startup WeGrow Edu (WE) in […]
LGBT sector tapped to lead rice distribution to barangays
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio has assigned the city’s LGBT sector to manage the city’s next round of rice distribution after receiving complaints from residents that barangay officials have failed to provide them with rice. Duterte-Carpio said she is tapping the LGBT network in the city saying this sector understands how it is to be […]
Aimee Stephens, transgender woman at center of pending landmark Supreme Court case, is in hospice care
Aimee Stephens made national headlines when she said she was fired from her job at metro Detroit-based GR & RG Funeral Homes in 2013 after coming out as a transgender woman. Stephens then sued her employee for discrimination, and the case is now before the Supreme Court. But now, Stephens might not live to see […]
Activists call on Tinley Park to show support for gay rights in Polish Sister City
Activists in Europe are calling on Tinley Park residents and village officials to show support for gay rights in a Sister City community in Poland. European rights groups want Tinley Park and other Sister City communities throughout the world to send messages of support in an effort to end LGBT Free Zones adopted by more […]
Lebanon’s LGBT People Are Reclaiming Their Power
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their rights in Lebanon are part and parcel of the nationwide protests that began on October 17, 2019, Human Rights Watch said today in a web feature. The web feature, “‘If Not Now, When?’ Queer and Trans People Reclaim their Power in Lebanon’s Revolution,” shares stories of […]