“The Deceased Can’t Speak for Herself:” Violence Against LGBT People in Malaysia
The New Year rang in little cheer for transgender women in Malaysia. On January 1, a trans woman was killed in Klang, a Kuala Lumpur suburb, the third such killing in Malaysia in fewer than two months. Her death remains under police investigation. Like so many trans women in Malaysia excluded from the formal employment […]
Gay Nigerian ex-priest honored for supporting asylum-seekers
A gay Nigerian former priest has received an award in recognition of his work supporting LGBTI African refugees. John Adewoye is a lifeline for many across the continent, one fractured in its support of LGBTI people, one where 32 of the 52 countries in Africa class homosexuality as illegal. And one where Adewoye has created […]
Nigeria: Three anti-gay criminals captured, but then freed
Three members of a group of vicious anti-gay criminals were apprehended last week at Ibusa town in Delta State, Nigeria. Members of the gang reportedly were arrested by officers of the Nigeria Security & Civil Defense Corps on Thursday of last week. They were taken to court to face charges of attempted blackmail but were […]
War veterans join biggest gay pride march in Ukraine
War veterans in fatigues joined more than 8,000 people marching in Kiev’s Gay Pride parade amid tight security on Sunday, the biggest-ever annual celebration of diversity in ex-Soviet Ukraine. The participants, waving rainbow and Ukrainian flags and sporting colorful costumes, marched through the center of the capital as far-right and Orthodox activists sought to disrupt […]
Living joyously is a radical act’: why America’s gay bars still matter
The gay bar is in trouble. Fifty years after the Stonewall Inn in New York became the symbol for a new wave of gay activism, the three horsemen of the gay bar apocalypse – gentrification, assimilation and technology – have hollowed out their numbers. Rising rents have shuttered gay bars; more straight venues are “accepting” […]
Madrid accused of whitewashing Gay Pride
The new right-wing government of Madrid is being accused of censoring pro-LGBT publicity ahead of the city’s Gay Pride festivities. The Madrid Gay Pride, which takes place during the first weekend of July, is one of the biggest such events in Europe. However, the leftist opposition in the capital claims that a campaign advertising the […]
Section 377 is History but Young LGBT Indians Need Concrete Policies to Protect them from Bullying
The picture is bleak for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth in India. Many face harassment and bullying, and to avoid humiliation and violence they often skip classes or drop out of school altogether. Most teachers are not trained or empowered to respond to anti-LGBT bullying, so in many cases they don’t. In some cases, […]
Gay prisoners of Buchenwald remembered at Nazi camp site
A ceremony has been held at the former site of Germany’s Buchenwald concentration camp to remember people imprisoned there because they were thought to be gay. The commemoration on Sunday was part of events in the nearby town of Weimar for Christopher Street Day, Germany’s LGBT pride observance. About 50 people marched through the grounds […]
Gay Pride Parade Draws Hundreds of Thousands in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Hundreds of thousands marched through the streets of Sao Paulo in Brazil on Sunday in the city’s annual gay pride march, with demonstrators protesting the policies of the country’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, reported dpa news. British pop singer Mel C, formerly of the Spice Girls, was among the demonstrators, pictures from Brazilian broadcaster Globo […]
Far-Right TFP Funded Launch of Conservative Catholic Activist Group in Netherlands
In another example of cross-fertilization between right-wing movements in the Americas and Europe, Tradition, Family and Property helped fund and train activists in the Netherlands who created a group called Civitas Christiana, according to a report in the newspaper NRC published last week. A photo accompanying the NRC story shows Civitas Christiana chairman Hugo Bos […]
FEWER MILLENNIALS ACCEPTING OF LGBTQ PEOPLE, STUDY FINDS
Young people are often assumed to be progressive, especially when it comes to gay rights. But a new study reveals that acceptance of the LGBTQ community by adults 18 to 34 is falling. A new Harris Poll commissioned by GLAAD found that 36 percent of respondents in that demographic reported they’d be “very” or “somewhat” […]
Taiwan: More than 1,000 gay couples wed in first month of equal marriage
Taiwan has wed 1,173 same-sex couples since becoming the first Asian country to introduce equal marriage on May 24. In the first month of equal marriage, 790 female couples and 383 male couples tied the knot—though two have since divorced, Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior announced on Sunday (June 23). Same-sex marriage was introduced after […]
Thousands in Costa Rica celebrate in first pride march since gay marriage ruling
Tens of thousands of Costa Ricans celebrated gay pride on Sunday in the capital, San Jose, in the first such march since the country’s constitutional court promised same-sex couples the right to marry starting next year. The court voted last August to legalize gay marriage and said later the ruling would take effect in May […]
In first, Ibaraki Prefecture to issue partnership certificates for LGBT couples from July
Authorities in Ibaraki Prefecture said Monday they would start issuing partnership certificates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender couples from July 1, in an effort to address inequalities with legally married couples. A total of 22 municipalities across the country have launched similar systems to recognize partnerships between members of sexual minorities since the wards […]
Thousands march in Romanian capital’s pride parade
Thousands of people joined a LGBT pride march in Bucharest on Saturday, nearly a year after Romania held a failed referendum to ban same sex marriage. Socially conservative Romania, which decriminalised homosexuality in 2001, decades after its neighbours, bars marriage and civil partnerships for same sex couples. On Saturday, roughly 10,000 people braved rain showers […]
