Lithuania: Weeding out new army recruits by asking if they like flowers

Lithuania has come up with a unique way of ensuring their army doesn't have any gays in it, and that is by asking new recruits whether they like picking flowers. Having reintroduced compulsory military draft earlier this year, randomly selected candidates will now have to report to a military recruitment office in order to be screened for suitability.

The screening, which includes a psychological test, asks 'Does the candidate like picking flowers or has the candidate ever considered a career in the floral industry?' Another question asks if a male candidate has ever desired to be a woman.

Kęstutis Ramanauskas, a psychiatrist at a military recruitment office in Klaipėda, western Lithuania, said: 'After reviewing initial data supplied by the [psychological] test, I try to analyse the person more thoroughly. I use it as a criteria to screen them out. Though it is claimed that [homosexuality] is not a disease, but it is.' Read More

For LGBT millennials, online dating apps are a blessing and a curse

In today’s app-happy world, finding love is as easy as the swipe of a finger. For a generation raised in front of LED screens, it’s only logical that technology now plays such a huge part in the adult love lives of millennials (and plenty of non-millennials as well). Conditioned to socialize online as young adults, these 18 to 34 year olds are now taking the same approach to finding partners.

Unlike their straight counterparts, LGBT millennials don’t always have the same opportunities for the traditional courtship behaviors the Times is so intent on eulogizing. Indeed, for LGBT singles in conservative families or communities, online dating may be the only safe way to meet potential suitors. Anxieties are amplified in countries where homosexuality is still illegal. Recently, creators of gay dating app Scruff created an alert for the 100 some countries where it’s dangerous to be openly LGBT. In these areas, LGBT visitors and longtime inhabitants end up using the app to find dates or sexual encounters. 

Furthermore, while some dating apps have developed something of a negative reputation for their emphasis on no strings attached sexual encounters, it’s not quite so black and white. Forced online, even those in favor of long-term relationship may change their minds after more traditional routes become inaccessible or uncomfortable. Read More

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US: The Family Research Council’s anti-trans guide is an embarrassing failure of logic

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Conservative Christian think tank and political lobbying organization, the Family Research Council has long traded in dubious claims and hateful rhetoric. New document, “Understanding and Responding to the Transgender Movement,” is no exception: Authors, Dale O’Leary and Peter Sprigg, fall back on the usual appeals to discredited pseudoscience and decades-old scholarship. But they also embrace a far more surprising referent, the language of the feminist and queer activists they’ve spent decades fighting, even as they back away from their own conceptual and intellectual vocabularies.

While the FRC pitches itself as a defender of a “Christian worldview,” O’Leary and Sprigg claim to be protecting a far more nebulous concept. “In recent decades,” they write in their introduction, “there has been an assault on the sexes.” Read More

Apple launches new App Store section showcasing LGBT content to commemorate 1969 Stonewall riots

In the featured  App Store section, Apple is highlighting apps, movies, music, TV, podcasts, and books that represent the LGBT community. Selections include Milk, a 2008 drama based during the 1970s push for gay liberation, the HBO film The Normal Heart, the drama Brokeback Mountain, music from artists like Adam Lambert, Sam Smith, and Neon Trees, and various other TV shows, podcasts, books, music, movies, magazines, and apps. Read More

My name is only real enough to work at Facebook, not to use on the site

I always knew this day would come. The day that Facebook decided my name was not real enough and summarily cut me off from my friends, family and peers and left me with the stark choice between using my legal name or using a name people would know me by. With spectacular timing, it happened while I was at trans pride and on the day the Supreme Court made same sex marriage legal in the US.

This is a story that’s been told many times before. It is a story I’ve seen repeated time and time again as my friends have disappeared off the site, often never to return. This time there’s a twist: I used to work there. In fact, I’m the trans woman who initiated the custom gender feature. And the name I go by on Facebook? That’s the name that was on my work badge.  Read More 

Women, LGBT least safe on Facebook, despite 'real name' policy

Despite Facebook's insistence that its "real names" policy keeps its users safe, a new report reveals that Facebook is the least safe place for women online. And things are turning more explosive, as stories emerge that Facebook has been changing its users' names without their consent -- and the company isn't allowing them to remove their real names from their accounts. Meanwhile, a furious LGBT coalition has rallied around the safety threats posed to its communities by the policy. 

