Biden targets conversion therapy, transgender bans in Pride Month order
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order aimed at curbing discrimination against transgender youth and drying up federal funding for the controversial practice of “conversion therapy.” Biden’s executive order asks the federal health and education departments to expand access to gender-affirming medical care and find new ways to counter a flurry of […]
Thailand edges closer to legalising same-sex unions
Lawmakers in Thailand on Wednesday passed at first reading four different bills on same-sex unions, moving a step closer towards becoming the second territory in Asia to legalise same-gender marriages. Thailand has one of Asia’s most open and visible lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities, adding to its image of tolerance and attraction as […]
Tokyo moves to allow same-sex partnerships, but not as legal marriage
The Tokyo metropolitan government on Wednesday adopted legislation recognizing same-sex partnerships, which will extend some rights that apply to married heterosexual couples but falls short of allowing same-sex unions as legal marriages. Tokyo is the ninth of Japan’s 47 prefectures to make the change. The recognition has been slow to be adopted nationwide, amid very […]
7 LGBTQ Uprisings Before Stonewall
The Stonewall Riots of 1969 are arguably the most famous and impactful uprisings for lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) rights. But they are not the first LGBTQ+ uprising by far. Various smaller uprisings preceded Stonewall—some by over a decade—to push back against harassment, often from police, and inequality. After nearby bars closed, a […]
Indonesia’s LGBTQ couples fear Parliament will make their love a crime.
LGBTQ citizens of Indonesia are worried that legislators who are working on an extensive revision of the nation’s criminal code might make forms of LGBTQ sexual activity a criminal offense. Indonesia has no national law against homosexual activity but the nation is included in this site’s list of 71 countries with anti-LGBTQ laws because such […]
At Nepal’s Pride Parade, A Unique Vision of Queer Resistance.
On Saturday, after a two-year, COVID-induced hiatus, members of the Nepali queer community and their allies took to the streets of Kathmandu for the Nepal Pride Parade—celebrating their hard-earned wins over the past decade, and looking to the future of LGBTQ+ rights within the landlocked Himalayan country. On hand to witness it was the Nepali […]
ACT releases Australian-first draft law to protect intersex children from irreversible medical harm.
The Australian Capital Territory government has released a consultation draft law to protect the rights of intersex people. If passed, the bill would ban deferrable medical interventions on children with intersex traits until they’re old enough to decide treatments for themselves. There will be exceptions for emergency and urgently necessary procedures. The bill will criminalise […]
How Kyiv’s L.G.B.T.Q. Community Found Shelter from the Russian Invasion.
“The scariest thing was waking up,” Jul Sirous told me about the first couple of weeks after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in February. “What if you learn that they broke Kyiv’s defenses overnight?” Sirous, who is thirty-six, and their partner, Olya Onypko, who is thirty-seven, own a condo in a high-rise apartment […]
Ugandan vlogger’s homophobic rant puts migrant workers at risk.
A self-righteous Ugandan national living in the Middle East has released an excruciatingly homophobic online rant blasting Ugandans and other Africans for engaging in adult consensual same-sex intimacy in Arab countries where they are earning money doing odd jobs. Those workers, called “kadama” in the Lugandan language of Uganda, are put in danger when they […]
JOC signs framework agreement with LGBTQ hub Pride House Tokyo.
The Japanese Olympic Committee on Monday signed a framework agreement with the LGBTQ hub Pride House Tokyo to promote inclusiveness in the sporting world. JOC President Yasuhiro Yamashita said the move came about following last summer’s Tokyo Games, where the number of athletes who came out as LGBTQ was the highest ever. “It’s important to […]
Israel’s MKs surveyed on gay marriage.
As Pride Month is celebrated all over the world, Israeli citizens are once again sharply reminded that gay marriage is still not recognized by the state. Israeli news source Channel 13 conducted a survey of Israel’s elected officials to find out their opinions on the issue. The entirety of Yair Lapid’s party, Yesh Atid, stated […]
In the wake of ‘Don’t Say Gay,’ LGBTQ students won’t be silenced.
