André Leon Talley, giant of the fashion industry, has died aged 73.
Talley, who was Vogue’s first Black creative director, and later editor-at-large, passed away on Tuesday (18 January), his literary agent confirmed.
He had been suffering from an unknown illness.
A pioneer in fashion, Talley passionately championed diversity and inclusion in an industry that for years resisted it. He was remembered by friends and fans for his glamour, grace and grit.
Talley grew up with his grandmother in the city of Durham in Jim Crow era North Carolina, and told NPR in 2018 that he first came across a copy of Vogue at his local library when he was nine or 10 years old.
He described it as a “rabbit hole” into “a world of glamour”, and added: “[Vogue] was my gateway to the world outside of Durham.
“It was the world of literature, what was happening in the world of art, what was happening in the world of entertainment.”
Talley went on to study French literature at Brown University, where he wrote his thesis on the influence of Black women in Charles Baudelaire.
He later moved to New York City, working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in Andy Warhol’s Factory studio, and at Women’s Wear Daily, Interview, W, and the New York Times.
Talley finally made his way to Vogue, where he was fashion news director from 1983 to 1987, creative director from 1988 to 1995, and editor-at-large from 1998 to 2013.
The fashion icon became known for his signature kaftans and capes, and told NPR: “I went to [Morocco] and saw that the men in North Africa in Marrakech and Casablanca walked around in caftan shirts and loose-fitting clothes all day, every day… I decided: I want to be like that. I want to wear that instead of a suit because it’s comfortable. You are ventilated. You’re roomy. You’re cozy, and you can just stretch.
“I’m not a tall stick anymore! I’m a big, big guy of great girth and people think I look like maybe my clothes don’t look that important, but I have taken great time and [done] fittings for my capes and caftans made by the great designers.
“I will continue to wear these things for the rest of my life!
Talley published three books during his lifetime: A.L.T.: A Memoir in 2003, the photography book A.L.T. 365+, and in 2020, The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir, which became a New York Times best seller.
In 2010 and 2011, he had a place on the judging panel of America’s Next Top Model.
Diane von Furstenberg, the designer who was a close friend of Talley’s, wrote: “Goodbye darling André … no one saw the world in a more glamorous way than you did. No one was grander and more soulful than you were.”
Bette Midler added: “I’m sorry to say the extraordinary André Leon Talley has died.
“He was such a force and believed in the magic of fashion and its illusions with all his being. His life was a saga of great highs, great lows, the dramatic, the ridiculous, and the endless pursuit of beauty. Love and RIP.”
Slave Play writer Jeremy O’Harris tweeted: “For a little Black gay boy who reached for the stars from the south there were few people I could look up to up there amongst the stars who looked like me just more fab except for you André.
“For a generation of boys André Leon Talley was a beacon of grace and aspiration. RIP.”
Preston Mitchum, attorney and director of advocacy and government affairs at the Trevor Project, tweeted: “André Leon Talley made it possible for so many Black queer boys and men to express ourselves out loud. No reservations.
“A legend. An icon. May he rest in peace and power knowing that he paved the way for many people who looked up to him.”
As the beleaguered BBC faces backlash from government ministers, PinkNews takes a brief look back at the broadcaster’s track record on LGBT+ rights.
Tory culture minister Nadine Dorries fuelled alarm over the weekend after she questioned the BBC’s main source of funding, a license fee charged to all TV viewers in the nation.
On Monday evening (17 January), Dorries confirmed that the BBC budget will be frozen for the next two years, adding that the future of the public-owned broadcaster’s funding will be “up for discussion”.
It’s the latest salvos against the BBC fired by a minister in Boris Johnson’s government – one that has increasingly smeared the public broadcaster as a megaphone of the metropolitan elite that is anything but “impartial”.
Others, however, disagree. Stressing that right-wing opinions often receive more airtime than progressive ones, according to a Cardiff University study, among other concerns.
From airing the first same-sex kiss televised on a soap opera to the constant accusations of “transphobia” riddling its senior ranks, here are some of the good – and the bad – of the BBC’s history with queer lives and issues.
When the BBC aired the first televised gay kiss on Eastenders
(BBC)
In 1989, the BBC made history when it aired the first mouth-to-mouth same-sex kiss on British TV.
Kind-hearted Colin Russell, played by Michael Cashman, was the long-running show’s first gay character, a time when LGBT+ representation on prime-time TV was threadbare.
In 1987, a monumental episode of the soap opera saw Russell receive a kiss on the forehead from his on-screen boyfriend Barry Clark (Gary Hailes). Two years later, in 1989, Michael Cashman’s character made history yet again, with Russell and his boyfriend Guido (Nicholas Donovan) sharing the first mouth-to-mouth same-sex kiss on British TV.
Both landmark moments were inevitably blasted by the right-wing press – with Piers Morgan branding the latter as “a love scene between two yuppie poofs” in The Sun – and inundated with complaints from fuming viewers, but the show since been credited with helping to soften the public’s attitudes towards queer folk.
BBC’s Boy Meets Girl casts first trans actor in trans role on a British sitcom
Rebecca Root and Harry Hepple in ‘Boy Meets Girl’. (BBC)
Boy Meets Girl, a comedy-drama about two people falling in love, was the broadcaster’s first sitcom focusing on trans lives.
The show’s lead, Rebecca Root, became the first trans actor cast in a television soap opera, with both the programme and Root bagging a nomination at the British LGBT Awards in 2016.
“The BBC should be proud of its commitment to diversity and groundbreaking coverage of LGBT+ issues,” Sarah Garrett, who founded the awards, told the BBC at the time.
Strictly Come Dancing welcoming historic first same-sex pairings
John Whaite and Johannes Radebe. (BBC)
Strictly Come Dancing, a staple of many a Brit’s living room, broke ballroom ground when it finally welcomed its first same-sex dancers in 2020 and 2021.
Nicola Adams and Katya Jones and John Whaite and Johannes Radebe became the competition’s first all-female and male pairings respectively.
In the face of bigoted backlash from pearl-clutching viewers, the BBC continually refused to uphold viewer complaints and defended the simple act of two people of the same gender dancing.
