UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights fact sheet on being Intersex

OHCHR has just launched a first fact sheet on intersex, as part of the Free & Equal campaign. The document details the human rights violations and health issues faced by intersex people, and action points for UN member states and civil society. 

Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (including genitals, gonads and chromosome patterns) that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies. According to experts, between 0.05% and 1.7% of the population is born with intersex traits – the upper estimate is similar to the number of red haired people.

Being intersex relates to biological sex characteristics, and is distinct from a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. An intersex person may be straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual or asexual, and may identify as female, male, both or neither. Access the factsheet here

Eddie Redmayne on Transgender Rights and Finding ‘The Danish Girl’

To portray the transgender artist in “The Danish Girl,” Eddie Redmayne built the character from the inside out. He started by poring over Lili Elbe’s pseduo-autobiography “Man Into Woman,” chronicling her groundbreaking 1920s gender reassignment surgeries, and studying sketches of her.

He read other books, such as the 1974 memoir “Conundrum” by transgender author Jan Morris, and watched the British TV series “My Transsexual Summer.” He even met separately with six transgender women from different generations to absorb their experiences. “Their openness of spirit was unlike anything I’d ever seen,” Redmayne says on a recent afternoon near his home in London. “That was galvanizing — you felt the trust.” Read more 

Stunning Guinness ad features Gareth Thomas on coming out as gay

A new advert for Guinness features rugby star Gareth Thomas talking about feeling alone when he came out as gay. The new campaign was launched by Guinness this week, and celebrates “stories of strength of character and integrity from the world of rugby.”

Guinness is also releasing longer documentaries featuring Thomas and others, and their stories.
“Rather than focus on physical attributes of what makes a rugby player, this campaign looks to inner qualities like courage, empathy and resilience,” Guinness said in a release.

According to Guinness, the video “tells the story of how the former Wales captain’s greatest fear wasn’t the opposition he faced on the pitch, but the fear of rejection from everything he had known, because of his sexuality. Read more via PinkNews

Andrew Garfield Is Ready for "a Pansexual Spider-Man

Spider-Man can only be white, male and straight, according to Sony and Marvel Studios. One former Spider-Man, however, calls that hogwash.

In an interview for his new film 99 Homes, star Andrew Garfield told Mic he doesn't "give a shit about the sexual preference" of Spider-Man. This stands in stark contrast to leaked documents Gawker brought to light in June, in which the film studios strictly outlined the man behind the mask, Peter Parker, as "Caucasian and heterosexual."

Garfield admitted he didn't know about the contractual obligations when he played Peter in The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequel. In an interview with Mic, however, he said he hopes the role could be less limited in the future.

"I'm excited to get to the point where we don't have to have this conversation," he said, "where we can have a pansexual Spider-Man." Read more via Mic

This Director Just Did In China What “Brokeback Mountain” Couldn’t 10 Years Ago

...get official approval to show his gay romance film in Chinese theaters.

Looking For Rohmer, or “Seek McCartney” as it’s sometimes incorrectly called, is adapted from Wang’s short novel telling “an emotional story about two men,” the director’s statement on the website of 2015 Shanghai International Film Festival says.

It took a year for the film to pass China’s strict censorship. But hearing the film survived with no edits being made, the well-known filmmaker immediately took to Sina Weibo and wrote, “a small step for censors, a big step for filmmakers.” Read more via Buzzfeed

Out in Japan, a spotlight featuring sexual minorities in Japan

Out in Japan is an attempt to highlight the presence of LGBT people in daily life -- a community that is not especially high-profile in Japan. Some Out in Japan #002 participants offered suggestions about how to make the fairly invisible LGBT community more visible, while others spoke about the obstacles to doing so. Read more

Bangladesh gets first lesbian comic strip

Bangladesh's first comic strip featuring a young lesbian discovering her sexuality has been launched in the capital to raise awareness of the plight of gays in the conservative Muslim-majority nation.

Boys of Bangladesh, the country's largest gay rights group, on Saturday night launched "Dhee", the Bengali word for intellect or wisdom.

