DISABILITY, ACCESSIBILITY, AND VOTING
Many states in the USA have laws that prevent individuals deemed “mentally incompetent” and other disabled citizens from voting. However, the criteria for determining someone to be “incompetent” is not federally regulated and varies widely by state. This denial of voting rights is one of the many ways voters are disenfranchised in the United States. […]
VOTE OF SELF-CONFIDENCE
The LGBTQ+ community, like many marginalized groups, often grapples with more loneliness and less joy due to discrimination and adversity. However, actively participating in civic duties like voting is crucial in combating this isolation and fostering a sense of belonging. Alturi aims to encourage approximately 2,000,000 eligible LGBTQ+ individuals who did not vote in the […]
UPLIFTING BISEXUAL INDIVIDUALS WITHIN THE LGBTIQ+ COMMUNITY TO FOSTER MUCH-NEEDED INCLUSION
The LGBTIQ+ community is extremely well-known as a close-knitted group for all individuals that identify as anywhere in the queer spectrum of sexuality and or gender. Indeed, the community regards it as a fostering hub for all to support and love one another, especially for those who do not feel accepted within the general populace […]
PROJECT 2025 AND ITS ASSUMPTIONS ON SEX
Created by The Heritage Foundation, the 2025 Presidential Transition Project (famously known as Project 2025) is a book that includes all the policies it wishes to implement in America in hopes that the next Republican President will help enforce these policies for a more conservative administration. One of the policies worth highlighting mentions the Department […]
SHANGHAI PRIDE: REMEMBERING A DECADE OF RESILIENCE AND RESISTANCE
In the complex tapestry of China’s socio-political landscape, Shanghai Pride emerged in 2009 as a crucial beacon of LGBTQ+ visibility and advocacy. From small volunteer gatherings to an extensive festival spanning multiple weeks, it became China’s longest-running annual Pride celebration. However, shortly after the completion of Shanghai Pride 2020’s diverse activities — including film festivals, […]
STRENGTH IN SOLIDARITY: CELEBRATING THE INTERSECTION OF QUEER AND DISABLED PEOPLE
Many studies carried out in the past several years have begun to note the correlation between disability and those who identify as queer. Whether this is a cognitive disability, a physical disability, or both, new research in the US shows that disability seems to occur at a higher rate amongst queer people. According to this […]
MONEY UNLOCKS THREATS: UGANDAN LGBTQ PEOPLE AT RISK
In 2013, Uganda passed one of the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws in the world. Under the Anti-Homosexuality Act, which took effect in February 2014, conduct between same-sex individuals was now punishable by life imprisonment. An earlier draft of the bill had proposed the death penalty. Although the country’s Constitutional Court later overturned the 2014 law, the […]
STRENGTH, SWAY & STEWARDSHIP: YOUNG LGBTIQ VOTERS
STRENGTH In 2023, Pew Research reported on voter participation, or lack thereof, in the 2018, 2020, and 2022 United States elections. What stands out is that people over 50 vote more often than people under 50. Within the voting-eligible population, interest is higher with the LGBTIQ population: GLAAD recently discovered that motivation to vote in […]
A SIMILAR TWIST: ABORTION TREKS WITH TRANSGENDER HEALTH
There is an underreported and counterintuitive effect of denying abortion access: When abortion is safe, legal, and accessible, the abortion rate is typically lower. When abortion is unsafe, illegal, and inaccessible, the abortion rate is often higher. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported conclusively in 2019 that countries […]
TIP OF THE SPEAR: AUTOCRACY PIERCES THE LGBTI COMMUNITY
Turkey Since Turkey’s democratic government began to decline in 2007, there have been ongoing tensions between the Justice and Development Party (AKP, known for its Islamist roots and is considered a theocratic party) and the LGBTI community. These tensions have persisted even after the 2017 referendum that changed the country’s parliamentary system into a presidential […]
DON’T SAY GDP | THE FULL COST OF HATE
Africa The World Population Review provides metrics for tracking laws impacting sexual orientation and gender identity globally. Our World in Data offers data on extreme poverty by country. Combining the two allows examination of the relationship between the Global Acceptance Index (GAI) and extreme poverty. In an Al Jazeera article from June of 2021, Laurin-Whitney […]
North Star – Creating a Constellation of Services to Support Refugees in Minnesota
Changing Legal Landscape It has scarcely been eight years since the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, but recent legislation has dramatically changed LGBTQIA+ rights for the worse, particularly for transgender youth. According to Amnesty International USA, “In the first four months of 2023, state legislatures introduced more than 470 anti-LGBTQI+ bills — most targeting transgender […]
The Status of LGBTI Rights in Barbados and Neighboring Regions
The Caribbean has thirteen sovereign states, each with distinct rights and protections for the LGBTI community. However, like many nations with a history of colonization, the views of the LGBTI community in this region are mostly unfavorable. European countries heavily colonized the Caribbean. Along with their colonial rule, the Europeans brought Christianity, which they integrated […]
