A 24-year-old woman from Novosibirsk, Tamara Sobolevskaya, was forced into providing sexual services at a massage parlor after facing personal and financial crises, including some time in a religious sect as a lesbian, socialisation to conform to male needs and rape at the hands of her ex husband.
In response to her trauma, newly understood sexuality and the difficult situation she was in, Tamara started using drugs as a coping mechanism. To financially survive, she started work at the massage parlour. There Tamara endured daily exploitation and assault, explaning to Om1.ru that there was no safety or protection for the women.
After three months, Tamara managed to escape and is now sharing her story to shed light on the hidden realities of the sex trade.
Kalaya Morton, 19, of Phoenix, says she and her ex-girlfriend were using adjacent stalls in the store’s women’s restroom when two male sheriff’s deputies entered. “They were flashing lights on our feet and saying, ‘You have to get out of here. You have to come out. We need to talk to you,’” Morton told Advocate.
Morton, who identifies as a stud — queer slang for a Black masculine-presenting lesbian — says she believes a store employee who had been eyeing her earlier reported her to the cops believing she was a man. As the Advocate notes, Arizona law does not dictate that people use public restrooms that correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth.
In social media videos and in her interview with the outlet, Morton said that when she exited the bathroom stall, she lifted her shirt to prove to the deputies that she was a woman. But, she said, one of the deputies continued to insist she “looked like a man.”
On February 19, Morton posted a brief video of the encounter, showing the two deputies in the women’s bathroom. “They came in here in the girls’ restroom because I’m a girl and they didn’t think I was a girl, so they tried to come take me away,” Morton can be heard saying off camera.
Russians Ekaterina Nenakhova (30) and Olga Osipova (25) say they were never able to live their relationship freely in their home country. It was only when they landed in Brazil two months ago that the writers began to lose their fear of showing their love in public. The two tell Marie Claire how becoming viral on Brazilian TikTok gave them the courage to emigrate for good.
The couple met in 2021 and soon began dating. “It’s a classic ‘dyke’ story,” jokes Ekaterina, who participated in an LGBT story contest in which Olga was a judge. “I knew who it was because she [Ekaterina] was very popular in the queer community, she even had a YouTube channel. I read the text anonymously so as not to influence the process. But even so, I realized it was hers. It was the only one that talked about the body, about safety, about being who you are,” reveals her partner.
Olguinha, as her girlfriend calls her, took the initiative by sending a message to the writer right after the contest. The flirtation worked and, about two months later, they were already living together. However, the simple fact of being in love became a constant challenge under the country’s laws.
Since 2013, there has been a law in Russia that prohibits “propaganda” that could promote “non-traditional sexual relationships and/or preferences,” under the justification of protecting “traditional values.” “ What happened when we met was that all LGBT activities, for example, were restricted to adults. There were even gay clubs in Moscow, which were more restricted, but they existed,” says Ekaterina.
With the war in Ukraine, repression has intensified: President Vladimir Putin signed a package of laws that further tightened control over the country’s LGBT population. The new legislation prohibits the dissemination of any act or information that the government considers to be “promotion of homosexuality”, whether in public spaces, films or online platforms.
“The climate was already dangerous, but it got a lot worse. Even back then, we never kissed in the street, but now it’s even worse. Before, there were some initiatives, I had my own channel, then I did a podcast with a friend about the queer community , and we had to put up warnings saying that it was for adults only,” the writer recalls.
After the new law, any form of expression became “impossible” for them. “A flag or a symbol cannot be displayed in Russia. Even something as simple as a cake with a rainbow on it can be seen as ‘propaganda’. In the last year of our life in Russia, we basically lived in constant fear.”
Nguyen Xuan Truong (b. 1991) has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for (attempted) murder of Ms. Nhung (b. 1992). Truong and Ms Nhung were married in 2015 and had 3 children together, before divorcing in March 2024.
Truong suspected that Ms Nhung was in a lesbian relationship with Ms Trang (b. 1999) and that this relationhsip was the reason for their divorce.
In April 2024, Truong plotted to assault Ms Nhung and Ms Trang, buying a knife on April 8. On April 12 Truong borrowed Ms Nhung’s car and took their children to see their grandparents in his home town, packing the knife he had bought 4 days earlier. Returning on April 14, Truong was speaking to the two women while the children were taken to a nearby playground. Reportedly angry with the 2 women, Truong chased down and stabbed Ms Nhung and Ms Trang, both of whom attempted to defend themselves with pepper spray.
