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 lesbian refugee has been deported from Germany to Türkiye despite facing serious threats to her life, prompting strong criticism from the lesbian counselling organisation, LeTRa.
The Munich-based group condemned the deportation of 33-year-old Kiymet A. as a “particularly dramatic and worrying case” and a “human rights failure.”
According to LeTRa, Kiymet was deported to Istanbul on 18 August 2025 from Bavaria. Police reportedly removed her from her home in the early hours without allowing her to pack her belongings, despite evidence that she faced serious danger in Turkiye due to her sexuality.
Julia Serdarov from LeTRa also revealed that Kiymet had not been able to speak openly about her sexuality during the asylum process due to fear of her relatives in Germany. “Before she had the chance to explain the true reasons for her flight, she was deported.”
As a teenager, Kiymet’s brother tried to kill her for resisting a forced marriage. Her life has been marked by fear of family violence, exacerbated by her being lesbian.
Julia Bomsdorf from LeTRa warns that returning Kiymet could be fatal: “Queer people are not legally protected there, Pride events are banned, and queer people are regularly victims of attacks and hate crimes. Women’s rights organizations document hundreds of murders of women and femicides every year, many of them ‘honour killings.'”
LeTRa is seeing a dramatic rise in demand for their services, with no Turkish lesbian, queer, or trans person within their service in 2022, they are currently supporting another 12 , all but one of whom have had their asylum applications denied. This shift in demand illustrates what LeTRa calls a systemic issue: refugees being removed before receiving proper legal advice or support.
Kiymet is now reportedly in hiding in Istanbul, living in fear of discovery.
LeTRa condemns Kiymet’s removal: “She should never have been deported to a country where she faces violence, ‘honour killings,’ and homophobic persecution.”
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.
Anna Lou Castoldi, daughter of Asia Argento and Morgan, has spoken out against the homophobic backlash she received after revealing on live TV that she has a girlfriend. Following her candid response to an unexpected question on Domenica In, she was subjected to a flood of online abuse.
After several days of hateful and insulting comments targeting her physical appearance, her parents and her identity, Anna Lou hit out at the attitudes fuelling the unremitting hatred she faced, comdemning the entrenched homophobia still present in Italy.
“Now I receive insults each second… to give you a little insight into the homophobia and discrimination still very present in this country, which is the thing that really hurts and disgusts me”.
“These people, who hide behind the self-diagnosis of normopathy, which doesn’t seem so normal to me… have attacked me because I spoke freely about my sexuality, not to show off, not to provoke, simply because for me it’s something like anything else”.
“We still believe that being gay means having a mental disorder. We still believe that having a mental disorder is humiliating. We still believe that we know someone only by their appearance, by their bar-room rumors.”
The Maranhão Court of Justice has upheld the decision to send Elizeu Carvalho de Castro to a jury trial for the cruel and brutal murder of 21-year-old lesbian Ana Caroline Sousa Campelo, whose mutilated body was found on 10 December 2023, in Maranhãozinho. Prosecutors allege she was killed by asphyxiation in a hate crime after being abducted while cycling home from work. Carvalho, also known as “Bahia” or “Baiano”, denies involvement but remains in custody awaiting trial.
Two months after her death, Ana Caroline’s body was exhumed for forensic examination at the request of Maranhão’s Civil Police, after it was revealed she had been buried without an autopsy.
Her death sparked nationwide protests against lesbophobia and lesbicide, drawing condemnation from activists and government officials, including the Minister of Women Cida Gonçalves, who labeled it a case of lesbophobia and a gender-based hate crime.
Please note the following article contains upsetting details about Ana Caroline’s death.
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.”
A gay Texas school administrator has been confirmed as superintendent of a Houston area school district, despite a weeks-long smear campaign led by a local conservative pastor.
Tiffany Regan, 52, was offered the post overseeing 1,865 teachers and staff and 12,800 students by the Deer Park Independent School District board of trustees at a meeting Monday night. The appointment was applauded by supporters and trustees.
“There’s nobody as passionate as she is about helping the kids be successful, and she’s proved to herself time after time they don’t have anything to worry about. This district is going to be in great shape for the future,” outgoing Superintendent Stephen Harrell told the Houston Chronicle.
Regan, a Deer Park ISD native, comes to the job after serving as former assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction in the district. After graduating high school, she returned as a college student teaching assistant. Her son graduated from the district and her daughter attends middle school there.
The board announced Regan was their choice for the job in March and invited public comment before offering her the post.
The next day, local Pastor Douglas Harris began a smear campaign directed at Regan’s sexuality, vowing to be the “tip of the spear” resisting her appointment.
“When you live a lifestyle of sexual immorality and that is your corrupted worldview, everything that you do stems out of the worldview of which you have,” Harris said in a Sunday sermon at Central Baptist Church in Deer Park.
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.
Listening to Lesbians 