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Chuck Schumer will force Republicans to vote on same-sex marriage before midterm elections

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) has announced his attention to hold a vote “in the coming weeks” on the “The Respect for Marriage Act,” a bill that would help enshrine same-sex marriage rights into law. In doing so, he’d get Senate Republicans to state whether they support marriage equality before the November midterm elections. Democrats could use Republican opposition to the bill to pummel conservative candidates and convince larger numbers of Democratic voters to come to the polls. ADVERTISING Democratic and Independent voters have come out against Republicans in greater numbers since the conservative-led Supreme Court overturned the right to abortions […]

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What women & LGBTQ people lose when church & state collide

After standing with Donald Trump throughout his morally reprehensible actions and policy directives, conservative Evangelical Christians – along with other anti-choice, anti-contraceptive, and anti-LGBTQ zealots – were downright giddy over the possibility of finally receiving some of the promised dividends for selling their souls to the Devil. This group has sacrificed all of their “deeply held religious beliefs.” They have stood with him from his destructive and epithet-laden tweets, to his promise of constructing a wall on our southern border, to the Access Hollywood tape, to revelations of his payoffs to quiet a porn star, to separating babies and young […]

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Malta’s PM promises free gender affirming surgery as part of sweeping LGBTQ+ rights reforms

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Malta’s prime minister, Robert Abela, has promised reforms for the country’s LGBTQ+ community, including free gender affirming surgery for trans people.  According to local publication Lovin Malta, the prime minster attended Malta’s Pride march in Valletta on 10 September to share news that the government is committed to carrying out these reforms. In an interview with ONE Radio he said: “I believe that social reform gives the Labour Party its identity. “My presence yesterday, as well as that of ministers and MPs, symbolises the messages that while we have done a lot, more is yet to come. While we’re proud of what we […]

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Sri Lanka’s president says his government won’t oppose decriminalisation of homosexuality

The president of Sri Lanka has said his government won’t oppose a bill to decriminalise homosexuality – but added the bill must gain support before any laws change. On Sunday (11 September) president Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has held his role since July this year, said the government will not oppose a private member’s bill presented to parliament by MP Premnath C Dolawatte to decriminalise homosexuality. Same-sex relationships are currently illegal in Sri Lanka, and there are other discriminatory laws against trans people and sex workers. Dolawatte’s bill seeks to decriminalise same-sex sexual activity between consenting adults by amending sections 365 […]

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Is it illegal to be gay in Russia? Documenting Russia’s anti-LGBTQ laws

Since 2013, Russia has had a law in place that criminalizes the distribution of “homosexual propaganda” to minors. This vague and overly broad law can be used to punish anyone who speaks positively about LGBTQ relationships or displays any kind of pro-LGBTQ sentiment. As a result, Russia has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world for members of the LGBTQ community. Recently, Russian legislators have proposed to extend the LGBTQ propaganda law, which would criminalize anyone who promotes “non-traditional” sexual relationships to minors and adults. This, critics say, will further endanger the lives of Russia’s LGBTQ population, which […]

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Texas’ “child abuse” investigators harassed a trans 8th grader even after a court told them to stop

On August 30, middle school administrators allegedly pulled a 13-year-old transgender boy out of class so an investigator from the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) could ask him personal questions about his past medical history, gender dysphoria, and past suicide attempt. The boy — given the pseudonym “Steve Koe” in court documents — was left “shaking and distressed” by the interrogation, The Washington Post reported. Worse yet, the interrogation allegedly occurred after a court told DFPS investigators to stop doing them. ADVERTISING Now, Koe’s story is a part of supplemental evidence being filed by the LGBTQ-advocacy organizations Lambda Legal and […]

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Beleaguered EuroPride march banned by Serbian police amid mass anti-LGBTQ+ protests

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The EuroPride march route has been officially banned by Serbian police following mass anti-LGBTQ+ protests. The event, which takes place in a different European city each year, was due to take place in Belgrade on Saturday (17 September) as part of Serbia’s bid for membership to the European Union. But the event found itself under increasing scrutiny by religious and anti-LGBTQ+ protestors, including a march led by clergy from the Serbian Orthodox Church, who used rhetoric about “saving children” and “protecting family values” to push their hateful message. Now, several weeks after Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić said the event would be postponed indefinitely due […]

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Montana adopts sketchy rule to stop trans people from changing their birth certificates

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) has just adopted a rule change forbidding transgender people from changing the gender listed on their birth certificates. The rule change is just the latest in an ongoing legal battle between the DPHHS, the state’s Republican-led legislature, and trans Montanans seeking government documents that display their correct gender identities. ADVERTISING The DPHHS’ new rule says that a person’s sex listed on a birth certificate can now only be changed if it was incorrectly entered by a “data entry error” or if “the sex of the individual was misidentified on the original certificate […]

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Black gay community concerned monkeypox response is inadequate

In July, a 35-year-old Black man from the Washington, D.C. area went from experiencing Covid-like symptoms to watching his body be overtaken by the aggravating, blistering boils of monkeypox. And yet, as he endured the agony and uncertainty that came with the disease, he said he had other, more pressing concerns.  The man, who asked to remain anonymous because of concerns related to the stigma associated with the disease, said he was alarmed by how difficult it was to find information on monkeypox and his doctor’s seeming dismissal of his concerns about his symptoms.  He said his case is an […]

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Faculty and students sue Christian school over LGBTQ hiring ban

Divisions over LGBTQ-related policies have flared recently at several religious colleges in the United States. On Monday, there was a dramatic new turn at one of the most rancorous battlegrounds — Seattle Pacific University. A group of students, faculty and staff at the Christian university sued leaders of the board of trustees for refusing to scrap an employment policy barring people in same-sex relationships from full-time jobs at SPU. The 16 plaintiffs say the trustees’ stance — widely opposed on campus — is a breach of their fiduciary duties that threatens to harm SPU’s reputation, worsen enrollment difficulties and possibly […]

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