Sanna Marin, the newly-elected prime minister of Finland, will be the youngest sitting country leader in the world and is the daughter of same-sex parents.
The Social Democrat, 34, will replace Antti Rinne who resigned last week, making the country’s five-party coalition entirely led by women. Four out of five are in their thirties.
The rest of the coalition is made up of Li Anderson, 32, of the Left Alliance; Maria Ohisalo, 34, of the Green League; Katri Kulmuni, 32, of the Centre party and Anna-Maja Henriksson, 55, of the Swedish People’s party.
Marin is currently Finland’s transport minister but was elected as as the country’s leader on December 8 and will be sworn in this week. She will be the third female prime minister in the Nordic country’s history.
She was the first in her family to go to university, and was raised by a mother in a same-sex relationship, or what she has previously described as a “rainbow family”.
Finland’s government is now led by these five party leaders. #newgeneration
Sanna Marin: New prime minister of Finland said her LGBT+ family felt “invisible”.
Marin told the Finnish site Menaiset in 2015 that she felt her upbringing in a LGBT+ household influenced her values as a politician.
She said: “For me, people have always been equal. It’s not a matter of opinion. That’s the foundation of everything.”
But growing up those around her did not always feel the same way, and she said that growing up with same-sex parents made her feel “invisible” and that they “were not recognised as a true family or equal with others”.
She added: “But I wasn’t bullied much. Even when I was little, I was very candid and stubborn. I wouldn’t have taken anything easy.”
Marin has shot up through ranks of politics in Finland since she became head of the council in Finland’s third largest city Tampere at just 27 years old. She is also mother to an almost two-year-old daughter.
A gang of teenage boys were sentenced to 13 years after luring gay men they met on Grindr into a city park before robbing and humiliating them in a homophobic attack.
By using fake Grindr accounts, the teens would target gay men and tempt them into Bordesley Green in Birmingham, England, reported Birmingham Live.
The four victims were left fearing for their life after the teens tied them up, urinated on them and robbed them in a string of attacks from January 5 to March 29.
One Grindr victim was gagged before being forced to walk in dog excrement.
Three victims were bound by their hands and feet and two were urinated on.
In one attack, gagged with a pair of socks, the victim was forced to walk through dog excrement in a deluge of degrading acts.
One victim was told he deserved to be attacked and robbed because he was a “white man responsible for attacks on Muslims in New Zealand”.
Moreover, one man’s torture lasted for around two hours, and one attacker used a screwdriver to repeatedly stab his jacket.
He was then threatened to have the weapon be stabbed in his eye, spat on, urinated on, tied up and his trousers pulled down as the gang snapped photos of his genitals as they demeaned him.
Mohammed Khan, 18, of George Road, Hay Mills and Mohammed Umar, 18, of Denville Crescent, Bordesley Green, had previously admitted conspiracy to rob and conspiracy to commit a burglary.
Qaasim Ahmad, 18, of Heather Road, Small Heath, was found guilty of those charges and also conspiracy to falsely imprison.
The men ‘deliberately degraded and humiliated’ the victims, says judge.
Kham and Ahmad were both sentenced by the Birmingham Crown Court to 13 years and four months detention.
While Umar was given a sentence of 11 years and three months.
Judge Heidi Kubic QC, as she passed the sentence, said: “You deliberately degraded and humiliated your victims.
“They had the courage to come forward and publicise their ordeal
“I am quite satisfied all four men were targeted because they were gay men.
“You had set up fake Grinder accounts to lure them to secluded areas.
“You subjected your victims to serious physical assaults and you threatened them with various weapons, including a large hunting knife, a screw driver and you used a metal bar to inflict injuries.”
The courts heard that the men dragged their victims into the park bushes. One victim was threatened with having their face superimposed on a video of a paedophile.
The GLOBE Act would also require the State Department to document discrimination and other human rights abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity around the world and prevent those who commit human rights abuses against LGBTQ people from entering the U.S. The bill also seeks to improve the way the American immigration system treats LGBTQ asylum seekers and refugees.
The GLOBE Act would require the U.S. to work with the Organization of American States and other international institutions to promote LGBTQ rights around the world. The GLOBE Act would also direct the U.S. to protect LGBTQ Foreign Service personnel who are stationed overseas.
