News

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With Federal Help, Alameda County and SF Hope to Cut Rate of HIV Infections

Alameda County is one of 48 counties handpicked by federal public health officials to receive extra resources to end the spread of HIV over the next decade — and getting that done will take creative, grassroots approaches, local AIDS activists said Friday at a meeting with national leaders. Under a federal strategy announced by President Trump earlier this year, the U.S. Health and Human Services department has promised to pour money and other resources into communities that continue to be hardest hit by HIV. The counties chosen for the first round of funding — which has not yet been determined […]

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Berkeley Does Away with Gender References

Berkeley, California, a city with a long history of progressivism, is moving forward with a plan to remove all gendered language from its city code as part of an effort to recognize its nonbinary residents. Soon, in the Bay Area city just east of San Francisco, all instances of “he” and “she” in the city code will replaced by the gender-neutral “they.” The City Council on Tuesday adopted the first reading of the new ordinance eliminating “gender preference language” in its municipal code. With the change, “manholes” will be called “maintenance holes,” “firemen” will become “firefighters,” “manmade” will be “artificial” and all […]

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Russia Fined Thousands of Dollars for Anti-LGBTI Rulings

Russia will pay a price for a series of anti-LGBTI actions thanks to a ruling at the European Court of Human Rights. From 2006-2011 Russia refused to register three LGBTI organizations. Those included Rainbow House, the Movement for Marriage Equality, and the Sochi Pride House. Authorities refused to register the groups, arguing they would ‘destroy the moral values of society’ or ‘undermine [Russia’s] sovereignty and territorial integrity…by decreasing its population’. While homosexuality is not illegal in Russia, the country introduced a ‘gay propaganda‘ law in 2013. It prevents the positive representation of LGBTI issue on any kind of media platform. The government argued it stopped the […]

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Food For Thought Antique Store in Sebastopol to Close Sept. 14

Food For Thought, a nonprofit providing healing food and nutrition services to Sonoma County residents living with serious illnesses, announces it will close its retail store Food For Thought Antiques, Gifts, and Garden on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2019. The store is no longer accepting donations. Located in the heart of Sonoma County’s Antique Row in Sebastopol, Food For Thought Antiques currently offers storewide price reductions of 10–50 percent. A closing sale offering steep discounts begins Friday, July 26. Shoppers can check Food For Thought Antique’s Facebook page for sale updates. Well-known for its expansive and eclectic inventory, the store has […]

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Mayor Under Fire for Last-minute Cancellation of LGBTQ Pride Event

Dozens of Pennsylvanians were geared to make history Monday evening by raising the pride flag for the first time over Reading City Hall. Yet minutes before the event was slated to begin, the city’s mayor, Wally Scott, prohibited council members and city employees via text message from hanging the flag. “People were disappointed at first, then they just became angry,” Ben Renkus, president of the Reading Pride Celebration, the group that planned the event, told NBC News. “The event was at 4:45 p.m. and many people had to leave work early to attend.” Jeremy Long✔@jeremymlong #ReadingPa was set to raise […]

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El Salvador Cops Charged with Murder of Trans Woman Deported from US

 Three police officers in El Salvador have been charged with the murder of a transgender woman who was deported from the U.S. The three police officers — Carlos Valentín Rosales, Jaime Giovanni Mendoza and Luis Alfredo — with El Salvador’s National Civil Police’s 911 System in San Salvador face charges of deprivation of liberty by an agent of authority and aggravated homicide as a hate crime in connection with Camila Díaz Cordova’s death earlier this year. The three men made their initial court appearance on July 5. Díaz’s friend, Virginia Flores, told the Washington Blade Díaz was reported missing at the end […]

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Hong Kong Ruling Strengthens Rights Protection on Same-Sex Relations

Nearly 120 years after Hong Kong made sodomy punishable by a possible life sentence, a recent court ruling marks a further step toward completely decriminalizing same-sex relations. In 2007, Hong Kong scrapped its British-era sodomy law. But, for over a decade, several remaining provisions in its Crime Ordinance continued to single out male same-sex relations, either through disproportionate sentencing or by specifically criminalizing sexual acts between men. In 2017, an activist, Yeung Chu Wing, brought a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of seven discriminatory provisions. On May 30, the Hong Kong High Court struck down the four offenses that applied specifically to sexual […]

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3 trans women Shot and Killed in Honduras in July

At least three transgender women have been killed in Honduras during the first week of July, according to local press reports and activists.  Bessy Ferrera, a well-known HIV and transgender activist and the sister of Rihanna Ferrera — the only transgender person to run in the country’s 2017 elections — was gunned down early Monday morning in Comayagüela. Ferrera was with a group of transgender women when some men approached and shot at them. She was 40 years old. “Although violence against trans people in Central America is continuous, we haven’t seen this level of violence in the last year.” PAUL JANSEN, OUTRIGHT […]

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Gay Nigerian Ex-priest Honored for Supporting Asylum-seekers

A gay Nigerian former priest has received an award in recognition of his work supporting LGBTI African refugees. John Adewoye is a lifeline for many across the continent, one fractured in its support of LGBTI people, one where 32 of the 52 countries in Africa class homosexuality as illegal. And one where Adewoye has created countless support groups for LGBTI people.  He has received the Unsung Heroes Award from the Black LGBTIQ Migrant Project (BLMP) and AfroNYC, according to NoStringsNG. Who was John Adewoye? Born 30 July 1959, in the village of Oro, of the Nigerian state Kwara. Since his humble beginnings, he has advanced […]

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Iceland Adds Third Gender Option and Strengthens Trans Rights in Unanimous Vote

The Icelandic Parliament has unanimously voted to pass a major new gender identity law, which expands the rights of transgender people and legally recognises non-binary people. However, protections for intersex children – that were originally part of the proposed bill – have been dropped. The legislation was introduced to the Icelandic Parliament by the Prime Minister’s office. It was unanimously approved by the parliament on June 18, with 45 votes in favour, none opposed and three abstentions.T The law means that trans people in Iceland will no longer have to go through an invasive and lengthy medical process to change their legally recognised gender […]

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