American fast-food chain Chick-fil-A recently ventured across the pond to the United Kingdom — but the controversial chicken restaurant won’t last long.
Soon after opening Oct. 10, Chick-fil-A’s restaurant at the Oracle Mall in Reading, a town in Berkshire, announced it will close after its six-month lease expires, according to the BBC, with the mall saying in a statement it was the “right thing to do.”
The suburban eatery faced protests from activists who took issue with the company’s track record on LGBTQ rights.
Prior to the closure announcement, Reading Pride, a local LGBTQ advocacy group, said it was “staunchly opposed” to the restaurant opening in the U.K., “and certainly in Reading.”
“The chain’s ethos and moral stance goes completely against our values, and that of the U.K. as we are a progressive country that has legalized same sex marriage for some years, and continues to strive toward equality,” its statement read. “We respect everyone’s freedom to eat where they choose, however, we ask the LGBT+ community (including allies) to boycott the chain in Reading.”
Protesters gathered outside the chain Friday — but they had already won. A day before the protest, the BBC broke the news that the Chick-fil-A branch would only stay for six months. The chain claimed in a statement to The Washington Post, however, that it had only ever planned to be in Reading for six months.
“Chick-fil-A have subsequently stated they’d not planned to stay past 6 months, but what business would not stay if they were successful and profitable?” Martin Cooper, CEO of Reading Pride, said in an email to NBC News. “The point is, they’ve not been given the option to stay by the landlords, The Oracle.”
Matt Rodda, a member of Parliament for Reading, also praised the move in a tweet, saying he was “pleased” that the mall “listened” to activists.
In the United States, Chick-fil-A has more than 2,400 restaurants across the country, but the chain frequently faces protests from LGBTQ activists over its record on gay rights. Before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, Chick-fil-A lent support to organizations that worked to ban same-sex marriage and roll back LGBTQ rights.
Earlier this year, local activism foiled Chick-fil-A’s plans to open restaurants at airports in Buffalo, New York, and San Antonio. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott responded by signing legislation dubbed the “Save Chick-fil-A” bill, which prohibits government entities from taking “adverse actions” against businesses or individuals because of their religious beliefs or moral convictions.
While Chick-fil-A did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment Monday regarding its Reading location, in a previous statement, the company claimed its “restaurants welcome and embrace all people, regardless of … sexual orientation or gender identity.”
WorldPride 2023 will be held in Sydney, InterPride has announced, marking the 50th Anniversary of Australia’s first Gay Pride Week.
InterPride is the international association of Pride organisations, and it voted on Sunday, October 20, at its Annual General Meeting in Athens on the bids for 2023 WorldPride.
The bid said that WorldPride in Sydney, with the theme of “fearless”, would “benefit those communities who need it most; neighbouring countries where LGBTQI communities experience some of the worst human rights abuses in the world”.
2023 will now be the first time a city in the Southern hemisphere has hosted the international LGBT+ event.
The bid highlighted the importance of a Southern Hemisphere WorldPride: “It presents a unique challenge to the WorldPride movement, asking it to engage with and celebrate the many unique, culturally diverse expressions of genders and sexualities found in Oceania and Asia on an unprecedented scale.
“From the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sista Girls and Brutha Boys, to the Fa’afafine and Fa’afatama from Samoa, the Fakaleiti from Tonga, the Kathoey from Thailand, and the Hijra from India.
“WorldPride in Sydney will be a global first, providing a unique opportunity for the Prides of the world to meet with these diverse communities and for them to be seen, be heard and be included.”
New South Wales minister for tourism Stuart Ayres told ABC that WorldPride could generate $664 million for the city, and it has been estimated that the event could draw around one million visitors.
He added: “Sydney is a truly cosmopolitan city with an amazing harbour, delicious food and beverage, world-class transport and a proud history of celebrating diversity.
Campaigners who fought for decades to end Northern Ireland’s same sex-marriage ban and restrictions on abortion prepared on Monday for a momentous change to the laws on both at the stroke of midnight.
Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that does not allow same-sex marriage. Also, unlike England, Scotland and Wales, laws in Northern Ireland forbid abortion except where a mother’s life is at risk, bans that have been upheld by the region’s block of conservative politicians.
But an overwhelming vote by British lawmakers in July to compel the government in London to overhaul the laws if Belfast’s devolved executive had not been restored by Oct. 21 is set to kick in with little or no hope of politicians ending the local parliament’s near three-year hiatus.