Nevada Congresswoman Dina Titus has introduced a version of the GLOBE Act in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“For the United States to hold true to our commitment to defend the human rights of all people around the world, we must stand with the LGBTQI community in their struggle for recognition and equality everywhere,” said Markey during an event the Council for Global Equality held at the Senate Visitors Center on Capitol Hill. “We cannot stand idle as LGBTQI persons worldwide continue to endure hatred, violence and discrimination.”
“U.S. values call us to be allies, to stand up and protect them, in spite of the Trump administration’s attempts to narrow the government’s human rights focus and exclude LGBTQI individuals,” added Markey.
The GLOBE Act’s introduction coincides with International Human Rights Day, which commemorates the U.N. General Assembly’s ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, 1948.
Tuesday’s event began less than two hours after House Democrats announced two articles of impeachment against President Trump over his efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. The White House’s overall foreign policy and anti-LGBTQ policies in the U.S. have also sparked widespread criticism.
Markey on Tuesday said the State Department’s controversial Commission on Unalienable Rights “excludes LGBTQI persons.” Markey also criticized the Trump administration’s 2018 decision to withdraw the U.S. from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
“The Trump administration seeks to undermine the very institutions we built and convened over the past seven decades,” said Markey.
“As President Trump cozies up to world dictators, defends human rights abusers, turns a blind eye to war crimes, the world is a far more dangerous place,” he added. “Trump has made life more dangerous for LGBTQI persons by attempting to erase them from reports, from laws and from public life. We will not allow this to happen.”
Roxsana Hernández, a transgender woman from Honduras with HIV, died on May 25, 2018, at a New Mexico hospital while in ICE custody. Johana “Joa” Medina León, a trans woman from El Salvador with HIV, died at a Texas hospital on June 1, three days after her release from the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, N.M., where she had been in ICE custody.
Yariel Valdés González, a Washington Blade contributor from Cuba who won asylum in the U.S. in Cuba, is among the tens of thousands of people who remain in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
Immigrant rights activists say the deaths of Hernández and Medina highlight the mistreatment that LGBTQ migrants and asylum seekers face while in ICE custody. The GLOBE Act also notes these concerns.
“Asylum and refugee protection are critical last-resort protections for LGBTI individuals, but those who seek such protections face ostracization and abuse in refugee camps and detention facilities,” reads the bill. “They are frequently targeted for violence, including sexual assault, in refugee camps and in immigration detention. LGBTI individuals may be segregated against their will for long periods in solitary confinement, in an effort to protect them from such violence, but prolonged solitary confinement itself represents an additional form of abuse that is profoundly damaging to the social and psychological well-being of any individual.”
Bill reaffirms US ‘promotes equality and justice’
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in March reiterated his opposition to “gender ideology” and his government’s “respect of traditional family values” when he spoke alongside Trump in the White House Rose Garden.
The State Department’s special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ rights abroad remains unfilled; but Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Scott Busby’s bio notes LGBTQ rights are among the issues that are part of his portfolio. The Trump administration earlier this year tapped openly gay U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell to spearhead a campaign that encourages countries to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations.
The State Department has publicly criticized Brunei’s decision to implement a provision of its new penal code that sought to impose the death penalty upon anyone convicted of homosexuality. The State Department has also condemned the anti-LGBTQ crackdown in Chechnya.
The Trump administration in 2017 sanctioned Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov under the Magnitsky Act, which freezes the assets of Russians who commit human rights abuses and bans them from entering the U.S. The White House in September banned Mariela Castro, the daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro who publicly spearheads LGBTQ issues in Cuba, from traveling to the U.S.
The State Department’s annual human rights reports also contain information about LGBTQ rights.
“With the introduction of the GLOBE Act today, we make clear and reaffirm today that the United States promotes equality and justice in its foreign policy,” said Markey.
Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg is soaring in popularity in the Republican-dominated state of Arizona, with a new poll putting him neck-and-neck with Donald Trump.
Alongside his fellow Democratic hopeful Joe Biden, Buttigieg is in a statistical dead heat with Trump, suggesting that even staunch Republicans in Arizona are beginning to turn their backs on the party.ADVERTISING
Buttigieg has 43 per cent support, compared to Biden’s 44 per cent and Trump’s 46 per cent, the latest poll shows. This represents a decrease in support for Biden, who led Trump 49 percent to 44 percent in the state based on a May poll.
