Hungarian president vetoes controversial anti-LGBT law
In a surprising move, Hungarian President Katalin Novak rejected the new law that restricts the rights of homosexual and transsexual people on April 21. It marks the first time that Novak, a former Fidesz minister who has been 11 months in office, objected to a law that is of great importance to Prime Minister Viktor […]
DC Group to Offer Self-Defense Lessons for Transgender, Nonbinary Residents
Lessons in self-defense and how to stay safe in the face of harassment will soon be offered to D.C. residents who are transgender and nonbinary. The group Defend Yourself puts on the program, with funding from D.C. Tessa Jelani applied to be an instructor.
Russia Wants to Ban Transgender People Changing Gender on Passport
Russia’s Justice Ministry is gearing up to make it tougher for transgender people to change their gender markers in their passports, which will make gender transition tougher in general. But Russian LGBTQ+ people have denounced the move, including one transgender woman who is going public with her identity, despite the risk to her personal safety, […]
Ugandans flee as Kill the Gays gains momentum across Africa
Gay Ugandans are fleeing the country as the government’s Anti-Homosexuality Act moves closer to becoming law. “The government and the people of Uganda are against our existence,” said Mbajjwe Nimiro Wilson, a 24-year-old refugee now living in a shelter in neighboring Kenya. Before escaping with just a backpack of belongings, Wilson was cornered by a […]
Bolshoi pulls Nureyev ballet citing ban on LGBT ‘propaganda’
Russia’s Bolshoi Theater has removed a ballet dedicated to dancer Rudolf Nureyev from its repertoire, citing a new Russian law that expands restrictions on activities seen as promoting LGBT rights, its director said Wednesday. Bolshoi director Vladimir Urin said the ballet “Nureyev” had been dropped “in connection with the newly signed law, which unambiguously deals […]
Gay marriage brought equality to France while giving rise to homophobia
A decade after France legalised same-sex marriage, it remains the law of the land – providing equal rights to thousands of people. But the debates and demonstrations surrounding the law’s passage brought previously unseen levels of homophobia out into the open. “Despite the existence of this law, LGBTQIA+ populations are still victims of a certain […]
For Transgender Kids, It’s a Rush to Get Treatment as Bans Roll Out
As a third grader in Utah, mandolin-playing math whiz Elle Palmer said aloud what she had only before sensed, telling a friend she planned to transfer schools the following year and hoped her new classmates would see her as a girl. Several states northeast, Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier listened to punk rock in his room, longing to […]
Erdoğan and Soylu attack LGBTI+ community during election campaigns
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on April 22 targeted the opposition over the LGBTI+ community and stated “the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Worker’s Party of Turkey (TİP) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) are LGBT supporters. They are against our sacred family structure.” Speaking in Gaziantep province, Erdoğan said that this is why the elections […]
Goa trust speaks up for rights of state’s 10,000-strong LGBT community
With more than 10,000 persons from the LGBT community living in Goa, they are struggling for their right of ‘Same Sex Marriage since the last two decades to do away with the social stigma and live happily in the coastal state. In Goa there are seven transgenders who have been given election cards, but they […]
‘They just go to Thailand’: the long and costly wait for gender-affirming surgery in Australia
Two years ago, Kavitha Sivasamy, an articulate, elegant Canberra lawyer, began to face her fears about undergoing gender-affirming surgery. “It’s really scary to go through something so invasive,” she says. Gender dysphoria had been causing “a lot of distress” in Sivasamy’s day-to-day life. “It can prevent you getting out the door, having and keeping a […]
LGBT rights increasingly targeted by reactionary GOP
About eight years ago, the United States Supreme Court changed my life. By their majority ruling that there was a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, it meant I could finally avail of the legal rights and entitlements denied me for a lifetime. I could finally have a shot at the kind of opportunities that others […]
Welsh schools to get guidance on supporting transgender pupils
National guidance for schools in Wales on how to support transgender pupils will be published during the next academic year. The Welsh government said it required “extensive consultation” and would provide “clear and well-informed advice”. One charity said teachers often lacked confidence in talking about issues relating to gender. School of Hard Knocks said the […]
How Putin Inadvertently Boosted Support for LGBT Rights in Ukraine
When Vladimir Putin announced Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, he framed the move in part as a means of defending traditional values from Western attitudes “that are directly leading to degradation and degeneration, because they are contrary to human nature.” The Russian president was referencing in particular Western countries’ acceptance and […]
Japan LGBTQ groups urge government to guarantee equality
Japanese LGBTQ activist groups delivered a statement to the government on Friday urging that Japan enact an anti-discrimination law and legalize same-sex marriages ahead of a summit of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations being hosted by Japan in May. Japan is the only G-7 country that does not recognize same-sex marriage or provide […]
Minnesota Senate passes transgender protections, abortion ‘refuge’ bills
The Minnesota Senate Friday passed a trio of proposals aimed at legally safeguarding people who come to Minnesota for abortion and gender-affirming care and outlawing what’s called conversion therapy for minors. The moves come as states around the country have banned or seriously limited access to abortion in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s […]
Uganda’s president sends anti-LGBTQ bill back to parliament for ‘strengthening’
