LGBTI News

yeah, genital inspections will go over well with the parents.

Research shows the only thing Republican lawmakers have to fear when it comes to inappropriate behavior in bathrooms is—wait for it—themselves.

At least three Republican legislators have been arrested for soliciting or performing sexual acts in a bathroom, according to NewNowNext.

But lawmakers in North Carolina, Arizona, Florida, and Texas have been pointing the finger at trans people. Those states continue relying on the claim that sexual predators will be able access to women's bathrooms if trans people are allowed to use facilities that match their gender identities instead of the sex assigned on their birth certificates.

Media Matters, a non-profit organization dedicated to monitoring media for conservative misinformation, found that no actual incidents involving predatory transgender people have occurred. What stories have circulated in the press have all turned out to be false and perpetuated by hate groups.

A Catholic high school in the Chicago area has reversed its decision not to hire a lacrosse coach just because she’s married to a woman after students rallied in support of her.

Amanda Kammes was offered a position as the head coach of the girls lacrosse team at Benet Academy, but the school rescinded the offer when she filled out paperwork and put her wife down as an emergency contact. “Likewise, as a Catholic school, we employ individuals whose lives manifest the essential teachings of the Church,” the school said in a statement, “in order to provide the education and faith formation of the young people entrusted to our care.”

Earlier this week, 40 alumni, parents, and students protested near the campus, shaming Benet Academy for refusing to hire someone because of their identity.

“We are ashamed of your narrow interpretation of Christian morality,” read a petition sent to administration that had over 3000 signatures.

“We write to express our dismay and anger at the news that Benet Academy recently declined employment to an otherwise qualified candidate on the basis of her marriage to another woman,” the petition said. “By rejecting a talented potential staff member on the basis of whom she loves, you have utterly failed to uphold the principles of dignity and charity that you purport to practice as Christian institution.”

And it worked. Benet Academy issued a statement saying that it “has extended an offer to Amanda Kammes” for the same position it had offered her before finding out she is married to a woman.

“The Board has heard from members of the Benet community on all sides of this issue over the past several days,” the statement said. “We had an honest and heartfelt discussion on this very complex issue at our meeting.”

“Going forward we will look for opportunities for dialogue in our community about how we remain true to our Catholic mission while meeting people where they are in their personal journey through life. For now, we hope that this is the first step in healing the Benet community.”

Assistant coach Colleen Savell said she’s “overjoyed” that the school changed its mind.

“I am so proud of the girls on the team and of their parents,” she told NBC News. “They have really rallied around Amanda, and it’s been unbelievable. They have blown my mind.”

In a national referendum on marriage equality held today, deemed “Marriage for All,” the citizens of Switzerland overwhelmingly voted in favor of allowing same-sex marriages to be legalized and equal to opposite-sex marriages.

The majority in all 26 cantons, or member states, of the Swiss Federation voted in favor of marriage equality. Final figures show that 64.1 percent of voters, or nearly two of every three, supported the measure. In December, Switzerland became just the 29th country on the planet to legalize marriage equality. The Swiss National Council – the lower house of the Alpine country’s legislature – approved a bill allowing same-sex couples to get married and allowing lesbian couples to have access to sperm banks.

The month before, the Council of States – the legislature’s upper house – passed the same bill with a 22-15 vote, the first time marriage equality legislation was adapted since it was first proposed by the country’s Green Party in 2013.

When the bill was passed, a national referendum wasn’t required, but anti-LGBTQ groups and politicians organized enough signatures by April 2021 to force a referendum to be held on the law.

While polling did show that allowing for marriage equality was in the majority, most polling prior to the actual referendum underestimated the support it had among Swiss voters. Much of the opposition was focused on the proposed law’s code affecting lesbian couples and sperm banks.

From 2007 up to now, same-sex couples in Switzerland were allowed to form domestic partnerships with limited rights, especially when it came to adoption and immigration. Many opposed to marriage equality claimed that this should sufficiently served same-sex couples, but LGBTQ advocates in the country felt otherwise.

This week a Polish regional council has voted to remain an "LGBT-free zone" despite a warning from the European Union that it could lose funding.

