[After I was elected], there was a public campaign against my intent to become president of a forum of women lawmakers because I wasn’t “woman enough.” The campaign resulted in more support for me, as well as more opposition to me, further propelling me into the public spotlight once I became president [of the forum].
Continue reading at: Guatemala’s First Lesbian Congresswoman Challenges Status — Women & Girls (Source)
One possible reason for the mysterious shut down may lie a protest gone wrong. Rela participated in a controversial protest at Shanghai’s popular ‘marriage market’ at People’s Park, Shanghaiist reports. The ‘marriage market’ is an event where elderly parents search for suitable partners for their unwed sons or daughters. Rela was one of the groups to send mothers of LGBTI children to the event to raise awareness for gay rights.
Continue reading at: Chinese lesbian dating app randomly shut down, leaving 6.5 million users clueless (Source)
Police in New York arrested a Brooklyn man who is accused of pummeling a woman on the subway into unconsciousness after getting in an altercation with her and her girlfriend.
Police arrested Antoine Thomas, 27, after he got into an argument with a lesbian woman over a seat on a Q train entering the DeKalb Avenue station at 7:30 p.m. last Saturday, reports the New York Daily News.
According to police, Thomas purposely bumped into the woman and her girlfriend while they were sitting and proceeded to yell anti-gay epithets at them, including, “Faggot! Dyke!”
Continue reading at: Brooklyn man beats woman unconscious during anti-gay subway attack – Metro Weekly (Source)
The report cited two cases of anti-lesbian “corrective rape” involving a student in Douala in October and an activist in Yaoundé in a taxi in November.
Continue reading at: Cameroon: 7 in prison on anti-LGBT charges; 58 rights abuses | 76 CRIMES (Source)
As residents sang gospel songs, one woman stopped those singing and urged that more needs to be done.
“We’re dancing and clapping around while our sisters are being murdered. Our friends are being murdered, brutally so, but we’re busy singing.”
At the same time, Lerato Moloi’s cousin Seipati Tladi says she believes Moloi’s killing was a hate crime.
“And they were calling her names like Stabane (homosexual), something like that and this shows that they had a problem with her sexuality.”
Continue reading at: Lerato Moloi’s family disappointed with police handling of murder case (Source)
A lesbian couple seeking parental rights had their case heard by a three judge panel for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, to determine whether or not Indiana‘s law disallowing them from both being named on their child’s birth certificate constitutes discrimination.
Continue reading at: Judge to lesbian parents fighting for rights: ‘You can’t overcome biology’ / LGBTQ Nation (Source)
Posted in News
Tagged birth certificates, Children of lesbian parents, Discrimination, family law, homophobia, Indiana, law, Lesbians in the U.S., Lesbophobia
Lesbians have always been at the forefront of the fight for LGBT rights, but sometimes lesbian activist groups were needed to fight for space on lesbian rights and issues. This is because, as Canadian journalist and activist Judy Rebick had noted, that while lesbians were part of the women’s movement, their issues were invisible in the movement. Aside from Daughters of Bilitis to the Lesbian Avengers, here are five more groups that let people know that lesbians can’t be pushed around.
Continue reading at: 5 lesbian activist groups who fought for us | Lesbian News (Source)
“At the centre of the opposition to equality of marriage rights for gay and lesbian members of the community is the conflation of religious concepts of marriage with secular concepts of marriage,” she said.
“Religious attitudes to marriage continue to impact on much of the political debate that has delayed the recognition of the marriage equality rights of the gay and lesbian community.”
“The problem with this, of course, is the application of religious belief to the framing of law in a secular society, and in societies where church and state are constitutionally separate.”
Continue reading at: Penny Wong says religion is blocking marriage equality – Star Observer (Source)
Kris Perry and Sandy Stier would have loved it. One of the most famous couples in LGBT history as plaintiffs in the historic federal Prop 8 trial, they have nonetheless had their share of lesbian invisibility, even, as they reveal in their new memoir, “Love on Trial: Our Supreme Court Fight For the Right to Marry,” unto themselves.
Continue reading at: Lesbian Visibility Shines Through in Memoir by Federal Prop 8 Plaintiffs (Source)
On Saturday, thousands of people converged at the Naledi Community Hall to bid her farewell. After the first attack, Thabo said Moloi opened a case at Naledi Police Station. “They didn’t follow up.”
After the attack, the police issued a statement saying three suspects were to appear in court on Thursday. None appeared. An officer at the Protea Magistrate’s Court told journalists that the docket had not arrived but would be available on Friday. Again, no suspects appeared.
When contacted for comment, spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority Phindi Louw said a murder docket was not placed on the roll as there was no link to the arrested suspects.
“This means the docket did not meet the minimum requirements for a matter to be placed on the roll.
