LGBTQ+
LGBTQ activist Sarah McBride becomes first transgender Senator in the USA
30-year-old Sarah McBride was elected to the state parliament of Delaware with a majority of 73 percent of the votes. The first transgender senator advocates a socially just health policy, paid sick leave and the rights of queer people. After her great electoral success, McBride published a thank you note… »
LGBT rights in Lithuanian elections
Does the October general elections hold any promise for Lithuania’s LGBTQ community? While some major parties have backslid on issues like legalising same-sex partnership, LGBTQ voters and allies have more choice than in any previous election, argues Simonas Bartulis. Baltics in-depth. LRT English presents a forum of expert voices from… »
A Queer Cry for Freedom: Meet the LGBTQ Palestinians Demanding Liberation
It happened all at once, without any coordination. Suddenly, all 150 protesters were on the street — lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, queers, and their allies. All proudly Palestinian, marching from Haifa’s German Colony to the Baha’i Gardens. “A queer cry for freedom,” they chanted. Courageous and beautiful, the demonstration, which… »
The state of LGBTQ+ rights in India: An interview with Supreme Court Advocate Saurabh Kirpal
“There is, however, a very long way to go” On September 6, 2018, India’s Supreme Court ruled that consensual homosexual acts would no longer constitute a crime. The historic move reversed Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which was a legacy from British colonial rule. The change… »
LGBTQ+ community and politicians salute Montenegro’s new law on same-sex partnerships
Activists cautioned that the law must now be put into practice Montenegro’s parliament has adopted a law on life partnership for same-sex couples, making Montenegro the first country in the Western Balkans to legally recognize same-sex marriage. The law passed on July 1 does not… »
Conversation with Jaime Manrique
By Jhon Sánchez Jaime Manrique lives around the corner of the AIDS monument in the West Village. As soon as I entered his apartment, I saw the poster of the book-cover of “No One Writes to the Colonel” by Gabriel García Márquez, illustrated with a large fighting cock. Isabela, an Australian cockatiel greeted me with a… »
Queer Liberation March in New York City
On June 30, tens of thousands joined the Queer Liberation March in New York City, organized by a coalition of activist groups to “reclaim pride.” According to the group’s mission statement, “We march in our communities’ tradition of resistance against police, state, and societal oppression, a tradition that is epitomized… »
Gay Pride and Nuclear Weapons
Bayard Rustin, the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, DC at which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr gave his Dream speech, traveled in the 1950’s with pacifist A.J. Muste to the Soviet Union to build the bridges that would help save the world from our mutually assured nuclear… »
On The Importance of Pride
By Patricia Smith June. LGBTQ Pride Month. For years, as a young teacher in Boston, I looked forward to Gay Pride Day (what we called it back then), celebrated in Boston on the first Saturday in June. I went in the early years with my very first girlfriend and I… »
Transgender Thoughts on the Occasion of Stonewall at Fifty
By Willa N. France These oppressive political times push the trans community, bodily, backwards. Of course, we have always moved ahead in protest. At Stonewall, “transvestites” (the term then used) of color led the riots, a fact often omitted telling the Stonewall “origin” story. Bodies have always been the site… »