Australian Survivor contestant Rachael Downie has opened up about the online bullying she has experienced.
After featuring on the Channel 10 program she has faced a barrage of online abuse for her appearance and sexuality.
Twenty Four contestants started out the journey for Australian Survivor 2021.
But former Queensland Australian of the Year Rachel Downie made a strong showing before her elimination this week.
Powering through challenges and surviving multiple eliminations demonstrated her tenacity, but her true tests lay outside the program.
Rachel has spent considerable time advocating for young people and mental health in her professional life.
Her appearance on the program was about representing women, particularly women in their 50’s and queer women.
After a recent episode Rachel shared an image of herself from Australian Survivor in her bikini to instagram.
The moment was supposed to be empowering and uplifting to other women.
“I’m 50, I am strong and I am fit but I feel embarrassed about how I look because my body doesn’t reflect that” she wrote.
“However, being on this amazing show has given me a new sense of pride in what my body can do. Womens’ bodies are frikken’ amazing and my body has been really good to me.”
Despite supportive comments that flowed in, it wasn’t long before internet trolls came out to attack.
Several days later Rachel revealed the abuse she had been receiving.
“I have been told to go and kill myself five times today and the ways in which people have tried to shame my body and my sexuality is beyond belief” she posted on Instagram.
But Rachel was not letting these people get her down.
In her fiery response she took the time to remind people of the tool this abuse can take on others.
Assuring people that she was ok Rachel urged others to think about the impact their words could have and vowed to continue on with her work.
Natalí fears for her life and that of her mother. They live together in an apartment in the northern area [of La Florida] and she is certain that her neighbors want to evict them for her being lesbian. She has reported them for harassment and threats in court. For a month she has had a panic button that, she says, she has used on several occasions. “They physically and verbally assaulted us. They tell us that they want the apartment and that we must leave here,” she said.
Her 64-year-old mother was one of the first residents of the La Florida monoblock apartments and Natalí has lived there since she was born 35 years ago. According to her, in 2019 the harassment began. The final straw which resulted in her seeking justice was a neighbour threatening her with a firearm. “I got to my house and a neighbor came out, verbally abused me and told me I had to go. He pulled a gun from his waistband and put it to my head. My mum heard noises and opened the door. I took advantage of his distraction to escape and enter my house,” she recalled.
(Translated)
Natalí teme por su vida y la de su madre. Viven juntas en un departamento de zona norte y asegura que sus vecinos las quieren echar por lesbiana. Los denunció por hostigamiento y amenazas en la Justicia y desde hace un mes tiene un botón antipánico que, asegura, usó en varias oportunidades. “Nos agredieron física y verbalmente. Nos dicen que quieren el departamento y que nos vayamos de acá”, contó.
Su madre, de 64 años, fue una de las primeras adjudicatarias de los departamentos del monoblock de La Florida y Natalí vive ahí desde que nació, hace 35 años. Según contó, en 2019 empezaron los hostigamientos. El límite que la llevó a la Justicia fue la amenaza con un arma de fuego de parte de un vecino. “Llegué a mi casa y un vecino salió, me insultó y me dijo me tenía que ir. Saco un arma de su cintura y me la puso en la cabeza. Mi mamá escuchó ruidos y abrió la puerta. Yo aproveché su distracción para escapar y entrar”, recordó.
5 June 2021: The Viva Shopping Center publicly apologized in compliance with the Constitutional Court’s ruling T-068 of 2021. According to the ruling, “there is a pattern of discrimination aimed at people of the same sex who express affection in public.” The ruling is a response of the Constitutional Court to the case of a couple of lesbian women who are members of the LBT women’s collective “Rare not so Rare”.
(Translated)
El Centro Comercial Viva pidió disculpas públicas en cumplimiento de la sentencia T-068 de 2021 de la Corte Constitucional. De acuerdo a la sentencia “existe un patrón de discriminación que tiene como objeto a las personas del mismo sexo que realizan manifestaciones de afecto en público”. El fallo es una respuesta de la Corte Constitucional al caso de una pareja de mujeres lesbianas integrantes de la colectiva de mujeres LBT “Raras no tan Raras”.