The South Bend, Indiana mayor however, has increased his support by six points, disproving the critics who predicted his sexuality meant he would struggle to make inroads in strongly conservative states.
Buttigieg, 37, has also carved out a lead in Iowa after an “aggressive” campaign trail aimed at the rural midwestern state’s older, moderate voters in small towns.
Last month he shot ahead with 25 per cent support – a nine point lead over Elizabeth Warren, who is the next highest Democratic candidate – in Iowa.
Only 30 per cent of respondents said that their minds are made up and a lot could change before the Iowa caucuses next February, but if Buttigieg’s lead continues he could stand a real chance against Biden and Warren.
Although Iowa’s demographics aren’t representative of the rest of the country, the state is significant as it’s often thought to set general trends for presidential elections.
It’s not all been plain sailing for Buttigieg though – he attracted some scornlast week after a picture of him volunteering for the notoriously ‘homophobic’ charity Salvation Army was circulated online.
And an internal focus group recently revealed findings that suggest Buttigieg’s sexuality could be “a barrier” for many black voters, particularly with black men who were “deeply uncomfortable even discussing it” in the study.
The report concluded: “Their preference is for his sexuality to not be front and centre.”
We are on the verge of a historic moment: The Board of Supervisors will vote on Tuesday 12/10 on a resolution to halt any future investments in Wells Fargo or BNP Paribas, naming them as primary funders of the private corporporations responsible for detaining immigrant children separated from their families.
Please come out on Tuesday 12/10 at 8:30. The item will be considered 8:45, after a presentation by the Treasurer Erick Roeser. As in 1985, when the Board considered a resolution to divest from South African Apartheid, the county treasurer is feigning ignorance of the options to invest wisely and ethically. (See the Close to Home article below.) If this resolution passes, the county will be on track to take up socially responsible investment policies AND put an end to county funding of immigrant camps.
Lynda Hopkins, who is putting forward the resolution, has reminded us that the board responds to public pressure, so we must bring it on!!! See you there! We’ll have talking points for everyone who wishes to make a public comment. Bring posters or signs!
A California inmate was sentenced to death Thursday for the 2013 killing of his transgender cellmate in a shocking case that shined a light on the dangers of sexual assault and violence trans people face when they are not housed according to their gender identity.
Miguel Crespo, 48, was housed with Carmen Guerrero, a trans woman, at Kern Valley State Prison for just eight hours in October 2013. During that time, Crespo bound, gagged, tortured and murdered Guerrero in their shared cell.
A California jury last month found Crespo guilty of first degree murder and assault.
At his sentencing, Crespo made it a point to tell officials that he’s not gay and that he had told officers in 2013 that he was incompatible with Guerrero before the prison housed them together anyway.
The issue of transgender people in California’s prison system is fraught and even became a topic in the Democratic presidential primaries, with former candidate Sen. Kamala Harris facing questions over her stance on granting state-funded, gender-reassignment surgeries to transgender inmates.
In May, the California Senate passed a bill that would require transgender prisoners to be housed according to their gender identity, not their sex assigned at birth. The bill has yet to be signed into law.
“Incarcerated transgender people deserve to be housed in facilities consistent with their gender identity,” California State Sen. Scott Wiener said at the time. “When we house trans people based on their birth-assigned gender, we place them at high risk of sexual assault and violence.”
According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, transgender people are nine times more likely than the general prison population to be sexually assaulted by other inmates.
Crespo’s sentencing statement — in which he said he didn’t want to be housed with a “gay” prisoner — would not stand up as a defense in a California court, because the state is one of eight that has banned the so-called gay and transgender panic defense, which means defendants cannot claim to have been motivated to commit violence by a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Even among the non-incarcerated population, transgender Americans face high rates of violence. LGBTQ advocacy groups have said violence against trans women in particular is at epidemic levels, and the Human Rights Campaign has reported that at least 22 transgender people have been killed in the United States so far this year, but advocates say that is likely an undercount.
