Polish mayor Pawel Adamowicz has died after being fatally stabbed at a charity event.
The LGBTI ally was stabbed in the heart and abdomen by an ex-convict who rushed onto the stage with a knife yesterday (13 January).
Blood donors flooded to hospitals in a bid to help save Adamowicz.
But Poland’s health minister Lukasz Szumowski has confirmed the mayor died, saying, ‘we couldn’t win.’
The attack happened in moments at the 27th annual fundraiser organized by the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity.
Footage showed the Gdansk mayor on stage with a sparkler in hand, saying it had been a ‘wonderful day’.
The attacker then came towards him. Suddenly, the mayor collapsed and he grabbed his body.
After the knife attack, the assailant shouted from the stage he had been wrongly imprisoned by the previous national government led by Civil Platform.
The mayor formerly belonged to the party.
‘I was jailed but innocent,’ he said. ‘Civil Platform tortured me. That’s why Adamowicz just died.’
Police spokesperson Mariusz Ciarka said the attacker appeared to have mental problems. He also said the assailant appeared to have accessed the area with a media badge.
The man was arrested and under investigation.
Surgeon Dr Tomasz Stefaniak said Adamowicz suffered a ‘serious wound to the heart, a wound to the diaphragm and to the internal organs.’
Adamowicz served five terms as part of the Civil Platform party, and then was re-elected to a sixth term as an independent candidate.
He marched in last year’s Pride parade in Gdansk.
He said he dreamed of a time when ‘equality and fraternity can become a part of Poles’ daily lives’.
Adamowicz added he hopes of the day when ‘an asylum-seeker, an immigrant, a Roma person, an African American person and a Polish person will be able to sit together around a table in one, common house.’
Marvel has revealed its first ever drag queen superhero in an X-Men series.
Shade is a mutant who is also a drag queen, and she’s already a big hit with the fandom.
The superhero sashayed her way into the world with a single panel appearance in last month’s Iceman #4.
Fans are already creating fan art of Shade | Photo: Twitter
But many Marvel fans wondered whether it was just a drag queen posing as a mutant or not?
Writer Sina Grace, who’s out, has now revealed that Shade is a mutant and will be appearing in future issues of the comic.
‘I really wanted this series to push readers to new and better stories about the whole queer experience and how it applies to being both a mutant and a superhero,’ Grace told The Advocate.
‘There’s a million different queer perspectives and we’re only scratching the surface.’
Who wants a Shade action figure? | Photo: Twitter
Iceman is Marvel’s only solo series featuring a queer lead. Bobby Drake, the character, came out in 2015 and had his own solo series in 2017. However, this was canceled due to poor sales.
But due to fan demand, a new monthly comic was created in 2018.
‘My goal with this new Iceman series is for for everyone, myself, the readers, the characters involved in the comic book, to have fun,’ declares Grac
Shade’s mutant power is teleport. She can open pocked voids that allows her to step into and out of her handheld folding fan.
Students at Oxford University are calling for the firing of a law professor after he compared gay sex to bestiality.
More than 400 people have also signed a petition calling for John Finnis to be removed from teaching.
The 78-year-old is emeritus professor of law and legal philosophy at University College.
Finnis has said in 1994 homosexuality is ‘never a valid, humanly acceptable choice and form of life’.
He wrote in his collected essays, published in 2011, that it is ‘destructive of human character and relationships’.
He also added: ‘[Gay sex] treats human sexual capacities in a way which is deeply hostile to the self-understanding of those members who are willing to commit themselves to real marriage.’
Finnis, who converted to Catholicism in 1962, has previously advised the Vatican.
He has also called homosexuality ‘evil’, ‘destructive’ and similar to the abuse of children.
Finnis has also encouraged ‘gay cure’ therapy said approving of LGBTI rights is similar to approving terrorism.
Students signed a petition calling on Finnis to be removed from teaching compulsory lectures.
‘It puts a hugely prejudiced man in a position of responsibility and authority,’ they say.
‘It makes people who are affected by his discrimination question whether they should even attend these seminars…
‘University is a place to focus on education, not to be forced to campaign against or to be taught by professors who have promoted hatred towards students that they teach.’
Finnis told the Oxford Student: ‘I stand by all these writings. There is not a ‘phobic’ sentence in them.
‘The 1994 essay promotes a classical and strictly philosophical moral critique of all non-marital sex acts and has been republished many times.’
Alex Benn, one of the authors of the petition, said Finnis had ‘built a career on demonisation’.
Benn also told the Oxford Student: ‘Campaigns like this one often receive simplistic responses calling for tolerance or academic freedom. But law, employment and education already draw boundaries about what won’t be tolerated.
