Tom Hutt-Dixon

Two men who chased a gay couple through north London, spat at them and pelted them with fruit while hurling homophobic abuse have avoided jail, despite being convicted of a hate crime. Mariusz Smietana, 46, and Dariusz Wawrzenczyk, 37, were sentenced at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court after being found guilty of assault by beating over the attack on Alex Grant, 34, and his partner in Gospel Oak, Camden. The court heard the couple were holding hands as they walked home from swimming at the Highgate Men’s Ponds on Hampstead Heath, shortly after 10pm on 1 July 2025, when they were […]

Police are investigating whether a fatal attack on a gay man in Bulgaria was motivated by his sexual orientation. Georgi Kuzev, 31, was found seriously injured near Youth Hill in Plovdiv at around 5:20pm on Tuesday (4 August), according to Bulgarian outlet Novinite. He was discovered by parents on their way to collect their children from a nearby nursery, who found him lying helpless and alerted emergency services. Kuzev was rushed to hospital with severe head trauma, multiple fractures and extensive internal injuries, but died despite doctors’ efforts to save him. Several teenagers, including minors, have been detained as the investigation […]

France has appointed a new human rights ombudsman who spent years opposing the very rights he is now tasked with defending. Right-wing senator François-Noël Buffet was narrowly approved as the country’s Défenseur des droits on Tuesday, with lawmakers backing Emmanuel Macron‘s nominee by 43 votes to 39. The Défenseur des droits is an independent watchdog responsible for defending citizens whose rights have been infringed and ensuring equal protection under French law, a key institution for LGBTQ+ people, migrants and other minorities. Buffet took part in protests against same-sex marriage in 2013, when France legalised it, and in 2021 voted against extending medically […]

Schools in England will be required to stop transgender pupils from using toilets and changing rooms that do not match their “biological sex” from September, under new statutory safeguarding guidance. The updated Keeping Children Safe In Education (KCSIE) guidance, published by the Department for Education, comes into force on 1 September. It states that schools must not allow pupils to use toilets designated for the opposite biological sex from the age of eight, or changing rooms from the age of 11, “with no exceptions”, even where a pupil has made a request to socially transition. Overnight accommodation on school trips must also remain […]

Japan has taken a landmark step towards non-binary legal recognition. The Osaka High Court ruled on 8 May that the country’s family registration system, the koseki, a mandatory national record-keeping system tracking births, deaths and marriages, violates Japan’s constitutional equality protections by only offering “male” and “female” as gender options. The case was brought by a 50-year-old non-binary resident of Kyoto Prefecture, who petitioned to change their designation of “eldest daughter” to a gender-neutral term in the koseki. While the court stopped short of granting the individual request immediately, it ruled that the absence of a nonbinary gender marker option should be […]