Tensions simmer in Hamilton LGBTQ community after Pride festival violence
The groups stand separated by temporary metal fencing and a line of police officers. On one side, Canadian flags and yellow vests. The other, rainbow flags and cardboard signs decrying hate. This has become a regular scene in downtown Hamilton since violence broke out at the city’s Pride festival last month. The clash at Pride […]
HUNDREDS PROTEST IN TEL AVIV AFTER ISRAELI EDUCATION MINISTER PRAISES GAY CONVERSION THERAPY
LGBT activists in Israel are calling for the resignation of Education Minister Rafi Peretz after he claimed gay conversion therapy could work. “I think it’s possible,” Peretz, an orthodox rabbi and leading force in the ultranationalist United Right alliance, told Israel’s Channel 12 on Saturday. “I can tell you that I have deep familiarity on […]
LGBT community hopes election spurs gay rights debate, legislation
The LGBT community and their allies hope the upcoming upper house election will help advance the national discussion on LGBT rights in Japan and lead to legal recognition. Small headway has been made at the local level, with some municipalities, starting with two wards in Tokyo in 2015, issuing “partnership certificates” to lesbian, gay, bisexual […]
Aldo Davila: Guatemala Elects First Openly Gay Congressman
Final results of last month’s election in Guatemala were released on Friday. Among the 160 deputies elected on June 16 was Aldo Iván Dávila Morales, who is openly gay and living with HIV. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Guatemala announced its results on Friday, the AP reported.Dávila, who will represent a Guatemala City district, will […]
Meet the man hoping to become the Muslim world’s first openly gay president
Mounir Baatour’s office is cool, the steady thrum of the air conditioner offering a welcome break from the blistering summer heat that has descended upon Tunis. Past noon, little moves outside. The streets are empty and even the city’s ubiquitous cat population has slinked off to the shadows. Despite the temperature, Baatour, the first openly […]
Nepal’s Sexual Minorities Demand Government To Include LGBT Community In Public Service
The sexual and gender minority community in Nepal has demanded with the government to include the community in the public service commission vacancy announced by the state. Speaking at an interaction organised by the Blue Diamond Society here on Saturday under the Community-Police Partnership Programme, various speakers said that the third gender needs to be […]
Gay and trans soldiers say they were abused in South Korean military
After months of watching the abuse, Park felt he had to act. The South Korean soldier had seen another low-ranking conscript, deemed effeminate and suspected of being gay, being sexually abused, beaten and forced to drink from a toilet bowl by other soldiers. But when Park — not his real name — tried to stop […]
Popular trans television presenter gunned down in Honduras
Beloved transgender television presenter, Santiago Carvajal, died on Saturday (6 July)in Honduras after she was shot on Friday. She died at Mario Catarino Rivas Hospital in San Pedro Sula, the Central American country’s second most important city, according to El Pais. Carvajal presented La Galaxia de Santi, a critically-acclaimed magazine show on a local television […]
The many flags of the LGBT community
Everyone probably recognizes the rainbow flag as the universal symbol of the LGBT community. But there are other subcultures that have adopted banners of their own and every year around this time they are displayed with Pride. Even though you may be a model student of everything queer history, there are constantly things being added […]
Puyallup Indians recognize their gay and lesbian members with Pride events
The Puyallup Tribe of Indians is embracing its gay and lesbian members, and it’s doing it in a big way. Although the tribe recognized same-sex unions in 2014, it hasn’t until now publicly acknowledged that it has lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) members. “We knew there were (LGBT) people but we just didn’t talk […]
Despite SC Ruling, India Abstains Again on Vote on LGBT Rights at UN
The Supreme Court may have decriminalised gay sex last year, but it seems the Indian government didn’t think that it was enough to revise a three-year-old position as it again abstained on the renewal of the mandate for an independent expert on protection for LGBT rights. At the Geneva-based 44-member UN human rights body, 27 […]
Trump’s new ‘rights’ commission is packed with anti-LGBT activists
LGBT+ groups have expressed concern after Donald Trump launched a ‘natural law’ commission that is dominated by members with anti-LGBT beliefs. Trump’s current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced plans to undercut the US government’s existing human rights framework on Monday (July 7), with the formation of a Commission on Unalienable Rights. Pompeo claimed the […]
LGBT bullying more common than racist bullying in schools – poll
LGBT bullying is the most prevalent type of bullying in schools, with research showing it was more common than incidents relating to racism, sexism or religion. A YouGov poll of more than 1,000 teachers working in UK primary or secondary schools revealed that 13% of children are bullied because of their sexuality, 11% because of […]
How a Hong Kong tax assessment decision could influence attitudes towards LGBT+ rights across Asia
Just days after same-sex marriage was legalised in neighbouring Taiwan, Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal handed down its own landmark decision. A judgment which has – arguably – laid the first stones in the yellow brick road for further recognition and legalisation of same-sex marriage across Asia. But the June 6 ruling was not […]
Navajo Nation’s LGBTQ Pride Event Celebrates A Return To The Culture’s History
As the sun dips below the horizon, the colored lights turn on — bathing the Navajo Nation Council Chambers in rainbow hues as the crowd cheers. On June 28, the Navajo Nation kicked off Diné Pride, a two-day event in Window Rock, Ariz., the capital of the Navajo reservation. Diné Pride coincided with the 50th […]
