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Time Magazine’s list of the “100 Most Influential People of 2024,” marking a significant honor for the head of the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights organization.Writing for the magazine, Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of the LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD, praises Robinson, the first Black queer woman to lead HRC in its history, as having “a vision for a more equal and just world that, paired with her talent for building coalitions across all intersections, has taken the LGBTQ+ movement — and the larger social-­justice movement — by storm when it is most needed.”Noting that Robinson is leading HRC at a time when state legislatures are passing an onslaught of bills focused on restricting LGBTQ rights and visibility, Ellis credits Robinson for spearheading campaigns that uplift and center the needs of historically marginalized communities, including queer people of color and transgender people.“Kelley has a voice that demands to be heard,” Ellis writes. “Whether it’s in front of Congress, at a political rally, or over social media, she inspires and mobilizes longtime advocates and new young activists into action with fresh energy and urgency.“She has also brought the LGBTQ+ movement to recognize the critical intersectional work needed on gun reform, racial justice, immigration, voting rights, climate, abortion, and safeguarding our very democracy.

vetoed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, with Republican lawmakers later overriding the vetoes to pass the transgender restrictions into law.Robinson has routinely vilified members of the LGBTQ community, suggesting as recently as last month that transgender women should be arrested for using multi-user bathrooms or changing facilities that align with their gender identity.Criticizing those who complain about North Carolina’s restrictions on restroom use, Robinson said the state would not accommodate people who do not want to use spaces that align with their assigned sex at birth, saying such people should instead “find a corner outside somewhere to go.”Robinson has become known for his anti-gay diatribes and outspoken opposition to LGBTQ visibility and civil rights, calling LGBTQ people “filth,” comparing them to “maggots” and “cow dung,” claiming they’re turning the United States into a “hellhole,” and claiming that God “formed” him to fight LGBTQ visibility in society.

Fellow Travelers star Jonathan Bailey says he was threatened with violence during a recent trip to Washington, D.C.Speaking with the Evening Standard as part of a profile for the newspaper, the British-born actor recounted attending the Human Rights Campaign’s National Dinner, an annual gala held in Washington, D.C., back in October.During the gala, he introduced actor and Fellow Travelers co-star Matt Bomer, who was receiving HRC’s Impact Award, which recognizes members of the LGBTQ community dedicated to advocating for queer issues.He also recalled meeting President Joe Biden and television producer Shonda Rhimes, who received HRC’s National Equality Award. The night was so exciting and so special that Bailey recalls not being able to get much sleep.“I woke up the next morning, it was like a montage.

ruled that the government of Bulgaria violated European human rights law by failing to legally recognize same-sex marriages, reports Human Rights Watch.Liliya Babulkova and Darina Koilova, two Bulgarian women who were legally wed in the United Kingdom in 2016, brought the case to the court three years ago, after Bulgarian authorities refused, multiple times, to recognize their marriage.The couple claimed, in their complaint, that the refusal to recognize their marriage is discriminatory and violated their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.The court found that the Bulgarian government violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to private and family life.The court — as it previously did with similar cases from Ukraine and Romania — ruled that Bulgaria must take some action to recognize same-sex relationships or remove discriminatory portions of its laws, although it did not require the country to take specific actions, such as legalize same-sex nuptials. It also ordered the government to pay 3,000 euros to the couple to cover legal costs.“The decision is fundamental for the development of Bulgarian legislation in the field of equality and LGBT rights,” a lawyer for the couple said in a statement.

interview with Radio and Television of Andorra earlier this week.The announcement makes the 43-year-old the first openly LGBTQ premier of the small country of about 79,000 citizens.He is one of five sitting heads of state or government who identify as LGBTQ. The other out world leaders are Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, and Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, reports People magazine.

The California Republican Party is currently at odds with the national Republican Party after proposing to remove opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion – two longstanding mainstays of the national platform – from its state party platform.Supporters of the proposed change say that removing those two prominent social issues from the state’s political platform would put the state GOP’s official position more in line with the values held by most California voters. Opponents argue that by removing those topics, the state party’s stances would contradict those held by most of the party’s presidential candidates and betray values or beliefs that are deeply held by the party’s conservative base.The 2016 Republican national party platform, which still stands today as the party’s guiding document, opposes same-sex nuptials despite bans prohibiting such marriages having been struck down by the U.S.