A commitment to bringing LGBT+ stories to the forefront of its programming
Sheridan Smith as Sarah Sak in BBC drama, Four Lives. (BBC)
From the quietly subversive Everybody’s Talking About Jamie documentary,Drag Queen at 16, in 2011 to this year’s Four Lives, the BBC has in the last decade gone out of its way to represent LGBT+ lives beyond tired coming out plot lines.
BBC Three, the home of the network’s more off-the-wall, youth-focused shows, has been especially at the forefront of this.
The channel aired both Growing Up Gay with Olly Alexander and Transitioning Teens, which saw trans activist Charlie Craggs chat to trans teens who have waited years to be seen by the NHS.
The time BBC debated the ‘morality’ of LGBT+ lessons in schools
All of the Question Time panellists supported LGBT-inclusive education. (Screen capture via the BBC)
On Question Time, BBC One’s weekly political discussion show, panellists were posed the question of whether it is “morally right” to teach children about LGBT+ issues in 2019.
As much as the panel, made up of senior lawmakers, company bosses and journalists, agreed that LGBT-inclusive education is “morally right”, the episode drew fierce complaints online.
“The framing of this question is deeply worrying,” tweeted BBC presenter Sue Perkins. “Are we really here again, nearly two decades after Section 28 was repealed…?”
When the BBC ‘balanced’ its coverage by featuring a gay execution supporter
Elton John and David Furnish with their two sons. (Getty)
In 2010, seven million people tuned in to watch BBC’s flagship News at Sixbulletin as it reported on the birth of Elton John and David Furnish’s first child.
During the broadcast, the show interviewed a single person – Stephen Green, of right-wing group Christian Voice.
But it failed to mention that Green has previously supported the death penalty for gay men in Uganda, among other examples of small-mindedness. The BBC did so, it told PinkNews at the time, to add an “opposing viewpoint” to the subject of surrogacy.
The BBC once debated whether ‘gays should be executed’
Ugandan men hold a rainbow flag reading ‘Join hands to end LGBTI genocide’ (ISAAC KASAMANI/AFP/Getty)
As Ugandan lawmakers debated a bill that would introduce the death penalty for LGBT+ people in 2009, the BBC World Service asked: “Should homosexuals be executed?”
The backlash was swift. The radio station’s director, Peter Horrocks, apologised for the report in a statement published to the BBC Editors’ Blog.
“The original headline on our website was, in hindsight, too stark,” he said. “We apologise for any offence it caused.”
The BBC quitting a workplace Stonewall scheme over a ‘risk of perceived bias’
Stonewall is the UK – and Europe’s – largest LGBT+ charity. (Getty)
BBC bosses said that the departure was to “minimise the risk of perceived bias” when it comes to covering LGBT+ issues.
It was the upshot of a divisive culture war that had pelted the programme, with many taking aim at the scheme in what Stonewall has described as part of a “coordinated attack” against the charity.
Fran Unsworth allegedly telling LGBT+ staff to ‘get used to hearing views you don’t like’
Fran Unsworth, head of news at the BBC. (BBC)
The BBC’s director of news Fran Unsworth reportedly told the corporation’s LGBT+ network to “get used” to hearing opinions they do not agree with.
“You’ll hear things you don’t personally like and see things you don’t like – that’s what the BBC is, and you have to get used to that,” Unsworth allegedly said at the meeting.
The meeting had been called following weeks of tension within the BBC surrounding the broadcaster’s handling of LGBT+ issues, mainly trans rights.
‘We’re being pressured into sex by some trans women’
Trans rights protestors gather outside the BBC building. (Hollie Adams/Getty Images)
Among the laundry list of criticisms from LGBT+ people: How it relied on a survey of just 80 people, how the survey was conducted by an anti-trans group, how Lily Cade, a porn star interviewed in the article, had called for trans women to be “lynched” and “executed”.
Some former and current BBC staffers even quit the organisation, citing a “hostile” environment against LGBT+ people – with the podcast being the final straw.
“We really need to start looking internally at ourselves as the BBC,” said one staff member in a leaked document, “and ask a very simple question.
A gay cruise company has described a New York Times story which questioned whether 2,000 gays would be safe on a boat during COVID as “homophobic” and “sensationalised”.
This week a New York Times article was published which looked at the safety of an upcoming cruise by LGBT+ tour operator Atlantis Events, which will carry almost 5,000 passengers.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is carefully monitoring cruise ships as Omicron cases continue to spread.
The story interviewed various prospective gay cruise passengers, with some expressing the desire to sell their tickets for fear of catching COVID, and others looking forward to “dirty dancing, sex, drugs, raves, orgies and sweet, sweet freedom”.
The newspaper also referenced the Celebrity Millennium cruise ship, which LGBT+ cruise company VACAYA has chartered this week for a seven-night Caribbean cruise, and said that prospective Atlantis Events passengers would be “watching closely” to see how the trip panned out.
The New York Times noted that the Millennium, which carries more than 2,000 people, had been flagged by the CDC as having “met the investigation threshold for COVID-19 cases” on board.https:
VACAYA has now hit out at the newspaper, calling the article “homophobic”.
VACAYA co-founder and CEO Randle Roper told Seatrade Cruise News: “The venerated Times, whose article quoted several people not even travelling on either cruise, did not live up to the journalistic integrity we expect and was an affront to Atlantis Events, LGBT+ travel companies in general and the gay community.”
Referencing the New York Times’ slogan, he added: “This certainly wasn’t news ‘fit to print’.”
Roper continued: “As we begin to come out of the pandemic, it’s OK to ask questions about how, why and when we’ll return to normal, but the Timescompletely missed the story here.
“Their decision to focus on errant quotes taken from various social media pages to sensationalize the story was both a misfire and — let’s hope unintentionally — homophobic.
“The focus should have been on the positive steps being taken by travel companies to adapt to live in a new world of testing, screening and exposure reduction through contact tracing, upgraded onboard medical facilities and staff, and improved guest stateroom ventilation.”
Roper said that passengers were vaccinated, most had received a booster, and all were tested.
PinkNews contacted The New York Times for comment.
The administration of President Joe Biden has made slow progress protecting human rights in the United States, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2022.