Advocacy groups have planned a number of events on Monday to usher in the changes.
“We are not going to stick with the guilt and the shame any longer. Tomorrow the law changes in this place, and for the first time in Northern Ireland, women will be free,” Pro-choice campaigner Dawn Purvis told a public meeting in Belfast
“Free to choose if, when and how many children they will have in the care of health-care professionals. This is a very emotional day for many here.”
Abortion rights were long opposed in Northern Ireland by religious conservatives in both the Protestant community that supports continued British rule and the Catholic community that favors union with the traditionally Catholic Irish Republic.
Pressure has mounted, however, to change the Victorian-era laws in recent years, particularly after the neighboring Irish Republic voted overwhelmingly last year to repeal a similarly restrictive ban, demonstrating a stark change in attitudes on an island once known for its religious conservatism.
If a new devolved government is not formed by midnight, abortion will be decriminalized, beginning a consultation on what the framework for services should look like, which is due to be finalized and approved by March 2020.
“This is a bad law being implemented through a bad process leading to bad consequences for both women and unborn children,” said Dawn McAvoy from the anti-abortion Both Lives Matter group.
Opinion has also changed on same-sex marriage. But despite opinion polls showing most in the region in favor, previous attempts to follow the Irish Republic in legalizing it have been blocked by the socially conservative Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), using a special veto intended to prevent discrimination towards one community over another.
It will take the British parliament until mid-January to bring in the new legislation, setting up Feb. 14, 2020 – Valentine’s Day – as the first opportunity for same-sex couples to marry once they give the required 28-days’ notice.
A Ugandan doctor allegedly shattered a patient’s skull, arms, legs and back with an iron bar and then threw her out of the hospital, all because she is lesbian.
The patient was attacked in August this year in Kampala, the country’s capital, where the medical professional brutally battered her after finding out she is friends with his daughter.
Enraged, the doctor ordered security to give him an iron bar which he then used to pelt the woman’s head, arms, legs, and back, local outlets reported.
Patient went in to purchase glasses, left with her body and mobile phone shattered.
According to a statement recorded at Kabalagala Police Station, the patient had gone to consult an eye specialist at Mukwaya General Hospital in the Kabalagala neighbourhood, a vibrant business hub dotted with commercial banks, restaurants and fuel stations.
A friend had advised her to visit Dr Mukwaya at the clinic because purchasing a pair of glasses would be cheaper at the hospital than at a nearby opticians, where she first had an examination.
Arriving for her appointment, Mukwaya asked which friend told her to visit his facility. She gave a name, which happened to be his daughter who is a nurse at the hospital, the statement read.
Mukwaya General Hospital in the southeastern Kabalagala neighbourhood, known for its vibrant restaurant scene and high-end supermarkets. (PinkNews)
This prompted the healthcare professional to allegedly ask a hospital security officer to give him an iron bar which he swung into the woman’s head and several other parts of her body.
Her phone was also cracked during the assault, detectives reported.
The alleged assault left her, according to medical records and X-ray results, with a “tender” skull and her arm dislocated as a result of the brutal beating.
An examination at the Mayfair Clinic along Entebbe Road concluded that the woman’s skull had been cracked. Her condition is unknown.
Erasing 76 Crimesreached out to the doctor of comment, but he did not reply. While an anonymous source informed PinkNews that they reported the incident to the local authorities, who confirmed the incident is under investigation.
In a country where it is not only illegal to be gay, but laws are defined by traditional and strict religious views, a trans woman being elected councillor seems like a fever dream.
But for Bangladeshi garment shop owner Pinki Khatun, it’s a reality.
Khatun was elected as councillor for Kotchandpur, a rural town in the country’s westside, after beating her nearest rival by more than 4,000 votes earlier this week, reported The Straits Times.
“I am very delighted. I campaigned door-to-door and people have responded positively,” said Khatun.
“I did not face any discrimination or hate campaigns.”
Trans councillor: ‘My aim is to work for the betterment of women and protect their rights’.
Local police chief Mahbubul Alam confirmed the win for Khatun on Monday.
The 37-year-old is a youth wing official of the ruling Awami League party.
She campaigned as an independent candidate in the 200,000-population town of Kotchandpur after the party did not back anyone.
In parts of South Asia, the term hijra refers to certain women, intersex and non-binary people assigned male at birth. While some hijra are trans, not all trans people are hijra.
