Features

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Meet the trans folk who found acceptance after embracing their surgery scars

While having surgery is not a requirement of being transgender and not everyone medically transitions (perhaps out of choice, due to financial situations, or other reasons), undergoing surgical procedures can be a big step in some trans folks’ transitions. After surgery comes a healing process, and not just the physical kind, as trans people start a new chapter in their lives with new mental and emotional challenges. However, for some, accepting their scars from surgery is a major aspect of accepting who they are as a person. Let’s meet three trans people who found power in learning to love their scars. […]

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Tesla sued by Black, gay employee over ‘festering’ racism and being anti-LGBT+

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Kaylen Barker was a contract worker at a Tesla Inc factory in Lathrop, California, inspecting brake parts, according to Bloomberg, and her complaint filed Tuesday (1 February) alleges that she was also subject to physical violence. She claims a white colleague called her the n-word, “stupid”, “dumb” and a “bitch” while they hit her with a hot grinding tool. The worker was fired, according to her complaint, but “shockingly rehired without any forewarning or explanation” just two weeks later. Barker, 25, was hired at the California sub-assembly plant via a staffing agency, but was fired just eight month later in “retaliation”, she […]

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Two Additional Trans Americans Determined to have Been Killed in 2021

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Two more violent deaths of transgender Americans have just been reported, both from December, bringing 2021’s total to 53. It was already by far the nation’s deadliest year on record for trans people. Za’niyah Williams, a 21-year-old Black trans woman, died after a hit-and-run car crash in Houston December 20, TransGriot reports. She remained unidentified for some time and was misgendered by police and media outlets. But her loved ones have come forward to identify her. “You were loved and will always be a part of me!” a cousin wrote on social media. “Fly high you beautiful butterfly.” A friend posted that Williams was “a […]

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Grindr disappears from app stores in China

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Grindr, the world’s most famous dating app for gay and bi men, has reportedly disappeared from app stores in China. According to AFP, it was removed from Apple’s app store in China on Thursday. It is also not on the Android store. Google’s Play Store is not available in the country. Related: Grindr hook-up leads to shock pregnancy The removal of the app comes as China cracks down on online activity. In recent months it has acted to remove access to pornography and instructed big tech to do more to create a “clean and healthy” cyberspace. Last summer, the country’s hugely popular […]

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Homelessness linked to poor mental health among LGBTQ youth, report finds

More than 1 in 4 LGBTQ youth have experienced homelessness or housing instability at some point in their lives, a new report from The Trevor Project shows, including nearly half of Native/Indigenous LGBTQ youth and nearly 40 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth. Thirty-five percent of LGBTQ youth who are homeless and 28 percent who have experienced housing instability also reported a suicide attempt in the last year, compared to 10 percent of LGBTQ youth who are not housing insecure. Homeless LGBTQ youth are also two to four times more likely to report depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts. These […]

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Majority of LGBT+ Christians don’t feel safe to be themselves in church, damning report finds

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A worrying report has shown that just a third of LGBT+ Christians feel safe to be themselves at church, fearing “hostility and discrimination”. The report from the Ozanne Foundation, in collaboration with nine LGBT+ Christian organisations, is the result of research conducted last year and overseen by Dr Sarah Carr, a mental health and social care research specialist. The survey received around 750 responses from queer Christian adults in the UK, with the majority (59 per cent) attending Church of England churches, and the remaining respondents belonging to other Christian denominations. It found that less than a third (31 per cent) of LGBT+ Christians […]

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New highly-infectious and damaging strain of HIV discovered in the Netherlands

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A new highly-infectious and damaging strain of HIV, resulting from a mutation in the virus, has been discovered in the Netherlands. Scientists working on the BEEHIVE project, a study of HIV genomics and virulence across Europe and Uganda, published their findings in the journal Science on Thursday (3 February). According to UNAIDS, 38 million people around the world are currently living with the most prominent strain of the virus, HIV-1, and it has caused, to date, around 33 million deaths. HIV-2 is the other most prominent type of HIV, and is most commonly seen in West Africa. The newly discovered mutation, a subtype of HIV-1, has been named […]

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‘Extremely drug-resistant’ strain of STI shigella is on the rise

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The UK has seen a sharp rise in an “extremely drug-resistant” strain of the STI shigella among gay and bisexual men, according to a government report. Although not well-known, a shigella infection, from a bacterium that causes dysentery, can be very serious. Shigella is transmitted through the accidental ingestion of faecal matter containing the bacteria, such as by licking skin, condoms, toys or fingers that have been contaminated during rimming, fisting, or giving oral sex after anal sex. Even a tiny amount can cause infection. The infection affects the gut, and can cause severe and long-lasting diarrhoea, stomach cramps and a fever. Because […]

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Over 500 corporations back effort to support Equality Act

A business coalition that is urging the passage of landmark LGBTQ rights legislation grew to more than 500 companies Tuesday. Launched in 2016 by LGBTQ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign, the Business Coalition for the Equality Act is a group of U.S. corporations that have pledged their support for a bill that would federally ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, known as the Equality Act. As of Tuesday, the group was composed of 503 corporations — including 160 Fortune 500 companies — making it the largest business coalition to pledge support for LGBTQ equality, the HRC said. Corporations […]

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Pope Francis urges parents to support their gay children – not condemn them

Pope Francis has urged parents worldwide to unconditionally support, not condemn, their children if they are gay. The leader of the Catholic Church made his latest gesture of outreach to the LGBT+ community in off the cuff statements during his weekly general audience on Wednesday (26 January). He spoke to the crowd about different “sad” situations that parents face in their children’s lives. This included coping with children who live with serious illnesses, are imprisoned or come out as part of the LGBT+ community. “Parents who see that their children have different sexual orientations, how they manage that and accompany their […]

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