Numerous local authorities in Poland have declared themselves free of so-called "LGBT ideology" as gay rights have become a high-profile and deeply divisive issue in the predominantly Catholic country under conservative nationalist rule.

This has set Poland on a collision course with the European Commission, which says the zones may violate EU law when it comes to non-discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.

The southern Malopolska region said it had received a warning letter saying it could lose more than €2.5 billion of EU funds unless it revokes the declaration made in 2019 by mid-September. "We cannot simply deny what was said in 2019," said council leader Jan Duda, who is also the father of Poland's President Andrzej Duda.

"We need to meet and rewrite this declaration, as the one from 2019 has been misunderstood."

Some religious conservatives in Poland say they do not have anything against the gay community but they oppose what they call "LGBT ideology", which they say poses a threat to Christian values.

"LGBT-free zones" seek to ban the promotion of homosexuality and other minority sexual identities, especially in schools.

They oppose what they call "LGBT ideology", which they say poses a threat to Christian values. "Once again, the hatred and anger of PiS [the right-wing national-conservative political party in Poland] turned out to be more important than the good of citizens, and they will suffer the most from this decision," said Robert Biedron, a left-wing member of the European Parliament and Poland's most high-profile openly gay politician.

Poland's government denies having laws that discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis, the nation's first openly gay man to be elected governor, has tied the knot with his partner of 18 years Marlon Reis in a traditional Jewish ceremony attended by close family and friends.

The marriage between Polis, a Democrat, and first gentleman Reis, a writer and animal advocate, marks the first same-sex wedding of a sitting governor.

"The greatest lesson we have learned over the past 18 months is that life as we know it can change in an instant," Polis wrote in a Twitter post. "We are thankful for the opportunity to celebrate our life together as a married couple."

Polis and Reis both contracted COVID-19 last year and Reis was briefly hospitalized in December. The couple, who got engaged late last year, are parents to two children age 7 and 9, according to a statement from Polis' office.

A 2015 landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

While LGBTQ people remain "severely" underrepresented, the number of openly LGBTQ elected officials in the United States has increased by 17% between June 2020 and June 2021, according to areport by the LGBTQ Victory Institute.

Earlier this year, Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana and presidential candidate, became the first openly gay U.S. Cabinet secretary confirmed by lawmakers.

The South Korean government is under fire for not protecting the country’s young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people against widespread discrimination.

According to victims, teachers, mental health service providers, and international human rights and legal experts, South Korean LGBT members were ostracised and bullied in schools, suffered online abuse and, in some cases, physically harassed.

A new report by Human Rights Watch marks the latest international criticism of the administration of President Moon Jae-in, a former human rights lawyer, over what the US group described as “pervasive” discrimination against LGBT communities, as well as women and racial and ethnic minorities.

Ryan Thoreson, an LGBT researcher at HRW, urged Seoul to implement anti-discrimination laws.

“Without clear protections, many students suffer in silence at the expense of their education and wellbeing,” Thoreson said. He also warned that schools and mental health services were unprepared and incapable of dealing with the abuse suffered by young LGBT people. 

Lawmakers in Seoul have been debating a new anti-discrimination law, which includes banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

But for years the laws have faced fierce opposition by conservative groups, many of which have close links to the country’s evangelical Christian groups. Conservative politicians have also sought to remove sexual orientation from the ambit of the country’s human rights commission.

HRW noted problems not only of government inaction but also policies that they said fostered prejudice, such as state-funded mental health programmes that discouraged students from being LGBT.

Ahead of the report’s release, South Korea’s gender equality ministry and the human rights commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

DDing Dong, the country’s main helpline for LGBT youths, has reported a sharp increase in demand for its services with mental health and suicide concerns prevalent.

Lee Young-eun*, a woman now in her early 20s, was among those ostracised by her closest friends when she came out as gay in her final year of school. One teacher advised Lee that with sufficient prayer her sexuality could be reversed.

She said the government had a “long way to go” and that new laws were needed to provide equality for LGBT partnerships.

