The UK’s notoriously anti-LGBT home secretary Priti Patel is planning to fully decriminalise the sale of poppers. Not usually known for liberal stances on anything, Patel confirmed on Wednesday that she is “minded” to explicitly exempt poppers from laws banning former ‘legal highs’. Alkyl nitrites, popularly known as poppers, are sold in the UK as
Politics
Conservatives in America are reportedly hoping Donald Trump will weaponise trans rights in an effort to revitalise his failing re-election bid. Polls suggest that Trump’s campaign is on thin ice, and some Republicans are now hoping that the president will launch an attack on trans people in an effort to gain popular support from conservatives.
Auditions make me nervous. Not for myself — I’m beyond the casting-call stage of life. But rather for anyone who still has the nerve to endure the almost always disappointing, sometimes humiliating, process of being screened, interviewed, tested and most probably rejected for a role in show business. Or journalism. Or politics, wherein the final
A gay senator in Ireland has put his social media accounts on private after he was subjected to “blatantly homophobic” abuse from a right-wing political party. Socially conservative political party Aontú, which was formed in 2019 and has just one elected representative, shared a photograph of gay Sinn Féin senator Fintan Warfield, which was taken
Rosie Duffield insisted “only women have a cervix” on Twitter. (Nicola Tree/Getty Images) Labour’s Rosie Duffield has slammed accusations that she’s “transphobic” as a “tedious Communist pile on” amid a heated online row about who can get cervical cancer. The controversy began late last night, when Duffield – who last week in parliament suggested a
Alex Morse became his city’s first openly gay mayor when he was elected almost a decade ago at the age of 22. Now, he’s running for Congress. Morse was elected mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts after beating an incumbent who was more than three times his age. Now 31, Morse is facing off against US representative
Antonella Lerca launched her campaign to run as an independent candidate in District 2 of Bucharest on July 20. (Supplied) An out transgender woman is making a historic bid for public office in Romania. Antonella Lerca, a Roma woman and sex worker, is campaigning to run as an independent candidate for District 2 in the
Grace Helen Whitener, Washington state’s recently elected Supreme Court judge, is a Black, gay, female, disabled lawmaker. (YouTube/Pierce County Television) A record number of LGBT+ people are running for office this year in the US, but campaigners warned that queer lawmakers are still “severely underrepresented”. The LGBTQ Victory Institute, which is “dedicated to elevating openly
Former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has accepted nearly £75,000 in donations from an organisation whose director tweeted in support of so-called conversion therapy. Dr David Landrum, director of an organisation called Faith in Public, tweeted a link to an article protesting against proposals to ban gay conversion therapy in July 2018. It is currently
Talk about box-office drama. As the July 4 weekend unwinds, IFC’sThe Truth might be slugging it out with Homewrecker from Dark Star and The Outpost from Fathom for the honor of ranking somewhere in the 300s, near IFC’s own Wiener-Dog, among all-time Independence Day performers. (Who can say for sure, as release dates have become
Poland’s staunchly anti-LGBT+ President Andrzej Duda has vowed to ban same-sex couples from adopting children. Duda, who has expressed his opposition to LGBT+ rights on numerous occasions in recent weeks, made the comments at a campaign rally in southern Poland today (July 4). Speaking at the campaign event, Duda said he will put forward an
Merritt Corrigan. (WPA Intelligence/ Twitter) A new member of Donald Trump’s administration previously said that America is in the clutches of a “homo-empire” that pushes a “tyrannical LGBT+agenda”. Merritt Corrigan was recently appointed by Trump as deputy White House liaison at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), America’s foreign aid agency. The new Trump
Steve King, a controversial Iowa congressman known for his openly racist, homophobic views, has just lost his bid to secure a 10th term in office. You might remember Steve King as the man who offered to marry gay people to his lawnmower. Or the man who claimed evidence for gay parenting is “fake” like global
MPs are required to walk the length of the Commons chamber – and we have definitely seen that somewhere before. The House of Commons has been transformed into a never-ending RuPaul’s Drag Race runway, thanks to Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg. Rees-Mogg, known for his antiquated views on everything from gay relationships to parliamentary reform, riled
The singer Boy George, who was jailed in 2009 for imprisoning a male escort (Brian Rasic/WireImage) A Tory minister has quit due to the row over Dominic Cummings and, apparently, it’s all a bit much for Boy George. Junior government minister Douglas Ross became the first to resign over the row on Tuesday, one day
The nephew of Harvey Milk has said that the best way to protect his legacy is to elect Joe Biden as president of the United States in November. A pioneer of LGBT+ rights, Milk was one of the first openly gay people to hold elected office in the United States. Tragically, his life was cut
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) The Trump administration has used the guise of religious freedom to critically undermine protections for LGBT+ people, a new report warns. The report, backed by civil rights groups including the ACLU, warns that the Trump administration has “repeatedly undermined important civil rights
Boris Johnson. (Christopher Furlong – WPA Pool /Getty Images) The UK government has reportedly made no moves to ban conversion therapy almost two years after pledging to “eradicate” the harmful practice. So-called “conversion therapy” refers to the dangerous and discredited practice of trying to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. All efforts to
Joe Biden (Frederick M. Brown/Getty) The biggest transgender activist group in the United States has said Joe Biden is “the advocate and president we need” in a powerful endorsement. Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) Action Fund threw her organisation’s support behind Biden in a wide-ranging statement released today (May 5).