This year’s Miss Universe pageant will include the first openly gay contestant in the competition’s 67-year history, who bravely came out despite homosexuality being illegal in her home country.
Swe Zin Htet is the reigning Miss Myanmar and she came out publicly on a beauty blog just a week before she is due to take part in the final of the pageant on Sunday (December 8).
The 21-year-old, who has chosen preventing child abuse as her cause to advocate for during the contest, told People: “I have that platform that, if I say that I’m a lesbian, it will have a big impact on the LGBTQ community back in Burma.
“The difficult thing is that in Burma, LGBTQ people are not accepted, they are looked down on by other people and are being discriminated against.”
Although Htet has been out to those around her for some time, and has been in a relationship with the famous Burmese singer Gae Gae for three years, she said telling her family she was a lesbian was difficult.
She continued: “At first, they were mad. They didn’t accept me. But later, when they found out more about the LGBTQ community, they started to accept me.”
Paula Shugart, Miss Universe president, also told People: “We are honoured to give a platform to strong, inspirational women like Miss Universe Myanmar, who are brave enough to share their unique stories with the world.
“Miss Universe will always champion women to be proud of who they are.”
The Miss Universe pageant has had a controversial past and was previously owned by Donald Trump, but it has been breaking new ground recently.
Last year, the competition featured its first-ever trans contestant Angela Ponce.
Addressing the Trump administration’s anti-trans record, Ponce said at the time: “More than a message to him, it would be a win for human rights. Trans women have been persecuted and erased for so long.
“If they give me the crown, it would show trans women are just as much women as cis women.”
Although it’s positive news that more people feel able to select their correct gender identity when trying to find a date, the company’s attempts to include the trans community have recently been criticised as “virtue signalling”.
Trans people told PinkNews that Tinder condones “discrimination” against trans people using the app, partly because of poor customer support for trans people who have been banned.
Trans people said that they had been banned two hours after changing their gender on the app to trans, and after being invasively questioned by cis men about their genitals – and all the trans people PinkNews spoke to knew multiple other trans people who’d been banned, too.
In September 2019, Hustlers star Trace Lysette was abruptly banned. And Peppermint, from RuPaul’s Drag Race, also reported being banned in May 2019.
A Tinder spokesperson told PinkNews in a statement: “Tinder has been at the forefront of pioneering inclusive features that ensure our members can be their authentic selves on our platform.
“We recognise the transgender community faces challenges on Tinder, including being unfairly reported by potential matches more often than our cisgender members.
“This is a multifaceted, complex issue and we are working to continuously improve their experience.”
The Stonewall riots of 1969 are often cited as the moment that gave rise to the modern LGBT+ rights movement. It was a seminal moment for LGBT+ people in the United States – but it wasn’t the first time gay people had protested against mistreatment.
Three years before the Stonewall riots kicked off, gay people in cities across the United States gathered to protest against their exclusion from the armed forces. The protests had been a long time coming. The US armed forces introduced a policy during World War II which excluded gay people from serving. They were often discharged by doctors for displaying “homosexual tendencies.”
“The discharge policy increased fear, reinforced hostility and prejudice, encouraged scapegoating and witch hunting, and helped to solidify gay men and women into a political movement against the military’s exclusion of homosexuals,” writes Alan Berube in Coming Out Under Fire.
The protests of 1966 came at a politically charged moment in time. As the Vietnam War gained steam, many gay people were starting to ask the question: why should they want to serve in the armed forces in the first place? The fight for inclusion had started to be seen as “old fashioned” by the “baby-boom generation of gay activists” who were questioning why gay people would want to serve in the face of war, according to Berube.
A ‘loose confederation’ of gay groups was formed to protest the armed forces’ exclusionary policies.
Despite reservations from some sections of the community, there was ample support for protests against the armed forces’ exclusionary policies. The idea of gay people mobilising was first conceived at the National Planning Conference of Homosexual Organizations in Kansas City. More than 40 gay activists attended the meeting and discussed how they could improve the standing of gay people in America. Out of this emerged the Committee to Fight Exclusion of Homosexuals from the Military, a “loose confederation” of homosexual groups across the US. They came up with a plan to launch the biggest ever gay demonstration the world had seen.
The government’s categoric rejection of all persons it knows to be homosexual is un-American and based on ignorance and superstition.