Lee and her partner, she said, have had difficulties being accepted for joint bank loans and when she was recently admitted to hospital for emergency care, her partner was not allowed to visit because she could not qualify as a legal spouse or guardian.

Cuba published a long-awaited draft of a new family code on Wednesday that would open the door to gay marriage if approved, in a move that LGBT rights activists applauded cautiously as they remained wary of whether it would actually be implemented.

The new code defines marriage as the "voluntary union of two people" without specifying gender, as opposed to the current definition as the "union of a man and woman."

The draft still needs to go to a grassroots debate, however, and will then be amended to take into account citizens' opinions before going to a referendum. Activists fear the commission charged with it could relent under pushback from religious groups and those who prefer traditional machismo culture.

They say the government should not have stipulated a referendum on what are fundamental human rights. The government says it wants to build rather than force acceptance of change.

In 2018 the government decided to withdraw an amendment to Cuba's new constitution that would have opened the door to same-sex unions after campaigning by evangelical churches.

"The blueprint for the family code is everything one could have hoped for," said Maykel Gonzalez Vivero, director of Tremenda Nota, a digital magazine that focuses on women, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community and the Black community.

"It took a long time and there was no transparency in its interminable process of nearly 15 years. But it's there."

Cuba, which sent gays to correctional labor camps in the early years after its 1959 leftist revolution, made considerable advances in LGBT rights in the 2000s and 2010s, despite the widespread persistence of machismo.

The island nation introduced the right to free sex reassignment surgery, banned workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and started holding annual marches against homophobia - Cuba's equivalent of gay pride.

Many members of the LGBT community say, however, they have been frustrated by a slowdown in the pace of change in recent years while a handful of other Latin American countries have moved forward with approving gay marriage.

In the recent Netflix documentary “Pray Away,” former leaders of Exodus International, once America’s leading conversion therapy organization, express shame over perpetuating efforts to change people’s sexual orientation and gender identity.

The interdenominational Christian organization shuttered in 2013, with then-president Alan Chambers apologizing in a statement “for years of undue suffering and judgment at the hands of the organization and the church as a whole.”

One year earlier, in 2012, California became the first state to ban conversion therapy on minors. Nineteen more have followed suit, most recently Virginia, in 2020. Five additional states have partial bans on the practice, which has been associated with “severe psychological distress.”

LGBTQ adolescents subjected to efforts to change their sexual orientation or gender identity are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide, according to The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit.

Nearly 1 in 10 LGBTQ people in the United States experienced workplace discrimination in the last year, and almost half faced employment bias at some point in their careers, according to a new survey.

The findings were published Tuesday in a report titled LGBT People’s Experiences of Workplace Discrimination and Harassment by the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law. It found that 46 percent of LGBTQ workers reported receiving unfair treatment at some point in their careers because of their sexual orientation or gender identity — including being passed over for a job, harassed at work, denied a promotion or raise, excluded from company events, denied additional hours or fired. An estimated 9 percent reported being denied a job or laid off in the past 12 months because of their orientation or identity.

Researchers at the institute surveyed 935 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer adults in May 2021, more than a year into a pandemic that has disrupted so many workplaces. Their questions asked respondents about discrimination in the last year, last five years and throughout their lifetimes. Because of the pandemic, questions about the previous year only related to whether subjects had been fired or denied a job.

As many as 1 in 4 (25.9 percent) LGBTQ employees said they had been sexually harassed at work at some point, while 1 in 5 (20.8 percent) reported physical harassment — including being “punched,” “hit” and “beaten up” on the job.

A Black queer woman in Pennsylvania told researchers that male co-workers inappropriately touched her and told her, “If you let me, I can turn you straight.” She described their behavior as “obviously very offensive and creepy.”

Another respondent, a gay man in Ohio, recalled a boss who treated him “horribly.”

“She would call me queer at all times and slap me in the face ... it went on and on for over a year,” he reported. “It was one of the saddest moments of my entire career and life.”