The community has received some legal recognition in the last decade, but work continues from tireless campaigners to enshrine the wider LGBT+ community with better protections while improving cultural attitudes.
“My aim is to work for the betterment of women and protect their rights,” said Khatun.
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star Sum Ting Wong opted for a more muted look today as she and more than “150 people” protested today against the first UK Chick-fil-A store.
In the southern town of Reading, England, locals were filled with unease when they awoke to the news that the American fast-food chain – known for its donations to anti-LGBT+ organisations – was set to open up shop in their town.
Sending ripples through the queer community, campaigners rallied together to stand against the chain by spilling outside The Oracle shopping centre in the Berkshire town today telling the corporation to ‘sashay away’.
The protest came after a spokesperson for the shopping centre confirmed that that “the right thing to do” is to not extend Chick-fil-A’s lease past its “six-month pilot period”, Reading Pride confirmed in a news release.
Organisers added that as the “restaurant will be profiting from unsuspecting patrons”, the protest would continue as planned.
Protest organisers: ‘They failed to respond, and so we took action’.
Protesters watch speeches from Reading Labour councillors and Reading Pride organisers. (Martin Cooper)
Dozens of local residents and Pride organisations from nearby towns gathered on the red bricked-Broad Street to hoist up rainbow Pride flags, unfurl banners and hand out pamphlets at around 11am.
Protesters chanted “Chick-fil-A, sashay away!” while others held banners up high reading: “Get the chick out! Say no to bigotry and hatred on your High Street.”
The beating heart of the ‘Get The Chick Out’ protest was Reading Pride – first formed in 2003.
Reading Pride chief executive officer Martin Cooper told PinkNews that the LGBT+ community needs to take a stand against the corporation.
“The individual franchises may have differing views to the family that own the company.
“But the profits that are made are used towards anti-LGBT+ activities, including conversion therapies and law making in Uganda, where officials want to ‘kill the gays’.
“Therefore, it is appropriate to protest and let the community know where their money could go.”
Labour councillors, local unions and officials from the UK Pride Organisers Network travelled to the city’s shopping district to show their support.
While representatives from Gloucester Pride, Newbury Pride, Pride in Surrey and Weston-Super-Mare Pride swung to plump up crowds, which organisers estimated saw around 150 people attend throughout the day.
“All in all, the message was put across, and it was clear,” Cooper recounted.
“We won’t allow companies that are actively supporting oppression of LGBT+ persons to get away with setting up shop without calling to question their actions.
“They failed to respond, and so we took action.
“And it paid off.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star allegedly turned away from Chick-fil-A.
Outside a Sainsbury’s supermarket in the city centre, shoppers may have been given a flyer from Sum Ting Wong.
Wong was dressed to match the airy weather in a nondescript mustard beanie, grey drop-stitch cardigan and sandals.
Far removed from her usual powdered, perfumed drag that has made her a fan favourite on the show.
Sum Ting Wong, the stage name of Bo Zeng, is a Reading local who took part in the protest today, pictured handing out pamphlets in front of a convince store. (Martin Cooper)
But the Reading local meant business as she joined protesters in solidarity.
Attempting to go into the Chick-fil-A, Wong was allegedly turned away by staff, according to a tweet.
“But I just wanted see if chicken tasted better than bigotry?” Wong continued.
Moreover, Wong claimed in another tweet that customers in the branch threw “the middle finger” at protesters outside – an obscene hand gesture in the UK.
A Hong Kong court upheld a ban on same-sex marriage and civil union partnerships on Friday after a lesbian identified as “MK” launched the city’s first judicial challenge on the issue, stating it violated her constitutional rights.
Rights group Amnesty International described the judgment as a “bitter blow” for LGBTQ people in Hong Kong.
“Sadly, the discriminatory treatment of same-sex couples will continue for the time being,” Amnesty said in a statement.
The Court of First Instance ruled that the government was not obliged to provide an alternative legal framework such as civil unions, giving same-sex couples the equal rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex married couples.
The court said that, while there are diverse and opposing views in society, it expressed “no view on the associated social, moral and/or religious issues” and that it had adopted a strict legal approach to the matter.
Homosexuality has been decriminalized since 1991 in Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997. The city has an annual pride parade and lively gay scene.
It does not, however, recognize same-sex marriage and LGBTQ activists voice concerns about widespread discrimination.