“The story of the LGBT movement in Hungary, and the story of the fight for human rights in Hungary, is a story that is being written by Hungarians,” says David Pressman, the U.S. ambassador to Hungary and one of six out gay men currently serving as a U.S.

attempted to prosecute a transgender woman who had entered and used a women’s restroom despite not having officially transitioned.The ministry said in a statement that it would examine the ruling closely and “take appropriate measures after consulting with the relevant ministries and agencies.” It also said it would continue to make efforts to respect the diversity of its staff.The ruling comes after a series of mostly pro-LGBTQ court rulings regarding the legalization of same-sex marriage in the country, with courts finding, in the majority of the cases, that laws blocking same-sex nuptials are unconstitutional.Japan is currently the only G7 nation where same-sex marriage hasn’t been legalized. Japanese law is vague about the ability of same-sex couples to adopt, and the country also lacks nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ individuals, permits conversion therapy, and does not recognize nonbinary genders, reports Reuters.On June 16, Japan enacted a law declaring that “unjust” discrimination is unacceptable, but doesn’t explicitly provide specific rights for LGBTQ people — in part due to opposition from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, a right-wing political party that controls both chambers of the country’s National Diet, or national legislature.Despite the law being overly vague and not promising any specific rights, it still sparked a backlash from conservatives, who began campaigning for moves to protect women in multi-user, publicly-shared facilities.The plaintiff, whose name remains anonymous, celebrated the ruling.“All people should have the right to live their lives in society based on their own sexual identities,” she said in a statement.

homoerotic ad indirectly criticizing the former president’s past statements claiming to support LGBTQ rights.Much of the ad, shared by the “DeSantis War Room” account on Twitter, highlights moments from the 2016 presidential campaign when Trump was either trying to distinguish himself from other Republican candidates or trying to peel away some LGBTQ support from Hillary Clinton after clinching his party’s nomination. Whether DeSantis’s campaign made the ad or simply shared it online is unclear.The ad shows a snippet of Trump’s speech from the 2016 Republican Convention vowing to “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens,” a reference to Trump’s willingness to defend LGBTQ people from terrorism in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting, in which 49 people were killed.The gunman, who was killed in the shooting, had pledged allegiance to ISIS, reawakening concerns about national security and the threat of Islamic radicals carrying out attacks against Americans.It also shows Trump’s campaign selling LGBTQ-themed merchandise, photos of Trump with Caitlyn Jenner, a clip of Trump affirming that Jenner could use whatever gendered restroom she wanted if she came to visit him at Trump Tower, and a clip of Trump, at the time the owner of the Miss Universe pageant, telling the late Barbara Walters that transgender contestants would be able to compete in Miss Universe.The ad splices those video clips with screenshots of tweets and headlines showing Trump supporting — or at least purporting to support — LGBTQ rights, often while pandering to LGBTQ conservatives.

Turkish police detained over 100 people on Sunday following Pride marches in the cities of Istanbul and Izmir.Despite attempts by the Turkish government to suppress expressions of LGBTQ identity, including Pride celebrations, in the Muslim-majority country, hundreds took to the streets of both cities to celebrate their LGBTQ identities in defiance of those actions. Turkey’s ruling pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) has previously passed bans on Pride marches and LGBTQ-themed events, but courts have found those bans to be unlawful. Nonetheless, the government frequently seeks to shut down such celebrations, either by making it logistically impossible to march or by directing police to disperse crowds or arrest those believed to have participated in demonstrations. In the run-up to Sunday, authorities in Istanbul sought to shut down all public transportation and set up roadblocks in the Taksim Square district to prevent Pride activists from marching in the area.

