The committee that is organizing the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo has declined to say whether Japanese lawmakers’ anti-LGBTQ comments violated the Olympic Charter’s nondiscrimination clause. Mainichi, a Japanese newspaper, reported members of Japan’s ruling Liberal [...]
The International AIDS Society has announced the 2022 International AIDS Conference will take place in-person in Montreal. The conference, which will also feature virtual events, is scheduled to take place from July 29 through Aug. [...]
State Department spokesperson Ned Price on May 14 said the decriminalization of consensual same-sex sexual relations is one of the five priorities for the Biden administration in its efforts to promote LGBTQ+ rights abroad. “The [...]
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he will once again allow U.S. diplomatic installations to fly the Pride flag. The New York Times and Foreign Policy reported they obtained a cable from Blinken that announced the policy. The [...]
A referendum on the extension of marriage rights to same-sex couples in Switzerland is likely to take place later this year. Lawmakers in the European country last December approved the “Marriage for All” bill. Mannschaft, a Swiss LGBTQ [...]
The European Union has sanctioned two Chechnya officials over their role in an anti-LGBTQ+ crackdown. The sanctions — published in the EU Official Journal on Monday — apply to Deputy Chechen Prime Minister Abuzaid Vismuradov and Aiub [...]
By Michael K. Lavers and Victor Maung LGBTQ activists in Myanmar have joined the growing protest movement against the Feb. 1 coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi and her democratically elected government. Min Khant [...]
The State Department has expressed concern over the fate of two brothers from Chechnya who were arrested in Russia and returned to their homeland from which they fled. “We are troubled by reports of two [...]
President Biden on Jan. 28 axed the so-called global gag rule, a Reagan-era order that restricts U.S. funding and assistance to overseas organizations that offered abortions. Also known as the Protecting Life in Global Health [...]
A prominent transgender activist in Colombia died on Saturday. Laura Weinstein, director of Fundación Grupo de Acción y Apoyo a Personas Trans (GAAT), a trans rights group based in the Colombian capital of Bogotá, passed [...]
ILGA World, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, has released a new update to its report on state-sponsored homophobia. The update, released in December and titled There’s Progress In Times of Uncertainty, [...]
By Philip Van Slooten Switzerland’s Federal Assembly on Friday will vote on a marriage equality bill that passed in both chambers on Dec. 9. The Swiss Green Liberal Party first introduced the “Marriage for All” [...]
Lawmakers in Bhutan on Thursday voted to amend portions of the country’s Penal Code that have been used to criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. An OutRight Action International press release says Articles 213 and 214 [...]
An LGBTQ activist in Puerto Rico regained access to his verified and personal Facebook pages on Wednesday after being banned for more than two months. Pedro Julio Serrano was unable to access his Facebook pages [...]
This morning, a number of media outlets reported that during a documentary interview Pope Francis expressed support for civil union laws for same-sex couples to ensure that they are “legally covered.” DignityUSA, the organization of [...]
The president of the Philippines on Monday pardoned a U.S. Marine who was convicted of killing a transgender woman. The Philippine Star newspaper reported prosecutors’ attempts to block Lance Cpl. Joseph Pemberton’s early release from prison prompted [...]
Officials with Gay Games Hong Kong 2022, the committee organizing the quadrennial international LGBTQ sports event scheduled to take place in Hong Kong in November 2022, announced at an online webinar on Aug. 27 that [...]
The arrest of a non-binary person on Aug. 7 underscores the growing crackdown against LGBTQ activists in Poland. Margot Szutowicz, who uses female pronouns, and nearly 50 others were arrested in Warsaw, the country’s capital, [...]
The State Department on Monday announced the president of Chechnya can no longer travel to the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement noted the State Department is “publicly designating” Ramzan Kadyrov under [...]
Sudan has repealed a provision of its Penal Code that imposed the death penalty upon anyone found guilty of engaging in consensual same-sex sexual relations. Article 148 of the Sudanese Penal Code from 1991 said anyone who [...]
The U.N. Human Rights Council on Wednesday held a virtual panel on the call for a global conversion therapy ban. The event was comprised of several advocates and experts on the topic, including Victor Madrigal-Borloz, [...]
Actor Billy Porter is among those who participated in the first-ever global Black Pride event that took place on July 10. Global Black Gay Men Connect organized the 12-hour virtual event — the First Global [...]
The anti-LGBTQ president of Poland won reelection on Sunday. The Associated Press reported Andrzej Duda defeated Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski by a 51.2-48.8 percent margin. The two men ran against each other in a runoff because they [...]
The U.N. on Wednesday formally called for a ban on so-called conversion therapy. Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the independent U.N. expert on LGBTQ issues, compiled 130 submissions on practices and testimonies of victims who have experienced conversion [...]
Gabon on Tuesday decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations, becoming one of the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa to legalize them. The Gabonese Senate on June 29 approved a bill to repeal a 2019 law that [...]
