Bill is Emmanuel Macron’s biggest social reform since he was elected in 2017
France has taken a step towards allowing lesbian and single women to conceive children with medical help, setting the stage for a clash with the country’s religious conservatives.
To loud applause, France’s lower house of parliament approved a draft bioethics law in a move that has already sparked outrage from opponents, including some in President Emmanuel Macron’s own centrist party.
Continue reading...Louise Casey says Birmingham demonstrations have been put in ‘all-too-difficult box’
The former integration tsar, Dame Louise Casey, has accused ministers of “radio silence” over protests against the teaching of LGBT equality at a Birmingham school.
Casey said the government had failed to act on what she described as homophobic demonstrations because it was in the “all-too-difficult box”.
Continue reading...Body of 23-year-old African American woman Bee Love Slater was found in a burned-out car in Florida
Florida police are searching for a motive in the death of a 23-year-old transgender African American woman whose body was found in a burned-out car last week.
The body of Bee Love Slater was found on 4 September in Clewiston, 50 miles west of West Palm Beach. Her remains were so badly burned it took investigators several days to identify her by dental records.
Continue reading...Singer ‘scared shitless but feeling super free right now’ and asks fans to be kind
The pop star Sam Smith has come out as non-binary and asked to be addressed by the pronouns they/them. Smith, 27, wrote on Instagram: “After a lifetime of being at war with my gender I’ve decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out.”
In an interview with Jameela Jamil published in March, Smith said: “I’m not male or female, I think I flow somewhere in between. It’s all on the spectrum.” Smith described being non-binary as “your own special creation”.
Continue reading...Folha de S.Paulo aims dig at evangelical Rio mayor after he tried to ban a Marvel comic
Brazil’s biggest newspaper has printed an illustration from a Marvel comic of two men kissing on its front page to attack an attempt at censorship by the evangelical mayor of Rio de Janeiro.
Marcelo Crivella attempted to ban copies of the graphic novel Avengers: The Children’s Crusade from appearing at a book fair on the grounds that it included content unsuitable for children.
Continue reading...The case of a 14-year-old who identifies as a boy has sparked a debate over parental rights, free speech and informed consent
A transgender teen has issued an emotional plea to a Canadian court, arguing that he will be left “stranded” between genders if judges rule in favour of his father who took legal action to halt to his hormone treatment.
The case, which was heard at British Columbia’s highest court this week, centres on a 14-year-old from Vancouver, who started publicly identifying as a male at 11.
Continue reading...Exclusive: ‘culture of disbelief’ excludes at least 3,100 nationals from countries outlawing same-sex acts
The UK Home Office has refused at least 3,100 asylum claims from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) nationals of countries where consensual same-sex acts are criminalised, figures reveal.
At least 1,197 LGBT Pakistanis were refused asylum after making a claim for protection on grounds of sexual orientation between 2016 and 2018, analysis by the Liberal Democrats of figures published by the Home Office shows. A further 640 LGBT Bangladeshis and 389 Nigerians had their claims on same grounds refused during the period.
Continue reading...A controversial “straight pride” parade in Boston on Saturday drew more than 1,000 counter-protesters and a few hundred supporters.
The rightwing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was “grand marshal” of the event, for which a group calling itself Super Happy Fun America (SHFA) acquired a permit in June.
Continue reading...The platform made stars of Bria Kam and Chrissy Chambers. But now the duo, along with other gay content creators, say they are losing their voice and their living because of the unfair way an algorithm works
‘It happened again today,” Bria Kam tells me, throwing her arms up in frustration. I am speaking to Kam and her wife, Chrissy Chambers, over FaceTime from their home in Vancouver, Washington. They are sitting in their workout gear, on the familiar grey couch where they record the YouTube videos that have turned them into stars. But there are no signature dazzling smiles today.
This morning, the couple uploaded a video called Ten Ways to Know You’re in Love (Do You Want a Baby?), a benign collection of comedy sketches (including one in which Chambers falls asleep while Kam is talking, and another in which Chambers is going through her rock collection) followed by an interview with a lesbian couple who had conceived a child with donor sperm.
Continue reading...Singer says facing her previous lack of advocacy had been ‘kind of devastating’
Taylor Swift says she felt compelled to publicly champion LGBTQ causes in recent months because rights are being “stripped from basically everyone who isn’t a straight white cisgender male” in the US today.
