China's main internet regulator and censorship authority ordered Apple to remove two very popular gay dating apps its App Store last weekend: Blued, an app with an estimated 56 million users; and Finka, which has 2.7 million users. The apps remain functional Chinese people who've already downloaded them, but their removal is just part of China's ongoing crackdown and censorship campaign against its LGBTQ+ citizens.
The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed district judge David Hittner's 2023 ruling that Senate Bill 12 was unconstitutional, meaning businesses could be fined $10,000 (£7,600) for hosting so-called sexually oriented performances. Drag artists could be charged with a class-A misdemeanour, punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of $4,000 (£3,000).
should not be denied the opportunity to be loved and to love, even on an intimate, sexual level, because denying them this, denying them their right, I repeat, is simply wrong
Joseph Phillip Daniel is a conservative Christian preacher who was once featured in a segment on The 700 Club. He got media attention in 2019 again when he was working at an Illinois Mobil gas station and refused to serve a group of women because they were Mexican. He claimed that they were not citizens and that if they don't leave the country, "ICE will come." He got fired.
San Antonio's first gay mayor, Democratic Gina Ortiz Jones, is under fire for comments about Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's directive to remove the city's only rainbow crosswalk, at the heart of San Antonio's gayborhood. A short address from Jones, made at a Thursday night celebration marking the area's designation as a cultural district, received an underwhelming response from attendees, as the onetime Under Secretary of the Air Force in the Biden administration appeared to decline to fight back against both Abbott and the Trump administration.
A new policy rolled out by the Pentagon effectively removes a crucial part of due process for military service members facing involuntary separation under Trump's second ban on transgender military members. Those who wish to argue against their separation at a board hearing will now have the final decision made by a superior who is not required to participate in that hearing.
The streets of Buenos Aires were filled with sounds of celebration and protest on Saturday as Argentina's largest Pride march rolled from the city's central Plaza de Mayo to the National Congress building. Hundreds of thousands turned out in support of the LGBTQ+ community and against right-wing Argentine President Javier Milei's public attacks on it. The political backdrop for the march was a resounding victory last week for Milei's party, La Libertad Avanza (LLA), in legislative elections.
Japan's parliament on Tuesday elected ultraconservative Sanae Takaichi as the country's first female prime minister, ending a three-month power struggle after disastrous election losses in July for the governing Liberal Democratic Party. Takaichi, 64, replaces Shigeru Ishiba, who lasted just a year as prime minister. The struggling LDP joined the country's right-wing Japan Innovation Party to form the fragile alliance enabling Takaichi's election. Takaichi still lacks a majority in both houses of parliament, throwing prospects for a successful premiership into doubt from the outset.
This is not what America's about. We have a president that is proclaiming executive orders trying to erase trans people from existence, and you say that the American flag includes everyone. For over 100 years, the American flag stood for slavery, and we had a war to fix that. For 90 years after that, it stood for segregation, and people took to the streets to get rid of that.
Reflecting on her first election victory, Glick recalled the community's frustration over the lack of LGBTQ representation a sense that we were not part of the whole New York, she said. There was a thought that if we ran for a seat that was a two-year seat I had connections to the women's community, tenants, environmentalists that I probably wouldn't win the first time, Glick said. But if I did well enough, I could come back in two years and make another run.
President Donald Trump's second term has especially targeted two groups in particular: immigrants and LGBTQ people. On his first day in office, he ended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which left thousands of refugees who had already been approved to live in the United States stranded. He also drastically lowered the cap on the number of refugees allowed to enter the U.S. from 125,000 to 7,500. Thankfully, Immigration Equality is here to help.
What happened: Around 7 million people protested the administration in demonstrations across the country. The administration's attacks on LGBTQ+ people were one of the key points of discontent expressed at the protests, and one U.S. senator even wore a trans flag to show his support for the community. Why it matters: While some Democratic party insiders are suggesting abandoning or downplaying LGBTQ+ issues in future elections, the values of equality and inclusion remain important to the party's liberal base.
Police arrested 34 men and collected evidence from the scene, including contraceptives, cell phones, and other electronic devices. The men were taken to Surabaya Police Headquarters for questioning, and on Tuesday afternoon, AKBP Edy Herwiyanto, head of the Surabaya Police Criminal Investigation Unit, identified all 34 men as suspects, with some accused of organizing and financing the alleged sex party.
Throughout Ali's childhood in Iraq, he was repeatedly bullied by students and teachers for what he described as his feminine behavior. During his pre-teen and teenage years, men sexually assaulted him, but he couldn't report it to the police for fear that he'd be thrown into jail for years since Iraq has criminalized homosexuality. Ali was afraid to come out or talk about these assaults to his family.
The discriminatory "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" extortion scheme, promising preferred access to federal funding in exchange for submitting to the administration's demands over how to run the schools, was pitched to nine colleges and universities in a letter sent at the beginning of October. The 10-point plan demanded the schools' submission to the president's "gender ideology" obsession, effectively erasing trans identity in higher education, along with a cap on international undergraduate enrollment at 15% and banning the use of race or sex in hiring, among other diktats.
Dakarai Larriett is not your conventional candidate for the U.S. Senate, least of all from Alabama. The gay, Black 43-year-old entrepreneur and community activist founded a pet aromatherapy business, studied dance at a progressive high school in Birmingham, champions the rights of trans people in the Cotton State, and embraces his ghost sightings as a gift. He's also sunny, charming, and attractive, and has surrounded himself with an experienced team of political veterans in his campaign for U.S. Senator from Alabama.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) ordered cities to remove street art like Pride crosswalks earlier this month, saying that they represent "political ideologies." That is not true; the Pride flag represents LGBTQ+ people, a class of people made up of individuals from across the political spectrum. The announcement came after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy asked state governors to remove "political messages" from roadways.
