It’s time for a good news round-up! Here’s a thread of all the feel-good stories from this week’s LGBTQ+ happenings… 🏳️‍🌈🗞️☀️
🧵 (1/13) The Latvian parliament voted to allow same-sex couples to establish civil unions in a historic first for the Baltic nation 🇱🇻 (2/13) thepinknews.com/2023/11/10/lat…

A queer children’s education company is giving hundreds of LGBTQ+ books to Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman’s constituencies following the politicians’ anti-LGBTQ+ remarks at the Conservative party conference last week 🏳️‍🌈👏📚
(1/4) 🧵 Olly Pike, CEO and founder of Pop’n’Olly, said that he hopes the gesture will “combat negativity and pain with joy”. He added: “It’s a bit cheeky, but I love it.”
Since 2019, Pop’n’Olly has donated more than 10,000 LGBTQ+ books to primary schools across the UK. (2/4)

A cisgender sportswoman who takes part in competitive powerlifting is using her TikTok to reveal the constant attacks she faces from anti-trans trolls on her gender identity 🏋️🏳️‍⚧️
🧵(1/6) TikTok user burritos_and_adhd, whose real name is Laura, is constantly criticised by trolls who have accused her of being a man. One user recently asked her: “Are you really proud of cheating the system?” (2/6)

Some positive LGBTQ+ news from Thailand: Pita Limjaroenrat, the man expected to become the country’s next prime minister, has vowed to pass same-sex marriage legislation within 100 days of taking office 🇹🇭❤️🏳️‍🌈
🧵 (1/7) The general election in the country last month saw the Move Forward Party win the most seats, a result that could challenge the status quo of former army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha, who has ruled Thailand since staging a military coup in 2014. (2/7)

On 6 June, violence erupted outside a school board meeting in the city of Glendale, California as LGBTQ+ activists and right-wing groups clashed over LGBTQ+ inclusion during Pride Month. (1/8) The confrontation happened as board members for the Glendale Unified School District, which represents 25,000 students, met to discuss recognising June as Pride Month, an agenda item they unanimously approved later in the evening. (2/8)

Today marks the death of Alan Turing, 69 years ago.

We have put together this thread where you can learn more about Turing’s extraordinary life and why it’s still so important we continue to remember and celebrate him. #PrideMonth 🧵(1/8) Who was Alan Turing? (2/8)

For the first time in its history, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has declared a national “state of emergency” for all LGBTQ+ people in the US 🇺🇸 (1/6) The HRC – the largest LGBTQ+ political lobbying organisation within the US – made its statement following an “unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults sweeping state houses this year”. (2/6)

A Mormon couple has been mocked for planting a so-called ‘family values’ flag in their back garden to protest Pride Month.

The statement, published by senior members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church) in 1995, purports homophobic claims that marriage… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… In her post, Despain wrote: “We heard June was the month to hang up flags celebrating our personal beliefs about gender, sexuality, and identity. So we hung up ours.” (2/5)

In a major win for LGBTQ+ equality, a Japanese court has ruled that not allowing same-sex marriage is unconstitutional 🇯🇵🏳️‍🌈
🧵(1/6) On 30 May, Nagoya District Court became the second to rule against Japan’s same-sex marriage ban, despite prime minister Fumio Kishida claiming the ban wasn’t discriminatory to the LGBTQ+ community. Japan is the only G7 nation that doesn’t recognise same-sex marriage. (2/6)

Participants in Channel 4’s upcoming documentary Gender Wars have accused the broadcaster of “misleading” them and said they “did not agree” to take part in the film viewers will see 🧵 (1/7) thepinknews.com/2023/05/28/gen… The documentary, which focuses on trans-exclusionary professor Kathleen Stock, claims to attempt to answer the dog-whistle question “what is a woman?” (2/7)