“The Biden administration has made some big-picture pronouncements on key issues like racial and gender equity with little evidence so far that the words will translate into real impact for people whose rights have been systematically and historically ignored or trampled,” said Nicole Austin-Hillery, US Program executive director at Human Rights Watch. “Black people in the United States still suffer from significant economic disparities stemming from systemic racism that have impacts across generations, and border policies have shredded the right to seek asylum while officials subject migrants to violent, abusive treatment.”
In the 752-page World Report 2022, its 32nd edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in nearly 100 countries. Executive Director Kenneth Roth challenges the conventional wisdom that autocracy is ascendent. In country after country, large numbers of people have recently taken to the streets, even at the risk of being arrested or shot, showing that the appeal of democracy remains strong. Meanwhile, autocrats are finding it more difficult to manipulate elections in their favor. Still, he says, democratic leaders must do a better job of meeting national and global challenges and of making sure that democracy delivers on its promised dividends.
In addition to executive branch policies and actions to achieve racial and gender equity and protect LGBT people’s rights, the US House Judiciary Committee voted to move H.R. 40, a bill to study the provision of reparations for slavery, to the full House for a vote for the first time in 32 years. But at the end of 2021, this landmark step toward reparations for the legacy of slavery has stalled in the House.
Among the rights failures in US domestic policy linked to systemic racism, despite some reductions in incarceration rates for Black people, they remain vastly overrepresented in jails and prisons. Black people are killed by police at a per capita rate that is three times the rate of white people. Black people still make up almost 42 percent of the current death row population despite being only 12.4 percent of the US population.
Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities have been disproportionately harmed by Covid-19, which has deepened existing racial disparities in health care, housing, access to safe and affordable water, employment, education, and wealth accumulation, Human Rights Watch said. Economic inequality remains high and has slightly increased in the United States, although poverty dropped largely due to increased government benefits. The wealth gap between Black people and white people persists.
The Biden administration has also kept in place the harmful Title 42 border policy, under which it expels asylum seekers to unsafe conditions in Mexico or their home countries on specious public health grounds. In a particularly grievous example of the policy, US Border Patrol agents on horseback menaced Haitian border crossers in Del Rio, Texas in September, and the United States then summarily expelled thousands of Haitians to dangerous conditions in Haiti.
Human Rights Watch reported on other evidence of abusive treatment of asylum seekers by US border officials as described in Department of Homeland Security documents obtained after litigation. The documents catalog over 160 internal reports of physical and other abuses of asylum seekers as well as violations of their due process rights.
In its foreign policy, the administration announced its commitment to “putting human rights at the center of US foreign policy” and to multilateralism. The US sought – and won – election to the UN Human Rights Council and rejoined the Paris Climate Accord. It rescinded the harmful Global Gag rule on funding for women’s health care, reinstated funding to the UN Population Fund, and reintroduced reporting on reproductive rights in the State Department’s annual human rights report.
But significant failures to protect and promote human rights include continued arms sales to governments violating international human rights and humanitarian law including the Philippines, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, and failing to publicly condemn rights abuses by perceived strategic partners.
The Biden administration should end the abusive and illegal Title 42 policy and take concrete actions and robustly report on progress aligned with its policy pronouncements on racial and gender equity. State and local governments in the US should end abusive policing of Black people and other people of color and instead invest in communities in ways that address structural racism. State policies threatening the right to access to abortion and reproductive freedom should end in order to fully protect the rights of women and girls.
“The US government needs to take bold and concrete actions to protect the human rights of all people in the United States – Black and white, citizen and noncitizen alike, as well as to promote human rights globally through its foreign policy,” Austin-Hillery said.
As we mark one year into the Biden administration, Lambda Legal reviews the progress made (or not) on ten asks from a year ago to rectify the harms done by the Trump administration and to address the ongoing inequities experienced by LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV.
The Trump administration damaged the integrity of our federal judiciary by packing it with right-wing extremists who oppose LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, and civil rights more broadly. We called on the Biden administration to make the restoration of fairness and impartiality to the courts one of its highest priorities.
What the administration accomplished
The administration has worked with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to confirm more judges in its first year than any president since Ronald Reagan; a record-tying 40 lifetime appointments to the federal bench. Of these 40 judges confirmed, 32 are women; 27 are people of color; 21 are women of color; 27 add professional diversity, including 15 former public defenders; and one is the first openly gay or lesbian circuit court judge in the country.
What more we need
The administration must nominate more openly LGBTQ+ people, and particularly LGBTQ+ people of color, for judicial vacancies, focusing on the five circuits—D.C., First, Fourth, Eighth, and Tenth—that do not have a single openly LGBTQ+ judge on the bench of either the circuit court or the district courts in its jurisdiction.
Specifically, the administration should nominate the country’s first transgender or nonbinary judge and the first openly bisexual judge. To be legitimate, the judiciary should reflect the society it serves.
With the new majority on the Supreme Court created by Trump and increasingly hostile lower court appointments, we have every reason to believe our opponents will seek to undermine marriage equality for same-sex couples. Now more than ever, we need a robust ally in the White House who will vigorously defend and fully implement marriage equality, including things like the right of LGBTQ+ widows and widowers to access Social Security survivor’s benefits. The Biden administration must ensure that marriages between same-sex couples are respected and that LGBTQ+ families are treated like all other families.
What the administration accomplished
Lambda Legal won victories that allow the surviving members of same-sex couples who were barred from marriage in the past to access a key protection of marriage: Social Security survivor’s benefits. The administration chose the right side of history in standing down from appeals of these victories, which unlock millions of dollars in benefits and give a piece of dignity to thousands.
What more we need
The vestiges of marriage discrimination still live on, and they have yet to be fully remedied. From survivor pension benefits to veterans’ benefits, there are still ongoing inequalities that persist today because same-sex couples were barred from marriage in the past. We need to see a deeper commitment and proactive engagement throughout the federal government (including agencies like the IRS) to address these lingering inequities.
At every turn, the Trump administration granted licenses to discriminate to health care providers, social service agencies, and private businesses, but we know that religious freedom does not include the freedom to harm people because of those beliefs. The Biden administration must reassert protections for LGBTQ+ people when we are at our most vulnerable; in hospitals, homeless shelters, nursing homes, and foster care, and end the effort to grant a “license to discriminate” in the name of religion.