Reports of discrimination were higher among LGBTQ people of color, 29 percent of whom said they had been denied a job at some point because of their identity, compared to 18 percent of white LGBTQ employees. In addition, 36 percent of LGBTQ employees of color reported experiencing verbal harassment on the job, compared to 26 percent of white respondents.

Many respondents reported being given bad shifts or having their hours reduced, said Brad Sears, executive director at the Williams Institute and lead author of the new study.

“Shift work is a day-to-day reality for millions of Americans,” he said. “It’s harder to prove your boss is intentionally [giving you a bad schedule], but it can have a profound impact on your life.”

The report comes even as the judicial and the executive branches have been shoring up employment rights for LGBTQ workers: In June 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v Clayton County, Georgia, that Title VII’s protection against sex discrimination in employment extended to sexual orientation and gender identity.

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing any federal agency with protections against discrimination based on sex to interpret those statutes to also protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

“Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes,” he said in the order.

On Friday, a federal judge in Charlotte, North Carolina, ruled a Catholic high school couldn’t fire a gay drama teacher after he announced his engagement on Facebook.

“We were surprised there was such high percentages of discrimination in the last year, given the Supreme Court ruling and especially the pandemic,” Sears said. “We thought a lot of companies and workers would be coming together in a new way.”

Lil Nas X is raising money for LGBTQ and human rights nonprofit organizations ahead of the arrival of his debut album, "Montero."

The rapper tweeted a link to a "baby registry" Tuesday to welcome the album, which debuts Sept. 17. The registry shows a list of songs that will appear on the album. Next to each of the 15 track names is the name of a grassroots nonprofit group with a button that allows users to donate directly to the organization.

A conservative member of Utah’s board of education who criticized the use of a gay pride flag in a social media post is under investigation.

The Utah State Board of Education said in a statement released Tuesday that Natalie Cline’s post does not represent the school board and that it is reviewing the post for potential violations.

Cline shared a photo on Facebook this week of a gay pride flag in a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seminary building with a message welcoming members of the LGBTQ community to the seminary.

Cline then wrote: “Time to make some phone calls. The world is too much with us.”

Cline told the Standard-Examiner that she is in favor of welcoming “all students” but said that the seminary message welcoming the LGBTQ community could exclude others.

Troy Williams, executive director of the group Equality Utah, condemned Cline’s comments and criticized her for an “ongoing obsession with LGBTQ youth.”

“She has been leading a one-woman crusade against our community ever since she was elected to the Utah State Board of Education,” Williams said in a statement. “Her dangerous rhetoric continues to incite hysteria and moral panic among Utah parents.”

Cline’s post came shortly after Jeffrey Holland, a top leader for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called on church-owned Brigham Young University to uphold its commitment to the faith’s fundamental teachings, including its stance against same-sex marriage.

Before the Taliban uprising in Afghanistan, life for gay man Abdul (his name has been changed) was already dangerous.

If he'd spoken about his sexuality to the wrong person then, Abdul could have been arrested and taken to court for his sexuality, under Afghan laws.

But since the Taliban seized control of major cities in Afghanistan last week, Abdul tells Radio 1 Newsbeat his sexuality being revealed would now have him "killed on the spot".

The Taliban are a military group who have taken control of the country, and are known to enforce extreme Islamic ideals.

Under the Taliban's interpretation of Sharia Law, homosexuality is strictly prohibited and punishable by death.

President Joe Biden is nominating a Vermont judge who played a critical role in paving the way for the legalization of same-sex marriage to become the first openly LGBT woman to serve on any federal circuit court.

The White House announced Thursday that Biden has tapped Beth Robinson, an associate justice on the Vermont Supreme Court since 2011, to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. The court's territory includes Connecticut, New York and Vermont.

In 1999, before she was appointed to the Vermont Supreme Court, Robinson helped argue the case that led to Vermont’s civil unions law, the first legal recognition in the country of same-sex relationships — a forerunner of gay marriage.

Robinson served as counsel to Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, from 2010 to 2011. From 1993 to 2010, Robinson was a civil litigator in private practice at Langrock Sperry & Wool where she focused on employment law, workers’ compensation, contract disputes and family law.