Hong Kong’s top court in June ruled in favor of a gay civil servant fighting for spousal and tax benefits for his husband.
Uganda will not impose the death penalty for gay sex, a presidential spokesman said today, after major aid donors said they were monitoring a plan by the African nation to reintroduce a bill colloquially known as “Kill the Gays”. Uganda’s Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo last Thursday said the government planned to re-introduce an anti-homosexuality bill in parliament within weeks to curb the spread of homosexuality in the east African nation.
Lokodo’s statement was widely reported across the world and international donors such as the European Union, World Bank, the United States and the Global Fund said they were monitoring the situation closely and stood by the rights of LGBT+ people. A spokesperson for President Yoweri Museveni on Monday said the government has no plans to introduce the legislation that would impose the death penalty for gay sex.
Around 85% of Ugandans are Christians. Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo is a former Catholic priest and local media continues to refer to him as “Father Lokodo.”
RELATED: As most of you surely recall, the first attempt to pass the “Kill The Gays” bill came after pressure from Christian activist Scott Lively, who was later unsuccessfully sued in the United States for crimes against humanity. Lively has since made two failed runs for governor of Massachusetts.
Rainbow Rebellion, the LGBT+ branch of Extinction Rebellion, is trying to show that during an ecological crisis, it’s marginalised communities who will be hit first.
Extinction Rebellion has organised a fortnight of international action, which began on October 7, in cities around the world, calling for governments to take immediate action to address climate change.
He said: “We are a diverse network hailing from all walks of life, united in the belief that climate breakdown and ecological crisis is not only a crisis of the planet, not only a crisis of migrants, but is a crisis of the LGBT+ community as well. There’s no Pride in ecocide.
“LGBT+ people, particularly migrants, disabled people, trans folk and people of colour, are facing disaster on multiple fronts.
“Austerity is killing us off in vast numbers, hate crimes against us have risen exponentially since the financial crash in 2008, and more recently risen since the EU referendum.
“Homelessness is rising, with 24 percent of homeless youth identifying as LGBT+.”
He continued: “As climate breakdown and ecological crisis accelerates, it is the minority communities and the marginalised who will be hit first. And we refuse to let that happen. We are here as part of a nationwide fortnight of action by Extinction Rebellion.
“The queer community are seasoned protesters. We have fought for our survival before, and we will do it again… This is everyone’s fight.”
Extinction Rebellion posted on Twitter: “ExtinctionRebellion has its first marriage. In love, and in rage, they stand on Westminster Bridge to be married. #RebelForLife
“We rebel for their future. They rebel for yours. We all encourage each other.”
A Syrian father of a gay man says he hopes his son will burn in hell. A woman says her once-loving father now wants her dead. And the day one young Syrian told his parents he was gay was the last time he spoke to anyone in his family.
Like countless fellow countrymen and women fleeing the civil war, many LGBTQ Syrians have lost their homeland, livelihoods and often hope itself. But many of them have also lost the little they had left over — their families and communities, who are unable to accept them.
The mentality they’re up against is uncompromising. One conservative Syrian imam confidently told NBC News that there are no homosexual Muslims and that the act was punishable by death.
Fuad al-Essa came out as gay after he fled war-ravaged Syria and settled down in Turkey in 2017.
“I was living a nightmare,” al-Essa told NBC News, sitting in a cafe in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, just 80 miles north of his native Aleppo in Syria. “It broke my heart that I was scared to death to talk to my parents about my identity. It broke my heart that my parents were the ones I was most afraid of.”
“They believe I have a devil inside of me.”
He says he eventually worked up the courage to call his parents who stayed in Syria from Turkey — where it is relatively safer to be openly gay — and “face them with the truth.”
“I told my father that I will always love him and the family, but this is my life and I will not hide myself anymore,” al-Essa, 27, said. “That was the last time I talked to him.”
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, more than 5.6 million people have fled Syria since 2011 to escape the bloody civil war.
There are no exact figures on how many Syrian refugees who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) have left the country devastated by years of war.
Their numbers are not widely documented as even human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have told NBC News they had been unable to do much work on LGBTQ issues in Syria due to limited resources on the ground.
OutRight Action International, a U.S.-based nonprofit that works to defend human rights for LGBTQ people around the world, said they have found that Syria is one of 30 countries in the world where no LGBTQ organizations could be found, whether registered or unregistered — meaning there is no concerted advocacy for change.
