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Gay Afghan burned by Taliban says international LGBT+ community ‘forgot about us’

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A gay man from Afghanistan who was burned by a Taliban member has said he is “shocked” by the lack of support and solidarity shown by the international LGBT+ community. Sohil – whose surname has been withheld to protect his identity – is a young gay Afghan whose life was thrown into disarray when the Taliban seized power in August. Afghanistan was never accepting of homosexuality, but he was in contact with a small network of other gay people. Now, they’re all “living in the shadows” – hiding themselves to evade capture and torture by the extremist group. “Imagine you have all […]

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Botswana attorney general seeks to recriminalize homosexuality

On June 11, 2019, Botswana moved toward being a state that no longer held some of its citizens (and, by extension, visitors) as criminals if they identified within the LGBTQ spectrum. However, the government didn’t take too long before it declared its intention to appeal the High Court judgment that asserted that consensual same-sex sexual activity in private was not to be a criminal act. The appeal hearing took place on Oct. 12. There are some key things to understand about what the High Court did for people in Botswana. The judgment, written and delivered by Justice Leburu, not only put a […]

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McAuliffe: Youngkin ‘most homophobic’ candidate in Va. history

erry McAuliffe described Republican Glenn Youngkin as the “most homophobic” and most “anti-choice candidate” in Virginia history during an Oct. 21 telephone interview with the Washington Blade. “I’m running against the most homophobic, anti-choice candidate in Virginia history,” said McAuliffe. “I ran against Ken Cuccinelli. That’s saying something.” McAuliffe, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee, in 2013 defeated Cuccinelli, Virginia’s then-attorney general who vehemently opposed LGBTQ rights, in that year’s gubernatorial race. Youngkin, the former co-CEO of the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, is running against McAuliffe in the race to succeed current Gov. Ralph Northam. State […]

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Italy blocks hate crime bill after unprecedented opposition from Vatican and far right

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Italy has voted down a bill to tackle hate crimes against women, LGBT+ people and those with disabilities, all in the name of religious freedom. The bill – known as the Zan bill after the Democratic Party lawmaker and LGBT+ rights activist Alessandro Zan, who proposed it – was approved my the Italian parliament’s lower house last year. The Zan bill, which would protect Italians from violence, hate speech and discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and disability, has caused a divide in the country since it was introduced, with critics insisting that it would infringe […]

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Teaching about trans people is a ‘crime against humanity:’ Vladimir Putin

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Russian president Vladimir Putin has attacked gay and trans rights in a fiery speech advocating for “traditional family values”. Speaking at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin said – apparently unironically – that teaching students about the existence of trans people is “on the verge of a crime against humanity”. Stressing that Russia should stick to its own “spiritual values and historical traditions” and stay away from “sociocultural disturbances” in the West, Putin added that Westerners believe in “the aggressive deletion of whole pages of their own history, reverse discrimination against the majority in the interests of minorities”. “It’s […]

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Anti-LGBT+ Chick-fil-A promises not to ‘discriminate’… against anti-vaxxers

A sign displayed by a Tennessee franchise of the anti-LGBT+ fast food chain Chick-fil-A has gone viral for condemning discrimination… against anti-maskers and the unvaccinated. The sign, pasted on the window of the Chick-fil-A in Franklin, Tennessee, reads: “We do not discriminate against unvaccinated, religion, race, sex, vaccinated, maskless, mask. All neighbours are welcome.” When the message was shared on Twitter by anti-LGBT+ right-wing YouTuber Lauren Chen, social media users were quick to point out that “equating mask/vaccine policy with religion/ race/ sex is so fundamentally stupid”, and that one significant group was missing from the list. One Twitter user wrote: […]

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs law restricting transgender students in school sports

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill Monday banning transgender athletes from playing on public school sports teams that align with their gender identities. The bill, which cleared the Legislature this month and affects elementary school to university athletics, will take effect in January. Abbott did not immediately comment on the ban. Rep. Valoree Swanson, a lead sponsor in the state House, has said it is “all about girls and protecting them” in the state’s University Interscholastic League. Texas House passes bill targeting transgender students playing sports OCT. 15, 202101:08 “We need a statewide level playing field,” Swanson said on the House […]

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Trans Man Fights Japan’s Sterilization Requirement

A Japanese transgender man, Gen Suzuki, 46, has filed a court request to have his legal gender recognized as male without undergoing sterilization surgery as prescribed by national law. His case highlights the urgent need for Japan to revise its outdated and harmful transgender legislation. In Japan, transgender people who want to legally change their gender must appeal to a family court. Under the “Gender Identity Disorder (GID) Special Cases Act,” applicants must undergo a psychiatric evaluation and be surgically sterilized. They also must be single and without children younger than 20. In 2017, during its Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations […]

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Celebrate Intersex Awareness Day on October 26th

Intersex Awareness Day is Monday, October 26th, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the United States’ first public demonstration against infant surgery led by intersex people and their allies in Boston, MA at the annual conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics.  Each year, intersex folks and allies around the world help raise the visibility of the nearly 2% of people born with intersex traits who are often made invisible due to medical erasure and discrimination. Intersex Awareness Day is about supporting members of the intersex community in living authentically and unapologetically! We Need You!  If you’re intersex, we hope you’ll join […]

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Trans woman forced to flee Malaysia says she was ‘sexually assaulted’ by officials

Nur Sajat, a trans social media personality and businesswoman who fled Malaysia, was allegedly sexually assaulted by religious officers. The cosmetics entrepreneur fled the country in January after she was charged with breaking Sharia law by wearing a dress at a religious event in 2018. She faces up to three years in prison, which supposedly brought “contempt” to Islam. The Washington Post reported Sajat was arrested on 8 September by Thai police for entering the country illegally, and a police official said the deportation process was underway. ​​Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, told the South China Morning Post that Sajat had […]

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