Sofia Lotto Persio

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Iowa Governor Signs Law Limiting Funds for Trans and Intersex Healthcare

Iowa governor Kim Reynolds signed a law that will limit public funds for trans and intersex healthcare. Iowa Republicans introduced a last-minute amendment to the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) budget bill on April 26 in an effort to carve a broad exemption into non-discrimination healthcare laws. The amendment to the law signed by Governor Reynolds on Friday (May 3) stipulate that civil rights measures “shall not require any state or local government unit or tax-supported district to provide for sex reassignment surgery or any other cosmetic, reconstructive, or plastic surgery procedure related to transsexualism, hermaphroditism, gender identity disorder, or body dysmorphic disorder.” […]

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GOPer Posts False Accusation Against Dem Hopeful Pete Buttigeig

A post published on the website Medium accusing Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg of sexual assault was fabricated as part of a smear campaign led by two right-wing agitators. Republican lobbyist Jack Burkman and provocateur Jacob Wohl had been looking for young men willing to accuse Pete Buttigieg of sexual misconduct as part of their plan to stop the candidate’s momentum, The Daily Beast reported. Buttigieg, an openly gay veteran who serves as the mayor of South Bend in Indiana, was given little chances to win the Democratic nomination when he first announced the creation of an exploratory committee in January. But the 37-year-old’s […]

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Cayman Islands Appeals Court Blocks Same-sex Marriage Legislation

An appeals court in the Cayman Islands has delayed the implementation of same-sex marriage legalisation in the British Overseas Territory. The Court of Appeal accepted a government request to halt the legalisation of same-sex marriage that Chief Justice Anthony Smellie of the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands ruled with immediate effect in a historic ruling on March 29. The government is appealing the ruling and demanded a stay on same-sex marriage legalisation, which the appeals court granted on Wednesday (April 10), the Cayman Compass reported. “Chantelle and Vickie aren’t trailblazers. They’re just a couple who are in love and who know they […]

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Puerto Rico to Ban Gay Conversion Therapy for Minors

Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rosselló said he will sign an executive order banning so-called gay conversion therapy on minors. Rosselló announced the decision on Wednesday (March 20), days after a bill on the subject was blocked in the House of Representatives by his own party, the New Progressive Party. “As a father, as a scientist and as governor of everyone in Puerto Rico, I firmly believe that the idea that there are people in our society who need treatment due to their gender identity or those who love is not only absurd, but it is harmful to so many children […]

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LGBT activist Oscar Cazorla killed in his home in Oaxaca, Mexico

Pioneering LGBT activist Oscar Cazorla was killed in his home in Juchitan, in Oaxaca, Mexico, on Saturday (February 9). According to the Oaxaca police, who have opened a murder investigation, the 68-year-old died from a blow to the heart inflicted by a sharp object. Cazorla was well known in Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca for advocating for the rights of those identifying as muxes, a third, non-binary gender that has been celebrated in the culture indigenous to the Istmo de Tehuantepec since pre-Hispanic times. In 1976, the slain LGBT+ activist was one of the founders of the Vela de las Autenticas Intrepidas Buscadores […]

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Teen, 17, Charged with Murder of Transgender Woman in Chicago

A 17-year-old was charged with the murder of Dejanay Stanton (Dejanay Stanton/Facebook) A 17-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of 24-year-old transgender woman Dejanay Stanton in Chicago. The teenager, who was charged as an adult, was identified in local news outlets such as the Chicago Sun Times as Tremon T. Hill. Speaking at a bail hearing on Sunday (January 13), prosecutors said Hill knew Stanton and the two had been involved in a sexual relationship since July. Investigators found a text Hill sent Stanton the morning of her death, asking her to meet him in a lot in […]

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Gay Man in Singapore Wins Landmark Child Adoption Case

A gay man has won a legal battle in Singapore to be legally recognised as the parent of a child he fathered through surrogacy abroad. The Singapore High Court ruled on Monday that the 46-year-old gay man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will be able to adopt the child, reversing a previous decision from a lower court. The man has been in a relationship with another man for more than a decade—the two have been living together since 2003, according to the South China Morning Post—and used his sperm to conceive the child through surrogacy in the US. […]

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Gay Firefighter Sues for Discrimination Over Same-sex Marriage

Retired gay firefighter Scott Phillips-Gartner is suing the city of Norfolk, claiming he was forced out of his job because of his sexual orientation. Phillips-Gartner alleges he faced discrimination after Battalion Chief Roger Burris found out he was married to a man, according to court documents quoted in the local news outlet Virginian-Pilot. The 55-year-old man first started working for the city of Norfolk in 1991 as a 911 operator. He then joined the firefighters the following year and eventually became an assistant fire marshal in 2013. Sponsored Content Throughout his time in the firefighters, he was also a member […]

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LGBT Activists Attacked with ‘Acid Substance’ in Russia

Conference founders Anna and Yulia had been raising money for this year’s event via crowdfunding. (Supplied) LGBT+ activists in Russia involved in organising a conference about same-sex families were attacked for the second year in a row. The fifth annual LGBTQIAPP+ Family Conference was due to take place on November 9-11, despite funding issues that forced organisers to raise money via crowdfunding to guarantee safety at the venue. Conference organisers managed to secure a location for the event for free, but on the afternoon of November 9 the venue managers informed the organisers the conference had to be cancelled because […]

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Far-right Militants Attack Trans Rights Rally in Ukraine

Doctors provide medical care to participants of a transgender rights march after an attack by far-right groups activists in Kiev on November 18, 2018. (Sergei Supinski /AFP/Getty) Far-right militants attacked a rally in support of trans rights held in Ukraine on Sunday (November 18). Led by the non-governmental organisation Insight, trans rights campaigners gathered in Ukraine capital’s Kiyv to demand an end to transphobia ahead of Transgender Day of Remembrance, observed on November 20. According to American journalist Christopher Miller, who reported about the rally on Twitter, a group of religious and far-right militants confronted the LGBT+ activists early in […]

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