LGBT Muslims speak out: ‘I feel like I should not exist’

LGBT Muslims have spoken out about their experiences of prejudice in both the LGBT community and their faith in a photography project by Toronto based photographer Samra Habib. The project, titled “Just Me and Allah: A Queer Muslim Photo Project”, features photos and interviews with LGBT Muslims from around the world where they discuss the challenges they face in both communities.

Starting as an exhibition back in 2014, the project has continued online and according to its creator, the aim is to document evidence of queer Muslims and give faces to discussions in “academia”. Read more

India's Hijra women are getting happy about trans rights

INDIA has been kicking goals on trans rights recently and the latest news from the subcontinent will leave you feeling happy.

Last year a small town elected the country’s first trans mayor, a trans woman became a prominent TV news anchor and India officially recognised trans as a third gender.  Last night, six singers from India’s Hijra community — the cultural term for its trans women — released an YouTube video covering Pharell William’s worldwide hit Happy.

The 6 Pack Band is India’s first-ever trans girl group made up of six singers and their first single Hum Hain Happy is a celebration of all things trans.  Read more

Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay and Peru fined over homophobic chants

Fifa has fined the football associations of Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay for homophobic chants by fans.

The governing body said the “insulting and discriminatory chants” came during qualifying matches for the 2018 World Cup.

Chile’s fine is the biggest at 70,000 Swiss francs (£48,000) relating to cases at four different matches. Fifa also imposed fines of 20,000 Swiss francs (£13,720) on Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. Proceedings against the Honduras FA for the same offence remain ongoing. Read more

Turkish FA ordered to compensate referee who lost licence for being gay

The Turkish football federation (TFF) has been ordered to pay compensation to a referee after it revoked his licence on the grounds he was gay, according to reports. An Istanbul court on Tuesday instructed the TFF to pay 23,000 Turkish lira (£5,330) to compensate for its treatment of Halil İbrahim Dinçdağ, the Dogan news agency reported. 

The sum was lower than the 110,000 lira (£25,500) demanded by Dinçdağ’s lawyers in a case that had become a symbol of discrimination against gay people in Turkey’s largely conservative society. The TFF had said that since he was exempt from military service due to his homosexuality, Dinçdağ fell into the army’s classification of unfit and was unable to do the job of refereeing. Read more

Gender fluidity went pop in 2015 – and it's not just a phase

Miley Cyrus blurred the lines between boy and girl, Angel Haze came out as agender and cross-dressing rapper Young Thug challenged stereotypes. In the first of a three-part series on the musical talking points of 2015, a look at how pop stars are refusing to be pinned down

don’t call it a trend. Gender fluidity found its way into more headlines than ever in 2015. But regardless of the moment it’s having in both music and pop culture at large, to dismiss it as a passing fad or, worse, gimmickry is a mistake – one with echoes of that damaging and all too familiar phrase that queerness is “just a phase”.

Proclamations that “gender fluidity is the new black” may be well intentioned, but are unhelpful. Instead, the cultural landscape of the last year has afforded a new openness for artists who don’t identify with gender binaries.  Read more

South Africa: Desmond Tutu’s daughter Rev. Mpho A. Tutu marries

Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s daughter, the Rev. Mpho A. Tutu, has married her female partner, Professor Marceline van Furth. The couple tied the knot in The Netherlands last week, in what’s been described as a small and private ceremony.

“The couple are very grateful to their families and friends for their love and support‚” said the family in a statement.

The marriage is expected to be further celebrated in Cape Town in May. The Rev. Tutu is the Executive Director of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and is an experienced preacher, teacher and public speaker. Van Furth is a professor in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the Vrije University in Amsterdam.

Read more

LGBT People Reveal Why David Bowie Was So Important To Them

On Monday, LGBT people celebrated the scope of Bowie’s identity revolution by paying tribute to an artist who proved that to give gender constraints the middle finger was the ultimate liberation. To be different no longer meant being a victim; it meant triumphing.

