News

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NASA refuses to rename multi-billion dollar space telescope honouring cruel ‘homophobe’

NASA is refusing to rename its James Webb Space Telescope despite claims its namesake was involved in an anti-LGBT+ government “purge”. When it launches in December 2021, the $10 billion telescope will be the largest, most powerful and complex space telescope ever built. But the naming of the telescope, in honour of anti-LGBT+ former NASA administrator James Webb, has caused outrage.  Earlier this year, four astronomers launched a petition to rename the telescope because Webb, who was the administrator of NASA between 1961 and 1968, allegedly participated in a government anti-LGBT+ purge. Lucianne Walkowicz of the JustSpace Alliance and Adler Planetarium, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein of the University of New […]

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Education culture war finds a new target: Pride flags in classrooms

Pride flags, which were created to promote unity, are being called political and divisive in some schools across the country. A recent example: An Oregon school board on Tuesday banned educators from displaying the flags.  “We don’t pay our teachers to push their political views on our students. That’s not their place,” a school board member in Newberg, Brian Shannon, the policy’s author, said at a recorded board meeting.  Several other school officials and students around the country have targeted LGBTQ symbols. A teacher resigned in Missouri last month after he was told to remove a rainbow flag from his classroom and […]

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Gay Iranian rape survivor unable to report brutal attack due to cruel laws

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A gay Iranian rape survivor has explained why regressive laws – and the threat of being outed – stopped him from reporting his attacker. Saeed, a 20-year-old based in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, Khuzestan, gave a harrowing account of what it means to be gay in Iran today to the IranWire. To be gay in Iran, Saeed said, is to exist quietly. Sexual activity between two people of the same sex is illegal and punishable by death, prison, lashings and fines – such penalties mean queer rape survivors like Saeed must remain silent, or else. Saeed met his rapist at a […]

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Nepal introduces third gender category in latest census

Nepal has introduced a third gender category in its census for the first time, a move the Himalayan nation’s LGBTQ community hopes will bring them greater rights. Officials from the Central Bureau of Statistics have been visiting homes across the country of 30 million people since Saturday, giving respondents the option of choosing “others” as their gender, alongside male and female. Nepal already has some of South Asia’s most progressive laws on homosexuality and transgender rights, with landmark reforms passed in 2007 prohibiting gender or sexual orientation discrimination. A third gender category for citizenship documents was introduced in 2013 and […]

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SoCo Library virtual October events include events for Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month; LGBTQ+ History Month

The Sonoma County Library is offering virtual events throughout the month of October for all ages, including events for Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month and LGBTQ+ History Month. Registration is required for all events. See a sampling of October’s events below! ChildrenDon’t miss Family Storytime, live on Zoom on Wednesdays! We model the practices of talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing that will help your child get ready to read. Join us on October 6, 13, and 20 at 10:30 am. See the schedule. There will be a Dia de los Muertos storytime on Wednesday, October 27, at 10:30 am. Meet the Author: Raúl the Third on Saturday, October […]

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Rwanda: Round Ups-Linked to Commonwealth Meeting

 Rwandan authorities rounded up and arbitrarily detained over a dozen gay and transgender people, sex workers, street children, and others in the months before a planned June 2021 high-profile international conference, Human Rights Watch said. They were held in a transit center in Gikondo neighborhood of the capital Kigali, unofficially called “Kwa Kabuga,” known for its harsh and inhuman conditions, which appear to have deteriorated further due to the increase in the number of detainees held there and the pandemic. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), first scheduled for June 2020 and rescheduled for June 2021, was eventually postponed indefinitely […]

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Lesbian’s alleged murderer gloated about freeing her family from an evil ‘curse’

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South Africa’s LGBT+ community are demanding justice for a lesbian whose alleged murderer gloated about removing a “curse” from her family. Sisanda Gumede, 28, was stabbed in the Umbumbulu area, south of Durban, on Sunday evening (26 September). She was rushed to a hospital but tragically died en route. Police spokesperson colonel Thembeka Mbele said the killer’s motivation is still unknown. According to Nonhlanhla Khoza, a politician serving in the Department of Social Development, the suspect is thought to be one of the young lesbian woman’s own relatives. “Although the information regarding the incident violently is still sketchy, it appears […]

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Non-binary person reports assault by Proud Boys near Portland

It was a typical day for Juniper Simonis. The freelance ecologist decided to break from work for lunch at about 3 p.m. to take their service dog, Wallace, to the local dog park and grab a bite to eat.   But a planned peaceful afternoon quickly turned ugly. Simonis says they survived a gang assault of about 30 perpetrators in Gresham, Ore., a suburb outside of Portland. The Oregon resident encountered the group for only minutes but suffered a concussion, sprained jaw, extensive car damage and verbal assaults, they said.  “They nearly killed me,” they said. Simonis said they turned […]

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Social Gathering for Queer Families Happens Oct. 9 in Healdsburg Park

Join Positive Images LGBTQIA+ Center and North Bay LGBTQI Families for a Social Saturday: Intergenerational Gathering on October 9th from 11am-2pm at Riverfront Regional Park (7821 Eastside Road) in Healdsburg! All LGBTQIA+ youth, families, adults, and elders are welcome at this gathering, which is part of a recurring series of monthly events taking place throughout Sonoma County where we are seeking to bring together members of our community across generations, particularly gender expansive youth, teens, and adults. At our October gathering we will be led in a series of all-ages yoga activities by local yoga instructor Xochi Lubin-Amaya. Yoga activities will begin at approximately […]

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