‘Fear and shame holding LGBT community back’
Patna may have taken giant strides in many fields, but there are areas where it still lags behind other cities. The inclusivity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is one of them. According to experts, conservative families and societal pressures compel queer people to stay in the closet. Besides, lack of counselling centres […]
Struggle among progress as countries restrict LGBTQ rights
The world has been transformed in many ways in the 50 years since the uprising at the Stonewall Inn, with major shifts in the past decade alone on every continent. Same-sex marriage is now a reality throughout most of Western Europe, much of the Americas, as well as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In […]
Watch: Fleeing persecution, LGBT+ Brazilians find refuge in Portugal
Since the election of Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, homophobic or transphobic attacks have multiplied. Advocates say a member of the LGBT+ community is now murdered every 16 hours on average, a shocking figure. Our team travelled to Portugal to meet four Brazilians who have fled their homeland, fearing for their lives because of their […]
With gay couple as stars, Mexican telenovela set to make history
A Mexican soap opera that debuts on Sunday is set to make television history as the country’s first telenovela to feature a gay couple as the leading characters. “Juntos, El Corazon Nunca se Equivoca” (Together, the Heart is Never Wrong) from Mexican network Televisa centers on two teenagers who move to Mexico City to attend […]
Georgia’s LGBT community postpones march due to tensions
Georgia’s LGBT community has posted the Dignity March planned in Tbilisi for June 23 due to the tense situation in the country. “Given the events on Rustaveli Avenue and the tense political situation, the Tbilisi Pride team has decided to postpone for several days the Dignity March scheduled for June 23,” the organizers said in […]
How the US shapes queer activism in Liberia
As the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean, dozens of queer Liberians and their friends and family gathered on a stretch of beach outside Monrovia, the West African nation’s capital. It was a Sunday night in November 2016, and they had been invited to an event marking Transgender Day of Remembrance. The program, though, looked […]
How a housepainter and an army widow led the secret fight to save LGBT people from ISIS
The first time Majid and Ahlam saved a gay person’s life, they didn’t even know what LGBT stood for. Word had reached them that three men were being held at home by members of their extended family, who were preparing to execute them for “shaming” the family. Majid, a bulky 54-year-old who spent much of […]
Even Under Bolsanaro’s Criticism, LGBT Parade in São Paulo Should Attract 12 Percent More Tourists
More than three million people are expected to cross Avenida Paulista, in Sao Paulo, next Sunday, during the 23rd edition of the LGBT Pride Parade, according to the organization. Under the theme “50 years of Stonewall,” the event is expected to see a 12 to 15 percent increase in the number of tourists in the […]
Senate confirms judge who’s so anti-LGBTQ even Susan Collins voted no
The Senate voted to confirm a Trump-appointed federal judge with a long history of anti-LGBTQ statements to a lifetime appointment Wednesday. The Senate voted to confirm Matthew Kacsmaryk as the new U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Texas by a 52-46 vote. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was the only Republican to vote […]
An inclusive Pride flag is the first step in confronting racism in LGBT+ spaces
Until people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds feel comfortable in LGBT+ communities, the new black and brown stripes are vital. The first bricks at the Stonewall riots were thrown by Marsha P Johnson, a black trans sex worker, and Sylvia Ray Rivera, a Latina trans sex worker. Yet many seem unaware of the multiracial […]
Ukrainian gay couple hope Danish wedding will change mindsets at home
Before Kiev celebrates Pride on Sunday, Roman Ivasiy and Anton Pozdnyakov want to speak publicly about their wedding in the hope it will help change hostile attitudes toward same-sex couples in Ukraine and give courage to those “struck dumb with fear”. Under Western-backed leadership, Ukraine’s parliament passed legislation in 2015 to ban discrimination in the […]
LGBT community marks Pride Month with hope and fear
The month of June is internationally recognized as the LGBT Pride Month. The month-long celebrations are aimed at fighting for equal rights, increasing social visibility, and celebrating sexual and gender diversity. June was selected as the Pride Month to commemorate the Stonewall riots of 28 June, 1969, following a police raid in Stonewall Inn, a […]
Gay refugees sent back to ‘homophobic Kenya camp’
Kenya’s government has ordered a group of 76 refugees to return to a camp they had fled after some of them faced homophobic attacks, a UN agency says. Police with guns escorted the group on to buses on Wednesday night, photos sent to the BBC by the refugees show. The group had been living in […]
Israeli city Raanana holds its first gay pride parade
The central Israeli bedroom community of Raanana held its first Pride march. Up to 3,000 people took part in the parade in the city of some 80,000 residents that is about one-quarter haredi, according to Haaretz. The majority of the marchers on Raanana’s main street were under 21, according to the newspaper. The local chapter […]
Iceland passes identification law dismissing lengthy medical process for trans people
Iceland passed a law on Tuesday (18 June) making it easier for transgender and non-binary individuals to change their personal identification. The Icelandic Parliament passed the Gender Autonomy Act. This allows people to change their gender and offers a non-binary ‘x’ option. Prior to this law, transgender and non-binary people had to undergo a lengthy […]