LGBT News

On Top Magazine reports: Tens of thousands of activists on Saturday joined a protest in Santiago, Chile to demand passage of laws that would extend marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples and protect transgender people. According to organizer the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh), 100,000 people attended the protest. Demonstrators marched from Plaza Italia to Plaza Los …

The Daily Mail reports: Two British men are among at least 22 people who were injured when a nightclub dancefloor collapsed in Tenerife. Revellers in the Playa de las Americas area plunged 10ft into the basement of the popular gay bar Butterfly Disco Pub when the dance floor collapsed. All of the victims, who are aged between 20 and 60, …

Agence France-Presse reports: Rainbow flags flowed through the streets of Hong Kong Saturday during the city’s annual pride parade, as LGBT activists criticised authorities for lagging behind on equal rights. This year Hong Kong was picked as the first Asian city to host the Gay Games, while a landmark court decision granted a British lesbian the right to live and …

Gay Star News reports: Chile will finally begin the important steps of debating marriage equality on Monday (27 November). President Michelle Bachelet introduced the bill on 28 August, intending to modify the language to open up marriage to same-sex couples. The Senate Constitution Committee has requested several organizations, from LGBTI groups to religious leaders, to come forward and make their …

The New York Times reports: The European Union’s highest court began examining a case on Tuesday over a Romanian man’s attempts to get legal residency for his American husband, a closely watched hearing that will have major implications for the legal recognition of same-sex relationships across Europe. The case, legal experts say, could determine whether same-sex partners are afforded some …

Reuters reports: Hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Russia have doubled in five years, researchers said on Tuesday, in the wake of a law banning “gay propaganda”. Murders accounted for almost 200 out of 250 crimes analyzed, the Center for Independent Social Research said, attributing the surge to Russia’s 2013 ban on the spreading of …

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: Eliminating any question on whether the administration would allow court orders against President Trump’s transgender military ban to stand, the U.S. Justice Department late Tuesday appealed one decision to a federal appeals court. The appeal came on the same day a federal court in Maryland issued a preliminary injunction against Trump’s transgender military …

Via State Department press release: On Transgender Day of Remembrance, the United States honors the memory of the many transgender individuals who have lost their lives to acts of violence. Transgender individuals and their advocates, along with lesbian, gay, bisexual and intersex persons, are facing increasing physical attacks and arbitrary arrests in many parts of the world. Often these attacks …

Australia’s News Corp outlet reports: A Sydney lawyer has offered his pro-bono support to a straight couple who said they would divorce if Australia legislated for same-sex marriage. Michael Tiyce, from Sydney family law firm Tiyce & Lawyers, told news.com.au he wanted to help Canberra couple Nick and Sarah Jensen keep their promise to Australia, “because, quite simply, they are …

The Washington Post reports: Taiwan could soon become the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, while Hong Kong this month won its bid to host the Gay Games in 2022, another Asian first. But in mainland China, LGBT people are still being subjected to forced confinement, medication and even electric shock therapy to “convert” them into heterosexuals. The …

The New York Times reports: A solid majority of Australians voted in favor of same-sex marriage in a historic survey that, while not binding, paves the way for Parliament to legally recognize the unions of gay and lesbian couples. Of 12.7 million Australians who took part in the survey, 61.6 percent voted yes and 38.4 percent voted no, officials announced …

Moments after the survey result was announced, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appeared before national cameras and vowed his intention to get a same-sex marriage bill through Parliament by Christmas. Watch below. Earlier today, Turnbull denounced right wing plans to laden the bill with “religious liberty” amendments which would legalize anti-LGBT discrimination by wedding-related businesses. According to Turnbull, such amendments …

The highly-anticipated result of Australia’s non-compulsory postal survey on same-sex marriage will be announced at 6PM New York City time, which is 10AM tomorrow in Sydney. Australia’s News Corp outlet reports: The man with the golden envelope, containing the final tally, will be Australian Statistician David W. Kalisch. Ahead of the public announcement, Mr Kalisch will inform Finance Minister Mathias …

The Guardian reports: The government “would not countenance” legalising discrimination against same-sex weddings and a bill to do so would have “virtually no prospect” of passing parliament, Malcolm Turnbull has said in an extraordinary rebuke of conservatives demanding the rollback of anti-discrimination laws. As conservative Coalition MPs and senators rallied around the same-sex marriage bill released on Monday by Liberal …

Australia’s News Corp outlet reports: He is the global trotting, career public servant with an eye-watering pay packet who tries to fly under the radar. But on Wednesday morning, at the dot of 10, all eyes will be on Australia’s numbers man-in-chief, David W. Kalisch. Grandly titled the “Australian Statistician”, Mr Kalisch heads the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and …

The New York Times reports: Liz Smith, the longtime queen of New York’s tabloid gossip columns, who for more than three decades chronicled little triumphs and trespasses in the soap-opera lives of the rich, the famous and the merely beautiful, died on Sunday at her home in Manhattan. She was 94. Her friend and literary agent, Joni Evans, confirmed her …

The Philly Voice reports: The beating of a gay couple three years ago in Center City, which resulted in the high-profile trial of defendant Kathryn Knott, settled a civil suit against their attackers this week. Andrew Haught and Zachary Hesse sought more than $500,000 against Knott, Kevin Harrigan and Philip Williams in an assault and battery lawsuit filed in May …

The Colorado Times reports: A conservative rabbi speaking at Wednesday’s Religious Freedom rally on behalf of baker Jack Phillips called same-sex couples “an abomination” and justified discrimination against them by comparing them to space aliens who “aren’t human beings.” The rabbi is with the Coalition For Jewish Values. Here’s a bit of the transcript from his speech:  Let’s imagine E.T. …

Bloomberg reports: The Human Rights Campaign has taken the rare step of suspending Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s perfect score for LGBT corporate equality after two federal complaints alleged the world’s largest retailer hadn’t protected transgender employees from discrimination. Wal-Mart received its first-ever perfect score last year after it agreed to add new policies favorable to transgender workers. The suspension of the …

The Guardian reports: Almost half of Australians believe service providers should have the right to refuse same-sex weddings on the basis of their religious views, a poll has found. The Lonergan Research poll of 971 people found that 49% believed that service providers who refused same-sex weddings based on their religious views should be protected by law, compared with 35% …