Pandemic Hits Sexual and Reproductive Health Efforts Worldwide
Children may be less vulnerable to COVID-19, but the pandemic is disrupting their access to sexual and reproductive health worldwide. Schools are closed, community clinics are shut or reducing services, and some governments are exploiting the crisis to prevent abortions. UNESCO reports that over 1.5 billion students are out of school worldwide because of COVID-19—that’s […]
Bosnia Takes First Step to Regulate Same-Sex Partnerships
The government of one of Bosnia’s two entities – the Federation – has appointed a working group to draft legislation that would regulate the rights of same-sex couples, taking the first tentative step towards addressing an issue that has faced fierce, sometimes violent, opposition from conservatives in the Balkan country. Bosnia’s record on LGBT rights […]
The Activists: How ACT UP forever changed patients’ rights, protests and political organizing
SUBMICROSCOPIC INFECTIOUS agents have a way of revealing the worst in us, and the best. That is the story of the AIDS epidemic generally, and in particular of ACT UP — the 33-year-old radical direct-action group formally and loftily called the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. For nearly a decade in the 1980s and 1990s, […]
Gay man forced to flee Turkmenistan after police assaulted him for being HIV-positive
A gay man from Turkmenistan was forced to flee his home country after he was arrested and assaulted for being HIV-positive. Speaking to RadioFreeEurope, the 23-year-old was granted asylum in a European country after he was targeted for being both gay and HIV-positive. The man, whose name was withheld to protect his identity, said that […]
Michigan anti-LGBT discrimination ballot drive moves to e-signatures
A group spearheading a ballot drive to add LGBT anti-discrimination protections to Michigan’s civil rights law is moving to collect voter signatures online because of the coronavirus pandemic. Fair and Equal Michigan says Monday the electronic petition campaign is believed to be the first in state history. The group says the strategy is legal and […]
Poland: Reject New Curbs on Abortion, Sex Ed
Poland’s Parliament will consider regressive legislation this week that would restrict sexual and reproductive health and rights and put the lives and well-being of women and adolescents at risk, Human Rights Watch said today. The legislation is scheduled for reading on April 15 or 16, 2020 as the country remains under a COVID-19-related state of […]
Investigation after gay refugee found dead at U.N. refugee office in Kenya
A gay refugee in Kenya was found dead outside the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) office in Nairobi on Monday in an apparent suicide, Kenyan police and LGBT+ refugees groups said. Police spokesman Charles Owino said the body of a 25-year-old Ugandan national was found outside the UNHCR office in the affluent Westlands suburb early […]
LGBT+ group sues Ukraine religious figure linking coronavirus to gay marriage
A Ukrainian LGBT+ group said on Monday it has sued one of the country’s most prominent religious figures over comments blaming the spread of the coronavirus on same-sex marriage, in what the group said was the first such case in ex-Soviet nation. Kiev-based group Insight said it took legal action against Patriarch Filaret, who heads […]
Leftover fabric from AIDS Quilt will become coronavirus masks for community workers
Unused fabric from the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a landmark memorial to and celebration of those lost to AIDS, will be repurposed to produce face masks for medical workers battling the coronavirus pandemic. The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, first conceived by AIDS activist Cleve Jones in 1985, is the largest community folk art project in […]
NGO DISTRIBUTES FOOD TO TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY IN DELHI AMID LOCKDOWN
The members of Mitr Trust NGO on Saturday distributed food among the transgender community in Delhi amid COVID-19 lockdown. Rudrani Chettri, NGO Director said, “Many people are daily wage workers, they are not getting any help from the government. So we distributed food to them.” “We are not getting any help because many of us […]
Virginia Enacts LGBT Worker Protections, Standing Out in South
Virginians are now protected from discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed a bill (S.B. 868) that prohibits biased treatment of LGBT people in the workplace and outside of it. The new law also adds pregnancy, veteran status, childbirth, and age to protected classes, the governor’s office said […]
‘Father’ of modern Iraqi architecture dies after contracting coronavirus
Rifat Chadirji, a man often referred to as the father of modern Iraqi architecture, has died after contracting coronavirus. The 93-year-old architect and photographer was living in London when he was diagnosed with coronavirus. Throughout his life he was responsible for more than 100 buildings across Iraq. Among his most famous works were the Baghdad […]
Year after trans military ban, legal battle rages on
In the year since the Trump administration banned transgender individuals from serving in the military, a number of advocacy groups have challenged the policy and many active service members say they’ve been forced to choose between continued service and their dignity and basic health care needs. When the administration implemented the ban on April 12, […]
Frida Kahlo: The surrealist artist and feminist who owned her adverse life story
A coil of dark braids, usually decorated with a flower crown, a vibrant dress and her signature unibrow, were some of the distinct features that set one of the 20th century’s most celebrated female artists, Frida Kahlo, apart from everyone else. Most of Frida’s adverse life story took place at the Blue House, which became […]
Coronavirus pandemic highlights barriers to health care for transgender community
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted life for billions of people, forcing the world to deal with a sudden loss of jobs, security, and regular health care. But for those who identify as transgender, these barriers have existed for years, and advocates fear the pandemic may only make them worse. One transgender woman, who will be […]
Could Lessons From The Early Fight Against AIDS Inform The Coronavirus Response?