It said it also means LGBTQ Syrians don’t have any groups to turn to for advice, knowledge, information or support, making their lives that much more challenging.
Amira al-Tabbaa has been an LGBTQ activist since 2004.
The 35-year-old English literature graduate from Damascus who fled to neighboring Lebanon in 2014 said Syrian families typically do not even talk about LGBTQ issues.
“They will say — don’t talk about it, you are fine. Just don’t talk about it,” she said on the phone from Lebanon.
Women who reveal their nontraditional sexual orientation to their families often get beaten for “bringing shame on the family,” she added. Some are kept at home and not allowed to communicate with anyone, so their actions can be controlled.
“Some will be taken to a psychologist to fix them,” al-Tabbaa said, adding that while all LGBTQ individuals face discrimination in Syria, the social stigma is worse for women, because they symbolize “dignity of the home.”
She said fleeing Syria is dangerous in general, but escaping as a LGBTQ individual can be especially perilous.
“I am hearing from men and women who are really suffocating in Syria and they really need to get out, but there is no way out,” she said.
‘No homosexual Muslims’
Syria is majority Muslim, a religion that prohibits same-sex relations.
According to Abo Abdulrahman al-Ansari, a conservative imam and member of the Shariah council in the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib, homosexuality is strictly forbidden.
“I can assure you that there are no homosexual Muslims,” he said. “Its punishment according to Islam is death.”
The religious and societal stigma surrounding homosexuality in Syria means that for many families, having a son or daughter who comes out after escaping the country can bring enormous shame.
Ahmad Hassan’s son Ammar came out as gay after he fled to Germany in 2015.
The 59-year-old broke down in tears talking about his son on the phone from Idlib in Syria, where he lives with his wife and other children.
“My son didn’t just break my heart, he broke my back,” Hassan said. “I’m no longer respected by the others. I can see that in their eyes. I feel their hatred and revulsion towards me.”
He said he hoped his son would burn in hell for what he did to the family.
“I feel stupid when I think about how much and how long we all cried when he decided to flee to Europe,” he said. “If only he sank in Mediterranean before he reached Europe, I would have cried, but he would have died as an honest, respectful man.”
But for at least some who flee, the pain of losing family is at least party outweighed by the newfound freedom they find in their new homes.
“I used to fight against who I am,” Anas Qartoumeh told NBC News. Courtesy of Anas Qartoumeh
Anas Qartoumeh, who left Syria and settled in Canada at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015, has found a community that accepts him for who he is.
On the phone from Kelowna, a small west coast community where he was the grand marshal at a pride march last year, Qartoumeh, 35, said he had to overcome an internal struggle.
“I used to fight against who I am, I tried to ignore who I was,” he said.
Originally from Damascus, Qartoumeh said he came out when he reached Canada.
And while he enjoys his new home and ability to be himself, he said he misses his family in Syria.
“My door is always open for them if they still want me and accept who I am,” he said. “I don’t think they are ready, not now and not in the future, because they’re very religious. They believe I have a devil inside of me.”
‘I broke her heart’
Sporting short black hair, no makeup and a white T-shirt with the words “live your life” written on it, Hiba said she always had an especially close relationship with her father.
That connection has now turned poisonous.
“The person who was once the closest to me wants to kill me,” said Hiba, 22, fighting back tears at a coffee shop in the southern Turkish port city of Mersin.
Hiba, who spoke on condition that only her first name be used out of fear for her safety, tells her story of love and heartbreak.
After the war broke out, her family left Aleppo due to airstrikes and moved to Atmeh, a small village on the border with Turkey.
In 2014, she met a girl named Aysha, whose family lived in a nearby tent. Hiba says the two decided to run away to “fight for their love.”
They made it as far as Turkey, but their parents soon started looking for them, eventually forcing them to return to Syria.
Hiba, who hasn’t seen Aysha since, says she was not allowed to leave home for weeks and her parents didn’t speak with her.
In March last year, she was forced to get engaged to a man. Days before the wedding, Hiba decided to escape again, making it to Mersin, a community on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, 140 miles northwest of her native Aleppo.
“I talked to my family and asked for their forgiveness,” she said. “But nothing had changed — my father threatened me on the phone. My mother told me that I’m dead for her and that I broke her heart.”
Hiba has lost more than one love — not only Aysha, but her family who cannot accept who she is. And now she is alone.
