The killing of the ‘world’s first out gay imam’ Muhsin Hendricks has sent shockwaves across the world, particularly among LGBTQ+ Muslims.
Hendricks was killed in an execution-style hit in broad daylight on Saturday morning (15 February) after the car he was travelling in, near the coastal city of Gqeberha in the country’s Eastern Cape province, was ambushed. He was 57.
A hooded figure was captured on CCTV getting out of a pick-up truck that had blocked Hendricks’ vehicle before firing shots through the window.
There have been no arrests but deputy justice minister Andries Nel has said the authorities are “hot on the heels” of the suspects. While the exact motive for the killing remains unclear, the incident has left LGBTQ+ Muslims fearful.
Speaking to PinkNews about the killing of the South African imam, UK-based queer Muslim Al asked if someone like Hendricks, who was known around the world, can be killed out in the open, then “what about the rest of us?”
Al went on to say: “People have framed this as an issue that occurs in other spaces, not in the UK, [but] too often queer Muslims in the UK are suffering death threats, abuse, physical violence [and] torture at the hands of family and the greater community.
“Young queer Muslims grow up with this fear – and even as we grow into old age we still live with this fear – that one day something like this could happen to us. When it’s happened to the first openly queer Imam, it has been a realisation that it can happen to any of us.”
Imam Muhsin Hendricks was shot dead when the car he was travelling in was ambushed. (RODGER BOSCH/AFP via Getty Images)
A trailblazer in religiously conservative circles, Hendricks was dubbed the world’s first openly gay imam, after he came out in the 90s.
He went on to create The Inner Circle, later known as Al-Fitrah Foundation, which worked to support LGBTQ+ Muslims reconciling their faith and identities and sought to educate other imams, helping them develop an inclusive understanding of gender and sexuality in Islam.
“A lot of unlearning needs to be done [but] it is amazing what the imams come up with,” he said in 2020. “They bring research and context and match it with the religious text, and there are these ‘aha!’ moments.”
Al, a member of the team at Imaan, the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ Muslim charity, said Hendricks was a personal friend and his death had come as a “deep shock” to the community, leaving some feeling the “need to go back in the closet”.
He added: “[Members of the community] feel they need to conform. The trauma that comes with that is so problematic because the work of people like Muhsin Hendricks, in particular, [allowed] people to live [as] their authentic selves.
“Nobody should be left outside their family, community or faith group, and divinity should not be exclusive to one group. Everybody should have access to that, all across the UK and globally.”
“We feel silenced, our words are not doing justice to our feelings.”
In the wake of Hendricks’ death, Imaan is directly supporting the LGBTQ+ community by continuing its many services therapy sessions, in-person and online meet-ups and support groups.
Hendricks’ killing bore all the hallmarks of a hit. (Facebook/ Muhsin Hendricks)
Two leading Muslim organisations in South Africa, the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) and the United Ulama Council of South Africa (UUCSA), condemned the killing but continue to denounce his teachings on gender and sexuality in Islam, reflecting the view held by many that the Quran prohibits same-sex relationships.
It was initially reported that Hendricks was shot after performing a lesbian wedding ceremony, but his Al-Ghurbaah Foundation released a statementrevealing that he was in Gqeberha to officiate two interfaith heterosexual marriages.
As the BBC’s Johannesburg-based reporter Khanyisile Ngcobo noted, traditional imams in South Africa rarely perform marriages between a Muslim and non-Muslim couple. It is another way Hendricks was at odds with more conservative religious leaders.
Al said the responses of the MJC and UUCSA were the “most hopeful” they have seen among a wave of hatred from within, and outside, the Muslim community. He noted that there had been no similar messages from Islamic organisations in the UK.
“I’d love to see the most major mosques and institutions here talking about this and really taking ownership of how queer Muslims are rejected and not accepted in those spaces, and what they’re going to do to make sure they stop alienating us,” Al said.
“[The] less educated [are] still mocking the cause and mocking his death. This is painful to us.”
Members of Imaan at a EuroPride parade. (Gideon Mendel/Corbis via Getty)
At the time, non-binary practising Muslim Ferhan Khan said the event challenged the idea that Islam was “inherently queer-phobic”, adding: “This is an assumption that’s not necessarily based on fact because if you read the parts of the Quran that supposedly condemn homosexuality, it’s not clear cut.
“For a lot of queer Muslims, this is a difficult one because they might want to retain their faith. They might want to simply be in a space where they are validated for being both queer and Muslim, and that’s what Imaan is doing: serving up a space where you can be… validated for that choice.”
Just over a decade ago, in 2014, TIME magazine declared on its front cover that we were at the “The Transgender Tipping Point“.
The cover itself was simple, a full body shot of actress Laverne Cox – who was then playing Sophia Burset on Netflix game-changer Orange Is the New Black – and a byline for writer Katy Steinmetz, who said in the piece that trans rights would be the next civil rights frontier.
