Mariela Castro, the daughter of the current president, Raúl Castro, has led the charge on legislative and societal changes that have given rise to an increasingly visible and empowered community. In the process, she has carved out a rare space for civil society in an authoritarian country where grass-roots movements rarely succeed. Some Western diplomats in Havana have seen the progress on gay rights as a potential blueprint for expansion of other personal freedoms in one of the most oppressed societies on earth. Read More
Transgender and transsexual policy launched by The FA Read
The FA has launched a first-of-its-kind policy on transgender and transsexual people playing football – as it continues its drive to make the game open to everyone.
On Tuesday Wembley Stadium connected by EE plays host to a LGB&T-focused workshop where the new guidelines will be discussed.
Any transsexual or transgender person wishing to play in their affirmed gender can seek to do so by contacting The FA to obtain clearance. Read more
Rights and repercussions: The paradox of LGBT life in Georgia
Former Russian republic makes progress on paper as discrimination continues. “It is becoming a dangerous trend in Georgia to condone and leave unpunished the acts of violence against religious and sexual minorities if they are perpetrated by the Orthodox religious clergy or their followers.
It is simply unacceptable for the authorities to continue to allow attacks in the name of religion or on the basis of anyone’s real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia program director at Amnesty International, in the aftermath of the chaos. Read More
Polish Gay Rights Activist Becomes Poland's First Openly Gay Mayor
Robert Biedron already made history once in Poland by becoming the first openly gay lawmaker in parliament in 2011. On Monday, he became the country's first openly gay mayor.
His successes are a marker of how quickly this deeply conservative and Catholic country has changed in the decade since it joined the European Union. Back then, in 2004, gay rights marches were still being banned and homosexuality was treated as a huge taboo. Since then a growing acceptance of gays and lesbians has arrived hand-in-hand with a flourishing economy. Read More
Fire chief suspended after distributing his anti-gay religious book
Atlanta Fire Rescue Department Chief Kelvin Cochran started a month-long suspension without pay after employees complained about the content of his self-published religious book. Among other things, the book calls “homosexuality” and “lesbianism” a “sexual perversion” morally equivalent to “pederasty” and “bestiality.” Read More
Lesbian's Muslim Dad Inspires With Example of Love, Acceptance
A new video challenges the idea that Islam and tolerance are incompatible. Although ultra-orthodox, extremely conservative sects of Islam dominate today's news, recently there has been a short string of headlines that reveal examples of more progressive, more tolerant practice of the one of the world's largest religions.
The progressive values that MPV champions include gender equality, LGBT rights, freedom of expression, and freedom of (or from) belief. According to Muslims for Progressive Values founder, Ani Zonneveld, who is straight, those ideas are not new to Islam. There have long been female scholars, artists and singers in Islamic tradition, she says, and antigay laws in modern Muslim states are the legacy of British colonization. Read More
Being gay in China: Does the rainbow flag fly free?
In this narrow Beijing hutong, the rainbow flag flies free. I'm in Two Cities Cafe, a popular meeting place for the local gay community. Here, I meet with some of the country's leading LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) advocates to learn about gay identity in China.
Unlike their counterparts in the West, China's LGBT community does not have to face down strident political opposition or right-wing religious uproar. For them, the biggest source of pressure comes from the family, brought on in part by China's one-child policy. Read More
How The Father Of Soviet Pornography Became A Crusader Against “Gay Propaganda”
The story of Vladimir Linderman's transformation from anti-Kremlin sexual radical to moralist crusader who many Latvians suspect of being a Kremlin agent isn’t really about how Linderman changed his mind about homosexuality. Rather, he says his story is about how many people living in the former Soviet Union went from being desperate to escape Moscow’s rule to yearning for its patronage. It is also a tale of how Putin used that desire to co-opt some of his most committed enemies and convince many living in the former Communist world that what once seemed so exciting about the West is now what is most terrifying about it.
“I was the father of the sexual revolution, and now I’m becoming the father of the sexual counterrevolution.” Read More
African Commission join multilateral communique to promote LGBTI interests
Study: The world is becoming a better place to be gay
Social researchers at NORC at the University of Chicago and the LGBT think-tank Williams Institute at UCLA said acceptance has grown by an average of 0.9% annually by nation.
'This study shows a clear trend toward increasing acceptance across the globe,' Andrew Park, director of International Programs at the Williams Institute, said.
Researchers studied hundreds of surveys on attitudes toward gay men and lesbians in up to 52 countries since 1981. Read More
Thailand launches world's first transgender modeling agency
A Thai modeling agency has launched the first transgender model division in the world.
The Bangkok-based Apple Modeling Agency announced the division on Tuesday (11 November) and has 18 transgender girls on its books. Apple is one of the leading and largest modeling agencies in the southeast Asian country. Read More
Choir stages singalong, 'Safe to Sing,' on Manchester trams after homophobic attack
A lesbian and gay choir staged a mass singalong on Manchester’s tram network after homophobic thugs attacked two young gay men who were singing songs from the musical Wicked on a night out.
The event – entitled Safe to Sing – started with about 80 singers boarding trams in the city centre on Monday evening to belt out tunes including Somewhere, from West Side Story, and Petula Clark’s Downtown – with the main refrain changed to “Canal Street”, the heart of Manchester’s gay village. Read More