Nearly a dozen Winter Park High School students settled into a classroom, forming a semi-circle around 17-year-old Will Larkins, who sat cross-legged on a desk. It was the first meeting of the school’s Queer Student Union since March, when the group led a school-wide walkout to protest state legislation intended to limit classroom discussion on […]
Transgender people hope for update to ID card policy
“The great thing about having changed my ID is that I no longer have to explain to other people whether the person on my ID is me.” This is how Huang Wei-chen (黃瑋晨) sums up changing the gender on his national identification card from female to male. It is reflected in the last word of the […]
LGBTQ-affirming high school in Alabama has its first graduating class
In Birmingham, Alabama, families, and friends of students of Magic City Acceptance Academy attended the charter school’s inaugural graduation ceremony. MCAA is a charter school that promises an “LGBTQ-affirming learning environment” for students who “have dropped out, are not thriving at traditional schools.” Although the classes are small, 12 seniors graduated this year, the hearts of […]
Poll Finds LGBT People Still Not Welcome In Moldova
Ten years after passing landmark legislation to protect minorities, including the much-persecuted LGBT community, a recent survey has revealed that most people in Moldova still hold negative attitudes toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. A national survey in the small, impoverished Eastern European country of some 2.6 million people found that 64 percent […]
Arunachal: AP Queer Station organises ‘Queers ki Kahani’
Itanagar: About 30 individuals belonging to the LGBTQIAP+ community and a few selected allies participated in the ‘Queers ki Kahani’ event organised by AP Queer Station, a newly-formed rainbow community support group, here on Sunday. The idea behind the event was to give the community members a chance to express and share their experiences in the […]
Meet The LGBTQ Activists Fighting To Be Themselves Online In Malaysia
Many online attacks on LGBTQ Malaysians start with their fellow social media users (although some suspect that political or religious groups may be helping coordinate them). Individual threats can escalate. When a social media post or account is deemed “insulting to Islam” and reported to police, for example, the poster can face state surveillance, arrest, […]
Turkish police violently break up LGBT Pride parade at Ankara university
Turkish police attacked a group of students during a LGBT Pride parade at Ankara’s Middle East Technical University on Friday. Turkish police violently attacked students during a LGBT Pride march at Ankara’s Middle East Technical University (METU) on Friday, according to reports. Multiple videos have surfaced on Twitter showing dozens of police armed with shields […]
Congressional candidate pledges to ‘start executing’ Americans promoting ‘LGBTQ indoctrination’ for ‘treason’
Mark Burns, an unabashed Christian nationalist MAGA pastor who is running for Congress in South Carolina, declared that if he is elected, he will reinstate the House Un-American Activities Committee so that the government can “start executing people” guilty of treason. Who does Burns believe is guilty of treason? Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell and Lindsey […]
Over 100K march for LGBTQ+ rights in Vienna
Austria’s LGBTQ+ community came out in full force on the streets of Vienna on Saturday (June 11) with over 100,000 people taking part in the annual gay pride parade, according to local police.
Azerbaijan’s embattled queer community holds “Pride event”
Azerbaijan’s small LGBTQ activist community gathered for a press conference for the first time in eight years, counting it as a victory amid the country’s not-so-queer-friendly social and political landscape. On June 9, LGBTQ activists Javid Nabiyev and Ali Malikov and feminist and political activist Rabiyya Mammadova held a briefing for journalists “to get attention […]
Meet the group that works to crack transgender cold cases
The walls of Anthony Redgrave’s office are filled with people whose stories have been cut short. He is a forensic genealogist. “We have to take care of our own people,” Redgrave says. While you may have heard terms like John Doe or Jane Doe, which are for remains of people who cannot be identified. The […]
Inside Istanbul’s underground queer scene
The month of June officially marks Pride in many countries around the world. Since 2003, Istanbul Pride has taken place in Taksim Square, where participants gather to march down İstiklal Avenue, and where over 100,000 people turned up in 2014 — making it the largest ever LGBTQ+ celebration in Muslim-majority country. The following year, however, […]
Life As An LGBT Person In Central Asia
In Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, homosexuality is still a crime punishable by a prison sentence. It’s not against the law in Tajikistan, but LGBT people have no legal protections and are sometimes subjected to psychiatric treatment. Gay people in those countries often choose to move overseas if they can, live in secrecy at their own risk […]
Gay conversion survivor warns unless Tasmania bans it outright, ‘treatment’ could take off
When Chris Csabs was around 12 years old, he overheard a conversation between two men at his church, recalling a time when a gay man came in off the street for prayer. The churchgoers were discussing how “seven homosexual demons came out of that man”. “I overheard that and thought, ‘maybe I’ve got demons in me’,” Mr […]
LGBTQ billboard is affront to 1992 Constitution, pull it down or we destroy it — Sam George
One of the sponsors of the anti-LGBTQ bill in Parliament, Samuel Nartey George has given the Police 24 hours to pull down a billboard said be advertising LGBTQ activities in Ghana. The Ningo Prampram lawmaker said the billboard is an affront to the 1992 Constitution there if the Inspector General of Police fails to act, he […]
Texas pastor says gay people should be ‘shot in the back of the head’ in shocking sermon
A Texas baptist church — labeled an “anti-LGBT hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center — has caused outrage after a pastor said gay people should be “lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head.” Pastor Dillon Awes of Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga, a suburb of Fort Worth, made […]
LGBT Community In Uzbekistan Faces Abuse, Discrimination, Imprisonment, Report Says
Human rights groups have renewed calls for Uzbekistan to decriminalize homosexuality, saying it is imperative for the Central Asian country to make progress toward honoring its international human rights commitments. Uzbekistan, a Muslim-majority nation of some 34 million people, is the only former Soviet country that hasn’t removed a Soviet-era law criminalizing homosexuality. Lesbians, gays, bisexual, and […]
Deliberation on Anti-LGBT Bill not supposed to exceed 3 months – Edem Senanu
The Chairman of Advocates for Christ Ghana, a Civil Society Organization, Edem Senanu, has added his voice to the growing concern about the delay in passing the Anti-LGBT Bill. Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s News Night on Wednesday, he expressed concern about the delay. According to him, the deliberation on the passing of the Anti-LGBT […]
Czech president Miloš Zeman vows to block same-sex marriages if approved by parliament
Czech president Miloš Zeman has said he plans to veto proposed legislation that would give same-sex couples the right to get married in the country. The measure, which was drafted by lawmakers across the Czech political spectrum, was submitted to the parliament’s lower house on Tuesday (7 June), the Associated Press reported. Lawmakers have yet to set a […]