News

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It Will Soon be Illegal to even Discuss Being Trans in Romanian Schools

The senate in Romania has passed a bill that, if signed by the president, will make it illegal to discuss gender identity in every school and university in the country. Passed on June 16 by the senate, the bill will forbid any discussion or “promotion” of “gender identity theory” – defined as “activities to spread the theory or opinion of gender identity, understood as the theory or opinion that gender is a different concept from biological sex and that the two are not always the same”. The bill will now go to Romanian president Klaus Iohannis for approval. It has […]

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Police Made a Spanish Town Mayor Take Down a Pride Flag because of Draconian Law

Police in Spain made the mayor of a small town take down a Pride flag because it was “illegal” – but locals were having none of it. Juan Civico, mayor of the Andalusian village of Villanueva de Algaidas near Malaga, thought erecting a Pride flag at the council building would be a kind gesture to the local LGBT+ community. But that simple act, Civico later discovered, was actually illegal – the Supreme Court recently ruled that government buildings must only fly official flags of Spain, its regions or of the European Union, according to the Jakarta Post. Three local residents seized on […]

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Montenegro Makes History by Legalizing Same-sex Civil Partnerships

Montenegro has just voted to legalise same-sex civil partnerships, becoming the first European country outside of Western Europe and the European Union to do so. Lawmakers in the small Balkan country reached the decision on Wednesday (July 1) after the law received 42 votes in the 81-seat parliament. Montenegro’s prime minister Duško Marković called it “a great step in the right direction for Montenegrin society, its democratic maturity, and integration processes”. President Milo Đukanović also welcomed the move, declaring on Twitter that Montenegro is now “one step closer to joining the most developed world democracies”. “[It is] a confirmation that our society […]

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Newsom Announces New Restrictions in 19 California Counties

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced new restrictions for 19 counties on the state’s watch list due to the increased spread of COVID-19 and “increased concern.” Newsom ordered the counties — which include Contra Costa, Santa Clara and Solano in the Bay Area — to halt, or not reopen, indoor operations at restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, zoos, museums and card rooms. “This doesn’t mean restaurants shut down,” Newsom said. “It means we try to take as many activities as we can, these concentrated activities, and move them outdoors, which is a way of mitigating […]

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Thirty People Arrested in Russia, Charged with Spreading ‘Gay Propaganda’

Police in Russia have detained over 30 people for protesting the arrest of Yulia Tsvetkova, an LGBT+ and feminist activist charged with spreading ‘gay propaganda’. Yulia Tsvetkova, 27, faces a six year sentence for running a social media page called Vagina Monologues, which encouraged people to share artistic depictions of vaginas to “remove the taboo”. She was charged with the distribution of “criminal pornography” under Russia’s gay propaganda law, which prohibits the positive depiction of LGBT+ people. On Saturday (June 27) more than 30 people, mostly women, gathered in in central Moscow to stage separate one-person protests against Tsvetkova’s charges. […]

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Lyft Passenger Threatens to Crush ‘Candy-ass F****t’ Driver’s Skull – When Asked to Wear a Mask

A Lyft passenger launched into a racist and homophobic verbal tirade against his driver simply because he was asked to wear a face mask. A May 28 ride in Reno, Nevada, saw a passenger identified as Richard board driver Edgar’s vehicle. Edgar wore a mask while Richard, according to the dash-came footage seen by TMZ, did not. When the driver politely asked the passenger to strap on a mask – a crucial tool in the fight to contain the coronavirus pandemic – he exploded into a racist and homophobic rant. “You believe in that shit?” Richard asked the driver. “Yes, I […]

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Marsha P Johnson’s Home Town Petitions to Erect Statue of her to Replace Christopher Columbus

Over 3,500 people have backed a petition to replace a New Jersey city’s Christopher Columbus statue with one of Black trans activist Marsha P Johnson. The Christopher Columbus statue has stood in Marsha P Johnson’s home town of Elizabeth, New Jersey since 1971, but petitioners say a tribute to her would be far more fitting in light of the explorer’s problematic history. Johnson left the town in her late teens with nothing but a bag of clothes and a few dollars to her name. She moved to New York where she became one of the central figures of the LGBT+ rights movement, and […]

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LGBTQ Nonprofits Are Working Harder than Ever. This Pride Month, Here’s How You Can help

If LGBTQ nonprofit organizations disappeared for even a single day, hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ people — especially the most vulnerable — would be cut off from  health care, shelter, food, safety, and community. Today, in the midst of COVID-19 and economic collapse, our community’s nonprofits are truly and profoundly more important than ever before.  These organizations need our help. This Pride Month, we can all step up and support these organizations for Give OUT Day, the only national day of giving for the LGBTQ community. This year, over 475 LGBTQ nonprofits are participating, spanning nearly every state, D.C. and Puerto […]

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LGBTQ Latinx Celebrate Victories, Worry about Ongoing Violence

On her wedding day, Nicole Castillo knew that she was making a mistake. She was 20 years old, and both she and her husband knew that she was not straight. “But at the time, it didn’t feel like it was an option to not be married, and to come out,” she said. “I was concerned about harming my family, and I stayed in that marriage for some time.” It took Castillo, now 36, until her mid-20s to understand her sexual orientation. “I was from a generation with almost no LGBT visibility. I didn’t know of any gay or queer women.” As Pride […]

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Celebrate Pride Month by Honoring these Black LGBTQ Trailblazers

Black queer trailblazers have changed the course of history with their contributions to activism, culture and the arts, but many of these pioneers are still fighting for their place in the history books. While some, like James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, have garnered some level of acclaim, many of their stories remain under-researched and untold. When the LGBTQ community began to record its history with some level of consistency in the 20th century, most of the documented narratives were those of white and cisgender men. It took longer for women, people of color and gender-nonconforming individuals to get their due. […]

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