What the administration accomplished
The administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) withdrew broad exemptions from nondiscrimination requirements in federally-funded child welfare programs granted by the Trump administration, based on the religious objections of child welfare agencies that did not want to have to work with same-sex couples. Lambda Legal is still working to undo some of the harms caused by these waivers.
What more we need
The administration must be a champion for robust nondiscrimination protections, including passing the Equality Act.
The Biden administration must begin enforcing robust nondiscrimination requirements for HHS-funded programs, which provide health and welfare services to millions of vulnerable people across the country. Lambda Legal filed suit to challenge HHS’s nonenforcement of the Obama-era rule and to stop the Trump grants rule from going into effect. Every day that HHS fails to either enforce the previous rule or establish new protections, vulnerable LGBTQ+ youth, seniors, people living with HIV, and others who rely on grant-funded programs may face denials of critical supports and services.
The Biden administration must end discrimination against LGBTQ+ prospective foster parents in federal foster care programs for immigrant children. Rather than ending this discrimination, HHS has facilitated it, authorizing the segregation of LGBTQ+ would-be foster parents and sending them to alternative providers, regardless of the harm this causes to both the adults and the refugee children, who deserve the chance to be considered for placement in all homes that would best serve their individualized needs. It is well past time for HHS to stop enabling discrimination against LGBTQ+ people by agencies receiving federal tax dollars to carry out functions on behalf of the government.
The Biden administration must eliminate the so-called “Conscience and Religious Freedom Division” at HHS and issue new regulations that safeguard the ability of LGBTQ+ people and people seeking reproductive health care to access the life-saving care that they need.
The Biden administration must revisit Trump-era rules lifting basic protections put in place by the Obama administration for people receiving federally-funded social services from religious organizations. To protect the religious and other interests of people receiving services, those protections included requirements that the agencies post notices advising people receiving services that they are protected against discrimination and may request a referral to an alternate provider if they are uncomfortable receiving services in that religious setting. Lambda Legal and our partners sued the Trump administration to block those rules and the litigation is ongoing.
In the final days of the Trump administration, the Department of Labor announced it was changing the rules that limit the freedom of companies receiving federal contracts to discriminate based on religion against their employees. The new Trump rules took effect in January 2021, and allowed nearly all such contractors to claim religious rights to discriminate, even large, for-profit companies with no evident religious aspects to the goods or services they wish to sell to the federal government. This type of contracting rule, which makes equal workplace opportunity a condition of receiving taxpayer-funded contracts, has been critical to efforts to reduce many kinds of discrimination against workers, including discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. The Biden administration has proposed rescinding the Trump rules but has not yet done so.
The Trump administration repeatedly relied on a distorted, legally mistaken interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to justify many policies designed to facilitate special religious exemptions from rules that usually apply equally to everyone to protect others against many types of harm, including the harms of discrimination. The Biden administration should issue formal legal guidance correcting the prior opinions so that federal agencies and the general public have appropriate directions about the protections and limits of religious freedom under federal law.
The Trump administration called efforts to train medical and other personnel on the pernicious effects of systemic racism “un-American” and issued an executive order banning the use of federal funds for such training. The Biden administration must reverse and repudiate this order and the many other racist directives and policies of outgoing President Trump, such as the Muslim travel ban and other attacks on Black and brown communities.
What the administration accomplished
In September 2020, then-President Trump issued an Executive Order prohibiting Federal contractors and grantees from instituting diversity training programs that discuss implicit bias or other such “divisive concepts.” Understanding that there cannot be any LGBTQ+ equality without race equity, Lambda Legal obtained the only nationwide injunction prohibiting enforcement of this racist executive order. On January 20, 2021, as one of his first acts in office, President Biden rescinded Trump’s racist executive order and replaced it with a new one, the Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.
Also, on January 20, 2021, President Biden revoked then-President Trump’s Muslim Ban Executive Order, referring to it as a “stain on our national conscience” and “inconsistent with our long history of welcoming people of all faiths and no faith at all.” Lambda Legal participated in multiple challenges to the Muslim Ban, because the LGBTQ+ community knows all too well that official government discrimination against a persecuted group contributes to irrational prejudice and violence.
On January 25, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce.
What more we need
The Biden administration must do all it can to encourage the Senate to pass the NO BAN Act, which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of religion in numerous immigration-related decisions.
As commander-in-chief of the military, one of the world’s largest employers, President Biden must end the ban on open service by transgender people and ensure that Pentagon leadership understands that our patriotic transgender service members have a right to serve their country openly, as who they are, and free from discrimination.
What the administration accomplished
President Biden rescinded the Trans Military Ban on January 25, 2021 with an Executive Order. This action, taken in coordination with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, ended the years-long nightmare for the thousands of brave transgender people who were already serving or who wish to serve our country.
What more we need
The Biden administration should champion legislation prohibiting discrimination in the Armed Forces that would prohibit future administrations from reimposing a ban on open service.
School is tough enough without bullying from the federal government. The Biden administration must get the Department of Education back in the business of protecting the educational opportunities of all students, and in particular, should end its relentless assault on the ability of transgender students to be their authentic selves and to have equal opportunity.
What the administration accomplished
Consistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling and analysis in Bostock v. Clayton County, the Department of Education published a notice of interpretation to clarify that Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination encompasses discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In addition, the Departments of Justice and Education issued a resource for students and families entitled “Confronting Anti-LGBTQI+ Harassment in Schools.” The notice of interpretation and fact sheet are currently the subject of ongoing litigation.
The Department of Education held public hearings regarding Title IX in June 2021 and invited students, educators, and members of the public to provide comments on steps the agency can take to address discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in educational environments.
The Department of Justice filed statements of interests or briefs in cases challenging laws or policies discriminating against trans youth in schools, including in Lambda Legal’s challenges to West Virginia’s ban on sports participation by trans youth (B.P.J. v. West Virginia) and a Florida school district’s discriminatory restroom policy.
What more we need
President Biden needs to speak out forcibly, and often, in staunch defense of trans and gender nonconforming youth. This administration should use all tools available, including the bully pulpit, to stem the tide of anti-trans laws.
