LGBTQ

New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard has received an outpouring of support from prime minister Jacinda Ardern. Hubbard, 43, became the first openly trans athlete to be selected for the Olympics when she was picked for the New Zealand women’s weightlifting team for Toyko 2020. Ardern offered Hubbard her full support. “All parties here have simply followed the rules,” the New Zealand prime minister said. “That’s the case for Laurel but also the team in New Zealand, they have followed the rules.” Hubbard became eligible after a rule-tweak during the coronavirus...

An Emmy statuette pictured at the 71st Emmy Awards in 2019 (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty) Emmy nominees will now have the option to use the gender-neutral term “performer”, the TV Academy has announced. Starting with the Daytime Emmy Awards next month, nominees in any category will be able to choose the non-gendered description on their nomination certificate rather than “actor” or “actress”. Likewise, winners can ask for their statuette to use the gender-neutral option. The Academy will still use actor, actress, supporting actor and supporting actress in its categories, but the move...

A man on a train. (Envato Elements) Being part of the LGBT+ community can mean being a target for hate. But as journalist Louis Staples writes, small acts of solidarity can come as a comfort to those who find themselves singled out – and it’s something we need more of. Queer people have a lot of stories: the realisation that we are different, that first crush and our first time in an LGBT+ venue. Navigating the world can be a hailstorm of awkward and life-affirming moments. But too many of us have another...

Elizabeth Rondón. (Twitter) A trans woman was reportedly beaten and brutally dismembered by her friends after going for drinks in an attack that has fuelled fear in Miranda, Venezuela. Elizabeth Rondón, a 33-year-old vegetable seller, was slain Monday morning (13 June) after at least three people beat her, according to activists and witnesses. Loved ones described Rondón as a quiet but charismatic person who traded vegetables for food in the Santa Cruz del Este neighbourhood of the Baruta municipality. But her friends, they said, “bothered her a lot” for being trans, often...

The women endured two years of misery at the hands of their neighbour (Stock image: Envato) Police have apologised to a gay couple who were subjected to a horrifying two-year campaign of harassment from a homophobic neighbour from hell. Jessica and Lisa from Chatham, Kent, suffered a torrent of homophobia and intimidating behaviour from the middle-aged family man, who has now been ordered not to have any contact with them. Their two-year ordeal included tyres being slashed, food waste emptied in the garden, a rock lobbed through their window and...

Father Paulo Antônio Mueller hurling homophobic slurs from the pulpit (YouTube/Jacques Gosh) A Brazilian priest is under investigation after he was filmed delivering a homophobic slur-filled homily about a gay reporter. Father Paulo Antônio Mueller, a preacher in the city of Tapurah, is being investigated by Mato Grosso State prosecutors for a vile anti-gay sermon during Pride month. The video shows him standing in the pulpit and repeatedly using the Portuguese slur “viados”, which is best translated as “f****ts”. “Dating for us is not like Globo showed this week. Two viados,...

Mexico fans at a friendly football match with Honduras on June 12, 2021, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Elijah Nouvelage/AFP) Mexico will play its next two World Cup home matches in an empty stadium as punishment for fans’ homophobic chanting, FIFA has announced. All spectators will be banned from the World Cup qualifiers against Jamaica (2 September) and Canada (7 October) after two CONCACAF Olympic qualifier games in March were marred by homophobic slurs. The Mexican soccer federation (FMF) will also be fined $65,000 following an investigation by FIFA, the world governing...

YouTube has been slammed for completely deleting Australian gay comedy channel Ding Dong I’m Gay during Pride month. The gay, sex-positive comedy web series follows Cameron, a gay man who came out six years ago and moved to Sydney, trying to prove to his newly-out cousin that his is “an all-knowing gay guru”. Released last year, the show’s six-episode first season, released weekly, was a huge hit. But during Pride month, the entire channel was unceremoniously removed from YouTube, the series’ creator Tim Spencer. He told Star Observer that it was...

Meghan McCain has been slammed for 'disrespecting' Whoopi Goldberg in a heated exchange over President Joe Biden on The View on 17 June 2021. (YouTube/The View) Meghan McCain has been slammed for ‘disrespecting’ Whoopi Goldberg in a heated exchange over President Joe Biden on The View. On Thursday’s The View (17 June), the panel discussed a tense chat between Biden and CNN journalist Kaitlan Collins during a news conference the day prior. McCain declared that Biden‘s treatment of Collins was “100 per cent Trumpy”. She added: “Just because Trump was so...

Police seized a "f**k the police" tote bag as evidence. (Twitter/ dirozevepave) Cops in Glasgow seized a “f**k the police” tote bag as “evidence” from the window of queer, anarchist Jewish café, and its founders are now facing criminal charges. Pink Peacock is ‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏a queer, Jewish, anarchist, pay-what-you-can café on Glasgow’s Victoria Road, which declares that everyone is welcome “except cops and TERFs“. The café is yet to even open its doors to the public, but has already been in trouble with local police after displaying a “f**k the police”...

Conservative Christian baker Jack Phillips. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty) A Colorado baker has been fined by a district judge after he refused to bake a blue and pink birthday cake celebrating a trans customer’s transition. Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop – which in 2018 won a narrow Supreme Court victory over its refusal to bake a cake for a same-sex couple – was sued by Autumn Scardina, a transgender lawyer based in Denver, Colorado. Scardina filed a lawsuit after Phillips refused to bake her a cake in the colours of the trans flag. On Tuesday (15 June),...

A woman holds a banner reading "ICE stop attacking our community" during a protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in Portland, Oregon. (Getty/ Anadolu Agency/ Alex Milan Tracy) US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tried to wish everyone a happy Pride Month, but the LGBT+ community was having none of it. On Wednesday (16 June), the official ICE Twitter account posted: “During Pride Month, we recognise our LGBTQ+ employees, reflect on the trials that their community has endured and rejoice with them in the triumphs of those who...

Bryan Furze and LeeMichael McLean were the target of a bizarre homophobic campaign (Facebook/LeeMichael McLean) A gay couple who were harassed with homophobic magazine subscriptions found a way to put the abuse to good use with the help of their local community. For five years, Massachusetts couple Bryan Furze and LeeMichael McLean endured a bizarre campaign of bigotry from an anonymous homophobe. Around the time their son turned two, they began receiving a mysterious string of 30 magazine subscriptions ordered under fake, homophobic names, like “Michelle Fruitzey” and “Dick Likkors”....

Because of a military ban on gay sex, the two male solders were considered by the court to have "molested" each other by having consensual oral sex.  (AFP via Getty/ Jung Yeon-je) A military court in South Korea has prosecuted two male soldiers, insisting that their consensual sex “bordered on rape”. The two men were handed a six-month suspended prison sentence, according to The Guardian, after being found guilty of “indecency”. Although same-sex sexual activity is legal for civilians in South Korea, it is banned under article 92-6 of the...