“He was an artist that made me feel OK to be trans, bi, and an outsider.”  Read more via Buzzfeed 

Taiwan: "We Are Not Monsters. We Are Full of Love."

Monster. The words on the medical record, scrawled in a doctor’s messy English script, said “pseudo hermaphrodite.” But what 18-year-old Hiker Chiu read on the paper was monster. 

Hiker’s parents finally told her/him that s/he was born both male and female—the word intersex never came up. Read more via Alturi

North America: Are bisexuals shut out of the LGBT club?

New studies from University of Massachusetts and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto show that bi people are being excluded by both straight and gay peers. No, bisexuals don’t have twice as much sex as everyone else. But there is mounting evidence to suggest that they experience double the types of discrimination as their gay and lesbian peers.

Two studies published in the December 2015 issue of the Journal of Bisexuality confirm what bi people have been saying for some time: The discrimination they face within the LGBT community is as real as the discrimination they face outside of it.  

Researcher Tangela Roberts believes that her study sheds light on a troubling but often ignored fault line within the LGBT population: “This is the thing that isn’t talked about,” she said. “It’s like airing out the dirty laundry of the supposed ‘LGBT community.’ It’s saying, ‘Look, we haven’t been acting like this community that we’re supposed to be and we need to do something about that.’”   Read more via the Daily Beast

Japan: Evolving public debate on LGBT rights

When a local politician from Tokyo’s Ebisu district last week condemned media coverage of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights issues and called gay people “abnormal” on Twitter, it came as a reminder of times past. It was just four years ago when Tokyo’s governor publicly called gay people “deficient.”

But a lot has changed in Japan since 2011, including the recognition of same-sex relationships in parts of Tokyo; IBM Japan and other major companies extending some benefits to employees’ same-sex partners; and Osaka’s Yodogawa ward, in 2013, and Okinawa’s capital, Naha City, in July 2015, declaring themselves “LGBT friendly” municipalities.

Around the world, progress by LGBT people has often provoked a backlash, such as the Ebisu representative’s homophobic remarks. And while the politician’s colleagues reacted swiftly to criticize him, even calling for his resignation and prompting him to apologize, such statements cut deep, and contribute to a sense that LGBT people in Japan are under siege – particularly those most vulnerable to hateful comments from authorities.  

Read more via Human Rights Watch
 

Starting the world's only trans bodybuilding competition

Four years ago, Neo Sandja decided to get drunk and throw himself in front of a speeding car.

"I went out to a bar with my friends," he says."When I left, I told them, 'Goodbye, you'll never see me again.' But they were just as drunk as I was and didn't take me seriously." He found himself stumbling along the side of the road in his Georgia college town in the middle of the night. Headlights were speeding by.

"I kept thinking, 'This is it. I'm going to do this. I just can't be here anymore. Why did I suffer so long?" He thrust himself into the road, and a car stopped just shy of his leg. Out stepped a cop.

"Are you trying to kill yourself?" the cop asked.  "Yes," Neo replied. "Do you need help?" "Yes."

Neo explained that he had just realized he was transgender and that his father back in Africa would never accept him as a man. The officer responded: "My sister is a trans woman." Read more

UK: Internet goes wild over hardware store’s LGBTI advert

Several brands have used LGBT people to great acclaim in their advertising in recent months, including the likes of Nordstrom, Wells Fargo and airbnb. However, a social media campaign released by UK-based hardware chain Robert Dyas has left some people scratching their heads.
The video, posted online Friday, features gay, bisexual and straight members of staff extolling the LGBT-friendly credentials of the store.

‘I like showing our gay and straight customers the funky range of our Christmas gifts,’ says sales assistant Marcus.

‘Look at this Christmas tree; it’s perfect for a gay person or a straight person.’

‘I’m bisexual and I always find something I love at Robert Dyas’, says one female shopper. Since the video was posted, it’s had over 400,000 views on YouTube and over 400,000 on Facebook. Some have complimented the advert. Read more