Indonesia doubles down on move to ban homosexuality and send ‘offenders’ to ‘rehab’ clinics
Indonesia is proposing legislation that would force LGBT+ people into treatment to “cure” their sexuality or gender identity. The “Family Resilience Bill” would force LGBT+ people into government-sanctioned “rehabilitation centres”, which would give religiously-based “treatment” for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. A draft of the bill was introduced last month by three lawmakers in […]
100 LGBT filmmakers to boycott Tel Aviv festival to support queer Palestinians
Over 130 filmmakers from around the world, including at least 100 from the LGBT community, have pledged to boycott an upcoming government-sponsored gay film festival in Tel Aviv, the Hollywood Reporter said Monday. The boycott targets Tel Aviv’s International LGBT Film Festival, known as TLVFest, and aims to show solidarity with the Palestinian members of […]
Malaysian band’s new song encourages LGBTs to die and YouTube lets it keep on playing
LGBT+ Malaysians have criticized popular punk-rock band Bunkface for an ‘extremist anthem’ that calls for the death of LGBT+ people. The multi-award winning band has been popular in the southeast Asian country since 2006. They were among the first Malaysian bands to embrace the punk-rock style which Western artists had long dominated. But their new […]
‘Whiplash’ Of LGBTQ Protections And Rights, From Obama To Trump
At the heart of a story now playing out in schools, workplaces and courts across the U.S. is a disagreement over the legal meaning of the word “sex” — and whether discrimination against gay and transgender people for being gay or transgender is sex discrimination. The White House has a particular kind of power over […]
Slovak election hands democrats vital test
Populist businessman Igor Matovic is set to become Slovakia’s next prime minister after his Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (Olano) movement enjoyed a surge of support in elections. Founded as an anti-corruption protest party 10 years ago, Olano surged in the weeks leading up to Saturday’s election to take 25 percent of votes amid a […]
Polish LGBT activists protest at Warsaw church against Catholic archbishop
Several dozen activists protested in front of a Warsaw church guarded by police on Sunday as a Catholic archbishop, criticized for his anti-LGBT language, celebrated mass. Last year, in a sermon, Archbishop Marek Jedraszewski said Poland was under siege from a “rainbow plague” of gay rights campaigners who he compared to Poland’s former Communist rulers. […]
Puberty blockers can be ‘life-saving’ drugs for trans teens, study shows
Transgender youth have a much greater risk of suicide, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, if they have access to a puberty blocker, their chances of suicide and mental health problems in the immediate term and down the road decline significantly, a new study finds. The study, the first of […]
Hashtag ‘ThankYouPete’ trends on Twitter after Buttigieg suspends presidential bid
Shortly after word got out that former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg was ending his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, the hashtag #thankyoupete began trending nationally on Twitter. Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, rose from political obscurity to make history as the first openly gay man to win delegates in the […]
25 wedding photos show the very first LGBT couples to marry in their countries and the stories behind them
Every wedding is an important day. But some marriages make history — such as the unions that signal a country’s acceptance of LGBT rights for the first time. Last week 27-year-old Sharni Edwards and Robyn Peoples, 26, became the first gay couple to legally marry in Northern Ireland. “While this campaign ends with Sharni and […]
Pressure to keep up: status imbalance a major factor in stress in gay men
The persistence of mental health hardships among gay and bisexual men, which endure even as LGBTQ people gain greater acceptance and civil rights, can be explained at least in part by the corrosive effects of status consciousness, competitiveness and racism within the gay community itself. Those are the striking and potentially controversial findings of a […]
Tickets are now on sale for London’s first ever Muslim LGBT+ Pride
Tickets are officially on sale for London’s first LGBT+ Muslim Pride festival, bringing together artists and advocates for an event that organisers hope will spotlight a community so under-represented in the Pride calendar. LGBT+ Muslim group Imaan set the date for the event for Saturday, April 11, and tickets hit the EventBrite shelves Wednesday. Tickets […]
Sydney to ‘feel the love’ at Mardi Gras today
Sydney Mardi Gras CEO Albert Kruger says this year’s event will include “everyone from all walks of life that touches our community”. Sydneysiders are preparing to ‘feel the love’ tonight as the city’s biggest celebration of LGBT pride kicks off. Mr Kruger told Sky News the parade will be broadcast this year which is “unique” […]
Chechen exile survives suspected assassination attempt after fighting off attacker
A prominent Chechen blogger and critic of the region’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov has survived a suspected assassination attempt after fighting off a man he said attacked him in his apartment in Poland. Tumso Abdurakhmanov posted a video on Wednesday night showing himself looking shaken and standing over a man on the floor of the apartment […]
Shameful statistic staining Australia: Young LGBTI people twice as likely to be homeless
A group of 1000 people will come together this weekend to stand in the shape of a house to raise awareness of a shameful statistic about the state of young people. Around Australia tonight, an estimated 116,000 people will sleep rough – either on the streets, in temporary shelter or in unsupported accommodation. Of that […]
Washington state passes ban on gay and trans panic defenses for homicide
A measure prohibiting homicide defendants from claiming a defense based on panic over a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity has been passed by lawmakers in Washington state. Nine states — California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Nevada, New Jersey New York and Rhode Island — have legislatively banned the use of gay or transgender panic […]
