LGBT+ - The African Mirror

Dec

2020

Bhutan parliament decriminalizes homosexuality, to delight of activists

GOPAL SHARMA A joint sitting of both houses of Bhutan's parliament has approved a bill to legalize gay sex, making the tiny Himalayan kingdom the latest Asian nation to take steps towards easing restrictions on same-sex relationships. Sections 213 and 214 of the penal code had criminalized "unnatural sex", widely interpreted as homosexuality. Lawmaker Ugyen Wangdi, the vice chairperson of a joint panel considering the changes, said 63 of the total 69 members of both houses of parliament had voted in favour of amending the code to scrap the provision. Six members were absent. "Homosexuality will not be considered as…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

UN rights boss welcomes Biden LGBT+ pledges, hopes for reversal of ‘serious setbacks’ under Trump

LGBT+

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's pledges to halt the separation of migrant families, address "systemic racism" and climate change are promising and could reverse setbacks during the Trump administration, the U.N. human rights chief said on Wednesday. Michelle Bachelet said that U.S. President Donald Trump had rolled back the rights of women, LGBT persons and migrants, as well as stepped back from multilateralism. The former president of Chile said that she knew Biden well as he had been given responsibility for Latin America while serving as vice president to President Barack Obama. "President-elect Biden has made a series of…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Football in hijab: Thai Muslim lesbians tackle stereotypes

LGBT+

RINA CHANDRAN ANTICHA Sangchai did not come out to her family until she was 30 and married with a child. It was her own struggle confronting the conservative community in southern Thailand that led her to create a place where women like her might feel more at home. In the bookshop she set up in Pattani city, discussions on gender and sexuality led to the birth of Buku Football Club for lesbian, bisexual and queer (LBQ) girls and women four years ago. Buku means book in Malay - and the club is now thriving. Last month, Buku FC hosted its…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

‘Juno’ actor Page comes out as transgender, changes name to Elliot

LGBT+

THE Oscar-nominated star of "Juno" and "The Umbrella Academy," formerly known as Ellen Page, has revealed that he was a transgender person and had changed his first name to Elliot. "I can't begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self," Page wrote on Instagram. "I love that I am trans. And I love that I am queer." Page, 33, was nominated for an Academy Award for playing a pregnant teenager in 2007 film "Juno" and starred in other movies including 2010 sci-fi thriller "Inception." The actor currently appears in…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

First LGBT+ digital banking platform launches in United States

LGBT+

MATTHEW LAVIETES THE first LGBT+-owned and targeted digital banking platform launched in the United States this week, part of a growing effort to meet the needs of gay and transgender customers. Daylight, the new platform, said it has developed tools and content to help LGBT+ Americans reach specific financial goals such as saving money for surrogacy or gender transition surgery and to make banking more inclusive. The nation's LGBT+ population wields some $1 trillion in collective spending power but are mostly underserved by banks that fail to tap into their assets or address their interests, Daylight Chief Executive Rob Curtis…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

‘Happiest Season’ spotlights LGBT love in Christmas rom-com

LGBT+

ROLLO ROSS "Happiest Season," starring Kristen Stewart, breaks the mold as a romantic comedy about a lesbian couple set around the holidays. Stewart, who is bisexual, says she's astounded it's taken this long for a major studio to get behind such a film. "I would have loved to have grown up with a movie like this. But the fact that I'm 30 years old and I'm in it - I feel really lucky to be in the first film, but I'm also baffled that it is," Stewart said. Stewart plays Abby, who's been in a relationship with Harper (Mackenzie Davis)…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

First openly gay Afro-Latino U.S. congressman: ‘Never in my wildest dreams’

LGBT+

ANGELA MOORE GROWING up in the Bronx poor, Afro-Latino and gay, Ritchie Torres said he never imagined that he would one day be elected to the United States House of Representatives. But in a few weeks, Torres, 32, a Democrat from New York, will become the first Afro-Latino openly-gay congressman. "I never thought in my wildest dreams that as a poor kid from the Bronx, I would become a United States congressman," Torres told Reuters the day before heading to the nation's capital for Congress's new member orientation. Torres makes history along with fellow Democrat and New Yorker Mondaire Jones,…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

First trans U.S. state senator wants to make a difference, not history

LGBT+

MATTHEW LAVIETES LGBT+ activist Sarah McBride hopes her election as the United States' highest-ranking transgender lawmaker will send a "reassuring message" to young LGBT+ Americans that they are represented - and can aspire to public office too. "I know how much of a difference it would have made to me to see this news," said McBride, 30, a Democrat who was elected to serve as a senator in Delaware - also the home state of President-elect Joe Biden. "A healthy democracy includes a diverse government and we can't craft solutions for a diverse community if the full diversity is not…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

With Twitter pronouns and victory speech, Biden-Harris signal new era for trans rights

LGBT+

RACHEL SAVAGE WITH vice president-elect Kamala Harris including her pronouns in her Twitter bio and president-elect Joe Biden thanking trans supporters in his victory speech, trans-Americans have already won exceptional backing from the incoming U.S. administration. Harris describes herself not only as a wife and auntie but also "she/her" on Twitter, signalling that one of the world's most powerful politicians is an LGBT+ ally who recognises the need to respect trans people by addressing them correctly. "It normalises the practice of stating pronouns," Zeke Smith, a trans U.S. writer and former reality TV star, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "It…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Transgender couple wed in Hungary, land of growing homophobia

LGBT+

BERNADETT SZABO and BALAZS KAUFMANN THE wedding of Hungarian transgender couple Tamara Csillag and Elvira Angyal looked just like any other, with the nervous pair dressing up and heading off to the rural Hungarian courtroom where their marriage would be sealed. But in the world of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, this was special as Orban, increasingly hostile to LGBT+ people, has outlawed legal recognition of transgender identity. Ironically, that made the wedding possible, as Csillag was stuck with male documents while Angyal had already completed her transition and had the documents to prove it. "Our dream has come true.…