Sports and Culture

,

Tackling biphobia: why bisexual visibility matters

,

 

IN THIS SNEAK PEAK FROM THE UPCOMING 1ST EDITION OF OUR GUIDELINES, MISTY FARQUHAR, A PROUD NON-BINARY BISEXUAL PERSON, EXPLAINS WHY BISEXUAL VISIBILITY MATTERS AND HOW JOURNALISTS, CREATORS AND AUDIENCES ALIKE CAN TACKLE STEREOTYPES AND BIPHOBIA.

, ,

US: This bus is on a road trip to convince you that transgender people aren’t real

, ,

An orange bus rolled onto the streets of Manhattan to make its first stop on an East Coast tour, during which a load of activist passengers will evangelize that transgender people don't exist and citizens must rise up to complain about their growing acceptance.

The creators are calling it the "Free Speech Bus," and they've decorated it with male and female stick figures along with the slogan: "Boys are boys... and always will be. Girls are girls... and always will be. You can't change sex. Respect all."

On Wednesday, they parked outside the United Nations headquarters, where ambassadors are considering a sex education resolution that a spokesperson for the bus argued promotes "an ideology that gender is fluid."

"We are trying to strike back against that," said Joseph Grabowski, a spokesperson for the National Organization for Marriage, one of the three conservative groups behind the project. They hope parading the bus through major cities will unleash a silent majority that they believe is frustrated by shifting norms about gender and families.

In their efforts to block LGBT legal protections since the Supreme Court resolved questions about same-sex marriage, religious conservatives have struggled to spark conversations among ordinary people. While they have sometimes reached the airwaves during controversies around bills to restrict bathroom usage, they've often played political defense, or found their message buried in the back of newspapers and the back rooms of legislatures. Read more via Buzzfeed

,

Taiwan: An emergent rainbow coalition from the assemblage perspective

,

Identifying a cosmopolitan sense of Taiwaneseness owes much to Taiwan’s ‘queer’ existence in terms of geopolitics. However, rather than pursuing absolute openness, the cosmopolitanism within Taiwaneseness is evoked passively as a pragmatic response to its everyday paradox in pursuing or repudiating affairs of self-determination.

,

Cissexism and Cis Privilege Revisited - Part 2: Reconciling Disparate Uses of the Cis/Trans Distinction

,

In this essay, I want to talk about the different ways in which a cis/trans distinction may be employed, as this can greatly shape the nature and ultimate goals of trans activism.

Hong Kong: To host the gay Olympics? ‘the Gay Games needs to come here because we need to improve LGBT rights’

As Hong Kong eyes up hosting the 2022 “gay Olympics”, the international federation behind the global sports event says it could ultimately choose the Asian city in a bid to shine a light on its poor same-sex rights record.


Hong Kong was listed this week as one of 17 other cities in the running to host the Gay Games, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, Tel Aviv and Cape Town - but the territory could be the first and only Asian city to be nominated to host the competition. 

The Gay Games was first hosted by San Francisco in 1982 and since then has gone on to become the largest international sport and cultural gathering for athletes, musicians and artists. Read more

Netherlands: The silent gay witch hunt of 1730

In 1730, the people of the Netherlands (then sometimes called the Dutch Republic) lost their damn minds, killing dozens of gay men. Nothing like it had yet happened in Europe, and nothing like it would happen again until the Nazis.

The Utrecht sodomy trials (Utrechtse sodomieprocessen) were a large-scale persecution of homosexuals that took place in the Dutch Republic, starting in the city of Utrecht in 1730. Over the following year, the persecution of "sodomites" spread to the rest of the nation, leading to some 250 to 300 trials, often ending in a death sentence. Read more via Daily Xtra

,

UK: School pupils produce films to take on homophobic bullying

,

Pupils across Wales have been producing anti-homophobic films as part of a project tackling bullying in schools. Figures released by equality charity Stonewall, found over half to young gay people experience homophobic bullying and 40 per cent of those bullied have attempted, or thought about attempting, to end their own lives.

Now schools across Wales are producing a series of eight short films dealing with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender bullying as part of a project run by the Iris Prize Festival. Among those taking part in project are pupils from Aberdare Community School, who chose to focus on bisexuality in their film.

All the films are available to watch for free on Youtube and pupils at the school hope their feature will help others learn more about homophobic discrimination.  

Read more via ITV