“The most excruciating thing is that most Indonesians think LGBT is a mental defect that has to be ‘cured.’ Most Indonesians think homosexuality is criminal and immoral and so LGBT people need to be imprisoned as soon as possible,”
In the spring of 2011, I received a call from a colleague about 11 transgender women of color who were arrested while walking down Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens.
"My mother left the can of petrol in the room and gave me a lighter. As she stepped out, she said with a stern face, ‘I want to see flames coming from your body when you come out of this room.'" For 13-year-old Hawre, this was heartbreaking, as his only “crime” was being gay.
For the first time since the massacre last June, when Orlando’s Pulse nightclub went from patrons’ haven to nightmare in a matter of seconds, owner Barbara Poma turned on the building’s outside lights Sunday — reminding mourners what it looked like before everything closed down.
Many local, state, and federal initiatives that have the potential for profound impacts on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) communities, known more inclusively as “sexual and gender minorities,” are under consideration in legislative bodies across the country.
The study claims LGBTQ students are two to three times more likely than their peers to be assaulted or threatened, which in turn increases the likelihood they will attempt suicide.