‘The humanity of disadvantaged people, including LGBTQ+ people, isn’t a debate …
‘I started this campaign not only to address the specific issue of Finnis’ role at Oxford, but to get Oxford to make up its mind – either it’s in support of equality or it’s not.”
A university spokesperson said: ‘Oxford University and the faculty of law promote an inclusive culture, which respects the rights and dignity of all staff and students.
‘We are clear we do not tolerate any form of harassment of individuals on any grounds, including sexual orientation.
‘Equally, the university’s harassment policy also protects academic freedom of speech and is clear that vigorous academic debate does not amount to harassment when conducted respectfully and without violating the dignity of others.
‘All of the university’s teaching activity, including that in the faculty of law, is conducted according to these principles.’
Islam once considered homosexuality to be one of the most normal things in the world.
The Ottoman Empire, the seat of power in the Muslim world, didn’t view lesbian or gay sex as taboo for centuries. They formally ruled gay sex wasn’t a crime in 1858.
But as Christians came over from the west to colonize, they infected Islam with homophobia.
The truth is many Muslims alive today believe the prophet Muhammad supported and protected sexual and gender minorities.
But go back to the beginning, and you’ll see there is far more homosexuality in Islam than you might have ever thought before.
1 Ancient Muslim borrowed culture from the boy-loving Ancient Greeks
The Islamic empires, (Ottoman, Safavid/Qajar, Mughals), shared a common culture. And it shared a lot of similarities with the Ancient Greeks.
Persianate cultures, all of them Muslim, dominated modern day India and Arab world. And it was very common for older men to have sex with younger, beardless men. These younger men were called ‘amrad’.
Once these men had grown his beard (or ‘khatt’), he then became the pursuer of his own younger male desires.
And in this time, once you had fulfilled your reproductive responsibilities as a man you could do what you like with younger men, prostitutes and other women.
Society completely accepted this, at least in elite circles. Iranian historian Afsaneh Najmabadi writes how official Safavid chroniclers would describe the sexual lives of various Shahs, the ruling class, without judgment.
There was some judgment over ‘mukhannas’. These were men (some researchers consider them to be transgender or third gender people) who would shave their beards as adults to show they wished to continue being the object of desire for men. But even they had their place in society. They would often be used as servants for prophets.
‘It wasn’t exactly how we would define homosexuality as we would today, it was about patriarchy,’ Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, a gay imam who lives in Marseilles, France, told GSN.
‘It was saying, “I’m a man, I’m a patriarch, I earn money so I can rape anyone including boys, other slaves and women.” We shouldn’t idealize antique culture.’
2 Paradise included male virgins, not just female ones
There is nowhere in the Qu’ran that states the ‘virgins’ in paradise are only female.
The ‘hur’, or ‘houris’, are female. They have a male counterpart, the ‘ghilman’, who are immortal young men who wait and serve people in paradise.
‘Immortal [male] youths shall surround them, waiting upon them,’ it is written in the Qu’ran. ‘When you see them, you would think they are scattered pearls.’
Zahed says you should look at Ancient Muslim culture with the same eyes as Ancient Greek culture.
‘These amrads are not having sex in a perfectly consenting way because of power relationships and pressures and so on.
‘However, it’s not as heteronormative as it might seem at first. There’s far more sexual diversity.’
3 Sodom and Gomorrah is not an excuse for homophobia in Islam
Like the Bible, the Qu’ran tells the story of how Allah punished the ancient inhabitants of the city of Sodom.
Two angels arrive at Sodom, and they meet Lot who insists they stay the night in his house. Then other men learn about the strangers, and insist on raping them.
While many may use this as an excuse to hate gay people, it’s not. It’s about Allah punishing rape, violence and refusing hospitality.
Historians often rely on literary representations for evidence of history. And many of the poems from ancient Muslim culture celebrate reciprocal love between two men. There are also factual reports saying it was illegal to force your way onto a young man.
The punishment for a rape of a young man was caning the feet of the perpetrator, or cutting off an ear, Najmabadi writes. Authorities are documented as carrying these punishments out in Qajar Iran.
4 Lesbian sex used as a ‘cure’
Fitting a patriarchal society, we know very little about the sex lives of women in ancient Muslim culture.
But ‘Sihaq’, translated literally as ‘rubbing’, is referenced as lesbian sex.
Sex between two women was decriminalized in the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, probably because it was deemed to have very little importance.
Physicians believed lesbianism developed from a hot itch on a woman’s vulva that could only be soothed by another woman’s sexual fluid. This derived from Greek medicine.
