A Texas man is facing assault and hate crime charges after authorities say he brutally attacked a lesbian couple celebrating with family in Detroit on 13 July 2025.
Prosecutors allege 26-year-old William Wilson targeted the women after seeing the two same sex couples holding hands, taunting them with homophobic slurs before turning violent. Chelsi Way’s wife was knocked unconscious and later needed 20 stitches. She continues to struggle with memory loss and sleep problems from the assault.
According to witnesses, Wilson put his arms around the women while recording them on his phone and mocking their gender non conformity. When the group sought help from casino security, they say staff did nothing. The situation escalated when Wilson began throwing punches.
After the attack, Wilson and another man fled but were followed by Way for three miles, as she called police. Wilson was arrested and charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm, two counts of assault and battery, aggrevated assault, and hate crime charges. If convicted, he could face a decade or more behind bars. His alleged accomplice remains at large.
A woman who fled homophobic abuse in Northern Cyprus is facing deportation from the UK, despite building a new life in Brighton with her wife.
Hazel Mehmed, 40, and Deniz Alptekin, 47, arrived in Brighton in December 2021 after years of hiding their relationship in the conservative and often hostile environment of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
The couple began dating in 2010 but were forced to keep their relationship secret for four years due to the deeply ingrained homophobia in their community.
As Hazel explained, “it was really hard for us to come out because, unfortunately, you can’t live freely in Northern Cyprus. Having to hide our real identity was really hard. It’s a small island, and people talk.”
When news of their relationship became public, both women faced severe repercussions. Hazel, whose mother is a well-known figure in the government, said the revelation led to both her and Deniz being fired from their jobs and being ostracised by their families. They were subjected to homophobic abuse and discrimination that left them feeling isolated and unsafe in their own country.
For years, the couple dreamed of escaping to a country where they could live openly, but lacked the resources to do so. During lockdown the couple spoke at a video conference organised by Nicole Conn, after contacting the American film director known for her lesbian-themed films. Touched by their story, Conn’s fans raised funds to help the couple relocate to the UK.
Hazel, a British citizen, entered the UK freely, while Deniz, an EU passport holder, entered as a visitor. They intended to apply for the appropriate visa after settling in. Deniz received a certificate of application, allowing her to live and work in the UK while awaiting a decision.
The couple married in Brighton and began to rebuild their lives and feeling free to express themselves publicly for the first time. “We have been able to walk hand in hand and hug – we cried at our first pride,” Hazel recalled.
However, Deniz’s EU Settlement Scheme application was denied two and a half years later due to “insufficient evidence” of their relationship—something Hazel says is unfair, given the secrecy they were forced to live under in Cyprus. They appealed the decision, explaining the barriers to living as a couple in Cyprus and providing additional evidence.
After a 10-month wait, a second refusal came due to a “passport confusion.” An administrative review followed. The couple say the long process has left them emotionally and financially drained.
Last week, Deniz’s new application—this time for a spouse visa—was also refused. The Home Office cited a breach of immigration rules, claiming she had remained in the UK too long without a valid visa. Hazel argues that they followed all official advice and procedures, and that the delays were caused by the Home Office itself. Now, Deniz must either appeal again or leave the UK for 30 days and reapply—a costly and distressing option impacting Deniz’ health.
The Home Office said it does not comment on individual cases.
A 24-year-old woman from Naples, Chiara (not her real name) has broken her silence after years of abuse by her father, who allegedly attacked and threatened to kill her because she is a lesbian. The man, 51, is now in custody, facing charges of stalking and domestic violence.
Chiara revealed that the abuse had gone on for years, escalating recently when her father confronted her at work, calling her a disgrace and demanding she change her last name. “He said I disgusted him and wished me the worst possible death,” she said in an interview with Radio Pride.
Her decision to report him came after another violent outburst at home, where he banged on her bathroom door, threatening to kill her. Police responded swiftly and arrested the man.
Refusing to be silenced, Chiara has decided to keep her surname. She now urges others in similar situations to speak up: “You are not wrong, you are not aliens, you are not psychopaths. You haven’t killed anyone, you don’t have an addiction. You are not a problem for anyone, nor for society. We are human, like everyone else, regardless of skin color. Report, confront, and report. Even if they are of your same blood. Report. We must win this war.”
