LGBTQ

The government of Malaysia is urging the public to discontinue use of the term “LGBT” to avoid “normalizing” LGBTQ+ people and the broader community. In its place, the Deputy Minister for Religious Affairs, Marhamah Rosli, says the public should now use the term “budaya songsang,” or “perverted/deviant culture,” to describe all things LGBTQ+. Related “The

LGBTQ+ consumers spend about $1.4 trillion in the U.S. annually and $3.9 trillion globally, but about 70% are spending their money with businesses that they see supporting the community — and an almost equal amount are avoiding companies they see as reducing their inclusion commitments — according to a new report released on Tuesday by

It was the summer of 1956, and Michael Lloyd Gregory was seated on the front porch of his home in Wichita, Kansas, posing for a photo taken by his father. He was two years old at the time. “My mom ‘styled’ me that day,” he recalls. Related “My dad wore athletic shirts around the house,”

To photographer Mel Porter, one of the clearest examples of the Trump administration’s antipathy for the LGBTQ+ community isn’t what it’s done, but what it has stopped doing. “I actually do work for the Veterans Hospital in Buffalo,” Porter said. “And one of the things that’s been noticeable is, the last two years, we haven’t

A state representative in Louisiana is speaking out over new legislation signed into law by Gov. Jeff Landry (R) granting employees in the state a right to deadname trans colleagues. The legislation describes the disrespect as “constitutionally protected speech.” Related Act 579 prohibits employers from taking adverse actions against employees based on that claim. The

Former Secretary of Transportation and likely 2028 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg was briefly separated from his children after an anonymous false report alleging he was a danger to his young twins.  Buttigieg detailed the ordeal firsthand in a post on Substack, titled “A Terrible Thing Happened to My Family.” He said he was “furious” that

Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for Maine’s U.S. Senate seat, had twin events demonstrating his strong support among the LGBTQ+ community this week. The candidate is facing off against longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November, with control of the Senate at stake. Platner won the Democratic primary earlier this month with 72% of the

After two decades, the U.S. will end a life-saving HIV-prevention and treatment program in South Africa, a country where over 8 million people live with the virus (about 12% of its population). The Trump administration said it is stopping the funding because South Africa hasn’t done enough to meet the U.S. president’s policy requests, including

President Donald Trump spent $16.4 million dollars on a no-bid contract to paint the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, painting it “American flag blue” for the July 4 celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding. However, when algae blooms turned the pool bright green and chunks of the pool’s new blue coating

James Fishback, a racist and antisemitic Republican running to become Florida’s next governor, will hold a rally on Saturday, June 27 with Christian nationalist hate pastor Joel Webbon — a man who blames Jewish people for all social evils, blames teachers for causing men to be gay, blames marijuana for making men “spiritually gay,” and thinks Adolf Hitler wasn’t

An appellate court ruled on Thursday that California cannot enforce its law banning schools from forcibly outing students to their families while a lawsuit against the legislation continues. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had already ruled in favor of a temporary block on the bill, a decision that the United States Supreme Court later

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department has joined a lawsuit filed by an extremist religious freedom organization on behalf of nuns at a Catholic hospice in New York, challenging a state law requiring nursing facilities to affirm their patients’ gender identities. The suit was filed in April by Colorado law firm First & Fourteenth, which is

Former Fox News broadcaster Tucker Carlson announced last Thursday that he is leaving the Republican Party. Then, today, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said the same. “I voted Republican my entire life, I have been a consistent defender for 35 years of the Republican party, but there is no defending this. I’m out,” Carlson

A record number of LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. are fleeing the president’s anti-transgender policies by seeking asylum in other countries, according to a report released last Saturday by the LGBTQ+ asylum relocation assistance group Rainbow Railroad. Simultaneously, fewer LGBTQ+ refugees from other anti-queer countries are seeking asylum in the U.S., a result of the

Two Florida cities are standing up to Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ removal of their rainbow crosswalks by painting rainbow colors on two other highly visible public places. At the start of Pride month, St. Petersburg painted the steps of its city hall in the colors of the Progress Pride flag. Related “Losing the crosswalk was a

