Disasters don’t discriminate against queer people—but disaster responses do
With climbing global temperatures increasing the risk of weather-related disasters fivefold in the last fifty years, it’s safe to say that climate change is affecting everyone. However, not everyone is experiencing the effects of climate change equally. When it comes to climate-provoked emergencies—and social disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic— queer folks often feel the […]
LGBT HISTORY PROJECT: Exploring 70 years of lesbian publications
Edythe Eyde was a secretary at RKO Studios in 1947 when she found she had time on her hands and made a groundbreaking decision. While at work, she started writing what is considered the country’s first lesbian periodical, Vice Versa. The magazine, which she called “America’s Gayest Magazine,” featured editorials, film reviews (it was the […]
Latvian Parliament wants better protection of rainbow families
Latvia has a duty to protect all families, including rainbow ones. That is what the Constitutional Court ruled. Now, the Latvian Parliament considers a new partnership law in order to comply with this order. The Ministry of Justice submitted a package of draft laws to the Legal Committee of the Parliament on October 30, Eng.lsm […]
Historic Gay Games Open in Hong Kong and Guadalajara Amid Criticisms
The Gay Games XI 2023 open this weekend in Hong Kong and Guadalajara, Mexico. Hong Kong was scheduled for 2017 before the global pandemic, and Guadalajara was selected in 2022 to allow for more athletes to compete. The 2023 Gay Games will be the first time the event has been hosted in Asia or Latin America. The […]
Caribbean conference focuses on needs of LBTQ people assigned female at birth
More than 70 activists from 18 countries gathered last month in Sint Maarten to focus on the needs of lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer (LBTQ) people assigned female at birth. The 11th Caribbean Women and Sexual Diversity Conference (CWSDC) provided a platform for sharing experiences, knowledge and strategies outside of conference-room walls. Although participants identified across a range […]
Catholic church loses landmark case over tactics that shield it from Australian abuse claims
The Catholic church has lost a landmark case over its controversial use of the deaths of paedophile priests to thwart survivors’ attempts at justice. The high court on Wednesday delivered a significant blow to the church’s use of permanent stays in historical abuse matters, where it has sought to argue that delay, the death of perpetrators, and the […]
Where Do Trans Rights Stand in Taiwan After Same-Sex Marriage Legalization?
An estimated 5,000 people gathered in Ximending on the evening of October 27 for the fifth annual Taiwan Trans March, making it the largest Trans March to date with around 2,000 more attendees than last year’s march. This increased attendance indexes the growing centrality of transgender issues amongst Taiwan’s broader LGBTQ+ movement in the post-same-sex […]
Unusual suspects
Russia’s judicial statistics for the first half of this year neatly reflect life under the country’s military dictatorship in the second year of the war in Ukraine. This is a country where service in the military can provide criminals with a get-out-of-jail-free card both before and after their conviction, while long jail sentences can result […]
Cameroon: Gay man flees after enduring an exorcism for his homosexuality
“I am a homosexual, I am attracted to men and I feel good about that. I am like that and I have always been like that.” With those words, 22-year-old Ekassi explained himself to the chief and other elders in his remote Cameroonian village. Ekassi (a pseudonym) had always been seen as different from other […]
Senegal probe after gay man’s body reportedly dug up and burned
Footage said to show a gay man’s body being dug up from a grave and burned has shocked Senegal, triggering an investigation in the conservative country where homophobia is rife. The perpetrators arrived at a cemetery in the central city of Kaolack on Saturday evening searching for the grave of a man buried the day […]
Congressional Resolution Celebrates Intersex Awareness Day
Two congressional Democrats put forth the first-ever resolution recognizing October 26 as Intersex Awareness Day. The resolution, introduced by U.S. Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), affirms the dignity and the universal human right to bodily autonomy of intersex individuals. Observed annually, the day is intended to raise awareness of the issues that […]
‘Pink Zone’ with LGBTQ+ bars proposed for downtown Tijuana
Tijuana officials said they will consider a proposal to create a “Pink Zone” in the downtown area that will include at least 10 bars and clubs catering to the LGBTQ+ community. Edoardo Rodríguez Delgado, Tijuana’s assistant director of diversity and inclusion, told the El Sol Newspaper that the city has received a petition signed by […]
Donald Trump pledges to defund schools teaching critical race theory and ‘transgender insanity’
Former US president Donald Trump has pledged to defund schools teaching critical race theory and “transgender insanity” if he is re-elected in 2024. At a rally in Sioux City in Iowa, Donald Trump – who has previously promised to reinstate his cruel trans military ban if elected – claimed he would clamp down on race […]
Malaysia to require kill switch at concerts after The 1975’s LGBTQ rant, same-sex kiss
Malaysia has begun demanding that concert organisers install a kill switch to “cut off electricity supply if there is any unwanted incident” after members of British band The 1975 shared a same-sex kiss on stage earlier this year. The new instruction is a direct result of the controversy – which led to authorities cancelling July’s […]
Mass arrests target LGBTQ+ people in Nigeria while abuses against them are ignored, activists say
Law enforcement authorities in Nigeria are using the country’s same-sex prohibition law to target the LGBTQ+ community while ignoring abuses against them, rights groups and lawyers say, in the wake of fresh mass arrests of gay people. Nigeria is one of more than 30 of Africa’s 54 countries where homosexuality is criminalized in laws that […]
Queer U.K. Activists Hacked London Transit Ads to Support LGBTQ+ Gazans
