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UK, Russia, Poland and Hungary in damning LGBT+ hate report due to transphobia

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The UK has been singled out for its “baseless and concerning” anti-trans rhetoric in a damning report on rising hate against LGBT+ people in Europe. The extensive report was published by the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights organisation, on Tuesday (21 September). It describes “a marked increase” in anti-LGBT+ hate speech and hate crime and condemns “with particular force the extensive and often virulent attacks” on LGBT+ rights in the UK, which is named alongside Hungary, Poland, Turkey and the Russian Federation. The council notes that these attacks “deliberately mis-characterise the fight for the equality of LGBTI people as […]

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Students stage defiant walkout after lesbian teacher ‘marched off campus’

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Hundreds of students marched out of school in protest after a lesbian teacher was allegedly escorted off campus amid a row over “safe space” stickers on classroom doors. Crowds of students were seen pouring out of MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas on Wednesday (22 September) in response to the school’s alleged “targeted discrimination” against LGBT+ children and teachers. Many wore heart-shaped rainbow stickers on their faces and clothes, the symbol teachers used to show their classes were a safe space for LGBT+ students – until several weeks ago, when those stickers suddenly disappeared. “I was freaked. The kids were freaked out,” […]

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Transgender people report years of battles for health insurance coverage

Alejandra Caraballo, 30, spent three years and countless hours after work — which “felt like a second part-time job” at times — putting together hundreds of documents to get her health insurance to cover her facial feminization surgery.  She even planned to sue her nonprofit employer, the New York Legal Assistance Group, or NYLAG, and the insurance company it used, UnitedHealthcare, in the spring of 2019 for denying the coverage.  “My own clients at NYLAG were getting it covered under Medicaid, no issue,” she said. “And I, having private insurance, was having it consistently denied and, not to mention, working […]

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Advocate for the homeless fights vaccine misinformation on the streets

On an overcast day in late August, a line of homeless people gathered eagerly outside Sara D. Roosevelt Park in New York City’s Lower East Side.  Four volunteers were rapidly pulling backpacks out of a U-Haul and handing them to those in line. In just 45 minutes, the volunteers from Backpacks for the Street, a mobile nonprofit group that provides vital supplies to those without homes, handed off 165 backpacks — a new daily record. “I think the need is growing more and more,” said Jeffrey Newman, 53, who, along with his husband, Jayson Conner, 44, started the volunteer group […]

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Asian American lawmakers urge DOJ to give hate crimes law updates

Two Asian American lawmakers are asking the Department of Justice for updates to the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act signed four months ago. U.S. lawmakers Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday urging the implementation of key provisions of the act that are “critical to its effectiveness.” The letter — which highlights the increased violence toward older Asians and the Atlanta-area spa shootings that killed eight people, six of whom were women of Asian descent — follows a recent FBI report that showed the number of hate crimes in 2020 was the highest in more than a decade. “We request your attention to these matters and […]

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How an Atlanta basketball team went from Republican hands to LGBTQ ownership

Last summer, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests sweeping the nation, the players of the Atlanta Dream stood united against an off-the-court opponent: Kelly Loeffler, then a U.S. senator from Georgia and a co-owner of the team. Loeffler, a Republican, had publicly and repeatedly derided the WNBA for dedicating its season to social justice issues, and in response, players on the Dream and other teams across the league wore shirts endorsing Raphael Warnock, a Democrat who went on to unseat Loeffler in one of two contentious run-off elections in January 2020. It was around this time that talks to sell the […]

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Community mourns 37th trans person violently killed in 2021, Brianna Hamilton

Brianna Hamilton, a Black trans woman who was “loved by many”, is being mourned as the 37th trans person violently killed in America so far this year. Hamilton, also known as Brianna Ulmer, was fatally shot in Chicago, Illinois on 17 September. She was 25 years old. Her death was confirmed by LaSaia Wade of Brave Space Alliance. The Black- and trans-led LGBT+ centre in Chicago posted a photograph and tribute to Hamilton on its Facebook page. “Brianna Hamilton rest in power my luv, she was found two days ago killed on the south side of Chicago.” The Chicago Sun-Times reported that officers found Hamilton with […]

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After backlash, Illinois Catholic school reverses course, hires lesbian coach

Amanda Kammes was offered a position earlier this month as the head girls lacrosse coach at Benet Academy, a private Catholic high school in suburban Chicago. A day later, after Kammes submitted paperwork listing her wife as her emergency contact, the offer of employment was rescinded, according to Kammes’ supporters. The Lisle, Illinois, school justified its decision to “defer” Kammes’ offer at the time, referring to its mission as a Catholic institution.  “Benet Academy respects the dignity of all human beings to follow their conscience and to live lives of their choosing,” spokeswoman Jamie Moss said. “Likewise, as a Catholic school, we […]

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LGBT vets with other than honorable discharges will get VA benefits under new plan

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Tens of thousands of LGBT veterans forced from the military for their sexual orientation and given other-than-honorable discharges will be able to receive full Veterans Affairs benefits despite their dismissal status under a new move set to be announced Monday. The change comes as the country approaches the 10th anniversary of repeal of the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” law which forced nearly 14,000 service members out of the ranks for admitting their sexual orientation. But the impact of the new VA announcement goes further than just those individuals, to potentially include troops who served before and after the law who may have […]

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Architect Of Texas Abortion Ban Also Wants SCOTUS To Overturn Same-Sex Marriage, Recriminalize Gay Sex

The Guardian reports: In the same brief, which calls for Roe to be overturned, Mitchell and co-counsel Adam Mortara, an anti-abortion activist and lawyer who clerked for the Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, said such a decision could open the door for other “lawless” rights and protections to be reversed, including the right to have gay sex and the right to same-sex marriage. The lawyers argued that while it was not necessary for the high court to immediately overrule the legal cases that enshrine those rights, “neither should the court hesitate to write an opinion that leaves those decisions hanging by a thread”. Those […]

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