The United States of gay resistance
Gay news this week continued to circle around the Trump administration, with the New Yorker reporting on the wave of LGBT resistance to the new president. Meanwhile, a predicted executive order rolling back gay employment rights failed to materialize, possibly due to the intercession of Trump’s daughter and son-in-law. In the media, Lady Gaga performed at the Super Bowl in a show that was criticized for being either too political or not political enough, and Kristen Stewart called herself “gay” for the first time in public on Saturday Night Live.
Turing’s victory
The United Kingdom has finally passed a long-awaited law posthumously pardoning all men convicted under anti-homosexuality laws. Men who are still alive with a conviction can apply to be pardoned under the new law. The law is known as “Turing’s Law” after Second World War gay codebreaker Alan Turing.
Read more from the Canadian Press.
Lebanese legal victory
A Lebanese judge refused to convict two men of having gay sex, in an important legal victory for the country’s LGBT community. A Lebanese law criminalizes “sexual intercourse contrary to the order of nature,” but the judge dismissed the charges and said homosexuality was a personal choice and not illegal.
Read more at the Washington Blade.
Berlin fire kills three
A fire in the Berlin gay sauna Steam Works has killed three men, reports Gay Star News. Another 25 men escaped from the 2,000 square metre sauna.
A very queer family
What was it like to be gay before there were such thing as gay people? At The Atlantic, Deborah Cohen tells the story of a very queer family before the invention of modern sexuality.
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