Pope Francis has urged parents worldwide to unconditionally support, not condemn, their children if they are gay.
The leader of the Catholic Church made his latest gesture of outreach to the LGBT+ community in off the cuff statements during his weekly general audience on Wednesday (26 January).
He spoke to the crowd about different “sad” situations that parents face in their children’s lives. This included coping with children who live with serious illnesses, are imprisoned or come out as part of the LGBT+ community.
“Parents who see that their children have different sexual orientations, how they manage that and accompany their children and not hide behind a condemning attitude,” Pope Francis said.
He told parents “never condemn” and not to be afraid of their children.
While the LGBT+ community has long been marginalised within the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has frequently voiced that people should be more accepting of queer people.
In 2013, the pontiff argued that LGBT+ people should not be marginalised by society, famously saying: “Who am I to judge?”
Pope Francis addresses attendees during a weekly general audience on 26 January 2021 at Paul-VI Hall in the Vatican. (Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty)
A year later, he said the Catholic Church must help and support parents to stand by their LGBT+ children.
Pope Francis said Catholic Church officials encountered parents who struggled with how to support their gay child “all the time in the confessional”. He added that he had experienced such confessions “several times” when he worked in “Buenos Aires”.
“We have to find a way to help that father or that mother to stand by their son or daughter,” he said.
However, he has not shied away from his support of the Catholic Church’s stance on same-sex marriage.
In September, he declared that “marriage is a sacrament” and that the “church doesn’t have the power to change sacraments”.
But Pope Francis insisted that refusing to allow queer couples the same sacramental rights as heterosexual couples “does not mean condemning them”. He added that LGBT+ people are “our brothers and sisters”, and “we need to be close to them”.
In March last year, the Vatican ruled that the Catholic Church couldn’t bless same-sex unions because God “does not and cannot bless sin”.
The comments, made by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, directed church members not to give blessings to same-sex couples as doing so would be an affront to God.
In December, a Vatican official apologised after the website of the Synod of Bishops removed and later reinstated a link to material referencing leading Catholic LGBT+ advocacy group, New Ways Ministry.
The Synod had included reference to a webinar video made by New Ways Ministry which urged LGBT+ Catholics to participate in a consultation process to make the Church more welcoming.
Thierry Bonaventura, the Synod’s communications director, apologised to “all LGBT and to the members of New Ways Ministries for the pain caused” by taking down the video.
The UK’s first ever national LGBT+ museum is set to open its doors in Kings Cross, London, later this year.
The museum – called Queer Britain – will explore the stories, people and places that are central to the LGBT+ community in the UK and beyond. It will be located at 2 Granary Square in Kings Cross, which is owned by Art Fund, the UK’s national charity for art.
Organisers have been putting plans in place to open an LGBT+ focused museum since 2018. They have promised that Queer Britain will be “an inclusive place that promises to welcome everyone regardless of sexuality or gender identity” .
The museum is expected to open its doors free of charge in the spring, according to Art Fund, although a firm date has not yet been specified.
Queer Britain museum will explore LGBT+ community’s ‘diverse histories’
Lisa Power, a trailblazing LGBT+ activist and trustee of Queer Britain, celebrated the news in a statement released by Art Fund.
“I’m really excited that Queer Britain is finally going to have a space to show what we can do and that we’re here for all the community, from old lesbian feminist warhorses like me to young queer folk of all genders and ethnicities. Queer Britain aims to tell our many and diverse histories, and now we have a home to do that from.”
Anjum Mouj, also a trustee of Queer Britain, said: “The UK is finally getting the LGBTQ+ museum it deserves, to reflect and celebrate all our exciting and wildly diverse communities, whatever their sexualities, gender identities, backgrounds, ability or heritage. Community lives in unity.”
Joseph Galliano, director and co-founder of the museum, said the time had come for the UK to have its own LGBT+ focused museum.
“We are delighted to have found our first home in beautiful Granary Square with Art Fund as our first landlord,” Galliano said. “It’s a prime location accessible to swathes of the country, and in a part of town with a rich queer heritage.”
Queer Britain will be made up of four galleries, a workshop, an education space, a gift shop, and it all also be home to offices for the team. Organisers have promised that it will be “fully accessible” with lifts and ramps and entry will “always” be free.
