Lilly Wakefield

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Trans woman forced to cut hair and ‘remove breast tissue’ by Qatari officials

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A trans woman in Qatar has described how she was forced to cut her hair and had her breast tissue “removed” after being arrested for who she is.  LGBTQ+ rights, or lack thereof, in Qatar have been in the spotlight since the country was announced as host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.  While there has been global outrage over Qatar’s criminalisation of gay sex, punishable with jail time or the death penalty, little has been said about the fate of trans Qataris.  In Qatar, trans people can be arrested without charge for “violating public decency”, simply for being trans.  Speaking to […]

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Germany elects first-ever trans MPs

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Germany will welcome its first-ever trans MPs to the Bundestag after a federal election that saw the centre-left SDP narrowly beat the centre-right CDU. According to preliminary results on Monday morning (27 September), the SPD and its chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz won 25.7 per cent of the vote. Germany’s Green Party had its best-ever result in a national poll, 14.8 per cent, and Scholz believes he has a mandate to for a coalition with the Greens and liberal politicians, which would bring to an end 16 years of centre-right rule. In another historic first, two transgender Green MPs were elected to the Bundestag – Tessa Ganserer and Nyke Slawik. […]

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Instagram launches anti-bullying feature to combat ‘racist, sexist, homophobic’ abuse

Instagram is launching a new anti-bullying feature to filter out “racist, sexist, homophobic” abuse in your DMs. While Instagram already “proactively looks for hate speech or bullying” in public comments, the new feature will focus the abuse users receive in direct messages. The new tool will filter DM requests, where users say they receive the most abusive messages, containing “offensive words, phrases and emojis”. Users will be able to toggle filters on and off for DMs and comments in a new “Hidden Words” privacy section, where they will be able to add words, phrases and emojis that they don’t want […]

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Gay torture victims held on terror charges in Chechnya without a shred of proof

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Two gay men are being held on terror charges in Chechnya, having escaped torture in the homophobic republic before being returned by Russian police. Salek Magamadov and Ismail Isayev, who is just 17 years old, fled to Russia in June 2020 with the help of the Russian LGBT Network. They were relocated by the group to Nizhny Novogorod, a city around 400 kilometres east of Moscow, having been tortured by the Chechen special police for running an opposition Telegram channel.SPONSORED CONTENTPandemic or Not, Don’t Skip These 3 Health ChecksBy Sutter Health Earlier this month, the two gay men went missing and it was […]

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New Secretary of State Antony Blinken Will Allow US Embassies to Fly Pride Flags Again

Joe Biden’s new secretary of state has made several promises to the LGBT+ community, including “urgently” appointing an LGBT+ envoy. Antony Blinken, who will lead the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of State, made the comments at his confirmation hearing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday (19 January), according to CNN. He outlined changes he would make to ensure that the US government was “standing up for and defending” the LGBT+ community once Biden is in office. The position of LGBT+ envoy, which was created to oversee US government efforts to support LGBT+ human rights, was left vacant during Trump’s presidency. But Blinken said that filling […]

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Nova Scotia Will Now Cover Cost of Top Surgery for Non-binary Folk

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia has announced that it will cover the cost of top surgery for non-binary people through its Medical Services Insurance (MSI). Nova Scotia’s insurance programme is “designed to provide eligible residents with coverage for medically required hospital, medical, dental and optometric services”. n June, 2019, the Nova Scotia government announced it would begin covering top surgery for trans women, having previously only provided it for trans men. But now, effective 2 November 2, non-binary residents will also be able to access surgery for free. According to CBC, the change came after Sebastian Gaskarth, who is non-binary, filed a […]

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Police ‘Cracked Jokes’ while Trans Woman Bled on the Floor after Attack

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Kendall Stephens, a trans woman who survived a horrific transphobic attack in her own home, has described the shocking reaction by police who “cracked jokes while she bled onto the floor”. Warning: contains graphic descriptions of violence against a trans person.× Kendall Stephens, a community advocate and Temple University student, was brutally attacked by a group of people in her own home in August this year.  The 34-year-old was studying and enjoying a quiet night in with her two goddaughters, aged 12 and 16, when she heard a fight breaking out outside her house in South Philadelphia. When the group refused […]

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Man Who Fired Gun Outside a Bar Bar while Shouting Anti-gay Slurs Jailed

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A man who showed up to an LGBT+ bar with a rifle intent on shooting the patrons inside will serve less than four years in prison, but was not convicted of a hate crime. Freddie Lee Doyle, 32, previously pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm, and has been held without bail for about 14 months. According to Metro Weekly, Doyle drove to Rehab Bar & Grill in St Louis, Missouri on June 27, 2019, equipped with a Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle, bipod, scope, tactical light, four full rifle magazines and about 160 rifle rounds. When he arrived in his car, […]

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Millions in COVID Relief Funds Went to Anti-LGBT+ Hate Groups and Televangelists

Donald Trump and his administration have given millions of dollars intended to protect small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic to anti-LGBT+ hate groups and homophobic televangelists. According to the US Small Business Administration, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) “is a loan designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll”. While the Trump administration initially resisted releasing information on which companies had been given PPP loans, on Tuesday, July 7, it released a list of companies that had been given more than $150,000. According to LGBTQ Nation, the entire list contains just two prominent LGBT+ […]

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Trans Candidate ‘Shatters the Lavender Ceiling’ in West Virginia

West Virginia elected its first-ever openly trans official on Tuesday, June 9, making history and “shattering the lavender ceiling”. Rosemary Ketchum, a trans woman, was elected as councilwoman and won her bid for the third ward seat in Wheeling City, West Virginia. When she assumes her role on July 1, she will become one of only 27 openly trans elected officials in the whole of the United States, and one of four out LGBT+ officials in her state. According to The Intelligencer Wheeling News-Register, Ketchum said that although her gender identity was not a large part of her campaign and she thinks that […]

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