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White House Issues Pride Month 2024 Proclamation

Via press release from the White House: During Pride Month, we celebrate the extraordinary courage and contributions of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) community. We reflect on the progress we have made so far in pursuit of equality, justice, and inclusion. We recommit ourselves to do more to support LGBTQI+ rights at home and around the world. For generations, LGBTQI+ Americans have summoned the courage to live authentically and proudly — even when it meant putting their lives and livelihoods at risk. In 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in New York, brave LGBTQI+ individuals protested the violence […]

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Biden asks tech companies to help stop AI-generated sexual deepfakes used to harass gay students

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The administration of President Joe Biden is urging tech and financial industries to help stop the spread of abusive, AI-generated “deepfake” sexual images used to harass real-life school kids and educators — particularly girls, women, and gay kids in schools. These images can ruin their lives, the Biden Administration says, but current school policies and laws don’t provide consistent ways to prevent their dissemination. “As generative [artificial intelligence] broke on the scene, everyone was speculating about where the first real harms would come. And I think we have the answer,” said Biden’s chief science adviser Arati Prabhakar, director of the […]

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Why June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month

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That’s a slogan used often to remind us of the origins of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, celebrated each June in the U.S. and many other countries. It’s used especially by those who feel Pride parades and festivals have become too corporate and not as political as they should be. But Pride Month and the attendant events endure, having survived pandemics, hostile politicians, and internal controversies. Here’s a look at why we observe Pride Month in June. The short answer is Stonewall. But there’s more to Pride history than that. As most reasonably informed LGBTQ+ people and allies know, a police raid on […]

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New ‘Rainbow Revolutionaries’ tour reveals Boston’s LGBTQ+ history

Just in time for Pride, a new tour on Boston’s historic Freedom Trail highlights the history of the city’s LGBTQ+ community. The Rainbow Revolutionaries Tour promises to reveal Boston’s history on marriage equality and LGBTQ+ rights, as well as the lives and loves of some of the local community’s famed figures – including one world-famous actress and one Revolutionary War hero. The Rainbow Revolutionaries Tour is roughly one mile long and takes about 1.5 hours to complete. The tour route is varied, going through parks and streets, and follows the larger 2.5-mile-long Freedom Trail. The tour begins on the Boston Common next to the Robert […]

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National Park Service clarifies employees will be allowed to join Pride events in uniform

The National Park Service will allow employees to participate in celebratory parades and events in uniform, a departure from earlier memos to staff membersweeks before the start of LGBTQ Pride Month that effectively banned such uniformed employees from marching in public events. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland clarified the policy for Special Emphasis Programs — which includes programming about the LGBTQ community — in a memo to staff members Friday. She did not directly address Pride Month, which begins Saturday.  “I am directing Bureau leaders or their designated officials to determine how and when bureaus should participate in these externally organized events. This could […]

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The art of drag has become a target. With Pride Month nigh, performers are organizing to fight back

“Drag is joy, but it’s under attack. Our very existence, our self-expression, our art — all of it is being threatened. And we’ve had enough.” That’s the opening salvo of Qommittee, a group of drag performers banding together to protect and promote their art form, as it announced its formation ahead of June’s LGBTQ Pride Month. “We’ve always had to fight tooth and nail for our place in this world,” the group said in a news release Wednesday. “But now, we’re also battling a tidal wave of hate — doxxing, harassment, death threats, armed protests, bombings, and even shootings.” Qommittee […]

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Iraq: Repeal Anti-LGBT Law

The Iraqi government should immediately reverse the recently passed law that punishes same-sex conduct and transgender expression with imprisonment, Human Rights Watch said today. The law violates fundamental human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression, association, privacy, equality, and nondiscrimination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Iraq.  On April 27, 2024, Iraq’s parliament passed the anti-LGBT law as an amendment to the country’s existing “Law on Combatting Prostitution,” No. 8 of 1988. The new law punishes same-sex relations with a penalty of between 10 and 15 years in prison as well as allowing for a prison term […]

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Tennessee gov. OKs penalizing adults who help minors receive abortions, gender-affirming care

Tennessee’s governor has approved legislation designed to block adults from helping minors get an abortion or receive gender-affirming care without parental consent, proposals that are both likely to face immediate legal challenges when they go into effect later this year. Republican Gov. Bill Lee quietly signed the bills Tuesday without comment. However, the governor’s actions weren’t unexpected. During his time in office, Lee has enacted sweeping restrictions on gender-affirming care for young people and has defended Tennessee’s near total ban on abortion while stressing his opposition to the procedure. Both laws go into effect July 1. Lee’s actions mean Tennessee will soon become […]

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Libertarian Party nominates gay candidate for 2024 presidential election

After a contentious seven rounds of voting on Sunday, the Libertarian Party nominated Chase Oliver, a gay sales account executive and former U.S. Senate candidate, to run in the 2024 presidential election. Oliver will represent America’s third largest political party, whose endorsement had been solicited by the leading Republican and Independent candidates, Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  Libertarian candidates typically earn about one percent of the national vote share during presidential elections, though Gary Johnson earned three percent in 2016, and Jo Jorgensen secured more votes than comprised the margin of victory in some 2020 battleground states.  Oliver’s […]

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Gay men in France are facing wave of attacks after being lured into hook-ups

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A new report details a wave of attacks on gay men in France carried out by young perpetrators using hook-up apps to lure their victims before assaulting and robbing them. The report from the Fondation Jean Jaurès adds to data collected in a survey last year by French investigative site Mediapart. The Mediapart survey counted 300 homophobic ambushes across France between 2017 and 2021, or around one a week. That number likely underestimates the number of incidents grossly due to underreporting. The attacks analyzed almost always involved a robbery and were not necessarily motivated primarily by anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, the report’s […]

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