LGBT Muslim charity condemns spike in hate crimes after Birmingham school protests
The LGBT+ education row centred on two Birmingham primary schools and was led mainly by Muslim parents. The disruptive protests began in March 2019 and continued for months until they were finally banned by a High Court order. Figures released by police show a significant spike in LGBT+ hate crimes during the time of the […]
Why is China raising the prospect of same-sex marriage?
China has taken a step forward to allow same-sex marriage, a move that could undo years of discrimination, delight rights activists and give new rights to the LGBTQ community “after years of hiding and struggling.” A body of the National People’s Congress, the country’s highest law-making institution, has publicly acknowledged petitions to legalize same-sex marriage, […]
Taiwan’s president is battling a deluge of election-linked homophobic fake news
Taiwan is often described as Asia’s most gay-friendly place. It was, after all, the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. It boasts the biggest Pride event in the region and has a vibrant “pink” economy. It’s clear, however, that nearly eight months after same-sex marriage became legal, many in Taiwan remain deeply opposed […]
Why China’s Gay Academics Feel They Must Stand Out or Stay Hidden
Since 2018, I’ve interviewed 40 gay men who either currently teach or have previously taught at Chinese colleges and universities. My aim was to discover what challenges they face as teachers and researchers and to find out how they cope with Chinese academia’s often hostile stance toward sexual minorities. Unsurprisingly, many of my interviewees told […]
ANOTHER HISTORIC MOMENT FOR CROATIA’S GAY COMMUNITY
After years of fighting to foster or to adopt children in Croatia, Ivo Šegota and Mladen Kožić won the long-lasting legal battle against the state. The Zagreb-based Administrative Court ruled last month that same-sex couples have the right to become foster parents. Ivo and Mladen told local media they would like to have two or […]
Philippines SC junks same-sex marriage petition ‘with finality’
The Supreme Court on Monday denied with finality a motion for reconsideration filed by Jesus Falcis and other LGBT advocates seeking recognition of same-sex marriage in the Philippines. The SC had junked Falcis’ petition in September last year, citing lack of legal standing, failure to raise an actual justiciable issue and violation of the doctrine […]
Kate McKinnon Opens Up About Being Gay During Golden Globes
Kate McKinnon was not in the closet. She’s been open about being a lesbian for years. She joked about it with Jerry Seinfeld on “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” and played lesbian characters with tongue-in-cheek authenticity in skits on “Saturday Night Live.” Even so, her sexual orientation hasn’t been talked about as much as that […]
Same-sex ‘Dancing on Ice’ couple sparks hopes of greater LGBT+ representation
Two men taking to the ice might seem uncontroversial, but as a same-sex couple competing together this week on British reality TV show “Dancing On Ice”, singer Ian Watkins and professional skater Matt Evers are set to make television history. The show, which begins on January 5, will mark the first time a same-sex couple […]
Advocates blast $750,000 bail for suspect in transgender teen’s slaying
Advocates in the Washington LGBTQ community on Thursday blasted a judge’s decision to set bail at $750,000 for a man charged with a hate crime in the death of a transgender teenager. Prosecutors had asked Clark County Judge David Gregerson to order no bail, or a minimum $6 million bail, for David Bogdanov, of Vancouver, […]
Prominent Christian activist says “the Nazi Party started in a gay bar”
A prominent Christian conservative is now claiming that the Nazi Party was founded and staffed by gay people. “Let’s not forget that the Nazi Party started in a gay bar,” said radio host Bryan Fischer earlier this week on his show Focal Point. “The Nazi Party started in a gay bar in Munich, Germany.” Bryan […]
Thailand faces LGBT pressure on marriage rights
Thailand’s blossoming gay community is generating new business opportunities, including bars and cafes. The Tourism Authority of Thailand launched a campaign targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender visitors in 2018 that has involved roadshows in Asia, Europe and the U.S. But the country still has some way to go in terms of embracing the community. […]
‘The Periphery Has Potency’ Festival Unites Art and Literature in the Peripheries at the Galpão Bela Maré
On December 17, the Galpão Bela Maré arts center held the Periferia Tem Potência (The Periphery Has Potency) festival in partnership with the Favelas Observatory, the Instituto Maria e João Aleixo, and the Park Library. Participants gathered in the favelas of Maré, in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, to pay homage to artistic […]
Conservative, liberal Methodists to split over gay marriage
The United Methodist Church plans to split into two later this year, church officials said on Friday, a schism that follows years of contention over whether the church should end its ban on same-sex marriage and gay clergy. The plan, if approved at the church’s worldwide conference in Minneapolis in May, would divide the third-largest […]
Pakistan to provide free healthcare for trans people
Pakistan has extended a government health insurance scheme to transgender people for the first time, in a move aimed at ending discrimination in access to care, an official said. All transgender people are now eligible for medical treatment including reconstructive surgery under the scheme, which was set up to enable poor and marginalised communities in […]
A transgender teen helped pass a new birth certificate law. She’s now the first in Colorado to benefit from it.
