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Applebee’s franchise must pay $100K in racist & homophobic employee harassment settlement

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The owners of an Applebee’s franchise restaurant in Plant City, Florida must pay $100,000 to settle claims that it allowed racist and homophobic discrimination against a gay Black employee. Shortly after Jebriel Teague, a gay Black man, began working as a line cook for the Applebee’s franchise in March 2019, two of his co-workers — Cody Curby and Bobby Hogge — made inappropriate jokes about his sexual orientation, directing comments to him about dildos and anal beads on a near daily basis, and frequently using the n-word as well as slurs like “f**,” “f****t,” and “bi**h,” the complaint states. Subscribe to […]

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Mob of conservative mothers demand library burn Pride display books

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In the Connecticut hometown of Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale, a group of mothers including a “Christian taxpayer” is up in arms over the town library’s Pride book display and are demanding the offending materials be burned. Booth & Dimock Memorial Library Director Margaret Khan said the incident happened June 22, when one of the mothers removed the books from the display and the group carried them to the front desk to complain. Related: Connecticut official bans RuPaul biography from library after one dad complains Khan said the women responded with “hateful language” and told her the books in the display […]

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Breathtaking first James Webb Space Telescope images reignites row over homophobic ‘purge’ leader

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As the James Webb Space Telescope releases its first images, there are renewed calls for NASA to distance itself from the man it’s named for. The multi-billion-dollar telescope – the most powerful ever to be launched into space – garnered controversy last year after NASA chose to name it after government official James Webb, who is believed to have led a homophobic “purge” in the 50s and 60s. At the time NASA said it had a “debt of gratitude” toward Webb, who was the second administrator of NASA, for his efforts in leading them through a portion of the Cold War. However, […]

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A World Cup of Shame: FIFA Fails LGBT Rights Test in Qatar

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In November the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup opens in Qatar, a country that represses the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and punishes same-sex relations with up to seven years in prison. The soccer governing body, FIFA, knew this in 2010, when it awarded Qatar the football tournament, one of the world’s most widely viewed sporting events. FIFA’s own governing statutes, in force at the time, ban LGBT discrimination of the kind Qatar enshrines in its national laws, and FIFA’s due diligence to enforce its own policies around the world has been ineffective.  In 2016, FIFA adopted the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business […]

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GLAAD gives social media failing grades over lack of protections for LGBTQ users

GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, released the findings of its second annual Social Media Safety Index (SMSI), a report on LGBTQ user safety across five major social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. The outcome says GLAAD is an utter failure to protect the safety of LGBTQ+ users. The 2022 SMSI introduces a Platform Scorecard developed by GLAAD in partnership with Ranking Digital Rights and Goodwin Simon Strategic Research. The Platform Scorecard utilizes twelve LGBTQ-specific indicators to generate numeric ratings with regard to LGBTQ safety, privacy, and expression. A listing of […]

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Lebanon: Unlawful Crackdown on LGBTI Gatherings

Lebanese authorities have unlawfully banned peaceful gatherings of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people, the Coalition to Defend Freedom of Expression in Lebanonsaid today. The ban violates LGBTI people’s constitutional rights to equality, free expression, and free assembly and Lebanon’s obligations under international law and comes during an economic crisis and a worsening climate for the rights of LGBTI people in the country. On June 24, 2022, Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi sent an urgent letter to the directorates of Internal Security and General Security instructing them to ban any gatherings aimed at “promoting sexual perversion.” The letter includes vague and overly broad grounds, citing […]

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Antigua and Barbuda: High Court Decriminalizes Gay Sex

The High Court of Justice for Antigua and Barbuda struck down discriminatory legal provisions that criminalized same-sex relations in a landmark ruling on July 5, 2022, Human Rights Watch said today. The court found that such laws violated the right to liberty, protection of the law, freedom of expression, protection of personal privacy, and protection from discrimination. Antigua and Barbuda’s Sexual Offences Act of 1995 sanctioned “buggery,” defined as “sexual intercourse per anum by a male person with a male person or by a male person with a female person,” with up to 15 years in prison. The act also penalized “serious indecency,” defined as “an […]

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Trans woman fired from Chick-fil-A sues for sexual harassment and discrimination

A woman who worked at a Chick-fil-A in Decatur, Georgia, has filed a federal lawsuit claiming she was wrongfully fired after being harassed for four months by her co-workers for being transgender.  The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in late June by Erin Taylor, 29, who told NBC News she transitioned about three years ago. She is referred to in court documents by her legal name, which is different from the name she uses.  The lawsuit accuses her former employer of condoning a workplace that included “sexual harassment,” “discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation” […]

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Iraq’s government proposes law to ban homosexuality

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The Iraqi government has drafted a plan to criminalize homosexuality, according to a member of the country’s Parliamentary Legal Committee. “It was agreed within the parliament to collect signatures after returning to session to legislate a law prohibiting homosexuality in Iraq,” Aref al-Hamami, an MP with the State of Law coalition said on Friday. “[The] legislation of such a law will be reinforced by legal provisions that prevent homosexuality and the perversions associated with it.” Amir Ashour, head of the LGBTQ group IraQueer, said that the proposed law would “allow the Iraqi government to legally get away with murder.” In a […]

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If politicians want a brighter future for young queer people there’s an obvious solution

As soon as I cross state lines, I mask my queerness. I attended a school-sponsored trip to the Smoky Mountains while in middle school a few years ago, to explore Tennessee’s vast countryside and stunning views. We traveled as a cohort, and I was lucky to have close friends on the trip, with whom I felt extremely comfortable sharing my sexuality. In my hometown of Chicago, I never felt unsafe expressing myself. It wasn’t a secret— I crossed my legs every time I sat, my painted nails reflected the Southern heat, and my octet-raising voice certainly wasn’t helping. But in […]

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