Australia: This new drama puts LGBT teens at the forefront

Soaps like Home and Away and Neighbours have been a staple on Australian television for decades. Now, a groundbreaking new drama with LGBT teens at the forefront is hoping to find a home among the gum trees.

With a fresh Aussie cast, strong community backing, and a pilot launched on YouTube just last week, Subject to Change has picked up fans already. But now, its creators are looking for a network or streaming service to back the show – and bring episode two to life. Fundamentally, Subject to Change is about the trials and tribulations of high school. It stars three unlikely best friends: neat freak Ben (Aiden Debono), who likes guys, but can’t tell anyone; obnoxious, tomboyish Karly (Maryann Wright), obsessed with soccer and music; and Evie (Katy Avery) who is caught up with body image, bullying, and boys. 

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Olympic body changes transgender guidelines

Transgender athletes look set to compete at the Olympic Games for the first time without first having to undergo gender reassignment surgery. 

Medical chiefs at the International Olympic Committee have recommended the change allowing transgender athletes to take part in this summer's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro as well as other international events.

Transgender athletes have been allowed to compete at the Games since 2004 but only after surgery, having undergone a minimum of two years hormone therapy and being legally recognized as their changed gender.

Headed by Professor Ugur Erdener, the IOC medical hearing's findings said that, "it is necessary to ensure in so far as possible that trans athletes are not excluded from the opportunity to participate in sporting competition," while still ensuring "the guarantee of fair competition."
The hearing concluded that insisting on surgery "may be inconsistent with developing legislation and notions of human rights."

Read more via CNN

IGM = "Harmful Practice" + "Violence": UN reprimands France + Ireland over Intersex Genital Mutilations

StopIGM.org warmly welcomes the historic, binding 2016 "Concluding Observations" of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) for France and Ireland.

This marks the first time that the Committee reprimanded two States over IGM practices at once, again recognising non-consensual, medically unnecessary, irreversible, cosmetic genital surgeries and other procedures on intersex children as a "harmful practice" and as "violence against children".

We particularly appreciate that the Committee specifically called on Ireland to "adopt legal provisions in order to provide redress to the victims of such treatment, including adequate compensation", and for France invoked the Joint General Comment No. 18 (2014) and No. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on harmful practices, which also contain detailed stipulations regarding legislation and access to justice and redress for survivors, and highlight the necessity of developing a holistic policy. Read more via StopIGM.org

Strengthening human rights for gay men and other men who have sex with men

The first meeting of a new advisory body, the Global Platform to Fast-Track HIV Responses among Gay Men and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men (Global Platform), was convened by UNAIDS and the Men Who Have Sex with Men Global Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. Through the Global Platform, members will provide strategic advice to United Nations agencies and other stakeholders on HIV programme needs and priorities for gay men and other men who have sex with men.

“To date, we have shamefully failed gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men in the global response to HIV. Establishing the first ever advisory body to the United Nations agencies and donor community devoted to this issue is an important first step in correcting the situation,” said George Ayala, Executive Director of the Men Who Have Sex with Men Global Forum. 

New infections among gay men and other men who have sex with men are increasing in all regions of the world, while access to treatment remains low in many countries. National HIV prevention and treatment programmes often fail to target gay men and other men who have sex with men. Punitive laws and policies, violence and human rights violations all fuel vulnerability to HIV.   Read more via UNAIDS

LGBT Muslims speak out: ‘I feel like I should not exist’

LGBT Muslims have spoken out about their experiences of prejudice in both the LGBT community and their faith in a photography project by Toronto based photographer Samra Habib. The project, titled “Just Me and Allah: A Queer Muslim Photo Project”, features photos and interviews with LGBT Muslims from around the world where they discuss the challenges they face in both communities.

Starting as an exhibition back in 2014, the project has continued online and according to its creator, the aim is to document evidence of queer Muslims and give faces to discussions in “academia”. Read more

India's Hijra women are getting happy about trans rights

INDIA has been kicking goals on trans rights recently and the latest news from the subcontinent will leave you feeling happy.

Last year a small town elected the country’s first trans mayor, a trans woman became a prominent TV news anchor and India officially recognised trans as a third gender.  Last night, six singers from India’s Hijra community — the cultural term for its trans women — released an YouTube video covering Pharell William’s worldwide hit Happy.

The 6 Pack Band is India’s first-ever trans girl group made up of six singers and their first single Hum Hain Happy is a celebration of all things trans.  Read more

Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay and Peru fined over homophobic chants

Fifa has fined the football associations of Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay for homophobic chants by fans.

The governing body said the “insulting and discriminatory chants” came during qualifying matches for the 2018 World Cup.

Chile’s fine is the biggest at 70,000 Swiss francs (£48,000) relating to cases at four different matches. Fifa also imposed fines of 20,000 Swiss francs (£13,720) on Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. Proceedings against the Honduras FA for the same offence remain ongoing. Read more

Turkish FA ordered to compensate referee who lost licence for being gay

The Turkish football federation (TFF) has been ordered to pay compensation to a referee after it revoked his licence on the grounds he was gay, according to reports. An Istanbul court on Tuesday instructed the TFF to pay 23,000 Turkish lira (£5,330) to compensate for its treatment of Halil İbrahim Dinçdağ, the Dogan news agency reported. 

The sum was lower than the 110,000 lira (£25,500) demanded by Dinçdağ’s lawyers in a case that had become a symbol of discrimination against gay people in Turkey’s largely conservative society. The TFF had said that since he was exempt from military service due to his homosexuality, Dinçdağ fell into the army’s classification of unfit and was unable to do the job of refereeing. Read more

Gender fluidity went pop in 2015 – and it's not just a phase

Miley Cyrus blurred the lines between boy and girl, Angel Haze came out as agender and cross-dressing rapper Young Thug challenged stereotypes. In the first of a three-part series on the musical talking points of 2015, a look at how pop stars are refusing to be pinned down

don’t call it a trend. Gender fluidity found its way into more headlines than ever in 2015. But regardless of the moment it’s having in both music and pop culture at large, to dismiss it as a passing fad or, worse, gimmickry is a mistake – one with echoes of that damaging and all too familiar phrase that queerness is “just a phase”.

Proclamations that “gender fluidity is the new black” may be well intentioned, but are unhelpful. Instead, the cultural landscape of the last year has afforded a new openness for artists who don’t identify with gender binaries.  Read more