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Over 100 Leading LGBTQ+ Advocacy Organizations and Allies Call on Target and Business Community to Reject Coordinated, Extremist Anti-LGBTQ+ Attacks

Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), GLAAD, GLSEN, Family Equality, National LGBTQ Task Force, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and National Black Justice Coalition, in partnership with more than 100 organizations, renewed their call for Target and the business community to reject and speak out against anti-LGBTQ+ extremism going into Pride Month. Additionally, the coalition stands in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ employees at companies like Target, as well as the designers of Pride merchandise, who have experienced horrendous, unhinged attacks while simply showing up to work. Harassment and threats of violence, anywhere and at any time, against good people just doing […]

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Biden Proclaims June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month, Denounces Oppression

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On the last day of May, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation Wednesday from the White House declaring June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Pride Month. It comes amid a wave of conservative attacks on the LGBTQ+ community. “During Pride Month, we honor a movement that has grown stronger, more vibrant, and more inclusive with every passing year,” the proclamation read. “Pride is a celebration of generations of LGBTQI+ people who have fought bravely to live openly and authentically. And it is a reminder that we still have generational work to do to ensure that everyone enjoys the full promise of equity, dignity, […]

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Uganda’s President Signs Repressive Anti-LGBT Law

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Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has signed a bill criminalizing same sex conduct, including potentially the death penalty for those convicted of “aggravated homosexuality,” into law. The Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 violates multiple fundamental rights guaranteed under Uganda’s constitution and breaks commitments made by the government as a signatory to a number of international human rights agreements. Uganda’s penal code already punishes same-sex conduct with life imprisonment – a criminal offense that is rarely prosecuted – but the new law creates new crimes such as the vaguely worded “promotion of homosexuality” and introduces the death penalty for several acts considered as […]

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Iowa governor signs education bill filled with anti-LGBTQ+ policies

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Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) has signed an education bill that includes several anti-LGBTQ+ policies.  S.F. 496 bans instruction on LGBTQ+ identities through sixth grade and requires schools to out trans youth to their parents. It also bans all books containing sex acts from school classrooms and libraries, which will undoubtedly lead to the banning of several LGBTQ+ books.  And despite the fact that Iowa has already banned gender-affirming care for trans youth, the bill explicitly establishes that parents and guardians have “the fundamental, constitutionally protected right, to make decisions affecting [their] child, including decisions related to the minor child’s medical care….”  The […]

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Montana Governor, Who Has Nonbinary Child, Defines Sex as Binary

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Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte has signed three more anti-LGBTQ+ bills into law, including one that activists are calling the “LGBTQ erasure act,” defining sex as binary and determined by reproductive capacity. Gianforte, a Republican, announced Saturday that he had signed the bill. Also, he signed one allowing public schools to out transgender students to their parents and one that will let parents withdraw their children from school if they object to the day’s lesson plan. The “erasure” legislation, Senate Bill 458, defines sex based on their chromosomes and their reproductive characteristics — females by their ability to produce an egg and males by their […]

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First they came for the LGBTQ+ books: How the Nazis started burning books 90 years ago this month

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Months after the war to end all wars came to a close in 1918, a German researcher named Magnus Hirschfeld opened his Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute of Sexology) in Berlin, the world’s first academic institution devoted to the study of sexuality. He bought the building from the defeated government of the Free State of Prussia in the leafy Tiergarten district. It would house a research library and a large archive with tens of thousands of volumes; a marriage and sex counseling office; a museum of sexual artifacts; medical exam rooms; and a lecture hall. Hirschfeld, who was openly gay and Jewish, would […]

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Malaysia seizes rainbow Pride-themed Swatch watches

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Pride-themed Swatch watches have been seized by authorities in Malaysia in raids of 11 of its stores, reportedly due to ‘LGBT symbols’ on the timepieces.  The raids happened between 13 to 15 May and around $14,000 (£11,347) worth of stock was seized, according to various media reports.  The watches were part of the brand’s 2023 Pride collection, launched on 4 May, which features six different watch faces in Pride colours. Each watch strap is made up of two bands containing colours that make up the full Pride flag.  As reported by local newspaper MalayMail, Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was questioned […]

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LGBTQ Groups To Target: Defend Us, Stand Up To Hate

Recent pushback against businesses such as Anheuser-Busch and Target, blatantly organized by extremist groups, serves as a wake up call for all businesses that support the LGBTQ+ community. We’ve seen this extremist playbook of attacks before. Their goal is clear: to prevent LGBTQ+ inclusion and representation, silence our allies and make our community invisible. These attacks fuel hate against LGBTQ+ people, just as we’ve seen this year with more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills that restrict basic freedoms and aim to erase LGBTQ+ people. Extremist attacks and harassment of businesses for standing in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community and values of […]

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How New Mexico quietly became a refugee state for trans people

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Over the last year, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Utah — four states bordering New Mexico — have all banned gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Meanwhile, New Mexico passed two laws ensuring that such care will remain legal statewide and that no government entities will ever help another state prosecute someone who obtains or provides that care. As a result, New Mexico is quickly becoming a refugee state for those escaping their state’s anti-trans policies. That creates a unique challenge for the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico (TGRCNM). The Albuquerque-based center is the state’s only brick-and-mortar center run by trans people, for […]

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The 2024 election is going to be wildly transphobic

Shortly after announcing his 2024 presidential campaign, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) went on Fox News and showed everyone how obsessed he is with transgender people. “How would you address the ongoing war in Eastern Europe between Russia and Ukraine on day 1 of a Ron DeSantis presidency?” host Trey Gowdy asked. He also said LGBTQ stands for “Let God burn them quickly.” “First, I think what we need to do as a veteran is recognize that our military has become politicized. You talk about gender ideology, you talk about things like global warming that they’re somehow concerned, and that’s not the military […]

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