Emma Powys Maurice

/

Olympic Swimmer Proudly Comes Out to Set an Inspiring Example for Women Like Her

Retired Olympic swimmer Martha McCabe has come out as a lesbian, saying she hopes her own visibility will encourage other sports stars to do the same. The Canadian Pan Am Games medallist specialised in the 200-metre breaststroke and placed fifth in the London 2012 Olympics, but it wasn’t until after she stopped competing that she began to explore her sexuality. In her eight years on Canada’s national team McCabe estimates she had at least ten LGBT+ teammates. She believes that knowing more out sportswomen could have helped her understand her identity earlier on. “I think because I didn’t see it in […]

/ /

Trans People Murdered at the Highest Rate since Records Began

At least four transgender people lost their lives in the space of a week, as trans homicides in the US reach the highest pace ever. According to The Human Rights Campaign, at least 21 transgender or gender non-conforming people have been killed by violent means so far this year, nearly matching 2019’s total of 27. The organisation says it has “never seen such a high number at this point in the year” since they began tracking this data in 2013, and other advocates across the US are horrified by the pace of “rampant and repeated” murders. “It is ridiculous that […]

/ /

Instagram Bans Posts Promoting Damaging Conversion Therapy

Instagram is taking a hard line on conversion therapy, announcing that it will block all posts promoting the abhorrent practise. Attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity have been rejected by every mainstream medical and mental health organisation for decades and are linked to higher risks of depression, suicide, and drug addiction. Instagram’s public policy director Tara Hopkins acknowledged the harm it causes as she explained how the company is changing the way it handles conversion therapy content. “We don’t allow attacks against people based on sexual orientation or gender identity and are updating our policies to ban the promotion […]

/ /

LGBT Asylum Seekers Will be Given Priority under Norwegian Plan

For the first time Norway will prioritise LGBT+ asylum seekers as part of a new post-coronavirus refugee scheme. Announced on July 5 by the Storting, Norway’s federal government, the new policy will give LGBT+ refugees priority both as individuals and as a group. The three-year scheme was introduced in coordination with the UN after the outbreak of coronavirus disrupted the international settlement of many refugees. “Unfortunately, in many countries, it is not so that you are free to love who you want,” said the state secretary for integration affairs in the ministry of education, Grounds Kreek Almeland, in a press release. […]

/ /

Montenegro Makes History by Legalizing Same-sex Civil Partnerships

Montenegro has just voted to legalise same-sex civil partnerships, becoming the first European country outside of Western Europe and the European Union to do so. Lawmakers in the small Balkan country reached the decision on Wednesday (July 1) after the law received 42 votes in the 81-seat parliament. Montenegro’s prime minister Duško Marković called it “a great step in the right direction for Montenegrin society, its democratic maturity, and integration processes”. President Milo Đukanović also welcomed the move, declaring on Twitter that Montenegro is now “one step closer to joining the most developed world democracies”. “[It is] a confirmation that our society […]

/ / /

Thirty People Arrested in Russia, Charged with Spreading ‘Gay Propaganda’

Police in Russia have detained over 30 people for protesting the arrest of Yulia Tsvetkova, an LGBT+ and feminist activist charged with spreading ‘gay propaganda’. Yulia Tsvetkova, 27, faces a six year sentence for running a social media page called Vagina Monologues, which encouraged people to share artistic depictions of vaginas to “remove the taboo”. She was charged with the distribution of “criminal pornography” under Russia’s gay propaganda law, which prohibits the positive depiction of LGBT+ people. On Saturday (June 27) more than 30 people, mostly women, gathered in in central Moscow to stage separate one-person protests against Tsvetkova’s charges. […]

/ /

Marsha P Johnson’s Home Town Petitions to Erect Statue of her to Replace Christopher Columbus

Over 3,500 people have backed a petition to replace a New Jersey city’s Christopher Columbus statue with one of Black trans activist Marsha P Johnson. The Christopher Columbus statue has stood in Marsha P Johnson’s home town of Elizabeth, New Jersey since 1971, but petitioners say a tribute to her would be far more fitting in light of the explorer’s problematic history. Johnson left the town in her late teens with nothing but a bag of clothes and a few dollars to her name. She moved to New York where she became one of the central figures of the LGBT+ rights movement, and […]

/

Police Investigating Attack on Black-run LGBT+ Community Center

Police have launched an investigation after a vandal attacked a local LGBT+ community centre on Pride weekend, leaving staff and volunteers stunned. At around 10.05am on Saturday (June 27), bystanders watched in horror as a man with a golf club smashed the windows of Oakland LGBTQ Community Centre in California. Described as “a young skinny white male”, he is said to have yelled expletives while striking the building before fleeing the scene on a bike when confronted by nearby vendors. The all-inclusive centre was founded by two gay African American men, who have described the attack as a hate crime. […]

/

Poland’s President Vows to Ban Same-sex Marriage, Gay Adoption and LGBT+ Education in Schools

The president of Poland Andrzej Duda has pledged to ban LGBT+ education in schools, as well as blocking the legalisation of same-sex marriage and adoption. President Duda ramped up his homophobic rhetoric on Wednesday to jump-start his re-election campaign, which had been interrupted by to coronavirus. In an apparent pitch to his conservative base, he signed a ‘family values’ declaration that vows to “protect children from LGBT+ ideology” and prohibit the teaching of LGBT+ inclusion by public institutions. “Parents are responsible for the sexual education of their children,” Reutersreported him saying. “It is not possible for any institutions to interfere in the […]

/ /

Goldman Sachs Settles Discrimination Case with Employee Told ‘He Sounded too Gay’ and Was Fired

Goldman Sachs has reached a settlement with a former vice president who says he was fired after being told he “sounded too gay”. William Littleton was fired in 2019 after eight years of positive performance reviews at the banking giant. He filed a lawsuit claiming that he had been discriminated against on the basis of his sexual orientation and subjected to homophobic retaliation. The court papers alleged numerous examples of discrimination, including a time when he was excluded from a client call because his voice “sounded too gay”. In another incident, Littleton said he was asked by a supervisor: “What’s wrong with […]

«‹ 10 11 12 13›»