On May 21 that year, gay people gathered and protested against discriminatory military policies in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington D.C. The protest on Armed Forces Day was “the largest group of homosexual protestors” gathered up until that point in the United States, Josh Sides writes in Erotic City: Sexual Revolutions and the Making of Modern San Francisco.
Gay activists at the protests did not shy away from speaking out about their exclusion from public life. Activist Don Slater was asked by a Newsweek reporter why they were protesting, according to a contemporary report in Tangentsmagazine.
“Who wants to be drafted? Surely not the homosexual,” Slater replied. “But the government’s categoric rejection of all persons it knows to be homosexual is un-American and based on ignorance and superstition. Homosexuals are asking for equal rights and benefits from their country. At the same time they recognize their equal duties and responsibilities.”
Meanwhile, Cecil Williams addressed the crowd at the San Francisco demonstration, and said: “There is a homosexual revolution here and across the land. We protest against the Armed Forces’ policy of discharging ‘discovered’ homophiles under less than honorable conditions.”
Taking part in protests in 1966 was ‘a daring adventure’ for LGBT+ people.
The protests did not come without risk for the gay people taking part. Writing in a letter at the time, Del Martin – one of the founders of the protests – wrote: “This is quite a daring adventure for us. It is not like any other civil rights demonstration – having no popular support and being somewhat hazardous, if not disastrous, to the individual who reveals himself.”
While the protest did not encourage the military to overturn its discriminatory policy, it did raise the profile of gay people significantly. Media outlets across the country covered the protests. They were picked up by newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek. While not all the coverage was positive – the San Francisco Chronicle ran the story with the headline “Deviates Demand the Right to Serve” – it gave gay people a platform they had previously not had access to.
Bob Ross, secretary of the Tavern Guild, wrote that the public response to the protests was “favourable.”
“This was the communitys [sic] first try at demonstrating nationwide, and we understand that reaction was quite favourable across the country… we must move forward now, there can be no turning back.”
It is now more than 50 years since the protests took place – but that doesn’t mean the battle is over. In 1994, the Clinton administration introduced the infamous “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which encouraged gay people to stay in the closet while serving in the military. That policy was finally repealed in 2011.
Furthermore, a longstanding ban on trans people serving in the military was lifted by the Obama administration in 2016. However, current US President Donald Trump quickly reversed that decision, and reintroduced the ban.
The legacy of those activists who fought for their inclusion in the armed forces in 1966 lives on because the fight is not yet won for LGBT+ people.
One of Chicago’s oldest churches will soon be transformed into one of the only holistic, queer-friendly centres for the LGBT homeless at-risk youth in the city.
The Black Methodist for Church Renewal has stood in the heart of Chicago’s South Side since 1926. The 12,000-square-foot space remained empty for years after the congregation moved to a new venue, with the site’s owners refusing to sell it until they found a worthy buyer.
It’s now home to the LYTE Collective, a social organisation dedicated to helping the more than 16,000 homeless youth in the city. Around 30 percent of Chicagoans aged between 15 and 24 live below the poverty line, with the bulk of them living on the South and West sides.
“There are very few spaces for young people across the city already, and for LGBTQ youth in particular, and we wanted to plant the flag and say that this is where everyone’s welcome,” founding member Carl Wiley told Block Club Chicago.
“We’re all going to respect each other in here, and we’re all going to figure out what our next steps are in terms of housing, employment, therapy.”
When the centre opens in summer 2020, young LGBT homeless people will be able to access a music studio, an art studio, a gym, computer lab, performance stage, teaching kitchen, co-working space, an on-site clinic and 250 storage units.
“It’s not enough to just give them a place to hang out,” Wiley said. “They need something to do, someone to talk to. We wanted to provide them a space where they could explore the things they were interested in.”
Construction began several weeks ago and neighbours have pitched in to help with the project. Jerome Davis, who lives across the street, watched the building deteriorate for decades but has now come out of retirement to help “keep the neighbourhood looking good.”
“God gave me this building to take care of. It may not be mine, but it will be beautiful,” he said.
The LYTE Collective has already raised $2 million to cover renovations, but is still $340,000 short of their total goal. Those interested in supporting the project can donate here.