Category Archives: LGBTQ+ rights

Malaysian music festival to take legal action against the 1975

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Promoters of the event claim that Matty Healy’s onstage kiss with bandmate ‘tarnished’ the festival’s reputation and are calling on the musicians to acknowledge liability and provide compensation

The organisers of the Good Vibes festival in Kuala Lumpur are taking legal action against the 1975 after frontman Matty Healy criticised Malaysia’s punitive anti-LGBTQ+ legislation during their headline set.

On 21 July, Healy told the crowd: “I don’t see the fucking point of inviting the 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with. Unfortunately, you don’t get a set of loads of uplifting songs because I’m fucking furious.

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Florida tells schools AP Psychology course with LGBTQ+ content violates law

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Ron DeSantis’s government has banned instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, effectively also banning the class

Florida has told school superintendents that the Advanced Placement psychology course offered to high school students violates the state’s new law prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, effectively banning the class, the non-profit that develops the courses said on Thursday.

The move is the latest by the administration of Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor, to limit instruction about LGBTQ+ issues and race in the state. DeSantis is challenging Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for president in 2024 and has made battles over cultural issues a centerpiece of his campaign.

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Top US doctors’ group backs gender-affirming care amid rightwing attacks

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American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirms support for transgender children in face of growing push for restrictions across US

The American Academy of Pediatrics has reaffirmed its support for gender-affirming medical care for transgender children, even as the treatments face a growing push for bans and restrictions from Republican lawmakers across the US.

The board of directors for the group, which represents 67,000 pediatricians, unanimously voted to reaffirm its 2018 position on the treatments. The board also voted to provide additional documents to support pediatricians, including clinical and technical reports, and to conduct an external review of research regarding the care.

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Judge blocks Arkansas law allowing librarians to be charged over ‘harmful’ books

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Decision comes as lawmakers in conservative states are pushing for measures making it easier to ban or restrict access to books

Arkansas is temporarily blocked from enforcing a law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing “harmful” materials to minors, a federal judge ruled on Saturday.

US district judge Timothy L Brooks issued a preliminary injunction against the law, which also would have created a new process to challenge library materials and request that they be relocated to areas not accessible by kids. The measure, signed by the state’s Republican governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, earlier this year, was set to take effect on 1 August.

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Thousands march in Liverpool as city hosts Kyiv Pride

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City continues relationship with Ukrainian capital forged when it hosted Eurovision song contest

Thousands took to the streets of Liverpool on Saturday as the city hosted KyivPride on behalf of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and an organiser praised the “amazing friendship” between the cities.

The joint march continues a relationship built when Liverpool hosted the Eurovision song contest on behalf of the war-torn country earlier this year.

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Malaysian musicians prepare lawsuit against the 1975 over festival cancellation

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Authorities cancelled the Good Vibes festival after frontman Matty Healy criticised the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws, leading musicians and food vendors to seek damages

A group of Malaysian musicians and festival vendors are preparing a class action lawsuit against the 1975 after frontman Matty Healy’s onstage criticism of the government’s anti-LGBTQ+ at the Good Vibes festival saw the entire event cancelled.

On Friday, Healy paused the band’s set at the Kuala Lumpur event to admit that he hadn’t looked into the country’s punitive LGBTQ+ laws before agreeing to perform there. “I don’t see the fucking point, right, I do not see the point of inviting the 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with,” he said.

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Vladimir Putin signs law banning gender changes in Russia

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Legislation outlaws medical interventions ‘aimed at changing the sex of a person’ and altering gender details in public records

Vladimir Putin has signed legislation that bans people from officially or medically changing their gender, representing a further blow to Russia’s embattled LGBTQ+ community.

The act, passed unanimously by both houses of parliament, bans any “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person”, as well as banning changing a person’s gender in official documents or public records. The only exception will be medical intervention to treat congenital anomalies.

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Malaysia’s gay community fears backlash after Matty Healy’s outburst

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The 1975 singer’s onstage condemnation of homophobic laws has angered conservatives and left some LGBTQ+ people uneasy

The 1975 frontman Matty Healy’s recent appearance at a festival in Kuala Lumpur – where he criticised Malaysia’s homophobic laws and kissed a male bandmate on stage – has strongly angered conservatives in the country.

Members of the LGBTQ+ community have also expressed unease over his actions, fearing that the episode risks further exacerbating the hostilities they face.

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Labour vows to ‘modernise, simplify and reform’ Gender Recognition Act

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Party chair says since act was passed by party in 2004, there is now a ‘much better understanding of the barriers trans people face’

Labour will overhaul an “outdated” law to make it easier for transgender people to transition while maintaining protections for single-sex spaces, the party’s chair and shadow equalities secretary has said.

Writing in the Guardian, Anneliese Dodds accused the Conservative party of seeking to stoke “culture wars” by pinning its hopes for electoral success on “demonising vulnerable LGBT+ people”.

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LGBTQ+ military charity backs proposal for Alan Turing statue on fourth plinth

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Trafalgar Square monument would stand in ‘stark contrast’ to treatment codebreaker received in his lifetime

An LGBTQ+ armed forces charity has backed proposals to erect a statue of the second world war codebreaker Alan Turing on Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth – a high-profile platform for contemporary art commissions.

The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, originally made the suggestion in the House of Commons last week in response to an independent review into the service and experience of LGBTQ+ veterans who served under the pre-2000 ban on homosexuality in the armed forces.

