Philippines congress to re-discuss same-sex civil partnerships
The Philippines is set to re-discuss allowing same-sex civil partnerships following a renewed push from Congressman Pantaleon Alvarez. Initial attempts stalled last year. The bill aims to allow people into an official union “whether they are of the opposite or of the same sex.” Another aspect of the bill will make civil partnerships a bit […]
Russia arrests man over murder of LGBTQ activist
Russian police said on Thursday they had detained a man over the fatal stabbing of an LGBTQ activist near her home in St Petersburg and were not treating the murder as a hate crime. Elena Grigoryeva, 41, was stabbed eight times in the face and back on Saturday night by an assailant whom she knew […]
Polish campaigners fear renewed homophobic violence
Polish LGBT groups are holding solidarity marches and events in 30 cities on Saturday to protest growing hate speech and violence against their community. Meanwhile a leading Polish magazine could face a fine for ignoring an injunction to halt distribution of an “LGBT-free zone” sticker with its latest edition. The injunction against Gazeta Polska’s weekly […]
Caribbean lawsuit challenges St. Vincent’s anti-gay law
Today, two gay men filed court proceedings to challenge St Vincent and the Grenadines’ “buggery” and “gross indecency” laws, which criminalise homosexuality. Both men, who have been advised by Jeremy Johnson QC and Peter Laverack of 5 Essex Court, assert that their dignity and autonomy are stripped by these laws. They have filed claims with […]
In Nepal, 1,500 citizens have changed official gender
At least 1,500 members of the LGBT community in Nepal have changed their gender on official documents. Following a historic court ruling in 2007, Nepal implemented one of the world’s most progressive gender identity policies in the world. Nepal prohibited discrimination and allowed self-identification of gender. It also recognized a third ‘other’ gender’. Pahichan reports […]
Election of gay lawmaker in Japan spurs hopes for same-sex marriage
Japan’s first openly gay male lawmaker said on Tuesday he believed the country would legalize same-sex marriage, months after Taiwan became the first place in Asia to allow gay unions. Taiga Ishikawa, 45, was elected to parliament’s upper house on Sunday, on a platform calling for marriage equality, with the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, […]
Trans Men And Queer Women Have Been Swept Up In Chechnya’s Anti-LGBTQ Crackdown
The phone call that would change M.’s life came one spring evening in 2018. “You’re on the list,” the baritone voice on the other end of the line said. The caller identified himself as a member of the military and accused M. of indecent behavior. “We need to cleanse our republic of these people,” the […]
Georgia’s Culture War: The Push for LGBT Rights
LGBT activists in the Republic of Georgia this summer have been looking for ways to hold a parade on the streets of the capital, Tbilisi. While pride parades are common across the West, activists in Georgia face strong opposition from the government and a deeply traditional society. In a report narrated by Steve Redisch, Ricardo […]
Are You Proud? shows how far LGBT equality has come – and how far there is left to go
“Why do you want to make a film about Pride? Everything’s fine!” This, Ashley Joiner tells PinkNews, was usually the response he got while looking for funding for Are You Proud? — his first feature film. “No one really wanted to talk about this,” he says. “And then the Orlando attack happened. And somebody that […]
Czechia’s trans community pushes to be visible
Emerging from the few sensationalized tabloid headlines and TV shows that have been Czechia’s only exposure to the country’s transgender community, trans Czechs are stepping out and speaking up about their experiences. The country’s transgender community has become more visible in the last five years as they challenge the country’s gender recognition laws and claim […]
Taiwan school adopts gender-neutral uniform policy
Male and female students will be allowed to wear skirts at a school in Taiwan after it announced plans to drop gender-specific uniforms yesterday, a move LGBTQ campaigners said was a boost for gender equality. The change, a rare move in Asia where traditional values often prevail, came after male students and teachers at Banqiao […]
Demonstrators Rally In St. Petersburg To Mourn Slain Russian LGBT Activist
Several dozen demonstrators rallied in St. Petersburg to mourn Yelena Grigoryeva, an LGBT rights campaigner who was slain near her home in Russia’s second-largest city. The rally on July 23 came three days after Grigoryeva was found dead, apparently strangled and with multiple stab wounds, according to online newspaper Fontanka and a Facebook post by […]
Germany condemns killing of Russian LGBT activist
Germany is condemning the killing of a political activist in Russia and urging authorities to find out whether the crime was related to her advocacy of LGBT rights. Yelena Grigorieva’s body was found Saturday near her home with eight stab wounds and signs of strangling. Homosexuality is not criminalized in Russia, but animosity towards the […]
LGBT Tunisia: Rift over Israel, tactics, morals of gay candidate
Eleven Tunisian LGBT rights groups have attacked gay presidential candidate Mounir Baatour and his LGBT association, Shams, criticizing them for lack of hostility to Israel, for alleged sexual abuse, and for their tactic of “outing” politicians and others. Baatour’s opponents are seeking signatures for an online petition on Change.org titled “Denounce of the candidacy of […]
Indonesian city pushing for anti-LGBT law
An Indonesian city of nearly two million people is planning an anti-LGBT law. The city council of Depok, not far from the capital Jakarta, is following other regions legislating against LGBT people amid nationwide anti-LGBT hysteria. Homosexuality is not currently illegal in most of the country. But in some areas, it is illegal under Sharia […]
Japan elects first openly-gay politician to national parliament