Robinson previously worked at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington, D.C., focusing on white-collar criminal defense. She was a law clerk for Judge David Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia from 1989 to 1990.

The White House also announced that Biden is nominating employment law attorney Charlotte Sweeney for the U.S. District Court in Colorado. She would become the the first openly LGBT woman to serve as a federal district court judge in any state west of the Mississippi.

Biden thus far has announced 35 judicial nominees to serve on the federal bench.

A Chinese volleyball athlete has taken the rare step of publicly revealing she is gay by releasing a marriage-registry-style photo of her and her girlfriend on Weibo. “She doesn’t need to do anything, but I am surrendered time and again. She is the whole part of me, for one year and another,” athlete Sun Wenjing wrote on the social media platform last week. She announced she was a lesbian on September 9, a date with double digits of 9 that is regarded by the Chinese as a symbol of eternity and often selected by couples to register their marriage. China bans same-sex marriage, and LGBT people face widespread discrimination in the country despite years of campaigning for acceptance and equal rights by activists. Very few, if any, Chinese celebrities have publicly admitted they are gay. China has recently been deleting LGBT social media accounts of university groups and other organisations and called out “sissy” culture among celebrities and called for more traditional gender stereotypes to be promoted. Sun’s post received 48,000 likes and more than 4,000 comments on Weibo, most of which were supportive.

A man whose fiancé took his own life after his religious family refused to accept his sexuality is pleading with religious leaders to help improve relationships between LGBT+ children and their parents.

Nazim Mahmood hid his relationship for 13 years. Two days after coming out to his parents, he took his own life.

His death led partner Matt Mahmood-Ogston to consider killing himself too.

As a result, Matt set up a charity to help others in a similar situation.

The Naz and Matt Foundation aims to "prevent any religion from coming between the unconditional love of a parent and child".

Matt has written an open letter to religious leaders in the UK, pleading with them for to help improve relationships between LGBT+ children and their parents.

'Treated him like a disease' Recent research by Maru/Blue, commissioned by the charity, suggests that nearly two in three LGBT+ people from religious backgrounds struggle with suicidal thoughts, anxiety and depression as a result of not being accepted by their parents.

The couple met in 2001 but Matt says Naz feared coming out to his parents, worried there would be consequences.

In 2014, after returning to his home city of Birmingham from the couple's London home to celebrate Eid, Naz was confronted about his sexuality for the first time and decided to tell his family he was in love with a man.

"Their reaction was to tell him to go to a psychiatrist [to be 'cured' of being gay]. They treated him like he was a disease who needed to be removed from that family," Matt said.

There was just so much wrong with the California gubernatorial recall effort. First, and most glaringly, the cost to the state’s taxpayers was estimated to be almost $300 million. Second, it was an obvious failed attempt by Republicans at a power grab.

The recall had a flicker of promise at first after Governor Gavin Newsom locked the state down, and was then spotted dissing his own COVID protocols at the Napa Valley hot spot restaurant French Laundry. However, as the recall campaign progressed, Newsom got his mojo back, and began adding to his percentage of support, which stands at 60 percent on this day of the vote.

The Republican candidate that was getting most of the hype was Larry Elder, a conservative radio host. He has a history of making misogynist and generally offensive comments, including mocking premenstrual syndrome by calling it "Punish My Spouse.” And that "Blacks exaggerate the significance of racism." (Elder himself is Black.)

When pressed hard by MSNBC reporter Jacob Soboroff, Elder refused to say whether he’d accept the results of the recall vote, and hinted strongly that he felt the election would be rigged. Many were calling him the new Trump.

And there was one more garish element to this unnecessary waste of time, money, and opportunity – the candidacy of Caitlyn Jenner. When she announced she was running on the Republican ticket, she garnered an inordinate amount of press, and then squandered that by running a lackluster campaign with a platform that seemed to totally ignore her history, her gender, and her status as one of the most visible transgender people in the nation. I wrote in April that it was just a redux of Trump, since she tapped most of his former staff to run her campaign.

