23-year old Matúš Horváth and 26-year old Juraj Vankulič shot dead in Slovakia's capital city Bratislava on October 12 2022.
Gay Palestinian Ahmed Hacham Hamdi Abu Marakhia (25) beheaded in West Bank on October 25 2022.
A sharp Graham Norton on cancel culture and how smart it is to listen to celebrities instead of those actually involved.
Helped out as a steward at the recreation of the 1st Gay Pride 50 years ago. First duty was holding up signs while the famous veterans gave speeches. Then watching over the march participants a bit so nobody got run over.
2 dead and 21 injured. Oslo June 25 2022; Shooting at the London Pub, the largest gay and lesbian venue in Oslo.
Topical version of progress flag representing groups that are all having problems with Putin (although not in equal measure).
President Zelensky in 2019 when shutting down a homophobic heckler at a press conference: "Regarding LGBT: don't want to say anything negative because we all live in an open society where each one can choose the language they speak, their ethnicity and sexual orientation. Leave those people finally at peace, for God's sake!"
Maxim Potapovich, an organiser of Kyiv Pride points out: "We love our country. We fight every day for freedom, for freedom without Russia, and for queer people in Ukraine. The fight against Russia and the fight for freedom have a lot in common."
The Council of Europe, the organisation with 47 member states that was founded in 1949 to uphold human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in Europe, issued a report with a stark warning regarding a marked increase in hate speech, violence, and hate crime against LGBTI people, communities, and organisations and it mentions in particular Hungary, Poland, the Russian Federation, Turkey and the United Kingdom!
In the UK, there is a lot of fearmongering going on regarding reform of the 2004 Gender Recognition Act. I found
this document written by Unison informative and insightful. And related to this topic, this Instagram post puts forward some good points related to trans women participating in sports.
This 2021 report of the "Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau," a Dutch government institute, on the wellbeing of students aged 11 to 16 concludes the following.
In all of the areas of wellbeing examined in this report, lgb students scored significantly worse than heterosexual adolescents. ... They feel unhappy more than three times as often as heterosexual adolescents. lgb adolescents also report experiencing poorer health, report more psychosomatic complaints, and are around twice as likely to experience mental health issues than their heterosexual peers. As many as 42% of lgb adolescents reported suffering from mental health issues. ... In short, lgb adolescents are having a hard time in terms of health and wellbeing, and are doing worse than their peers.
On the whole, lgb adolescents experience poorer quality social relationships A safe social environment, both at home and at school, is important for adolescents. ... On the whole, lgb adolescents experience poorer quality social relationships than their heterosexual peers. This applies in particular to their relationships and level of support at home. The quality of the relationship with their parents reported by lgb adolescents was worse than that reported by their heterosexual peers.
I highly recommend this book of former LSE student Peter Staley, who started out in finance but became a courageous influential AIDS and gay rights activist.
