Pakistan opens first state-run school for transgender people

Pakistan has opened its first government-funded school for transgender women, who are often bullied out of mainstream education as children in the deeply conservative nation. The country’s Khawaja Sira community date back hundreds of years and are treated as a third sex in South Asia. Many are ostracised by their families and shunned by society, […]

The podcast celebrating Singapore’s ‘hidden’ gay community

Through stories of personal experiences and interviews with guests, a groundbreaking podcast is trying to “celebrate and stop hiding” the LGBTQ+ community in Singapore, where sex between consenting male adults is still a crime. With a direct and engaging style, the three hosts of “The SG Boys” discuss everyday issues and bigger global problems while […]

Hungary Bans LGBTQ Content From Schools, But Some Teachers Say They Will Defy It

Viktoria Radvanyi says her job has never been so stressful. She’s on the board of Budapest Pride, Hungary’s annual LGBTQ event, whose monthlong festival is currently underway. “The clear effect of [Hungarian Prime Minister] Viktor Orban’s very, very homophobic and autocratic politics is that, year by year, we find it harder and harder to find […]

Hungary fines bookshop chain over picture book depicting LGBT families

A bookshop chain in Hungary has been fined for selling a children’s story depicting a day in the life of a child with same-sex parents, with officials condemning the picture book for featuring such families. The picture book, Micsoda család!, is a Hungarian translation combining two titles by US author Lawrence Schimel and illustrator Elīna […]

China’s LGBTQ community is fading from rainbow to gray

During this year’s Pride Month, soccer star Li Ying made history as China’s first female athlete to come out publicly as gay, in a candid series of celebratory photos posted on social media, showing her posing happily alongside her partner. It’s increasingly common worldwide for celebrities and high-profile sports stars to come out, often to […]

Violence in the name of God

On July 5, Georgian far-right activists dispersed the planned Tbilisi Pride week by physically attacking more than 50 people, of which 53 were members of the local and international media. The anti-gay crowd also stormed the offices of Georgia’s LGBT rights organization and the civil movement Shame – all of which was done in the […]

Spanish police hold fourth suspect over suspected homophobic killing

MADRID, July 8 (Reuters) – Spanish police said on Thursday it detained a fourth suspect over the killing of Samuel Luiz, who was beaten to death in the northern city of A Coruna on Saturday in a suspected anti-gay hate crime that sparked mass protests across the country. “He is a man between 20 and […]

Crusade Against Hypocrisy Inspires First Transgender Candidate for German Bundestag

MUNICH (Reuters) – As the first transgender candidate for Germany’s parliament, Tessa Ganserer doesn’t mince words when it comes to identifying those responsible for the legislative prejudice that she believes LGBT+ voters face. “That kind of hypocritical show of tolerance just stinks,” she tells Reuters, referring to the Conservative lawmakers she accuses of blocking pro-LGBT+ […]

U.S. concerned by reports of China LGBTQI Plus social media curbs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said on Wednesday it was concerned about reports that China had restricted use of social media accounts of LGBTQI Plus student groups and non-governmental organizations. Members of LGBT groups told Reuters that Chinese tech giant Tencent’s WeChat social media platform had deleted dozens of LGBT accounts run by […]

Cannot Be Excused’: Thousands Rally In Georgia To Denounce Anti-LGBT Violence

TBILISI — Thousands have rallied in the Georgian capital to denounce violence against the LGBTQ community that shocked the nation and drew condemnation from Western embassies in the Caucasus nation. LGBTQ activists were forced to call off a pride march on July 5 in Tbilisi after opponents attacked activists and journalists and after the Georgian […]

LGBT visibility grows in Japan ahead of ‘diversity’ Olympics

Fumino Sugiyama, a former female fencer for the Japan women’s national team who came out as a man more than a decade ago, last week became the first transgender board member of the Japan Olympic Committee. Speaking with Nikkei Asia less than a month from the start of the “Unity in Diversity” Games, Sugiyama said […]

Hungary’s controversial anti-LGBT law goes into effect despite EU warnings

A new law that bans the dissemination of content in schools deemed to promote homosexuality and gender change went into effect Wednesday despite a warning from Europe’s top rights watchdog that the law risks discrimination against LGBT people. The new law that comes into force across Hungary prohibits sharing content on homosexuality or sex reassignment […]

For Turkey’s LGBT+ community, discrimination said to loom larger

Cayan Hakiki trimmed their finger nails and scrubbed off the polish last week in order to take Turkish university entrance exams without being hassled, as advocacy groups say LGBT+ people face increasingly open discrimination. “I didn’t want any problems at the entrance,” Hakiki, 23, told Reuters at home in the capital Ankara. Hakiki identifies as […]