Her mother, previously silenced, has now joined her in condemning the violence.
July 2025: Chased and threatened at gunpoint, a married Black lesbian couple in Spotsylvania County, Va., was nearly killed in a potentially racially motivated hate crime around 6:30 p.m. on July 20. …
On the day of the attack, Amylah Majors and Jamaria Gaskins were driving on Partlow Road when they hit debris and checked out the damage. Soon after, Majors said three white people, two men and one woman, appeared from their home and began threatening them with firearms and shouting racial slurs.
“Two of them physically attacked my wife while brandishing a gun and shouting threats,” Majors said in a public GoFundMe post, which has raised just over $5,000. “They called us the (‘N-word’), told us we didn’t belong there, and one of them even exposed himself while screaming hate and slurs at us.”
While trying to leave, Majors said the three attackers got into their cars and chased Majors and Gaskins down the road. Driving side by side, Majors said one of them pointed a gun directly at her head.
“In that moment, we truly believed we weren’t going to make it out alive,” Majors said.
During their escape, the couple ended up crashing their car, with Majors ejecting from the vehicle. She was in the hospital soon after with a fractured spine, broken clavicle, a severe concussion, a broken rib, and multiple head injuries.
“I am beyond grateful to be alive,” Majors said. “But we were both assaulted, traumatized, and nearly killed. This was not just an accident — this was an attempted act of violence meant to harm and silence us. We will not be silent.”
Two of the attackers, Mark Goodman and Elizabeth Wolfrey, have been charged with misdemeanor charges after the incident.
A French school principal has died by suicide after enduring a prolonged campaign of homophobic harassment within her community.
Caroline Grandjean, 42, was the principal of a nursery school (for children 2/3-5) in the village of Moussages. It is understood that someone discovered she was married to a woman, despite not being public about her relationship. The harassment commenced in 2023 with anti-lesbian graffiti in the school. The targeted campaign escalated to death threats despite Grandjean filing five formal complaints and an investigation being conducted, and in 2024 Grandjean was forced out of teaching.
Only hours after contacting France’s national suicide prevention helpline Grandjean died by suicide on the first day of the new school term (1 September 2025).
Grandjean reportedly felt let down by both her school and local government, and her colleagues apparently consider her choice of date to be a statement of their failure to protect her.
After two years together, Ramita and Shilu, both 22, attempted to register their marriage in Sunkoshi, Nepal, following a 2023 Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriafe. Their application was met with confusion, delays, and rejection, by local officials. Ramita’s family, opposed to their relationship, reported Ramita as missing, leading to police involvement and a confrontation at the police office. Citing safety concerns, both women were incarcerated by police in the women’s cell in Jawalakhel. Subsequently, the police transferred Ramita to the custody of her family, despite her clear desire to marry Shilu and her fears for her safety at their hands.
Police dismissed her concerns, citing a lack of abuse-related injuries and family engagement as proof of care. During the altercation with Ramita’s family, the women had been holding hands for protection, leading to police hostility, verbal abuse and judgement.
Ramita continues to fear family coercion, with her family intending to subject her to faith based conversion therapy and forced (heterosexual) marriage. In the words of Ramita’s sister in law “Even if you die or become disabled, I’ll still make you marry a man.”
The State Federation of LGBT+ (Felgtbi+) reported that Spanish lesbians continue to suffer discrimination, with one in three lesbians experiencing harassment between 2020 and 2024, and one in 10 experiencing physical or sexual assault. In additon, 35% of lesbians between the ages of 18 and 24 (Generation Z) experienced bullying at school.
Felgtbi+ condemned this situation on Lesbian Visibility Day, based on some data from the ‘Lgtbi+ State 2024’ survey, undertaken by Felgtbi+, with data from 40dB.
Inés B. García, Felgtbi+’s Lesbian Policy Group coordinator, warned that lesbians are exposed to a high level of violence in all arenas. “In addition to harassment and physical and sexual violence, we also face workplace discrimination, hypersexualization, and stigmatization in diverse areas such as culture, politics, healthcare, sports, and education.”
