Emma Powys Maurice

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LA Pride Reverses Cancellation to Hold Black Lives Matter Solidarity March

Nearly two months after it was cancelled due to coronavirus, LA Pride will be revived as a Black Lives Matter march to honour the legacy of the Stonewall Riots. The parade was due to take place on June 14 to commemorate LA Pride’s 50th anniversary. Now this date will instead see a solidarity protest march in response to racial injustice, systemic racism, and all forms of oppression. In a statement on Wednesday the parade organisers Christopher Street West said the march will hark back to Pride’s roots as a protest for social justice. “Fifty years ago Christopher Street West took to the streets […]

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Thousands Gather at the Stonewall Inn Demanding an End to the Murder of Black Trans People

New York’s Stonewall Inn became a place of protest once more as thousands gathered to demand justice for the deaths of Tony McDade and Nina Pop. Tony McDade was shot and killed by a white police officer in Florida on May 27. Nina Pop was found stabbed to death in her apartment in Missouri on May 3. Both were victims of the shocking “epidemic of violence” that disproportionately targets trans people of color in the US. As the LGBT+ community joins in solidarity against police brutality, activists have called for Black transgender people to be honoured as part of the Black Lives Matter movement sweeping across […]

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Judge Tells Idaho its Transphobic Birth Certificate Law is a Constitutional Violation

An Idaho federal judge has upheld a critical ruling that a proposed bill denying trans people the right to change their birth certificates is a constitutional violation. The bill, HB 509, would specifically prohibit changes to gender markers, claiming that “biological distinctions between male and female are a matter of scientific fact, and biological sex is an objectively defined category that has obvious, immutable, and distinguishable characteristics”. It also claims that changing someone’s biological sex on their birth certificate “impacts the health and safety of all individuals.” The bill was opposed by the LGBT+ advocacy group Lambda Legal, which filed a […]

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There’s a big Difference in the Way the New York Times Reported 100,000 Coronavirus Deaths and 100,000 AIDS Deaths

The New York Times made an impact with a front page dominated by the “incalculable loss” of 100,000 people who have tragically died of coronavirus in the US. The grim milestone puts the US far behind every other country in the world in dealing with the pandemic, and the death toll continues to rise day by day. “They were not simply names on a list. They were us,” the paper read on Monday (May 25). “Numbers alone cannot possibly measure the impact of the coronavirus on America.” So instead, the entire page was filled top to bottom with death notices of victims […]

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Queer refuges Face Starvation while being Overlooked by COVID-19 State Aid Programs

LGBT+ refugees and asylum seekers are being excluded from crucial coronavirus relief packages offered by the South African government, multiple human rights groups have warned. South Africa is a common destination for those fleeing countries that persecute sexual minorities, as 33 out of the 70 countries that criminalise homosexuality are in Africa. But queer people arriving in the country have little access to basic amenities and are now facing starvation amid the ongoing lockdown. The pandemic has cut them off from working in the informal trades that previously sustained them, including restaurants, bars, or sex work, and they are not eligible to receive government social grants or […]

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Chechen Tyrant, who Led the Brutal Gay Purges, ‘Hospitalized with Severe Coronavirus’

Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen tyrant who orchestrated the region’s brutal gay purges, has reportedly been hospitalised with severe coronavirus symptoms. Kadyrov is president of the Chechen republic in Russia, where LGBT+ people have been imprisoned, beaten, tortured and killed in gay concentration camps. Despite countless refugee reports detailing the violent abuses they have suffered, Kadyrov has forcefully denied that the crackdown ever happened. “This is nonsense,” he previously said when asked about the allegations. “We don’t have those kinds of people here. We don’t have any gays. If there are any, take them to Canada. “Praise be to God. Take them far from us so […]

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A Humanitarian Crisis because of the Governments’ Response to Coronavirus is Leaving LGBT+ People in Grave Danger

LGBT+ charities in 37 Commonwealth countries are urgently warning of an “unfolding humanitarian crisis” for LGBT+ people as a direct result of the pandemic. Coronavirus is having a disproportionate impact on marginalised communities, and governments’ responses to the crisis are heightening the levels of inequality, exclusion, discrimination and poverty that LGBT+ people already experience every day. A combination of job loss, housing and food insecurity, lack of physical and mental wellbeing and safety, lack of access to health services and life-saving medication are combining to create a rapidly deteriorating situation for the international LGBT+ community. For example in Pakistan, trans people have been excluded from government-organised relief […]

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The woman who Brought the First trans Rights Case to the Supreme Court, has Died

Aimee Stephens, the woman who brought the first-ever transgender civil rights case to the Supreme Court, has tragically died. Stephens, 58, had kidney disease and had been receiving hospice care at home in recent weeks. She died at home this morning, according to her brother-in-law John Pedit. Her case was one of a trio of LGBT+ cases the Supreme Court heard on October 8, which between them could determine whether millions of LGBT+ workers are protected under the US’s most powerful federal workplace anti-discrimination law, or whether it is legal to fire people on the basis of their identity. In Stephens’ case, […]

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After Coronavirus Forced Gay Bar to Close it is Stepping up to Feed Frontline Workers

Amazon is paying a gay bar $200,000 to make and deliver meals to first responders in Virginia during the coronavirus crisis. The online retail giant recently moved its headquarters to Arlington in Virginia. In a bid to support the state through the pandemic, it has enlisted a local queer eatery, Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant, to provide 10,000 free meals for police, firefighters and frontline healthcare workers. “During this unprecedented time, Amazon is working to not only support our frontline workers and first responders across the Arlington area, but also our most vulnerable neighbours in immediate need,” a spokesperson for Amazon in a […]

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Police Lieutenant Says he Was Fired for Being Gay and HIV+

A former police lieutenant has filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles after he was allegedly fired for being gay and HIV positive after almost 25 years service. Steven Prendergast was hired to the force in 1995 and was promoted regularly throughout his employment. He acted as the police department’s spokesman before he was fired in 2019. The lawsuit claims his firing was a result of discrimination, as he was falsely accused of inappropriately touching two fellow officers during a trip to Washington DC for National Police Week. Prendergast denies the allegations against him and points out that heterosexual […]

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