European Court Upholds Russian Transgender Woman’s Right to Family Life

In a victory for a transgender parent’s right to maintain contact with her children, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on July 6 that Russia’s denial of her visitation violated her rights to family life and freedom from discrimination. The woman, known in court documents as A.M., had two children with her spouse before […]

LGBTQ Social Media Groups at Most Major Chinese Universities Shuttered Overnight

Tencent’s WeChat social media platform on Tuesday evening blocked and wiped all past content of the accounts for the campus LGBTQ groups of China’s top universities, striking a major blow against LGBTQ awareness and rights. Many campus LGBTQ clubs have never been officially recognized or condoned, but have been able to operate unofficially for years […]

Georgian LGBT Activists Call Off Pride March After Violent Attacks

LGBT campaigners in Georgia have canceled a planned Pride march after opponents attacked activists and journalists and the government and church spoke out against the event. Hundreds of violent counter-protesters took to the streets of Tbilisi against the Pride march scheduled for the evening. At least 15 journalists were attacked by mobs at different locations, […]

Russian retailer apologizes for lesbian couple in ad

MOSCOW, July 5 – A high-end Russian food retailer has angered both gay rights campaigners and opponents by running and then apologizing for an ad that included a profile of a family in which a mother and her adult daughter both have female partners. A 2013 Russian law, decried by Western countries as state-enforced bigotry, […]

Protests in Spain against suspected LGBT hate crime

BARCELONA, July 5 (Reuters) – People took to the streets of Spain’s biggest cities on Monday evening to express their anger at the death of a man in a suspected homophobic attack at the weekend. Crowds filled a central Madrid square and activists marched down a major street in Barcelona, chanting slogans and waving placards […]

Georgian Patriarchate condemns int’l support for ‘LGBTQ+ propaganda activities’ at Tbilisi Pride

The Georgian Patriarchate says the ‘drastic interference’ of foreign officials ‘in our public and spiritual life’ through supporting Tbilisi Pride events ‘is a matter of severe concern and [is] unacceptable’. Tbilisi Pride, a civic movement which opposes homo/transphobia and fights to overcome it through exercising the constitutional right of assembly and manifestation, is holding events […]

LGBTQ+: Bagbin’s neutrality soiled after becoming cheerleader for anti-LGBTQ bill

On the matter of the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, welcoming a bill presented to the House that would criminalize the “promotion, advocacy, funding and act of homosexuality in all its forms,” a professor of law has described it as a failure on the part of the astute lawmaker. According to the Executive Director of […]

France drops homophobic Senegal, Ghana, Benin from ‘safe’ countries list

In a decision mostly focused on the dangers facing LGBT people in homophobic nations, Benin, Senegal and Ghana have been dropped from the list of “safe” countries from which France does not expect to receive refugees fleeing for their lives. “This list of 16 countries drawn up by OFPRA (the French Office for the Protection […]

Rainbow flag burned and marchers assaulted at Zagreb gay pride march

Croatian police have detained several people over incidents during and after this weekend’s Pride march in the capital of Zagreb. The incidents included verbal and physical attacks on some participants and the burning of a rainbow-colored LGBT flag, the Zagreb police said Sunday. Police are still looking for some of the perpetrators. Franko Dota, from […]

Gay couple wins case against florist after Supreme Court rejects appeal

Over the objections of three conservative justices, the US Supreme Court has turned away an appeal from a Washington State flower shop that violated state anti-discrimination law by refusing to serve a same-sex couple on religious grounds. The decision means a California Supreme Court judgment against Arlene’s Flowers and owner Barronelle Stutzman will stand. In […]

Kenyan Civil Society welcomes Move by Methodist Church to Allow Same Sex Marriages

The Church’s announcement came when the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transexual, Queer, Intersexual and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) community just finished celebrating pride-month. Pride month is a yearly promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of LGBTQIA+ people as a social group marked every year in June. Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health Executive Director Jedidah […]

Discriminatory State Rhetoric Is Threatening Turkey’s LGBTQ+ Community

Among the negative consequences of Recep Erdoğan’s Presidency, his leadership has been harmful to the rights and safety of Turkey’s LGBTQ+ community. For example, in June 2021, Istanbul’s Pride parade was broken up by riot police. Tear gas and rubber bullets were used to forcibly disperse the crowd and prevent participants from getting to more […]

Brazilian potential presidential candidate announces he is gay

Brazilian governor and potential major party presidential candidate Eduardo Leite, a prominent critic of President Jair Bolsonaro, came out as gay in a TV interview. Leite, governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, would be the first openly gay presidential candidate in Brazil. Anti-gay rhetoric has been a staple of speeches by […]

In Mexico, transgender politicians make strides

Salma Luévano was arrested for publicly identifying herself as transgender in provincial Mexico in 1985. Now she is set to take office as a member of Congress It has been a long journey, but one that appears to be breaking through the rigid definitions of gender that long prevailed in Mexico. Luévano is one of […]