Tory MP Nick Fletcher has said that pronouns are a “problem” and should be removed from schools completely to “protect children”. “██’re confusing people,” ██ said. (1/8) 🧵 ███ comments were made during an interview with Times Radio, where ██ was asked whether education secretary Gillian Keegan should get involved in the case of Joshua Sutcliffe. (2/8)

Today we're celebrating #HarveyMilkDay as we remember his incredible efforts to fight for LGBTQ+ equality. The same fight for equality in which Harvey Milk's life was sacrificed remains as relevant today as it was in 1978:
#HarveyMilk #LGBTQActivist #LGBTQNews #LGBTQ 🧵 Harvey Milk made some incredible strides forward towards equality with his vital work, but, even in 2023, there are still many more miles still to go when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights across the world...

Happy #Agender Pride Day to all the wonderful agender people in our community 🥰💚

Today we are taking some time to bust certain myths about the agender identity🧵 ⁠⁠(1/9) Myth 1: You can't be genderless (2/9)

In an exclusive interview, Rep. Zooey Zephyr 🏳️‍⚧️ (@ZoAndBehold) tells PinkNews that Republicans are using "transgender boogeyman" as a smokescreen to hide real problems in the US 🧵(1/6) She became the subject of controversy in April after she was censored and banned from the Montana House for the remainder of the 2023 legislative session after speaking out against the anti-trans Senate Bill 99. (2/6)

Support for same-sex marriage is at an all-time high in Hong Kong, with 60% of people now thinking the law should be changed… 🇭🇰🌈🧵 (1/5)
thepinknews.com/2023/05/18/hon… A study of 1,551 people found that just 17% of those surveyed disagree with same-sex marriage, while 23% said they were neutral on the topic. That represents a radical shift from a similar survey a decade ago. (2/5)

Dannii Minogue, pop princess and host of #IKissedABoy, has unveiled her latest act as a fierce ally and full-time ‘mother’ to the gays after announcing a new single – with all profits going to queer charity @switchboardLGBT... 🌈🧵 (1/4) ‘We Could Be The One’, which also happens to be the theme song to I Kissed a Boy, will be released on 2 June.
The gay dating show features a group of queer men in a villa in Italy on a quest to find love – and they have to snog their partner before anything else. (2/4)

We are bringing you some positive LGBTQ+ news this #IDAHOBIT 🏳️‍🌈:

Taiwan has passed ground-breaking legislation to grant same-sex couples full adoption rights - in a massive win for equality 🙌🧵(1/5) In 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage, and has now approved an amendment to an existing law after years of fierce campaigning by LGBTQ+ activists. (2/5)

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy has fought for the queer community for more than 50 years – from participating at Stonewall to battling the modern pushback on trans rights.

For this #IDAHOBIT Miss Major tells PinkNews all about her decades-long fight for equality. 🧵 (1/6)… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… The Black trans activist grew up in the 1950s and 60s when LGBTQ+ people face immense discrimination for living their truth. Police frequently raided queer spaces, which served as places of refuge for LGBTQ+ folks where they could express themselves openly, amid a US-wide… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

This International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, we've put together this thread, to create awareness about micro-aggressions against the LGBTQIA+ community - which people don't realise are harmful #IDAHOBIT (1/7) What are microaggressions? (2/7)

The 2023 National Conservatism conference was just as problematic and anti-LGBTQ+ as you might expect. The event was filled with fringe, far-right and homophobic speeches from deeply controversial talking heads and members of parliament… 🧵 (1/6) The annual right-wing conference platforms far-right speakers who, according to its website: “Understand that the past and future of conservatism are inextricably tied to the idea of the nation.” (2/6)

St John Ambulance Ireland (SJAI) has issued an apology to victim-survivors of sexual abuse after an independent review revealed it “incorporated homophobic myths” into its early training – and “facilitated grooming and predatory behaviour”. 🧵(1/8) The review, led by child protection expert Dr Geoffrey Shannon, was commissioned by SJAI in response to a number of complaints relating to sexual abuse of members under the age of 18. (2/8)