The singer, who has been criticised in the past for not speaking up on political issues, particularly during the 2016 US presidential election campaign, discussed her recent shift to advocacy in a rare interview with Vogue magazine.
Continue reading...Campaign linked to Sziget festival criticised by senior member of ruling Fidesz party
Advertisements by Coca-Cola relating to a popular music festival in Hungary that promote gay acceptance have prompted a boycott call from a senior member of the conservative ruling party.
The posters are timed for the week-long Sziget festival – that takes the theme of “Love Revolution” and starts on Wednesday in Budapest – and show gay people and couples smiling with slogans such as “zero sugar, zero prejudice”.
Continue reading...Julie Passas fined $2,500 after calling Ashfield neighbour’s flag celebrating same-sex marriage Yes vote ‘offensive’
A Sydney local councillor’s behaviour has been found to amount to homosexual vilification after she verbally abused a neighbour for displaying a rainbow flag on the day of the same-sex marriage postal survey result.
Julie Passas, who was the deputy mayor of Inner West council at the time, told neighbour Daniel Comensoli the flag he erected to celebrate the 61% Yes vote was “offensive to my culture and religion” and that he should not be allowed to marry “until you could breastfeed and have children”.
Continue reading...Greek Orthodox cleric claimed gay men recognisable from ‘particular odour’
Police in Cyprus have opened an investigation into homophobic remarks made by a controversial bishop.
At the request of the island’s attorney general, investigators will examine whether the Greek Cypriot Orthodox prelate, known popularly by his first name, Neophytos, violated hate speech laws after he claimed that homosexuality could be passed on when pregnant women had anal sex.
Continue reading...About 300,000 people celebrated LGBT rights in Brighton during the city’s annual Pride parade
Continue reading...Human rights organisation says decision to remove popular Lebanese indie rock band from Byblos international festival amounts to enabling hate speech
A concert by one of the Middle East’s most popular bands, Mashrou’ Leila, whose frontman is openly gay, has been cancelled following pressure from Christian groups.
The Lebanese quartet were due to play Byblos international festival on 9 August, but the set has been cancelled “to prevent bloodshed and preserve security” according to the organisers, after critics of the band on social media threatened to attack the concert.
Continue reading...Joshua Harris says his marriage is over and apologises to LGBT+ people for promoting bigotry
The American author of a bestselling Christian guide to relationships for young people has announced that his marriage is over and he has lost his faith.
Joshua Harris, whose biblical guide to relationships I Kissed Dating Goodbye sold nearly 1m copies around the world after it was published in 1997, has also apologised to LGBT+ people for contributing to a “culture of exclusion and bigotry”.
Continue reading...Yelena Grigoryeva received threats before she was stabbed to death, say campaigners
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 Sunday, but did not identify her.
Continue reading...Government has said it will honour resounding result despite ministerial doubts
MPs have voted resoundingly to extend same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland, a plan the government has said it will honour despite ministerial doubts.
The Commons voted 383 to 73 to pass the amendment to a largely technical bill on the stalled Northern Ireland assembly, tabled by the Labour MP Conor McGinn, a longstanding campaigner for equal marriage in Northern Ireland.
Continue reading...Advocates warn the new panel, helmed by an abortion and gay rights opponent, is a threat to progressive reforms
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has unveiled a new panel tasked with reviewing “the role of human rights in American public policy” in a move that some advocates warned could imperil LGBTQ and women’s reproductive freedoms.
Pompeo announced the launch of the “Commission on Unalienable Rights” at the state department in Washington on Monday, telling reporters: “As human rights claims have proliferated, some claims have come into tension with one another provoking questions and clashes about which rights are entitled to gain respect.”
Continue reading...Estimated 1.5 million people attended London parade
“I’m trying to be a walking piece of political art,” said actor Billy Porter ahead of headlining London Pride. “Just as a human being, as an out black gay Christian man, my very existence is political.”
The star of Kinky Boots and TV series Pose performed to thousands in Trafalgar Square on Saturday at what organisers claimed was the biggest, most inclusive Pride yet. About 30,000 people from more than 600 groups took part in the official parade through central London, which was attended by an estimated 1.5 million people.
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