News

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Trump Administration to close LGBTQ+ youth suicide hotline in 30 days

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The Trump Administration will eliminate funding for a crucial suicide hotline dedicated to LGBTQ+ youth in just one month.  The federal government will close the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services – a federal program that provides emergency crisis support to queer youth considering suicide – effective July 17, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration announced Wednesday. This is several months ahead of its initial October 1 closure deadline, first revealed by leaked budget draft in April.  “This is devastating, to say the least. Suicide prevention is about people, not politics,” Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, said in a statement. “The […]

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For a Gay Asylum Seeker, Trump’s ICE Crackdowns Strike Terror

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Over the past week, the Trump administration has deployed thousands of troops, including the National Guard and the Marines, to crack down on protests in Los Angeles against ICE raids in the latest act of their ongoing legal and military attacks on undocumented immigrants. Kelvin, a gay man from Harare, Zimbabwe, is one of over 11 millionundocumented immigrants in the U.S.—many of whom are afraid of being deported. He’s also one of the 100,000 people in the 2024 fiscal year who sought asylum in the U.S. because of their LGBTQ identity and one of the 1 million asylum cases pending determination. “As an LGBTQ […]

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NLGJA Los Angeles Announces Nominees for Inaugural Journalism Awards

The Los Angeles Chapter of NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists, an organization that advocates for fair and accurate coverage of the LGBTQ+ community in the Southland while striving to foster community among LA’s queer and trans journalists, news media professionals and creatives, has announced the nominees for three inaugural journalism awards for Southern California journalists and newsrooms who championed LGBTQ+ stories in 2024. The awards will be presented at the 2025 Press Pride Prom, a benefit and awards ceremony presented by ABC7 and hosted by award-winning journalist Tracy Gilchrist. NLGJA Los Angeles’ Awards Committee has selected three nominees for three new awards. […]

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British Library to reinstate Oscar Wilde’s reading pass in symbolic gesture of repentance

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The British Library has announced it will posthumously reinstate gay poet and playwright Oscar Wilde’s reader pass after revoking it in 1895 due to his homosexuality.  Known at the time as the British Museum Reading Room, the venue banned Wilde after he was found guilty of “gross indecency” with men and sentenced to two years of hard labor. The symbolic pass will be presented to Wilde’s grandson, Merlin Holland, at an event on October 16, Wilde’s birthday. Asked how Wilde might react to the gesture, Holland told The Guardian, “He’d probably say ‘about time’ too.” Holland, who is also a Wilde scholar, said […]

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Japan Should End Abusive Detention Conditions for Transgender People

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Tomoya Asanuma, a prominent transgender activist in Tokyo, faced the triple abuses of Japan’s “hostage justice” system, hostile detention conditions, and mistreatment trans people face in the absence of meaningful legal protections. For Asanuma, March 14, 2024, was supposed to be another Thursday at work. At around 7 a.m., he woke up to the sound of someone repeatedly ringing his doorbell. Through the intercom, Asanuma saw three men wearing dark-colored clothes, this time pounding his front door. When he opened the door, the men identified themselves as police officers and showed him an arrest warrant. This was the beginning of […]

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Gay couple killed in Air India crash honoured at Pride event they were due to attend

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A minute’s silence was held at a Pride event to honour a gay couple who were amongst the more than 240 passengers killed in the Air India crash.  On Thursday (12 June) the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was destined for London Gatwick but crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport, plummeting from the air and into a building in the suburb of Ahmedabad, the largest city in Gujarat state. The couple, Former BBC TV show DanceX contestant Jamie Greenlaw-Meek, 45, and his husband Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek, 39, were amongst the 53 Britons on the flight when it crashed.  The two men ran […]

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Slovakia urged not to stop legal recognition of trans people

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Europe’s top human rights commissioner has urged the Slovak Republic to reconsider a bill that would strip legal recognition of trans people from law. Proposed amendments to Slovakia’s Constitution would allow the central-European country to disregard international human rights laws to preserve its “national identity” and to answer what it calls “fundamental cultural-ethical questions.” One of the proposed amendments that attempts to answer these questions is a declaration that recognises “only the sex of male and female,” essentially denying that trans, non-binary, or intersex people exist.  Another amendment, if passed, would restrict adoption rights to only allow married heterosexual couples […]

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European Pride celebrations see funding shortfalls because of the “Trump effect”

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The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the U.S. aren’t just affecting American Pride celebrations this year. Events across Europe are reportedly also feeling the pinch as corporate sponsors pull back their financial support for fear of crossing the president. According to Context News, organizers in Greece, Bulgaria, Estonia, Denmark, Germany, and other European countries have all seen a marked decrease in corporate sponsorships this year, which they attribute to the “Trump effect.” In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at ending DEI efforts within the federal government, while also pressuring private […]

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Melissa Hortman, assassinated MN lawmaker, was a champion for families and LGBTQ+ rights

Melissa Hortman, a former Minnesota House speaker who championed the passage of ambitious progressive policies in the state, was assassinated early Saturday in what Gov. Tim Walz called “an act of targeted political violence.”  Hortman, 55, who was elected to the Minnesota House in 2004, became the speaker of the state’s House of Representatives in 2019 and, during her first few years, presided over the chamber under a divided government. In 2022, when the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party won full control of the state government, Hortman played a key role in shaping what legislation the chamber would prioritize, working closely with […]

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A man busted for defacing an iconic LGBTQ+ commemoration

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On Tuesday afternoon, police apprehended a man caught in the act of vandalizing the Pink Triangle, San Francisco’s annual and iconic Pride Month commemoration atop Twin Peaks. The nearly acre-wide art installation overlooking the Castro District was defaced with black spray paint. 19-year-old Lester Bamacajeronimo of San Francisco was apprehended at around 12:30 p.m. shortly after police arrived on the scene and gave chase. “Officers pursued the male suspect on foot and detained him,” SFPD said in a statement. “Evidence of vandalism tools were located and seized. Charges are pending.” A motive in the crime has yet to be determined. San Francisco […]

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