International

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Every major Northern Irish party unites behind conversion therapy ban and trans rights

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Representatives from Northern Ireland’s six biggest political parties have committed to outlawing conversion therapy and improving access to trans healthcare. Political figures convened virtually on Thursday evening (1 July) for the PinkNews Virtual Summer Reception in Belfast, which was hosted in partnership with Citi and The Rainbow Project. Leaders from across the political spectrum were questioned on their commitment to LGBT+ rights at the event by John O’Doherty, director of The Rainbow Project. Kicking off the discussion, O’Doherty asked political leaders how much longer trans people in Northern Ireland will have to wait to access healthcare at home, referencing ongoing issues with the […]

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Remembering Declan Flynn, the gay man whose brutal murder kickstarted Ireland’s Pride movement

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The night of 9 September, 1982 started off like any other evening for Declan Flynn. He went to Belton’s Pub in Donnycarney, Dublin with a friend – an establishment that was just a short walk from his home. At 11.45pm that night, Flynn left the pub and set off on his walk home through Dublin’s Fairview Park, a well-known meeting spot for gay men. He stopped off at the Fairview Grill on his way home where he met with a male friend. Before continuing his journey, his friend kissed him on the cheek. Shortly afterwards, he was violently beaten to within an […]

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Single gay man who ‘always dreamed’ of a big family adopts six children with disabilities

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A single gay man who said he’s “always dreamed” of a big family has just adopted his sixth child with a disability. Ben Carpenter, 37, from Huddersfield worked in the care sector before he adopted his first child when he was just 21 years old. A single gay man who said he’s “always dreamed” of a big family has just adopted his sixth child with a disability. Ben Carpenter, 37, from Huddersfield worked in the care sector before he adopted his first child when he was just 21 years old. Adopting children who had disabilities and additional mental and physical […]

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‘We’re not hiding’: Gay and lesbian Russians say a cultural shift is underway

When Lisa Androshina threw her first lesbian party in Moscow in 2017, she had low expectations.  “We wanted to just gather with our friends and just listen to cool music,” Androshina, 34, told NBC News. “We didn’t plan to do anything serious.”  She booked a bar that she said was often empty and invited her friends and some DJs. After a few parties, her event, called LVBZ, grew in popularity.  Androshina, who lives in Moscow, said about 500 people now attend the quarterly LVBZ nighttime dance, which features DJs from around the world.  Despite the government’s anti-gay restrictions and the […]

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Out Adventures Partners with Rainbow Railroad to Help LGBTQ+ Refugees Find Safety

Toronto-based Out Adventures is thrilled to announce a community partnership with Rainbow Railroad, the charitable organization that resettles LGBTQ+ people who face persecution based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics. The tour operator plans to donate $25,000 USD by the end of 2022. There are over 80 million people around the world who are displaced right now – the highest number since World War II. Worse, the LGBTQ+ community is especially vulnerable to the systemic, state-enabled homophobia and transphobia that pervades many nations. “For over 10 years we’ve made a point to support LGBTQ+ organizations in the places […]

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Russian Chain Apologizes To Haters After Ad Featuring Same-Sex Family Results In Outrage And Death Threats

The Moscow Times reports: Russian organic grocer VkusVill has pulled its promotional material featuring an LGBT family and replaced it with an apology less than a week after posting it. Social media users reportedly swarmed VkusVill’s and the same-sex family’s accounts with death threats after their story ran Wednesday as part of a series spotlighting the retail chain’s regular customers. By Sunday, the advertising article’s URL contained a contrite message signed by VkusVill’s founder Andrei Krivenko and senior executives. “We consider this publication to be our mistake, which was the result of individual employees’ unprofessionalism,” VkusVill wrote in the apology. Read the full […]

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Queer communities at huge risk in Lebanon, Oxfam research warns

Lebanon’s queer communities have few safe spaces left and have been among the hardest hit by the combined impacts of the 2020 Beirut blast, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing economic crisis, new Oxfam research warned today. The combination of crises has destroyed entire neighborhoods where queer people had found refuge over the last decade. The report, “Queer Community in Crisis: Trauma, Inequality & Vulnerability,” is one of the first studies conducted in Lebanon to understand the impact of the multi-layered crises facing the LGBTQI community and their unique needs. Oxfam interviewed 101 individuals, civil society organizations and informal aid […]

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LGB Brits drink more, smoke more and have worse mental health: report

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A landmark NHS report has laid bare the concerning health inequalitiesfaced by lesbian, gay and bisexual adults in the UK. The first-of-its-kind report, published today (6 July) by NHS Digital, is based on data from 1,132 LGB adults who participated in the Health Survey for England between 2011–2018. The research found that LGB adults are more likely to drink more, smoke more and have worse mental health than the straight population, with worse health outcomes as a result. Despite LGB adults being 12 per cent less likely to be overweight or obese than straight people, a higher proportion of LGB people (7 […]

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‘We are invisible’: Discrimination and risks multiply for Indigenous LGBTQ in Mexico

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Wilter Gómez was 12 years old when his stepfather took him from his hometown in Gracias a Dios, Honduras, to the jungle. After walking for hours on remote trails, the man began to beat him repeatedly.  “He wanted me to disappear,” Gómez said bitterly. His stepfather threw him and left him in a ditch full of water, but the intense pain from the beatings caused Gómez to wake up, saving him from drowning. He never returned to his Gracias a Dios home. “My only sin was being who I am, a gay person. My people are very discriminated against because we don’t speak Spanish […]

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Trans activist forced to work days on end without sleep to help his community

Chloe Lula, a Berlin-based writer and audio producer, writes for PinkNews and openDemocracy about the unique challenges trans folk face in ultra-conservative Georgia. Bart Nikolo, a transgender man living in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, spends his winter nights gathering kindling for the sex workers who wait for clients near Heroes’ Square. t’s something he’s done for years. After driving around for hours picking up fallen branches, he stacks them in neat piles, creating small fires that radiate a feeble heat. When police officers try to fine him for “littering”, he explains what he says should be obvious: that he’s only trying to help ensure that […]

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