‘Everything is prohibited’: Uganda’s anti-gay law forces community into hiding
When Richard Lusimbo came for the interview at an office in the suburbs of the Ugandan capital, Kampala, he looked exhausted. The bags under his eyes told the story of long sleepless nights. Throughout the interview, his phone wouldn’t stop ringing, and he would occasionally glance at it to check who was calling before placing […]
Nazi group gathers outside Cathedral of Hope on Sunday
Staff and congregants at Cathedral of Hope United Church of Christ are no strangers to protests. The Oak Lawn church, known as the largest church in the world with a primarily LGBTQ membership, has long been a target of the “gays will burn in hell” so-called Christians and, more recently, the “all gays are pedophiles” […]
They’re afraid of joy’: Pakistan’s trans community fights hate
Clad in a Barbie-pink shalwar kameez, influencer and doctor Mehrub Moiz Awan reels off endless examples of harassment she’s received since becoming the sharp-tongued figurehead of Pakistan’s queer community. A growing and highly organised digital hate campaign driven by the religious right has put trans people at risk — both of losing their legal rights […]
Uganda’s anti-gay law jeopardises progress in the fight against AIDS
The aisles of a clinic for HIV-positive patients on the outskirts of Kampala are almost deserted. However, staff keep an eye on CCTV footage for suspicious individuals, reflecting the fear of health workers after Uganda passed one of its most repressive laws criminalising homosexuality. “People need to trust their health workers, health workers need to trust their […]
Sydney’s Inner West Council To Commemorate Transgender Day of Remembrance
The upcoming Inner West Council meeting anticipates a notice of motion, requesting council to further commemorate international Transgender Day of Remembrance this November. The motion created by councillor, Liz Atkins, requests council provide endorsement to community groups, to further commemorate and support the trans community. Atkin’s motion aims for council to endorse the upcoming Trans Day of […]
Why this Buddhist monk has become an LGBTQ+ role model in Tokyo
How did you become both a monk and makeup artist? – My father is a monk and I was born in a temple in Tokyo. My parents never forced me to become one, and for a long time I didn’t want to — I was more interested in Disney princesses. I studied at the Parsons […]
Nowhere to party: The decimation of queer spaces for Black lesbians
Women and femmes have long been the LGBTQ+ community’s invisible force, often holding hands on the front lines but never quite making the cut of importance and relevance. This shrinking notoriety diminishes even further when considering race, specifically the intersection between queerness, Blackness, and gender. My community has made moves to place ourselves in the regularity […]
Normalising Extremism: How Far-Right Narratives Spread in the Balkans
Hate-filled comments about migrants, Roma people and the LGBT community. Praise for authoritarian regimes like Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Misogynistic and sexist abuse. Conspiracy theories about George Soros, Covid vaccines and the so-called ‘Great Replacement Theory’, a far-right notion that there is a plot to supplant white European Christians with Muslims and non-white immigrants. These are […]
Greece’s gay Syriza leader says he told of plans to become parent to ‘stir’ debate
Greece’s first openly gay political party leader says he was deliberately trying to “stir stagnant waters” and tackle the taboo subject of same-sex couples having children when he announced he and his partner planned to become parents through surrogacy. Weeks after his unexpected election to the helm of the main opposition left-wing Syriza, Stefanos Kasselakis […]
Kenya: Large crowd of Muslims protest against LGBTQ rights
Hundreds of Kenyan Muslims marched on the country’s Supreme Court Friday in protest against a recent decision upholding the right of LGBTQ groups to associate and form non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Deutsche Welle reported on Saturday, October 7. Angered Muslims carrying printed placards decried “neo-colonialists” and the immorality of homosexuality, while demanding the three justices who […]
Queer defiance at a festival in Hungary
One of the largest festivals in Europe, Sziget takes place on a beach-lined island in the middle of the Danube River, a short journey from the city centre of Budapest. Upon entering, you have to cross an imposing industrial bridge, which makes for an unusually stark symbol of the barrier between the outside world and […]
Turkey’s Erdogan tells supporters he does not ‘recognise’ LGBT
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday he did not “recognise LGBT” and vowed to combat “perverse” trends which he said aimed to destroy the institution of family in the country. Turkey’s government, led by Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party, has toughened its stance on LGBTQ freedoms in recent months, particularly while campaigning for […]
Belgian transgender deputy PM urges Sunak not to join ‘the real bullies’
Belgium’s deputy prime minister, who ranks as one of Europe’s most senior transgender politicians, has urged Rishi Sunak not to join “the real bullies” after remarks made by the British prime minister at the Conservative party conference this week. Sunak told the audience: “We shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex […]
Kenya: Hundreds of believers protest LGBTQ association right
Hundreds of Muslims and conservative Christians in Kenya’s capital rallied Friday outside the Supreme Court to protest its decision last month to reaffirm the LGBTQ community’s right of association, saying that the verdict condoned immorality. “They’re actions that are against God’s commandments, and God’s laws. We do not want the future, our kids, to be […]
CDC proposes using antibiotic to prevent STI among gay men, trans women
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Oct. 2 rolled out draft guidelines recommending the use of the antibiotic doxycycline as a form of post-exposure prophylaxis (doxy PEP) to prevent the spread of bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the LGBTQ community amid a national rise in syphilis and gonorrhea infections. PEP typically […]