In May, I began a column about her by writing, “My second column about Caitlyn Jenner in as many weeks. And hopefully my last.” Here we are! Clearly, I didn’t adhere to my own counsel. At the time, Jenner was mimicking statements about trans athletes made by Tucker Carlson.

She said, when cornered by a reporter, “This is a question of fairness, that's why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls' sports in school. It just isn't fair and we have to protect girls' sports.”

Instead of using her candidacy to support her community, and giving interviews to reporters that weren't harmful to her brothers and sisters, Jenner could have been much more thoughtful and effective. She should have spent her time talking about the plight of trans women of color being murdered each day – this publication reports constantly on this epidemic – or promoting passage of the Equality Act, or promoting queer-owned businesses suffering under COVID.

She proved and solidified the notion that she is anything but an advocate for trans people, or queer people. There are so many of us regular folks who look to celebrities and noteworthy people as beacons of hope. How has she provided inspiration to anyone?

While it’s a bit pretentious and silly, let’s consider LGBTQ+ representation at the vaunted Met Gala last night, which is an annual event ostensibly held to celebrate fashion. Love it or hate it, last night the queer community was represented by true advocates who shone brightly on the red carpet. Dan Levy, Lil Nas X, Megan Rapinoe, and Elliott Page, just to name a few, used that platform to highlight their affinity and encouragement for our community, as well as chip away at outdated gender stereotypes.

Though you could say clothes as a whole are avaricious, last night they shined. Levy wore an outfit that featured two men kissing and said it "celebrated queer love and visibility" (it was an homage to legendary gay artist David Wojnarowicz). Rapinoe carried a purse which read, “In Gay We Trust.” Page wore a green carnation, which had historical significance since Oscar Wilde asked men to wear the flower to an opening night performance to one of his plays to demonstrate their queerness during a time when being gay was a crime. And Lil Nas X has been proudly pushing the gay agenda wherever he goes.

I tried to find an image of Jenner perhaps showing some LGBTQ+ Pride, perhaps by wearing a pin of the trans flag? But to no avail. I did, however, find her wearing a MAGA hat in 2017, and claiming that she wore it “by mistake.” Yes, I have MAGA hats sitting around my apartment that I always wear by mistake. Who says such a thing?

How pitiful, almost as pitiful as Trump’s denunciations of trans people and his administration’s record of implementing and supporting anti-LGBTQ initiatives, which Jenner tacitly approves of, and takes pride in via her choice of hats.

It almost seems that Jenner takes no pride in being trans, and takes no responsibility for how she can help millions of people struggling with their gender identity. It’s a baffling arrogance that has left many of her friends at a loss. In my May column, her friend, writer and activist Jennifer Finney Boylan, said she was done talking about Jenner.

Jenner is 71 years old, and since she’s come out as trans, she’s been a major disappointment to the LGBTQ+ community. It’s almost as if she’s ignorant to the plight of the problems that the average trans person experiences. She sits, almost as a recluse, high on top of a mountain in her multi-million-dollar home in Malibu. She has every right to live the life she chooses, but when she can help the rights of those who are afflicted, she takes a pass at every turn.

This race could have been something special for her, and for our community. She could have used her voice in a way that truly differentiated her from the dozens of Larry Elders in the race. Instead she tried to match Elder on supporting conservative issues. Just imagine how her poll numbers might have been different if our community supported her because she supported us?

Netflix just dropped a sports-themed documentary series, Untold, which includes the story behind the infamous Pistons and Pacers game in 2004 where the players fought the fans, and the tale of a hockey team run by the mob. It also includes the story of Jenner as an athlete and her performance at the 1976 Olympics, winning the Olympic gold for the decathlon.

It was interesting to watch Jenner talk about those days, nearly 45 years ago. She pointed out several times that winning the decathlon meant that you were the greatest athlete in the world. As she spoke, she became filled with pride about her accomplishment. I felt a little pity for her, and at the same time, resentment. Pity because she just seemed so lonely and lost, as if she was searching for that glory back. And then came that resentment.

If Jenner was half as proud about being trans as she was about her glory days, imagine what that would mean for our community – and Jenner's own happiness.

