LGBTQ

Jacob Candelaria wants to see an end to the gay panic defence (YouTube/New Mexico in Focus) The first gay man ever to serve on New Mexico’s state legislature is working to abolish the “gay panic” defence as a justification for murdering LGBT+ people. State senator Jacob Candelaria is backing a bill to end the controversial legal strategy, which claims that discovering a victim’s sexuality or gender identity can cause a state of temporary insanity, leading to violence and murder. Shockingly it is still a valid defence in all US states except...

The change led to a wave of protest and concern from the LGBT+ community and civil rights groups. (George Gascón for District Attorney) The newly-elected district attorney for Los Angeles County has backed away from a plan to scrap sentence enhancements for hate crimes as part of criminal justice reforms. George Gascón had caused alarm within his first weeks on the job this month when he issued a sweeping criminal justice directive banning enhancements that can increase sentences for certain types of offence, such as crimes against elders and hate...

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the London-based Gender Identity Development Service, has begun an appeals process (Getty) The NHS trust that runs the UK’s only gender identity clinic for transgender children has begun the process of appealing the High Court’s ruling on puberty blockers. The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the London-based Gender Identity Development Service, has been forced to pause endocrinology referrals in the wake of the High Court’s ruling earlier this month. The court ruled that most teens would be incapable of giving...

T'Nia Miller at the Victoria and Albert Museum Summer Party in 2019 (Keith Mayhew/SOPA/Getty) T’Nia Miller kept her sexuality hidden until her early 20s, but now that she’s out she’s determined to be seen. The east-London born actor played the ethereal housekeeper Hannah Grose in Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor, a show whose central lesbian love story instantly won a strong queer fandom. Miller saw nothing like it when she was growing up. As a child she had “no exposure, no knowledge, nada” when it came to LGBT+ issues,...

Tel Aviv Pride 2019 in Israel. (Amir Levy/Getty) Trans people in Israel should be given legal recognition regardless of whether they have pursued gender-affirming surgery, a government task force packed with top officials has recommended. A joint committee between the Justice and Social Welfare Ministries suggested a raft of new policies as part of its ongoing efforts to tackle the “exhausting, frustrating and bureaucratic” hurdles the trans community faces. Deputy attorney general Dina Zilber and deputy director general of the Social Affairs Ministry Avi Motola wrote in an interim report...

Conservative radio host and minister E.W. Jackson An evangelical radio host has warned Georgians that it would be spitting in the face of Jesus to vote for pro-LGBT+ candidates. American Family Radio host and minister E.W. Jackson made the claim ahead of January’s Senate run-off elections in Georgia, which are set to decide the balance of power in the US Senate and shape the first years of Joe Biden’s first term in office. In the first run-off, incumbent Republican senator David Purdue is facing a challenge from Democrat Jon Ossoff,...

Beyoncé and Alexandra Burke's iconic performance on the X Factor (YouTube/Dingledoodie) Alexandra Burke and Beyoncé “blagged” their iconic “Listen” duet, the X Factor winner has revealed in a new interview. Appearing on Angela Scanlon’s BBC series, The Noughties, Burke recalled how the earth-shattering duet came about, revealing that Simon Cowell called her the day before the final to tell her: “Prepare yourself but we’ve got someone for you tomorrow… It’s Beyoncé.” “I hope you can sleep tonight,” Burke recalled Cowell signing off, adding: “I don’t even know how I had a voice the...