On Tuesday, June 20, Estonia’s parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage, making the country the first Baltic state, and the first ex-Soviet state, to legalize same-sex marriage.The vote comes a week after Lauri Hussar, the president of the Riigikogu, Estonia’s unicameral parliament, announced the commitment from the country’s liberal governing coalition to legalize same-sex marriage within a month.The law will take effect on January 1, 2024. It does not need to be ratified by any other governmental body.In a 55-34 vote, the legislature amended the Family Law Act, which encompasses topics such as alimony, custody, and child support, to permit  same-sex couples to wed.

A sitting U.S. senator has been censured by his own party for supporting a pro-marriage equality bill.Delegates of the North Carolina Republican Party voted overwhelmingly, by a 799-361 margin, to reprimand U.S.

The Hill.“Whether you’re organizing a Pride parade, running a small business, or just trying to focus at school, you should have — you shouldn’t have to deal with bomb threats, harassment, and violent attacks,” Biden said of the administration’s new initiatives.He also touted past progress on LGBTQ rights, including reversing the ban on transgender service members in the U.S. Armed Forces; executive orders signed by Biden ensuring protections for housing, employment, health care, and education; efforts to combat conversion therapy; national efforts to address public health crises, including the HIV epidemic and the outbreak of monkeypox; the FDA’s relaxing of restrictions on gay and bisexual male blood donors; and the signing of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would ensure same-sex marriages are recognized as valid, even in the case of a reversal of the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision legalizing marriage equality.Biden noted that more has to be done to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination and urged Congress to pass the Equality Act.

rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to prevent the results of the 2020 election from being certified.The ad flashes through images of several Republican politicians associated with the far right, including U.S. Reps.

Detroit Free Press.“I am so proud to be here, and I’m excited to put our state on the right side of history,” added Whitmer, who advocated for such a law when she served in the legislature from 2006 to 2015. Moss noted that equality advocates have spent the better part of five decades advocating for an expansion of civil rights protections, only to see those efforts stymied in Lansing.This was, in part, due to reticence by Republicans — who controlled the legislature for 40 years prior to November — to embrace the cause of LGBTQ equality, for fear of offending religious and socially conservative voters.“The baton has been passed generation to generation,” Moss said. “This moment is so long overdue, and too many suffered on the journey to get here.

WorldPride 2025, a global Pride event that typically draws millions of revelers and tourists.Presenting such a large-scale celebration also underscores the need for Washington to rapidly increase its number of public venues — including LGBTQ nightclubs and bars — over the next two years to be able to meet the demand for spaces for parties or other events.This year’s Pride celebration will feature the annual Pride Parade, which will follow the same route as last year, starting in Logan Circle and traveling to the West End via Rhode Island and Massachusetts Avenues NW, on Saturday, June 10.The annual Pride Festival and Concert will be held in its normal spot, along Pennsylvania Avenue NW, between 7th to 3rd Streets NW, facing the U.S. Capitol dome, on Sunday, June 11.Additionally, a Pride Block Party will be held on June 10 along 17th Street NW, in the historic Dupont Circle neighborhood. “We are thrilled to introduce our theme for Capital Pride 2023 as we gear up to welcome the world to D.C.

WUSF Public Media.The law, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis after being passed by Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature, prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and requires that such instructions be “age-appropriate” or “developmentally appropriate” in older grades. But opponents of the law claim the law is rife with opportunities for teachers and administrators to discriminate against LGBTQ students and children of same-sex parents in order to avoid offending conservative parents, who are empowered to sue for alleged violations of the law.In the lawsuit, first filed in March and amended in May, the plaintiffs claimed that the law violates their First Amendment and due process rights.

more than 79,000 community meetings between February and April to discuss some of the proposed changes, and amended some of its provisions based on community feedback, reports The Associated Press.Cuba’s National Assembly passed the revised code in July before sending it to the voters for final approval.While there are no independent observers of Cuban elections, Reuters reports that scattered local reports of district counts on social media appeared to align with official tallies. The approval of the code marks a significant shift with respect to both the government’s support for LGBTQ rights, and general attitudes towards homosexuality among Cubans.In the early 1960s, after former dictator Fidel Castro took power, many gay people were fired from their jobs and sent to labor camps known as Military Units to Aid Production, reports the Miami Herald.Although homosexuality was later legalized in 1979, many gay men and women reported experiencing discrimination in their daily lives.

