Come kick off the Pride season with FreeState Justice at the Sunset Soirée, a night of dinner and dancing on Friday, May 12th, from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. The Sunset Soirée will be hosted at the museum’s Jim Rouse Visionary Center on the third floor and consists of two events: a dinner and cocktail hour at 6:00 p.m., and a soirée starting at 8:00 p.m. Purchase of a dinner ticket comes with access to the soirée; however, soirée tickets can be purchased separately. The night is sure to be an amazing […]
Uganda’s horrible anti-gay law will devastate HIV care
Kampala, Uganda – Amy Fallon writes in Global Health that the new anti-gay bill in Uganda, labeled as “among the worst in the world” by the United Nations would “devastate” the HIV response in the east African country, activists warn. The Anti-Homosexuality Act, which was passed by the nation’s Parliament on March 21st, prescribes life imprisonment for homosexual acts and the death penalty for “aggravated offences” such as those involving minors or people with disabilities. The bill also includes a duty to report same-sex acts and imposes up to six months in prison for the failure to do so. Activists […]
US Right Wing activists support Uganda’s ‘Kill the Gays’ bill
San Francisco – Greg Owen writes in LGBTQ Nation that a remarkable collection of well-known U.S. conservatives are openly supporting Uganda’s latest “Kill the Gays” law, claiming LGBTQ+ rights in Africa are just another form of “neo-colonialism.” Media Matters reports the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh mocked those condemning the draconian legislation passed by Uganda’s Assembly in March as “cultural colonialists” whining over “protecting so-called LGBTQ rights” and claimed opponents of the bill “don’t think that Uganda has any particular right to govern itself and have its own culture and its own way of life.” (See also: Matt Walsh: Transphobe of […]
North Dakota wages war on LGBTQ+ communities
Bismarck – Emily Chudy writes for PinkNews that North Dakota legislators have been widely criticized for passing a record-setting ten anti-LGBTQ+ bills in one day. The state senate passed all ten bills on April 3rd, with eight now headed to the desk of North Dakota’s Republican governor Doug Burgum, where they will either be signed into law or vetoed. Two have been returned to the state’s House of Representatives after having amendments added. The raft of horrifying legislation includes bans on trans students joining sports teams that match their gender identity, sweeping bans on gender-affirming healthcare for young people, and […]
Church holding drag event firebombed, but little damage
Chesterland, Ohio – Chanetlle Billson reports for PinkNews that police were called at around 1:00 p.m. on March 25 to a report of arson at the Community Church of Chesterland, where a Drag Queen Story Time event was due to take place. Officers found a crude, home-made Molotov cocktail bomb had hit the church, resulting in damage, along with minor scorching to the exterior. A sign had also been vandalized. The attack came as the church planned to hold the drag event, hosted by marketing and communications company The Fairmount Group. President and chief executive of The Fairmount Group, Mallory […]
Russia arrests couple for violating gay propaganda law
Kazan, Russia – Daniel Villarreal reports in LGBTQ Nation that on March 5th, authorities in the southwestern city of Kazan approached 21-year-old Chinese national Haoyang Xu after he and his partner, 23-year-old Russian native Gela Gogishvili, had finished visiting a museum with friends, Newsweek reported. Authorities asked Xu for his passport and student visa. He didn’t have them on him. After accompanying the couple to retrieve the documents, officers took them to the Yapeyeva police station and informed them that they had broken the propaganda law. The officers allegedly forbade the couple from speaking to lawyers and tried to make […]
Florida Board of Education Slammed for Don’t Say LGBTQ+ Expansion
Tallahassee – On April 19th, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Equality Florida, joined teachers, parents, and students in slamming Florida’s Board of Education for voting to expand Gov. Ron DeSantis’s shameful “Don’t Say LGBTQ+” bill to all grades. At a roundtable event in Tallahassee, they also spoke out against the Florida legislature’s unprecedented efforts to advance a slate of hateful anti-LGBTQ+ bills and proposals attacking the LGBTQ+ community. The rights of millions of Floridians are being rolled back by Gov. DeSantis and his allies who – to pander to the most extreme fringes of their base – have proposed […]
Iranian LGBTQ+ activist released after receiving death sentence
London – Amelia Hansford reports for Pink News that Elham Choubdar, one of two women sentenced to death on charges of “promoting homosexuality”, has been released from custody in Iran. The LGBTQ+ activist was released on Monday, March 13th after her bail of one billion rial (approximately £19,500) was paid. She was arrested in 2021 alongside Sareh Sedighi-Hamadani on charges of “corruption on Earth” for “promoting homosexuality” and “depravity”. They were also charged with “promoting Christianity” and of “communicating with the media opposing the Islamic Republic”. It was reported by Amnesty International in January that Iran had overturned the death […]
Growing Attacks On Transgender Medical Care
Bills to ban best-practice medical care for transgender people are growing in number, growing in scope, and growing more extreme, according to a report released today by the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), entitled “Bans on Medical Care for Transgender People.” The report looks at the sweeping attempts to ban and restrict medical care for not only transgender youth – but also transgender adults. Just last week, Missouri became the first state to effectively ban medically necessary care for both youth and adults. MAP analyzed the more than 250 bills introduced in recent years that attack access to medical care for […]
Edgar Allen Poe comes home to Baltimore and it’s Not a Midnight Dreary
In 2006, the musical Nevermore, with music by Matt Conner and book by Grace Barnes featuring lyrics adapted from the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, made its live theatre debut. In northern Virginia. What’s wrong with this story? Ask any Baltimorean – Poe is ours. Yet somehow the musical ran in Virginia, England, and even Australia. Never Baltimore. After a 16-year wait, Stillpointe Theatre is to thank for Nevermore’s Baltimore debut. Director Ryan Haase, along with the talented cast and crew, have delivered a cryptic and immersive experience to finish their 13th season. Nevermore isn’t a full biography, but an […]