Mauritania arrests 10 gay men after purported gay wedding
Authorities in Mauritania have arrested 10 men after a video appeared on social media of a gay couple appearing to take part in a traditional wedding ceremony, human rights groups said. Police later determined the gathering was a birthday party but the men remain in custody with no trial date set yet. Mauritania practices strict […]
Two-spirit powwow coming up in San Francisco
Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits will hold its ninth annual powwow Saturday, February 8, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Fort Mason Festival Pavilion, 2 Marina Boulevard in San Francisco. Featured dancers will make their grand entry at noon. Organizers noted that a powwow is a traditional Native American event that gathers all tribes, […]
Indonesia: Rejecting homophobic pseudoscience
Sensational headlines, clickbait articles and pseudoscience cannot be tolerated when they promote fear and hatred. Many in the media, including writers and editors, use these techniques to inflame prejudice against homosexuality and LGBT communities. Another technique used is to cite outdated research – or cherry-pick parts of research – to make it seem like the […]
South Dakota Lawmakers Just Voted to Send Doctors to Jail for Helping Trans Kids
After hours of heated (and often comically inaccurate) debate, South Dakota’s House of Representatives on Wednesday became the first in the country to greenlight a bill that prohibits gender-affirming medical care for transgender kids. The bill, which has nearly 50 sponsors, would make it a Class 1 misdemeanor for doctors to provide minors under the […]
Amnesty International urges Korea to take action on LGBT rights
Amnesty International on Thursday expressed concerns about the rights of sexual minorities in South Korea in its yearly human rights report, calling on the government and parliament to improve the situation. In a review of human rights in the Asia-Pacific region, released Thursday, the human rights organization hailed the Constitutional Court’s 2019 decision ruling the […]
A GOP lawmaker, the son of an Auschwitz survivor, compared doctors treating transgender children to Nazis
The South Dakota legislature is considering the nation’s first law that could send doctors to jail for treating transgender youths younger than 16 with hormone therapy or surgery, and the fight over the legislation is intensifying. It has become so heated that after the legislation passed out of its first committee, the bill’s sponsor recently […]
Israel Folau joins Europe rugby league team after being axed for homophobic comments
Australian rugby player Israel Folau has been signed by the Catalan Dragons, a Super League rugby team, for a 12-month contract. The 30-year-old dual-code international was dropped by the Wallabies after he made homophobic comments on social media in May last year. He later gave a sermon where he claimed Australia’s devastating bushfires were a […]
Lesbians more accepted than gay men around the world, study finds
A new study exploring the attitudes toward nonheterosexual men and women in 23 Western and non-Western countries found lesbians are more accepted than gay men around the world. “We found that gay men are disliked more than lesbian women in every country we tested,” according to the study, which was conducted by three New York […]
Queensland religious groups fight move to make gay conversion therapy a crime
Religious schools and organisations are fighting a move by the Queensland government to make LGBT-related conversion therapy a crime in the state. In late November, the Queensland government introduced legislation that would, among other amendments to health legislation, make the practice of conversion therapy to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity […]
Hong Kong citizens back same-sex marriage and LGBT+ protection
Support for LGBT+ people has soared to record levels in Hong Kong, a new survey has found. The Sexualities Research Programme at the Chinese University of Hong Kong has just released the new figures. They show Hong Kong’s citizens do want same-sex marriage and to protect LGBT+ people from discrimination. Among the highlights of the […]
Gay Couple Moves Kerala HC For Recognition Of Homosexual Marriages Under Special Marriage Act
Nikesh and Sonu, the first ‘married’ gay couple from Kerala, have moved the High Court of Kerala challenging the provisions of Special Marriage Act 1954 to the extent they do not permit the registration of homosexual marriages. Justice Anu Sivaraman on Monday admitted the writ petition filed by them and issued notices to the governments […]
Why are Dine LGBTQ people denied access to ceremony?
