South Africa: Christians show pride in gay community
The queer community at Joburg Pride on Saturday in Sandton were joined by an oddly unexpected group of individuals who have historically condemned their existence – Christians. This time though the intention was not to wield any hostility but to offer hugs and kisses of affirmation. Author, speaker, futurist, and former minister in the Baptists […]
Colombia’s capital city of Bogota elects first female, and lesbian, mayor
Colombia’s capital city elected its first female mayor Sunday in what is being hailed as an important advancement for both women and LGBT rights. Claudia López won the race for mayor of Bogota on a platform promising to combat corruption and advance equal rights for minority communities. The Alianza Verde candidate captured over 1.1 million […]
Uganda moves to allay fears over anti-gay sex law
Uganda has sought to reassure sexual minorities that they are safe, saying it has no plans to introduce the death penalty for gay sex after reports of rising homophobic attacks. LGBT+ rights campaigners in Uganda have expressed concerns about a spate of attacks after a minister said earlier this month that the government planned to […]
This trans intersex person explains why they didn’t need surgery to be ‘fixed’
A trans intersex person has explained, in a moving opinion piece for Intersex Awareness Day (October 26), why they didn’t need surgery to be “fixed”. There are many different ways that a person can identify as intersex, which is an umbrella term encompassing those who are born with sex characteristics outside of the binary “female” […]
Uganda arrested 16 LGBTQ activists. Here’s where else gay rights are a battleground in the world.
This week Ugandan police arrested 16 LGBTQ activists on charges of gay sex — which is punishable by life imprisonment. Police arrested them at the sexual health organization where they worked and lived and cited condoms, lubricants and anti-HIV medicines found there as evidence of a crime. Police then subjected them to forced anal exams, […]
For a conservative city, Beijing has a remarkable gay nightlife
By day edmund yang is an accountant at a multinational firm. At night he can sometimes be found quietly sipping a cocktail at Destination, his club-cum-cultural centre. On China’s most popular navigation app, Baidu Maps, the venue is listed as a “comrade bar”. That does not mean it is a watering hole for Marxists. Comrade […]
Texas Is Afraid Of A 7-Year-Old Transgender Girl
What did 7-year-old Luna Younger of Dallas do that has mobilized conservatives and Christian fundamentalists across Texas into action? She declared, at age 3, “I’m a girl.” Her father, however, insists she’s a boy, despite a diagnosis of gender dysphoria by three medical experts. Jeffrey Younger feels so strongly about this that he launched an […]
Record 200,000 people march in Taipei LGBT pride parade
A record-breaking 200,000 people marched through Taipei Saturday in a vivid and exciting annual lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pride parade, calling for the public to embrace the LGBT community, especially now that same-sex marriage has been legalized in Taiwan. The marchers brandished rainbow flags and sported flamboyant costumes as the 17th Taiwan LGBT […]
Lawyer who announced the launch of the anti-trans LGB Alliance is thrown under the bus by her law firm
Lawyer Allison Bailey of Garden Court Chambers, who describes herself as “gender critical”, wrote a tweet on Tuesday (October 22) announcing the launch of the group. She wrote: “This is a historic moment for the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual movement. “LGB Alliance launched in London tonight, and we mean business. Spread the word, gender extremism […]
LGBTQ+ Community Rallies Against Anti-Trans ‘LGB Alliance’
A new lesbian, gay, and bisexual alliance group was blasted by on social media for excluding trans and nonbinary communities. The “LGB Alliance” group launched Tuesday evening with “gender critical feminist” (another term for the so-called trans exclusionary radical feminists or TERFs) and lawyer Allison Bailey calling it a “historic moment for the Lesbian, Gay […]
Anti-gay law ‘like a gun pointing at us’ says eSwatini activist
When LGBT+ people took to the streets last year for the first ever Pride march in eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland, some hardly believed they could celebrate the event in a country where stigma is rife and gay sex remains illegal. Now gay rights activist Melusi Simelane plans to go further by timing Pride events […]
17th Taiwan LGBT Pride parade to take place today
The 17th Taiwan LGBT Pride parade is to take place in Taipei today, the first after the nation legalized same-sex marriage earlier this year. Taiwan on May 17 became the first Asian nation to legalize same-sex marriage after lawmakers passed the Enforcement Act of Judicial Yuan Constitutional Interpretation No. 748 (司法院釋字第748號解釋施行法). The event’s organizers said […]
In Bolsonaro’s Brazil, the fashion industry emerges as a center for LGBT resistance
Sam Porto and his mirror have never gotten along. When the transgender man was growing up in Brazil, the sight of his developing breasts disgusted him. But in a crowded makeup room backstage at Sao Paulo Fashion Week, the reflection staring back at him finally fit in. Male models with painted lips and nails strutted […]
Anti-LGBT rhetoric stokes tensions in eastern Europe
In a recent survey, Poles were asked to identify what they felt to be the biggest threats facing them in the 21st century, choosing from options such as the climate crisis, renewed aggression from Russia and a possible economic downturn. Among men under 40, the most popular answer was “the LGBT movement and gender ideology”. […]
Uganda arrests 16 LGBT activists on suspicion of gay sex
Uganda has said it has arrested 16 LGBT activists on suspicion of gay sex, which is punishable with life imprisonment, in what fellow activists called an escalating campaign against sexual minorities. The 16 men, believed to be aged between 22 and 35, were taken into custody late on Monday at the office of a sexual […]
Chinese-owned TikTok Bans LGBT Content Even Where Homosexuality Is Legal
The draw of being a part of social media and gathering followers is the big reason for many to jump on their phones. TikTok seems to be the ego toy of the youth, but you’ll see Will Smith on there and even Terry Crews, but the faces are those mainly of high schoolers and college-going […]
‘Any day you can be taken’: Inside what it’s like to be gay in Chechnya
Ricky was just 19 when he said the police came for him. He was at work and they took him to the local police station. From there he said they took him somewhere else, placing a bag over his head. “At first, they were just beating me. They punched me and then [they] used electric […]
The Nations With the Highest Levels of LGBT Acceptance (and Lowest)
An updated study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law ranked the world’s nations by levels of LGBT acceptance. The current report updates and expands a previous Williams Institute report, “Polarized Progress: Social Acceptance of LGBT People in 141 Countries, 1981 to 2014.” Coming in at number 1 is the island nation of […]
Taiwan: What’s next after marriage equality?
