News

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Thailand: Transgender People Denied Equal Rights

Transgender people in Thailand have no route to legal recognition of their gender identity, making them vulnerable to various forms of discrimination, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today with the Thai Transgender Alliance. The 60-page report, “‘People Can’t Be Fit Into Boxes’: Thailand’s Need for Legal Gender Recognition,”found that the absence of legal gender recognition, coupled with insufficient legal protections and pervasive social stigma, limits transgender people’s access to vital services, and exposes them to daily indignities. Thai transgender people said they were routinely denied access to education, health care, and employment. Thailand has a reputation as an international hub […]

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Hundreds of visitors to these popular nightclubs will have to face quarantine

A COVID-19 outbreak in Australia has left the queer community reeling as more than 700 patrons of two Melbourne nightclubs have been forced into quarantine. The Star-Observer reports that health officials in the nation have ordered partygoers of Peel Hotel and Sircuit Bar–two popular LGBTQ nightlife hotspots–into mandatory quarantine. A fellow clubgoer tested positive for the Omicron variant of COVID earlier this week, and confessed to visiting both Peel and Sircuit Bar on Monday (December 10). “Anyone who attended the Sircuit Bar from 9pm to midnight and the Peel Hotel from 11.30pm to 3am on Friday 10 December needs to quarantine and get tested. The […]

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French parliament bans LGBT+ conversion therapy

France’s parliament voted on Tuesday to ban so-called conversion therapy, joining a handful of countries that have taken steps to outlaw practices that seek to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Under the French legislation, people offering LGBT+ conversion therapy could be jailed for up to two years and fined 30,000 euros ($33,810), with even tougher sentences if under-18s or vulnerable adults were involved. The bill, which must be signed by French President Emmanuel Macron before becoming law, was passed days after a similar ban was signed into law in Canada. Brazil, Ecuador, Malta, Albania and Germany have also passed legislation that […]

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California braces for omicron wave amid grim forecasts, concerns for hospitals

With officials Sunday painting a grim picture of a winter in which the omicron variant spreads with devastating speed, California hospitals are trying to do what they can to prepare for the weeks and months ahead. Public health officials are expecting some kind of wave of new infections to sweep through during the winter, and depending on how large it is, that could tax the hospital system in a way not seen since the summer delta surge. Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical advisor on the pandemic, said Sunday the nation should be prepared for big spikes in hospitalizations […]

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Gay Man Shot in the Head and Killed in Chicago

When he wasn’t working his day job as a medical technician, Suraj Mahadeva helped people in need. The 26-year-old taught kids with autism how to swim and helped young Chicagoans experiencing homelessness, his sister Althea Mahadeva said. He was also an active member of Chicago’s LGTBQIA community, always spreading awareness about pride events. “He liked everything and everyone, and what he loved the most was helping people,” Althea Mahadeva said. Suraj Mahadeva was killed in a shooting in Palmer Square over the weekend, just a few days before he was supposed to go on a family trip, according to his […]

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South Africa’s trans community hit by ‘serious’ shortage of ‘life-saving’ testosterone

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South Africa’s trans and non-binary community is facing a worrying shortage of testosterone, leaving many at serious risk. The shortage is down to manufacturer Pfizer restricting its production of its Depo-Testosterone, a prescription hormone replacement therapy that helps many transmasc people, in favour of producing COVID-19 vaccines. Dr Anastacia Tomson told IOL that the current shortage is “serious” as the “communication from the company anticipates stock to be restored only in or after the second quarter of 2022”. As such, Dr Tomson warned that many trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming patients could be without the “essential and often life-saving” treatment potentially for months. She added that […]

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Queer Black Feminist Writer bell hooks Dies at 69

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Esteemed queer Black feminist author bell hooks has died at age 69. She died Wednesday at her home in Berea, Ky., the Lexington Herald Leader reports. She had been ill, and friends and family were with her. Her dozens of books included essays, poetry, and works for children, and she dealt with issues of intersectionality long before many others. These issues were at the core of her 1981 book Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, which examined the impact of sexism on Black women throughout history as well as racism within the feminist movement. All About Love: New Visions, first published in 2000, […]

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Church group creates ‘a safe place to escape’ for LGBTQ asylum seekers

The church volunteers assembled furniture and hung decorations in the newly renovated apartment building. They laid out nearly every necessity, down to the bath towels, bed linens, cooking supplies and televisions. Over Thanksgiving weekend, the first residents of the home in Worcester, Massachusetts moved in: three gay men seeking asylum in the U.S. “I don’t even have the words,” said Alain Spyke, 26, who fled Jamaica after being continually harassed and threatened by a local gang for being gay. “To come into this country and have a safe space to escape all the hardships and trauma? Not everyone has that […]

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Navy veteran jailed for almost two years for having consensual sex in nursing home

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A gay elderly man was jailed for years simply for having oral sex. (Stock photograph via Envato Elements) A gay senior with Parkinson’s disease spent 22 months in jail after care home staffers saw him giving oral sex to a fellow resident. At the Southampton Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, Leroy Martin, an 81-year-old Navy veteran, had consensual sex with at least two men during the summer and autumn of 2019. But staffers at the centre saw it differently. They sought to paint Martin as a “sexual predator” by phoning the police on him because he is […]

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UK urged to change ‘outdated and discriminatory’ birth certificate rules for LGBT+ families

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The British government’s policy on birth registration “is outdated and discriminatory” against LGBT+ people and their children, a new petition states. Currently, the children of many queer and trans parents face a lifetime of disadvantage because birth registration policy doesn’t legally recognise their family structure. This means these children have inaccurate birth certificates, putting them at risk of discrimination and harassment for their entire lives. This situation is particularly acute for families where one or more parents are trans or non-binary: as PinkNews reported last month, an archaic UK law from the 1950s insists whoever gives birth to a baby can only […]

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