AIDS began as a frightening medical mystery, with clustered outbreaks in California and New York City. Dr. Paul Volberding, who later helped San Francisco General Hospital open a dedicated AIDS ward, remembers seeing his first AIDS patient on July 1, 1981, although he didn’t know it at the time. “I had just finished my training […]
Across Africa, Pandemic Lockdowns Risk Violating Human Rights
More than half of Africa’s 54 countries are restricting people’s movements in hopes of slowing the spread of the coronavirus, with regulations ranging from evening curfews to the total lockdowns that have been imposed in South Africa, Rwanda and, as of this week, the Seychelles. As those constraints expand, so are concerns about the violation […]
UNAIDS condemns misuse and abuse of emergency powers to target marginalized and vulnerable populations
UNAIDS is deeply concerned by reports that the COVID-19 epidemic is being used as an excuse to target marginalized and vulnerable populations, restrict civil society space and increase police powers. In particular, UNAIDS is extremely concerned by reports of new laws that restrict rights and freedoms and target criminalized groups in a manner that will […]
They Were Warriors
Thirty years ago this month, activists — many fighting for their lives — took to the streets of downtown Chicago in one of the biggest AIDS demonstrations in history. When you cross a battleground and read a plaque commemorating the fallen and the brave, you start to believe you can feel the history in your […]
Evangelical field hospital requires health workers to take anti-gay pledge
Staff must agree to a statement of faith that says ‘marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.’ An evangelical Christian organization called Samaritan’s Purse set up an emergency field hospital in New York on April 1 to help New Yorkers through the COVID-19 crisis, but some LGBTQ advocacy groups […]
Phyllis Lyon, LGBTQ rights pioneer, dies at age 95
Phyllis Lyon, an LGBTQ rights pioneer who, with her longtime partner, was among the first same-sex couples to marry in California when it became legal to do so in 2008, has died at her San Francisco home. She was 95. Lyon lived her life with “joy and wonder”, said Kate Kendell, a longtime friend and […]
Rights monitor blasts humiliation of 3 LGBT curfew violators
Authorities north of the Philippine capital “publicly humiliated” 3 members of the LGBT community who violated a curfew aimed at halting the coronavirus pandemic, a researcher for the international watchdog Human Rights Watch said Thursday. The 3 LGBT members were running an errand for their grandmother in Pandacaqui, Pampanga when village volunteers stopped them and […]
An Intro to Brazil’s History of Censorship
Brazil has a long history of censoring artists and the arts. In fact, several artists had their works censored and had to flee the country during the Military Dictatorship (1964-1985). Movies, TV shows and songs all had to go through “official channels” before they reached the general public and many were censored—in part or in […]
Gay congressman in Guatemala says indigenous people erased from coronavirus prevention campaign
Guatemala’s first openly gay and HIV-positive congressman has warned indigenous people are being erased from the country’s coronavirus prevention campaign. Aldo Dávila accused Guatemala’s health department of putting indigenous communities at risk by its use of language. “There has been no campaign [of coronavirus prevention] in indigenous languages,” he said in a livestream. He also […]
Asians mobilize in face of coronavirus-related racism
LGBT Asians around the world are fighting back in the face of coronavirus-inspired racist attacks against Asians. “Obviously, there has always been racism toward the Asian community, but we’ve never seen anything that has been so quick and so globally widespread as this,” Amazin LeThi, founder of the Amazin LeThi Foundation, told the Bay Area […]
Indonesia police will not bring murder charges in case of transgender woman burned to death
Indonesian police said on Wednesday they would not bring murder charges against suspects accused of killing a transgender woman by dousing her with petrol and setting her on fire. The 43-year-old died on Sunday from burns sustained in the incident a day earlier. Her death was reported by Indonesian media on Tuesday. Police said on […]
The Uganda 19: Lawyers barred; no chance of bail; 10 days in prison and counting
Lawyers for 19 LGBT Ugandans arrested March 29 at an LGBT homeless shelter near Kampala still have been barred from seeing their clients. The arrestees are imprisoned 55 kilometers outside the city awaiting an April 29 court date — assuming that Uganda’s courts have reopened by then. Urgent appeals to the Government of Uganda for […]
In Russia’s far east, a feminist theatre director comes under attack
“I feel that today there are so many invisible female political prisoners: mothers, wives – women who bear an incredible burden thanks to political trials,” says Russian artist Yulia Tsvetkova, who’s been designated a political prisoner by the Memorial human rights association. “Political prisoners are heroes, but women are the invisible service staff.” Tsvetkova, a […]
PrEP Users, Many Gay, Bi Men Barred from COVID-Antibody Plasma Donations
As public health officials worldwide scramble to develop antibody tests to enable individuals who have recovered from the coronavirus to donate their antibody-rich plasma for experimental injections to help aid sick patients, here in the US gay and bisexual men sexually active in the past three months as well as anyone on PrEP and others […]
‘Social distancing’ is how LGBT people have always had to live
As news reports with dire predictions about Covid-19 began to multiply exponentially, I quickly realized that the inevitable physical distancing required and resulting social isolation was not as big a deal for me as I suspect it is for many other people. Investigating my own sense of calm, I wondered if I was missing something, […]