The Dyke Project, a U.K.-based “collection of trans, cis, [and] non-binary lesbians and queers,” says they “hacked” 100 advertisements across London transit by covering up physical ads with placards displaying missives from queer Palestinians in Gaza, per Truth Out. The messages came from Queering the Map, an online resource that allows LGBTQ+ users to share […]
Johannesburg Pride marches for LGBTQ+ Ugandans in wake of Anti-Homosexuality Bill
The 34th Johannesburg Pride, which was estimated to have a 24,000 strong crowd marching for equality, took place at the Wanderers Stadium in the South African city on Saturday (28 October). This year’s event was dedicated to LGBTQ+ Ugandans and all Africans who “cannot march for themselves”, following the passage of the East African nation’s […]
Trans conversion therapy survivor begs Rishi Sunak to push on with ban: ‘Some would call it torture’
Members of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies are growing impatient with Sunak who has yet to deliver on the government’s promise of a ban on trans-inclusive conversion therapy. Although the Tory Party leader has pledged to draft the bill in the King’s Speech in November, heavy pushback from anti-trans MPs has many worried that it won’t go ahead. Among […]
Gay groups in India wrestle with court’s ‘landmark failure’ on marriage equality
“We have been fighting for long and will keep doing so,” said Anjali Gopalan, one of the petitioners after a five-judge bench threw out the appeals. “This is democracy but we are denying basic rights to our own citizens.” Bollywood filmmaker Onir labelled the verdict a “landmark failure”, but Canada-funded Humsafar Trust gay rights group said the […]
Living an intersex life
When Pidgeon Pagonis was born in a Chicago hospital 37 years ago, her doctors saw something that alarmed them. “I was born looking female on the outside,” Pagonis said, “and then it was discovered that on the inside of my body, I had not completely the parts that would be considered female.” Pidgeon (whose birth name […]
Mauritius Begins to Correct a Historic Wrong Towards LGBTQI+ People
In response to lawsuits brought by LGBTQI+ activists, the Mauritius Supreme Court has issued two landmark judgments striking down the criminalisation of consensual sex between adult men as unconstitutional. Its reasoning turned upside down the argument used by anti-rights forces to attack LGBTQI+ activists in many African countries: it acknowledged that criminalisation is the foreign […]
Johannesburg Pride marches for LGBTQ+ Ugandans after anti-gay law passed
More than 20,000 people marched through Johannesburg on Saturday to celebrate Pride, singing, dancing and making their support clear for LGBTQ+ communities across Africa who cannot be open safely and whose relationships are criminalised. At the front of a parade that organisers estimated was 24,000-strong was Mandela Swali, a 25-year-old Ugandan gay man who was […]
Austria to compensate gay men convicted under discriminatory laws
The Austrian government is set to pay tens of millions of euros in compensation to gay people who were persecuted or convicted of consensual homosexual acts. The new legislation would apply to anyone convicted under specific sections of Austria’s legal code that were put in place after homosexuality was decriminalised in 1971. These special paragraphs […]
Hungary bans teenagers from World Press Photo exhibit, citing LGBT content
Hungary’s government has banned youngsters under 18 from visiting the World Press Photo exhibition on display in Budapest, citing LGBT content in some of the photos. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s nationalist government promotes a Christian-conservative agenda and in 2021 banned the “display and promotion of homosexuality” in books and films accessible by under-18s despite strong […]
‘It was beyond homophobia’: Sligo’s LGBTQ community still reeling after killer’s spree of violence
Mary Branley remembers the shock on the faces of the young people from the LGBTQ community in Sligo at a vigil outside Sligo Town Hall in the wake of the murders of Aidan Moffitt and Michael Snee. “They were horrified that this could happen to someone in the tribe,” the writer said. “They were horrified […]
UN experts: LGBT older persons at heightened risk of violence and discrimination
Following the commemoration of the UN International Day on Older Persons on 1 October, three United Nations rights experts* issued a statement highlighting the alarming situation faced by many LGBT older persons and exhorting UN Member States and other stakeholders to design, pass and implement all measures necessary to address violence and discrimination that disproportionately […]
This country will be the first in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage
Prime Minister (PM) Thailand Srettha Thavisin next week will submit a bill (RUU) legalizing same-sex marriage. This move will make Thailand the first country in the region Southeast Asia which legalizes same-sex marriage. For your information, both Thavisin and his opponents promised to expand LGBTQ rights. In a post Thursday on X, formerly Twitter, Thavisin […]
Report: Gulf Coast has largest transgender youth population affected by anti-LGBTQ+ bills
After this year’s record high of legislative attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, transgender youth across the U.S. are being impacted by adopted policies. The Gulf Coast has the largest affected population of any region, according to a report released this month by the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy. An […]
Parliament Panel May Tell Government To Criminalise Adultery Again
New Delhi: A parliamentary committee is likely to recommend re-criminalisation of the adultery law and criminalisation of non-consensual sex between men, women and/or trans members, as part of an overhaul of colonial-era criminal laws, sources said. The panel is studying three bills to replace the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Indian Evidence […]
South Korean court upholds ban on gay sex in military, in setback for LGBTQ community
Seoul, South KoreaCNN — South Korea’s Constitutional Court has upheld a law banning same-sex relations in the military, citing a threat to combat-readiness, in a judgment decried by the local LGBTQ community as a disappointing setback. In a 5-4 ruling on Thursday, the court refused to declare as unconstitutional a clause in the Military Criminal Act that bans […]