Richard Grenell speaks at a press conference in January (Milos Miskov/Anadolu Agency/Getty) Donald Trump’s first openly gay cabinet member Richard Grenell wants the United States to stop sharing intelligence with countries where it’s illegal to be gay. Grenell told The New York Times that it will take more than just telling the leaders of these
Tory MP Jackie Doyle-Price has claimed she is a supporter of the LGB Alliance – despite her belief that gay people should not be allowed to get married. The heterosexual Conservative politician took to Twitter declare her support for the group, which campaigns to exclude transgender people from the LGBT+ community while claiming to represent
Lady Gaga and Boris Johnson. (Getty/Global Citizen/Ray Tang/Anadolu Agency) An explosive article in today’s Sunday Times revealed that UK prime minister Boris Johnson skipped the first five crisis meetings about coronavirus – meanwhile, Lady Gaga raised $127m for the COVID-19 relief effort and curated a global star-studded concert. Johnson, whose poor handling of the pandemic
The White House on Thursday unveiled a set of guidelines to governors on “reopening” the country, with recommendations that movie theaters and other large venues can reopen but only with continued adherence to physical distancing. The guidelines set out three phases for reviving the economy, but only after states or regions meet a set of
Joe Biden holds a virtual campaign event on March 13, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty) Joe Biden is holding a star-studded ‘virtual’ fundraiser in the Los Angeles LGBT+ community, with minimum donations of $1,000. The event on April 23 will feature performances from TV, Broadway and music stars, including Billy Porter, Kristin Chenoweth and Melissa Etheridge. The
Kayleigh McEnany speaks at a “Keep America Great” campaign rally on January 9, 2020 (Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire/ Getty) This week Trump welcomed his new White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, a combative TV pundit with a long history of anti-LGBT+ comments. McEnany has previously worked as Trump’s spokesperson for his re-election campaign and as
Kathy Kozachenko. )Human Rights Party (Ann Arbor, Mich.) records / Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan) Forty-one years ago yesterday, on April 2, 1974, out lesbian Kathy Kozachenko made history as the first openly gay person elected to political office in the US. Three years before Harvey Milk, the more well-known gay-rights advocate commonly given
US President Donald Trump speaks while flanked by Vice President Mike Pence (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) The Trump White House has flatly rejected criticism over its ties to anti-LGBT hate groups. A report from anti-extremism watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center revealed a “sharp expansion” in the number of anti-LGBT hate groups operating across the
In the middle of a global crisis, Republican Idaho governor Brad Little is focusing on attacking trans people In the midst of a global pandemic, Republican Idaho governor Brad Little has effectively declared open season on trans people in his state. On Monday, Little signed two laws that campaigners say effectively make trans people second-class
In advance of the Senate’s passage of the $2 trillion relief bill, The National Association of Theatre Owners already is celebrating the agreement as a big win for movie theaters, particularly the $454B loan guarantee fund which will help cinemas get by on their fixed costs as local and state governments force a shutdown out of
Owen Paterson (R) leaving Downing Street on October 22, 2019. (Leon Neal/Getty Images) Tory MP Owen Paterson, who strongly opposed equal marriage in the UK, makes £100,000 a year from a company that is privately selling coronavirus testing kits. As the Northern Ireland secretary in 2012, Paterson became the first cabinet member to publicly say