A great deal has changed for LGBT+ people in the United States since Joe Biden came into office one year ago today – but there’s still a long way to go.
The dark days of the Trump presidency aren’t quite as distant a memory as we might like. The far-right still holds a great deal of influence in the United States, and queer people continue to face disproportionate levels of violence and discrimination.
Since inauguration day on 20 January 2021, Joe Biden and Kamala Harrishave strengthened legal rights, they have rolled back Trump-era attacks, and they’ve created a more hospitable environment for LGBT+ people to exist in. The feeling among LGBT+ rights activists and advocacy groups is clear – it’s a good start, but there’s still plenty more to achieve.
One year on from inauguration day, we take a look at some of the issues Biden and Harris need to focus on over the next year to ensure that LGBT+ people’s lives are improving in tangible ways.
Joe Biden needs to end the epidemic of violence against trans women
Trans people, particularly trans women of colour, continue to face shocking levels of violence in the United States and across the world. We wish we could say things were getting better – but Biden’s first year in office was also the deadliest year on record for trans people in the United States.
One thing is clear – something needs to change, and it needs to change fast. The problem is that a political solution isn’t entirely clear or straightforward, according to Sarah Warbelow, legal director at the Human Rights Campaign.
It’s a regressive policy that is not based in science, and it’s a cruel hangover from the worst days of the AIDS epidemic.
“The American Red Cross just announced a blood donation crisis,” Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO and president of GLAAD, tells PinkNews. “Our nation’s blood supply is drastically, dangerously low. One way to alleviate the shortage and advance equality would be to urge the FDA to eliminate the discriminatory deferral period for gay and bisexual men to donate blood, and lead all agencies to revise donor screening processes to focus on current science rather than outdated notions and stigma.”
“We applaud the administration’s efforts to enforce nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ young people in schools, particularly transgender, nonbinary, and intersex students who are experiencing ongoing attacks and attempts to sanction discrimination in state legislatures across the country,” they say.
“GLSEN will continue to partner with the US Department of Education and other federal agencies to strengthen these protections and promote inclusive data collection practices that will help increase the effectiveness of programs and services.”
Over the next year, GLSEN would like to see the Biden administration expand on its current efforts to advance equality for LGBT+ people who face marginalisation in the education system. They would also like to see the administration “continue to se a tone that encourages classroom teachers, families, principals, administrators, state leaders and everyone who is part of K-12 learning communities to affirm and meet the needs of all students”.
The federal government must focus on LGBT+ mental health
Numerous studies have shown that LGBT+ people are more likely to experience mental health difficulties, and they’re also at a greater risk of suicide than their straight and cisgender peers.
Preston Mitchum is director of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project, an organisation that works to prevent suicide among LGBT+ people. He says Biden “deserves credit” for prioritising LGBT+ representation in his cabinet and for reversing the trans military ban, among other measures.
However, more has to be done to protect the mental wellbeing of LGBT+ people in America.
“We will continue to push the administration to take action at the federal level to protect young people from the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion therapy, to expand access to mental health care for all, to improve the collection of sexual orientation and gender identity data across federal agencies, and to allocate the resources necessary to make [crisis line] 988 a success come July, including specialised services for LGBTQ youth,” Mitchum says.
Adam Polaski, communications director with Southern Equality, says the Biden administration needs to challenge those laws. He notes that Biden “has followed through on many of his commitments related to LGBTQ+ equality”, but it’s now time to look towards the future.
“We’d like to see him continue to use the ‘bully pulpit’ now to call for passage of federal non-discrimination protections – and, what’s more, work specifically with legislators on both sides of the aisle to pass meaningful federal protections,” Polaski says.
“He and his Department of Justice can also dive into challenging anti-LGBTQ laws, including the anti-trans healthcare discrimination law in Arkansas and myriad anti-trans student athletics laws. And we’d like to see him continue nominating out LGBTQ+ people and allies to federal judgeships and other government positions.”
A lesbian member of the National Guard is suing the US Army and Air Force after her boss allegedly pressured her to “appear more feminine”.