Much later, the 16th century Italian scientist Prosper Alpini claimed the hot climate caused ‘excessive sexual desire and overeating’ in women. This caused a humor imbalance that caused illnesses, like ‘lesbianism’. He recommended bathing to ‘remedy’ this. However, because men feared women were having sex with other women at private baths, many husbands tried to restrict women from going.
5 Lesbian ‘marriage’ and legendary couples
In Arabic folklore, al-Zarqa al-Yamama (‘the blue-eyed woman of Yamama’) fell in love with Christian princess Hind of the Lakhmids. When al-Zarqa, who had the ability to see events in the future, was crucified, it was said the princess cut her hair and mourned until she died.
Many books, especially in the 10th century, celebrated lesbian couples. Sapphic love features in the Book of Salma and Suvad; the Book of Sawab and Surur (of Justice and Happiness); the Book of al-Dahma’ and Nisma (of the Dark One and the Gift from God).
‘In palaces, there is evidence hundreds of women established some kind of contract. Two women would sign a contract swearing to protect and care for one another. Almost like a civil partnership or a marriage,’ Zahed said.
‘Outside of these palaces, this was also very common. There was a lot of Sapphic poetry showing same-sex love.’
As Europeans colonized these countries, depictions of lesbian love changed.
Samar Habib, who studied Arabo-Islamic texts, says the Arab epic One Thousand and One Nights proves this. He claims some stories in this classic show non-Muslim women preferred other women as sexual partners. But the ‘hero’ of the tale converts these women to Islam, and to heterosexuality.
6 Muhammad protected trans people
‘Muhammad housed and protected transgender or third gender people,’ Zahed said. ‘The leader of the Arab-Muslim world welcomed trans and queer people into his home.
‘If you look at the traditions some use to justify gay killings, you find much more evidence – clear evidence – that Muhammad was very inclusive.
‘He was protecting these people from those who wanted to beat them and kill them.’
7 How patriarchy transformed Islam
Europeans forced their way into the Muslim world, either through full on colonialism, like in India or Egypt, or economically and socially, like in the Ottoman Empire.
They pushed their cultural practices and attitudes on to Muslims: modern Islamic fundamentalism flourished.
While the Ottoman Empire resisted European culture at first, hence gay sex being allowed in 1858, nationalization soon won out. Two years later, in 1870, India’s Penal Code declared gay sex a crime. LGBTI Indians finally won against this colonial law in 2018.
But what is it like to be colonized? And why did homophobia get so much more extreme?
‘With the west coming in and colonizing, they think [Muslims] are lazy and passive and weak,’ Zahed said.
‘As Arab men, we have to prove we are more powerful and virile and manly. Modern German history is like that, showing how German nationalization rose after [defeat in] the First World War.
‘It’s tribalism, it’s the same problem. It’s about killing everyone against my tribe. I’m going to kill the weak. I’m going to kill anyone who doesn’t fulfil this aggressive nationalistic stereotype.’
Considering the male-dominant society already existed, it was easy for the ‘modern’ patriarchy to end up suppressing women and criminalizing LGBTI lives.
‘In the early 20th century, Arabs were ashamed of their ancient history,’ Zahed added. ‘They tried to purify it, censor it, to make it more masculine. There had to be nothing about femininity, homosexuality or anything. That’s how we got to how are today.’
8 What would Muhammad think about LGBTI rights?
Muhammad protected sexual and gender minorities, supporting those at the fringes of society.
And if Muslims are to follow in the steps of early Islamic culture and the prophet’s life, there is no reason Islam should oppose LGBTI people.
For Zahed, an imam, this is what he considers a true Muslim.
‘What should we do if we call ourselves Muslims now? Defend human rights, diversity and respect identity. If we trust the tradition, he was proactively defending sexual and gender minorities, and human rights.’
Scientists have announced a potential major breakthrough in finding new HIV treatments.
French researchers have revealed they have successfully destroyed cells infected with HIV.
The scientists at Paris’ Institut Pasteur used metabolic activity inhibitors to eliminate ‘resevoir’ cells.
Antiretroviral drugs are unable to completely remove the virus.
Even when HIV is brought down to undetectable levels, a small amount of the virus is latent within certain cells.
The virus can also multiply if people stop taking their medication.
The virus remains in reservoirs, the CD4 lymphocyte immune cells, which are the main targets of HIV.
Eliminating these hidden reservoirs of virus has become a key target among scientists who wish to find a cure for HIV.
Theoretically, this French technique could perhaps eradicate HIV from the body altogether.
An Institut Pasteur spokesperson said: ‘The antiretroviral treatment used today is designed to block HIV infection but it is not able to eliminate the virus from the body.