Family, friends and members of the LGBTIQ+ community in Limpopo have been left reeling by the brutal rape and murder of a young lesbian community health worker, in what is suspected to be a hate crime.
A young lesbian community health worker was raped, stabbed multiple times and dumped alongside the road next to Helen Franz Hospital in the rural Senwabarwana area of Limpopo last week.
Thapelo Constance Sehata (23), of Desmond Park in Senwabarwana, was found on Wednesday (28 July 2021) unconscious and bleeding from severe stab wounds, just a short distance from the hospital.
She later succumbed to her injuries, following what her family and fellow members of the LGBTIQ+ community described as a hate crime motivated by her sexual identity. Police have confirmed the incident.
Sehata was a mother of a nine-year-old girl and worked as peer educator at the non-governmental organisation (NPO) Centre for Positive Care (CPC).
Her distraught older sister, Pretty Sehata (31), told Health-e News this week that the whole family, including their 63-year-old mother, was hurt beyond words.
“Thapelo was open about being lesbian and we accepted and loved her as our own in the family. Of course, there were some residents who would mock, insult and ridicule her for what she was. And here we are in pain today, mourning her brutal killing. She was raped, killed and dumped along the road as if she was not human,” said Pretty.
A teacher at a Christian school who came out as gay [sic] and was sacked has spoken out as the government prepares a new draft of the controversial Religious Discrimination Bill.
Steph Lentz said she began teaching at Covenant Christian School in the Sydney suburb of Belrose in 2017. She said it was her first job out of university.Advertisements
“I was employed there until January this year when I was sacked after I came out to the school,” Lentz told ABC Radio National.
“I was in a heterosexual marriage [when I started there]. Growing up in a very conservative Protestant environment, I believed for a long time heterosexual marriage was the only option for lifelong companionship.
“It was after the breakdown of my marriage and some real reflection and soul searching that I first came out to myself. I also shared this with my family.”
Lentz said she wanted to be honest with the school about her “affirming view of homosexual people and relationships.”
“I felt that in the spirit of integrity and to honour the agreement I was under, I informed the school,” she said.
“[My view] that it’s okay to be gay, God doesn’t have a problem with it [and] Christian schools need queer people of faith to be models for students and families.
“But that didn’t gel with the school I was teaching at.”
In a letter, the school told Steph Lentz she’d failed to affirm the school’s Statement of Belief. That statement includes the “immorality” of “homosexual practices”.
A Kansas public school district has agreed to reforms, including publicizing of its anti-discrimination policies and training for its staff, after a student was disciplined and told she couldn’t ride a school bus for several days after she said she was a lesbian during a bus ride home.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansassent a letter to the superintendent of the North Lyon County Unified School District 251 on July 6 telling the district that the actions of school staff violated Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities receiving federal funds.
The civil rights organization also said that the school violated 14-year-old Izzy Dieker’s rights under the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Based on an independent investigation conducted by the Kansas Association of School Boards, the ACLU letter said that several students riding a school bus were leaning in and out of the aisle and using profanities on Jan. 27.
Dieker, who was riding the bus, did none of those things, the letter notes. When she said, “I’m a lesbian,” the bus driver, Kristi Gadino, pulled the bus over and reprimanded Dieker, telling her, “Watch your language.” She added, “Do you think that these little kindergarteners need to know what that word means?”
After the bus ride, Gadino wrote up Dieker for disobeying the driver, using “unacceptable language,” and being rude or discourteous, and Izzy’s parents were told she would be temporarily suspended from riding the bus. The school principal told her and a teacher who advocated for her that despite the fact that video footage showed that Izzy had not been rude or disobedient, calling herself a lesbian was “inappropriate” and the suspension would stand.
A lesbian couple and their family, who were featured in an advert for a Russian supermarket chain that led to a national scandal have fled the country after facing online abuse and death threats.
Mother Yuma, daughters Mila and Alina, and Alina’s girlfriend Ksyusha have said they were forced to leave Russia for Spain after they featured in an ad in which they said they enjoyed VkusVill’s onigiri rice balls and hummus.
