LGBTQ

Andrew Lloyd Webber. (Mike Coppola/Getty) As much as the moon has lost its memory, Andrew Lloyd Webber certainly hasn’t after he sent the Donald Trump campaign team a cease-and-desist letter after the US president used “Memory” from Cats at a rally all the way back in 2017. The year 2020 really knows how to keep

Grace Helen Whitener, Washington state’s recently elected Supreme Court judge, is a Black, gay, female, disabled lawmaker. (YouTube/Pierce County Television) A record number of LGBT+ people are running for office this year in the US, but campaigners warned that queer lawmakers are still “severely underrepresented”. The LGBTQ Victory Institute, which is “dedicated to elevating openly

Shadow human services minister Nat Cook is drafting legislation to ban traumatising conversion therapy in South Australia. (NatCookMP/ Twitter) New legislation is to be introduced South Australia to ban the traumatising practice of conversion therapy “as soon as possible”. The legislation, proposed by the opposition Labor Party, would mean that medical professionals and religious groups

The African nation of Sudan has dropped flogging and the death penalty as punishments for gay sex – but queer people can still be thrown in prison under the country’s archaic laws. The law was amended to remove the death penalty and floggings for gay sex last week, according to LGBT+ rights organisation Bedayaa. The

Activists rally at New York City Hall on October 8, 2019, before the US Supreme Court heard three cases on whether it is legal to fire workers because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. (Drew Angerer/Getty) A gay man in Tennessee has invoked last month’s historic US Supreme Court ruling on workplace discrimination after

Christopher Doyle, a “former homosexual”, co-founded the “ex-gay” group Voice of the Voiceless. (Voice of the Silenced/ YouTube) Evangelical anti-LGBT+ Christians are fuming after Facebook confirmed that it would ban advertising for conversion therapy on the social media platform. Facebook confirmed on Friday, July 10, that as part of a push to expand its hate

BBC News director Kamal Ahmed was sent a letter today regarding coverage of trans issues. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty) The BBC Pride network has vowed to “challenge any transphobic activity” but admitted it still doesn’t know why four LGBT+ charities were quietly dropped from the BBC’s transgender support page last week. The co-chairs of BBC Pride said

A man produced a knife and hurled homophobic slurs during a robbery in New York City – but he was subsequently wrestled to the ground by the gay couple he attacked. Ricky Bellevue and Trevel Parrish approached gay couple Kelson Akomolafe and Edward Hoard and started shouting homophobic abuse at them last Tuesday (July 7),

A poignant new queer inclusive advert from Durex has an incredibly important message about sex in the age of coronavirus. The advert was released as part of the company’s “Let’s Not Go Back to Normal” campaign, which argues that the coronavirus pandemic can help to usher in better and safer sex for everyone. The powerful

Catholic homophobes are furious with the University of Notre Dame for making Pete Buttigieg a faculty fellow. The married gay former presidential candidate and Rhodes Scholar will take up a post at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study, overseeing research on “the forces distinctively shaping the 2020s” and looking at ways to restore trust

A body has been found in the search for missing Glee star Naya Rivera after she vanished while swimming at Lake Piru with her son last week. Ventura County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that a body was discovered this morning following a six-day long search, but officials have not yet confirmed that the body is Rivera’s. The sheriff’s

Far-right Christian group One Million Moms has taken a surprise break from homophobia to instead protest against Disney for daring to stream Hamilton with the “f-word.” We are in the midst of a global pandemic as well as a wide-scale reckoning on systemic racism, but there are more pressing concerns for the evangelical Christian group, which is

Harry Potter star Miriam Margolyes has distanced herself from JK Rowling’s “conservative” views about trans people, urging people not to be “fascist” about gender. The prominent lesbian actress, who played Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series, added her voices to those of film’s cast members who have challenged Rowling’s frequent remarks about transgender

Protesters packed the drive-thru Burger King in Santa Monica, California, following the death of a trans staffer. (Twitter) Burger King employees staged a strike and filed a complaint with the California state and county regulators Friday (July 10) after a trans co-worker allegedly died of complications caused by coronavirus. Staffers at the Santa Monica fast

Giancarlo Albanese, who attended a circuit party at Fire Island Pines, New York. (Screen captures via Instagram) An attendee of a July 4 Fire Island, US, party that saw beaches swell with hundreds of toned torsos, rarely wearing face coverings or abiding by social distancing rules, has spoken out amid stinging criticism. Giancarlo Albanese, a