A popular, longtime destination for the gay community in Mobile, Alabama, was forced to close ahead of Pride celebrations in the Gulf Coast city, after an ownership transfer revealed irregularities in the bar’s liquor licensing. The three-story B-Bob’s Bar in downtown Mobile shuttered with little warning and canceled planned events for Pride Month, including a

Japan is on the verge of instituting a nationwide LGBTQ+ education program, designed to address a lack of public knowledge on gender and sexual diversity in the country, ABC Japan reports. The plan was approved by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) earlier this month and is expected to get a sign-off by Prime Minister

A teacher hired by a Florida school was forced by the superintendent to either resign or be fired (with no reason given) after only three weeks. Now, Shepherd Scalf is filing a discrimination complaint with the ACLU, alleging that the district thought he was trans because he’s intersex. “Receiving this ultimatum was confusing and overwhelming.

Ahead of Pride demonstrations this month, two U.K. stores put up window art that supported trans people who had scars from top surgery, one at a LUSH store, and another at an Amnesty bookstore. This particularly angered anti-trans freelance journalist and campaigner Janet Murray, who has raged against the displays on social media, called for

A digital rights advocacy group is reupping its call to ban biometric facial recognition technology in bars and other venues serving the LGBTQ+ community after new reporting revealed widespread use of the technology in San Francisco’s Castro District. This week, Gazetteer SF put a spotlight on the face-scanning technology that’s been hiding in plain sight

An Erie City, Pennsylvania city councilmember who intentionally misgendered a colleague from the dais last week is suffering the backlash, with dozens of outraged constituents showing up to a Wednesday night council meeting to share their displeasure. The councilman, Ed Brzezinski, a former school board member and registered Democrat, sat stone-faced through the five-hour meeting.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads up the Civil Rights Division of President Donald Trump’s Justice Department, waded into the ongoing Major League Baseball (MLB) cap controversy, stoking outrage over the league’s reaction to a San Francisco Giants player displaying a Bible verse on his Pride Night ballcap. “It is illegal to treat

Rabidly anti-LGBTQ+ Christian nationalist Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Deevers (R) lost his re-election bid yesterday as he came in dead last in a three-way Republican primary for his state Senate seat. Deevers received only 29.93% of all votes, placing third behind his opponents, Curtis Erwin (who won 33.12%) and Jean Hausheer (who won 36.95%). In

Bethel, Ohio Republican Police Chief Chad Essert, arrested on 14 counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. | YouTube screenshot Chad Essert, the 44-year-old Republican police chief of Bethel, Ohio, was arrested and indicted last Thursday on 56 counts of sexual battery and 14 counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. He faces

A federal judge issued a temporary injunction against Idaho’s new law, which would’ve given prison time to transgender people who use government and business restrooms that differ from the sex that they were assigned at birth. Idaho’s attorney general, Raul R. Labrador, has pledged to appeal the decision. Though the law was set to go

In a bizarre video that is being compared to a Saturday Night Live sketch, the office of the U.S. Ambassador to The Bahamas, led by appointee Herschel Walker, warned Americans visiting the archipelagic country that “Jet ski rentals pose a serious risk of injury, death, and sexual assault.” In the video, Walker said that injuries

San Francisco police are offering $250,000 to anyone who can help identify the person(s) who targeted six white gay men and murdered them during the late night and early morning hours of nights between late January 1974 to June 1975. Investigators don’t think Investigators believe that a serial killer met the men before killing them

Jackson Lahmeyer. Candidate filing at the Capitol on Wednesday, April 13, 2022. | © DOUG HOKE/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via IMAGN Images Jackson Lahmeyer, a Republican U.S. House candidate and founder of “Pastors for Trump” who is married with five kids, reportedly sent sext messages to a former Miss Oklahoma Caitlin Simmons Key

Notorious transphobe Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) lost in her state’s Republican gubernatorial primary earlier this week, coming in 5th place as Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson advanced to a runoff. And now, Republicans who worked closely with her are speaking out about why she is unfit to lead. Mace’s behavior became

In Ghana last week, participants from 20 African nations advanced the latest iteration of the African Inter-Parliamentary “Family, Sovereignty and Values” Charter, a document African rights activists say threatens to dismantle protections for women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in service of a Christian nationalist worldview. Attendees at the annual conference have set an ambitious goal