“We are in a place now,” Cox told the magazine at the time, “where more and more trans people want to come forward and say, ‘This is who I am.’ And more trans people are willing to tell their stories. More of us are living visibly and pursuing our dreams visibly, so people can say, ‘Oh yeah, I know someone who is trans.’ When people have points of reference that are humanising, that demystifies difference.”
“The Transgender Tipping Point” was a phrase, Jude Ellison S. Doyle noted for Xtra Magazine on the cover’s 10th anniversary, that quickly became ubiquitous across the media, with – often more than not cis – academics and cultural commentators alike pointing to the piece as an example of a paradigm shift on trans visibility and representation in public life.
But, as many more have since pointed out, the catch-all-ness of the phrase is oversimplified and ignores the intersectional struggles and delicate nuances of trans people’s lives that go far beyond ‘being visible’. It also became somewhat of an ironic joke between trans folks who had to wake up the day after that edition of TIME hit the shelves go about their lives, this supposed-watershed moment of greater visibility not helping them pay their bills, access gender-affirming care or walk through the streets without fear.
“If trans people have ‘tipped’ in any direction, it’s backward,” Doyle wrote.
For activist Raquel Willis, co-founder of the Gender Liberation Movementalongside Eliel Cruz, the fight for trans rights and universal bodily autonomy has to move past the visibility era to be truly impactful.
“This idea of simply using visibility as a means to bring about the kind of culture and society that’s going to receive trans folks with the respects that we deserve is over,” she told PinkNews, “and so we have to be thinking in new ways about how to protect ourselves, our voices, our histories and our brilliance without relying on a lot of the institutions that have really pushed the visibility vehicle.”
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Speaking exclusively with PinkNews, Willis and Cruz discussed the organisation, intersectionality and the need for radical defiance in a second Trump presidency.
Activists with the Gender Liberation Movement protest in the House Cannon building, including Chelsea Manning (bottom right) and Racquel Willis (bottom left), on December 5, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Maansi Srivastava for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The Gender Liberation Movement (GLM) describes itself as an “emergent and innovative grassroots and volunteer-run national collective that builds direct action, media, and policy interventions centering bodily autonomy, self-determination, the pursuit of fulfilment, and collectivism in the face of gender-based sociopolitical threats”.
Mace, a Republican representative from South Carolina, admitted her proposal to ban trans folks from spaces such as bathrooms and changing rooms on Capitol Hill which match their gender was put forth solely in response to Democrat Sarah McBride joining Congress as the first out trans person.
McBride condemned the move as a “blatant attempt from right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing”.
“Half of us went in understanding that we were facing arrest in order to really send a message, particularly because some elected leaders, even some people potentially in the movement spaces, queer people, might see bathrooms as a side issue and not important,” Cruz said.
“But we see bathrooms as the inroad for a larger anti-trans project to eliminate trans people from public spaces and so this was important for us to say, ‘this is the line’ and we’re not allowing this to move forward without a response.”
In a bathroom that was located close to Mace’s office, the protesters held a banner that read “flush bathroom bigotry” and chanted “Speaker Johnson, Nancy Mace, our gender is no debate” and “Democrats, grow a spine! Trans rights are on the line!”, calling out the Dems lacklustre criticism of Mace’s proposal in the wake of their party’s defeat to Donald Trump’s MAGA 2.0 campaign.
“It was really disappointing to see the lack of fight that […] Sarah McBride put forth with these attacks – understanding that she is coming into a new role in a historic way – but also understanding at some point we have to get beyond this idea of career politicians saving us,” Willis said.
“Let’s just be clear, I know for me, I would never be able to – as a Black trans woman – simply say that bathroom access is a ‘distraction’. I come from folks who experienced acutely Jim Crow in the US South and so for me, all of these attacks on our access to public spaces and navigating societies is rooted in a long fight for collective liberation within this country.”
Willis added she was concerned by the lack of support McBride was given by leading Democrats and “what kind of signal that sends to trans youth who are already fearful of the incoming Trump administration”.
A transgender rights supporter takes part in a rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court as the court hears arguments in the US v. Skrmetti a case about Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming care for minors and if it violates the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee on December 04, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Prior to this moment of “radical defiance” – the phrase Willis uses to describe what is needed of protest and civil disobedience at this time – GLM had been fighting for the right to bodily autonomy for trans and cis folks alike; namely access to abortion and gender-affirming care. Having worked previously with those that organised the Brooklyn Liberation March and national Women’s March, in September the group led the first-ever Gender Liberation March in Washington D.C. and at the start of this year launched as an official national organisation to further its work.
Cruz said those involved were “collective” of “queer and trans creatives from nonprofit and advocacy world, as well as folks who are in the art world and fashion world”.