The Department of Education is scheduled to issue proposed nondiscrimination Title IX rulemaking in April 2022. Proposed rules should revoke the 2020 Title IX final regulations on sexual harassment and sexual assault on college campuses and propose regulations expressly clarifying Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination protects transgender and gender nonconforming students in educational programs and activities.
Additionally, the proposed rules should add a new regulation clarifying that Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in the application of any rules of appearance; that dress and grooming codes shall not be written or enforced in a manner that disproportionately impacts LGBTQI+ students; and that dress and grooming codes shall not be written or enforced based on gender stereotypes.
With respect to school-based policing, the Department of Education should gather examples of quality, effective training for school-based police on child development, implicit bias, and reducing the disparate impact of school policing on: youth of color, youth with disabilities, LGBTQI+ and GNC children and youth, and children and youth at the intersection of those identities.
Every American needs access to affordable, quality health care. And the COVID-19 global pandemic has exposed how barriers to health care can put vulnerable communities at great risk. The Trump administration was relentless in its efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act and to restrict the ability of many—including LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV—to access care, regardless of who they are. The Biden administration’s Department of Justice should stop trying to undermine health care in our courts, and its Department of Health and Human Services should be fighting for quality health care, free from discrimination or harassment.
What the administration accomplished
The Biden administration appointed Rachel Levine, the highest-ranking and first Senate-confirmed openly transgender U.S. government official in U.S. history, to the post of Assistant Secretary for Health.
HHS announced that, consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock, it would interpret the health care nondiscrimination law, enacted as Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in health care programs that received federal funding.
The Biden administration issued proposed rules that prohibit qualified health insurance plans sold in the health exchanges set up under the Affordable Care Act from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity, or from adopting designs that exclude coverage of gender-affirming health care for transgender people.
President Biden issued an Executive Order on Strengthening Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, which orders HHS and other federal agencies to examine policies or practices that may present unnecessary barriers to individuals and families attempting to access Medicaid or ACA coverage.
President Biden also issued an Executive Order on Ensuring an Equitable Pandemic Response and Recovery, which establishes a COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force to develop recommendations for mitigating the health inequities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and for preventing future inequities.
President Biden revoked Executive Order 13828, which created barriers for low-income people to access federal benefit assistance, including Medicaid and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
The Biden administration’s Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in a case challenging Arkansas’s dangerous and discriminatory ban on the provision of medically necessary gender-affirming health care to transgender minors suffering from gender dysphoria.
The Biden administration supported access to abortion by suing Texas to strike down its unconstitutional abortion ban; defending the right to access abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, calling for passage of a federal law that would protect access to abortion; and removing the in-person requirement for dispensing mifepristone.
What more we need
In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration finalized a rule eliminating protections for LGBTQ+ people and people with limited English proficiency, among others, under the health care nondiscrimination law, enacted as Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. Lambda Legal successfully stopped some parts of the Trump health care rule from taking effect. However, other parts remain in effect and the administration must issue new regulations reversing the Trump health care rule without delay.
And as previously stated, HHS must rescind the notice of nonenforcement of the 2016 rule prohibiting discrimination by recipients of HHS funding, and it has not replaced the 2021 rulemaking. The administration must move quickly to clarify that grant recipients are prohibited from using federal funds to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people in need of those services.
We need the federal government to eliminate all discriminatory barriers to transition-related health care in the systems that it operates, including the VA health system, the federal employee health benefits program (FEHB), and TRICARE, the military health system. For example, in June of 2021, VA Secretary McDonough announced a process to remove the bar on surgical gender-affirming care for transgender veterans. There has been no movement and advocates are pushing for action. The VA expects to move forward with rulemaking in July 2022. It is important for the VA to implement this policy as soon as possible to ensure that transgender veterans can obtain the care they are currently being denied and to create sufficient infrastructure to withstand future partisan attacks. Across all of its programs, the federal government should operate at the gold standard, and use its position as a key provider of health care and insurance coverage to raise the bar for the health care industry as a whole.
The Trump administration showed total disregard for family ties when it did not approve of the families involved—such as immigrant families and those headed by LGBTQ+ people—and used the power of the government to separate and undermine such families. The Biden administration must respect—not target and persecute—all families by immediately reuniting families separated at the border, by creating a pathway to citizenship that allows families to stay together, and by ensuring that LGBTQ+ families are treated the same in the eyes of the law as all others.
What the administration accomplished
Lambda Legal and Immigration Equality won victories declaring as unlawful the U.S. Department of State’s policy of treating the marital children born abroad to U.S. same-sex couples as “born out of wedlock” because they were not biologically related to both parents and therefore ineligible for recognition as U.S. citizens at birth. The administration ended this unlawful policy in May 2021. With the policy change, children born abroad to married parents, at least one of whom is a U.S. citizen, are citizens at birth if they have a biological relationship to any one of their parents.
The Biden administration rescinded the Trump “Zero Tolerance” policy of separating immigrant and asylum-seeking families and established a task force to reunite separated families.
What more we need
The families separated by the Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” policy are entitled to damages. The Department of Justice should cease arguing that the government does not owe these traumatized families compensation for the harms inflicted upon them.
President Biden must direct the Pentagon to end its discrimination against our patriotic service members living with HIV and ensure that our military’s policies are informed by science and not outdated and stigmatizing views about who can serve our country safely, with honor and distinction.
What the administration accomplished
President Biden appointed a number of strong leaders in the spaces of HIV-related medicine and policy, including Harold Philips, Director of The White House Office of National AIDS Policy, to the administration. These expert advisors to the President know that major scientific and medical advances have transformed HIV into a chronic, manageable condition that presents essentially no risk to the health or safety of other service members.
What more we need
The Biden administration needs to address, with an inclusive policy based on health metrics, the Department of Defense Instructions that prohibit the enlistment or commissioning as officers and exclude service members who are diagnosed with HIV in the course of their military careers from deployment opportunities, which, in turn, impacts eligibility to maintain a career in the military.
President Biden must rescind the discriminatory restrictions on the military service of people living with HIV by permitting them to enlist or commission in any branch of the U.S. Armed Services. Both President Biden and Vice President Harris committed to eliminating this type of discrimination within the military.