Kristin M Kingrey of the West Virginia Air National Guard (WVNG) said she lost out on two jobs after repeated comments that she should grow her hair and wear make-up, according to a report by the Daily Beast.
Technical sergeant Kingrey, 37, filed a lawsuit on 23 November 2021 against the army she has worked in for nearly 14 years over comments made by a senior male leader.
Kingrey told the Daily Beast that a job she had successfully applied for was withdrawn after the comments were made, and that in another instance she was not hired for a position she was more than qualified for.
She said: “From 2016 to 2018, I was constantly being pulled into my seniors’ offices being told my hair was out of regs [non-regulation].
“It crossed a line into harassment, and I carried on my person a copy of our regulations in regards to female hair length because I was not breaking any rules.”
The lawsuit claims that the sergeant was subject to “continued harassment, discrimination, and retaliation based upon her sex, including her sexual orientation and perceived gender nonconformity.”
Kingrey alleged the incident that sparked the lawsuit happened when a senior leader, vice wing commander colonel Michael Cadle, asked a female lieutenant colonel to encourage Kingrey to begin appearing more feminine.
Kingrey said it was implied she should “grow my hair out and start wearing makeup because if I didn’t, it would be detrimental to my career in the West Virginia Air National Guard”.
She added: “I had heard of other females with short hair having issues with people saying things, but I don’t know that progressed to the extent mine did. My hair length has nothing do with my work ethic or job performance.
“Initially I was embarrassed. I could not believe that not fitting their mould of how I should look would truly impact my career. It was devastating.”
After the comments were made, the lesbian sergeant said that a job that had been verbally offered to her was suddenly longer no longer available because of an alleged funding cut.
The role was then re-advertised.
Mike Hissam, Kingrey’s attorney, said she is seeking the job offer back, as well as an apology from colonel Cadle.
He said: “We would want reinstatement and back pay… Kristin should get the position she applied for and would have gotten had it not been for the unlawful discrimination she suffered. That’s the outcome she wants.”
Kingrey told the Daily Beast: “The whole thing has made me feel that I don’t belong, and that my career will be hindered. But I have not considered quitting. I will not be defeated.
“They are not going to make me leave something that I truly love, and I truly love putting on the uniform every single day. I love my country, and I love my state, and I have served them both honourably for over 14 years.”
Holli R Nelson of the West Virginia Air National Guard told PinkNews in a statement: “The WVNG is fully committed to an inclusive and diverse workforce free from harassment.
“As a matter of policy, the WVNG does not comment on matters that are currently pending in litigation. But generally, the WVNG advised an outside agency who is charged with conducting investigations that are prompt, fair, and impartial in matters like this one.
“They produced a report with the factual record, and it was determined that no discrimination and/or harassment occurred. As such, we are continuing the process to present the facts to fully resolve this matter in the court system.”
A US Army spokesperson told the Daily Beast: “As a matter of policy, the Army does not comment on ongoing litigation.”
Kingrey told the Daily Beast that she is still “committed” to her career in the military.
“I just want to go through my career on a fair basis,” she said.
“I’ve never asked for favouritism just because I am from the LGBTQ community. I just want to be allowed to continue my military career based on my own merits and off my work ethic.”
The U.S. Department of Education has opened a civil-rights investigation into how LGBTQ students are disciplined at Brigham Young University, a private religious school.
The complaint under investigation came after the school said it would still enforce a ban on same-sex dating even after that section was removed from the written version of the school’s honor code, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Students can be punished for holding hands or kissing someone of the same sex, harsher discipline than that faced by heterosexual couples at the school operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
BYU removed its written ban on “homosexual behavior,” in early 2020, prompting students to publicly come out as members of the LGBTQ community. But the school clarified a few weeks later that same-sex dating is still prohibited, even if it’s no longer expressly written in the honor code. It also bans things such as alcohol consumption, beards and piercings.
Students protested the apparent reversal, saying they felt tricked into coming out. The federal investigation from the department’s Office for Civil Rights started late last year under Title IX, the law that protects against discrimination on the basis of sex in schools.
A university spokeswoman acknowledged the investigation but said in a statement that BYU is within its rights to enforce the church’s policies against same-sex relationships and does not anticipate any further action.
