Category Archives: LGBTQ+ rights

Missouri emergency rule would limit gender-affirming care for minors

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Directive sidesteps Republican-controlled state legislature, which wasn’t able to pass similar legislation before recess

Missouri’s Republican attorney general on Monday said he will limit access to gender-affirming care for minors, sidestepping the GOP-led state senate as it struggles to pass a law banning the practice for children completely.

As hundreds of activists rallied at the state capitol to pressure lawmakers to act on the bill, Andrew Bailey announced plans to file an emergency rule.

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Crowds in Milan protest against curbs on rights of same-sex parents

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Italy’s new rightwing government put a strong emphasis on traditional family values during elections

Hundreds of people took to the streets in Milan in protest against moves by Italy’s new rightwing government to restrict the rights of same-sex parents.

“You explain to my son that I’m not his mother,” read one sign held up amid a sea of rainbow flags that filled one of the northern city’s central squares.

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Wellesley College students vote to admit trans men and non-binary people

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Proposal also calls for gender neutral language at women’s college whose alumni include Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright

Students at the famed Wellesley College for women voted this week to extend admission to trans men and non-binary students, though campus administrators have said there is “no plan” to immediately change school policy.

In a non-binding election on Tuesday, students at the liberal arts college in Massachusetts voted to open admission to all non-binary and transgender students, including trans men, reported Wellesley News, the college’s student newspaper.

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LGBTQ+ groups face crackdowns in Uganda as environment turns hostile

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Activists fear a systematic ‘witch-hunt’ against sexual minorities by parliament, police and religious conservatives

A dramatic surge in attacks on LGBTQ+ people in Uganda has been recorded by rights groups this year, as the environment for sexual minorities turns increasingly hostile.

More than 110 people reported incidents including arrests, sexual violence, evictions and public undressing, to advocacy group Sexual Minorities Uganda (Smug) in February alone. Transgender people were disproportionately affected, said the group.

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White House rebukes Mike Pence over homophobic jokes about Pete Buttigieg

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Former vice-president took aim at transportation secretary for taking maternity leave and joked about postpartum depression

The White House rebuked the Republican former vice-president Mike Pence on Monday, for making jokes about US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, maternity leave and postpartum depression that it said were homophobic and offensive to women.

“He should apologise to women and LGBTQ+ people,” said Joe Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre.

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UK among most liberal countries on divorce and abortion, survey reveals

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Global study shows significant shift in UK attitudes on matters such as casual sex and assisted dying

The UK has overtaken Canada, Germany and Australia to become one of the world’s most socially liberal nations towards divorce and abortion, the latest wave of a global study has revealed.

Significant increases in the last five years in people saying the practices are justifiable is mirrored by sharply increasing acceptance of homosexuality, casual sex and prostitution over the same period, the World Values Survey found.

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Anthony Albanese among 50,000 marching across Sydney Harbour Bridge for WorldPride

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March helps draw to a close 17-day festival, which will wrap up on Sunday evening with a concert in the Domain

More than 50,000 brightly-dressed people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday morning in support of pride and recognition of the long fight for equality for the LGBTQI community.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, helped lead the march alongside a number of “78ers”, the term given to those people who took part in Sydney’s first Mardi Gras as an act of protest close to 50 years ago.

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Kenya’s LGBTQ community wins bittersweet victory in battle for rights

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Supreme court rules for freedom of association but landmark decision sparks backlash from government and churches

The supreme court of Kenya has criticised the government for failure to register an association for LGBTQ+ people, saying the decision discriminates against the rights of the community.

Although same-sex unions remain illegal in Kenya, the court ruled that everyone has a right of association. It is the culmination of a decade-long legal battle, and a victory for the LGBTQ+ community.

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Uganda MPs revive hardline anti-LGBTQ bill, calling homosexuality a ‘cancer’

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In a country where gay sex is already punishable by life in prison, campaigners have condemned proposed new law as ‘demonisation’

MPs in Uganda have reintroduced a controversial anti-LGBTQ bill, with one describing homosexuality as a “cancer”, attracting strong condemnation from rights campaigners.

Asuman Basalirwa, an opposition MP, made the remark as he tabled the draft law [pdf] which seeks to punish gay sex and “the promotion or recognition of such relations”.

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Sydney Anglican church accuses law reform commission of double standard over religious school hiring

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Submission says agency’s push to enable LGBTQ+ role models ‘preferences one worldview over another’

The Sydney Anglican church has accused the Australian Law Reform Commission of a “double standard” for seeking to give LGBTQ+ students role models while limiting the ability of religious schools to hire by faith.

The church’s submission to a review of exemptions for religious schools from discrimination law is part of a broader conservative backlash that has prompted the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to recommit the government to allowing schools to select staff based on faith.

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West Virginia mixed martial arts coach offers security for local drag show

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Johnny Haught and his trainees volunteered when a restaurant canceled a brunch event after performers received threats

A group of West Virginia mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters are offering security to help a local drag show that canceled an event after receiving threats.