LGBTQ+ people from around the world come to the United States, sometimes literally running for their lives. But the Trump administration tarnished our reputation as a safe harbor by making it virtually impossible for people to seek refuge in the United States and enacted historically low ceilings on the number of refugees that can be admitted. The Biden administration must reestablish asylum rules to ensure those seeking safety from persecution because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or HIV status can find refuge in the United States.
What the administration accomplished
In January 2021, just before the Biden administration took office, Lambda Legal won a nationwide injunction stopping the Trump administration’s “Death-to-Asylum” rule from taking effect. The “Death-to-Asylum” rule would have made it virtually impossible for LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV fleeing persecution to secure asylum in the United States, as well as eliminated eligibility for asylum to anyone with a gender-based claim. Since then, the administration proposed a rule reversing some aspects of the rule in Fall 2021 and announced plans to issue a proposed rule addressing the remainder of the “Death-to-Asylum” rule in 2022.
What more we need
The Biden administration must issue new regulations to fully reverse the “Death-to-Asylum” rule and improve the ability of refugees, including those who are LGBTQ+ or living with HIV, to seek asylum within our borders.
The administration needs to end the “Remain in Mexico” Policy and stop deporting immigrants who are otherwise entitled to asylum or other forms of relief.
The administration must release from custody or detention people with underlying health conditions that make them susceptible to COVID-19. As the COVID-19 global pandemic continues, prisons, jails, and detention facilities are dangerous centers for the spread of the deadly virus.
There must be accountability when federal immigration officers and their agents engage in dangerous, dehumanizing, and often blatantly racist behavior, whether targeting LGBTQ immigrants in custody or Haitian refugees fleeing disaster.
YEAR TWO: A new year brings new concerns and goals. Therefore, in addition to the above, Lambda Legal calls upon the Biden administration to prioritize these five critical issues in Year Two.
Protect Voting Rights
Voter suppression tactics used in hostile states silence the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQ+ community, minimizing our political power and ability to inform conversations around policies that directly affect us. President Biden must convince Congress to pass the For the People Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Restoration Act, and the Washington, D.C. Admission Act to ensure the integrity of our democracy, restore the efficacy of the Voting Rights Act, and enfranchise D.C. citizens, ten percent (10%) of whom identify as LGBTQ+.
Protect Black Trans Women
Hate crimes continue to rise and each subsequent year is the deadliest year on record for transgender people. The vast majority of transgender victims are Black and brown transgender women. To help ensure their safety, the Biden administration needs to champion legislation that works to decriminalize sex work; push Congress to repeal SESTA and FOSTA; invest in research showing the harms inflicted on transgender women of color as a result of criminalizing sex work; appoint Department of Justice leadership who will investigate the epidemic of violence against Black trans people and take guidance and direction from local and state LGBTQ+ anti-violence groups on how to begin to address the epidemic; and implement the Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer NO HATE Act, which was included in the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, by adopting a community-based approach that is inclusive of LGBTQ+ communities.
Protect the Constitutional Rights of Trans People in Federal Custody
Being in federal custody does not mean one loses all of one’s rights. The Biden administration must reverse the Trump administration’s changes to the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Policy Manual regarding the housing of incarcerated trans people. Furthermore, it should establish policies and procedures ensuring that incarcerated trans people have access to gender-affirming health care, including surgical care, and establish policies and procedures that address names and pronouns, search protocols, and housing determinations. And finally, the administration must ensure that the constitutional and statutory rights of LGBTQ+ people in federal custody are protected in re-entry programs.
Collect Data on LGBTQ+ People and People Living with HIV
Systemic inequities in our society disproportionately impact LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV in a myriad of ways, but the government does not have enough data on sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status, and the intersection of other identities to adequately understand and address these inequities. The administration must collect additional data, provide analysis, and release to the public findings on HIV-related disparities in stigma, discrimination, new infections, knowledge of status, and more among marginalized segments of our society. Additionally, the administration should initiate new rulemaking to reinstate the national collection of data on tribal and LGBTQ+ foster youth and foster and adoptive parents and guardians; reinstate the collection of information about trans older adults in the National Survey of Older Americans; and develop best practices and technical assistance for schools for collecting sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression-related demographic information of youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and of youth experiencing homelessness or school arrests, and prioritize the safety and well-being of these youth, especially LGBTQ+ youth of color, in the data collection process.
Update HIV Policies to Reflect Science and Reject Stigma
Although we welcomed the FDA’s change in 2020 from a 12-month to a 3-month deferral for blood donations from men who have sex with men as a step in the right direction, the FDA can and should implement a policy that is based on a person’s actual risk behaviors instead of their sexual orientation or gender identity. For years, Lambda Legal has urged the FDA to adopt an approach that looks to actual risk factors based on a person’s sexual activity and safer sex practices rather than blanket approaches that disqualify gay men along with many trans people and others in our community who would welcome the opportunity to donate in light of our nation’s blood shortage.
Click here to download the full PDF of this report.
Sex workers and strippers explained how the pandemic has forced them into unsafe working conditions and hit them financially.
United Sex Workers is a trade union branch organising for better working conditions and to change the sex work industry from within. Among its aims is to establish ‘worker’ status for strippers and sex workers, which bestows basic employment rights such as sick pay and annual leave.
Its work has become even more important during the pandemic, which has seen strip clubs fall quiet and close down, and has seen sex workers often forced to gamble with their safety in order to make a living.
While some people have been able to work remotely during the pandemic, many people’s livelihoods depend on in-person contact.
To make matters worse, sex workers are classed as self-employed, meaning they can’t access sick pay or other benefits. The result is that many sex workers are left struggling to make ends meet if they test positive for COVID-19.
That puts sex workers in a uniquely difficult position – how do you stay afloat when you have no guaranteed income and no safety net to fall back on?
We spoke to members of United Sex Workers to find out what it’s been like to work in the sex industry since the arrival of the Omicron variant. They spoke about financial instability, the fear that comes with being exposed to COVID-19, and working with riskier clients in a bid to make ends meet.
Surnames have been withheld to protect identities.