“Unfortunately, due to the complicated situation with VkusVill, we have been left without work and without a home,” wrote daughter Mila on Instagram, posting a picture from a balcony in Spain.
“Right now me and my family very much need to get settled in Barcelona. It’s a difficult time for us and we need friends,” she continued. “Maybe the friends of your friends or their friends can help us start our new life in Barcelona.”
The ad met with a conservative backlash in Russia, which passed a law in 2013 banning “gay propaganda”. VkusVill quickly pulled the advertisement and replaced it with one that featured heterosexual families. It issued a public apology and said the original ad “hurt the feelings of a large number of our customers and employees”.
After the ad’s removal, the family said they were targeted by a hate campaign, culminating in the four women fleeing to Spain in order to ensure their safety.
The American soccer team lost to Canada and [Candace] Owens decided to mock the loss, calling [Megan] Rapinoe “an anti-American piece of trash.” Rapinoe has kneeled before games as the national anthem is played in solidarity with players throughout sports demanding racial justice.
The national anthem is not played before an Olympic sporting event, but that didn’t stop Owens from spouting off. Responding to a tweet from U.S. Soccer’s Women’s National Team that called the loss “heartbreaking but hard-fought,” Owens replied that it was “not heartbreaking at all.”
She added that Rapinoe “does not represent our country, anywhere, ever. Any person who disrespects the the [sic] flag that sons and daughters are sent home beneath while fighting for our freedoms overseas, deserves to lose.”
Nino, a 25-year-old lesbian from Georgia, no longer feels at ease when she leaves the house. Since violence forced a Pride march to be cancelled earlier this month, she is afraid of being verbally abused or chased in the street.
Reports of hate crimes have risen in the wake of the violence of July 5, when anti-Pride protesters assaulted journalists and stormed activists’ offices, and some LGBT+ Georgians say they are now living in fear.
“Things have changed. Life is no longer as simple as it once was,” Nino, 25, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, said from the home she shares with her partner in the capital, Tbilisi.
“You’re more afraid that someone on the street will chase you and hurl abuse at you. You can no longer be so cheerful. You have an inner fear. It’s as if some tragedy is coming to you,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The homophobic violence that halted a planned “March for Dignity” has also raised political tensions in the former Soviet country as it prepares for an October local election – sparking protest rallies and scuffles in parliament.
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has rejected calls to resign from rights activists and opposition parties, who have accused his government of emboldening hate groups and failing to protect journalists and LGBT+ supporters.
In the run-up to the Pride events, Garibashvili said holding the LGBT+ march was “not reasonable” because most Georgians opposed it, and has since described the cancelled event as a “provocation” organised by the opposition.
Over the weekend, posters depicting opposition figures and the head of Tbilisi Pride under a rainbow splattered with blood sprang up across the capital.
The owner of the popular nightclub Nordic Bar said he is investigating claims that its bouncers kicked out and beat two women for sharing a kiss.
“We are carrying out our own investigations on the matter as well as collaborating with the police. This is a very serious matter,” the owner told Times of Malta adding that he would not be saying more until investigations are concluded.
The Malta Gay Rights Movement (MGRM) first flagged the issue after a woman recounted her “horrendous experience” at the bar on a Facebook group on Monday evening.
The woman said that once she and her partner were at the bar, they were asked to sit by the table due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“We shared a kiss and soon enough one of the bouncers came to our table to kick us out,” the woman said. She said that as she and her partner were not sure why they were being thrown out, they both resisted and asked for a reason.
But the bouncer threw both of them to the ground and kicked them as he held them down, she said.
She added that she was “disgusted” by the way they were treated and that she had never experienced such homophobic abuse before.
In a survey, MGRM had found that half of the LGBTQ+ community find Paceville unsafe, and that many have experienced aggression from bouncers.
“At this point we advice the community not to go to this venue unless action is taken that guarantees our safety,” MGRM said in a Facebook post. The NGO said it will accompany anyone to a police station if they have been victims of abuse and will also offer free legal service and follow-ups.
