Hate crimes against LGBT+ people in Germany rise 36% in 2020
Hate crimes against LGBT+ people increased by 36% in Germany in 2020, highlighting an increase in homophobic attacks and politically motivated violence in the country in recent years, the government and campaigners said on Tuesday. A total of 782 crimes targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people were reported last year, about 150 of which […]
Policing Intersex Americans’ Sex and Gender
Unlike many other cultures, the Anglo-American mainstream has always relied on a binary view of sex and gender. In the case of intersex people, who have inherent biological characteristics that don’t divide neatly into male or female, authorities have gone to great lengths to maintain a binary, as historian Elizabeth Reis explains. Reis writes that […]
Uganda strengthens anti-gay laws, brands gay sex an “unnatural offense”
Uganda has further strengthened its anti-gay laws with new legislation that brands gay sex an “unnatural offense.” The African nation already criminalizes same-sex sexual relations, with Uganda’s Penal Code outlawing “carnal knowledge against the order of nature” and gay people facing up to life in prison if convicted. But that wasn’t sufficient for lawmakers in […]
Kosovo Police investigate threat to LGBTI activist
Kosovo Police said on Tuesday that they are looking into allegations that the life of a well-known LGBT activist, Lend Mustafa, was threatened at the weekend. “We are currently working on an investigation of circumstances of the incident and in coordination with the prosecutor have initiated an investigation into the intimidation,” police told BIRN in […]
Hundreds rally against anti-trans bills erasing years of LGBT+ progress ‘with the swipe of a pen’
Hundreds of people took to the streets of North Carolina to protest two devastating anti-trans bills that threaten “the basic human right to be human”, activists say. Multiple advocacy groups marched in downtown Asheville on Sunday (2 May) as the state proposes legislation that could deny trans youth the right to healthcare or make it […]
Meet the Ugandan trans activist fighting for rights on social media
“If you want to know that [Keem] is a man, just snatch away his phone and run,” taunted an Internet troll under Keem Love Black’s new profile picture on Facebook. As a transgender woman living in Uganda, Black is no stranger to the homophobia and transphobia that the LGBT community receives in the East African […]
Eitan Ginzburg to become Israel’s third gay cabinet minister on Monday
Israel has a record three cabinet ministers from the LGBT community after Blue and White faction chairman Eitan Ginzburg was sworn in as communications minister in the Knesset plenum late Monday night. Ginzburg, the former mayor of Ra’anana, was Israel’s first openly gay mayor. He will serve alongside gay ministers Itzik Shmuli, who left Labor, […]
Catholic parishes in Germany to include gay and lesbian couples in planned ‘blessing services for lovers’
Bonn (KNA) “Love wins” – that is the name of the initiative in which Catholic chaplains in parishes across Germany plan to invite people to “blessing services for lovers” on and around May 10. It was launched in Hamburg at the weekend. The campaign’s website said the aim was to celebrate “the diversity of people’s […]
EUROVISION’S VASIL IS READY TO BE A VOICE FOR LGBTQ PEOPLE IN NORTH MACEDONIA AND THE BALKANS
When Vasil Garvanliev declares early on in our interview that being gay is probably the least interesting thing about him, it’s hard to argue: Born in 1984 in the city of Strumica – then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – North Macedonia’s 2021 Eurovision representative is a former child star whose family […]
Undoing 4 years of ‘damage’: LGBTQ advocates on Biden’s first 100 days
Finn Cooper, who lives in Cincinnati, volunteered for the Michigan Democratic Party to call voters in the swing state on behalf of the Biden-Harris presidential campaign in the months leading up to the election. Cooper, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, said they supported Joe Biden’s message on LGBTQ rights. “I thought he seemed like a good […]
Court could force Honduras to stop ‘social cleansing’ of trans people
International LGBT+ advocates are waiting anxiously for the verdict of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which monitors human rights in the western hemisphe. The top tribunal was prompted to intervene last year in Honduras, the country with world’s highest rate of trans homicides. Experts put the average life expectancy of transgender women at just […]
Gay refugee ‘ambushed’ by homophobe and left with broken leg: ‘I feel like the world has rejected me’
As Canary Murungi walked on foot to the shops in the Kakuma Refugee Camp at 11am, a fellow refugee from Sudan spotted him, he told PinkNews. “He ambushed me,” the 24-year-old said, “and questioned why I am a homosexual. He then violently pushed me, causing me to reinjure my right leg.” Medics at the camp’s […]
LGBTI refugees denied asylum by Home Affairs bigotry
A report released on Thursday by several civil society organisations has found evidence that LGBT refugees are being denied asylum in South Africa despite being, “… eligible for protection under international and domestic law”, GroundUp reports. The authors of the report surveyed denial letters for 67 asylum applicants who had applied for asylum on the […]
Donald Trump’s cruel ban on trans people joining the military is officially over
Pentagon policies that allow trans folk to serve in the US military went into effect Thursday (April 30), finally undoing Donald Trump’s cruel and unnecessary ban. It was the upshot of a tug-of-war between administrations and a year of litigation but in 2019, the former president’s abrupt ban formally went into effect. Closing the ranks […]
Russian LGBT Activist On Trial For ‘Pornography’ Launches Hunger Strike
A Russian LGBT activist and artist has declared a hunger strike to protest the proceedings of her closed-door trial on pornography charges. Yulia Tsvetkova’s trial began on April 12 after a nearly 1 1/2-year investigation, during which time she has been fined for spreading LGBT “propaganda” and put under house arrest in the city of […]