Once bystanders intervened to stop the attack, Truong left the scene and the victims were taken to hospital. He later handed himself in to police and confessed to his crime.
In April 2023, a 35 year old father in Laloubère (Hautes-Pyrénées) seriously assaulted his 14 year old daughter on discovering that she was attracted to girls. The man seriously assaulted her, verbally abused her, and made her fear rape if she did not renounce her sexuality. She was also made to write a letter of apology.
Having minimised his violence and abuse, on 19 March 2025, the Tarbes Criminal Court sentenced the man to 8 months in prison with probation. He must receive treatment and complete a parenting course.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — After a years long battle in court, a federal jury ruled Friday in favor of a former Providence firefighter who sued the city for denying her accidental disability benefits, awarding $1.75 million in compensatory damages.
The jury in U.S. District Court also ruled that city officials retaliated against Lori Franchina when they denied those benefits, because she filed a gender discrimination and retaliation lawsuit in 2012, which she won in 2016.
Franchina previously said she was targeted because she’s a woman and a lesbian, and moved up the ranks of the department quickly. She said she endured years of harassment, lewd nicknames, insubordination and discrimination.
Franchina was initially awarded $806,000 in the 2016 lawsuit, a decision that the city appealed and lost two years later.
Court documents show that in April 2013, the city applied for Franchina to be “involuntarily retired” with ordinary disability benefits instead of with accidental disability benefits, “despite previously rejecting her retirement application entirely just two years earlier.”
Ferrara, April 14, 2025 – Bullied at 16 by classmates because of her sexuality, to the point that her parents were forced to withdraw her from school.
The girl was enrolled in a high school in the province of Ferrara. Her mother is saddened to have been forced to make such a difficult choice: “This is the only way I can protect her . It will be a sacrifice but she will finish the three-year period in another school, in another province. “
It all started at the beginning of the school year, with the choice of a new major for the three-year period of high school. “There are six or seven people who have targeted her , and she can’t take it anymore “, explains the mother of the girl who was the victim of homophobic insults. “It’s mostly the girls who are mean to her, not a day goes by without being teased or humiliated: epithets, notes, laughter behind her back”.
Original:
Ferrara, 14 aprile 2025 – Bullizzata a 16 anni da compagne e compagni di classe per via del suo orientamento sessuale, al punto che i genitori sono stati costretti a ritirarla da scuola.
La ragazzina era iscritta in un istituto superiore della provincia di Ferrara. La mamma è desolata di essere stata costretta a una scelta così difficile: “Solo così posso proteggerla. Sarà un sacrificio ma finirà il triennio in un’altra scuola, in un’altra provincia”.
Tutto è cominciato all’inizio dell’anno scolastico, con la scelta del nuovo indirizzo per il triennio delle scuole superiori. “Ci sono sei o sette soggetti – spiega la madre della ragazza vittima di insulti omofobi – che l’hanno presa di mira, e lei non ce la fa più. Sono soprattutto le ragazze a essere cattive con lei, non passa giorno senza una presa in giro o un’umiliazione: epiteti, bigliettini, risate dietro le spalle”.
An Albanian lesbian couple have won an asylum claim to stay in Britain after successfully arguing that people in their home country are homophobic. Lawyers representing the women, who said they had been targeted after being spotted kissing on the street, said that although being gay was no longer illegal in the Balkan state the “populace” of the country is still “patriarchal, conservative and male-dominated”.
The Home Office argued that what happened to the women in their home towns should “not be a reflection of what the whole of Albania looks like” as even in “tolerant” countries like the UK, there are hate crimes. But this argument was rejected by a judge who has now ruled the women can stay on human rights grounds, as they are “at risk of potential discrimination” if they go back. … The upper immigration tribunal heard that the lesbian couple were also considered trafficking victims because they had been “abducted by masked men in their home town, sexually assaulted by multiple men and subjected to physical and verbal abuse on account of their sexual orientation”. The women said that this happened after they were “observed kissing by their traffickers which resulted in them being captured and detained and assaulted”. Lawyers representing the couple said while their relationship “is not outlawed”, it is “the view of the populace that is important”. …
On March 26, German authorities attempted to deport an open lesbian to Russia, who had lived in Ukraine until 2022 but holds a Russian passport. Human rights activists managed to intercept the woman halfway to Russia, when she was waiting at a Moroccan airport to connect with a direct flight. In the end, she was allowed to leave for a third country. The Insider spoke with Anna (name changed) about how the deportation process unfolded — from the police coming to her apartment door to the attempted expulsion, which was stopped at the Moroccan airport.
