International

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EuroPride defiantly vows to go ahead as Serbian president claims celebration is ‘cancelled’

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EuroPride has defiantly vowed to host the event in Belgrade even after Serbia’s president claimed it has been cancelled. For Serbia’s LGBTQ+ community, hosting EuroPride in the capital city in September was intended as a way to celebrate diversity and push for more rights in the deeply conservative country. But Serbia’s strongman president, Aleksandar Vučić, claimed EuroPride won’t be happening amid growing tension with Kosovo, he said at a press conference in Belgrade on Saturday (27 August). The leader of the nationalist Serbian Progressive Party told reporters: “The Pride parade that was scheduled for the month of September will be postponed […]

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Transgender Harvard student dies in police custody while on honeymoon in Indonesia

A transgender advocate and Harvard graduate student died in police custody this month while on his honeymoon in the Indonesian tourist island of Bali.  Rodrigo Ventosilla, a 32-year-old transmasculine person from Peru, and his husband, Sebastián Marallano, were detained Aug. 7 by customs police at the Bali airport for illegal possession of marijuana, Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.  Two days after the arrest, Ventosilla was taken to the hospital, where he died on Aug. 11 due to “failure of bodily functions,” according to police spokesperson Stefanus Satake Bayu Setianto, who added that Ventosilla became sick after […]

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Russian men face 20 years in prison after being accused of gay sex by neighbour’s kids

Two Russian men were arrested after being reported by a neighbour for allegedly having gay sex. The neighbour made a police report claiming that her young children had seen the two men, Timur, 21, and Daniil, 22, through a window pouring water over each other and “doing something resembling sex”, as reported by Baza. The two men were detained and prosecuted under the Violent Acts of Sexual Character act. If found guilty they could face anything from 12 to 20 years in prison, as a child under 14 witnessed the alleged sexual act. However, the mother has since tried to retract her […]

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Vietnam Adopts Global LGBT Health Standard

Vietnam’s Health Ministry officially confirmed on August 3, 2022, that same-sex attraction and being transgender are not mental health conditions, Human Rights Watch said today. The decision brings Vietnam’s health policy in line with global health and human rights standards. Vietnam’s new directive states that “the American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization (WHO) have confirmed that homosexuality is entirely not an illness, therefore homosexuality cannot be ‘cured’ nor need[s] to be ‘cured’ and cannot be converted in any way.” “The Vietnamese Health Ministry’s recognition that sexual orientation and gender identity are not illnesses will bring relief to LGBT people and their […]

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Singapore won’t budge on same-sex marriage ban despite plan to decriminalise gay sex

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Singapore has no plans to lift its ban on same-sex marriage or end its tradition of censoring LGBTQ+ content despite confirming it will decriminalise gay sex. The country’s LGBTQ+ community rejoiced on Sunday (31 August) after prime minister Lee Hsien announced the government would repeal Section 377A, which criminalises consensual sex between men. But at the same time, they were reminded the fight for equality is far from over. More than 20 LGBTQ+ groups called the repeal a “hard-won victory” and a “triumph of love over fear”, but stated that it was “the first step on a long road towards full […]

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Journalist & friend attacked & called homophobic slurs in gayborhood

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A journalist for the Manchester Evening News and his companion were verbally and physically harassed last week in the city’s iconic Gay Village. “He started to get right up in my face, pushing me, shoving me, grabbing me and kicking me in the legs quite hard, then he went to go towards my friend. He said, ‘You are in my space, you are trying to touch me, you queer.’” Daniel McLaughlin, 28, a podcast producer at Manchester’s largest news daily, was waiting for a taxi with his nonbinary friend in the early hours of Friday morning after a night out in the […]

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Taiwan blames politics for cancellation of global Pride event

Taiwan on Friday blamed “political considerations” for the cancellation of WorldPride 2025 Taiwan after it said the organizers had insisted the word “Taiwan” be removed. Taiwan participates in global organizations like the Olympics as “Chinese Taipei,” to avoid political problems with China which views the democratically-governed island as its own territory and bristles at anything that suggests it is a separate country. Taiwan’s southern city of Kaohsiung had been due to host WorldPride 2025 Taiwan, after winning the right from global LGBTQ rights group InterPride. Last year, after an outcry in Taiwan, it dropped a reference to the island as […]

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Anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime reports explode across UK, damning police figures confirm

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Anti-LGBTQ+ violence in the UK is rising at a record-breaking rate, alarming police figures have shown. Reports of homophobic hate crimes more than doubled in five years, shooting from 10,003 in 2016-17 to 26,824 in 2021-22. In the past year the figure soared by 32 per cent – the biggest yearly rise since record-keeping began. Transphobic hate crimes similarly swelled by 240 per cent, from 1,292 reports in 2016-17 to 4,399 five years later, in what is also believed to be the largest increase ever seen by the authorities. Across the UK’s 45 territorial police forces, just five reported a decrease in […]

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Authorities in Uganda suspend prominent LGBTQ rights group

Ugandan authorities have suspended the work of a prominent LGBTQ rights group, calling it an illegal entity. Sexual Minorities Uganda has been the East African nation’s most prominent support group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people since 2004. Its leader, Frank Mugisha, said Saturday that authorities who oversee non-governmental organizations advised him to suspend activities, saying his group lacked needed documentation. “This means that the life-saving work we do is on hold. We can’t protect and support vulnerable LGBT people,” he said. “The background, of course, is homophobia and transphobia.” The NGO Bureau said in a statement that […]

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This bisexual journalist returned to Ukraine to face her fears & honor her past

Morning turned into afternoon. A scorching sun blanketed the concrete of the local sports hall belonging to the community of Zolochiv, a frontline village just minutes from the Russian border. There, over the course of several hours, the International Committee for the Red Cross, with the help of local residents, unloaded over 20 tons of supplies for the besieged townsfolk. The town’s mayor, Viktor Kovalenko, who for the preceding five months valiantly rallied the community against Russian aggression, oversaw the delivery. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with the latest LGBTQ news An unassuming bisexual journalist who had returned to […]

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