When Rei Yazzie started his transition and his voice began to change, he knew it was time to prepare for a tá’cheeh – a traditional male puberty ceremony. To do so, he would need the help of a Diné medicine man – an ask that can take time – but, more importantly, he would need […]
72 LGBT organisations write to MSPs supporting trans rights
Seventy two LBGT organisations have penned an open letter to MSPs, underlining their support for the government’s proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act. Sports teams, pride event organisers, national organisations and local support groups have united to declare their commitment to trans equality as the government consults on the controversial proposed legal changes. On […]
Gay, Irish and radical – the invisible women who revolutionised Manchester
Walk down Canal Street today and you’ll find a bustling strip of waterside bars, rainbow bunting fluttering overhead and people living their lives out and proud. Wind the clock back 60 years or so and it was a very different story. “It was a really run down part of town where various outsiders congregated,” is […]
This Is How UK LGBTQ Rights Change After Brexit This Week
Ever since the UK public was asked if they wanted to stay or leave the European Union – many LGBTQ people have been worried about what leaving could mean to their rights. A worry born from the simple case – that many of the everyday rights LGBTQ people benefit from in the UK only became […]
Court Rules for Gay Couple in Indiana Birth Certificate Suit
A federal appeals court sided with a gay married couple who challenged Indiana’s birth records law, arguing that it discriminates against them and their children because birth certificates don’t account for same-sex spouses as parents. The decision from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Jan. 17 reaffirmed a lower court’s ruling in a […]
New Documentary Cloaks Anonymous Sources in ‘Face Doubles’
In documentaries, anonymous sources have often been reduced to a shadowy, voice-distorted figure — or worse, a pixelated blur. But a new documentary premiering Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival has, with the aid of advanced digital technology, gone to greater lengths to preserve the secrecy of its sources while still conveying their humanity. “Welcome […]
Guatemalan Actor Enrique Salanic Blocked From Entering US to Promote LGBT Film ‘José’
Guatemalan actor Enrique Salanic has been blocked from entering the United States ahead of the U.S. premiere of his award-winning movie “José,” in which he stars. The film premieres in New York City on Jan. 31, but according to distributor Outsider Pictures, Salanic is still campaigning to be granted entry to the U.S. “José” has […]
Support for LGBT+ rights soaring in the Czech Republic with two-thirds backing marriage equality
Support for marriage equality in the Czech Republic is soaring, with around two-thirds of the public backing same-sex marriage, a new poll published Thursday showed. In results that researchers branded as “encouraging”, a MEDIAN agency survey showed that the majority of Czech citizens support LGBT+ rights. This comes after a bill to legalise same-marriage was […]
Denver school board votes to require gender neutral bathrooms in all public schools
A new school board for Denver Public Schools unanimously passed a resolution in its first meeting requiring all district schools to have at least one all-gender bathroom. The board has also made it mandatory for staff to use students’ preferred names and pronouns irrespective of their official names or gender. The resolution added that no […]
Who’s the ‘Q’ in LGBTQ? Study shines light on ‘queer’ identities.
For some, “queer” is a loaded word — a negative epithet from a less accepting time that was hurled at anyone perceived to be gay. But for others, particularly younger LGBTQ people, it is a reclaimed term and a less restrictive self-identifier. While the word’s use — and its 21st-century reclamation — has been mostly […]
Scandal overshadows Peru election’s focus on gender equality
Scandals involving domestic violence and marital infidelity have overshadowed the campaign to elect a new congress in Peru, in which gender equality and women’s rights have been key issues. Peruvians will elect 130 new lawmakers on Sunday after the previous chamber was dissolved by President Martín Vizcarra in a controversial but popular move in September. […]
Church of England: Sex is for married heterosexual couples only
The Church of England has stated that sex belongs only within heterosexual marriage, and that sex in gay or straight civil partnerships “falls short of God’s purpose for human beings”. Bishops have issued pastoral guidance in response to the recent introduction to mixed-sex civil partnerships, which says: “For Christians, marriage – that is, the lifelong […]
When lesbians led the women’s suffrage movement
As Americans commemorate the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which granted voting rights to some – but not all – women, it is important to acknowledge the lesbian leaders of the suffrage movement. A leadership team of three women with “lesbian-like” relationships – Jane Addams, Sophonisba Breckinridge and Anna Howard Shaw – took control of […]
Dozens of anti-LGBTQ state bills already proposed in 2020, advocates warn
Like most high school students, Aerin Geary does not typically pay attention to state legislation. However, the South Dakota teenager has been closely following House Bill 1057, a Republican proposal that would make it a felony for medical professionals to provide transgender health care to minors. “This bill makes me feel scared, since this is […]
Football faces up to homophobia in Mexico
Mexican Ricardo Canabal gave up playing football when he was 21, unable to reconcile his sexuality with what LGBT+ campaigners say is a deep-rooted homophobia in the sport. Now 35, he has felt able to return to the game he loves, founding his own team of gay players in one of Mexico City’s amateur LGBT+ […]
These photos highlight the human hurt over Poland’s ‘LGBT-free zones’
An activist has released pictures of gay people in front of Polish municipalities that declared themselves LGBT-free. Bart Staszewski said he wanted to show the real people affected by the crackdown on gay rights in Poland. His tweet was picked up by liberal MEP Guy Verhofstadt, who called on Brussels to take immediate action against […]
LGB Alliance founder says there shouldn’t be LGBT clubs in schools because of ‘predatory gay teachers’
Malcolm Clark, co-founder of controversial anti-trans group the LGB Alliance, has denounced LGBT+ clubs in schools. Clark said LGBT+ clubs – a safe space for many LGBT+ schoolchildren to accept their sexuality – shouldn’t exist because of “predatory gay teachers”. Clark’s inflammatory anti-gay comments were made in an online discussion about an LGB Alliance supporter […]
Israel agrees to Russia’s no-LGBT adoptions rule
Israel and Russia signed an adoption agreement on Wednesday, after a decade of negotiations, stipulating that same-sex couples may not adopt children from Russia. The countries finalized two agreements, one on adoption and the other on cooperation between the two foreign ministries. In accordance with Russian law, the adoption agreement prohibits LGBT couples from adopting […]
GLENN GREENWALD ON BRAZIL’S CHARGES AGAINST HIM
On Tuesday, Brazilian prosecutors charged the journalist Glenn Greenwald with “cybercrimes” as part of what the government claims was his role in a “criminal organization.” They allege that Greenwald—who reported on wrongdoing in Brazil’s judicial establishment last year for the Intercept, the Web site he co-founded—participated in the hacking of cell phones, the content of […]