To counter homophobic behavior in schools, research is needed on heterosexual youth who act as allies to LGBT youth by engaging in LGBT-affirming behavior. This study found that critical thinking, self-reflection, lower sexual prejudice, having more LGBT friends, and having sexual orientation-based discussions with peers were associated with engaging in more LGBT-affirming behavior. Having LGBT friends was more strongly associated with affirming behavior for youth who felt more connected and had more sexual orientation-based discussions with these friends. Read More
Ireland: Government launches push to tackle homophobia in primary schools
The Irish government has launched its first resource to help primary school teachers tackle homophobic bullying. The guide, titled Respect, will be officially launched by Education minister Jan O’Sullivan this evening.
It was created by the Department of Education and Skills, alongside the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation and Ireland’s Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN). The resource – which is the first of its kind on the Republic of Ireland – encourages teachers to challenge children to think about family, love and gender from an early age. Read More
Pivotal time for trans people as rigid notion of gender challenged
For Kate Bornstein, the American author and pioneer gender activist, this is a pivotal time in history for transgender people as the rigid concept of two sexes is challenged by a growing number of individuals who don't conform to either. Some even suggest the notion of gender as we know it, the categorization of individuals as either male or female, might become obsolete altogether.
"Most college students are okay with the idea of someone who defines themselves as not a man or a woman," said Bornstein, 66, who was born a man but had a sex change operation in the 1980s. "That's very different from their parents or even their older siblings," she said. Now gender non-conformity, also known as genderqueer, and transsexuality are far more visible. Read More
What to Do When 'I Do' Is Done
With the widely shared expectation that the Supreme Court will soon return to the issue of marriage and may strike down marriage bans nationwide, LGBT leaders find themselves asking a question that would have seemed improbable just a few years ago: What should be the priorities of the LGBT movement once legal marriage equality has been achieved?
The most likely candidate for the kind of coordinated, national- and state-level strategy that fueled the marriage equality campaign is a push to get all LGBT Americans covered by laws barring discrimination against them in employment, housing, health care, and public accommodations. Brutal persecution of LGBT people around the globe, often with the collusion or encouragement of American anti-gay activists, is another growing concern. Those issues are likely to draw support from across the ideological spectrum of LGBT organizations. Read More
Chile: Congress approves same-sex civil unions
After hours of debate, the Chile’s Civil Union bill was approved by 86 votes to 23, with two abstentions, in the Chamber of Deputies yesterday. The Senate passed the bill last year. The new law will recognise the civil unions of couples living under the same roof, whether the couple is heterosexual or same-sex, and provides them with certain legal rights. Read More
Switzerland: Village backs priest over lesbian couple blessing
A catholic priest in a traditional Swiss village under fire for blessing a lesbian couple has defended his actions and rejected calls from the church hierarchy for his resignation. But the priest has received support from his congregation and residents of the village, who started a petition in his defence.
“We stand behind priest Bucheli,” Peter Vorwerk, vice-president of the parish council is quoted as saying. Christianity is based on charity so it is difficult to understand why the church should deny someone the blessing of God, he said. Read More
Slovakia: Referendum to bar same-sex couples from marrying and adopting fails
A proposal to deny same-sex couples the right to marry and adopt failed in Slovakia on Saturday because turnout did not reach the 50% threshold required to become law under the country’s voting rules.
Though it didn't pass by default, the vote reflects a growing backlash in Eastern Europe against LGBT rights. Slovakia is one of four Eastern European countries to pass laws denying legal recognition to same-sex couples since 2012, the same time that a growing number of countries in Western Europe have adopted full marriage equality. Read More
Eight in ten Vietnam gays see positive change toward them
Nearly 80% of LGBTI Vietnamese say society had changed positively toward them over the last five years, according to a new survey. The most voted changes were confidence to be themselves, government recognition and LGBTI activities. Read More
Vietnam: The 71-year-old mother who fights for gay rights
All heads turned when Thi took the stage to speak about her youngest son's struggle with being gay and to promote support for gays and lesbians. The conference, organized by by Ho Chi Minh City-based activist group ICS, gathered supporters for and families of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) people.
A farmer, Thi said she could only learn about the community from her son because she did not know how to access the Internet to study and there was no LGBT support group in her hometown. Read More
Australia: 17 year old given power over his parents for gender dysphoria
A 17-year-old transgender boy has become the first child in Australia to have been given the right to make decisions on special medical procedures without parental consent.
The Family Court found that the boy, known as Isaac, was competent and gave him the power to override his parent's wishes to prevent him from using puberty suppressants, testosterone replacement therapy and undergoing any surgery related to his gender. The case potentially paves the way for other children seeking treatment without the support of one or both of their parents to ask the courts to declare them competent enough to make the decision themselves. Read More
US: Archbishop’s 'morality clauses’ chill rights of teachers
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone's new anti-gay "purity test" for Catholic high school teachers will be added to the faculty handbooks, and outlines the church's teaching that using contraception is a sin and that sex outside of marriage, whether it is in the form of adultery, masturbation, pornography or gay sex, is "gravely evil."
Cordileone is insisting that administrators, faculty, and other staff “must refrain from public support of any cause or issue that is explicitly or implicitly contrary to that which the Catholic Church holds to be true, both those truths known from revelation and those from natural law” — not just in the classroom, but in their off-duty hours as well.
The archdiocese has proposed contract language that describes faculty & staff as “ministers engaged in this religious mission regardless of individual job description or subject matter.” As 'ministers' are exempt from anti-discrimination law, teachers will have no recourse if they're dismissed. Read More
Kenya Catholic bishops issue Lent message attacking homosexuality
The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) have begun their Lenten season with an attack on homosexuality and sex work.
In their annual Lenten Campaign message titled ‘Build our Family and Nation with Dignity’ the bishops take issue with some of the social issues plaguing the family including homosexuality, drug abuse, redundant parents, incest and prostitution. Read More