The United States Supreme Court curtailed LGBTQ rights and struck down debt relief for students on June 30, reports Barry Sheppard.
LGBTIQ rights
Hundreds of trans rights supporters demonstrated their solidarity and opposition to聽transphobic agitator Kellie-Jay Keen Minshull鈥檚 speaking engagement at Parliament House.聽Darren Saffin reports.
Women鈥檚 and LGBTI rights activists presented Venezuela鈥檚 National Constituent Assembly (ANC) with a series of proposals to legalise abortion and expand sexual and reproductive rights on June 20. This comes in the wake of the vote in Argentina鈥檚 Congress to legalise abortion, and at a time when the issue of abortion has gained added importance given the impact Venezuela鈥檚 economic crisis has had on women.
Venezuela鈥檚 Revolutionary Sex and Gender Diversity Alliance (ASGDRe) was set up in 2009 as a collective to fight for gender diversity rights and against discrimination based on sexuality.
What separated ASGDRe from other similar groups was that they openly supported the revolutionary process taking place in Venezuela.
Speaking with members of ASGDRe, as part of the international solidarity delegation organised by Venezuela Analysis in August, they told us that the group began with about 10 members, mainly friends.
The waving of the rainbow pride flag at a concert on the outskirts of Cairo has triggered a backlash of state repression against the LGBTI community.
Several flags were raised at a performance to 35,000 people by the Lebanese indie-rock band Mashrou鈥 Leila on 22 September. Mashrou鈥 Leila is fronted by lead singer Hamed Sinno, one of few openly gay musicians in the Middle East. Sinno paid tribute at the concert to the late gay icon Freddie Mercury.
I believe we鈥檙e going to win this postal survey and, probably after some period of delay from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, we will win marriage equality too.
And when we do, Turnbull is going to want us to remember him as the prime minister who gave us marriage equality.
So let鈥檚 put something on the record: This community was never given anything by Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition.
The first LGBTQI rights march in Parramatta since 1983 was held on October 29.
It attracted more than 200 people to Centennial Square outside the Parramatta Town Hall before marching to the annual Parramatta Pride Picnic on the River Foreshore.
While polls are giving the Yes vote for marriage equality a substantial lead, campaigners for equality do not want to leave any vote to chance.聽
They have and are organising across the country until November 7 鈥 the final deadline to return postal survey forms to the Australian Electoral Commission.
Since the High Court challenge to the federal government鈥檚 marriage equality survey was dismissed and the survey received the green light, streets have been painted all the colours of the rainbow as historically large protests and displays of solidarity sweep the country.
The campaign for marriage equality has been fighting the delaying tactics and homophobic policies of Labor and Liberal governments for the past 13 years.
A rally in support of equal marriage has drawn the biggest LGBTI rights rally in Canberra's history and the biggest crowd Canberra has seen since the rally against the decision to send Australian troops to Iraq in 2003.
More than 3000 supporters of marriage equality filled Garema Place on September 2, before marching through Civic to demand immediate action on marriage equality.
The rally was organised by marriage equality group Equal Love, which organised the Melbourne protest on August 26 that saw more than 20,000 people demand equal marriage rights.
I have no doubt that the plebiscite would have been won: it would have been a huge opening to build a mass movement for marriage equality and demolish the opposition. But I shared fears that the 鈥淣o鈥 campaign would have hurt our youth.
Reactions by politicians and the media around the world to the horrific mass murder at an Orlando LGBTI club on June 12 have largely focused on the attacker鈥檚 alleged links to Islamic extremists 鈥 despite the killer pledging allegiance to both the Islamic State group and its nemesis Hezbollah.
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