Gender-affirming care leads to better mental health among trans people
Transgender people who are able to receive gender-affirming surgery reported improved mental health outcomes, according to a new study published Wednesday. The study, published in JAMA Surgery found that overall, gender-affirming surgery was associated with a 42 percent reduction in psychological distress in transgender individuals, a 44 percent reduction in suicidal thoughts and a 35 […]
Gay Ugandan refugee’s odyssey to Vancouver chronicled in film
“We’re not rescuing. We’re not saving. We’re walking in solidarity with them.” So says Rainbow Refugee’s Chris Morrisey in Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams new film Someone Like Me chronicling of a group of Vancouver strangers who come together to sponsor Drake, a gay refugee fleeing persecution in Uganda. “This is her life’s mission […]
Support for gay marriage doubles in Romania
A new study has shown that Romanians are increasingly more tolerant towards LGBTI rights – with 43 percent saying that they support a legal form of same-sex union in Romania, either as civil unions or marriage. That number has doubled since 2016, when a citizens’ initiative to alter the Romanian constitution to explicitly reference marriage […]
Hate crime crisis | Lucky Motshabi is 7th LGBTIQ+ person murdered
The LGBTIQ+ hate crime body count continues to rise with the murder of Lucky Motshabi in Limpopo. Yet, the government offers no plan of action. On Friday, OUT LGBT Well-being reported that the body of Lucky Kleinboy Motshabi was found in a field in the town of Dennilton on 24 April. He was naked with […]
LGBTQ protestors vogue through the streets as part of massive national strike in Colombia
As protests rock Colombia this week over tax reforms, LGBTQ people have led sizeable contingents through the streets nationwide. Video posted to multiple social media sites showed queer activists vogueing their way to justice as part of a national strike yesterday that shut the country down. Trans women dancing in a plaza were met by […]
‘Laughing-stock’ Polish town revokes ‘LGBT-free’ status so it can keep lucrative EU grants
The small community of Kraśnik in eastern Poland was among the first in the country to sign a public declaration against LGBT+ rights in May 2019. The document declared the town “free from LGBT+ ideology” and promised to combat “homopropaganda” and the “sexualisation of children”. But the town’s mayor rapidly realised that actions have consequences […]
Judge orders himself to speak to a psychologist to ‘understand same-sex relationships better’ before ruling
A high court judge in India has ordered himself to undergo an education session with a psychologist on same-sex relationships before ruling on a case relating to a lesbian couple. The young couple, aged 20 and 22, fled to Chennai from their homes in Madurai to be together after their parents forbid their relationship, seeking […]
ACTIVISTS TO PROTEST LATHAM’S ANTI-LGBT BILLS IN SYDNEY ON JUNE 5
The next protest against One Nation MP Mark Latham’s anti-LGBTQI bills is scheduled for June 5, at the Town Hall in Sydney. The protests against the bills are building momentum, with a steady amount of pressure being applied by April Holcombe, co-convenor of Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR) and the CARR group itself, against […]
Father arrested while testifying against anti-trans health ban in Arkansas
Chris Attig was arrested while testifying against HB 1570 in the Arkansas House on March 9. When their speech went 30 seconds over the allotted two minutes, Attig’s mic was cut, and police escorted them from the building. Attig says they stayed in jail for several hours before being released, and that they face a […]
Lithuanian artist uses homophobic messages to raise money for LGBT causes
A Lithuanian artist has raised over $6,000 for LGBT groups by selling a digital collage of homophobic messages that were sent to a member of parliament who champions gay rights causes. The black-and-white artwork by Erikas Malisauskas, titled “Hate Speech Cloud”, consists of 400 offensive messages bundled together in the stylised shape of a cloud. […]
Chechnya Grants State Protection to ‘Kidnapped’ Gay Men – Reports
Authorities in Russia’s republic of Chechnya have granted state protection to two gay men facing threats of familial “honor killings” after they were forcibly returned to their home region, the MBKh Media news website reported Thursday. Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isayev had fled Chechnya for Nizhny Novgorod northeast of Moscow last summer after they were […]
Brazilian musician shines light on intersection of sexuality and Judaism
Brazil is a diverse and complex country. For 32-year-old Assucena Assucena, who is trans and Jewish (of Moroccan and Sephardic descent), that complexity is intensified. To be Jewish in Brazil already means that you’re one of an estimated 120,000 Jews living in a predominantly Catholic country with a deep history of antisemitism. But to be […]
Russian Man On Pornography Charge For Sharing Rammstein Clip
A court in northwestern Russia is set to deliver its verdict on April 28 in the case against an activist accused of “distributing pornography” for sharing a video by the German rock band Rammstein in 2014. Amnesty International called the case against Andrei Borovikov, who faces three years in prison if convicted, as “utterly absurd,” […]
Opponents force referendum on Swiss same-sex marriage
Swiss voters will get final say on whether same-sex couples can marry after opponents gathered enough signatures to force a binding referendum on a 2020 law allowing them to wed. That legislation also allowed transgender people to change their legal gender with a declaration, in a major change for a country that has lagged other […]
Anti-LGBT+ discrimination damages Eastern Europe’s economic growth
Discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people costs Eastern European countries almost 2% a year in economic growth, a coalition of dozens of global companies promoting LGBT+ inclusion said on Tuesday. Hungary, Poland, Romania and Ukraine are losing billions of dollars each year due to the lack of equal workplace rights for LGBT+ people […]