“BYU is exempt from application of Title IX rules that conflict with the religious tenets of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” Carri Jenkins said in a statement.
The church has softened its approach in recent years but maintains doctrinal opposition to same-sex marriage and sex outside of marriage.
A Department of Education spokesperson confirmed an investigation was opened in October, but declined to comment further. As a private religious school, BYU does have religious exemptions from Title IX related to sexuality and gender expression.
Federal scrutiny like this is rare at church-owned schools, and typically happens only in places where there are believed to be potential systemic or serious issues, said Michael Austin, a BYU graduate and vice president at the University of Evansville, a private Methodist school in Indiana.
“It’s really significant that investigators are stepping in now,” he told the newspaper. The new investigation appears to be about whether those exemptions allow faith-based discipline for LGBTQ students even if the behavior is not directly related to education or expressly prohibited in its written honor code.
The school’s president argued those exemptions do apply, and everyone who attends or works at BYU agrees to follow the honor code and “‘voluntarily commit to conduct their lives in accordance with the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ,’” according to a letter Kevin Worthen wrote to the Department of Education in November 2021.
In a response obtained by the Tribune, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights affirmed the school does have some religious exemptions but the department had to investigate whether the complaint it received falls under those exemptions.
LGBTQ rights have been a major issue in recent years at the school located in Provo, Utah. A lawsuit filed by several students last year alleges discrimination, with one recent graduate who is a lesbian alleging she lost her job at the school because she didn’t look “feminine enough” to her boss.
The institution has also banned protests near its large letter “Y” posted on a mountainside after protesters lit the letter with rainbow colors. Last fall, a top-ranking church leader publicly criticized faculty members and students who challenge the faith’s teachings on same-sex marriage.
The National Football League (NFL) has filed to dismiss former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden’s lawsuit regarding the leak of his homophobic, misogynistic and racist emails.
In one of them, Gruden called NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a “f****t” and “clueless anti-football p***y”.
He also criticised Goodell for supposedly pressuring the St Louis Rams – which drafted openly gay player Michael Sam in 2014 – to hire “queers”.
Jon Gruden was working as an ESPN commentator at the time before rejoining the Raiders on a 10-year deal in 2018. He had previously worked as coach of the Raiders, who were located in Oakland at the time, from 1998 to 2001.
A new filing in Nevada state court saw the NFL argue that Gruden’s lawsuit shouldn’t go to court because they claimed to have evidence that the disgraced coach sent messages featuring hate-filled language to at least six people.
It had previously been reported that offensive language had only been used in the messages sent to former Washington Football Team president Bruce Allen.
The NFL’s legal team suggested that league commissioner Roger Goodell would have unilaterally fired Gruden due to the messages if the former coach hadn’t resigned.
A hearing will be held on the motions filed by the NFL and Jon Gruden on 23 February.
According to The Athletic, the filing read: “Jon Gruden sent a variety of similarly abhorrent emails to a half dozen recipients over a seven-year period, in which he denounced ‘the emergence of women as referees’ and frequently used homophobic and sexist slurs to refer to commissioner Goodell, then-vice president Joseph Biden, a gay professional football player drafted in 2014, and others.”
However, Gruden filed to sue the league in November and claimed that the emails were leaked in order to hurt him because of offensive things he had written about Goodell.
The NFL fought back again this claim in their filing as they wrote: “This action – brought by Jon Gruden to blame anyone but himself for the fallout from the publication of racist, homophobic and misogynistic emails that he wrote and broadly circulated – belongs in arbitration under the clear terms of Gruden’s employment contract and the NFL’s constitution and bylaws to which Gruden is bound.”
Giggle, a social media app designed for “females”, has come under fire for excluding trans women with its use of artificial intelligence.
The app is marketed as a female-only space that allows women to find roommates, engage in freelance work, find friendship groups and more.
The Verge reported that Giggle, which first launched in early 2020, uses facial recognition to determine if new users are male or female, however it has allegedly failed to properly recognise women of colour or transgender women.
Jenny, a 23-year-old trans woman from California, told The Verge: “The way the app works is when you install it, you have to take a picture of yourself and it uses AI to analyse your face.