“On March 18, I came to BAMF to apply for asylum on new grounds. But they didn’t accept it, saying that the first case was not yet completed and they would not accept it. And on March 25 at 6:30 in the morning, they were already standing at the door with deportation documents,” Anna says.
She filed her first asylum application in April 2022, stating that she lived in Ukraine but not stating that she was a lesbian, as there was no ban on LGBTQ+ in Russia at the time. This application was rejected in November 2024, but Anna appealed the decision.
“There were police and three other people at the door of our apartment – representatives of the Kreisverwaltung and BAMF. They took me to the police station to await the trial, scheduled for the same day.
And while we were sitting there, these three representatives were sitting on their phones, exchanging messages, laughing and looking at me. I felt incredibly uncomfortable. I realized that they were laughing at me. I asked completely normal questions: “What will happen next?”, “Why are we sitting here?”, “When will the plane leave?”, “How will all this happen?”. They answered very coldly and with disdain: “On Thursday. In the evening.”
An interview with Kangyu Garam, long time feminist documentary maker, on living as a lesbian in South Korea and Lucky Appartment, a film offering “a glimpse into the difficulties faced by lesbian couples in the land of the morning calm”.
“Unlike most lesbian films that focus on budding romances, you center your story around a well-established couple. Why this choice? It so happens that I have many older lesbian couples around me, and I thought it was essential to talk about their daily lives in this Korean system where nothing is adapted for them. From an administrative point of view, whether at the level of the State, insurance, banks, funerals, everything is difficult because these couples are very poorly recognized. I could only talk about these concerns by featuring a long-time couple. I also wanted to be able to talk about older couples by wondering if the country had done anything for them.”
“Same-sex marriage doesn’t exist in South Korea. What’s the status of LGBT rights? Things are moving slowly. Recently, there was a victory thanks to a gay man who had his partner recognized as a beneficiary of his social security insurance. Regarding marriage, in 2013, director Kim Jho Kwang-soo tried to have his relationship with producer Kim Seung-hwan recognized in court, but his case was rejected. More recently, about ten couples have taken the matter to court, but it will take a long time to obtain rulings. (Editor’s note: According to these couples, the Korean constitution does not specify that marriage must take place between two people of different sexes.) After the victory over health insurance, the very conservative Protestant party called for demonstrations and fiercely fought against this measure. These demonstrations attracted a lot of people, and politicians are sensitive to them and therefore never support homosexuals.”
Sidwell Lengatsa, a well-known Gauteng LGBTIQ+ activist, has denied allegations of assault following his arrest for allegedly attacking a lesbian.
In a statement, the organisation Vaal LGBTI accused Lengatsa—described as the founder of the Vuka People’s Rainbow Movement—of violently assaulting Phindile Mamaile on 8 March 2025.
“This act of aggression is not only an attack on an individual but also a stain on our community and a violation of the principles of dignity, respect, and equality that we strive to uphold,” stated Vaal LGBTI.
The organisation’s Executive Director, Azania Sengwayo, told MambaOnline that Mamaile—who is receiving counselling—suffered a broken rib due to the alleged assault.
Arrest and Alleged Intimidation MambaOnline understands that Lengatsa was arrested shortly after the incident, was charged with assault and was later released.
In its statement, Vaal LGBTI further alleged that Lengatsa has used his influence to intimidate and harass the survivor through his associates.
“This behaviour is an abhorrent display of power dynamics that seeks to silence victims and undermine the pursuit of justice,” the group claimed.
A lesbian former officer with the National City Police Department (NCPD) in Southern California has been awarded $10 million in damages over her lawsuit against the department for the harassment and discrimination that she endured there.
Ashley Cummins, who is now a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter who fights under the name “Smashley,” sued the police department in 2022 with allegations that she had to put up with harassment and discrimination from her coworkers for about a year as she worked in the department, both because she is gay and because she is a woman.
Her lawsuit, which was filed with the Superior Court of California in San Diego County, said, “Many of the male officers and supervisors indicated that if female officers wanted to fit in at NCPD, they either needed to be submissive to the male officers or sleep with them.”