Transgender Community in India Today
There is no formal definition of third-gender identity in India, and people who identify as neither men nor women are referred to as Hijra. Which, in Western definition, most closely translates as transgender. Nonetheless, the community of Hijras goes back to ancient India, specifically during the Mughal Empire. Hijras were one of the well-respected communities […]
LGBTI Community in Ukraine: One Year into the War
In the last year, Ukraine’s society has shifted its perspective on the LGBTI community. While LGBTI activists worked to resist the imposition of conservative Russian attitudes, LGBTI communities advanced their rights in multiple ways. In May of 2022, “Nash Svit,” a Ukrainian LGBTI organization, conducted a study finding that 64% of Ukrainians support providing equal […]
Kenya’s LGBTQI community mourns the loss of activist Edwin Chiloba
On January 6th, 2023, Chiloba was found dead in a metal box on the side of the road near the western Kenyan town of Eldoret. Chiloba was a university student and was well known for his work in fashion as he ran his own business and was the nominee for the Pulse Fashion Influencer of […]
Seoul Queer Culture Festival – Celebrating Korean LGBTI Pride
For the past decade or so, South Korea has been experiencing a surge in widespread international attention. The rise of K-Pop (Korean pop music) and K-Dramas (Korean drama TV series) reached astronomical levels in the last several years, thrusting the nation into the international spotlight. Yet not so strongly highlighted amidst this pop culture intrigue […]
Canada: True North for LGBTI Afghan Refugees
Canada leads with a perfect 10.0 sexual orientation gender identity legal index (SOGI-LI) SOGI-LI ranks countries by the recognition and protection their laws offer LGBTI people. Canada ties five European countries with their high score. The United States lags behind many countries in the world with a score of 6.6, specifically lagging behind countries in […]
X Marks the SOGI Rights of Nonbinary People in Argentina
X is a path forward in the inclusion of all human beings to be recognized and protected X as an option for gender identity goes beyond just nonbinary. According to Human Rights Watch, X now encompasses “non-binary, undetermined, unspecified, undefined, not informed, self-perceived, not recorded; or another meaning with which the person who does not […]
India LGBTI: An Emergence of Acceptance of the LGBTI Community
Historical Context Moving forward in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) human rights is challenging, especially with additional obstacles presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. More importantly, to offer full respect to the people of India, one needs to look at the broader historical context. India took a giant step back—from what was once a […]
Guatemala LGBTI: Discrimination and Migration
Guatemala: LGBTI Interaction with Society and State As Equaldex notes, LGBTI rights in Guatemala are, at least on paper, quite elevated. The site notes that “homosexual activity” is legal, there’s a legal ability to change gender, and that there are some discrimination protections for the LGBTI community. Conversely, same-sex marriage is still unrecognized and conversion […]
Turkish Protests: Students, LGBTI, Women, and Democracy in Turkey
Four Months of Protests: LGBTI Protesters, From Bogazici to Now Starting in early January, students at Bogazici University went out into the streets to protest a new rector that was appointed by the government. The new rector has immense ties to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and many saw the appointment as nothing […]
Thai Protests: Pro-Democracy Groups and LGBTI Involvement
Background on the Protests Thailand has a long history of coups, and as a result of these coups a long history of unstable government. Over the course of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s rule as monarch, which lasted seventy years from 1946 until his death in 2016, there were at least ten coups and seventeen different constitutions. […]
Democracy and LGBTI Activists: Myanmar’s Pro-Democracy Protests
Background on Myanmar Myanmar itself is in Southeast Asia and neighbors Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, and Thailand. It is, per the BBC, a diverse nation of 54 million people, with multiple ethnic groups constituting the population (including the Rohingya Muslims, who have in recent years been subjected to torture, forced removals, and death at the […]
Two Gay Chechens: Torture, Escape, and a Forced Return
The Early Story: Torture and Escape Per a joint statement by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and a few other human rights NGOs, Ismail and Salekh had been detained in April of 2020 for “moderating independent youth Telegram channel Osal Nakh 95 that contained many posts critical of Chechen authorities.” During their arbitrary detention, the two suffered […]
Biden and LGBTQI Policy: A New Administration, A New Memo, A New Path
Signed on the 4th of February, this Presidential Memorandum continues the trend of reversing Trump era policies and reinforcing or reinstating Obama era policies. Via the intro to the memo by President Biden himself, the “Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons Around the World… reaffirms and […]