More than 40 people were arrested in Moscow on June 27 for protesting against the arrest of an LGBTQ activist who is accused of spreading “gay propaganda” on her social media page and distributing pornography. Yulia Tsvetkova, [...]
Now in its 20th year, World Refugee Day is an internationally recognized observance designed to call attention to the status of refugees and people seeking asylum across the planet. And as difficult as the process [...]
An LGBTQ rights activist from Egypt who was arrested for raising a rainbow flag during a 2017 concert died by suicide on Sunday. Al-Jazeera reports Sara Hegazy, 30, died at her home in Canada. Egyptian authorities in [...]
Costa Rica on Tuesday became the first country in Central America to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples. Two women became the first same-sex couple to legally marry in Costa Rica when they tied the [...]
The family of a transgender woman with HIV who died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2018 has filed a federal lawsuit against five private companies that were responsible for her care. The Transgender Law [...]
A group of activists in South Korea have formed a task force to fight anti-LGBTQ discrimination related to the coronavirus pandemic. Sung-Uk So on Thursday told the Washington Blade in an email that seven LGBTQ [...]
Dozens of activists and advocacy groups have sharply criticized the government of Puerto Rico over its response to the murders of several LGBTQ people on the island. Pedro Julio Serrano, founder of Puerto Rico Para [...]
As the world continues to learn more about coronavirus and its spread, it's vital to stay up-to-date on the latest developments. However, it's also important to make sure that the information being distributed is from [...]
The risk of people with HIV who are receiving standard of care treatment to control their HIV is not significantly greater than the general public for contracting or becoming seriously ill from the Coronavirus, according [...]
Lawmakers in Canada on Monday introduced a bill that would ban so-called conversion therapy in the country. Attorney General David Lametti and Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth Bardish Chagger introduced the measure that [...]
Voters in Switzerland on Sunday overwhelmingly approved a bill that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation. Swiss lawmakers in 2018 approved the bill, which added sexual orientation to the country’s nondiscrimination law. The Associated Press reported the [...]
The U.S. ambassador to Zambia has sharply criticized the sentencing of two men to 15 years in prison under the country’s colonial-era sodomy law. “I was personally horrified to read yesterday about the sentencing of [...]
In a surprise move, President Trump included in his speech before the United Nations on Tuesday his administration’s global initiative to decriminalize homosexuality in the more than 70 countries where it remains illegal. “My administration [...]
Picking out an outfit for the day can be a highlight, a dreaded ritual, or a dealt-with-and-forgotten routine. Whatever one’s relationship with clothes, however, that morning decision is a necessity. And perhaps the last thing [...]
LGBTI people in four Caribbean countries over the last year have filed lawsuits against their nations’ colonial-era sodomy laws. Javin Johnson and Sean Macleish on July 26 filed a lawsuit against two laws in [...]
VALPARAÍSO, Chile —The Chilean Senate’s Constitution Committee on Tuesday once again began to debate an equal marriage bill that former President Michelle Bachelet introduced two years ago. The renewed legislative debate was announced last week, [...]
A prominent Russian LGBTI activist was found dead in St. Petersburg on Sunday, according to activists and local media. The woman, Yelena Gregoryeva, 41, was an outspoken and prominent activist in the city. Authorities on [...]
Two LGBTI Bruneians with whom the Washington Blade spoke on Saturday said their country’s new penal code that calls for the death penalty for anyone convicted of same-sex sexual relations continues to spark fear. A [...]
The State Department on Tuesday said Brunei’s decision to implement provisions of its new penal code that would impose the death penalty against anyone found guilty of engaging in homosexuality “runs counter to its international [...]
The chief justice of the Cayman Islands Grand Court on March 29 ruled same-sex couples can legally marry in the British territory. Chief Justice Anthony Smellie issued his ruling in the case of Chantelle Day [...]
LGBTI advocacy groups around the world have condemned Friday’s terrorist attack at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that have left at least 49 people dead. Express, an LGBTI newspaper in Auckland, reported organizers of the Wellington [...]
SANTA CLARA, Cuba — The LGBTI+ community remains divided after the National Assembly modified the marriage amendment in the draft of the new constitution. Part of it defends the yes vote and supports the official campaign, while another group says it will vote against the constitution.
No. 10: Kim Davis-backed Romania marriage referendum fails A referendum on whether to define marriage as between a man and a woman in the Romanian constitution’s definition of family failed in October because of insufficient voter turnout. [...]
The government of Bermuda has asked a British territories appellate court to overturn a ruling against a law that rescinded marriage rights for same-sex couples. The appeal was filed in the Privy Council in London [...]
A referendum on whether same-sex couples should receive marriage rights in Taiwan failed on Saturday. Voters by a 67-33 percent margin rejected a question on whether same-sex couples should receive marriage rights through Taiwan’s civil [...]