A jury trial has been scheduled for Mark Stinson, an Elk River man accused of threatening his lesbian neighbors. … Kayla Lindenfelser and Corrine Pfoser were allegedly threatened by their Elk River neighbor with a gun, leading up to a police standoff Sunday afternoon into Monday morning, Nov. 18. The woman, Corinne Pfoser, was bagging up leaves with one of her foster children on a Sunday afternoon in November. Stinson allegedly confronted the child about Pfoser’s same-sex relationship, calling the child fat and using defamatory remarks about his mothers, including to “get out of Sherburne County.”
Following ongoing harassment and lesbophobic abuse, Emilie Díaz and Kerly Rozo claim that they and their mothers were verbally and physically assaulted by local residents. The alleged incident occurred at the house the couple shares share with their two year old daughter in the La Rosita neighbourhood of Villavicencio.
Emilie and Kerly allege that on 18 April they had asked their neighbours to turn down their music, as their young daughter was asleep. The situation escalated rapidly following this request. When one of the mothers went outside to deescalate the situation, she was pysically assaulted. Emilie was attacked by three men when she attempted to defend herself from violence.
Emilie and Kerly claim that one of the assailants broke the windows of their home and threatened to kill them. In a video circulating on social media, one assailant can be heard shouting “You f***ing lesbians! Do you want to d*e? You f***ing lesbians!”. In addition to this, one of the assailants is also accused of threatening the lesbian couple with sexual violence.
Police who attended the property appear not to have taken any action or details, leading to the women leaving their house to protect their safety.
France-based human rights organization JusticeMakers Bangladesh in France (JMBF) expresses its deepest concern and strongest condemnation regarding the recent arrest and imprisonment of Irin Jahan Esha Sheikh, widely known as the “Lady Biker,” in Khulna, Bangladesh.
It has become increasingly evident that Esha was not detained based on any credible evidence of criminal activity, but was instead targeted because of her identity as a lesbian and her consensual romantic relationship with another woman. This case represents yet another tragic instance of the criminalization of same-sex relationships and the systematic persecution of sexual minorities in Bangladesh.
Esha’s arrest reflects the broader social stigma and legal discrimination faced by LGBTQI+ individuals in Bangladesh. According to JMBF reliable source, Esha had been in a long-term relationship with Sanjida Hossain, the daughter of a France-based expatriate Jahid Hossain. Upon discovering this relationship, the young woman’s family made repeated attempts to forcibly separate the couple. Matters escalated when the family falsely labeled Sanjida as a drug addict and sought to involuntarily commit her to a rehabilitation facility.
When Esha attempted to intervene and prevent what appears to be an unlawful detainment of her partner, she was arrested and falsely charged with physical assault and other fabricated allegations. This deeply troubling incident reveals a concerted effort by both private actors and state institutions to marginalize and criminalize individuals based solely on their sexual orientation.
Robert Simon, prominent LGBTQI+ rights activist in France and Chief Adviser to JMBF, stated, “This is a blatant case of state-backed homophobia. Esha’s arrest is not about justice—it’s about moral policing. Love is not a crime. Targeting someone for being in a same-sex relationship under the pretext of criminal charges is an affront to universal human rights and dignity. France and the global community must not remain silent.”
Advocate Shahanur Islam, leading Bangladeshi human rights lawyer and Founder-President of JMBF, added, “The legal system in Bangladesh is being manipulated to criminalize same-sex love. This is a gross violation of Esha’s fundamental rights under international human rights law, and a stark reminder of the discrimination sexual minorities endure every day. We demand her immediate release, a transparent and fair investigation, and full protection of her legal and human rights.”
An angry Indiana mother faces multiple charges after she was accused of taking a gun to her sixth grade daughter’s elementary school and threatening her lesbian teacher to “kiss ur kids goodbye” after she gave an assignment about flags, officials said Tuesday.
Carrie Rivers, 48, was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm on school property and harassment in connection with the incident at Valley Mills Elementary School in Indianapolis.
Rivers threatened her daughter’s teacher over “a work assignment that had to do with same-sexuality relationships,” an affidavit supporting the woman’s arrest said.
Decatur Township school police officers answered a call last Wednesday about an “irate parent” on campus. When they arrived, officers noticed Rivers had something on her waistband that looked like a firearm, the affidavit says.
