LGBTQ

Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed the anti-trans sports bill into law. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty) The parents of a 13-year-old girl have launched a federal lawsuit to challenge Florida’s reviled ban on trans girls taking part in school sports. Mounted by the Human Rights Campaign, one of the largest LGBT+ advocacy groups in the US, the lawsuit argues that the ban violates both the constitution and existing federal anti-discrimination law. It was filed on behalf of Daisy, an avid football player aged 13, and her parents. Under Florida’s anti-trans sports...

IKEA has released a new line of loveseats inspired by ten different LGBT+ flags. This includes couch designed after the bisexual flag, trans flag and others. (IKEA Canada) A divisive set of IKEA Pride sofas has sent LGBT+ Twitter into a collective frenzy. IKEA unveiled a collection of 10 “loveseats” inspired by the flags of different LGBT+ identities. According to a press release on IKEA’s website, the IKEA Pride sofas were “designed and created by artists active in the 2SLGBTQ+ community” and are a “platform to celebrate identity and share...

Police officers arrest a protester at Istanbul Pride (Murat Baykara/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty) A group of queer friends feared for their lives after a homophobic mob attempted to lynch them as they left Istanbul Pride parade in Turkey. The terrifying scene happened after the 19th Istanbul Pride March in Taksim on Saturday (26 June), a peaceful protest marred by police violence, tear gas and rubber bullets. Speaking anonymously to Bianet, the group of Pride-goers recalled how the violence quickly escalated into a “life-and-death situation” when they were stopped by a mob...

Kataluna Enriquez. (Instagram) A trans woman has been crowned Miss Nevada USA for the first time in the pageant’s 69-year-long history. At the South Point Hotel, Casino and Spa in Las Vegas on Sunday (27 June), Kataluna Enriquez became the first openly trans Miss Nevada winner, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The 27-year-old had donned a hand-made shimmering rainbow sequin dress to celebrate Pride Month for the ceremony after beating out 21 other candidates. She will represent Nevada at the upcoming Miss USA pageant, to be held 29 November....

Lil Nas X performs at the BET Awards on 27 June 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for BET) Lil Nas X is hitting back at people leaving homophobic comments on social media about the steamy kiss during his performance at this year’s BET Awards. The rapper paid tribute to Michael Jackson’s song “Remember the Time” when he performed “Montero (Call Me By Your Name” at the awards show. The epic performance culminated in Lil Nas X sharing a passionate kiss with one of his male...

The first-ever LGBT+ Pride parade was held in Malawi. (Malawi Human Rights Commission/Twitter) Braving the threat of persecution, dozens of queer people packed the streets of the capital of Malawi for the country’s first-ever Pride parade Saturday (26 June). Organised by the Nyasa Rainbow Alliance, some 50 LGBT+ people marched through the streets of Lilongwe in a show of defiance. After an hour-long march through winding but silent thoroughfares as masked attendees sang and danced, the protesters handed a petition over to city officials demanding marriage equality and better access...

Queen Latifah has long been a fierce supporter of the LGBT+ community, although she has never confirmed whether she herself identifies as LGBT+. (YouTube/BETNetworks) Queen Latifah gave a special shout-out to the LGBT+ community as she accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards. The rapper and actor ended her emotional speech holding up the peace sign, and wishing viewers a “happy Pride”. She used the majority of the speech to thank God, her mother, BET and her rap “sisters”, and to highlight the beauty of the Black community....

Sicilian Mafia boss Salvatore “Lucky” Lucanio leaving the court in New York on June 18, 1936 (Apic/Getty Images) The legendary Stonewall Inn will forever be remembered as the birthplace of LGBT+ rights – but the Mafia’s role in the story is lesser known, and far more murky. You might think the Italian mob and gay clubs don’t exactly go hand in hand, but as far back as the 1930s these seemingly oppositional groups made a profitable, if uneasy, match. In the days when queer people were vilified and criminalised, it...

Two murals in Manchester's gay village were defaced with homophobic graffiti. (Twitter/ macinnes_neil) Vile homophobic graffiti has been discovered on two murals in Manchester’s gay village during Pride month. A mural of gay World War II codebreaker Alan Turing and Manchester drag queen Foo Foo Lammar was targeted, as well as one of Drag Race UK star Divina de Campo, both of which were located close to Manchester’s iconic Canal Street in the gay village. The vandals spray painted the words “dirty bastars ” as well as the numbers “666”....

Hollyoaks star Ki Griffin addresses the crowd in Soho Square after the third London Trans+ Pride. (Charlie Mathers/@charlie.mathers) Hollyoaks star Ki Griffin addressed thousands of trans and non-binary people at the third-ever London Trans+ Pride today. Griffin, who plays non-binary character Ripley Lennox on the long-running Channel 4 soap, was there with campaign group Intersex Equality Rights UK. They spoke after thousands of trans and non-binary people and their allies marched through central London to demand trans rights, healthcare and equality for London Trans+ Pride 2021. Speaking after the crowd...

Sir Elton John with his husband David Furnish at their Civil Partnership Ceremony in 2005. (WireImage/ Mike Marsland) Elton John says his mother “ruined” the day of his civil partnership to husband  David Furnish with “mild homophobia”. Speaking at YouTube Pride 2021, John said his Sheila Farebrother’s reaction to their civil partnership in 2005 was “a big shock” as she had been “so supportive” when he came out as gay. “Families can be very pro or very anti. My family, my mother and my stepfather, were very, very easy with me...

Romeo and Juliet. (Jane Hobson) A harsh, industrial scaffold set suggests a backdrop of urban war for this dark, modern take on Romeo and Juliet at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. The gravel covered ground is severed with a crack along the centre, the stage front sloping off like a trench. It’s a literal representation of the play’s warring divisions, but a brutally efficient one. The centre is dominated by a cross that acts as both altar and grave, sandbags hanging tentatively in balance. In Naomi Dawson’s production, death...

Will Young. (Screen captures via Instagram/@willyoungofficial) Will Young has said he felt “shame” the first time he attended a Pride parade – but doing so allowed him to “undo the brainwashing” he grew up with. Young, 42, told YouTube Originals that he spent years feeling “wrong and bad and evil” about being gay, a feeling compounded by music bosses urging him to stay closeted in his early career. “People did try and sort of initially shut me out but I’d been through too much pain to get to this stage to...

Pope Francis. (Christopher Furlong/Getty) Italy’s prime minister Mario Draghi has rejected Vatican efforts to interfere with the passage of an anti-discrimination law. There was widespread outrage among LGBT+ groups in Italy when it emerged that the Vatican had stated its opposition to the proposed law, which would extend anti-discrimination protections to women, LGBT+ people and those with disabilities. In a letter to the Italian ambassador to the Holy See, Vatican foreign minister Paul Gallagher claimed the law – dubbed the Zan law after the politician who drafted it – would...