Sweeping changes made to Tasmania’s gender recognition laws last year have made trans lives easier without creating any unintended consequences for cisgender people, according to the country’s Law Reform Institute. Last year, the Tasmanian government passed new laws which made gender optional on birth certificates and allowed trans people to legally identify as their correct
Trans
Transgender inmate C. Jay Smith (Image: Medina Orthwein LLP) A transgender inmate who spoke out against repeated sexual abuse from prison guards and made #MeToo complaints could face another ten years behind bars after being “set up”, her lawyers say. C Jay Smith, 59, filed a federal lawsuit last Monday alleging that staff members at
Bestselling children’s author Gillian Philip was dropped by her publisher for tweeting her support for JK Rowling. (Twitter/Gilian_Philip) Bestselling Scottish author Gillian Philip has been let go by her publisher after putting “I stand with JK Rowling” in her Twitter handle. Philip, from Glasgow, backed Harry Potter author JK Rowling – who’s been labelled “transphobic”
Halle Berry said the trans community should have the chance to tell their own stories. (Gabe Ginsberg/WireImage) Halle Berry has pulled out of a film role in which she’d play a transgender man and issued an apology, following a severe backlash. During an Instagram Live last Friday with hairstylist Christin Brown, the former X-Men star suggested
Transgender people and their supporters gather in Parliament Square to protest against potential changes to the Gender Recognition Act on 04 July, 2020 in London, England. (Wiktor Szymanowicz/Barcroft Media via Getty Images) The trans and non-binary community has officially had enough, after JK Rowling launched yet another unprovoked and unnecessary tirade – this time branding
Another Black trans woman has been killed in a brutal shooting, making her at least the 21st trans person murdered so far this year in the United States. Bree Black was found dead at her home on Friday night (July 3) after a fatal shooting. Police in Florida were called to the 200 block of
Cars drive past a billboard featuring Black trans model and activist Jari Jones in an advertisement for Calvin Klein. (Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images) Popping a bottle of champagne, a Black trans plus-sized woman looked up at a billboard on Lafayette Street, in New York’s lower Manhattan, to see herself. Model Jari Jones was surrounded
Reddit, after years of piling pressure, clamped down on boards that, under new guidelines, promoted hate speech. A transphobic “gender critical feminist” forum was one of them. (Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Reddit, one of the largest social networking and imageboard websites, has banned one of the most prolific “gender critical” communities as part
Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco’s death sparked outcry for typifying the failures of the criminal justice system for trans women of colour. (Facebook/Polanco family attorney) A total of 17 corrections officers are to be disciplined for their conduct regarding Layleen Polanco, a trans woman of colour who died in solitary confinement in Rikers Island jail. Layleen Xtravaganza
A woman holds a sign that says: “The traditional family is in danger, come together to defend it!” during a protest against homosexuality in Bucharest, May 20, 2017. The senate in Romania has passed a bill that, if signed by the president, will make it illegal to discuss gender identity in every school and university
Members and supporters of the LGBT community take part in a May Day rally in St Petersburg on May 1, 2015. (OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP/Getty Images) A trans woman who was fired in 2017 after she changed her legal gender has won her case against her employer in a Russian court. Known only as Anna, this win
Minister for Women and Equalities Liz Truss (WIktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto via Getty Images) The deputy chair of the LGBT Conservatives has urged the government to show more empathy towards trans people “instead of pandering to a culture war”. Writing in the i, John Cope called on the government to stop punishing trans people for male violence
Sarah Hegazy was jailed and tortured for holding an LGBT+ flag. She died by suicide in June 2020. (Twitter) Two Egyptian lawyers are suing Noor Hesham Selim, the transgender son of film star Hesham Selim, for an Instagram post that supported Egyptian LGBT+ activist Sara Hegazy, who died by suicide earlier this month. The lawyers
Peppermint was among the first queens to come onboard. (James Michael Avance) Since the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race aired more than a decade ago, 153 queens have shantayed, sashayed and sissied that walk. And only one of those 153 queens has been openly trans. Her name is Peppermint, the legendary queen from NYC
Janet Mock on the red carpet for Pose. (Rich Fury/Getty Images) Pose director Janet Mock says bookshops still don’t stock her bestselling debut memoir Redefining Realness because of “racism, sexism and transphobia”. The writer, TV host and Emmy award-winning director was responding to a fan who asked, on June 16, why “neither Barnes & Noble
Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco’s death spared outcry for typifying the failures of the criminal justice system for trans women of colour. (Facebook/Polanco family attorney) Officers swung open the iron doors of the cell of Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco and called her name. They believed the Latinx trans woman was simply asleep while in solitary confinement. She was
Liz Truss gives a speech at think-tank ‘Onward’ on March 19, 2019 in London. (PLuke Dray/Getty Images) Topping off a dispiriting few years for trans Britons, vital plans to reform legislation around legally changing one’s gender have been reportedly abandoned. But ministers hope to, nevertheless, “placate” the LGBT+ community by introducing a state ban on
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images) Joe Biden spearheaded a blistering backlash against the Trump administration that on Friday (June 12) “cruelly” erased precious healthcare protections for trans patients less than two weeks into Pride Month. The Department of Health and Human Services finalised a rule that effectively means gender identity
Donald Trump holds an LGBT+ Pride flag given to him by supporter. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty) On the four year anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting – when a man laid siege onto a queer Latinx club killing 49 people, many LGBT+ – the Trump administration Friday evening (June 12) brutally rolled-back healthcare protections for trans patients. …Happy
Hungarian trans couple Tamara Csillag and Elvira Angyal. (Tamara Csillag/ Facebook) A Hungarian trans couple have described their life in limbo, after the country’s government passed a cruel and devastating law to legally erase them. Evaluations of Hungarian trans people’s applications to have their gender or name changed have been withheld since 2018, a ban
JK Rowling. (Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images) JK Rowling has responded to the piles of criticism stacked at her for her recent string of anti-trans tweets, but she leap-frogged over two very important criticisms levelled at her. For weeks, Twitter timelines were vastly the same. A patchwork of users anxiously sharing the latest coronavirus death tolls, while
Emma Watson restored the eroding hopes of Harry Potter fans Wednesday night (June 10) when she shattered her dayslong silence towards JK Rowling and her tirade of anti-trans tweets. While the British author of the beloved children’s series issued a meandering essay that nobody asked for on her opinions towards trans rights – many based
Eddie Redmayne with JK Rowling at the European premiere of “Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them” in 2015 (Samir Hussein/WireImage) Eddie Redmayne has become the latest actor from JK Rowling’s Wizarding World to take a stand against the author’s views on trans people. As outrage builds over the author’s statements on trans people, Redmayne
A Black Lives Matter protest in Washington DC. (GettyYasin Ozturk) A leading LGBT+ rights organisation has said that the Black Lives Matter movement must do more for murdered Black trans women. Widespread protests against ongoing police brutality in the wake of the murder of George Floyd have spread across America. But the Human Rights Campaign
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe spoke out (Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Turner) Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has made his unwavering support for trans equality clear, in response to anti-trans comments from the series’ author JK Rowling. Rowling spent much of the weekend infuriating her own fans with an anti-trans tirade, insisting that “erasing the
Katie Leung (L) has reacted to the firestorm caused by JK Rowling’s comments on the trans community. (Mike Marsland/Mike Marsland/WireImage/Getty) In the wake of criticism pelting JK Rowling over her comments on trans people this Saturday (June 6), Harry Potter readers reignited the debate over the author’s racial stereotyping in her books and Katie Leung
Munroe Bergdorf speaking at the Pride In London Gala Dinner 2019. (Venla Shalin/Getty Images for Pride in London) Munroe Bergdorf has broken her silence on L’Oréal’s controversial Black Lives Matter message that said “speaking out is worth it”. The company has been widely and heavily criticised for the June 1 message, given it abruptly dropped
A trans man described by British authorities as “out of control” has been locked up in a women’s prison for 21 months. Jay Lee Layton, 25, entered his ex-partner’s house in Spennymoor, County Durham, at 8pm on April 6 and threatened to stab her, breaching a civil order in the process. His partner refused to
Terry Reintke, lesbian German MEP and co-president of the European Parliament’s LGBTI Intergroup. (Twitter/TerryReintke) Lesbian German MEP Terry Reintke says “hateful” anti-trans language used by radical feminists in Britain is spilling into other countries. Reintke, 33, a Green politician who has been an MEP since 2013, made the comments in an Instagram Live with UK children’s
Pakistan’s transgender community, already forced to the fringes of society, are being deprived of crucial support during the country’s coronavirus lockdown. (ASIF HASSAN/AFP/Getty Images) Existing inequalities that mean trans people are more likely to have mental and physical health problems are being exacerbated by coronavirus, according to scientists who are urging governments to act. The