"By creating Dhee, we want to shape perception of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people, because we should be free to choose whom to love," Mehnaz Khan, one of the four content developers of the comic, told the AFP news agency.

"It's about carrying the message to all." Read more via Aljazeera

Russia: Moscow premiere film festival gets canceled after government pulls funding

The culture department shifted funding to a new “positive, youth-oriented” festival, the Youth Festival of Life Affirming Film, headed by Yevgeny Gerasimov, member of United Russia.

Vyacheslav Shmyrov, head of the canceled festival, said that Moscow Premiere had a “very different program,” including Russia-88 and Winter’s Path, movies about Russian neo-Nazis and a “gay-themed debut feature that struggled to get distribution in Russia."   Read More via Think Progress 

India: Supreme Court effectively shelves Gujarati film, says homosexuality akin to social evil for some

Observing that a section of society may perceive homosexuality as akin to “social evils”, the Supreme Court has effectively pushed into cold storage the release of a Gujarati film that depicts the “sufferings of a homosexual” prince from the state.

Meghdhanyshya — The colour of life is based on the true story of the “gay prince of Rajpipla”, Manvendra Singh Gohil, and has been cleared by the Censor Board, but will now not be seen for at least 3 years.

“I think the movie is killed,” filmmaker Devmani said. “It cannot wait for another three or four years when there is no certainty that the court will eventually rule in my favour. It is ironical that movies showing extra-marital relationships and containing scenes of rape and violence are given the exemption but a movie depicting sufferings of a homosexual person does not pass the state’s muster,” he added. Read More via Indian Express

Gay in Cameroon: National team bans fastest-ever hurdler

On Aug. 8, Thierry Essamba suffered a setback — another setback. Just as in 2014, he was again forbidden from competing because of his sexual orientation. The fact that he is the fastest hurdler in Cameroon — the nation’s record-holder in the 110-meter hurdles — didn’t secure him the right to compete again for the gold.

He recalls his emotions as the Central Africa Track and Field Championships got under way: “I felt so bad. I wondered if I were no longer a Cameroonian...I felt someone had just thrown me out of Cameroon. I cried. I felt excluded from the country that I love so much. “

Much has happened since Essamba was expelled from the squad by Michel Nkolo, the technical director of Cameroon’s national track team. Soon afterward, Essamba’s family evicted him from his home. He was left with no means of support. He fell into depression and tried to commit suicide. But he did not do that — and he did not give up on racing. He kept training. He ran faster.   Read More via 76 Crimes

US: With endorsement from Target, corporate support for the Equality Act continues to grow

HRC hailed Target for its announcement this morning that it is has endorsed the recently-introduced Equality Act, a landmark federal bill that would guarantee explicit, permanent protections for LGBT people from discrimination in many of the most important aspects of their lives.

Currently, 31 states across the country lack fully-inclusive non-discrimination protections for LGBT Americans. Target joins a number of leading American corporations, including Amazon, American Airlines, Apple, the Dow Chemical Company, Facebook, General Electric, General Mills, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Levi Strauss & Co, Microsoft, Nike, Oracle, Orbitz, PayPal and Symantec Corporation in support of federal LGBT non-discrimination protections.

The Equality Act provides basic protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, access to public spaces, housing, education, jury service, credit and federal funding.  Read More via Human Rights Campaign

Globally, one in four people have a transgender work colleague

The latest Randstad Workmonitor survey has explored global attitudes to sexual orientation diversity in the workplace. One of the questions asked employees in 34 countries whether they had any transgender work colleagues.

On average, 26% of those polled said that they had one (or more) transgender colleagues. This figure rose to 45% in Greece, 46% in Brazil and 50% in India. In the US, 29% of those polled said they had a transgender work colleague, while the figure was 26% in the UK.

Helen Belcher, of Trans Media Watch said, ‘Trans issues have been treated as marginal and unimportant for years. I’ve been saying for a long time that trans issues don’t just affect the trans person, but their families, friends and work colleagues also. Read More via Gay Star News