Insulted and beaten bloody for looking too much at the attackers’ girlfriends. The subject of the latest homophobic violence was a young woman who was with her partner last Friday in the Roman Gay Street, which is the main road of San Giovanni which connects the Basilica to the Colosseum. She was there to spend a few hours quietly, having a relaxed drink and a chat with her girlfriend. She could not imagine the turn that the evening would take. It was an ending, unfortunately, which is similar to the many others that have been increasing in number recently throughout Italy, from north to south, in a series of offenses and attacks against the LGBTQ community.
After the attacks in the Neapolitan area, in Milan, and in Tuscany, this most recent one happened in the heart of the capital a few days ago. This incident was reported by the actor Pietro Turano, activist and vice president of the Roman chapter of Arcigay. On his Facebook page he recounted the episode he partially witnessed. A young lesbian was targeted by two contemporaries who allegedly first verbally abused her and then attacked her with a small knife, wounding her in different parts of her body. (Translated)
Insultata e colpita a sangue per uno sguardo di troppo rivolto alle fidanzate degli aggressori. Protagonista dell’ultima violenza omofoba una ragazza che lo scorso venerdì si trovava insieme alla sua compagna nella Gay Street romana, ovvero lo stradone di San Giovanni che collega la Basilica al Colosseo. Era lì per per trascorrere qualche ora tranquillamente, a bere un bicchiere e chiacchierare in totale relax con la sua ragazza ma non immaginava minimamente la piega che avrebbe preso la serata. Un epilogo, purtroppo, simile a tanti altri che negli ultimi tempi si stanno moltiplicando un po’ in tutta Italia, da nord a sud. Con una sequela di offese e aggressioni contro la comunità Lgbtq+.
Dopo gli attacchi nel Napoletano, a Milano e in Toscana l’ultimo nel cuore della Capitale qualche giorno fa. A denunciarlo l’attore Pietro Turano, attivista e vice presidente dell’Arcigay romana. Sulla sua pagina Facebook ha raccontato l’episodio del quale è stato in parte testimone: una giovane lesbica presa di mira da due coetanei che l’avrebbero prima insultata e poi aggredita con un coltellino ferendola in diverse parti del corpo. (Original)
Many homophobic people in Cameroon believe that LGBTI community centers aren’t merely meeting places for LGBTI people, but are used to promote homosexuality. Same-sex sexual relations are against the law in Cameroon.
The latest victim of this mistaken belief is the Association for the Advancement of Women (AVAF), an organization in Yaoundé, Cameroon, that defends lesbians’ rights.
AVAF reported that “on the night of July 11 to 12, 2021 (Sunday to Monday), unidentified individuals broke into the premises by smashing [into] the office of the Administrative and Financial Director.”
The vandals set a fire in that office and burned financial and activity reports. Various documents were stolen along with financial securities of as-yet unknown value.
AVAF staff and community members are worried because private contact information and perhaps compromising documents have been taken. They fear that their identity will be published.
Requests for a memorial token to commemorate lesbian prisoners in the former Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp have been submitted as far back as 2012. Now the management of the Ravensbrück Memorial and the Board of Directors of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation have finally approved the installation, as announced by the foundation in a press release on July 14th.
The memorial is to be in the shape of a ceramic ball which will be permanently placed on the new memorial area on the former camp wall in spring 2022, as part of the observance of the 77th anniversary of the camp’s liberation. The inscription reads: “In memory of all lesbian women and girls in the Ravensbrück and Uckermark women’s concentration camps. They were persecuted, imprisoned and even murdered. You are not forgotten.”
Heated Debate: Have Lesbians Been Persecuted?
This decision was preceded by a decade-long dispute over recognition of a lesbian memorial. Applications for a memorial had been rejected by the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation for a long time on the grounds that, according to the criminal law of the Nazi state, only men were criminalized for homosexual acts and brought to the concentration camp for this. There was no comparable persecution of lesbian women under criminal law in Germany. The LSVD spokesman at the time, Alexander Zinn, therefore claimed that a memorial sign for lesbian women would create the “myth of lesbian persecution”.