A 58-year-old man was arrested in Rondonopolis (220 km from Cuiaba) on suspicion of sexual harassment of a 32-year-old lesbian, in the early hours of this Saturday (29 March 2025). He denies having ‘groomed’ the victim, and stated that she was completely drunk.
According to the police report, the Military Police were called at around 2 am by the victim’s wife. The woman reported that she left with her cousin and the suspect, passing by several establishments. During the journey, the man drank alcohol and his wife took over driving the vehicle.
More than six years after Brazilian councilwoman and Black LGBTQ activist Marielle Franco was murdered by former police officers Ronnie Lessa and Elcio Queiroz, in a murder suspected to have ties to drug trafficking, her killers were finally sentenced to 78 and 59 years in prison respectively on Thursday.
Anielle Franco, Marielle Franco’s sister, and Marielle’s widow Monica Benicio reacting to sentence Marielle and her driver, Anderson Gomes’s murderers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 31, 2024.
A Brazilian court on Thursday sentenced the two killers of iconic Black LGBTQ activist and councilwoman Marielle Franco to 78 and 59 years in jail, respectively, after a two-day trial over a crime that shocked the country.
Ronnie Lessa and Elcio Queiroz, two former military police officers, had confessed to killing the Rio de Janeiro politician and her driver Anderson Gomes in a drive-by shooting on March 14, 2018.
Lessa, who was sentenced to 78 years and nine months imprisonment, said he pulled the trigger. Queiroz, who drove the car, was sentenced to 59 years and eight months behind bars.
“Justice sometimes is slow to come… but it does come,” Judge Lucia Glioche said as she issued the sentence.
Franco’s assassination sent shockwaves through Brazil.
It cast a spotlight on the connections between police officers, powerful politicians and the militias that terrorize poor Rio communities, which Franco had denounced and who are suspected of ordering her assassination.
Congressman Chiquinho Brazao and his brother Domingos Brazao, an advisor with the state auditor, have been charged with masterminding the attack.
After the sentencing, Franco’s father Antônio da Silva Neto said his family would continue their fight for justice.
“It doesn’t end here because there were masterminds [of the crime]. The question we’re asking now is: when will the masterminds be convicted?”
Franco’s death at the age of 38 sparked nationwide protests
Life sentences do not exist under Brazilian law and each defendant is expected to serve a maximum of 30 years.
The two were ordered to pay together 706,000 reais (£93,000; $120,000) in damages to Franco’s mother, partner and daughter, and to Gomes’ wife.
They were also ordered to pay a pension to Gomes’ son Arthur until he is 24.
Chaves, who survived the shooting, told the court how the night unfolded and “completely changed” her life. Shortly after the attack, Chaves and her family fled the country and she was not able to attend Franco’s funeral or memorial service. She has since moved back to Brazil.
Speaking to court via video-link, she said those responsible for Franco’s murder would spend the rest of their lives hearing Franco’s name and seeing her “face in walls across the world”.
“They took Marielle from us, but they couldn’t take away what Marielle means”, she added.
In the context of March 7, Lesbian Awareness Day, Amnesty International warns about the brutality of violence against lesbians and LGBTI+ people, in a context marked by public statements from government figures that pathologize and stigmatize them based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression; and in which 140 hate crimes against the community were recorded in 2024 alone.
Amnesty International recently submitted submissions to the judicial case involving the attack on two lesbian couples in Barracas in May 2024. The brief underscores the State’s obligation to conduct a thorough, diligent, and impartial investigation to guarantee access to justice. Such an investigation must consider the context of structural discrimination in which the crime occurred and the existence of all elements that could indicate that the incident was linked to the victims’ gender and sexual orientation. In this sense, it is vitally important to consider the hypotheses of femicide and hate crimes from the first steps of the investigation, as indicated by international standards in cases of violence against women and LGBTI+ people.
Three of the female victims died after being burned alive while resting at a boarding house. The case is being heard before the 14th National Criminal and Correctional Court.
Inés Zarantonello and her partner, Analia Cóceres, reported being attacked by two neighbors who had previously used lesbophobic language. Although their attackers have already been prosecuted for serious bodily harm, they believe their lives were at risk and that the attack was premeditated, so it should at least be classified as “aggravated by gender-based hatred.”