Amnesty Int’l: LGBT soldiers face abuse in South Korea military
A law that criminalizes consensual sex between men in the South Korean military is leading to violence and harassment against gay and trans soldiers and should be abolished, an Amnesty International report released on Thursday said. The report, “Serving in Silence: LGBTI People in South Korea’s Military,” details an atmosphere of mental and physical abuse […]
Dozens of Polish communities say they are ‘LGBT-free’
A Polish campaign group on Wednesday said that around 30 communities including villages and regional assemblies in the devout Catholic country had in recent months declared themselves to be “free of LGBT ideology”. Homosexuality is a frequent topic of public debate in the EU member, whose conservative ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski condemned gay rights […]
Indonesia’s prison chief says LGBT inmates will be put in isolation rooms to prevent ‘transmission of sexual disorientation’
Horrible overcrowding has long been a serious issue in Indonesia’s prison, but one that rarely merits much attention from average Indonesians or the local media. But the issue has been much in the media spotlight this week — for entirely wrong-headed, homophobic reasons — after an official from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights […]
How Schools Reinvigorated the Stonewall Revolution
The groups have always been about a simple, key objective: Stop all the dying. The groups are GSAs—Gender-Sexuality Alliances, though they were originally known as Gay-Straight Alliances—and that was their mission when they first rose to prominence in the late 1980s. GSAs were usually small clubs, led by a combination of students and teachers who […]
What it’s like to be transgender in China
Chao Xiaomi considers the question: “Why are you not happy that you were born a man?” That’s because, she says, “in order to live like a man I should drink more, be stronger, have many girlfriends, play rugby – you know – do manly things.” Chao, who describes herself as gender fluid and prefers female […]
MPs vote to extend abortion and same-sex marriage rights to Northern Ireland
MPs have voted resoundingly to extend same-sex marriage and access to abortion to Northern Ireland, bringing the region into line with the rest of the UK on the two significant social issues. The two historic votes, arriving within little more than a quarter of an hour of each other, were greeted ecstatically by equalities campaigners. […]
The sentences of the Constitutional Court on equal marriage are final and can not be appealed in Ecuador
“The judgments and the orders of the Constitutional Court shall have the character of final and unappealable.” This textual citation is article 440 of the Constitution of Montecristi and is applicable to sentences 10-18-CN / 19 and 11-18-CN / 19 that entered into force this July 8, 2019 and recognize as a right in Ecuador […]
Finding acceptance among the world’s first gay cricket team
The sound of cricket bags wheeling along uneven concrete and the click-clacking of cricket studs accompanies the arrival of Manish Modi and his teammates. They have just arrived at Botany Bay Cricket Club – a quaint and exotically named ground in Middlesex, near London – ahead of their league game against Hadley Wood in the […]
Anti-corruption advocate on her way to become Bogota’s first LGBT mayor
One of Colombia’s leading anti-corruption advocates is on her way to become the first gay mayor of the capital Bogota, according to multiple public opinion polls. A poll that was published on Monday by pollster T&SE showed that former Senator Claudia Lopez (Green Alliance) to be the front-runner in the race with an impressive lead. […]
Not My Fault That I Was Born Gay, 20-YO Wrote In Emotional Note Before Committing Suicide
Despite the Supreme Court of India scrapping Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised gay sex in September 2018, the society has largely remained the same, when it comes to treating people from the LGBTQ community. They are still looked down and scorned by a large section of the society, while some parents […]
Georgian Opposition Demonstrators Confronted By Antigay, Pro-Russian Protesters
Demonstrators demanding the resignation of Georgian Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia have been confronted by antigay and pro-Russian activists on the 20th day of protests in Tbilisi. The rival demonstrators spent the night on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue on July 8-9. Dozens of antigay activists gathered near the parliament to protest against an LGBT-pride parade that was […]
Polish bishops accuse Ikea of ‘LGBT indoctrination’
Polish bishops on Saturday denounced Swedish furniture giant Ikea for what they called “LGBT indoctrination” after an employee was sacked for refusing to take down a homophobic comment he posted on the firm’s internal website. “From the point of view of the law and above all of propriety and common sense, it is unacceptable to […]
PCUP initiates programs for LGBT community in Davao City
The Presidential Commission for Urban Poor (PCUP) has initiated livelihood programs for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) community. Most recently, 30 members of an LGBT community group were provided with the three-day training for Sustainable Livelihood Program from the DSWD in Davao City through the initiatives of the PCUP. The PCUP provided assistance to […]
Delhi HC dismisses plea seeking rules for LGBT marriage
The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the government to frame family laws for LGBT relationships and form a committee to look into these issues. A division bench presided by Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice C. Harishankar turned down the plea filed by Tajinder Singh after […]
Georgian LGBT community calls off Tbilisi action due to threats
An action planned by the Georgian LGBT community near the Interior Ministry’s building in Tbilisi on Monday has been called off, Tbilisi Pride co-leader Giorgi Tabagari told the press. “We will not hold our action near the Interior Ministry’s building due to threats to members of our organization,” Tabagari said. “Yet we will not cancel […]