US LGBT bullying numbers “heartbreaking”
A nation-wide study of bullying against LGBT adolescents in the United States confirms what smaller studies have suggested: queer students face stunning levels of violence and discrimination. LGBT children were three times as likely to have been raped, and twice as likely to be threatened by a weapon. More than 40 per cent said they had seriously considered suicide in the past year.
Read more at the New York Times.
Gay journalist Mark Thompson dead at 63
Journalist, author, spiritual leader and former senior editor of The Advocate Mark Thompson has died of natural causes at age 63. Thompson’s husband, Episcopal priest and civil rights freedom rider Malcolm Boyd, passed away 18 months earlier.
New Jersey to lesbians: Try having sex with a man
A lesbian couple trying to get pregnant are challenging a New Jersey law that says a woman must have unprotected intercourse for a man for a year before being eligible for fertility treatment coverage. Their insurance company claims the law requiring sex with a man is “gender and orientation neutral.”
Indonesia: No room for LGBT rights
A spokesman for the president of Indonesia says that while individual LGBT people should be respected by law, there is no room for a rights movement in the country. Indonesia’s year-long crackdown on gay rights has recently escalated to a petition calling for criminalization of gay sex.
Belize ruling could have ripple effect
After the supreme court of Belize ruled that the law criminalizing homosexuality was unconstitutional, other regional governments are taking note. The attorney general of nearby Antigua and Barbuda says the government is “examining” its own law against gay sex in light of the Belize ruling.
Read more at the Antigua Observer.
Why you can trust Xtra
