queerability:

Let your voice be heard about what you think are the most important issues for the LGBTQ community!

blackgirlinrussia:

“Homosexuality is not a perversion. Perversion is hockey on grass and ballet on ice!” reads one picket sign, held aloft by a middle-aged man. “Against all forms of discrimination,” proclaims another, held by a young woman. “My gender is my choice,” says a third.

The scene was Moscow Pride. The year was 2007. This parade for recognition and celebration of gay rights was later violently attacked by anti-gay activists - a scene which has repeated itself basically every year since the event was first organized in Moscow in 2006.

The 2007 Pride rally, like every other year’s gay rights event, was unauthorized. Moscow city officials have consistently refused to approve annual gay pride parades, and 2013 is no exception.

Authorities announced last Wednesday that they will not approve gay rights activists’ request to hold a parade in the capital on May 25, saying the event would undermine morality and patriotic values. Applications to hold gay rights events in the designated free speech zones in Sokolniki Park and Gorky Park were also turned down.

The government’s refusal to allow gay pride events is just one symptom of a broad movement against homosexual rights underway in Russia. Anti-gay sentiment has grown increasingly hostile in recent years, to a point which some critics label it a violation of human rights.

Read More…

:(

lottelodge:

Nonbinary/genderqueer folk, do you feel like anonymously contributing to some stats about gender identity and expression?

I’m running a bit of an informal data-gathering thing to see how people express their nonbinary gender. I’ll publish the statistical results in July 2013 in the form of graphs and charts.

You will not be asked for your name, sex/gender assigned at birth, or email address. For information on the safety of your information and anonymity, click here: http://lottelodge.tumblr.com/post/50751981387

The questions are about how you describe your gender, and your preferred titles and pronouns, and that’s it. Lots of multiple choice, so it’s very quick and easy.

gaywrites:

Though France took a huge step by legalizing marriage equality this weekend, a high number of Europeans still face anti-gay discrimination regularly, according to a new study.

A survey released Friday of more than 93,000 LGBT Europeans found nearly half had felt discriminated against in the previous year based on their sexual orientation. Two-thirds said they were afraid to hold hands with their same-sex partner in public, especially gay and bisexual men.

“A too great number of LGBT people across Europe are being barred from being themselves. Their ability to enjoy their basic human right of living with dignity, to enjoy life and express themselves freely without discrimination, is being denied,” EU Agency for Fundamental Rights Director Morten Kjaerum said during a speech announcing the findings.

According to the report, the countries with the largest proportion of respondents who felt discrimination based on sexual orientation in the past 12 months included Lithuania (61 percent), Croatia (60 percent), Poland (57 percent) and Cyprus (56 percent).

In some cases, the Huffington Post notes, this discrimination has manifested itself in violence documented by other recent studies:

The EU survey comes on the heels of the release of SOS Homophobie’s 2013 report of homophobia in France, which revealed a sharp increase in the number of anti-gay attacks in the country.

According to the annual report, 645 cases were reported to the French LGBT organization last year, compared to 249 reported cases in 2011, illustrating that the number of anti-gay assaults has more than doubled in France. However, almost half of the attacks occurred in the last three months, during the time gay marriage demonstrations began to heat up in Paris, SOS Homophobia President Elisabeth Ronzier indicated to Le Huffington Post.

This is really unfortunate and even frightening. Marriage equality is great and all, but it’s worthless if we’re not safe being ourselves on the street. We’ve got some work to do.