As Marion Lüttig, head of the Lesbenring, explained in a press release today, how lesbian women and girls were considered “because of their independence they were considered to be ‘degenerate’ and anti-social during the Nazi era. They were psychiatricized, forced into prostitution in camps and imprisoned.” Lesbian acts were also punishable in the camps. The suffering and persecution of lesbian women under National Socialism have only been dealt with in part, to this day. This is also due to the difficulty of getting such research projects funded at all, as historian Claudia Schoppmann told our sister magazine Victory Column in 2018.
…
Lesbian Ring: “Undignified debate has finally come to an end”
LesbenRing board member Marion Lüttig was delighted with the decision: “We are relieved that the unworthy debate about whether lesbians have ever been persecuted and the years of rejection of a memorial sign are finally over. With the decision of the foundation to install the memorial orb, over three quarters of a century after the liberation of the camp, the suffering of lesbian women and girls is finally made visible. “
The LesbenRing criticizes the fact that lesbian history is hardly present in the historiography of mainstream society. The persecution and murder of lesbian women during the Nazi era was and is still denied. “To this day, the massive hostility towards homosexuality, in the context of which the traditional testimonies are shaped, determines the politics of rememberance and research.” (Translated)
Bereits seit 2012 liegen Anträge für ein Gedenkzeichen vor, das an lesbische Häftlinge des ehemaligen Frauen-Konzentrationslager Ravensbrück erinnern soll. Nun haben die Leitung der Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück und der Vorstand der Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten einem entsprechenden Antrag doch noch zugestimmt. Das gab die Stiftung in einer Pressemitteilung vom 14. Juli bekannt.
Das Gedenkzeichen soll die Form einer aus Keramik gestalteten Kugel haben und im Frühjahr 2022, im Rahmen der Feierlichkeiten zum 77. Jahrestag der Befreiung, auf dem neuen Gedenkareal an der ehemaligen Lagermauer dauerhaft niedergelegt werden. Die Inschrift lautet: „In Gedenken aller lesbischer Frauen und Mädchen im Frauen-KZ Ravensbrück und Uckermark. Sie wurden verfolgt, inhaftiert, auch ermordet. Ihr seid nicht vergessen.“
Hitzige Debatte: Wurden Lesben verfolgt?
Vorangegangen war ein jahrzehntelanger Streit um die Anerkennung lesbischen Gedenkens. Anträge für ein Gedenkzeichen waren von der Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten lange abgelehnt worden – mit der Begründung, dass nach dem Strafrecht des NS-Staats allein Männer aufgrund homosexueller Handlungen kriminalisiert und dafür ins KZ gebracht wurden. Eine vergleichbare Verfolgung lesbischer Frauen nach dem Strafrecht gab es in Deutschland nicht. Der damlige Sprecher des LSVD, Alexander Zinn, behauptete deswegen, mit einem Gedenkzeichen für lesbische Frauen würde die „Legende einer Lesbenverfolgung“ geschaffen.
Wie Marion Lüttig, Vorständin des Lesbenrings, heute in einer Pressemitteilung ausführte, galten lesbische Frauen und Mädchen in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus allerdings „durch ihre Unabhängigkeit als ,entartet` und asozial. Sie wurden psychiatrisiert, zur Prostitution in Lagern gezwungen und inhaftiert.“ Auch standen in den Lagern lesbische Handlungen unter Strafe. Das Leid und die Verfolgung lesbischer Frauen im Nationalsozialismus sind bis heute nur lückenhaft aufgearbeitet. Auch aufgrund der Schwierigkeit, entsprechende Forschungsprojekte überhaupt finanziert zu bekommen, wie die Historikerin Claudia Schoppmann 2018 unserem Schwestermagazin Siegessäule erzählte.
