LGBTQ

The European Parliament rolls out a banner to mark EU becoming an "LGBT+ Freedom Zone" (John Thys/AFP) Polish MEPs were up in arms after the European Union proclaimed itself an “LGBT+ freedom zone” in response to Poland‘s heinous “LGBT-free zones”. All 27 representatives from Poland’s homophobic ruling party PiS voted against the EU’s proclamation on Friday (12 March), which was passed by 492 votes to 141. The move came two years after the first Polish authority signed a pledge against LGBT+ “ideology”, sparking a wave that now covers around a...

Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, at a press conference in February (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/ Getty) Hungary’s top court has thrown out Viktor Orbán’s attempt to implement a retroactive ban on trans people’s gender identity being recognised in official documents. Launched last year, the devastating law known as Section 33 legally erases trans people by forcing them to use deadnames and the gender they were assigned at birth on all ID documents. It effectively outlawed legal status for all transgender people, including those who had already changed – but on Friday...

Republican lawmakers in Tennessee have introduced a bill that would allow cisgender students to sue a school if they are ‘forced’ to share school facilities with trans students. Jason Zachary, a Republican congressman from Knoxville, introduced House Bill 1233 at the same time Mike Ball, a Republican senator from Riceville, introduced its sister bill in the Senate, SB 1367. The bills would effectively allow students the ability to refuse to share facilities – such as bathrooms, locker rooms and dorms – with trans students. Cisgender students could then sue publicly-funded...

Queer as Folk ran for two seasons, the first episode airing on February 23, 1999. (Channel 4) Russell T Davies has said he is hopeful for a reboot of his iconic series Queer as Folk, even if he won’t be the one to write it. Following the runaway success of It’s a Sin, which was so popular it broke All 4 streaming records and drove a 91 per cent increase in viewership, Davies has spoken about the possibility of reviving the 1990s queer classic. Asked by The Hollywood Reporter whether he would...

The gay couple's home was defaced with vile messages calling them "paedophiles". (Envato Elements) Vandals who spray painted vile homophobic messages on a gay couple’s house in Leuven, Belgium, have been condemned for their “hateful” actions. The couple, who have not been named, had their home spray painted with messages such as “I like young boys” and “paedophile”. “The police have been on the scene and made the findings,” Mathieu Caudron, a police spokesman, told HLN of the vile attack. “We take these facts very seriously and an official report has been...

The DC Comics Pride anthology will be released on 8 June. (DC Comics) DC Comics will be releasing a huge queer anthology this summer in celebration of Pride, and introducing trans superhero Dreamer into the DC universe. Announced on Thursday (11 March), DC Pride #1 will feature queer characters from across the DC Comics universe, and will also spotlight LGBT+ artists and writers. The 80-page anthology, to be released on 8 June, will celebrate queer favourites like Batwoman, couple Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, Midnighter and the non-binary version of the...

Niecy Nash spoke to Ellen DeGeneres about falling in love with 'hersband' Jessica Betts. (EllenTube) Niecy Nash has opened up about the moment she realised she had feelings for her “hersband” Jessica Betts. The Claws star revealed that she had married Betts in a beautiful, heartfelt ceremony on Instagram in September 2020. Some fans were surprised by the announcement as Niecy Nash had never spoken publicly about her sexuality in the past, and she was previously married to two men. During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday (10 March), Nash explained...

Marsha P Johnson. (Netflix) Plans for a gaudy rainbow mural in the Marsha P Johnson state park in New York have been scrapped, after complaints from the trans hero’s family. In August, 2020, New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced that Brooklyn’s East River State Park was being renamed Marsha P Johnson State Park, making it “the first state park to honour an LGBT+ person”. But since then, plans have been made for the design of the park, with little input from the LGBT+ community or Johnson’s own family. At a...

Naya Rivera (L) and Ryan Murphy. (Getty Images) Ryan Murphy has denied “breaking his promise” of setting up a college fund for Naya Rivera’s son. Murphy spoke after Naya’s father George Rivera, a retired actor, suggested he had failed to live up to his promise to financially support the late Glee star’s son Josey Hollis after her death last year. “Everyone needs to know what Ryan Murphy really did,” the 63-year-old wrote.  “Or didn’t do! I’m about to blow up this story and make sure knows that I know.” He...

Former Welsh rugby captain Gareth Thomas announced he is HIV positive after "evils" threatened to out him. (Clemens Bilan/AFP/Getty) Welsh rugby star and TV personality Gareth Thomas has described being “petrified” each time someone knocked on his door, while he was blackmailed over being HIV-positive. In 2019, Thomas was forced to publicly reveal his HIV status after a publication threatened to do it for him, but was met with praise from fans and HIV advocates across the UK. The gay athlete told the Chris Evans Breakfast Show that he was blackmailed...

David P. (Supplied) Belgium and its LGBT+ community are reeling from the country’s first homophobic murder in nine years. The victim, a 42-year-old man, was lured to a park before being brutally beaten to death by three youths using Grindr to snare the victim, according to the police. He has been named by Belgian media as “David P”. David’s body was found by a cyclist in the early hours of Sunday at a park just outside the northern port of Antwerp, East Flanders. Local police are still in the early...

Boris Johnson. (Christopher Furlong/WPA Pool /Getty) MPs from across the UK have insisted that any ban on conversion therapy must also include trans people. During a debate in Westminster Hall on Monday evening (8 March), MPs urged the government to ban the harmful, pseudoscientific practice. The debate, triggered by a petition to government signed by more than 250,000 people, saw 20 MPs speak on the urgent need for parliament to introduce tough measures to curb conversion therapy in the UK. Opening the debate, Conservative MP Elliot Colburn told the stories...

A Republican lawmaker argued to let businesses ignore mask mandates to stem COVID-19 because they were not used to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. Joseph Chaplik, a first-term Republican legislator from Scottsdale, Arizona, said his bill would allow businesses to ignore local or state mask mandates. He argued that consumers would then have the option of deciding whether or not to do businesses there. “It’s about the individual rights of these business owners as Americans,” Chaplik argued. Randall Friese, a Tucson Democrat representative and who is a physician, said masks...

The term "barebacking" became widespread in the LGBT+ community in the 1990s. (Pexels/ Ketut Subiyanto) Like riding a horse without a saddle, barebacking is when someone with a penis penetrates a sexual partner without using a condom. Many people who have any kind of penetrative sex report that going at it without a condom is a more pleasurable experience, and lots of barebacking fans see the act as more intimate. While barebacking can be practiced relatively safely, it’s important that both partners go into it aware of the risks involved....