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Retired gay couple awarded for launching organization supporting LGBTQ+ elders of color

On November 12, Paul Glass and Charles D. Evans of Falmouth were honored with this year’s AARP Andrus Award for Community Service. It’s AARP’s most prestigious and visible state volunteer award for community service. They are the first married and Black gay couple in AARP’s history to receive the award. AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons,  is one of the largest organizations in the country. With a membership of over 38 million members as of 2018, it focuses on issues affecting Americans over the age of fifty. The AARP Andrus Award for Community Service is an annual awards […]

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Mass arrests target LGBTQ people in Nigeria while abuses against them are ignored, activists say

Law enforcement authorities in Nigeria are using the country’s same-sex prohibition law to target the LGBTQ community while ignoring abuses against them, rights groups and lawyers say, in the wake of fresh mass arrests of gay people. Nigeria is one of more than 30 of Africa’s 54 countries where homosexuality is criminalized in laws that are broadly supported by the public, even though the constitution guarantees freedom from discrimination, and the right to private and family life. Mass arrests and detention of queer Nigerians that continued this week were done without proper investigations and could further expose them to danger amid […]

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At least 33 transgender and gender-nonconforming people were killed in the past year, report finds

The nation’s largest LGBTQ rights group released its latest data on fatal attacks on transgender and gender-nonconforming people, describing an “epidemic of violence” targeting the community, especially young Black trans women.  The Human Rights Campaign found that at least 33 transgender and gender-nonconforming people have been killed in the United States since November last year. Of those deaths, 26 have been recorded so far this year, following a total of 41 recorded deaths last year. The annual report was released Monday to mark Transgender Day of Remembrance.  “The epidemic of violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people is a national embarrassment,” Human Rights […]

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Uzbekistan: Take Action on Rights Abuses Raised at UN Review

The Uzbekistan government should urgently act on recommendations made on November 8, 2023, during its fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of its human rights record at the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should take particular action to uphold the rights of human rights defenders, journalists and bloggers, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Several UN member states also said that Uzbekistan should ensure accountability for human rights abuses during protests in 2022 in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan. “The range and scope of concerns and recommendations that governments expressed during Uzbekistan’s review shows […]

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Bisexual Veteran’s Story Highlighted at Library of Congress

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LGBTQ+ people in the military once faced dishonorable discharge if they came out (or were outed), and although they can serve openly now, some of their stories have been overlooked. But the Library of Congress’s collection “Serving in Silence: LGBTQ+ Veterans,” part of the library’s Veterans History Project, is shining a light on them. “It’s been a long road to making sure that we are able to collect, to preserve for posterity, to make accessible and therefore discoverable, the fullness of the human story of America’s veterans, and that includes necessarily those of LGBTQ+ experience,” Monica Mohindra, director of the […]

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Mike Johnson “applauds” efforts to make gay marriage & sodomy illegal again

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Anti-LGBTQ+ House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) didn’t just agree with Justice Clarence Thomas’ suggestion that the Supreme Court should revisit its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage — he applauded it. The court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organizationstruck down Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. In his concurring opinion, Thomas included a footnote asserting that by striking down the legal basis for Roe, the court had called into question every other decision using the same reasoning. Thomas went so far as to specifically name the Supreme Court’s decisions in Obergefell v. Hodges and Lawrence v. Texas, the cases that established […]

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‘What am I leaving behind?’: Queer Ugandans on the run from anti-homosexuality law speak out

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When he made the tough choice to flee Uganda, in the wake of the country’s draconian anti-LGBTQ+ law being passed, activist Henry Mukiibi thought: “What have I left behind?”  Mukiibi, the executive director of LGBTQ+ group Uganda’s Children of the Sun Foundation (COSF), has been on the run and living in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, since earlier this year, after receiving information that the authorities at home wanted to arrest him under the new anti-homosexuality legislation.  The Anti-Homosexuality Act, which was enacted in May and carries the death penalty for certain same-sex acts, has unleashed a torrent of abuse against LGBTQ+ […]

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Experts Weigh in on the Realities of Gender-Affirming Care and the Dangers of Disinformation

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n the wake of numerous discussions, panels, and speeches at PFLAG’s National Convention in Arlington, VA. last month, a notable conversation took place to illuminate the shadows cast by disinformation on trans healthcare. The ambiance within the Crystal Ballroom at DoubleTree Crystal City was anything but cold as attendees gathered for a crucial dialogue on trans healthcare. The session, “Courageous Love in Trans Healthcare,” moderated by writer and activist Charlotte Clymer, featured a panel of health experts, including Admiral Rachel L. Levine, the assistant secretary for health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Dr. Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, the […]

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Lesbian Artist Receives Multi-Year Prison Sentence for Criticizing Putin, Military

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To the shouts of “Shame!” in the courtroom, a judge in Russia last week sentenced a lesbian artist who criticized the country’s military actions in Ukraine in a supermarket protest last year to seven years in a penal colony. Alexandra Skochilenko, 33, was convicted last Wednesday of spreading knowingly false information about the use of the armed forces and the government’s use of its authority. On March 31, 2022, Skochilenko, also known as Sasha, had switched out the price tags at a Perekrestok supermarket with stickers that looked like price tags but contained a series of antiwar messages. A witness […]

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Teachers and students grapple with fears and confusion about new laws restricting pronoun use

Indianapolis high school senior Caston Peters had used they and them or he and him pronouns at school for three years without a problem, but they came home a few days into this school year and told their mother that the situation had changed. Peters, 18 and nonbinary, heard from a teacher that a new state law meant they wouldn’t be able to use those pronouns, or the first name they’ve used for years, without explicit permission from a parent because the pronouns and name don’t correspond with their sex assigned at birth. This was news to Caston’s mother, Kim Michaelis-Peters, who […]

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