‘The virus remains in reservoirs – the CD4 T lymphocyte immune cells, the main targets of HIV.’
HIV targets cells with high metabolic activity and ‘hijacks’ their energy in order to multiply.
The spokesperson also added: ‘Thanks to metabolic activity inhibitors, the researchers have managed to destroy these infected cells, or “reservoirs”, ex vivo.’
The next step in research will be assessing the potential of using this technique on living organisms.
Trump administration quietly shut down another study into a ‘cure’ for HIV in September.
The study implanted human fetal tissue into mice in its quest to find effective new treatment for HIV.
The human fetal tissue came from elective abortions. Although legal, anti-abortion groups oppose the research.
However, in late September, an email sent from a researcher at RML to the bioscience contractor that sourced the fetal tissue, said it would not be able to proceed.
In the email to Advanced Bioscience Resources in California, the researcher said: ‘[Department of Health and Human Services] has directed me to discontinue procuring fetal tissue from ABR, the only source for us. I think that they are the only provider of fetal tissue for scientists in the nation who don’t have direct access to aborted fetal tissue. This effectively stops all of our research to discover a cure for HIV.’
Russian trolls out to rig the election for Donald Trump created a fake helpline for struggling LGBTI teens.
The Senate released a report saying Russia engaged in an all-out social media campaign to manipulate votes during the 2016 election.
Millions of posts on every popular social media platform from Facebook to Pinterest were provided to the Senate and House Intelligence committees.
And in these posts, there were some extremely damaging stories.
LGB young people far more likely to feel suicidal if they lose friends after coming out
The Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency created a fake helpline and posted the link on the Russian-controlled page LGBT United.
The post was an offer of support to struggling gay, lesbian or trans teens. However, the hotline was fake.
A hotline was posted on the fake religious group Army of Jesus.
‘Struggling with the addiction to masturbation? Reach out to me and we will beat it together,’ one post said.
‘You can’t hold hands with God when you are masturbating.’
The Russian-controlled LGBT United led people to believe it was a liberal page, but would then manipulate its members.
Even before Trump was inaugurated, a post attempted to pre-empt calls for impeachment.
On 10 November, a post by LGBT United read: ‘In case anyone forgot, Mike Pence in the White House would mean disaster for queer people!!
‘I heavily disagree with his policies regarding church and state and his lgbtq policy.
‘I see alot of lefist calling for impeachment or assassination on trump but truely Trump is worlds better than Pence when talking about equal rights for all….’
The IRA ‘launched an extended attack on the US by using computational propaganda’, according to the report.
More than 30 million people shared content from the Internet Research Agency on Facebook and Instagram from 2015 to 2017.
Efforts targeting African-Americans, Latinos, liberals and members of the LGBTI community used different approaches with each group, but the overall aim was to get voters ‘to boycott the election, abstain from voting for Clinton, or to spread cynicism about participating in the election in general.’
Gay, lesbian, bi and questioning youth are four times more likely to self-harm with suicidal intent compared to straight youth.
These queer kids are also far more likely to experience symptoms of depression from as young as 10 years old. These symptoms will persist then into their 20s.
Researchers from the University of College London also found LGBQ youth will have worse mental health overall.
‘We’ve known for some time that sexual minority youth have worse mental health outcomes,’ study author Dr Gemma Lewis said.
‘It’s quite concerning that we’ve found this trend starts as early as 10 years old, and worsens throughout adolescence.’
The study is the first of its kind in the UK, questioning 4,828 young people.
Participants responded to questions about depression seven times from age 10 to 21, and at 16 and 21 were asked if they self-harmed in the past year.
While depressive symptoms increased throughout their teenage years for all groups, the increase was far greater for LGBQ teens.
Self-harm was more common for non-straight teens at both 16 and 21.
At 18, LGBQ teens were twice as likely to fulfil the criteria for a clinical diagnosis of depression.
Madeleine Irish, first author, suggests the sense of feeling different may affect mental health in children.
She suggested a range of stressors could be involved. These can include ‘discrimination, stigmatisation, social isolation, shame or fear or rejection, including at home or at school.’
Dr Lewis added: ‘The fact we found mental health disparities at such a young age suggests that early interventions may be useful to prevent and treat such mental health challenges.
‘Despite changes to public perceptions and attitudes in recent years, gay, lesbian and bisexual youth remain at increased risk of long-term mental health problems—addressing this inequality should be a research, policy, clinical and public mental health priority.’
Trans people have been beheaded, gunned down and stoned to death, according to a new report.
It highlights the 369 trans, non-binary and gender-variant people, at least, who were murdered in the 12 months from 1 October 2017 to 30 September 2018.
