LGBTQ

Florida governor Ron DeSantis addresses the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty) Governor Ron DeSantis has claimed trans issues are being “injected” into classrooms while seemingly showing support for Florida’s reviled “Don’t Say Gay” bill. House Bill 1557 (HB 1557), dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, would ban schools from “encouraging classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels” or at any level if the discussion is “not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students”. The proposed legislation has been met...

Utah governor Spencer Cox vows to veto a bill that would ban trans students from competing on sports teams matching their gender identity. (YouTube/Gov Spencer J Cox) Governor Spencer Cox has promised to veto a trans sports ban that was passed through in the last hours of the Utah legislative session.  State lawmakers debated and passed House Bill 11 (HB 11) on Friday (4 March) night, just before the end of the Utah Legislature’s 2022 general session. The proposed legislation would prohibit trans girls who want to compete in school sports teams...

Dozens of demonstrators stood outside Walt Disney World. (Instagram/@savelgbt) Disney, known for its magical storytelling, has once again done the impossible: support LGBT+ rights while also donating to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Indeed, the Walt Disney Company issued a statement sidestepping the bill altogether that instead broadly in support of queer rights Friday (4 March). The so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill hurtling through the Florida legislature would ban school teachers from discussing LGBT+ identities in classrooms. Raising even more alarms were a series of amendments to SB 1834 that...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau waves to the crowd as he marches in the Pride Parade in Toronto, 2017. (Getty/ AFP/ GEOFF ROBINS) A judge has ruled that two women who called the president of a Canadian medical imaging centre’s slur-filled tweets “homophobic and transphobic” was a “fair comment” One of the top judges in Ontario, Canada, tossed two $6 million lawsuits launched by Probhash Mondal and his company, Guelph Medical Imaging, that sought damage costs against Stephanie Marie Evans-Bitten and Kathryn Evans-Bitten. Justice E Morgan of the Ontario Superior Court...

Iowa governor Kim Reynolds. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) Iowa has become the 11th American state to sign a cruel and pointless ban on trans girls and women from competing in sports at state schools, colleges and universities. In the latest example of the at least 160 anti-LGBT+ proposals being rammed into statehouse dockets, governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill banning trans athletes Thursday (3 March). Senators voted 31-17 sharply along party lines for House File 2416 on Wednesday, only nine days after the Iowa House approved the hawkish legislation supported only by...

Houndreds of members of the trans community during the annual 'Yo Marcho Trans' protest in Bogota, Colombia. (Perla Bayona/Long Visual Press/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Colombia’s highest court has ruled that non-binary people should have their gender legally recognised in a landmark ruling set to ripple through Latin America. On Tuesday (1 March), the Constitutional Court of Colombia, the supreme constitutional court of Colombia in Bogotá, ruled that the government must introduce a third gender marker option on official identity documents. In a decision obtained by AFP, the government...

Indiana governor Eric Holcomb seen before the Notre Dame and Purdue game on 18 September 2021 in South Bend, Indiana. (Getty/Michael Hickey) Indiana lawmakers have sent a “regressive” bill banning trans girls from playing on sports teams matching their gender identity to the governor’s desk. On Tuesday (1 March), the state’s Senate passed Republican-backed House Bill 1041 (HB 1041) with a 32-18 vote, largely along party lines. HB 1041 was approved by the Indiana House back in January with a 66-30 vote, and it is now on governor Eric Holcomb’s...

Andy Cohen blasts Greg Abbott as a 'bully' on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. (Screen capture via Twitter/Bravo) Television personality Andy Cohen delivered an emotional rebuke of Texas governor Greg Abbott for demanding state agencies to treat healthcare for trans youth as “child abuse”. To the Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen host, the Republican incumbent is a “bully” and the “Jackhole of the Day” for “picking on vulnerable children” by denying them life-saving treatments. Ahead of the November gubernatorial election, where Abbott will against Democratic candidate Beto...

Texas Governor Greg Abbott during a campaign rally. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) Top activists have sued Texas governor Greg Abbott in an effort to stop state officials from cruelly investigating the parents and guardians of trans youth for “child abuse”. On Tuesday (1 March), the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Republican incumbent after he ordered the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to crack down on trans youth receiving gender-affirming treatment. Abbott, bolstered by a non-binding judgement by attorney general Ken Paxton, ordered the agency last...

David Martinez. (Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation) A Florida man has been arrested for threatening to cut the “gay” out of his own brother with a kitchen knife. Police in Miami-Dade in southeast Florida were called to the home of 35-year-old David Martinez last Thursday evening (24 February) amid a “violent dispute” between the brothers. The victim told investigators that Martinez was sharpening a kitchen knife as he threatened to kill him in his Miami home, according to Miami-Dade Police Department records. The two had been tussling over “property”, officers noted. The...

Erotica author Chuck Tingle buys transphobic Texas governor's website (governorabbott.com/Chuck Tingle) Erotica author Chuck Tingle, known for his work involving gay dinosaurs, unicorns, and Bigfoot, has bought a Texas governor’s website after he came under fire for comparing trans healthcare to “child abuse”. Tingle, who has written iconic erotica including My Billionaire Triceratops Craves Gay Ass and Buttageddon, bought out Texas governor Greg Abbott’s website, www.governorabbott.com in order to fundraise for several transgender charities. “If you’re not frothing at the mouth with belligerent hatred and ignorant bigotry, then maybe supporting...

Magomed Tushayev, one of the leaders behind the horrific “gay purge” in Chechnya, has been killed in Ukraine. Tushayev was a top advisor and military commander for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, and helped oversee a brutal so-called “purge” of LGBT+ people in the region since at least 2017. He was reportedly killed while heading up the 141 motorised regiment of the Chechnya National Guard on Saturday (26 February), the Ukrainian news agency the Kyiv Independent reported. Tushayev’s death was confirmed by Illia Ponomarenko, defence reporter for the Kyiv Independent, and by a spokesperson...

Jussie Smollett was found guilty by a jury of staging a hate crime against himself. (Getty/ Scott Olson) Jussie Smollett, convicted last year of staging a hate crime against himself, is requesting a new trial. The former Empire actor said he was the victim of a hate crime in 2019, claiming that two men shouted homophobic, racist slurs, beat him and looped a makeshift noose around his neck. While police initially investigated Smollett’s story as genuine, evidence surfaced  that Smollett had paid brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, brothers who had worked...