MMA coach Johnny Haught and his trainees volunteered to provide security to the Primanti Bros restaurant in Wheeling, West Virginia, for the show it was set to host.

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NSW police says Lidia Thorpe will not be charged for blocking its Mardi Gras float

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Social media video shows senator laying in front of police float, temporarily blocking Oxford Street parade

New South Wales police has confirmed it will not charge Senator Lidia Thorpe for temporarily blocking the Sydney Mardi Gras parade on Saturday night.

Thorpe lay down in front of the NSW police float on Oxford Street, momentarily stopping the parade, to boos from the crowd.

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Anthony Albanese becomes first Australian PM to march in Sydney Mardi Gras

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Dressed in open-necked shirt and jeans, premier joins 12,500 paraders on original route of Oxford Street

Amid the rainbow tulle, sequins and sparkles of Sydney’s 45th Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade emerged the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, in a simple open-necked shirt and jeans.

Albanese is the first sitting prime minister to join the parade, which celebrates and continues to push for equality for the LGBTQIA+ community.

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Sydney hits peak LGBTQ+ as Mardi Gras parade returns to Oxford Street

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Hundreds of thousands of people expected to line the parade’s famous route, which last ran along the street in 2020 due to Covid

The first time Michael Gardiner realised he shouldn’t be ashamed of his sexuality was marching in the Mardi Gras parade in 2004 – he and his then wife dressed in matching fluffy bunny costumes. He had come out as gay just days earlier to his wife, Theresa Leggett.

“I was petrified about what it meant to be gay … It got to a point where I thought it would be better to end my life, but Theresa wasn’t going to have a bar of that,” he says.

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Meta profited from anti-LGBTQ+ ads despite entering float in Sydney Mardi Gras

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Company accepted money from groups such as the Australian Christian Lobby, who labelled a drag queen event as an ‘attempt to sexualise innocent toddlers’

Meta has accepted thousands of dollars from Australian groups promoting anti-LGBTQ+ messages on Facebook, despite the social media company having a float in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras to show its support for the community.

Meta staff and Instagram influencers are preparing to march on Sydney’s Oxford Street on Saturday under the theme of “Connect with Pride, by Instagram, Powered by Meta” as one of more than 200 floats in the parade.

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Colorado Springs LGBTQ+ club shooter posted to neo-Nazi website, police say

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Hearing under way to determine whether 22-year-old accused of Club Q shooting should be charged with hate crime

The 22-year-old accused of carrying out the deadly mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs in November posted to a neo-Nazi website and used gay and racial slurs while gaming online, a police detective testified on Wednesday.

Among the things Anderson Lee Aldrich posted was an image of a rifle scope trained on a gay pride parade and a shooting training video. Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary and uses the pronouns they and them, also used a bigoted slur when referring to someone who was gay, Detective Rebecca Joines testified at the start of a three-day hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to warrant a hate crime charge against Aldrich in the 19 November attack.

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Sunak suggests MPs will vote on proposed NI protocol deal and accuses Starmer of wanting to ‘surrender’ to EU – UK politics live

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Latest updates: PM says Commons will be given a chance to ‘express its view’ on any final deal

British Steel has announced the closure of the coking ovens at its Scunthorpe works with the loss of 260 jobs, my colleague Jasper Jolly reports.

Graeme Wearden has reaction to this on his business live blog.

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‘Party with purpose’: Sydney WorldPride kicks off with 500,000 expected to attend 300 events

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The city’s biggest ‘occasion’ since the 2000 Olympics will be a 17-day program celebrating equality

Sydney has marked the start of WorldPride with a Progress Pride flag raising ceremony, kicking off a 17-day program of art, performances, talks, parties, sport and comedy to celebrate equality.

The festivities will amount to Sydney’s biggest “occasion” since the 2000 Olympics and are expected to draw 500,000 visitors to 300 free and ticketed events.

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‘I really was broken’: survivor welcomes Dominic Perrottet agreeing to ban gay conversion practices

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NSW premier gives bill ‘in-principle’ support as independent Alex Greenwich hails a ‘good day for our state’

Growing up as a teenager in the suburbs of Sydney, Chris Csabs was led to believe he needed to be “fixed”.

“I was gay and had grown up steeped in an ideology that told me that God had not made me that way. That there was a negative cause to my homosexuality,” he said.

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Matt Kean backs push to outlaw gay conversion practices in NSW

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Leading Coalition moderate says he supports the concept but is waiting to see Alex Greenwich’s bill

The New South Wales treasurer, Matt Kean, says he “wholeheartedly” supports a push to outlaw gay conversion practices in the state, despite the premier, Dominic Perrottet, refusing to say whether he would support a ban.

As Sydney prepares to play host to the WorldPride festival beginning this week, the powerful crossbench MP Alex Greenwich has made a ban on the practice a condition of his support in the event of a hung parliament after the March state election.

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