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni supports a bill containing some of the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ legislation but will send it back to parliament for “strengthening”, the ruling party’s chief whip said. A group of lawmakers from Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) discussed the bill with the president and agreed in principle to make it law, chief […]
Hungary’s Christian LGBT community hopes Pope visit will heal social wounds
Hungary’s Christian LGBT community hopes a visit by Pope Francis to Budapest next week can help heal wounds in a deeply divided society amid an intensifying anti-LGBT campaign by the country’s deeply conservative government. Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a right-wing nationalist in power since 2010, has sought to promote social policies he says safeguard Christian […]
Peru Ruling a Victory for LGBT Equality
In a landmark unanimous ruling published last week, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found Peru responsible for violating Crissthian Olivera Fuentes’ rights to equality before the law and to judicial protection, after he faced discrimination in a commercial establishment and from Peruvian authorities. In August 2004, Olivera and his partner, both gay men, visited […]
Gay Rwandan woman says government can’t protect LGBTQ+ refugees: ‘They won’t be safe’
Like many in Rwanda, Maria was raised Christian, which made it even harder for her to accept her sexuality. She recalls spending “a lot of time in churches trying to pray it away”. “I was really ashamed and I hated it,” she tells PinkNews. “My family thought it was a phase.” It wasn’t until Maria (not her […]
Japan grants refugee status to woman from Uganda fearing LGBTQ persecution
A Ugandan woman was granted refugee status Wednesday following a district court ruling last month ordering the government to do so over fears she could be persecuted for being a lesbian if she were deported to her home country. The move comes after the Immigration Services Agency unveiled its first guidelines last month on eligibility for refugee […]
Global scientists urge Uganda’s president to veto anti-LGBTQ bill
A group of leading global scientists and academics have signed an open letter urging Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to veto a hardline bill criminalizing homosexuality in the country. The bill outlaws identifying as LGBTQ+, and suggests life sentences for convicted homosexuals as well as the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” a sweeping term covering various […]
So-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ rules expanded through 12th grade in Florida
The Florida Board of Education has voted to expand restrictions on classroom instruction related to sexual orientation and gender identity. “This amendment prohibits classroom instruction to students in pre-kindergarten through Grade 3 on sexual orientation or gender identity. For Grades 4 through 12, instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity is prohibited unless such instruction is either […]
Melbourne’s queer Muslims break fast together during Ramadan
In a warm, well-lit room tucked away in Melbourne’s CBD, the city’s queer Muslim community has come together to break fast during Ramadan. This Iftar — meaning the meal eaten after sunset during Ramadan — has been running for three years to provide a space for Muslims in the LGBTQ community. As one of the […]
Nepal’s queer community watching India with interest
Last week, the Indian government made its opposition to same-sex marriage be known by urging the country’s Supreme Court to reject petitions filed by same-sex couples. The Supreme Court on Tuesday started final hearings on the issue even as the government and religious leaders have taken strong exception to same-sex unions. The hearing is taking […]
Iran protests: LGBTQ community rises up
“Are you a degenerate,” asked the security officer interrogating a young bisexual woman arrested during the recent anti-government protests in Iran. The interrogator had searched the woman’s phone and come across her intimate conversations with her girlfriend. “What the hell are these chats? Are you a degenerate?” repeated the interrogator, his voice laced with disgust […]
For LGBTQ Kenyans, court win prompts backlash as threats escalate
For Kenya’s lesbians and gays, a supreme court ruling allowing the rights body that represents their interests to register as a non-governmental organisation has turned out to be a mixed blessing. February’s ruling in favour of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) reversed a ban imposed on it by the national board […]
Indian government labels same sex-marriage ‘elitist’ as supreme court hearing begins
The Indian government has expressed its vehement opposition to the legalisation of same-sex marriage, calling it an “urban elitist concept” that undermines religious and social values, as the supreme court begins hearings on the rights of LGBTQ people to be married under the law. On Tuesday, dozens of petitions from LGBTQ couples and activists were […]
Full Interview: Frank Mugisha on New Anti-LGBTQ Bill in Uganda That Could Impose Death Penalty
Full interview with Ugandan LGBTQ activist Frank Mugisha about a draconian new anti-gay bill the country is on the verge of imposing, which makes it a crime to identify as queer, considers all same-sex conduct to be nonconsensual, and even allows for the death penalty in certain cases.
In Malaysia, Conservative Forces and Police Crackdowns Are Putting LGBTQ Lives at Risk
On March 12, activists across Malaysia converged on the capital of Kuala Lumpur to take part in the latest iteration of the Women’s March, a yearly protest seeking to raise awareness of gender issues in the country. This year’s iteration of the march, the first to be held in person since pandemic restrictions were progressively […]
Republicans look to extend transgender restrictions to adults
The Republican-led backlash against rights and health care for transgender children is expanding to adults. Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued an emergency ruling Thursday that requires adults to receive 18 months of psychological therapy and to demonstrate “a persistent and intense pattern of gender dysphoria” before they are allowed to undergo gender-affirming care. […]