The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) has been around for at least 2000 years and was believed to ensure women’s virginity and reduce female desire. Although the practice is dangerous and unnecessary, the fight to end FGM is difficult because it is still engrained in some cultures and based on religious beliefs or ideas […]
School Board Sued for Blocking Gay-Straight Alliance
After the King George County School Board repeatedly changed rules to block a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club from forming at the King George Middle School in Virginia, the ACLU has filed a federal lawsuit against the School Board and the principal of the middle school. The suit alleges that officials changed the rules to stop […]
Threats to Gays in Central Europe
The hateful rhetoric being spewed by some politicians and public figures about the LGBTQ+ community is creating an environment that is putting a target on the backs of that community. This kind of rhetoric dehumanizes the community making it easier to roll back rights as well as emboldening disturbed individuals to act on their hatred […]
Trinidad and Tobago and Other International Good News for LGBT Community
Trinidad and Tobago’s Sexual Offenses Act, or “buggery law” outlawing homosexuality, is a legacy of British Colonialism. Trinidad and Tobago has been an independent, sovereign nation since 1962. And, although England and Wales decriminalized consensual same-sex in 1967, it is currently illegal in Trinidad and Tobago. In 2018, activist Jason Jones successfully brought a lawsuit […]
New Documentary Celebrates Sex-Positive Cable TV Pioneer
Bang My Box, a new HBO documentary produced by Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex & the City), chronicles the life of iconic New York City public access TV show creator and host Robin Byrd. The Robin Byrd Show first aired on public access in 1977 and ran for over 20 years. The late night call-in show […]
Climate Activism Can be a Drag
The drag queen, Pattie Gonia, has been an environmental and political activist for several years and has amassed an impressive following of over 2 million people across their social channels. They have raised millions of dollars for environmental and social justice non-profits, co-founded the environmental equity organization Outdoorist Oath, and was featured as one of TIME’s most […]
David Hockney Radically Illuminated Queer Desire
Multi-media British queer artist David Hockney recently died at 88 years of age. His art collaged together an ordinary and beautiful gay existence at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in the United Kingdom, making his work quite transgressive. He avoided the usual cultural narratives that depicted gay men as tragic, deviant, and secretive, […]
Pride Festivals in Asia
South Korea’s conservative Protestants represent only a fifth of the population in a country where most people follow no religion, yet they have wielded huge influence over the government which has blocked a comprehensive anti-discrimination law that would protect LGBTQ+ people, women, people with disabilities, and racial minorities. Similar to what is happening in the […]
High-Heeled Activism
It is important to note that there has been some sassy pushback in response to the anti-LGBTQ+ antics of the current cruel and out-of-touch American administration. More than 1,000 people attended a fundraiser for the American Civil Liberties Union at a gay bar in Brooklyn on April 16. The drag event raised $25,000, and the […]
June is Now “Nuclear Family Month” (insert eye-roll here!)
Leave it to Tennessee, whose Republican-run legislature has officially deemed June as “Nuclear Family Month”. The House joint resolution was signed by Governor Bill Lee on April 9. While the policy does not explicitly mention the Queer community, June is when many LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations take place across the country. This is undoubtedly a pointed […]