The Queer Insurrection First LGBT unit created to fight Daesh (ISIS) in Syria. BY VICTOR MELAMED LGBT supporters are fighting back against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) on the Syrian battlefield after three years of persecution in which their community suffered stoning and executions from rooftops, reports Newsweek’s Jack Moore. A group of international volunteers fighting…
Architect Ashley Smith, a transwoman, cleverly convinced the Texas governor to pose for a selfie with her, asking online how the bathroom police could recognize her as a male by birth if the governor could not. Good question! BAD NEWS BEARS Hello my dear FIGHT readers! When it rains, it pours as they say, and…
Role Model Equality California endorses Robert Garcia in Long Beach mayor reelection bid. BY VICTOR MELAMED Equality California has endorsed Robert Garcia in his campaign for reelection as mayor of Long Beach. “Robert Garcia is one of the most prominent and respected LGBTQ elected officials in the country,” said Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California.…
Career Opportunities Los Angeles holds training session to help trans youth find employment. BY PAULO MURILLO Over 100 caseworkers from L.A., county agencies, and local nonprofit groups attended a training session last month to focus on expanding career opportunities for transgender youth. Attendees learned about issues facing trans youth when seeking employment. There was a discussion…
Violence Against Russian LGBTS Prompts Young Violinist To Come Out to The World. BY LARRY BUHL Artem Kolesov didn’t plan to be a spokesperson for Russian LGBT rights. The 23-year-old violinist thought his coming-out would be limited to a Facebook status update on his birthday that a few people, and his mother, might see. In an…
#ResistMarch founder Brian Pendleton: “It was a moving human rights monument—and it was a beautiful thing to be part of.” BY MARK ARIEL A crowd estimated at about 100,000 took part in the #ResistMarch last month. The march for human rights, organized by LA Pride, was in solidarity with the National Equality March for Unity and…
From Russia Without Love European Court blasts Russia’s “gay propaganda” law. BY VICTOR MELAMED Russia’s “gay propaganda” law is discriminatory and encourages homophobia, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled, reports the BBC. The Strasbourg judges said Russia had discriminated against three gay rights activists who opposed the law. It was adopted in 2013, banning “promotion…
“Gay pride is the antithesis of gay shame… We’re not proud of being gay, per se. We’re rejecting society’s disdain, a disdain that heterosexuals have not experienced.” THERE WILL COME A TIME I couldn’t help but notice that you FIGHT readers showed your Pride early this year in solidarity with a national day of Trump protests…
CA Travel Ban New restrictions prohibit state-funded travel to anti-gay states. BY VICTOR MELAMED California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) will bar state employees from business trips to four states after those states passed measures limiting the rights of LGBT people, reports The Hill. The new restrictions prohibit state-funded or state-sponsored travel to Texas, Alabama,…
The #ResistMarch takes place on Sunday, June 11, 8am-1pm. It will start in Los Angeles, at the intersection of Hollywood and Highland. It will end in West Hollywood. When any American’s rights are under threat, all our rights are threatened. We are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer. We are people of color. We are people of…
“Fighting for justice, and winning, is what we know how to do. It’s one of the things we do best.” Excerpts from a speech by Lorri L. Jean, CEO, Los Angeles LGBT Center at “An Evening With Women,” last month. …When we gathered here last May, I began my remarks with a joke about Donald Trump.…
PHOTOS BY JOSEPH DANIELS United Equality is an artistic social movement in which subjects bare their bodies with the exception of a single bandanna. The subjects, photographed by Joseph Daniels, appear bare as a symbol of equality. The current campaign—#Resist—was created to “fight back against bigotry, sexism, racism, homophobia and xenophobia” in Trump’s America.…
Solidarity March, Rally For Gay Chechens In an urgent effort to help stop the atrocities happening against LGBT people in the Russian republic of Chechnya—in which hundreds of gay men are reportedly being kidnapped and tortured in concentration camp-like facilities to “purge” the country of homosexuality—a solidarity march and rally—“Eyes On Chechnya”—was held downtown last…
Back To The Future The first CSW Pride parade in L.A. was considered a protest march, as well as a celebration. Christopher Street West (CSW) is named after New York City’s famed Christopher Street, the June 1969 site of the Stonewall Rebellion. The CSW parade was started in June 1970 the year following the Stonewall Riot,…
My wife’s fantasy is that Democrats take the House and Senate in 2018, manage to impeach both Trump and Pence in a single maneuver, and Nancy Pelosi becomes president. LET US LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY Readers, I assure you there are few American citizens more disdainful of Donald Trump than me. But his comments…
Sally Q. Yates, the former Acting Attorney General for the Trump Administration, testified yesterday before the Senate panel investigating Russia’s efforts to influence the American political system alongside former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Yates, who became a hero to the #Resistance for refusing to defend Donald Trump‘s unconstitutional Muslim in the early days of…
The Republican controlled House of Representatives voted 217 to 213 today to kill Obamacare. And I’ve been trying to write about that vote for the last several hours but I have to keep stopping because I can’t see through the tears. 217 men and women voted to snatch basic healthcare out from underneath millions of…