LGBT students often face bullying and discrimination in the classroom in South Korea, from adults as well as from other students,” said Ryan Thoreson, an LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Without clear protections, many students suffer in silence at the expense of their education and well-being.

Human Rights Watch and the Lowenstein Clinic interviewed 26 current and former students, and 41 teachers, parents, service providers, and advocates primarily based in Seoul, in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, and in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. Many of the students said that they felt alone when they realized they were lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, and did not know where they could turn for information and support when they had questions or were experiencing mistreatment in school.

Although some municipalities have enacted student rights ordinances that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, the national government has not yet enacted a comprehensive antidiscrimination law that would protect people in educational and other settings, including employment. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea can receive complaints of discrimination against LGBT people, but it lacks robust enforcement authority to ensure that those who experience discrimination obtain redress. Young people interviewed for the report described being excluded and ostracized, being targeted online, or being physically or sexually harassed. A 22-year-old lesbian woman recalled that once her sexual orientation became known at her secondary school, she was singled out for harassment and “the older students criticized me saying: ‘You are homosexual, you’re dirty.’”

A 17-year-old girl recalled a classmate saying that homosexuals should die.

Students who are transgender have also struggled with gendered restrictions in schools. Many South Korean schools divide students by gender or have gendered dress codes or facilities, and do not allow students to attend school consistent with their gender identity. This can pose a particular difficulty for transgender students, who may experience persistent discomfort or distress that jeopardizes their ability to get an education.

The abuses that young LGBT people face in schools are exacerbated by a lack of supportive resources. School counselors have no required training to ensure that they are competent to work with LGBT young people. Students said that they were not comfortable confiding in teachers or counselors for fear they would breach confidentiality, or criticize them for their sexual orientation or gender identity. Programs that do exist to protect students’ rights and well-being often neglect the needs of LGBT students. While South Korea has created counseling centers for young people and a youth hotline for mental health assistance, young people who have used those services said that the services were not affirming of and were at times openly critical of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. The national sexuality education curriculum does not contain any content on LGBT issues, and students said that LGBT issues were rarely discussed in other classes or were portrayed in a negative light.

Proposals to protect LGBT rights have been met with fierce opposition from conservative groups, who have vocally opposed any recognition or protection for LGBT people under the law. Despite growing popular support for LGBT rights, lawmakers have been unable to pass a comprehensive nondiscrimination bill, leaving LGBT people at risk of being fired, evicted, or otherwise mistreated because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Lawmakers and school officials should take immediate steps to ensure that schools are safe and inclusive environments for LGBT students, Human Rights Watch and the Lowenstein Clinic said. The National Assembly should enact a comprehensive antidiscrimination law and protections against school bullying. The Ministry of Education and Ministry of Gender Equality and Family should take steps to include LGBT material in both the national sexuality education curriculum and in mental health resources that are available to young people in South Korea.

School officials should implement policies to foster inclusion and support, including measures to incorporate LGBT issues into training and school curricula as well as systems, for confidential reporting and assistance when students experience mistreatment or distress.

“Schools need to be safe and inclusive spaces so that all young people are able to learn,” Thoreson said. “Lawmakers and school officials need to take meaningful steps so that LGBT students in South Korea can learn and thrive without fear of bullying, exclusion, and exposure.”

Elliot Page made his first red carpet debut since coming out as trans at the 2021 Met Gala, Sunday, and did so in a way that would have made famed gay poet Oscar Wilde proud. The Umbrella Academy actor looked chic in a black Balenciaga suit with a green flower pinned to the lapel. The flower caught the eyes of queer fans, who immediately caught the reference.

The green carnation became a symbol of queer love during the 1890s. It was popularized by Wilde, who asked his friends to wear them to the opening night of his shows, and who often wore one on his own lapel as it “embodied the decadent and the unnatural,” according to Oscar Wilde Tours.

Wilde was tried and convicted of “indecency” and sentenced to two years in prison for his queerness. Fortunately, we’ve come a long, long way since the 1890s, and Page received an outpouring of praise and support on social media, as fans took to Twitter to express their excitement.