…
LesbenRing: „Unwürdige Debatte hat endlich ein Ende“
LesbenRing-Vorständin Marion Lüttig freute sich sehr über die Entscheidung: „Wir sind erleichtert, dass die unwürdige Debatte, ob Lesben je verfolgt worden seien, und die jahrelange Ablehnung eines Gedenkzeichens endlich ein Ende haben. Mit der Entscheidung der Stiftung für die Gedenkkugel wird das Leid von lesbischen Frauen und Mädchen über ein dreiviertel Jahrhundert nach der Befreiung des Konzentrationslagers endlich sichtbar gemacht.“
Der LesbenRing kritisiert, das lesbische Geschichte in der Geschichtsschreibung der Mehrheitsgesellschaft kaum präsent sei. So wurde und werde die Verfolgung und Ermordung lesbischer Frauen in der NS-Zeit geleugnet. „Bis heute bestimmt die massive Homosexuellenfeindlichkeit, von der die Mehrheit der überlieferten Zeugnisse geprägt ist, Erinnerungspolitik und Forschung.“
In Arzano (in the metropolitan area of Naples) two young women aged 21 and 23 were allegedly first approached by a man who had seen them kissing in the car, who then verbally attacked them, slapping the younger woman.
Arcigay Napoli denounced the attack, explaining that they had received a letter from one of the two girls: “I am contacting you,” one of the two young women wrote, “because we need help. I was lucky enough to fall in love with a beautiful woman. We were in the car, in the usual alleyway below our house. An angry and hate filled man approached us, screaming at us. Despite my calm answer, while my girlfriend was starting the car to get away, the man slapped me twice, threatening to set fire to the car with us inside if we showed up again in the same place”. (Translated)
Ad Arzano (nell’area metropolitana di Napoli) due ragazze di 21 e 23 anni sarebbero state avvicinate da un signore che le aveva viste baciarsi in auto e successivamente le ha aggredite verbalmente schiaffeggiato poi la ragazza più giovane.
Lo denuncia Arcigay Napoli, spiegando di aver ricevuto una lettera da una delle due ragazze: «Vi contatto – ci scrive una delle due ragazze – perché abbiamo bisogno di aiuto. Ho avuto la fortuna di innamorarmi di una bellissima ragazza. Stavamo in auto, nel solito vicoletto sotto casa e un signore con tanto odio e rabbia si è avvicinato urlando contro di noi e nonostante la mia risposta pacata, mentre la mia ragazza stava facendo partire l’auto per allontanarci, il signore mi ha aggredito con due schiaffi, minacciando di dar fuoco all’auto con noi dentro se ci fossimo ripresentati nello stesso posto». (Original)
On a morning about 10 years ago, the Rev. Amy DeLong woke up in disbelief that she was still a reverend.
The day before — June 23, 2011 — she had stood trial at Peace United Methodist Church in Kaukauna on two charges. She had officiated a wedding between two women and she herself was in a lesbian relationship — or in the church’s language, was a “self-avowed, practicing homosexual.”
LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings were, and continue to be, forbidden by the United Methodist Church, a body of over 12 million members globally that has in recent years threatened to split over its refusal to fully include LGBTQ people into the faith.
Since DeLong’s church trial sat squarely on that debate, her case drew national scrutiny, including a story in Time Magazine. But she could barely pay attention to the uproar she had triggered, because she was certain she’d lose her pastoral rights and responsibilities as punishment.
Instead, the jury of ministers gave her just a 20-day suspension and tasked her with writing a document about how clergy could resolve issues that harm the church or could lead to future trials. An event that could have been devastating ended up leaving her hopeful that the United Methodist Church was changing.
Today, though, she’s lost that hope.
After a decade of fighting for the inclusion of the LGBTQ community in the denomination she had chosen for herself and loved, DeLong said she watched things get only worse.
She retired from her post as pastor at Spirit of Grace, a United Methodist Church in River Falls, on June 30. The robust advocacy organization she’d helped create quit the UMC denomination two days prior.
Although she said it breaks her heart that her work came to an end without producing meaningful change, DeLong said she never questioned whether she was right to do it.