Facebook's ongoing war on pseudonyms became well-documented in 2011 when a blogger risking her life to report on crime in Honduras was suspended by the company, under its rule requiring everyone to use their real name on the social network. The Safety Net Project (at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, NNEDV) recently released a report based on results from victim service providers called A Glimpse From the Field: How Abusers Are Misusing Technology.

The report found that nearly all (99%) the responding programs reported that Facebook is the most misused social media platform by abusers. Facebook is a key place for offenders to access information about victims or harass them by direct messaging or via their friends and family. Read More

Argentina: LGBT tourism conference proves Argentina is doing it right

Argentina is once again dominating tourism within Latin America, not only because of its wide range of things to see and do throughout the entire country, but because they have cornered the market within LGBT tourism within the region. Clustered within a conservative continent, Argentina has always been many steps ahead when it comes to anything and everything related to the LGBT consumer, as well as their LGBT residents. 

The country's economic status is in current disarray, but with the incoming tourism influx from neighboring countries as well as from North America and the rest of the world, Argentina is continuing to cash in on the LGBT segment within tourism. But what they are not doing is just blindly marketing to LGBT travelers and raking in the cash, instead, they have strategically put in place, in collaboration with their Ministry of Tourism and private public relations firm, ways to attract the LGBT market while still genuinely taking into consideration every element necessary that comes with that specific travel market. Read More

UK: Business needs more LGBT role models – but allies also vitally important

LGBT role models are hugely important but imposing boardroom quotas is not the way forward. That was the overall message from a panel discussion entitled ‘Engaging across the LGBT spectrum to drive business results.’ 

The discussion, entitled ‘Engaging across the LGBT spectrum to drive business results’, was one of the first events to take place as part of the Pride in London festival – which will culminate with the annual parade through London next Saturday (27 June).

The event’s hosting at Thomson Reuters coincided with the launch of a special Pride London version of the Thomson Reuters Convene app.

Addressing an audience of approximately 60 guests, the panel offered some of their own insights into LGBTI visibility in the workplace and ways to initiate change.

Amy Stanning, a Shared Services Director at Barclays and co-chair of its LGBT network, spoke about how she felt bisexual and transgender people continued to be under-represented: ‘The challenge is to create an environment where they can be out at work.


Jan-Coos Geesink, the MD, UKI Legal Solutions at Thomson Reuters, identified as a ‘friend’ of the LGBT network, and talked about the importance of recruiting straight allies. ‘When I look around my colleagues in the workplace, it’s very easy to be a passive supporter. Most of my colleagues will nod and say they’re supportive, but what are you really doing? This is where friends come in if you want change.’ Read More via Gay Star News

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Philippines: ‘Ang usaping manggagawa ay usaping LGBT’ – Claire

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In Cabuyao, Laguna, the workers of Tanduay Distillers Inc. who were dismissed from their work continue to fight for their rights. But perhaps not as widely known is how this struggle also affects members of the LGBT community who also continue not to have secure employment because of a pervasive (even if illegal) practice. 

When both Claire and her partner were dismissed, their issue became part of the bigger issue on labor practices in the Philippines – particularly, the contractualization of labor in the country. As Claire said: “This is no longer just an issue of being LGBT. This is an issue of the lack of rights for LGBT & for non-LGBT people.” Read More

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US: What same-sex marriage reform could mean for the LGBT youths

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Since 1999, Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network  (GLSEN) has released a biennial survey of the climate for LGBT students. It shows that from 2007 to 2013, LGBT students have reported a steady decline of incidents of verbal and physical harassment and of physical assault.

Though this is important progress for LGBT youth, nearly 56% of LGBT students still reported that they felt unsafe in school because of their sexuality or gender identity in 2013. This, alongside data showing 74% of LGBT students were verbally harassed and 56% said that their school had anti-LGBT policies – all of which can result in absences from school and depression.  Read More

Brazil: Proposal for LGBT inclusive education generates controversy

The Municipality of Macapa will vote on the Municipal Education Plan, outlining goals and deadlines for the educational sector of the capital for the next 10 years. Before the parliament code consider the bill, controversy erupted among the evangelical branch over proposed goal of inclusive education for LGBT.  

The debate resulted in the revision of the text by the Education Commission. Though vote is expected to come there is the possibility of submission of an amendment to the original text by evangelical bench to remove LGBT inclusive education. Read More