Four years, two continents: a gay Chinese couple’s journey for a surrogate son
Before Qiguang Li could pass through customs and step on to US soil for the first time, he faced a three-hour detention where he learned that he needed to be more candid about his identity. It was September 2015, after a long flight from Shanghai to Los Angeles. Li came with another man, Wei Xu, […]
The Fight for LGBT Rights in Vietnam Still Has a Long Way To Go
Prejudice, discrimination, and stigma against the LGBT community in Vietnam still loom large. Change will take concerted efforts. On September 14, 2019, on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Ho Chi Minh city, Nguyen Hue street was busy as normal, attracting hundreds of tourists. But something was different about that day: the street was holding an […]
Top Imam vows to stop ‘demonic’ LGBT conference from coming to Ghana
The Pan Africa ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) is set to hold its 2020 annual conference in Accra, Ghana, in July. It will be the organisation’s first conference held in West Africa. According to Human Rights Watch, LGBT+ people living in Ghana suffer discrimination and abuse in public and in private, […]
‘Scared’ gay sisters given temporary reprieve from being returned to Pakistan
Two sisters say they are “relieved but worried” after they narrowly avoided being deported to Pakistan where they say they face the threat of LGBT-based violence. Samina, 52, and Nazia Iqbal, 48, from Stockport, were scheduled to be taken out of the country on Saturday night from Manchester airport after a judge said it was […]
Lesbian speaks about the heartbreaking process of trying to ‘prove’ sexuality to the government
A lesbian from Zimbabwe has spoken out about how it took five gruelling years to convince the Home Office that she’s gay and should be granted asylum. Angel fled to the UK five years ago, after police found her naked in bed with another woman and beat the pair of them up. While sex between […]
As survivors speak out, 9 countries seek to ban gay ‘conversion therapy’
From electric shocks to ‘praying away the gay’, global momentum is growing to ban so-called “conversion therapy”, with bills drawn up in nine countries, a rights group said on Wednesday. The United States, Canada, Chile, Mexico and Germany are among countries seeking to outlaw the treatment, based on the belief that being gay or transgender […]
‘Return the key’: the parents who reject their gay children
Chris Jewell was in tears after a big, intense fight with his boyfriend of five years. So big, the police were called. Highly distressed, he phoned someone with whom his relationship had become strained: his mum. He rarely asked her for anything and was always well behaved; the first in his family to attend university. […]
Afro-Feminist Resistance in Brazil’s Carnival
In Southern Brazil, the all women’s carnival block Cores de Aide is marching for political resistance and in defense of women, who have been particularly under attack during the far-right presidency of Jair Bolsonaro. Eliro, social worker: “This act is important, principally at this moment when this country is not well, when public policies are […]
Pro-Trump preacher says Pete Buttigieg should be jailed for talking to 9-year-old about being gay
A pro-Trump preacher has said that Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg should be jailed for speaking to a nine-year-old. Dave Daubenmire, more commonly known as right-wing internet persona ‘Coach Dave’, hit out after a nine-year-old boy asked Buttigieg about being gay at an event in Denver, Colorado. Buttigieg had praised the “brave” boy, saying: “It won’t […]
From fines to imprisonment: What are penalties for homophobia in different countries?
Recently, Switzerland residents came to a referendum for introducing a law that would punish people for discrimination based on sexual orientation in the country. Many European countries, the US, and some countries of South America envisage punishment for homophobia. In Ukraine, homosexuality is still often condemned, and people of homosexual orientation are attacked. At the […]
Priest who compared LGBT-inclusive education to Nazism invited to speak in UK parliament
An anti-abortion Anglican priest who said LGBT-inclusive education is “state-sponsored abuse” and comparable to Nazism has been invited to speak in UK parliament. Reverend Lynda Rose was invited by Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP’s leader in the House of Commons, to speak at a meeting of the Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group. […]
Irish leader Varadkar to resign, as parliament fails to find new leader
Irish leader Leo Varadkar has told parliament that he will resign on Thursday night, after suffering a crushing defeat in a parliamentary vote. No clear successor has emerged from the process to lead the country. Varadkar said he would stay on as caretaker leader after he tenders his resignation to Irish President Michael D. Higgins. […]
Acting intelligence head Richard Grenell’s push to decriminalize homosexuality has yielded little
Donald Trump became the first president to name an openly gay person to a Cabinet-level position Wednesday when he announced that Richard Grenell would serve as his acting director of national intelligence. Grenell is the architect of a U.S.-led effort to decriminalize homosexuality in the 68 countries where it is still illegal. In two others, […]
A THIRD OF POLAND DECLARED ‘LGBT-FREE ZONE’
Local municipalities across a third of Poland have adopted resolutions “against LGBT propaganda” or “pro-family”, creating what rights groups describe as hostile spaces for anyone who is not heterosexual or committed to the so-called “natural family”. According to an “Atlas of Hate” map created by activists, an area greater than the size of Hungary has […]
LGBT Pattaya Pride festival showcases rights and acceptance
Pattaya celebrated its LGBT community with the colorful Pattaya International Pride 2020 festival. City tourism advisor Rattanachai Sutidechanai kicked off the Feb. 15 festival with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations including Bangkok Rainbow and the LGBT Business Network of Thailand. The event is held yearly to celebrate and promote LGBT rights and acceptance into […]