When the annual Taipei LGBT Pride sets off from City Hall on Saturday, it promises to be an especially joyful occasion. With the legalization of marriage equality earlier this year, participants will mark the closest thing to a crowning achievement for Taiwan’s LGBT movement in more than 30 years of struggle. But even after that […]
Anti-homosexuality Bill poses severe threat to human rights
Uganda is facing a serious threat to human rights and the HIV response with the announcement of plans to introduce legislation that will impose the death penalty on people found to have had sex with a member of their own sex or to have “promoted” homosexuality. The Ugandan Minister of Ethics and Integrity, Simon Lokodo, […]
Polish Parliament Should Scrap Bill Against Sex Education
Threatening sex educators with jail may seem extreme – but it seems Poland’s ruling Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS) party is willing to go there to cement power by generating fear and misinformation. Fueling intolerance and targeting rights activists, an independent judiciary, and a free press have become hallmarks of PiS since the party gained power […]
Christian Council plans showdown with Bahamas Pride
The Bahamas Christian Council (BCC) will mount a series of events opposing the Bahamas Pride celebrations slated for October 2020. BCC President Bishop Delton Fernander said yesterday the church must stand up and ring the bell against the celebration of something that contravenes the word of God. He said the church will also call upon […]
How PrEP is changing safe sex practices for India’s LGBTQ community
The dating, hook-up and relationship-seeking culture in the LGBTQ community has always had its own secret set of codes that allowed its members to navigate this dicey domain in public, while remaining under the radar. These tell-tale signs have ranged from one’s sartorial choices to subtle glances in public and private spaces. Over time, these […]
LGBT In Turkmenistan: Go To Jail Or Live A Lie
To his friends and colleagues in Turkmenistan, Kamil is a successful cardiologist working at a prestigious clinic and an eligible bachelor from a well-connected family. Only a few people in his close family circle are aware of Kamil’s real struggle: He is secretly gay. In Turkmenistan, where homosexuality is a crime and shunned by the […]
Conversion therapy: PM concerned about ‘vulnerable’ LGBT youth
The Prime Minister has expressed concern about “vulnerable” youth at risk of undergoing gay or trans conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is where people try to change lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBTI) people’s sexuality or gender identity using therapy, drugs or other means. The controversial practice has been banned in the Australian state of […]
The Terror Gap: U.S. Laws Let White Supremacists Operate Like ISIS
The recent arrests of Jarrett William Smith, a former U.S. Army soldier who discussed plans to “bomb a major U.S. news network,” and Conor Climo, a Las Vegas man who plotted attacks on a synagogue and LGBT bar, give an inkling of the growing threat posed by far-right terrorists in the United States. But U.S. […]
Christian group claims Ethiopia is soft on homosexuality
A group affiliated with Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church is condemning what it calls the government’s silence on homosexuality in the country. Speaking at a conference [Sept. 8] in Addis Ababa, the capital, Dereje Negash of the Orthodox Church group dedicated to an Ethiopian saint, said the government’s indifference on the issue is helping the LGBT movement […]
Northern Ireland prepares for momentous gay marriage, abortion changes
Campaigners who fought for decades to end Northern Ireland’s same-sex-marriage ban and restrictions on abortion prepared on Monday for a momentous change to the laws on both at the stroke of midnight. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that does not allow same-sex marriage. Also, unlike England, Scotland and Wales, laws […]
Ghana: Former Pres Kufuor Urges Fight Against Same Sex Marriages
Former president John Agyekum Kufuor has urged the world to fight against same sex marriages. He stated that no amount of argument could change the fact that without man and woman there would be no human race. Former President Kufuor made the call in Accra on Friday when members of the National Coalition for Proper […]
Praying to wake up in a girl’s body: LGBT group hosts transgender women explaining why, how they transitioned
Three individuals who transitioned from male to female shared their journeys recently when the Oak Park Area Lesbian & Gay Association hosted a Transgender Education Panel at the Oak Park Library. Panelists Ann Lewis, Odette Bishop and Jill Rose Quinn each shared how they struggled with their identities for decades before coming out as transgender […]