Nick Duffy

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Trump Drains HIV/AIDS Funding to Pay for Child Migrant Detention

The Trump administration is reportedly draining money from HIV treatment programes in order to fund child migrant detention. Slate reports that budget documents show funding has been reallocated within the Department of Health and Human Services from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program to pay for the Trump administration’s aggressive stance on child migrants, which may require thousands of people to be detained. According to documents leaked to the outlet, funding is already being drained from the primary government programme for HIV/AIDS care in the US to fund the surge in detention work undertaken by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Slate alleges that “the process of […]

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Ireland Apologizes for Historical Persecution of LGBT People

Ireland is to issue an apology for historical persecution under anti-gay laws. The Republic of Ireland only decriminalised homosexuality in 1993, five years after its archaic sodomy law was found to be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Prior to decriminalisation, laws dating from the nineteenth century made “buggery” an offence punishable by imprisonment, and gay men in the country lives under a culture of fear. In a poignant move today, the government of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is set to issue an apology to men who were persecuted under the laws. The move has a particular resonance as Varadkar is the […]

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Stay in the Closet at World Cup, Gay Fans Warned

Football fans have been warned to stay in the closet at the World Cup and not openly “display” their sexuality. The World Cup, which is taking place in Russia later this month, has been marred by threats of violence towards LGBT fans from the country’s homophobic ultra-nationalist factions. The Russian government had assured FIFA that everyone would be safe at the contest – but concerns for safety has led to eleventh-hour appeals for gay fans to hide their sexuality to avoid becoming a target. Guidance from the UK Government was recently amended to make a warning to fans. The Foreign and […]

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Army Veteran Sues US Military Over ‘Outdated Ban’ on HIV-positive Soldiers

A US Army sergeant who served in Afghanistan and Kuwait is suing the Pentagon’s policies that effectively ban soldiers serving with HIV. Sergeant Nick Harrison, who serves in the D.C. Army National Guard, says he was denied the opportunity to serve as an officer and faces possible discharge from the United States armed services because he is living with HIV. The soldier, a veteran of two wars, says he was denied a position in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps – because current Pentagon policy considers service members living with HIV “non-deployable”, and will not allow them to enlist. Campaigners say the archaic […]

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New York Times addresses its ‘shameful’ coverage during AIDS crisis

The New York Times has addressed its poor history of covering HIV/AIDS during the AIDS crisis. The newspaper came under heavily criticism from AIDS activists and the LGBT community over its “shameful” coverage of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, when New York City’s gay community was ravaged by the spread of the disease. Media and politicians faced fury for their silence and slowness to act over what was seen as a ‘gay disease’, with one chilling recording featuring President Reagan’s press secretary laughing after being asked about gay people’s deaths. President Reagan did not mention AIDS in public until 1985, when 5000 people […]

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Anti-LGBT Activists Subpoenaed Over Allegations They Helped Draft Trump Transgender Troop Ban

An anti-LGBT lobbying group is fighting to keep details of its discussions with the Trump administration private – after a subpoena directed activists to turn over documents relating to the transgender troop ban. Donald Trump announced on Twitter in July 2017 that all transgender servicepeople would be purged from the US armed forces, claiming they were a “burden” on the military. Despite a string of lawsuits, the White House issued a formal policy document last month that backed the stance by citing transgender people’s “high rates of mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders” and “extremely high rates of […]

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Portugal Passes Law to Let Trans People Self-identify Their Legal Gender

Portugal has passed a law that allows transgender people to change their legal gender under a “self determination” system. The new law, which makes Portugal the sixth European country to adopt a “self-ID” gender recognition law, passed through the country’s parliament on Friday by a reported vote of 109-106. It removes a medical diagnosis requirement for transgender people to have their gender legally recognised, and instead allows them to change their legal gender through a procedure based on self-determination. The new gender recognition law removes hurdles to transition that have faced criticism, and instead respects that trans people themselves know best […]

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Ronan Farrow Comes Out

Ronan Farrow (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images) Influential journalist Ronan Farrow, who helped expose Harvey Weinstein, has come out. Farrow was one of the first journalists to expose allegations of sexual abuse by Weinstein in The New Yorker last October. The former NBC News personality, who is the son of Mia Farrow and director Woody Allen, quietly came out this week as he accepted an honour from the Point Foundation, which supports LGBTQ students. Ronan Farrow (Stephen Lovekin/Getty) Farrow, who has also written extensively on transgender issues, spoke about his own identity in his speech. He said: “Each and every LGBT person […]

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Trans Comic Eddie Izzard Lands Key Labour Party Role

(Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images) Comedian Eddie Izzard has been appointed to the Labour Party’s governing body. The comedian and political activist, who previously identified as a transvestite but has since started using the umbrella term “transgender”, has vowed to become one of the first trans people elected to Parliament. Earlier this year he failed to win election to the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee, just missing out to candidates from the party’s hard left Momentum faction. However, this week he landed a spot on the body after all, as Momentum director Christine Shawcroft stepped down over an anti-Semitism scandal. Eddie Izzard sits on a bench (Photo […]

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Catholic Church Supports ‘Freedom to Discriminate’ Bill

The US Conference Of Catholic Bishops has thrown its support behind a proposed federal law explicitly permitting anti-gay marriage discrimination. Earlier this month a group of 22 Republican Senators reintroduced the First Amendment Defense Act, a bill that would block the federal government from enforcing anti-discrimination protections or civil rights laws in cases where people acted based on “a sincerely held religious belief” in marriage. The bill, spearheaded by Senator Mike Lee, is co-sponsored by some of the most outspoken foes of LGBT rights in the Senate, including Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. As written, the bill states: “The Federal Government shall […]

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