Lilly Wakefield

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HIV/AIDS Activists Obliterate Trump for Referring to Coronavirus as the ‘China Virus’

AIDS activist group Act Up NY has called out US president Donald Trump for repeatedly calling COVID-19 the “China virus”. Trump has been repeatedly using the terms “Chinese virus” and “China virus” to describe the coronavirus, prompting many to accuse him of promoting racism against Asian communities during the pandemic. On March 18, Trump posted on Twitter: “I always treated the Chinese virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the ‘borders’ from China – against the wishes of almost all. “Many lives were saved. The Fake News […]

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There Are 16 States in the US that Still Have Sodomy Laws

In 2020, there are 16 US states that still have sodomy laws against “perverted sexual practice” and “crimes against nature”. According to ACLU, laws against sodomy were originally designed to prohibit any sex that was not for procreation, and so included crimes like having sex outside of marriage and bestiality. But in the late 1960s, the laws began to be used to specifically target gay people, as an excuse for discrimination when gay rights progress was just starting to be made. Some states rewrote their sodomy laws so that they would only apply to gay people, others ruled in court that […]

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Queer Google Employees Give Damning Indictment after being Fired at Thanksgiving

Three LGBT+ workers who were fired by Google during Thanksgiving week are alleging that they were dismissed by the tech giant because of their employee activism, and plan to file federal charges. Laurence Berland, Sophie Waldman and Rebecca Rivers, who all identify as LGBT+, were fired duing the same week, along with another employee, Paul Duke, who is not LGBT+. Google told its employees that the reason for firing the four workers was “clear and repeated violations of our data security policies”. But the former Googlers, according to The Guardian, deny any wrongdoing and are alleging their dismissal was to send a […]

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The Queer Branch of Extinction Rebellion have an Important Message

Rainbow Rebellion, the LGBT+ branch of Extinction Rebellion, is trying to show that during an ecological crisis, it’s marginalised communities who will be hit first. Extinction Rebellion has organised a fortnight of international action, which began on October 7, in cities around the world, calling for governments to take immediate action to address climate change. A spokesperson for Rainbow Rebellion gave a speech in London’s Parliament Square during protests on October 9. He said: “We are a diverse network hailing from all walks of life, united in the belief that climate breakdown and ecological crisis is not only a crisis of […]

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Florida Judge Rules it’s Legal to Force Minors through Conversion Therapy

A Florida judge has rejected a Tampa ordinance aiming to ban traumatising conversion therapy for minors, claiming that it would limit parental rights over their child’s healthcare. Medical experts consider interventions to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity to be pseudo-scientific, ineffective and harmful. The ordinance would have blocked professionals from providing ‘therapy’ to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of young people, but it was challenged by marriage and family therapist, Robert Vazzo, and Christian ministry New Hearts Outreach. US district judge William Jung sided with Vazzo and New Hearts Outreach, and wrote in his decision that a conversion […]

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Native American Tribe becomes First to Pass Hate Crime Law Protecting LGBT People

The Oglala Sioux Tribe may have become the first Native American tribe to introduce a hate crime law protecting LGBT+ and two spirit people. There is no comprehensive data on law codes for the 573 federally recognised American Indian tribes, but Indian Country Today reported that it could not find any other hate crime laws that specifically mention LGBT+ and two spirit people. The Oglala Sioux tribal council voted in favour of the law in a council meeting earlier this month. Under tribal law, hate crimes committed by people of the Oglala Sioux Tribe are now punishable by up to one year in […]

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A Winery Refused to Host a Same-sex Wedding Because of the Owner’s ‘Religious Beliefs’

A lesbian couple who asked to hold their wedding at a California winery were turned down because of the owner’s “religious beliefs.” One of the brides posted her correspondence with the winery on Facebook to call for a boycott after its “overt homophobia”. The email from Viaggio winery’s weddings and events director read: “While Viaggio Winery welcomes your business, we have never hosted a same-sex marriage. “[The owners] understand that California statutory law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, and they don’t like to think they would ever discriminate on that basis even if a law allowed them to do so. “However, […]

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Every NFL Team Has Gay or Bisexual Players, Retired Player Claims

Retired National Football League player Ryan O’Callaghan has said he thinks there is “at least one” gay or bisexual player on every NFL team, but that they do not come out for fear of losing sponsorships or even their jobs. O’Callaghan came out as gay in 2017, and is soon to release a book titled My Life on the Line: How the NFL Damn Near Killed Me and Ended Up Saving My Life in which he talks about being closeted in the NFL. He told Reuters: “I can promise you there’s plenty of closeted NFL players. “I think it’s safe to say there’s at […]

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Brazil’s Culture Secretary Resigns over Bolsonaro’s ‘Censorship of LGBT TV Shows’

Brazil’s special secretary of culture, Henrique Medeiros Pires, has stepped down in protest against president Jair Bolsonaro’s censorship of LGBT+ content on TV. Pires announced his resignation to minister of citizenship, Osmar Terra, on Tuesday, August 27. Last week, Bolsonaro halted funding for films with LGBT+ themes, describing such screenplays as “throwing money away”. One of the targets was Transversais, a five-part documentary series about the lives of five transgender people in Brazil. According to Pires, however, the suspended funding was just a “drop of water” in all of the Brazilian government’s efforts to censor culture and artistic freedom. Artforum reported that Pires said: […]

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Lebanon Bans Activists from Re-entering after Attending a Sexuality Conference

Activists and academics who attended a gender and sexuality conference in Lebanon have been banned by the government from re-entering the country. The NEDWA conference, organised for the fifth year by the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality, aims to allow activists to share knowledge between countries and develop strategies on LGBT+ issues. When it was announced the conference was due to be held in Beirut last year, authorities tried to shut it down. On the third day, General Security officers – the intelligence branch of Lebanese security forces – arrived at the hotel where the conference was held to question […]

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