International

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Being LGBTQ+ in Malaysia: ‘You don’t know who to turn to’

LGBTQ+ people in Malaysia are under sustained attack from the government, but the next generation is giving hope, says one non-binary person. Malaysia’s government is cracking down on the LGBTQ+ community. Queer people have faced arrests and forced conversion therapy in what officials term an attempt to stem the “spread of LGBTQ+ culture in society”. Growing up in the country, Shaf, the musician also known as moreofthem, grew up experiencing a “lot of internalised homophobia” and gender dysphoria. “I didn’t really feel masculine, I didn’t really feel all that feminine at the same time and I was kind of bouncing back and forth,” Shaf […]

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U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak caught on video mocking trans women

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been caught on tape mocking transgender women. In a leaked video from a June 5 event obtained by U.K.-based LGBTQ+ outlet PinkNews, Sunak can be heard taking a shot at Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey. Unlike in the U.S., the British Conservative party has overseen important LGBTQ advancements. But some activists worry the new PM won’t continue this trend. “Like me, you can probably see that he was trying to convince everybody that women clearly had penises,” the Tory party leader told the crowd of conservative MPs at the event. “You’ll all know that I’m a big […]

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Ukraine LGBT Center Broken Into, Vandalized

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A community center that has become a lifeline for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Ukrainians – and hub of humanitarian activity since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – was broken into and vandalized on Tuesday. Photos show that the door of the Insight office in the northwestern city of Lutsk was shattered, with broken glass and paper covering the entryway. Activists say no electronics or documents appear to be missing. Insight is a feminist organization that provides medical care, legal aid, and psychosocial services to queer community members. Since February 2022, the group has housed hundreds of people in three emergency shelters run by LGBT human rights defenders, and, together […]

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Estonia’s Parliament Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

Reuters reports: Estonia’s parliament approved on Tuesday a law to legalise same-sex marriage, making it the first central European country to do so. Same-sex marriage is legal in much of western Europe but not in central European countries which were once under communist rule and members of the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact alliance but now members of NATO and, largely, the EU. “My message (to central Europe) is that it’s a difficult fight, but marriage and love is something that you have to promote,” Prime Minister Kaja Kallas [photo] told Reuters after the vote. EuroNews reports: 55 members of the Riigikogu voted in […]

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For China’s LGBTQ community, safe spaces are becoming harder to find

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 The space for China’s LGBTQ community just got even smaller. Founded in 2008, the Beijing LGBT Center had played a prominent role in combating prejudice against sexual and gender minorities in China. On May 15, four days after its 15th anniversary and two days before the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, the center said on its official WeChat account that it was closing because of “force majeure,” which in China often refers to being shut down by the government. “We were all shocked by the news,” said Marry Yang, a volunteer at the center. “It’s quite sudden. Most people don’t know […]

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Queer teenager killed in Israel after death threats from family members for being LGBTQ+

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Sarit Ahmed, an 18-year-old queer Druze woman, died after being shot multiple times while sitting in her car in Northern Israel, in a killing allegedly motivated by her sexual orientation.  Ahmed was found lying in the street near Yarka, with multiple gunshot wounds to her upper body on Friday (9 June), according to Israeli emergency services. After being taken to Galilee Medical Centre in Israel’s Northern District, Ahmed was pronounced dead.  The 18-year-old had previously received death threats from her brothers due to her queer identity. In 2020, Ahmed filed a complaint against two of her brothers, claiming they had made explicit […]

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Russia Moves to Ban Trans Health Care

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Elected officials in Russia have proposed a new law that would ban transgender people from accessing gender affirming health services – including voluntary surgeries – while allowing operations on intersex children to be carried out without their consent. The bill also prohibits people from changing their name and gender marker on official documents. The bill essentially infringes on the rights of both transgender people and intersex children. Consenting transgender adults who seek medical interventions to affirm their gender identity will be barred from those services while children born with variations in their sex characteristics – also known as intersex children – will […]

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Marriage Equality Gets a Boost in South Korea

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Lawmakers in South Korea have introduced legislation that would extend the right to marry to same-sex couples. This important legislation would finally enshrine the rights of same-sex couples in the country. The bill would amend the gendered definition of marriage in the country’s civil code, allowing same-sex couples to marry and extending them the same rights and benefits afforded to heterosexual married couples. Meanwhile, the National Assembly is also considering legislation that would create civil partnerships as an alternative to marriage for both same-sex couples and heterosexual couples. In the absence of partnership recognition, same-sex couples in South Korea are […]

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Electric Shock Treatment, Overt Homophobia in U.K. Armed Forces: Repor

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An upcoming government report on homophobia in the U.K. armed forces will show a climate of blatant homophobia, incidents of blackmail and sexual assaults, and a campaign of drugs and electric shock treatment to “cure” LGBTQ+ service members of their homosexuality. The report, which covers 1967 to 2000, when the country’s ban on LGBTQ+ service members ended, is set for release next month and an advance copy was seen by Bloomberg. Commissioned last year by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the report contains over a thousand anonymous submissions from individuals who served in the U.K. military between 1967 to 2000. Terence Etherton, […]

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Global survey finds 9% of adults identify as LGBTQ

Nearly 1 in 10 adults across 30 countries identify as LGBTQ, according to a new global survey, but that number tells only part of the story. Age and geographic location played a central role in the findings, with younger respondents and those in more progressive countries significantly more likely to be included in that top-line number. Demographics, including gender, also figured noticeably in respondents’ views on issues like transgender discrimination and same-sex marriage.  Ipsos, a market-research company, surveyed 22,514 participants in 30 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia in February and March, and found that 3% identified as lesbian or […]

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