Audrey
December is always a slow month, yet the Omicron wave reduced it to a glacial pace. When I tested positive for COVID over Christmas it meant I had to take 10 full days off work, which only increased the anxiety I felt about not being able to make rent. When you’re self-employed, 10 days of work can mean the difference between paying bills or subsisting on super noodles. I had to take on potentially dangerous clients I would have usually refused to see just to make ends meet, alongside juggling the health anxiety of being so close to strangers in the middle of a global pandemic.
Being a hooker, I was unable to access any financial support from the government earlier in the year, and any savings I had at the start of the pandemic are now long gone, so all I can do is continue to see clients and hope I don’t fall ill again. The longer the pandemic stretches on, the more terrified I am of never being able to financially recover. I often wonder if this perpetual anxiety is how it would feel if sex work were criminalised; having to take riskier bookings due to there being less clients, knowing that with each booking I’m gambling with my own safety.
Ava
My work phone was quieter than usual and I needed to take any booking I could. This meant that I screened less than usual and men tried to push my boundaries a bit more I think because they knew I was desperate for the money.
This is what it might be like if we have the Nordic model, the nicer clients will behave and not come out and the bad clients will still be there and they will know that we need the money and push us.
Amelie
Omicron has hit the stripping industry really hard. November and December is usually the best time of the year for dancers, but this year it has been very quiet. We saw a massive decline in the number of customers visiting our clubs, as Christmas parties and stag dos were often cancelled. This, combined with the arrival of COVID passports has made it incredibly hard for strippers to make a decent amount of money. A lot of us also tested positive for COVID and have had to self-isolate and miss out on work. Due to being self-employed, we had no access to sick pay.
The last two years have been incredibly hard for the industry. A number of clubs did not get any financial support as a result of their local authority discriminating against them simply because of the nature of those establishments. This has led to the closure of some clubs which did not manage to make it through the pandemic. Some of them tried to recoup their financial losses through higher house fees, fines given to the workers for very arbitrary reasons, and booking more dancers than they usually would, making it harder for everyone to make money.
Many strippers are queer, and a significant proportion of the customer base also is.
Some cities such as Bristol, Edinburgh and Blackpool have used those difficult times to try and introduce nil-caps, essentially a ban, on strip clubs. Blackpool has unfortunately been successful, although the process they went through to achieve this was more than questionable. No decision has been made in Bristol and Edinburgh so far. Those decisions from local authorities have received a massive backlash from the industry itself, with us dancers in Bristol organising ourselves with the Bristol Sex Workers Collective and advocating against the ban, arguing it would push the industry underground and make us unsafe. We have been supported by our trade union United Sex Workers, which is also campaigning against nil-caps.
These caps would not only endanger the dancers, who would lose safe and regulated workplaces, but it would also be a huge loss for the LGBTQ+ community. Many strippers are queer, and a significant proportion of the customer base also is. Closing them down would once again be removing safe spaces for the community, due to the high security presence in those venues and the very strict licensing.
Alice
I tested positive for COVID along with many others in the week leading up to Christmas. This meant that I had to isolate and therefore couldn’t work. It was very stressful to be sat at home with no income worrying that if there was another lockdown I could be facing even more losses and that I could struggle to pay my rent and bills. There’s no furlough pay and no sick pay if you’re a sex worker. I just wish that we had access to these basic rights so that we can feel protected and supported along with other workers.
Amy
At the start of COVID, I managed to take a few months off sex work because I had a few days work each week in a civvie job. When money got tight I started seeing clients again and, perhaps due to their mental health being bad, and mine too, the sessions were so difficult, with clients pushing boundaries or being more emotionally intense than usual and less respectful of boundaries.
Touch also felt strange after so long avoiding human contact. I was missing the people I wanted to be close to so much, so the touch from those I didn’t love felt stifling. I also think, as sex work is so stigmatised and I have internalised some of that, I was worried about spreading COVID that I’d picked up via clients, as if this somehow was worse than if I’d picked it up working in an office.
You can join the United Sex Workers trade union or find out more about the work they do here.
Chris Dickerson, who holds the duel honour of being the first Black man to win the Mr America contest and first openly gay man to win Mr Olympia, has died aged 82.
Dickerson was a powerhouse of the bodybuilding community and broke barriers. He died on 23 December at a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his friend Bill Neylon confirming the cause of death as a heart ailment, the Washington Post reported.
Neylon – a retired amateur bodybuilder who trained alongside Dickerson – said his friend had lived in a rehab centre after he had been hospitalised for a broken hip in 2020, had a heart attack and COVID-19.
He told the New York Timesthat Dickerson “brought class and dignity and culture to bodybuilding”.
Chris Dickerson’s storied career spanned over three decades, and he won over 50 titles. He ended his career having won four major bodybuilding titles: Mr Olympia, Mr America, Mr Universe and the Pro Mr America.
Dickerson trained in opera and dance before beginning to lift weights to build up his chest and expand his vocal range.
He was named Mr America in 1970, becoming the first Black winner of the bodybuilding competition. He was also one of the first Black men to win the Mr Universe competition in 1982.
Dickerson was also gay, which was widely known in bodybuilding circles by the late 1970s. But he didn’t publicly discuss his sexuality at the height of his career, the New York Times reported.
Dickerson acknowledged that being gay and Black was a barrier for him in the bodybuilding world.
He said the promoter of the Mr Olympia contest was a “real low life, a bigot, who had a real dislike for me – partly on racial grounds and partly for my sexual orientation”.
The paper alleged the promoter also told another official that “Chris couldn’t win because he was a f*g”.
Chris Dickerson came in second again in 1981 before finally taking the Mr Olympia title in 1982 aged 43. He was the oldest Mr Olympia champion at the time.
In the 1970s, Dickerson modelled nude for Jim French, a photographer who specialised in erotic imagery of gay men. He also posed in a t-shirt for a portrait by Robert Mapplethorpe in 1982.
Samir Bannout, Dickerson’s friend and the 1983 Mr Olympia champion, told the Washington Post that Dickerson was “one of the nicest people in the entire sport”.
“He had no chip on his shoulder,” Bannout said. “When he won the Mr Olympia, he was still a normal guy.”
Bannout described the gay bodybuilder as “masterful” and as someone who had “more confidence than anyone out there”.
Chris Dickerson was the youngest of triplets. His brothers died before him, the New York Times reported.