Jude spent so many years fighting for the bill to allow transgender Coloradans to more easily change their names and gender designations on identity documents that, eventually, they named the thing after her. That bill became a law in 2019 — “Jude’s Law” — and went into effect Wednesday. And early Thursday morning, Jude, 13, […]
Anti-LGBT Christian group threatens legal action over equal marriage in Northern Ireland
Gay weddings are set to begin in the region on Valentine’s Day after Westminster moved to extend equal marriage to the region in the absence of a devolved parliament. However, the London-based evangelical lobbying group Christian Institute has said that Northern Ireland secretary Julian Smith could face legal action if there is not an immediate […]
Uruguay, the most LGBT-friendly country in Latin America
Uruguay is ranked 18th in the world in the LGBT + Danger Index ranking that evaluates the friendliest and most dangerous destinations for the lesbian, bisexual and transgender gay community, LGBT. Sweden has been named as the friendliest country for the LGBTQ population according to a new ranking that analyzes the rights and securities offered […]
The region which legislates who you can love
“It’s mainly snide remarks due to toxic masculinity,” Aziza Lake says. But homophobia in Antigua and Barbuda sometimes manifests itself in sporadic brutality too, she continues. In her rainbow-coloured shirt and hat, seated outside a popular café in the capital, St John’s, she might consider herself lucky compared to her openly gay counterparts in neighbouring […]
How the U.S. immigration system nearly tore this LGBTQ couple apart
After living as an openly gay couple in Honduras, Oscar Juarez Hernandez and Darwin Garcia Portillo thought the United States was the last place where their inability to get married might get in the way of their future together. In March 2019, Juarez Hernandez and Garcia Portillo entered the United States at the San Ysidro […]
Transgender Germans demand compensation for sterilization
When German authorities insisted Tsepo Bollwinkel get sterilized in order to be legally considered a man 25 years ago, he was “eager to follow the rules, even if they sounded insane”. Now Bollwinkel, a 58-year-old empowerment coach, wants compensation for himself and potentially thousands of other trans people who underwent mandatory sterilization to change their […]
Rio police ID suspect in attack on Netflix gay Jesus filmmakers
Police in Rio de Janeiro have identified one of the people responsible for a gasoline bomb attack targeting satirists behind a Christmas program on Netflix that some critics have described as blasphemous. Officers carried out a search warrant Tuesday morning and found money, a fake firearm, ammunition, a “political-philosophical” shirt and computers, police said in […]
The Top LGBTQ Stories of the Decade
The decade of the 2010s saw unprecedented steps forward for the LGBTQ community in the U.S., with the winning of the right to marry same-sex partners and serve openly in the military, the election of many out candidates at the local, state, and national levels, and a rise in visibility in the culture. Around the […]
Belize court upholds finding that LGBT people are protected by non-discrimination laws
The Court of Appeal has today delivered a judgment denying the Belize Government’s appeal of a 2016 ruling decriminalising adult consensual same-sex relations. The three-judge bench reaffirmed the decision of the Chief Justice in 2016 that Section 53 of the Belize Criminal Code – which criminalised ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’ and disproportionately […]
Rainbow crossing: conversion therapy by another name?
Fundamentalist Christian groups from 23 countries descended on Taipei in October to strategize about how to roll back protections for sexual minorities and influence public opinion and policy. In the same week that Taiwan Pride saw up to 200,000 people take to the streets of Taipei at the end of October in support of LGBT […]
Opening doors: Pakistan’s first transgender beauty salon
As a transgender woman, Bebo Haider struggled for years to find a beauty salon in Pakistan that would cut her hair. She tried many top-notch salons in Karachi, but they refused to entertain her. “They said, we don’t treat transgenders and that I sounded like a man so they couldn’t give me an appointment without […]
The Demagogue’s Cocktail of Victimhood and Strength
For the European demagogue, victimhood and strength go hand in hand. In the agitators’ worldview, a host of powerful forces—domestic and foreign—are targeting their people, their nation, and their values; and only a single leader, or party, has a chance of holding off these threats. Take Europe’s diversity as an example. To the liberal democrat, […]
Over the rainbow: A life of LGBTQ dignity is within reach
If someone told Sindhuja in the dying moments of 2009 that a decade later, she would be standing as a full citizen and garnering the adulation of her family and friends, she would have laughed it off. At the time, the 14-year-old was facing rejection at home for not being heterosexual, hadn’t seen anyone like […]
Transgender man gives birth after getting pregnant with female sperm donor
Reuben Sharpe, 39, transitioned to male 12 years ago but decided he still wanted to become a parent. Six years ago he stopped taking hormones in the hope of the dream coming true, and now it has been realised with baby Jamie, who was born three months ago. Reuben told the Daily Mirror: “I finally […]
Asia’s first LGBT-focused streaming service tackles taboos
A rom-com about a lesbian flight attendant and a romance in a gay spa are among the shows featured on Asia’s first LGBT-focused streaming service, which is pushing boundaries in an often highly conservative region. GagaOOLala brings more than 1,000 feature films, shorts, web series, and documentaries to people across Asia, where censorship and traditional […]
A very LGBTQ decade: Gay marriage, trans rights and a ‘rainbow wave’
At the dawn of the year 2010, few Americans could predict that the coming decade would revolutionize the legal and cultural landscape for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. After all, it was only in 2003 that homosexuality was decriminalized across the country, thanks to a landmark Supreme Court ruling. Over the past 10 […]