Continue reading at: Attacks on lesbians a hate crime | IOL (Source)
‘They grabbed me, held both my arms tight and brought me to a McDonalds near the train station. My father slapped three tickets on the table and said “you’re coming with us to Ivanovo.” That was their ultimatum for me, and it was the first time that I ever disagreed with them in my life.’
Continue reading at: Lesbian escapes Russia by boat and sails to Canada to be with the woman she loves (Source)
Update: This Lesbian Couple Sailed Oceans To Be Together. Their Epic Journey Is Far From Over.
After Alexander returned to work and made repayment of the monies she was overpaid, the lawsuit alleges that she “continued to be subjected to retaliatory acts by the Sheriff and his commanding officers when, after she was ordered to be reinstated, she was shuffled around to different assignments, treated differently than her peers. The retaliatory conduct took a great personal and professional toll on Alexander which resulted in her being forced to retire sooner than expected.”
Continue reading at: Former deputy files suit, accuses King County sheriff of discrimination | KIRO-TV (Source)
Posted in News
Tagged Discrimination, homophobia, Lesbians in the U.S., Lesbophobia, workplace discrimination
A lesbian worker sued Friday for allegedly faced job discrimination at a Kentucky bank, such as being told she was “too butch” to deal with customers.
Continue reading at: Lesbian worker sues over alleged anti-gay discrimination at Kentucky bank (Source)
Posted in News
Tagged Discrimination, homophobia, Kentucky, Lesbians in the U.S., Lesbophobia, Penelope Hudson
Mother’s Day. There are few holidays that raise more emotions for women than this one. For lesbians those emotions may be even more fraught than they are for other women. There is a long homophobic history for lesbians of being abandoned by or ostracized from their families of origin. Many lesbians have also been denied custody of their children from previous heterosexual relationships. Others have been denied access to the right to have children by sperm banks and fertility clinics or by homophobic adoption laws. And even among lesbian mothers, there have been fights over children between birth mothers and their lesbian partners/spouses that have ended in ugly legal battles where the non-birth mother loses access to her own children.
Continue reading at: Mother’s Day (Source)
Ernakulam: The management of St. Teresa’s College, Ernakulam, has refused to allow the release of ‘Meenukal Chumbikkunnu,’ a novel themed on lesbian love, at the college auditorium saying that the event may ‘impact the minds of students.’
Continue reading at: St. Teresa’s College denies venue for release of lesbian-themed novel (Source)
Posted in News
Tagged Culture, Discrimination, homophobia, Lesbian author, lesbian voices, Lesbians in India, Lesbophobia, literature, St. Teresa
“It’s good to remember that activism works,” she tells me, “because everyone needs a sense of hope right now.” Cogswell and her former Lesbian Avenger cohorts are hopeful the exhibition will help reignite that DIY activist spark, and bridge the gap between the movement’s history and our current challenges.
Continue reading at: The Lesbian Avengers 25 Years Later: “We Did It, And We Can Do It Again” | NewNowNext (Source)
A school board investigation in Tampa Bay, Florida has cleared teacher Lora Jane Riedas-Chuchman, after a complaint that she banned Christian rosary beads and Make America Great Again hats, and discussed LGBTQ rights and related issues in her freshman math class at Riverview High School.
Continue reading at: #FakeNews: Another religious right claim of persecution just got debunked / LGBTQ Nation (Source)
Posted in News
Tagged Discrimination, education, Florida, Freedom from religion, homophobia, Lesbians in the U.S., Lesbophobia, persecution, teachers
In the first ruling of its kind in the state, a Knox County judge has granted a woman the legal rights of a husband. The ruling comes despite a new law designed to prevent just such a result.
Continue reading at: Knox County judge grants woman rights of ‘husband’ in Tennessee’s first same-sex divorce (Source)
Four expecting lesbian couples have taken a stand against a new Tennessee law requiring all state legal codes to be interpreted with ‘natural and ordinary’ meanings.Much of the state’s law gives rights to husbands and wives or the father and mother of a child, so Tennessee could deny same-sex couples their parental rights by interpreting these terms ‘naturally and ordinarily’.
Continue reading at: Four lesbian couples fight Tennessee law that could remove their parental rights (Source)
If you’re feeling hopeless with our current crop of legislators in Congress, consider Elaine Noble– the first out lesbian elected to state legislature– and be inspired.
Elaine Noble made US election history even before Maura Healey, Harvey, Milk, or Tammy Baldwin as she was elected as representative of the Boston district in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1974.
Prior to this, no out lesbian (or gay man, for that matter), had won a state-level office. So when she did run for the position, she faced an overwhelming wave of homophobic threats.
Continue reading at: Elaine Noble: The first lesbian state lawmaker | Lesbian News (Source)
Listening to Lesbians 