“There’s nothing … that tells me that the love that I share — the adult, consensual, loving relationship I share with my partner — is anything but holy,” DeLong said. “I have always been hurt by the accusations, and I’ve certainly been hurt by the hatred that has been directed at me. But I never once thought I was wrong.”
Even if the United Methodist Church had a rapid change of heart and opened its arms to the LGBTQ community, DeLong said, the institution is flawed. The way church leaders have conducted themselves is no longer resonating with people, she said.
The decision to depart was an immensely tough one, she said, but necessary. She could no longer be an ambassador for the church, after all, if she no longer believed in the product.
On the seaside of Capo Miseno, in the municipality of Bacoli, Naples, two women were expelled from the beach because they were lesbians. The radio host Gianni Simioli denounced what happened .
Francesca and Martina were literally attacked by an elderly gentleman, annoyed by their presence, which he said would ‘upset’ his niece. “Get back to the mountains, stupid!”, the man shouted clearly upset. He was flanked by his daughter in the attack on the two girls.
“A gentleman suddenly approached us and asked us to leave because our presence raised questions for his niece who was beginning to ask questions. In reality we had not engaged in obscene behavior of any kind – there was only a very chaste kiss and the child, as far as we saw, had not even looked at us and was intent on playing. The gentleman insisted that he wanted us to leave and began to rant but we refused to leave. He seemed to have given up when he returned, this time accompanied by his daughter. He began to attack us and some of the boys who were defending us. The old man hit a guy with the pole of an umbrella while the woman slapped my arm after throwing several accusations at me, blaming me for things I had npt done. For example, she constantly referred to my nudity but I was wearing a bikini, just like her. We felt deeply humiliated, we didn’t do anything wrong. We just wanted to spend a day at the beach like any other person.“, said Francesca, who turned to the Regional Councilor of Europa Verde Francesco Emilio Borrelli to express her indignation for what happened. (Translated)
In un lido di Capo Miseno, nel comune di Bacoli, Napoli, due ragazze sono state cacciate dalla spiaggia perché lesbiche. A denunciare quanto accaduto il conduttore radiofonico Gianni Simioli.
Francesca e Martina sono state letteralmente aggredite da un anziano signore, infastidito dalla loro presenza, che a suo dire avrebbe ‘turbato’ la nipote. “Vattene sulle montagne, stupida!”, urla l’uomo, affiancato dalla figlia nell’aggressione alle due ragazze, chiaramente sconvolte.
“Si è avvicinato all’improvviso un signore che ci ha chiesto di andare via perché la nostra presenza suscitava dubbi a sua nipote che cominciava farsi domande. In realtà noi non avevamo dato vita a comportamenti osceni di alcun tipo, c’era stato solo un bacio anche molto casto e la bambina per quello che abbiamo notato noi, neanche ci aveva guardato ed era intenta a giocare. Ma il signore insisteva, voleva che ci allontanassimo e ha cominciato a sbraitare ma noi ci siamo rifiutate di andarcene. Sembrava essersi arreso quando l’uomo è ritornato, stavolta accompagnato da sua figlia, ed ha cominciato ad attaccare noi e alcuni ragazzi che ci stavano difendendo. L’uomo anziano ha colpito un ragazzo con l’asta di un ombrellone mentre la donna ha preso a schiaffi il mio braccio dopo avermi lanciato diverse accuse, incolpandomi di cose mai fatte. Ad esempio faceva continuamente riferimento alla mia nudità ma io indossavo un bikini, proprio come lei. Ci siamo sentite profondamente umiliate, non abbiamo fatto nulla di male, volevamo soltanto trascorrere una giornata al mare come qualsiasi altra persona. “, ha raccontato Francesca, che si è rivolta al Consigliere Regionale di Europa Verde Francesco Emilio Borrelli per manifestare lo sdegno per quanto accaduto. (Original)
It seems that a lesbian couple commited a crime against public order, under La Ley de Vagos y Maleantes (the Vagrants and Cominals law) , by kissing in a park. They were in Arco de Cegó, in the Saldanha neighborhood, in the capital of fado. A group of several police officers approached the couple to respond to their behaviour, while a young witness, surprised by the fact, decided to secretly record the altercation. She was able to video events until a police officer from the group approached her to ask what she was doing.