Japan on Monday (22 July) elected its first openly-gay politician to the country’s national parliament. LGBTI rights activist turned lawmaker Taiga Ishikawa won a seat for the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) in the Upper House. ‘I was calling for the acknowledgment of LGBT people in the election’ said after his win […]
In Bolsonaro’s Brazil, LGBT people take personal defense into their own hands
Miguel Doldan couldn’t get the thought out of his head: People wanted him dead. The passersby on the streets, the riders on the bus – they looked friendly, but many of them, he often reminded himself, had voted for President Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing politician who said he’d rather have a dead son than a […]
St Petersburg murder victim was ‘well-known LGBT rights activist’
Russian campaigners have said that a woman found murdered with multiple stab wounds in the city of Saint Petersburg was a well-known activist who had received threats over her protests for LGBT rights and opposition causes. Authorities said they had found the body of a 41-year-old woman with multiple knife wounds in St Petersburg on […]
Two women who fought against LGBT laws in India just came out as a couple
Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju successfully challenged Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which punishes LGBTQ+ relations. The Supreme Court lawyers opposed the draconian laws which were introduced during the British rule of India. The law criminalised homosexual acts as an ‘unnatural offence’ and has been heavily contested in the last few decades. They […]
CONVERSION THERAPY BECOMES KEY TO ELECTIONS
When Bayit Yehudi leader Rafi Peretz apologized for speaking in favor of conversion therapy for the LGBT community, he might have thought he had put the issue to rest. But it is looking more and more that this election is exactly about that: attempts to convert people from their natural tendencies. The election began with […]
Head of Islamic school for transwomen wins rights award
The leader of the al-Fatah pesantren (Islamic boarding school) for transwomen, 57-year-old Shinta Ratri, has received the Front Line Defenders Award in honor of her work as a human rights activist. Front Line Defenders, also known as the International Foundation for the Protection of the Human Rights Defenders, is an Irish-based human rights organization founded […]
Youth Fleeing Persecution Lacks Access to Social Protection in Liberia
Mohammed Kamara, on a break from one of his classes, walked into the seaside apartment of his friend in a clustered community of corrugated roofs for a nap. Then 17, Kamara, not his real name, was a newly minted high school graduate and a college freshman, studying public administration at a local university in Monrovia. […]
Native lesbian couple overjoyed about Oglala Sioux Tribe same-sex marriage ruling
The Oglala Sioux Tribe says they’re making history by becoming the first tribe in South Dakota to legalize same-sex marriage. In June 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states, but that federal ruling did not apply to the Lakota, Nakota, or Dakota tribes, also known as Oceti Sakowin tribes of […]
Bisexual Man Tortured After Finding Evidence of Anti-Gay Purge
A bisexual Russian man who has since fled to a safe country was subjected to torture because he attempted to find evidence of the anti-LGBTQ purge happening in Chechnya, according to Gay Star News. LGBTQ people in Chechnya are being detained, beaten, and humiliated because of their sexuality and one man named Elbrus and his […]
Couple celebrate first same-sex wedding in conservative Ecuador
Alexandra Chavez and Michelle Aviles have made history in conservative Ecuador by becoming the first couple to take advantage of a new law allowing same-sex marriage. Chavez, 41, and Aviles, 23, were married in a civil ceremony in the southwestern city of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest, on Thursday. It became possible after Ecuador’s Constitutional Court approved […]
Polish Pride parade met with right-wing counter protests
A Pride parade in the Polish city of Bialystok was met with counter protests by far-right groups. This was the first ever Pride event to take place in the north-eastern city on Saturday (20 July). About 800 people marched through the streets in support of LGBTI rights in Poland. However, Catholic and nationalist groups began […]
Gay man challenges Dominica’s anti-LGBT laws
A newly filed lawsuit seeks to overturn Dominica’s anti-gay law, building on the global push for decriminalisation of LGBT people. If successful, the suit will eliminate one of the last remaining anti-sodomy laws in the Western Hemisphere. A gay man, who must remain anonymous for his own protection, has today filed a landmark claim challenging […]
Parents vow to pull 20 kids out of Parkfield School over LGBT equality teaching
Frustrated parents are seeking alternative school places for kids after Parkfield School announced it was resuming No Outsiders programme. The parents of around 20 pupils have told Parkfield School they intend to quit over the LGBT teaching row. The primary school, in Alum Rock, announced this month it was reinstating a new version of its […]
India introduces new trans rights bill in parliament after backlash
India’s government on Friday presented a revised version of its transgender rights bill to parliament after criticism from the country’s vibrant transgender community, who said sections of an earlier version would violate their rights. India’s Supreme Court officially recognized trans people as a third gender with equal rights under the law in 2014, but they […]
CONVERSION THERAPY CAN KILL: RELIGIOUS LGBT COMMUNITY MEMBERS SPEAK OUT
A 20-year-old religious Zionist yeshiva student from Jerusalem, who asked to remain anonymous, said he wanted to cry when he heard Education Minister Rabbi Rafi Peretz say last week that he recommends LGBT people undergo conversion therapy. His reaction was similar to that of many LGBT people who have suffered through conversion therapy, a multifaceted […]