Lesbian's Muslim Dad Inspires With Example of Love, Acceptance

A new video challenges the idea that Islam and tolerance are incompatible. Although ultra-orthodox, extremely conservative sects of Islam dominate today's news, recently there has been a short string of headlines that reveal examples of more progressive, more tolerant practice of the one of the world's largest religions. 

The progressive values that MPV champions include gender equality, LGBT rights, freedom of expression, and freedom of (or from) belief. According to Muslims for Progressive Values founder, Ani Zonneveld, who is straight, those ideas are not new to Islam. There have long been female scholars, artists and singers in Islamic tradition, she says, and antigay laws in modern Muslim states are the legacy of British colonization.  Read More

Being gay in China: Does the rainbow flag fly free?

In this narrow Beijing hutong, the rainbow flag flies free. I'm in Two Cities Cafe, a popular meeting place for the local gay community. Here, I meet with some of the country's leading LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) advocates to learn about gay identity in China.

Unlike their counterparts in the West, China's LGBT community does not have to face down strident political opposition or right-wing religious uproar. For them, the biggest source of pressure comes from the family, brought on in part by China's one-child policy. Read More

How The Father Of Soviet Pornography Became A Crusader Against “Gay Propaganda”

The story of Vladimir Linderman's transformation from anti-Kremlin sexual radical to moralist crusader who many Latvians suspect of being a Kremlin agent isn’t really about how Linderman changed his mind about homosexuality. Rather, he says his story is about how many people living in the former Soviet Union went from being desperate to escape Moscow’s rule to yearning for its patronage. It is also a tale of how Putin used that desire to co-opt some of his most committed enemies and convince many living in the former Communist world that what once seemed so exciting about the West is now what is most terrifying about it.

“I was the father of the sexual revolution, and now I’m becoming the father of the sexual counterrevolution.” Read More

Study: The world is becoming a better place to be gay

Social researchers at NORC at the University of Chicago and the LGBT think-tank Williams Institute at UCLA said acceptance has grown by an average of 0.9% annually by nation.

'This study shows a clear trend toward increasing acceptance across the globe,' Andrew Park, director of International Programs at the Williams Institute, said.
Researchers studied hundreds of surveys on attitudes toward gay men and lesbians in up to 52 countries since 1981.  Read More 

Thailand launches world's first transgender modeling agency

A Thai modeling agency has launched the first transgender model division in the world.

The Bangkok-based Apple Modeling Agency announced the division on Tuesday (11 November) and has 18 transgender girls on its books. Apple is one of the leading and largest modeling agencies in the southeast Asian country. Read More

Choir stages singalong, 'Safe to Sing,' on Manchester trams after homophobic attack

A lesbian and gay choir staged a mass singalong on Manchester’s tram network after homophobic thugs attacked two young gay men who were singing songs from the musical Wicked on a night out.

The event – entitled Safe to Sing – started with about 80 singers boarding trams in the city centre on Monday evening to belt out tunes including Somewhere, from West Side Story, and Petula Clark’s Downtown – with the main refrain changed to “Canal Street”, the heart of Manchester’s gay village. Read More

Cook Islands Queen: criminalising gays 'unfair'

The' queen of the Cook Islands,' Takitumu paramount chief Marie Pa Ariki says it is unfair and unjust for gay people to be treated as criminals due to who they love and how they express that love.

The Cook Islands is one of several Pacific nations which still criminalise same-sex relations between men and offer no human rights protections to those who are widely ostracised for not being born heterosexual. Pa Ariki stated: "[Gay] people are knowledgeable and contribute to society and to home life," she says. "They are human like everyone else... we are all whanau." Read More 

60% of Hong Kong backs anti-discrimination laws

Six in ten Hong Kong people support legal protections for LGBTI people, according to a new report. The paper, published by the Centre for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), comes two weeks after a three-month public consultation on the city's anti-discrimination laws.  Read More
 

Young LGBT People in Kenya Fight the Odds & Make Life Better for Peers

A lot of work remains to be done before LGBTs in Kisumu and in the rest of Kenya are fully accepted. Yet, with relatively few means, a young organisation like Men Against AIDS Youth Group (MAAYGO) has created a safe environment where LGBTs can talk openly about their sexuality and safe sex and where they can just simply be themselves for a moment without having to worry about what others might think of them.

 'At some point, my friends were dying one after another', says Kennedy, one of the founding members. 'No one dared to admit they were suffering from HIV/AIDS. They all pretended it was malaria or tuberculosis. As a result of this shame and denial, the disease spread only further.'  Read More

Activist Chalwe Charles Mwansa on LGBT activism in Zambia

While lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in some sections of the world have progressed in recent years, equality remains elusive in other parts of the world, such as Zambia. The paramount issue on the table, with regard to LGBT rights, is how we create an African-centered dialogue that tackles the social and political issues that currently drives homophobia across the continent.  Read More

South Africa: Gay rights in the classroom

Several South African women have been murdered for being lesbian, in most African countries you're a criminal if you're gay, and in Sudan and Mauritania you can be put to death for homosexuality. Meanwhile the University of Western Cape graduated its first students from the continent's first course on sexual orientation and the role of educators in dealing with sexual orientation issues in the classroom.  Read More