“Carrie Rivers stated that she did have a gun as I was removing it from her person,” responding officer Tabetha Emenaker wrote in the affidavit. “I advised Carrie Rivers on the law in regard to having a firearm on school premises and that it was an arrestable offense. She understood and stated that she didn’t even realize that she had it on because she is so used to wearing it and has been on school property with it before.”
Rivers then said she was taking her daughter out of Valley Mills Elementary and opting for home-schooling, police said. She also called her daughter’s teacher a slur disparaging to lesbians, the affidavit says.
Police let Rivers go, but then she sent a threatening message to her daughter’s teacher 25 minutes later, the affidavit says.
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.”
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.”
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 lesbian couple in Albania had an unofficial wedding in the capital city of Tirana to protest the country’s refusal to recognize marriages like theirs.
Alba Ahmetaj and Edlira Mara’s symbolic marriage ceremony took place on the roof of Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj’s office on Sunday, May 19 2024, with the couple’s three-year-old twin daughters in attendance. “Our society is very patriarchal and homophobic,” Ahmetaj said before the ceremony, per Reuters. …
In February, Ahmetaj and Mara were subjected to death threats while having coffee in a café in Tirana, Albania’s capital and largest city. The couple reportedly received Facebook messages saying that they would be shot by a sniper “in the middle of the forehead” if they visited the establishment again. They also received a barrage of hateful comments after announcing their wedding ceremony on social media, with one commenter proclaiming, “You should burn in hell.”
The position of women and the LGBT community continues to worsen in many countries around the world. In many of these cases we are unable to find articles or analysis which refer specifically to the impact of the legal, political, economic and social changes on lesbians. The impact of these changes are often expected to be exacerbated for lesbians, who face the double impacts of sexism / misogyny and homophobia. Poverty, disability and racism exacerbate the impacts further still for many women. Despite this, in many traditional societies, women are restricted to the private family sphere with the violence, coercion and discrimination they face invisibilised and normalised by the imposition of expected social roles.
Elena Kostuchenko is a Russian journalist in exile who has risked her life to give a voice to the silenced people in her country, especially the LGBTQI+ community. Her story is that of a woman who has faced threats, violence and censorship, but who has never stopped fighting. Her book El meu país estimat (My Beloved Country), recently published in Catalan, collects testimonies and chronicles published in the newspaper Nóvaya Gazeta , the last independent media outlet in Russia, which was closed down for its critical stance against Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Being a lesbian in Russia is not only a personal challenge, but a matter of survival, as she explains in an interview with El Diario. “In my country, I can’t be at peace as a woman, let alone as a lesbian,” says Kostuchenko. Homophobia is not just a social prejudice, but a state policy. Laws against “LGBTQ+ propaganda” prevent any kind of visibility, and violence against the community is common. “At the first Pride march in Moscow I participated in, I ended up in the hospital after being attacked by protesters,” she recalls.
Original:
Ielena Kostyutxenko (Iaroslavl, 1987) es una periodista rusa en el exilio que ha arriesgado su vida por dar voz a las personas silenciadas en su país, especialmente a la comunidad LGTBIQ+. Su historia es la de una mujer que ha enfrentado amenazas, violencia y censura, pero que nunca ha dejado de luchar. Su libro El meu país estimat (Mi país querido), recientemente publicado en catalán, recoge testimonios y crónicas publicadas en el diario Nóvaya Gazeta, el último medio independiente de Rusia, que fue clausurado por su postura crítica contra el régimen de Vladímir Putin.
Ser lesbiana en Rusia no solo es un desafío personal, sino una cuestión de supervivencia, y así lo cuenta en una entrevista a El Diario. “En mi país, no puedo estar tranquila siendo mujer, y mucho menos siendo lesbiana”, afirma Kostyutxenko. La homofobia no es solo un prejuicio social, sino una política de Estado. Las leyes contra la “propaganda LGTBIQ+” impiden cualquier tipo de visibilidad, y la violencia contra la comunidad es frecuente. “En la primera marcha del Orgullo en Moscú en la que participé, terminé en el hospital tras ser agredida por manifestantes contrarios”, recuerda.
Listening to Lesbians 