“And if it decides you’re a woman, it will let you in. If it decides you’re a man, it will reject you. But if it rejects you, you can just submit another picture.”
Jenny said she first tried to sign up for Giggle two years ago, however she claims she was removed from the app without warning when she tweeted about joining. A Twitter user tagged Giggle’s founder and CEO Sall Grover, claiming that Jenny was “transgressing women’s boundaries” by using the app.
Grover told PinkNews: “Giggle is a social networking app for females. Males are excluded from the user base. There is no other specific demographic that is excluded from the app other than males.
“Like how Grindr is an app for gay men and therefore not for women, Giggle is an app for a specific demographic. In our case, females.
“Giggle is clearly stated as being for females. It would be lovely, however, if male people respected female spaces and left them alone.”
Taking to Twitter, Grover shared PinkNews‘ comment request pertaining to the exclusion of trans women, suggesting she considered trans women to be males, remarking: “In case anyone was wondering whether or not misogyny is alive and f**king well.”
When asked if trans women were encouraged to join Giggle, she replied: “No males are ‘encouraged’ to join Giggle.”
Grover also failed to acknowledge that Grindr is not just an app exclusively for gay men, but instead a space that’s welcoming of trans and non-binary people, as well as bisexual and questioning cis men.
PinkNews has contacted Grover for clarification.
Giggle has also been criticised for its use of AI to open an account; the app works with facial-recognition AI company Kairos, which was found to misgender women of colour in a 2019 report.
The way the app works is that a user sends off a selfie to Giggle. If the Kairos AI is 95 per cent certain the person is female, they are allowed to create an account.
In the 2019 report on Kairos, however, Joe Buolamwini, a researcher at the MIT Media Lab, found that the technology misgendered darker-skinned women 22.5 per cent of the time.
Melissa Doval, then-CEO of Kairos, told the New York Times that it had since made changes to its algorithm to improve its accuracy.
Grover denied that the platform’s AI prevented women of colour from using it, saying “women of every race are not just welcome on Giggle, women of every race are on Giggle”.
The horrific spate of anti-LGBT+ killings that have fuelled fear in Jamaica is to be investigated as part of a new podcast series.
Ring The Alarm, an Apple Podcasts series that will explore what it’s like to be LGBT+ in the island country, will be hosted by Jasmyne Cannick, one of Los Angeles’ most recognisable Black political strategists and journalists.
Cannick helped capture national attention to the sordid killings by small-time American Democratic donor Ed Buck – now she’s training focus on the creeping homicide rates of LGBT+ people in Jamaica.
“I have always used my platform to elevate Black stories and issues I felt were being ignored and Ring the Alarm is no different,” Cannick told The Advocate.
“When I was asked to come to Jamaica to speak to the LGBTQ+ community and share their stories, I immediately said yes.
“I said yes because American’s have had so much to say about the plight of queer people in places like Iran and Afghanistan but for decades have ignored the murders of lesbian women, gay men, and trans men and women in Jamaica.
“Well not anymore.”
The world ‘can’t keep ignoring’ wave of LGBT+ murders in Jamaica
In Jamaica, it is illegal to be gay, punishable by up to a decade in prison with hard labour. Some take the law into their own hands, carrying out brutal torture and murders that capture the deepening homophobia in the country.
Many queer Jamaicans live in fear, with more than half saying they have been victims of some form of violence fuelled by hatred for their sexual orientation or gender identity, according to the Human Rights Watch.
Contempt towards LGBT+ people is entrenched in the Jamaican state, the group warned.
Queer youth rejected by their families remain among the most vulnerable in society and battle to survive as the public and police target them.
But described by Cannick as like a modern-day underground railroad, countless safehouses provide LGBT+ people with a place of safety, healing and camaraderie.
Cannick hopes to tell the stories behind the safehouses and those who run them while raising money for the organisers. Above all, she hopes to raise national attention once again to a pressing issue – the killing of the most vulnerable.
“Americans love vacationing in Jamaica,” she added, “but just beyond the carefully curated tourism corridor, people are being murdered for being queer.
“We can’t be okay with that. We can’t keep ignoring that.”
