Brazilian transgender dancer shatters Carnival parade taboo
When dancer Camila Prins entered Sao Paulo’s Carnival parade grounds, a costume of feathers clinging to her sinuous body, she fulfilled a dream of feminine beauty nearly three decades old. Prins says she first realized she wanted to be a woman at a Carnival party at age 11, when, like the other boys, she was […]
Hundreds join colourful Pride Parade in Thai city
Hundreds of people joined a colourful Pride Parade in Chiang Mai in Thailand on Saturday (February 22nd). The event, which celebrates the LGBT community, has been held for two years in a row following a ten-year hiatus. LGBT people in Thailand do not have the freedoms many enjoy in the West. Thai law currently does […]
Rainbow Scapes: Filmmaker Sridhar Rangayan on chronicling the lives of LGBT individuals who ‘lived fearlessly’
In 2011, I travelled across India to document lives of 20 gay, lesbian and transgender persons who have lived their lives fearlessly and contributed in their own might to the community’s visibility in the mainstream. This was part of Project Bolo – the first ever Indian LGBT Oral History Project and all the 20 interviews […]
Teenage transgender row splits Sweden as dysphoria diagnoses soar by 1,500%
For several days this week the veteran Swedish journalist Malou von Sivers will cover the same topic in every episode of her nightly TV chat show: the extraordinary rise in diagnoses of gender dysphoria among teenage girls. Lukas Romson, one of the country’s leading trans activists, is prepared for the worst. “There will be no […]
Ivory Coast family beats up gay son after meeting his lover
Jules Franckrin Kouamé Kouadio, ironworker by trade, was beaten up by members of his family after presenting his lover on his 35th birthday. On Saturday, Feb. 8, at Plateau-Dokui, Jules Franckrin Kouamé Kouadio held a birthday celebration. He had invited his friends and acquaintances to a lunch washed down with beers and wines in a […]
Polish court says campaign that linked homosexuality and paedophilia was “informative”
A Polish court has ruled in favour of a campaign that linked homosexuality and paedophilia, claiming it was “informative” and that it raised awareness. Polish lawyer, Bartłomiej Ciążyński, filed a suit against the Polish non-governmental organisation, Fundacja Pro, after they launched the homophobic campaign. The group’s campaign featured people driving around in vans with the […]
‘A new kind of soft power’: Jacinda Ardern appears on cover of Time magazine
Jacinda Ardern has appeared on the cover of Time magazine ahead of the anniversary of the Christchurch mosque shootings, in which 51 people were killed by a gunman. New Zealand’s prime minister was praised for her empathetic leadership following the mass shooting, which occurred on 15 March. The trial of the accused is set for […]
Australian state mulls nation’s first gay ‘conversion therapy’ ban
An Australian state is considering the nation’s first ban and jail sentences for so-called gay conversion therapy, a bid that has sparked division more than two years after the country legalised same-sex marriage. The northeastern state of Queensland introduced a bill in November that would prohibit conversion therapy, with its top health official labelling the […]
Gay Nigerian’s achievement: a passionate public kiss
Yomi, who is currently based in the UK, came out to his family sometime early last year on Whatsapp. Since then, he and his boyfriend moved in together and have been living what he calls his best life. Yomi, who shared the photo of their kiss on social media, said it used to be a […]
China HIV patients risk running out of AIDS drugs in days – UNAIDS
HIV patients in China risk running out of life-saving AIDS drugs because quarantines and lockdowns aimed at containing the coronavirus disease outbreak mean they cannot replenish vital medicine stocks, United Nations AIDS agency said on Wednesday. UNAIDS said it had surveyed more than 1,000 people with HIV in China and found that the outbreak of […]
Gay Couple Moves Kerala HC For Recognition Of Homosexual Marriages
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 […]
Acting intelligence head Richard Grenell’s push to decriminalize homosexuality has yielded little
Donald Trump became the first president to name an openly gay person to a Cabinet-level position Wednesday when he announced that Richard Grenell would serve as his acting director of national intelligence. Grenell is the architect of a U.S.-led effort to decriminalize homosexuality in the 68 countries where it is still illegal. In two others, […]
Indonesia could force LGBT people into rehabilitation under draft ‘family resilience’ law
A proposed bill to be considered by Indonesian Parliament would compel people with “deviant” sexual persuasions to undergo “rehabilitation”. The so-called Family Resilience Bill, which covers many aspects of family life in Indonesia, outlines measures that can be taken to assist families “in crisis” — including those undergoing financial difficulties, job demands, divorce, chronic disease […]
The Queer Case for Bernie Sanders
Coming out of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, the two top contenders for the Democratic nomination are Bernie Sanders, a straight white guy pushing 80 years old, and Pete Buttigieg, an openly gay man 40 years his junior. Despite their ages, the candidates don’t represent conventional wisdom on how age begets conservative […]
Osaka and Japan’s outreach to LGBT tourism is a model for Ireland to replicate
Ireland’s groundbreaking marriage equality vote will be five years old this May – but have you seen one major ad campaign to attract the sought after LGBT tourist market to our shores? Isn’t there more to our attractions than castles, golf, and The Quiet Man? It turns out that there is one country that’s streets […]
Amid the Epidemic, a Quiet Leap Forward for China’s LGBT Community