The Cuban government has opened a path towards expanding the rights of LGBTQ citizens in the Communist nation.On Friday, the country’s National Assembly approved a slate of updates to its Family Codes that will, among other things, legalize same-sex marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt children. The fate of these Family Code updates, however, is ultimately in the hands of the Cuban people, who will determine whether to approve the changes in a Sept.

Roe v. Wade ruling guaranteeing the constitutional right to an abortion by a 5-4 vote, setting up a scenario in which more than half of the states in the country could be poised to, at some point, explicitly ban the procedure. With Roe overturned, the legality of abortion now depends on individual state laws, who will be allowed to regulate the procedure — or ban it outright — as they see fit. The ruling came in response to a dispute over a 2018 Mississippi law that banned abortions after 15 weeks, under the guise of prohibiting “inhumane procedures” on the grounds that a fetus is allegedly capable of detecting and responding to pain at that point in a pregnancy.

threatening to cut his microphone if he mentioned his sexual orientation during his graduation speech was able to deliver his preferred speech by using “curly hair” as a euphemism for “gay.”Zander Moricz, the senior class president at Pine View School in Osprey, Florida, and the youngest public plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, has long been an LGBTQ activist since coming out as gay. Since passage of the law two months ago, Moricz has claimed that teachers have preemptively sought to censor his freedom of expression, saying they will no longer allow him to speak about LGBTQ issues and cannot acknowledge his sexual orientation in class (even if he raises it without prompting).Moricz claimed in a statement posted to Twitter earlier this month that the principal of Pine View School warned him that he was unable to talk about his sexual orientation, his past activism, or his role as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

threatening to cut his microphone if he mentioned his sexual orientation during his graduation speech was able to deliver his preferred speech by using “curly hair” as a euphemism for “gay.”Zander Moricz, the senior class president at Pine View School in Osprey, Florida, and the youngest public plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, has long been an LGBTQ activist since coming out as gay. Since passage of the law two months ago, Moricz has claimed that teachers have preemptively sought to censor his freedom of expression, saying they will no longer allow him to speak about LGBTQ issues and cannot acknowledge his sexual orientation in class (even if he raises it without prompting).Moricz claimed in a statement posted to Twitter earlier this month that the principal of Pine View School warned him that he was unable to talk about his sexual orientation, his past activism, or his role as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

know what it means to be transgender now…People know that gender affirming care saves lives,” Maines said. “We know that transgender kids are not being groomed by their parents.

Poppy Field finally has made its way to virtual cinemas everywhere, available on VOD and digital.The Romanian drama, directed by Eugen Jebeleanu, earned, among other accolades, a Torino Film Festival Best Actor prize for star Conrad Mericoffer for his dynamic performance as closeted gay gendarmerie officer Christi, who lashes out with homophobic violence in order to protect his secret life.Christi’s angry outburst places him at the center of the storm inside a film theater where he and his fellow officers are trying to keep the peace after the screening of a lesbian film is loudly interrupted by a group of anti-LGBTQ protesters.The events of the film were inspired by a real-life 2013 incident in the capital, Bucharest, where anti-LGBTQ protesters shut down a showing of The Kids Are All Right.“I was not in Bucharest at the time. I was in Paris and was working there,” Jebeleanu recalls.

low approval ratings — even among people who previously voted for him in 2020 — Biden attempted to use his speech as a reset for his presidency, decrying Russia and its power-hungry President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine while offering praise and support for the Ukrainian resistance, and seeking to clarify his (and by extension, his party’s) positions on various domestic issues by calling for programs and bills that would make Americans’ lives easier, fight inflation, get the country back to “normal” following a two-year interruption caused by the pandemic, and calling on states and cities to deal with rising crime rates by fully funding police using money appropriated by the American Rescue Plan.But as he went through the litany of various domestic concerns, Biden seemingly hit on many of the issues and promises he had run on as a candidate for president, even though much of his priorities have been killed in the U.S. Senate, due to the inability to gain 60 votes to overcome the silent filibuster (exacerbated by the refusal of traditionalists to change Senate rules to either eliminate or reduce the 60-vote threshold, or require the minority to actively filibuster pieces of legislation, thereby calling attention to their opposition) as well as political posturing by conservative Democrats like Sens.