Number of nations with laws against gay sex falls to 66
The number of nations with laws against gay sex has fallen to 66, continuing the slow, decades-long progress toward recognition of the human rights of LGBTQ+ people. The latest country to drop its anti-LGBT law is the African island nation of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. On Oct. 4, its Supreme Court overturned a […]
Gays Against Groomers leader issued restraining order after online attacks on school
A Wisconsin school district has been granted a temporary restraining order against the leader of a local Gays Against Groomers chapter, following accusations of harassment. A Brown County circuit court commissioner granted the district protection against Wisconsin Gays Against Groomers leader Jose “Rocky” Rodriguez, on Friday (29 September). In a TikTok video posted to his […]
Gay conversion therapy ban bill to be brought forward in NSW after claims reform was put ‘on ice’
The New South Wales government says it will bring forward its promised laws banning gay conversion practices, days after a religious lobby group claimed to have helped put the reforms “on pause”. A spokesperson for the premier’s office confirmed the legislation would be introduced to parliament by the end of the year. It was previously expected that […]
Swiss LGBTQ groups praise jail sentence for commentator who called journalist a ‘fat lesbian’
GENEVA — LGBTQ groups hailed the 60-day jail sentence a court in Switzerland gave to a writer and commentator for deriding a journalist as a “fat lesbian,” among other critical remarks. The Lausanne court sentenced French-Swiss polemicist Alain Bonnet, who goes by Alain Soral, for the crimes of defamation, discrimination and incitement to hatred on Monday. He […]
Pope Francis suggests blessings for gay unions possible in response to conservative cardinals
Pope Francis has suggested there could be ways to bless same-sex unions, responding to five conservative cardinals who challenged him to affirm church teaching on homosexuality ahead of a big meeting where LGBTQ+ Catholics are on the agenda. The Vatican on Monday published a letter Francis wrote to the cardinals on 11 July after receiving a […]
African island nation Mauritius overturns anti-sodomy law
The Supreme Court of the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius today overturned the Mauritian law against consensual sexual intercourse between men. The court ruled that the anti-sodomy provisions of Section 250(1) of the Mauritian Criminal Code were discriminatory and unconstitutional “inasmuch as it criminalises the only natural way for the plaintiffs and other homosexual men […]
Inside the anti-LGBTQ effort to put Christianity back in schools
Political and religious leaders who have long fought to put God and prayer back in schools are seizing on a growing backlash against transgender people to advance their agenda. Some evangelical pastors who regularly deliver sermons in support of school prayer have recently added a twist — preaching that Christian traditions are needed in classrooms to stop […]
UK NHS to change transgender policies in the name of women’s rights
The United Kingdom’s National Health Service announced plans to bring back sex-specific language and spaces to the nationalized health system in an effort to bolster women’s rights amid the challenges involved with transgender policy in healthcare. “As conservatives, we know what a woman is, and the vast majority of NHS staff and patients do, too,” […]
What is it like being gay in communist Vietnam?
Vietnam’s queer scene is thriving with many trendy bars, vibrant cafes, underground parties, exuberant drag shows, and even a proposed law to make LGBTQ+ people more accepted. We spoke with various gay people about what it’s like living in a communist country as a queer person.
LGBTQ+ Indians demand end to ‘discriminatory’ blood donation ban
When his mother fell ill, Karan, a 25-year-old gay man from New Delhi, hurried to donate blood. But as he filled out the mandatory form for donors, he realised he would be turned away because of his sexuality and made a snap decision. Karan, the only member of his family with the same blood group […]
Laphonza Butler, Newsom’s Feinstein replacement, to make LGBT history
The woman chosen by Gov. Gavin Newsom to replace late Sen. Dianne Feinstein will be the first Black lesbian to serve in Congress in history and the first openly LGBT senator from California, his office said Sunday night. Laphonza Butler has been selected to complete Feinstein’s term, who died Friday at the age of 90 […]
Pope Francis opens possibility for blessing same-sex unions
Pope Francis suggested it may be possible to bless same-sex unions in a newly public response to cardinals who questioned the pope’s affirmation of the LGBTQ community in the Catholic Church. In the July letter, which is written in Spanish, he reaffirmed that “the Church has a very clear understanding of marriage: an exclusive, stable, […]
Ugandan court moves toward hearing challenge to anti-gay law
Uganda’s Constitutional Court on Monday took a first step toward hearing a challenge to an anti-gay law that rights activists and Western governments have denounced as draconian. The Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni in May, is one of the world’s harshest anti-gay laws and punishes some same-sex acts with the […]
Life after escaping the Taliban, a gay Afghan teacher’s diary – Part I
It is September 29, 2022, and I am sitting in my hideous room in a hotel in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, waiting for my Afghan passport to arrive back from the British Embassy. Despite so many hardships, taking so many risks and working so hard to leave my home in Afghanistan and arrive somewhere safe, I […]
Taipei transgender rights march set for October
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s fifth annual march in support of transgender rights will be held in Taipei on Oct. 27. The event organizer, Taiwan Tongzhi (LGBTQ+) Hotline Association, said the march will take at 6:30 p.m. on a Friday evening at Ximending’s Red House. “Gender based on physical differences at birth requires all of us […]