“I can’t understand why they say they were minor injuries when he could have killed us,” says Inés Zarantonello (39), almost a month after she and her partner, Analia Cóceres (41), were attacked by two neighbors who had already used lesbophobic language. Miguel Yanes and Julián Yanes – father and son respectively – were detained for 48 hours after beating them and injuring them with a knife. Despite the restrictive measures, they cross paths with the two girls daily. They want to raise the profile of their case out of fear but also so that attacks on people from the LGTBIQNB+ community are not naturalized.
Original:
Inés Zarantonello y su pareja, Analia Cóceres relataron haber sido agredidas por dos vecinos que ya habían tenido expresiones lesboodiantes previamente. Si bien ya hay un pedido de elevación a juicio contra sus agresores, por lesiones graves, ellas consideran que su vida estuvo en riesgo, que la agresión fue premeditada, por lo que debería al menos caratularse con “agravante por odio de género”.
“No puedo entender que digan que fueron lesiones leves cuando nos podría haber matado”, dice Inés Zarantonello (39) a casi un mes de que ella y su pareja, Analia Cóceres (41), fueran agredidas por dos vecinos que ya habían tenido expresiones lesboodiantes. Miguel Yanes y julián Yanes -padre e hijo respectivamente- estuvieron 48 horas detenidos después de golpearlas y herirlas con un arma blanca, a pesar de las medidas restrictivas se cruzan cotidianamente con las dos chicas, quieren hacer visible el caso por miedo pero también para que las agresiones a personas de la comunidad LGTBIQNB+ no sean naturalizadas.
The Taliban have arrested two prominent LGBTQ activists from Afghanistan: Maryam Ravish, a lesbian, and Maeve Alcina Pieescu, a trans woman. Activists fear they will be forced to name others and may be executed under strict Sharia law. Maryam (19) and Maeve (23) had planned to escape Kabul on 20 March 2025, together with Maryam’s partner, Parwen Hussaini (20), on a Mahan Airlines flight to Iran. They were being assisted by Roshaniya, an Afghan LGBTQ+ organisation dedicated to the safety of LGBTQ+ individuals. According to the Peter Tatchell Foundation, the three were attempting to travel safely to Iran, with the ultimate goal of escaping to Europe. However, during a security check at the airport, they were detained by the Taliban’s intelligence unit. During their interrogation, their phones were searched, and LGBTQ-related content was discovered. “Maeve and Maryam were beaten badly by the Taliban,” said Nemat Sadat, CEO of Roshaniya. “They are likely to be tortured to reveal the names of other LGBTQ+ people and risk a long prison sentence or possibly execution.”
A comprehensive 38-year longitudinal study, The U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study, is the longest-running prospective study on offspring conceived via donor insemination (DI), beginning in 1986 when it was first made available to lesbian women.
Nanette Gartrell, a visiting distinguished scholar at Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law, launched the study without grant support. At the time, national grants were unavailable for any studies related to LGBT subjects. This study tracked the development from birth through adulthood for the offspring of 75 lesbian-parent families.
Q&A with Esther Rothblum – What prompted the study?
In the 1980s, there were significant prejudices against lesbian mothers. People often assumed that the children would face identity confusion, mental health issues, and be more likely to identify as gay or lesbian. … Historically, lesbian mothers frequently lost custody battles against their heterosexual male partners or husbands. When DI became accessible in the mid-1980s, many lesbians opted for anonymous donors to secure their parental rights.
Daria Kasatkina has announced that her application for permanent residency in Australia has been accepted — and she’ll be representing her “new homeland” from now on. The 27-year-old out lesbian tennis star originally hails from Russia, and is currently ranked No. 12 in the world. She told reporters at the Charleston Open, via The Athletic, that the decision is “emotional for me,” but that “being openly gay, if I want to be myself, I have to make this step, and I did it.” …
Kasatkina revealed her relationship with Russian Olympic figure skater Natalia Zabiiako in July, 2022 during an interview with Russian blogger Vitya Kravchenko. She said at the time that “living in the closet is impossible. It is too hard, it is pointless. Living in peace with yourself is the only thing that matters, and f**k everyone else.”
A lesbian couple was to be banished by the community of Moriba town, Southern Sierra Leone, following a ceremony which took place at a birthday celebration in early July 2024.
Following a decision by religious and community leaders, the MC was set to be fined and the officiating pastor was suspended despite claiming he was unaware of the nature of the event in advance. The bar at which the ceremony occured has been closed and individuals witnessed applauding the engagement were reportedly being summoned for questioning.
Listening to Lesbians 