Happy Monday! Welcome back to another week at Xtra, where we’ve rounded up the top five stories in LGBTQ2S+ news.
1. Pixar unveils its first openly non-binary character
2. British prime minister Rishi Sunak was caught making transphobic comments at a private Conservative party
3. Clashes between officials and festival organizers at South Korea Pride festival
4. For the first time, activists in Moldova were able to host a Pride Parade without heavy police protection
5. A Trump-appointed judge has blocked an Indiana trans healthcare ban, citing “irreparable harm” to trans kids
1. Pixar unveils its first openly non-binary character
Pixar’s latest animated movie has made history, with the first ever explicitly non-binary character in the studio’s history gracing the narrative of Elemental, playing in cinemas now. The story follows characters taking the form of earth’s elements, helped by some quirky friends, like non-binary character Lake Ripple.
Lake Ripple is played by non-binary voice actor Ava Hauser, who announced their role in a tweet. Animator Alyssa Ragni, who is also non-binary, also shared that they had contributed to the animation of Lake and their girlfriend in the movie.
The movie’s release does, however, point to the importance of supporting LGBTQ2S+ content, and the importance of strong marketing in the face of the shift to streaming media. The film is expected to have the second-lowest opening of any widely released Pixar movie in history.
2. British prime minister Rishi Sunak was caught making transphobic comments at a private Conservative party
Conservative UK prime minister Rishi Sunak was caught making transphobic comments at a party with the 1922 Committee, a group of Conservative MPs that meets weekly.
In a video leaked to PinkNews, Sunak is seen mocking Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey for supporting trans rights.
“Over the same period of time, you might have noticed Ed Davey has been very busy,” Sunak said in the video. “Like me, you can probably see that he was trying to convince everybody that women clearly had penises … you’ll all know that I’m a big fan of everybody studying maths to 18, but it turns out that we need to focus on biology.”
In comments to PinkNews, the individual who leaked the video said that younger attendees looked uncomfortable throughout. Another senior Conservative MP told the outlet that the othering of minorities in this way is “profoundly depressing.”
3. Clashes between officials and festival organizers at South Korea Pride festival
On Saturday, the Daegu Queer Culture Festival took place, an annual Pride parade packed with queer festivities in South Korea. But many local businesses, churches and government officials made attempts to stop the festival, with police officers having to “forcibly remove city workers” to allow people to set up for the event.
One of those city workers seems to be the mayor of Daegu, Hong Joon-pyo, who led those protesting the event. He previously mobilized to ban the festival with a court injunction earlier this year, though the courts had sided with festival organizers.
Hong reportedly deployed 450 public servants to stop organizers from setting up, according to the Korea Times. Around 1,500 police officers came to stop the attempts, with the Daegu Police Agency saying they would protect the organizers’ and participants’ “constitutional rights to freedom of assembly and expression.”
“Let’s not lose to the hate groups. Let’s dance with pride, resist discrimination while also having fun and march through the city centre of hyper-conservative Daegu,” said Bae Jin-kyo, chairperson of the festival’s organizing committee to cheers on the day.
4. For the first time, activists in Moldova were able to host a Pride parade without heavy police protection
For the first time, activists in Moldova’s capital, Chișinău, have been able to celebrate Pride without facing heavy protestors. In previous years, the parade has been subject to heavy police cordons, to protect groups from protestors “largely linked to the Orthodox church,” Reuters reported this weekend.
“Judging from the march, European Moldova is progressively moving toward a normal society of people with diverse views,” Alexei Marcicov, one of the organizers, told Reuters.
While around 100 Orthodox clergymen and supporters held protest signs, hundreds of participants walked on by, waving rainbow flags in the face of hate.
5. A Trump-appointed judge has blocked an Indiana trans healthcare ban, citing “irreparable harm” to trans kids.
Trump-appointed federal judge Patrick Hanlon has halted Indiana’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth, saying that the ban could cause “irreparable harm” to the kids affected.
As Xtra contributor Erin Reed reported, Judge Hanlon found that the proposed ban “likely violates the constitutional rights of equal protection under law.” He found all major factors considered in his decision to come down “overwhelmingly in favour” of the plaintiffs advocating for the law to be stopped.
Hanlon ordered a preliminary injunction to stop the ban, making Indiana the fourth state to have a gender-affirming care ban blocked in court.
Thus far, conservative-led bills targeting trans people have not managed to secure a single court victory, signalling a hopeful trend for advocates of LGBTQ2S+ rights in the face of an onslaught of anti-trans legislation, per Reed.
🌈Bonus good news (because we need it)🌈
Great news for all the crush-stricken gays out there—the first scene of Heartstopper Season 2 just dropped!
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