Another queer Team USA athlete has just qualified for the Winter Olympics – skeleton slider Andrew Blaser.
Blaser beat out skeleton veterans Austin Florian and John Daly to become the only man on the Team USA skeleton team for the 2022 games in Beijing.
It’s the first time that the US is sending only one male skeleton athlete to the Olympics – so no pressure at all.
The truly terrifying winter sport involves sledders plummeting head-first down a steep and perilous icy track on a tiny sled. According to the Olympics website, it is considered to be the “world’s first sliding sport”.
Other LGBT+ athletes heading for the Winter Olympics, according to OutSports, also include British curler Bruce Mouat, Australian snowboarder Belle Brockhoff, French figure skater Kevin Aymoz and Dutch speedskater Ireen Wüst – the most decorated Olympic speedskater ever.
The LGBT+ sports website says that the Beijing Games will include more out athletes than any before it.
Also heading for Beijing are ice dancers Guillaume Cizeron (France) and Paul Poirier (Canada), and Canadian figure skater Eric Radford.
Only 15 openly LGBT+ athletes competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Skeleton returned to the Winter Olympics in 2022, having last appeared on the program 54 years prior in 1948. Blaser is the first out gay man to represent Team USA in the sport.
He previously told OutSports that there have been several times where he considered walking away from the sport.
But looking back at all his accomplishments in skeleton, he realised he could succeed.
“I have had so many moments where I have ‘quit’ mentally and thought I was done and walking away,” Blaser said. “Looking back at every conversation with every coach where I was defeated or thought it couldn’t be done, now I know that it can be done.”
Blaser started as a track and field athlete, even competing at the University of Idaho as a pole vaulter and hurdler.
After college, Blaser wanted to pursue a career as a bobsledder but tried skeleton after coaches said he’d be better suited to the super face ice sport. But Blaser initially hated the sport and quit before eventually returning to go pro.
When he’s not training, Andrew Blaser enjoys travelling, camping and singing. His favourite movies include Love Actually and Mean Girls, according to his Team USA profile.
A group of activists invite social media to join their campaign to ‘disrupt the religious violence trans people experience every day’.
Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi and J Mase III edited the Black Trans Prayer Book to dismantle toxic religious practices that alienate people in the LGBT+ community. The anthology is composed of work by Black trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people.
In 2019, the pair hosted their first annual event for the #TransphobiaIsASin Campaign. The online campaign highlights religious violence that impacts trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people worldwide – especially those from Black, Indigenous and other marginalised communities.
Now, on Saturday (15 January), Dane and Mase will launch their fourth iteration of the campaign. In it, they are inviting anyone that is “invested in ending religious (ie: all) violence against Trans, Non-Binary and Gender Expansive Peoples”.
“Anti-trans religious violence does not just look like demonising trans people within worship spaces,” they said. “It is the theology that finds its way to the tongues of politicians who create anti-trans policies.”
They continued: “It manifests as the framework that blooms violence against trans people on the street, in their families, and in community at large.”
In a post on social media, Dane and Mase explained they want to “call attention to, and disrupt the religious violence trans people experience everyday”.
They have invited anyone interested in taking part to take a photo holding up a sign with one of the following lines: “Transphobia is a Sin”, “Transphobia is Haram”, “Trans People are Divine” or “Trans People Exist Because Our Ancestors Existed”.
The photo should be posted to social media on or close to Saturday, and it should use the hashtag “
Mase told them that the book came into existence as they wanted to do “some intentional work on creating spiritual space” for people within their community.
“That included Black trans people who are part of religious communities as well as Black trans folks who’ve been run out of religious communities,” Mase said.
He added that they knew this wasn’t a job just for him and Dane. So the pair gathered a “crew of people from all over the US and beyond” to offer their insights for the interfaith, multi-dimensional work.
Dane said her main takeaway from the book was: “Wow, Black trans people are just amazing”.
“Black trans people are the leaders this world has been looking for,” she explained. “It’s time some of these cis folks, especially the white ones, get out the way.”
Dane continued: “Get out the way and pour resources into the community.
“The solutions for liberation that the world has been seeking have already been theorised.
“Now it’s time for the world to actually honour the role that Black trans people have always been destined to play: healing the world, prophesying a future and birthing liberation.”
Dane and Mase will also close out the new campaign with a workshop on how to heal from religious trauma which is set to take place on 18 January.
After an 18-month fight, an LGBT+ activist who fled Jordan is finally “supported, seen and heard” in their new home in Australia.
AlShaima Omama AlZubi, 25, who identifies as a non-binary lesbian, has been a “victim of rape, sexual assaults, torture, forced marriage, forced conversion therapy, forced hospitalisation, and forced veiling abuse that dates back to their childhood”, according to Amnesty.
AlZubi, an LGBT+ and women’s rights defender, comes from a powerful family, with many members working for Jordan’s government, and whose “influence extends across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq”.
They first fled to Turkey from Jordan in July 2020, and later made it to Lebanon, planning to travel onwards to Australia on a humanitarian visa.
But in December, 2021, they were stripped of their passport and detained by Lebanese authorities for five days, who told them there was an Interpol Red Notice out of their arrest. During this time, Amnesty suspected that the Jordanian embassy in Lebanon was working on having them repatriated.
Finally, after tireless work by NGOs and Australian diplomats, AlZubi was able to board a flight to Australia on 30 December.
Speaking to SBS News, they said that since arriving, they have begun seeing a therapist and are finding their place within the local LGBT+ community.
They said: “Now I feel supported, seen, heard and treated like a human being regardless of my beliefs, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
“[I want to] move on in my life, continue my education, [and have] a great career and independence.
“Finally I have the chance to be myself without people shaming me and trying to kill me for it.”
In a message “to all of the women and the LGBTIQ+ community in the Middle East”, they added: “There’s always a way to be free. We just need the right people to help us.
“Never be ashamed of being yourself, never be sorry for who you are. Don’t let religion or anyone control your being. No one on Earth can be you.”
While homosexuality was decriminalised in Jordan in 1951, LGBT+ people face frequent harassment, discrimination and violence.
There are no laws to protect queer people from discrimination, no recognition of same-sex relationships, and one 2019 study found that 93 per cent of Jordanians believe that society should not accept homosexuality.