Brazilian trans model Valentina Sampaio. (MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images) Appearing on the glossy front cover of Sports Illustrated‘s swimsuit issue has long been a coveted addition to any model’s portfolio. But now, Valentina Sampaio has become the first trans model to grace the edition in the magazine’s 56-year-long history. The 23-year-old Brazillian-born activist said

Mark and Patricia McCloskey once waggled guns outside their sprawling mansion as peaceful people protests racial inequality and police brutality. (Screen capture via Twitter) A white couple who stood outside the Missouri, US, mansion and waggled guns at Black Lives Matter protesters, surprise surprise, once allegedly fought to exclude gay folk from moving into their

A Boystown Chicago banner hangs along Cornelia Avenue in the Boystown Lakeview neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. (Raymond Boyd/Getty Images) In weeks to come, those half-drunkenly ordering taxis to Chicago’s queer neighbourhood won’t be typing in Boystown, but rather “Queerville”, “New Town”, or “Spectrumville”. Around 1,200 people have signed a Change.org petition calling for local leaders

Weren’t gender reveal parties left behind in 2019? What? They weren’t? Oh, no. (Stock photo via Elements Envato) A supportive mum held a second gender reveal party for her transgender daughter after realising she made a mistake with the first one. Julie Hindsley, 33, from Texas, USA, threw a huge gender reveal party when she

Intersex activist Pidgeon Pagonis has shared their heartbreaking story of how they learned about their medical history. In a Twitter thread shared earlier this week, Pagonis – who has reclaimed the word “hermaphrodite” – said that they had recently discovered new information about their body that they hadn’t previously known. When they were 18-years-old, Pagonis

Graham Norton on December 4, 2018 in London, England. (David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty) Graham Norton was afraid that he was going to die after he lost half his blood in a horrific stabbing in 1989. The Irish talkshow host opened up about the terrifying experience in an interview with author Adam Kay for his new

Courtney Act is embracing fluidity in all forms. (Joseph Sinclair) Courtney Act has been guilty of transphobia. Racism too. And she isn’t ashamed to admit it. “It’s a slow unpacking, understanding that we do have those unconscious biases, understanding that if you let go of them that you might get laid more often,” she tells

Sweeping changes made to Tasmania’s gender recognition laws last year have made trans lives easier without creating any unintended consequences for cisgender people, according to the country’s Law Reform Institute. Last year, the Tasmanian government passed new laws which made gender optional on birth certificates and allowed trans people to legally identify as their correct

Terrorist Mohiussunnath Chowdhury plotted to kill ‘thousands of homos’ (Screenshot: Independent) A jihadi terrorist who plotted a violent attack on Pride in London had already made extensive plans to decorate his palace in heaven, a court heard. Mohiussunnath Chowdhury pinned to-do lists for the afterlife to his bedroom door while planning an attack on “thousands of homos” at

Liberal Democrat leadership candidate Layla Moran. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Lynne Featherstone, a member of the House of Lords and former equalities minister under the coalition government, explains for PinkNews why she believes Layla Moran should be the next leader of the Liberal Democrats, and make history as the first openly LGBT+ leader of a major

Army Sergeant Shane Ortega laces up boots before posing for a portrait at home at Wheeler Army Airfield on March 26, 2015 in Wahiawa, Hawaii. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images) Democratic lawmakers have pressed for an end to Donald Trump ‘s ban on transgender people serving in the military, in wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling

Transgender inmate C. Jay Smith (Image: Medina Orthwein LLP) A transgender inmate who spoke out against repeated sexual abuse from prison guards and made #MeToo complaints could face another ten years behind bars after being “set up”, her lawyers say. C Jay Smith, 59, filed a federal lawsuit last Monday alleging that staff members at

Eniola Aluko, sporting director of Aston Villa Women. (Neville Williams/Aston Villa FC via Getty Images) A sporting director at one of English women’s football’s top clubs has confidently said that a trans player would be welcomed by women’s football. After retired male footballer Thomas Beattie came out as gay last month – the first professional male

Michelle Steel, president of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and a candidate in California’s 48th congressional district A video has surfaced of a Republican congressional candidate bragging about pulling her daughter out of college because she supported equal marriage. The video appears to show Michelle Steel, who is president of the Orange County Board

Don Lemon and Terry Crews clashed in a CNN interview. (CNN/ YouTube) CNN news anchor Don Lemon clashed with actor Terry Crews during an interview on his controversial thoughts on the Black Lives Matter movement. Crews, who was previously forced to apologise for saying children with same-sex parents “will be severely malnourished”, faced Lemon for a