LGBTQI+

Rachel Levine was confirmed as assistant secretary of health by the US Senate on Wednesday, making her the first openly transgender to be confirmed as a federal official. The vote was 52-48, with only two Republicans (Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski) joining the Democrats.

The 34-year-old actor Elliot Page has become the first transgender man to be featured on the cover of Time magazine, giving his first interview since publicly coming out in December. Page said that he was "was anticipating was a lot of support and love and a massive amount of hatred and transphobia" to his announcement, but did not anticipate the massive media response.

Members of European Parliament are set to vote on declaring the European Union a LGBTIQ Freedom Zone in support of the community. The move comes two years after the first Polish county officially discriminated against persons based on sexual preference or identity.

Hogwarts Legacy, the first open world adventure in the Harry Potter universe, is scheduled for release next year (Windows, Xbox One/SX/Playstion 4/5). The announcement of the game caused some anticipation among fans.

Despite J.K. Rowling making transphobic statements in the past, gamers will be able to play trans people in the new game. The body, voice, and address (wizard/witch) by other characters are likely to be freely definable and decoupled.

Following a decision made by students at Seaford Head School in East Sussex, United Kingdom, one of the houses will no longer be named after JK Rowling. The reason named is "her recent words about the trans community".

In addition, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill has been removed as name-giver as "a figure who promoted racism".

185 lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, non-binary and transgender actors and actresses have come out in the current SZ Magazin of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of the biggest German newspapers. "We are here and we are many!" - with these words begins the manifesto of the #actout group. The group emphasizes that there is no incompatibility between one's sexual and gender identity and the ability to embody roles convincingly and believably.

They wanted to initiate a debate, create visibility and break taboos. Actor and director Godehard Giese ("The spoken word counts") emphasized that the group's main concern in the run-up to the event had been to "make themselves visible".

Russian rights group The Russian LGBT Network has come forward saying that Russia has sent two gay men, who fled to Russia to escape torture, have been returned to Chechnya.

The group said that the men are in "mortal danger".

Reports say the pair were forcibly returned to Chechen authorities.

The Bremen District Court has convicted the Lutheran pastor Olaf Latzel of the regional church St Martini parish in the Hanseatic city, of incitement of the people. The fundamentalist pastor had made homophobic and sexist remarks at a marriage seminar in October 2019, and a recording was posted online in March with his consent on his YouTube channel, which has nearly 25,000 subscribers.

According to the court, the statements are incitement and could emotionally justify violence against homosexuals.

Bernd Kuschnerus, the senior theologian of the Bremen Protestant Church, said he was "deeply saddened that a pastor of our church has been convicted of incitement of the people." The statements on which the verdict was based were unacceptable and damaged the reputation of the church, he said. There had been strong opposition to Latzel from the congregations of the Bremen Protestant Church for years. The church leadership has initiated disciplinary proceedings against the pastor, but these are suspended until a legally binding judgment is reached. Latzel's defense filed an appeal.

The Hungarian Parliament has passed a new law on Tuesday that will expand the executive powers, making it harder for the opposition to challenge PM Viktor Orbán and his party, and lowering the legal threshold for the government to declare a state of emergency.

Further, it introduced a redefinition of the concept of "family" in the country's constitution, stating that the "foundation of the family is marriage and the parent-child relationship. The mother is a woman, the father is a man", resulting in effectively barring same-sex couples from adopting children.

Over 370 religious leaders from around the world are calling for an end to the criminalisation of LGBT+ people and a ban on gay conversion therapy, the pseudoscientific practise of trying to change an individual's sexual orientation. The leaders stated that "certain religious teachings have often, throughout the ages, caused and continue to cause deep pain and offence" to LGBTQ+ people and further have "created, and continue to create, oppressive systems that fuel intolerance, perpetuate injustice and result in violence."

Among those who signed are eight archbishops, including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu; over 60 rabbis, including former Chief Rabbi of Ireland David Rosen; the Catholic former president of Ireland Mary McAleese and various senior Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus.

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg to lead the Department of Transportation. If Buttigieg's nomination makes it through chambers, he would be the first Senate-confirmed LGBTQ Cabinet secretary.

Bolivia's Civic Registration Service (Sereci) has for the first time recognised the "free union" between two people of the same sex in the country, following a long legal battle between the couple, according to a resolution made public on Friday.

Sereci decided to "arrange for the registration of the free union between David Víctor Aruquipa Pérez and Guido Alvaro Montaño Durán", according to this document which cancels another resolution adopted by the same institution in 2018. The deputy of the right-wing party Creemos Samantha Nogales also said that this is an issue that will be evaluated, but that "it is fundamental to understand that human rights move forward and not backward and that in this case, we can show that Bolivians are all equal before the law."

According to a preliminary report by the magazine "Têtu" and a summary by Politico, French Secretary of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune has revealed himself to be gay in an interview for the latest issue of the queer magazine.

"Today it seems trivial to say it, but it is not a matter of course", said the 39-year-old, who also put the coming-out into a social context and declared: "Beatings, violence, rejection, all this will happen in 2020. Reporting my sexual orientation today is not indecency or staging intimacy".

Until the year 2000, soldiers of the German armed forces were discriminated against because of their homosexuality. The Cabinet has decided to rehabilitate the soldiers involved. Convictions of the military courts are to be overturned and compensation paid, confirmed the federal government on Wednesday the 25th.

Elliot Page, who earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his starring role in "Juno" after breaking out in the 2005 film "Hard Candy," came out as transgender on Tuesday, sharing the news in a long social media post.

Page, who has been credited in film and TV roles as Ellen Page, currently stars in Netflix’s hit superhero series "The Umbrella Academy".

Shortly after Page's announcement, GLAAD (the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) posted a tweet noting that the actor "has given us fantastic characters on-screen, and has been an outspoken advocate for all LGBTQ people".

The German Cabinet adopted a draft law that provides for the revocation of rulings by the military courts on consensual homosexual acts. For every relocated ruling Germany will pay 3000€ to the affected soldier and the same sum will also be paid to soldiers who have been dismissed because of their sexual orientation, who have not been promoted or who have not been entrusted with responsible duties. Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer had already recognized the importance of rehabilitation before the cabinet meeting and apologized to those affected.

Since 1981 hate speech against gays and lesbians has been a punishable offense in Norway. Now the Scandinavian country extended its protection law to include bisexuals and trans people. In the hate speech prohibition, the category "homosexual orientation" was changed to the category "sexual orientation" and so among other things also Bi- and Pansexual humans were included. Furthermore, "gender, gender identity or expression" was added. Under the law, hateful comments in public can be punished with up to three years imprisonment.

In Bangladesh the first Islamic school, where 150 trans people can attend courses free of charge, opens. This is a further step to support the queer community. In 2018, a new law was passed that gave trans people of the "third gender" named there the right to vote and to take up political positions.

Sarah McBride (Delaware), national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, becomes the first openly transgender state senator in US history.

"We did it. We won the general election. Thank you, thank you, thank you," McBride tweeted. "I hope tonight shows an LGBTQ kid that our democracy is big enough for them, too."