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In reversal, California school district adopts curriculum on LGBTQ+ figures

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Governor Gavin Newsom welcomes news after district voted Friday to accept curriculum following a lengthy meeting

A school district in southern California has decided to adopt the state’s new social studies book and curriculum after previously rejecting it for its reference of LGBTQ+ figures in history.

The Temecula Valley unified school district voted to accept the curriculum following a lengthy meeting on Friday where parents, teachers and community members spoke for and against it. The decision has been welcomed by Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, for thwarting an attempt to “whitewash history” and removed the threat of sanctions against the school district for not adopting the curriculum.

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Malaysia bans the 1975 after Matty Healy defies anti-LGBTQ+ laws with stage kiss

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Singer’s protest kiss with bandmate and criticism of anti-homosexuality law leads to ban and festival cancellation

The English band the 1975 have been banned from performing in Malaysia after their lead singer criticised the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws on stage.

The group, fronted by Matty Healy, were playing at the Good Vibes festival in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

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How Spain’s conservatives joined forces with far-right Vox

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Some in Extremadura region see local outcome as latest example of People’s party putting pragmatism over principles

Towards the end of last month, María Guardiola, who leads the conservative People’s party (PP) in the Extremadura region of south-west Spain, gave a speech in which she tore into the far-right Vox party for its denial of gender-based violence, its demonisation of migrants and its attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.

Guardiola was far from alone in her aversion to Vox’s views and tactics. The party’s most recent stunt in the run-up to Spain’s general election this Sunday – which could put the far right in government for the first time since the return to democracy after the Franco dictatorship – had been the unveiling in Madrid of a massive banner showing a giant hand tossing symbols representing feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, Catalan independence, environmental programmes and communism into a bin.

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‘Gut-churning’: anger as Hungarian president addresses major women’s rights conference

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Katalin Novák, an anti-abortionist and promoter of pro-natalist policies, spoke at the opening of the Women Deliver conference in Rwanda

Some leading delegates at a women’s rights conference in Rwanda have expressed shock at the appearance there of the Hungarian president, an anti-abortionist criticised for an anti-equality stance.

Katalin Novák, an important player in the international “anti-gender movement”, was invited by the Rwandan government to speak at the Women Deliver conference in Kigali this week, where reproductive rights is one of the areas under discussion.

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Tory MPs condemn delay to ban on LGBTQ+ conversion practices

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Letter from cross-party MPs and campaigners says slow progress on legislation is a ‘moral failing’

Senior Conservative MPs have accused the government of a “moral failing” for delaying the long-promised ban on conversion practices that they say damage the lives of LGBT+ people.

In a letter to Rishi Sunak, a cross-party group of politicians and campaigners criticised the slow progress in bringing forward new legislation since the pledge was made five years ago.

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Obscure Iowa non-profit produces new flyer calling Trump ‘trailblazer for trans’

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Second flyer sent to households in state by mysterious political group seeks to portray former president as LGBTQ+ advocate

An obscure non-profit political group in Iowa that has been attempting to portray Donald Trump as an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community is doubling down on its unlikely claim, producing a second flyer condemning the former president for “fighting conservatives” over trans rights.

The mailer repeats the messaging from the original communication that the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for next year’s election is a “trailblazer for trans”.

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Religious groups march in Malawi before court case on LGBTQ+ rights

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Faith leaders say the proceedings, brought by a transgender woman, are an attempt to legitimise ‘sinful acts’

Scores of religious groups and churches took to the streets of several cities in Malawi on Thursday to denounce same-sex marriage before a constitutional court hearing next week.

The court is expected to sit for two days from 17 July to consider a case brought by Jana Gonani, a transgender woman who was charged with “unnatural” behaviour.

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Wisconsin teacher fired for criticizing school district ban of song Rainbowland

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Melissa Tempel dismissed after she tweeted frustration at ban of Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus song exalting virtues of inclusivity

A teacher in Wisconsin has been fired from her job after she criticized her public school district’s decision to ban the song Rainbowland, which exalts the virtues of inclusivity, from a children’s concert at her campus.

The members of the board governing public schools in the solidly Republican community of Waukesha voted unanimously to dismiss Melissa Tempel from her job on Wednesday, saying the teacher’s defense of the Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton duet violated district policy because she did not speak to her supervisors first.

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Hungarian bookstore fined for selling LGBTQ+ novel in youth section

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Heartstopper by Alice Oseman was on shelves for young people and did not have closed packaging as required by controversial law

A government office in Hungary has levied a hefty fine against a national bookseller over a LGBTQ+ graphic novel series, saying it violated a contentious law that prohibits the depiction of homosexuality to minors.

The bookseller, Líra Könyv, is Hungary’s second-largest bookstore chain. It was fined 12m forints ($36,000 or £27,400) for placing Heartstopper by the British author Alice Oseman in its youth literature section, and for failing to place it in closed packaging as required by a 2021 law.

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Queensland Uniting church minister opposed to same-sex marriage loses unfair dismissal claim

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Fair Work Commission rules Hedley Wycliff Atunaisa Fihaki was not employed by the church but sacking would remain valid even if he had been

A Uniting church minister who was sacked for public statements opposing the church’s position on same-sex marriage has lost his unfair dismissal claim.

Hedley Wycliff Atunaisa Fihaki was inducted as a minister of the Mooloolaba Uniting church in 2013, but was dismissed after anti-same-sex marriage statements in social and mainstream media between January 2019 and August 2021.

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