Sofia Lotto Persio

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Gay Lawyer Files $26M Lawsuit Over Claims He Sought Relationship with Al-Qaeda Client

An Illinois-based lawyer is seeking $26 million in a defamation lawsuit against his co-counsel in the representation of a Guantanamo Bay inmate, an alleged mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks. Tim Jon Semmerling claims that Chicago defence attorney Cheryl Bormann outed him to the client, alleged Al-Qaeda camp trainer Walid bin Attash, telling him the lawyer was seeking an intimate relationship with him. The lawsuit complaint, filed on September 29 in an Illinois district court and seen by PinkNews, also names Department of Defense employees and members of the defence team Michael Schwartz, Brigadier General John G. Baker, Major Matthew H. Seeger and Edwin Perry as having taken part in […]

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Virgin Launches First Fully LGBT-staffed Flight in the World

Titus Burgess will host the Proud Flight (Virgin Atlantic) The world’s first known flight fully staffed by LGBT+ people is due for take off from London Heathrow Airport in June 2019. The LGBT+ pilots and cabin crew will head the one-off ‘Pride Flight’ to New York, which is the first American city to host the World Pride event next year, on June 28—the day marking 50 years since the beginning of the Stonewall riots. Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays teamed up with NYC & Company, New York City’s official marketing, tourism and partnership organisation, to bring the Pride celebrations to 38,000 feet above the ground. Broadway […]

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Government Risks ‘Neglecting Needs of LGBT Youth’ in Sex Education

Campaigners have expressed concern with the findings of the first round of public consultation on what schools should be teaching in the Relationships Education and Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) curricula. The consultation, which runs until November 7, 2018, was called following government plans to introduce the mandatory subjects in schools across the country by September 2020. Then-Education Secretary Justine Greening promised the revised curricula would be inclusive of LGBT issues, although the draft guidance published under her successor Damian Hinds in July leaves schools “free to determine how they address LGBT specific content,” even if the ministry’s recommendation is that the teaching “is integral throughout […]

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Chile Approves New Gender Identity Law in ‘Great Victory for Trans People’

Chilean deputies for the Frente Amplio party, celebrate as they hold a giant fake Chilean Identity card reading “My identity, my right”, after voting a gender identity law, during a session at the Deputies Charmber, of the National Congress in Valparaiso, Chile, on September 12, 2018. (Francesco Degasperi/AFP/Getty) Chile has passed a new gender identity law that will allow transgender people aged 14 years and above to change their name and gender in official documents. The process will take place at a civil registry and will not require surgical or medical intervention, although minors will have to obtain permission from […]

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Lesbian Declared Married to her Partner of 50 Years, Who Died in May

(Bonnie Foerster/Facebook) A lesbian is now officially married to her longtime partner, who died months ago. Utah Judge Patrick Corum declared 74-year-old Bonnie Foerster legally wed to her “soulmate” and common law partner Beverly Grossaint, who died in May at the age of 82, just a few weeks after the couple celebrated their five-decade anniversary together. Foerster was crying tears of joy following the rare ruling on August 21. “I’m numb from happiness. I’m married,” she said, quoted in The Salt Lake Tribune. “I’m a married woman. I’ve waited 50 years,” she added.The couple met in New York in 1968, after Foerster […]

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Fortune 500 list now features openly lesbian CEO for the first time

A Fortune 500 company has named an openly gay woman to the role of president and CEO. Effective August 1, Beth Ford will take the reins of food and agricultural cooperative Land O’Lakes, Inc., ranked 216 in the annual ranking of the largest companies in the US compiled by the American publication Fortune. She joined the company in 2011 and has more than 20 years’ experience specifically in the areas of technology and research and development. The company statement announcing her appointment on Thursday made no reference to her appointment breaking new ground for the LGBT+ business community, although it stated that the new CEO […]

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Episcopal Church Allows Same-sex Marriage in All Churches Regardless of Bishops’ Views

The Episcopal Church has passed a resolution that will allow same-sex couples to get married in their diocese of choice, regardless of the bishop’s view on same-sex weddings. The resolution B012 was approved with an overwhelming majority on Friday, July 13, during the Episcopal Church General Convention in Austin, Texas—a triennial event. In 2015, after the historic Supreme Court ruling recognising same-sex marriage across the US, the General Convention too voted on allowing same-sex weddings. The resolution passed, but it gave bishops the power to refuse a couple on the basis of their theological views on marriage, and force other members of the clergy […]

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Janet Mock Makes History as First Trans Woman of Color Directing a TV Show

Activist and writer Janet Mock made history on Sunday, when the episode of Pose she wrote and directed aired on FX to virtually unanimous acclaim. Mock became the first transgender person of colour to direct a TV show. “Love is the Message” was the sixth episode of the show’s inaugural season, for which Mock also worked as a writer—the first trans woman of colour to write for television—and producer. Set in the late 1980s, Pose focuses on life and society in New York City, from its iconic ball culture to the rise of the Donald Trump-like billionaires, against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis. The musical […]

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LGBT Youth in Sports “Overwhelmingly” Remain Closeted

At least 80 percent of gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer teen athletes hide their sexuality from coaches, a report published last week by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) foundation and the University of Connecticut showed. The percentage of closeted student athletes increases to 82 percent among trans youth. The study surveyed more than 12,000 teenagers in the US, aged between 13 and 17, who participated in HRC’s online 2017 LGBT+ Teen Survey. Researchers decided to focus specifically on the experience of LGBT+ youth in sports because of the positive social, psychological and physiological effects of engaging in physical activities that teen may miss out due to lack […]

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