Search Results for: LGBT

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law Wednesday calling for confiscation of property for those who commit crimes “detrimental to national security” and those who disseminate fake news about Russia’s military according to TASS. Russian lawmakers previously passed the bill through the Duma in January. With Putin’s signature, the bill has now become law. According [...]

The Alabama Senate approved a bill on Wednesday that puts a politically-appointed board in charge of the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH), as well as a bill that makes it easier for municipalities to fire members of a local library’s board of directors. The bills are widely seen as a response to an ADAH [...]

Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor on Friday began an investigation into the alleged spread of “LGBT propaganda” by the language learning application Duolingo, as reported by state-run news organization TASS. Specifically, Duolingo is suspected of running afoul of Article 5 of Russia’s law “On the Protection of Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development,” [...]

Iowa lawmakers declined to advance a piece of legislation on Wednesday that would have removed gender identity as a protected class under the state’s civil rights law. In a 3-0 tally, a subcommittee of the Iowa legislature’s Judiciary Committee voted against moving the bill forward. Although the bill sought to add a new category to [...]

The Ohio Senate voted on Wednesday to override Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of HB 68, which bans gender-affirming care for transgender youth and restricts transgender participation in sports. The Ohio House previously voted to override the governor’s veto on January 10. The two votes to override means the governor’s veto is void and the law [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for Meta to improve their protection of LGBTQ+ people on Facebook and Instagram on Tuesday. This new campaign follows an HRW report from 2023, which found that security forces in the Middle East and North Africa use social media platforms to gather evidence to prosecute them. A new campaign, titled [...]

Russian LGBTQ+ rights organization SOS Crisis Group reported on Wednesday that Rizvan Dadaev, a Chechen who was detained due to his sexual orientation, managed to escape from Russia with assistance from the organization after being tortured. LGBTQ+ people have a history of persecution in Russia and its Chechnya region. Dadaev, a resident of Chechnya’s capital [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW)  released its 2024 World Report on Thursday detailing the state of global human rights. The report’s central theme was that “transactional diplomacy” undermined global human rights institutions and enabled autocrats to worsen violations. HRW Executive Director Tiran Hassan described “transactional diplomacy” as when “governments disregard the benefits of long-term relationships built [...]

West Virginia State Senator Mike Azinger introduced a slew of bills targeting transgender people on Wednesday, including a bill to classify transgender people as “obscene matter” and a bill banning gender-affirming care for people under the age of 21. Senate Bill 195 amends the state’s indecent exposure law to criminalize engaging in “obscene matter.” It [...]

Finnish member of the European Parliament (EP) Petri Sarvamaa announced Tuesday that he launched a petition to deprive Hungary of its right to vote in the EU’s decision-making council. The petition is open for signatures by members till Friday. Sarvamaa shared the petition, which is addressed to the President of the EP Roberta Metsola, on [...]