28 of the trans murder victims were reported to be teenagers, with some as young as 16.
There were five beheadings. Nine people were stoned to death.The majority of the people killed were trans women of color, often gunned down or beaten to death.
Brazil still has the most reported trans murders in the world
The Trans Day of Remembrance update has seen an increase of 43 cases compared to last year’s update, and 73 cases compared to 2016.
Brazil (167 murders) and Mexico (71), once again, lead the list of the most reported killings of trans women and men.
The United States has seen 28 trans people killed, an increase from last year’s 25.
Other killings have been reported in Pakistan, Colombia, France, the UK, and elsewhere around the world.
But these horrifying numbers are just the tip of the iceberg.
Beheaded, gunned down, and shot to death
Media organizations – including normally reputable names – are often guilty of misgendering the victims when they are trans, making it even more difficult to get a real sense of the problem.
And there are multiple countries, many in Africa, where we have little knowledge of the violence happening against trans people. The highest numbers have been found in countries with strong trans movements that carry out professional monitoring.
‘We cannot estimate a number, but indeed what we can register is just a small fraction,’ Lukas Berredo, from Transrespect vs Transphobia Worldwide, told Gay Star News.
The majority of the people killed, 62%, were sex workers.
Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslein, trans and intersex, was a LGBTI rights advocate living in Massachusetts. She was also a founder of the Miss Trans America beauty pageant.
She was found dead in her home on 5 January. Her husband confessed to striking his wife with a hammer before stabbing her in the back. Christa was 42.
Azul ‘Blue’ Montoro, a 26-year-old sex worker, was killed in Cordoba, Argentina.
She was stabbed 18 times in a friend’s apartment. She only died when the final stab, the 19th, came at her throat.
Fernando Lino da Silva, a 21-year-old, was a trans man living in Maceió, Brazil. He was just watching TV when he was shot to death.
Naomi Hersi, 36, was stabbed to death in a London hotel in March. Her murderer was recently jailed for 20 years.
Naomi Hersi
Hajira, in Pakistan, was tortured to death before she was beheaded. She had been dead for several days before being discovered.
A government contractor refused to bury the body. It is unknown why. It may because she was beheaded or she was a transgender woman.
Vanesa Campos was a sex worker in Paris. Immigrated from Peru two years before, she was shot by a mob as she tried to prevent one of her clients from being robbed.
Her killing sparked protests about the treatment of sex workers in France.
S. A. Sánchez López was murdered on 19 November last year. She was 41, deaf, and living in Nicaragua. She was beaten to death for ‘no reason’.
Devudamma Surya Naryana, 47, was electrocuted to death in her home in India.
And Nikolly Silva, a 16-year-old, was stoned to death at dawn in Cabo Frio, Brazil.
Why we remember
These are just a few names and faces of a list that can only begin to imagine the scope of transphobic murders that happen worldwide every year.
Trans people run the risk of losing their lives just for being who they are.
Berredo added: ‘Trans Day of Remembrance is a date in which we remember and honour the trans and gender-diverse people whose lives has been taken away from us.
‘It is a mourning day, and it is also a day to be together with our communities, to keep existing and resisting.’
A trans woman has won a court victory after being kept as a ‘sex slave’ in a men’s prison.
Strawberry Hampton, over the past two years, has been housed in four different facilities for men.
She has sued the Illinois Department of Corrections several times to get transferred to a women’s prison.
She claims she was the victim of sexual assault, both by other inmates and by guards.
Court documents show Hampton claims an officer pulled down her pants. She also says she was forced to have phone sex with an officer, and other officers made her have sex with her cellmate while they watched.
She says she was also told if she complained, she would ‘disappear’.
US District Court Judge Nancy Rosenstengel issued an order requiring the Illinois Department of Corrections to reevaluate Hampton’s request to transfer to a women’s facility.
‘A review of Hampton’s full mental health and disciplinary history in the context of her substantiated… complaints and grievances may lead the [Department’s Transgender Care Review Committee] itself to conclude that Hampton is safest in a woman’s prison,’ Rosenstengel wrote.
‘If not, the Court can revisit the issue after the Constitutional issues have been decided at trial.’
The judge also ruled Hampton must be allowed to attend a transgender support group at the prison. She is currently not allowed to.
She mandated the Illinois Department of Corrections develop training for staff on transgender issues.
‘This is also an important step, not only for Strawberry but, in general, for transgender women imprisoned across the nation,’ said Vanessa del Valle, Hampton’s lawyer.
‘The Illinois Department of Corrections maintains a strict zero-tolerance policy toward all forms of sexual abuse and sexual harassment,’ said a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections.
Hampton is serving a 10-year sentence for burglary.