LGBTQ

Call Me By Your Name author André Aciman says it is “gratifying” and “humbling” that his gay novel could have the “slightest influence” on how Lil Nas X decided to name his hit song. “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” has taken the world by storm, inspiring countless memes and classic TikTok videos. The unapologetically gay song drew 46.9 million US streams and sold 21,000 downloads in its first week, according to MRC Data, and attracted 1.1 million radio airplay audience impressions in the week ending 4 April. Lil Nas...

iLoveMakonnen performs on stage on Day 1 of Born And Bred Festival at Haggerston Park on 4 June 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Joseph Okpako/WireImage) Hip hop star iLoveMakonnen says his “music talents”, “originality” and “influence” have been ‘discredited’ since he came out as gay. Makonnen Sheran, better known by his stage name iLoveMakonnen, rose to fame in 2014 after Drake released a remix of his song “Tuesday”. The rapper and songwriter opened up to his fans about his sexuality in 2017, saying “it’s time I’ve come out”. iLoveMakonnen...

Keir Starmer made a now-infamous visit to homophobic church Jesus House for Easter. (PinkNews) Labour leader Keir Starmer has finally apologised after making an Easter visit to notoriously homophobic church Jesus House in London. The leader of the opposition has faced blistering criticism since sharing a social media video of his visit to the Barnet-based church on Friday (2 April). Starmer described Jesus House as a “wonderful example” of a church serving its local community amid the coronavirus pandemic. To LGBT+ people, however, the church is a place with a...

Demonstrators lay roses on a rainbow flag as they protest over an alleged crackdown on gay men in Chechnya outside the Russian Embassy in London on 2 June 2017. (Photo credit should read JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images) Russia’s top documentary film festival has pulled a movie about a gay MMA fighter from Chechnya from its lineup after receiving a torrent of hate and “serious” threats over it. The Moscow Times reported Artdocfest was set to air the 2020 film Silent Voice, which tells the story of a young MMA...

Emily Bridges. (Instagram) The mum of trans cyclist Emily Bridges has hit out at “hysteria” surrounding her daughter after an unnamed coach allegedly shared “misinformation and lies” about her. Emily’s mum Sandy issued a statement on Twitter on Saturday (3 April) in which she sought to debunk some of the misinformation being circulated online. “Somebody claiming to be a ‘British Cycling Coach’ is once again whipping up rhetoric about my daughter, cyclist Emily Bridges, by promoting misinformation and lies,” Sandy tweeted. “Their objective, it would appear, is to whip up...

The Australian parliament building in Canberra, Australia. (Ashley Cooper/Avalon/Getty) A leaked video of an Australian government staffer masturbating and performing a sex act in parliament should be investigated as “revenge porn”, an MP has argued. Gay Liberal staffer Nathan Winn was fired for lewd conduct last week after an explicit video was leaked to the Australian press. The video showed Winn giving a blow job to a man in Parliament House and masturbating on a female MP’s desk. The footage was circulated by Winn’s ex-friend and occasional lover Gavin Cuddy,...

Two gay men were violently beaten after being lured to an address through a gay dating app. (Envato Elements) A gay man was brutally beaten by thugs with baseball bats after he was lured to an address through a queer dating app. The man, who is in his 50s, told local media that he spent four days in hospital following the attack, which left him with a broken jaw and a fractured skull. A second gay man in his 40s was lured to the same address and was also assaulted...

Members of the Alliance of Heterosexuals and LGBT for Equality, their flag in the top left, at the St Petersburg LGBT+ Pride. (Igor Russak/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) An LGBT+ social media page followed by tens of thousands of queer Russians and allies blocked by authorities has vowed to continue fighting for equality. The Alliance of Straights and LGBT for Equality page on VKontakte, Russia’s most popular social network, was removed on 19 March at the behest of the country’s communications regulator for “promoting non-traditional sexual relations”. Now, those hoping...

The Israeli anti-LGBT+ Noam party has offered to form a coalition with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the condition that he rolls back gender equality laws. The extremist faction of the right-wing Religious Zionist party announced on Thursday (1 April) that they would recommend Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, be tasked with forming another government. In return for helping him cling to power, they released a string of conditions that includes a demand to “amend” the UN-based Government Resolution 2331 to reflect what they see as “Jewish values”. This law...

Sharon Stone has revealed that Britney Spears once reached out to her for help when the singer was struggling with her mental health. The Basic Instinct actor, whom Britney cites as one of her personal inspirations, opened up about the unique bond they share on Wednesday’s episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show (31 March). Sharon said Britney reached out to her for help sometime around 2007, when the pop star was making global headlines. “Britney wrote to me a very long and important, poignant letter during a very difficult time in...

Taylor Parker-Dipeppe. (Pinellas County Jail) A trans man who threatened journalists as part of an interstate intimidation effort by a neo-Nazi ring against the press has been spared jail. Taylor Parker-Dipeppe pleaded guilty last year to federal charges over his involvement in a sprawling plot to harass reporters critical of the Atomwaffen Division. Atomwaffen is a small, extremist, paramilitary neo-Nazi group formed in 2016. One of the most violent far-right groups in the US, members have been accused of plotting to bomb an LGBT+ nightclub and of murdering a gay, Jewish student whose death they...

Catholic women are calling on the Vatican to modernise its views on LGBT+ relationships (Envato Elements) Five Catholic women’s organisations with a million members are calling on the Vatican to reverse its position that priests cannot bless same-sex unions. The women, all from German-speaking areas, voiced their unhappiness in an open letter to the Vatican’s orthodoxy office released on Thursday (1 April). It was signed by the heads of two groups in Germany and one each in Austria, Switzerland and northern Italy’s largely German-speaking South Tyrol region. “On behalf of around a...

President Joe Biden speaks at the Pentagon February 10, 2021 (Alex Brandon - Pool/Getty) The Pentagon has marked the Transgender Day of Visibility by lifting a Trump-era ban on trans people serving openly in the US military. On Thursday (31 March) the US Defence Department unveiled a new policy allowing trans people to serve openly, repealing Trump’s restrictions and effectively returning Pentagon personnel policy to the Obama years. The new regulations will allow trans people who meet military standards to enlist and serve openly in their self-identified gender, and they...