What does it mean to be queer and a Traveller? Three people explain

If you hadn’t noticed by the sea of rainbows (we’re living for them), June is Pride month; a month to celebrate the diversity, resilience and beauty of the LGBTQIA+ community. But it’s also Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History month – an initiative which started in 2008 to “tackle prejudice, challenge myths and to amplify the […]

Medical exiles: Families flee states amid crackdown on transgender care

Hal Dempsey wanted to “escape Missouri.” Arlo Dennis is “fleeing Florida.” The Tillison family “can’t stay in Texas.” They are part of a new migration of Americans who are uprooting their lives in response to a raft of legislation across the country restricting health care for transgender people. Missouri, Florida, and Texas are among at […]

Hundreds Marry as Mexico Celebrates Marriage Equality, Gender ID Law

Jubilant transgender folks and same-sex couples celebrated in Mexico City on Friday. The Associated Press reported 120 couples were able to marry under the slogan, “Hand in hand, we march with pride,” a representative of Mexico’s capital city said in a statement. Many transgender people were also on hand to celebrate the completion of the […]

Israeli Police Walk Back Restrictions on Pride Parade in Southern Israel

Israel Police walked back its demand from the organizers of the Mitzpeh Ramon Pride Parade in southern Israel to place a two-meter-high (about 6.7 feet) tarp fence around its Pride event complex scheduled for this coming Friday. The police initially justified its demand because procedures require that at private events a controlled area be established […]

The War on LGBTQ People Being Waged in Rural America

On June 3, James Hensley, a 21-year-old from Corbin, Kentucky, joined a small group of local queer activists downtown for what was supposed to be a celebration of Pride. Corbin, a small mountain town of just under 8,000, boasts a rejuvenated main street and is most famous for being the home of the first Kentucky […]

Singapore holds first LGBTQ rally since gay sex decriminalized

Hundreds of people wearing pink attended Singapore’s annual Pink Dot LGBTQ rally on Saturday, the first to be held since the city-state decriminalised gay sex last year. Brandishing rainbow flags and sporting glittery makeup, participants gathered in a downtown park — the only place in Singapore where protests are allowed without a police permit.

5 key findings about LGBTQ+ Americans

Pew Research Center has been tracking Americans’ attitudes toward same-sex marriage, gender identity and other LGBTQ+ issues for more than a decade. In that time, we have also done deep explorations of the experiences of LGBTQ+ and transgender and nonbinary Americans. As the United States celebrates LGBTQ+ Pride month, here are five key findings about […]

Out Gay Sydney MP Alex Greenwich To Introduce LGBT Equality Bill In NSW Parliament

Out gay Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich on Thursday notified NSW Parliament about his intention to introduce an omnibus LGBTQI Equality Bill. In the works for over 18 months, Greenwich had before the state elections said that his support for the government would be based upon their backing for his Equality legislation. “Proud and historic […]

Surge in anti-LGBTQ disinformation targets Pride in Europe

As Pride events got underway in Europe in June, disinformation and hate speech targeting the LGBTQ community spread across social media, triggering extreme online responses, including incitements to violence. Advocacy groups across Europe said the deluge of toxic content online is part of an overall trend of rising anti-LGBTQ sentiment worldwide. But the community is […]

Türkiye: Istanbul Pride showdown highlights threat to LGBTI rights

LGBTI people in Türkiye are facing a brazen and deepening crackdown this Pride season, Amnesty International said today, on the eve of Istanbul Pride and Izmir Pride marches, which are due to go ahead on Sunday despite expected attempts to ban them. Discriminatory language by politicians, including high-ranking government officials, targeting LGBTI people both before […]

The First Self-Proclaimed Drag Queen Was a Formerly Enslaved Man

In the late 1880s, a formerly enslaved man named William Dorsey Swann started hosting private balls known as drags, a name possibly derived from “grand rag,” an antiquated term for masquerade balls. Held in secret in Washington, D.C., these parties soon caught authorities’ attention. As the Washington Critic reported in January 1887, police officers who […]

Japan ruling on same-sex marriage disappoints but ‘a step forward’

A Japanese court on Thursday said a ban on same-sex marriage was constitutional but it raised concerns about the dignity and human rights of same-sex couples, a ruling short of activists’ expectations but still seen as a step forward. The judgement by the Fukuoka district court came a week after another district court said it […]

Discord over LGBTQ protections emerges at UN labour body -sources

A standoff has emerged over a reference to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the budget of the International Labour Organization, pitting a group of mostly Western countries against African and Arab states, according to six sources following the matter. The impasse over terminology at the ILO’s annual meeting in […]

Canadian province changes LGBT policy in schools to ‘recognize role of parents’

Ruling conservatives in the Canadian province of New Brunswick this week made changes to rules for schools as they sought to “recognize the role of parents” in questions around gender identity, but have faced pushback from within their own party. The former policy, which dated from 2020, said teachers must respect all children’s chosen names […]

Norway police could have prevented last year’s gay bar shooting, report says

Norwegian police could have prevented a deadly rampage at a gay bar last year if they had acted on a tip-off from the foreign intelligence agency, seven experts said Thursday in a report Oslo’s governing mayor described as “devastating”. Two people died, nine suffered gunshot wounds and 25 others were injured after a shooting at […]

The Colombian Paramilitary’s Other Dirty War — Against LGBTQ+ People

Sandra* spotted her name for the first time on a pamphlet left at her doorstep in 2008, in Barrancabermeja, her home town in northern Colombia. Local paramilitaries known as the Black Eagles (Águilas negras) dropped it there on Dec. 15 as a warning and, effectively, a deferred death sentence. It meant they knew where Sandra, […]

Outrage as anti-LGBTQ+ protest at California school board turns violent

Democratic politicians across California condemned a volatile anti-gay protest outside a suburban Los Angeles school board meeting on Tuesday, as the school board heard public comment on whether to officially designate June as LGBTQ+ Pride month. Footage from a local television station showed crowds of people shoving, kicking and throwing punches outside a school district […]

Human Rights Campaign declares a national state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people

For the first time in its four-decade history, America’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer civil rights organization has declared a national state of emergency for members of the LGBTQ+ community, the Human Rights Campaign said Tuesday. “LGBTQ+ Americans are living in a state of emergency. The multiplying threats facing millions in our community […]

Historians are learning more about how the Nazis targeted trans people

In the fall of 2022, a German court heard an unusual case. It was a civil lawsuit that grew out of a feud on Twitter about whether transgender people were victims of the Holocaust. Though there is no longer much debate about whether gay men and lesbians were persecuted, there’s been very little scholarship on […]

Cruel Ugandan anti-gay law takes effect; legal challenges pending

Uganda’s harsh new Anti-Homosexuality Act took effect on May 30, when it was published in the official Uganda Gazette. Human rights activists have filed two petitions challenging its constitutionality, but neither has yet been acted upon by the Constitutional Court. Petitioners are preparing motions for a temporary restraining order to block enforcement of the law […]

War brings urgency to fight for LGBT rights in Ukraine

The Ukrainian MP Andrii Kozhemiakin is a wiry, conservative ex-spy who likes to emphasise his Christian faith and large family. He is also an unlikely new recruit in the fight for LGBT rights in Ukraine. A draft civil union law that would give same-sex partnerships legal status for the first time was introduced this year […]

Osaka transgender LGBTQ rights lawyer gets death threats online

A transgender lawyer in Osaka working on LGBTQ rights has received death threats online, calling them a hate crime targeting a transgender person. Nakaoka Shun, a member of the Osaka Bar Association, was assigned male at birth but later came out as a transgender woman. She is now championing the rights of sexual minorities as […]