When the police officers approached, one of the girls was lying down, the other was sitting and giving her a kiss. …
According to the complainant, who was forced to deactivate her cell phone, there were around eight policemen, and they were threatening the lesbian couple with fines if they repeated the behavior. “If they continue to engage in inappropriate behavior” were the literal words of the officers. (Translated)
Y parece que una pareja de lesbianas comete un delito de orden público, estilo Ley de Vagos y maleantes, por besarse en un parque. Estaban en Arco de Cegó, en el barrio de Saldanha, de la capital del fado. Un grupo de varios policías se acercó a la pareja para replicarles su actitud, mientras una joven testigo, sorprendida por el hecho, decidió grabar secretamente el altercado. Pudo captarlo en imágenes hasta que una policía del grupo se acercó a ella para preguntarle qué estaba haciendo.
Cuando se acercaron los policías una de las chicas estaba tumbada, la otra sentada y le daba un beso. …
Según la denunciante, a la que obligaron a desactivar el móvil, los policías eran en torno a ocho, y estaban amenanzándolas con multarlas si repetían la conducta. “Si siguen teniendo comportamientos impropios” fueron las palabras literales de los oficiales. (Original)
5 July 2021: A Connecticut double murder-suicide may have been pushed by the killer’s homophobia, the household of one of the victims mentioned.
David Knowledge, 65, killed himself Friday in his Windsor Locks house after he shot his spouse, her daughter and an 18-year-old girl mentioned to be the daughter’s lover, The Journal Inquirer reported.
His spouse, Delores Tracey Knowledge, 44, and pal Lauren “Lela” Leslie died – however the unnamed daughter survived and was handled for a number of gunshot wounds at an area hospital, The Hartford Courant mentioned.
Leslie’s brother Jhavier Leslie informed the Courant the household needed an investigation to see if the crime was “rooted in hate.”
“It’s arduous to undergo this new actuality of not having her right here, however I feel it is a half of an even bigger situation in society that should be addressed of simply homophobia and the risks round that,” Leslie mentioned, based on the Courant.
“She spent her entire life barely speaking as a result of she was afraid of who she was and she or he lastly gained the power to understand who she is, so it’s very troublesome for me to know that now, her being her true self and dwelling in her actuality, that is the outcome of that in my eyes,” he added.
8 July 2021: Bolivia’s national civil registry (Registro de Servicio Cívico, SERECÍ) has discriminated against a lesbian couple by rejecting their application to register their relationship as a union, Human Rights Watch said today. All civil registries in the country should start legally recognizing same-sex relationships.
The lesbian couple, foreign citizens who legally reside in Bolivia, applied to La Paz civil registry in May 2021 to register a civil union, their lawyers told Human Rights Watch. In a June letter to those lawyers, the civil registry asserted that there is no current procedure to register same-sex unions in the country. The couple has begun administrative proceedings to appeal the decision. The letter ignores that the civil registry recognized the union of David Aruquipa and Guido Montaño, a gay couple, in December 2020, based on a court order. The civil registry claimed it needs to wait until Bolivia’s Plurinational Constitutional Court reviews the lower court ruling ordering Aruquipa and Montano’s registration.
“The national civil registry seems intent on doubling down on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “That only one same-sex couple in Bolivia has been able to register their union so far is unjust, and the civil registry should immediately give everyone the same opportunity to have their relationships legally recognized.”
2 July 2021: Joseph Truhon, 45, of Highland Falls, New York was arrested in connection to an attempted assault at Spring Hill Suites Marriott in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on June 19, according to Pennsylvania State police.
Truhon is accused of harassing and attempting to assault a fellow traveling youth soccer coach and Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Wagner University, Nicole Gaudenzi, 27, of Little Falls, New Jersey, say police.
Gaudenzi told state police that Truhon asked her “Why are you a lesbian?” and began to touch her arms and legs while at a parent and soccer coach gathering where alcohol was being served in a hotel conference room.
Listening to Lesbians 