Brandon Straka, the 44-year-old New York-based hairstylist and Trump loyalist who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge for his role in the January 6 Capitol Insurrection, was finally sentenced on Monday.
Judge Dabny Friedrich, a Trump appointee, gave Straka no jail time but sentenced him to three months of house arrest, 36 months of probation, $5,500 in fines, and community service.
According to court documents, FBI officials identified Straka from a since-deleted video he posted to his own social media page in which he could be heard shouting “Go! Go!” to the other insurrectionists as they stormed inside the U.S. Capitol building.
Two days after he pleaded guilty, Straka emailed his mailing list asking them to send him money for his legal bills.
“Start posting positive things that you believe about me,” he wrote. “Push back against the one sided hate attacks that are happening right now. I still have nothing to say about my case, other than this- as it’s being widely (and likely INTENTIONALLY) misreported: I did NOT enter the Capitol building.”
“After being PERMANENTLY BANNED from PayPal, Venmo, and Stripe,” Straka added, “I have CUSTOM CREATED a support platform using a conservative friendly payment processor company.”
Officials were also able to tie Straka to the insurrection based on several since-deleted posts from his Twitter account, including:
“Patriots at the Capitol – HOLD. THE. LINE!!!!”
“I arrived at the Capitol a few hours ago as Patriots were storming from all sides. I was quite close to entering myself as police began tear-gassing us from the door. I inhaled tear gas & got it in my eyes. Patriots began exiting shortly after saying Congress had been cleared.”
“I’m completely confused. For 6-8 weeks everybody on the right has been saying ‘1776!’ & that if congress moves forward it will mean a revolution! So congress moves forward. Patriots storm the Capitol – now everybody is virtual signaling their embarrassment that this happened.”
“Also- be embarrassed & hide if you need to- but I was there. It was not Antifa at the Capitol. It was freedom loving Patriots who were DESPERATE to fight for the final hope of our Republic because literally nobody cares about them. Everyone else can denounce them. I will not.”
“Perhaps I missed the part where it was agreed this would be a revolution of ice cream cones & hair-braiding parties to take our government back from lying, cheating globally interested swamp parasites. My bad.”
Multiple other people sent the FBI videos that reportedly showed Straka at the Capitol building on January 6. In one of the clips, he allegedly tells the mob, “We’re going in!” In another, he allegedly orders them to attack a police officer, yelling, “Take the shield! Take it! Take it!”
Straka signed a plea deal with prosecutors, agreeing to provide agents with “copies of any social media accounts, postings, videos, or photos” and answer questions “regarding events in and around January 6, 2021.” In exchange, prosecutors sought a lighter sentence.
Kai Shappley, an 11-year-old transgender girl from Texas, is in the spotlight once again after she was named a Time Kid of the Year finalist. Kai, an elementary school student, first made national headlines in April, when she testified about trans rights before the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs.
After she was named one of five Kid of the Year finalists, Kai and her mom, Kimberly Shappley, talked to NBC affiliate KXAN of Austin about the motivation behind Kai’s activism.
“I started my activism because I thought it was unfair how they were treating us,” Kai said. “We’ve seen a lot of what’s going on multiple times in history, and it’s just history repeating itself over and over. It’s terrible, so I started speaking out, because I wanted that to stop.”https://iframe.nbcnews.com/VFGHDEx?_showcaption=true&app=1
Texas is one of over 30 states that considered legislation targeting transgender youths last year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Texas alone considered over 50 such bills, according to the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Texas. It was one of those bills — a measure that sought to criminalize providing or assisting minors with gender-affirming health care — that led Kai to testify last spring.
“It makes me sad that some politicians use trans kids like me to get votes from people who hate me just because I exist,” she said at the time. “God made me, God loves me for who I am, and God does not make mistakes.”https://iframe.nbcnews.com/lVVrWXE?_showcaption=true
The Shappley family has moved three times in the past few years and now lives in Austin because “it’s the safest place” for Kai to be, Kimberly Shappley told KXAN.
The Shappleys anticipate that they will have to continue fighting bills that target transgender youths, and that’s fine by Kai.
“I’m a bold and strong, independent little lady,” Kai said, “and I will keep fighting for as long as I need to.”