The days leading up to the Lunar New Year was a tense time for people across China amid the worsening COVID-19 epidemic. But Jiang Junjie had even more reason to feel nervous than most. The 26-year-old not only planned to visit his parents in the southern city of Chaozhou, 350 kilometers from his home in […]
Trump’s Morality Police Are Obsessed With Buttigieg Kissing His Husband
There is some good news about America: An openly gay candidate is mounting a serious campaign for the presidency and winning votes from rural Iowa to the seacoast of New Hampshire. Former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg’s strong showings in the first contests of the 2020 Democratic presidential race represent, as the Los Angeles […]
African countries must scrap outdated laws and fully legalise same-sex relations
Sixty-eight countries around the world continue to criminalise same-sex relations. Almost half of them are based in Africa, comprising more than half the continent. These laws are grossly outdated. In effect they send the message that LGBT+ people are criminals purely for whom we love or our gender. They give the green light to harassment […]
Extending marriage to same-sex couples is good for the Costa Rican economy
Earlier this month, more than 30 businesses came out in support of extending marriage to same-sex couples in Costa Rica – from major multinationals such as Microsoft and Coca-Cola to well-regarded local companies including Batalla Law Firm, ULACIT and the Business Association for Development (AED) – based on an Open for Business report finding that […]
French town suspends ties with Polish twin city over LGBT rights
A Polish mayor on Monday deplored the decision by a sister town in France to suspend 25-year official ties with her town because it declared itself an area “free of LGBT ideology.” The mayor of the south-eastern town of Tuchow, Magdalena Marszalek, blamed the rare decision by the French community it had been twinned with, […]
As Australia looks to act on LGBT conversion practices, survivors and religious groups speak out
Raised in an ultra-conservative Anglican family, transgender woman Roe Johnson says she spent her childhood being told she was broken. The 49-year-old from Melbourne says she lived an ideology of repression and was made to choose between her faith and her gender identity.“My story really starts when I was very young, being part of a […]
Gay Filipinos Coin the Coolest Kind of Slang with ‘Beki’ Talk
Andre Santos is a copywriter for a major advertising agency in Manila. An out and proud gay man, he’s the first to admit that Philippine society still has a long way to go when it comes to LGBTQ rights. Still, he’s happy that the conservative country is now more accepting of members of the community. […]
Uzbekistan: LGBT Rights Neglected
LGBTI activists in Uzbekistan say that, despite high hopes for reform ever since Shavkat Mirziyoyev assumed the presidency in 2016, they continue to face routine violence and discrimination. The previous head of state Islam Karimov, who ruled the country for 27 years, did not address the issue of LGBTI rights. In a rare comment on […]
Orthodox Jewish schools tell govt they won’t teach LGBT lessons
Rabbis representing Britain’s main Orthodox communities have told the government that their schools cannot discuss LGBT-related issues with pupils. According to the Jewish Chronicle, the rabbinate of Chinuch UK have made it clear that its 35 or so private schools cannot comply with the latest pro LGBT directives from the state. Orthodox Judaism, like Islam, […]
Ukraine’s LGBT+ war veterans boost battle for equality
Ukraine army veteran Viktor Pylypenko kept his sexuality a secret for years, worried that the men he had fought alongside would turn against him if they knew he was gay. When he finally came out publicly in 2018, two years after leaving the volunteer Donbas Battalion he had served with, Pylypenko realized his fears were […]
Indonesians Are Turning To Exorcisms to ‘Cure’ Members of the LGBTQ Community
After evening prayer at the mosque, 33-year-old Syifa’s* parents asked her to lie down on a prayer rug. As they recited verses from the Quran, Syifa tried her best to contain her laughter. After all, they were trying to exorcise her gayness out of her. “It was just so dumb to me, but I tried […]
Sing a new song unto the Lord: the transgender, nonbinary Rev. Kori Pacyniak
The conversation began in typical fashion, with a question many grandparents ask: “When you grow up,” Kori Pacyniak’s grandmother wondered, “what would you like to be?” At that point, the chat took an atypical turn. “I want to be a priest,” said Kori, then an 8-year-old girl from a devout Polish Catholic family. Grandmother: “Only […]
Fans told to remove rainbow flags on Israel Folau’s debut
As Israel Folau made a try-scoring debut for his new club Catalan Dragons on Saturday, a man watching from the stands was told to remove a rainbow flag unfurled in support of the LGBT movement. Folau has been widely condemned for posting homophobic comments on social media. It led to Folau — a former try-scoring […]
Men who burgled London’s famous gay book shop caught after stopping to drink prosecco
Two burglars who smashed their way into a historic gay bookshop in London were caught by police – after they stuck around to drink prosecco found at the store. The pair were discovered downing the fizz in the basement kitchen of Gay’s The Word, in Bloomsbury, at 3am on Sunday. They had already polished off […]
Campaign launched to stop LGBT asylum seeker being sent to her death in Cameroon
A campaign has been launched to help keep a Birmingham LGBT asylum seeker safe from being arrested or killed for her sexuality. Espoir Njei is fighting for the right to stay in Britain. She told Birmingham Live in December that she feared for her life if she was sent back to Cameroon. She said: “I […]