International

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Australian man convicted in decades-old gay hate murder of American

An Australian man has pleaded guilty to murdering an American mathematician who fell from a Sydney cliff in 1988 in a gay hate crime that was dismissed by police at the time as suicide. Scott White was charged in 2020 with murdering 27-year-old Los Angeles-born Scott Johnson, whose naked body was found at the base of North Head cliff on Dec. 8, 1988. White yelled repeatedly in court during a pre-trial hearing in Sydney on Monday that he was guilty, having previously denied the crime. A New South Wales state Supreme Court judge on Thursday accepted the guilty plea, dismissing […]

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Kenya bill seeks to ban gays from having children via surrogate

A bill that is currently before Kenyan lawmakers would prohibit gays and lesbians from using surrogate mothers to have children. The proposed law — dubbed the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill, 2019, passed last November by the National Assembly — seeks to assist individuals, including intersex people or couples unable to bear children due to infertility to procure surrogate mothers. To lock out gays and lesbians, the MPs amended the bill by replacing “husband and wife” to “couple” under Kenyan law, which refers to a male and a female who are in an association that may be recognized as a marriage. “Of […]

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In Japan, Police refer trans woman to prosecutors for using women’s bathroom

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Prosecutors are considering pressing charges against a transgender woman who used the women’s public restroom in Osaka, Japan. According to Osaka Prefectural Police, a customer complained that a transgender woman in her 40s was using the women’s room at a commercial facility last May. The customer told employees that she couldn’t use the restroom out of “fear” because “a man wearing women’s clothes was using it” and the employees called the police. On Thursday, the case was referred to prosecutors, who could charge the transgender woman with trespassing. Police say that the woman’s ID still has a male gender marker, […]

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The Times forced to issue corrections after spreading ‘anti-trans’ misinformation

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The Times has been forced to issue two corrections within two days after publishing ‘anti-trans’ misinformation. On Tuesday (4 January), the newspaper finally offered a correction to a story on inclusive language around birthing which it published almost a year ago. In February, 2021, a Times article claimed that in new guidance, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust was telling staff in perinatal services to “say ‘chestfeeding’ instead of ‘breastfeeding’”, and to “replace the term ‘mother’”. A quick glance through the trust’s guidance proves this claim to be categorically untrue, as it clearly states that it will be “taking a gender-additive approach”, which it says […]

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South Korean Gay couple denied health care benefits in court

A court in South Korea rejected a lawsuit brought by a gay couple attempting to gain equal access to health care benefits Friday — a ruling that advocates say highlights the struggles of LGBTQ people trying to gain rights in the country.  The lawsuit, filed last year by So Seong-wook, challenged South Korea’s National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) after it took away his ability to receive spousal benefits from the employer of his partner Kim Yong-min.  “The union of a man and woman is still considered the fundamental element of marriage, according to civil law, precedents of the Supreme Court […]

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Judge tells gay man he can adopt his husband’s child in historic step for Taiwan

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A judge in Taiwan has ruled in favour of a gay man who wants to adopt his husband’s non-biological child, in a historic step for LGBT+ rights. Currently Taiwan, which in 2019 became the very first country in Asia to legalise marriage equality, only allows same-sex couples to adopt when one partner is the biological parent of the child. But on 25 December, a family court in Kaohsiung city ruled that 38-year-old Wang Chen-wei’s child, who he previously adopted, could also be adopted by his 34-year-old husband Chen Chun-ju. However, the ruling only applies to their specific case, and has not legalised same-sex adoption […]

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U.K. expands ‘Turing’s Law’ to pardon past same-sex convictions

In a long-awaited triumph for the U.K.’s LGBTQ community, the government on Tuesday announced that anyone convicted of consensual same-sex activity under now-defunct laws will soon be eligible to be pardoned and have their records wiped clean.  This week’s announcement follows a less-expansive 2017 measure that was limited to nine former offenses that targeted gay and bisexual men. The new amendment will widen the criteria to anyone officially warned or convicted for an abolished civil or military offense that was imposed due to consensual gay sex.  British Home Secretary Priti Patel said in a statement that it was only right that where offenses have […]

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Trans Pride flag planted on Antarctica’s highest peak to celebrate community’s ‘resilience’

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The trans Pride flag has been planted on the peak of Antarctica’s highest mountain, Vinson Massif, by trans climber Erin Parisi. Dedicating her achievement to “the resilience of the trans community” that “took me in when I had no hope”, Parisi said trans people “showed me that it’s better to be visible and free, than live in self-imposed exile, and that stigma withers when we visibly embrace our truth”. Parisi added, in an Instagram post: “We’ve been pushed down, often even beat up, and faced every kind of coldness through our lives – our resilience keeps us rising to the top.” […]

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Israel scraps LGBT+ surrogacy ban in ‘historic step’ for equality

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Israel will allow surrogacy for same-sex couples, single men and trans people from next week after a decade-long legal battle. Health minister Nitzan Horowitz announced on Tuesday (4 January) that new rules making surrogacy accessible to all families will come into effect on 11 January. Currently, surrogacy in Israel is only legal for heterosexual, married couples and single women who ask a surrogate to carry their biological child. Same-sex couples and single men must currently go abroad if they wish to access surrogacy, making the process even more complex and expensive. In July 2021, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled […]

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Private schools’ ban on trans girls is legally ‘unwise at best’, experts say

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A leading group of girls’ schools has updated its admissions policy to exclude trans girls from being admitted as students. The almost-blanket ban on trans girls has been implemented because, the group says, to let trans girls become pupils would jeopardise the schools’ status as single-sex. However, the policy encourages schools to support, affirm and include trans boys and non-binary students. This decision has been called “unwise at best” by legal experts, who say that case law and statutory guidance suggests that a case-by-case approach – which the policy advises schools to take in the case of trans boys and […]

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