I’m sure by now you’ve all heard the news. A small shitstorm started in the UK about ‘obscene’ ebooks depicting underage sex, bestiality, (pseudo) incest and rape fantasies has grown in the last few days to an all-out war on indie books. Some genius apparently went to WH Smith’s online store (powered by Kobo) and typed in “daddy”. You can imagine the results. (more…)
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably aware of the increasingly hostile situation faced by gay men and women in Russia at the moment. It’s never been a good time to be an LGBT Russian, but since the recent passing of an anti-gay propaganda law things have only got worse. (more…)
Some of you may have seen a (very quiet) announcement in the news that by the end of the year, the majority of British ISPs will block access to pornographic content unless a homeowner opts in to receiving it. There are a multitude of reasons why this is a Very Bad Thing, and why we should all be worried. (more…)
An interesting case came up for sentencing today in Scotland. Chris Wilson was sentenced to three years’ probation and 240 hours community service for the crime of “obtaining sexual intimacy by fraud”. His fraud? Not telling his girlfriend that he was trans. (more…)
Yes, it’s finally here. The US Supreme Court is hearing two major cases this week – first on California’s Proposition 8 (that particularly nasty piece of legislation which took marriage equality away from people to whom it had already been granted) and tomorrow DOMA itself.
It takes a lot to make me feel sick. I’ve got a pretty strong stomach; I’ve drank from a stream while hiking, gone further uphill and found a rotting sheep carcass in said stream and still held onto my lunch. But something I saw today induced a wave of rolling nausea so great I feel compelled to share it. This video is just over 4 minutes long; I urge you to watch it all, with the sound up. But if you’re really pushed for time, skip forward to 55 seconds in. (more…)
Last week I wrote about the speeches given by various MPs during the equal marriage debate. I said I had never felt as proud of UK MPs as I did that day, and I meant that. Genuinely. But there’s one MP I am not proud of – my own MP, Derek Twigg; one of only 22 Labour MPs to vote against equal marriage.
Yesterday was a bit of a write-off for me. The UK House of Commons was discussing the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill from 12.30pm right up to the vote at 7pm. I followed the entire thing as it happened. (more…)
Hands up who’s bored of the equal marriage debates rumbling through virtually every country in the west at the moment? It seems every other US state is currently having a referendum on the matter – with some voting for, and some against – the UK bill just hit parliament, and Paris was invaded by hoards marching both for and against. SCOTUS briefs are currently being filed in advance of the hearing on DOMA. (more…)
We’ve all heard the term LGBT, right? Gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans*. Do you know how many groups consider that acronym redundant? The NYT ran an article recently on what it dubbed “Generation LGBTQIA”. Here’s just a sample of some of the labels you can apply to your sexual identity: gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, queer, homosexual, asexual, pansexual, omnisexual, trisexual, agender, bigender, third gender, gender queer, intersex, two-spirit, polyamorous… The list goes on. (more…)