national study by HelpAdvisor, which found that nearly 2 out of every 3 LGBTQ individuals experienced feelings of depression in the past two weeks, a rate that is 21% higher than individuals who are not part of the LGBTQ community.The study cited also found that, nationally, more than 1 in 5 LGBTQ people experience feelings of depression “nearly every day.” The reporter asked Noem why she thought South Dakota boasted the highest rate of depression among LGBTQ residents, to which the governor responded: “I don’t know. That makes me sad, and we should figure it out.”White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who is a lesbian, shared the clip of Noem’s exchange with the reporters, tweeting: “Here’s a start for you, Governor. 1.

Reuters.

See also: Virginia GOP congressman rails against gay marriage, transgender shelter access in House floor speechIn terms of LGBTQ rights, it is unclear whether a Youngkin administration, an emboldened AG Miyares filing lawsuits against Democratic-approved laws, and a Republican-led House of Delegates would attempt to repeal or legally challenge some pro-equality pieces of legislation that became law over the past two years.At risk could be the commonwealth’s LGBTQ-inclusive nondiscrimination law,

To keep our progress, we must elect [Democratic gubernatorial nominee] @TerryMcAuliffe and Democrats up and down the ballot.”Among those endorsed alongside Roem are House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (Fairfax Station), Delegates Lashresce Aird (Petersburg), Alex Askew (Virginia Beach), Joshua Cole (Stafford), Kelly Fowler (Virginia Beach), Wendy Gooditis (Boyce), Nancy Guy (Virginia Beach), Elizabeth Guzman (Dale City), Dan Helmer (Fairfax Station), Candi King (Dumfries), Martha Mugler (Hampton),

The Washington Post.Hormel’s nomination appeared to be dead in 1998, but Clinton renominated Hormel for the vacant ambassadorship a year later, and installed Hormel in the post through a recess appointment, outraging Republicans.

remanded the case back to the Washington State Supreme Court for reconsideration, in case the decision might have been clouded by anti-religious bias.

Axios, Jenner has been contemplating a run and has consulted with Caroline Wren, a longtime GOP fundraiser who previously worked at Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee for President Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign. Wren also organized the rally that preceded the storming of the U.S.

Related: Many major news outlets featured anti-trans voices in coverage of the Equality ActJoi Chaney, the executive director of the National Urban League’s Washington Bureau, noted that the Equality Act not only provides protections for LGBTQ people, but updates the definition of what constitutes “public accommodations” to include additional protections against discrimination based on race and ethnicity in retail stores, service providers, transportation like taxis and ride shares, bars and

Agence France-Presse.In an unanimous decision, Malaysia’s top court agreed with the plaintiff’s argument, declaring the religious police’s power “is subject to a constitutional limit,” Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat wrote on behalf of the court.The high court’s ruling means the Islamic law is overturned and the man’s case should be dropped, his lawyer, Surendra Ananth.Human rights activist Numan Afifi, the founder of the Pelangi Campaign, an LGBTQ organization, called the decision an

METRO WEEKLY: What were you like growing up?KIERRA JOHNSON: I was painfully shy. I call myself a “recovering introvert” now, although I’m not ashamed to be an introvert.

See also: Virginia governor signs LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections into lawAfter being sworn in as a delegate in 2016, Levine co-founded the Virginia Transparency Caucus, advocating for various reforms that ultimately forced lawmakers to record, live-stream, and archive the votes and debates of every committee and subcommittee in the General Assembly.That change allowed ordinary Virginians would be able to keep track of lawmakers’ machinations without having to travel to the State Capitol in