“We really started to think about what was needed in terms of bringing together a larger collective of folks fighting around bodily autonomy and self determination,” Willis said of formalising the organisation, “particularly thinking about the attacks on abortion access and the attacks on access to gender affirming care. That kind of led to this plan for our march in September and from there we realised that we needed this work to continue going on and needed to continue to be the glue between these various movements.”
For many, access to abortion and gender affirming care might be thought of as different social issues impacting distinctly different groups of people; things to campaign for separately but not together. This line of thinking is similar to how trans rights and women’s rights more widely are often framed by the right-wing press as in direct contrast with one another when instead they are not opposites sides of a coin but rather intricately intertwined.
New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez noted this in response to Mace’s bathroom ban, telling reporters in November that such restrictions endanger “all women and girls” because “people are going to want to check their private parts in suspecting who is trans and who is cis”.
“The idea that Nancy Mace wants little girls and women to drop trou in front of, who, an investigator, because she wants to suspect and point fingers at who she thinks is trans is disgusting. It is disgusting. And frankly, all it does is allow these Republicans to go around and bully any woman who isn’t wearing a skirt because they think she might not look woman enough,” AOC added.
The intersectionality between the two issues hence sits at the very core of the GLM’s mission because “many of the same forces and entities that are targeting access to abortion are also targeting access to gender affirming care”, Willis said.
Cruz explained: “In the United States, legal precedents are being used to try to pass one another. So these connections are already there in terms […] of those who are making these attacks and for us it was important to marry the different groups of people that people may not necessarily talk about in the same ways.
“Really bringing those connections together in a very intentional way.”
People gather outside the Lincoln Memorial for a People’s March rally in Washington, D.C., United States, on January 18, 2025. (Photo by Nathan Morris/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Ahead of Trump’s return to the White House, Cruz said GLM has been having a number of internal conversations about what form their work will take but it is about “being a little bit nimble and prepared for preparing for the worst, and doing some safety planning and contingency planning”.
Cruz went on to say whilst “Trump is awful” and “put us through it the first four years” the Democrats have “not been the best” either, noting the fact Roe vs Wade fell under a Dem administration and just before Christmas president Joe Biden signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 which contained an anti-trans healthcare clause for children of members of the armed services.
“There’s a lot of catastrophising that we can think about under Trump and without remembering that we’ve kind of already been dealing with a lot, even underneath the Dem administration,” Cruz said.
“We really to lean on our history and our elders. We have been through really horrific eras before and we have gone through it. Our community knows how to build together and come together and keep each other safe.
“So [we] can look at the reality of what’s to come and also remember who we are and our roots and our background, and know that we will get through it together whatever may come.”
Willis echoed this, noting that “before you could simply be as open about who who you are and your identity” leaning on mutual aid networks was a vital resource.
“We have always had organisations, particularly on the grassroots local level, that have fed and housed and closed and safeguarded our people,” she explained.
“Somewhere along the way, we forgot that those entities are the lifeblood of our movement.
“So, it’s remembering that and also being willing to heal some of those past fissures between various parts of our movements and communities and embrace the fact that we’re going to need unlikely accomplices moving forward so we have to be letting go of some of this capitalistic ego around what work a group may own versus another.
The British Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has announced that transgender women will be banned from competing in some domestic tournaments.
The LTA oversees the domestic game, so the rule changes do not apply to international matches which are played on British soil, including Wimbledon, or other events such as an internal club tournament, where venues will decide on their own rules.
However, the updated policy on transgender and non-binary participation means trans women and people assigned male at birth won’t be allowed to play in the women’s category in matches against players from another club or county.
“We are changing our policy to restrict trans women and non-binary individuals assigned male at birth from playing in the women’s category in specified, inter-venue competitions,” an LTA press release read.
“These will be competitions ranging from our national championships through to local county and district leagues, where the purpose is to provide fair competitive opportunities. This policy helps ensure there is a common national standard for all these competitions, which is fair.
“For non-specified competitions within venues, the purpose is primarily to provide fun, social competition to enable people to feel part of their local tennis community and players will be able to familiarise themselves with the policy within their own venue and hence who they are likely to be playing against.
“These will range from weekend social tournaments through to club championships.”
The governing body went on to say: “We want to encourage local venues to ensure they are as inclusive as possible for trans and non-binary individuals, providing opportunities to compete in a friendly environment. In line with this, the LTA’s own local tennis leagues (held in park venues) will remain fully inclusive.
“The policy attempts to balance two responsibilities appropriately but in the knowledge that different people will reasonably have different views as to where that balance should lie.”
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Tennis and padel tennis are “gender-affected sports” where the “average man” has an advantage over the “average woman… [and] this advantage is likely to be retained to a significant degree in trans women, making competition potentially unfair”, the statement continued.
The policy will come into effect on 25 January but will kept under review “in light of any new scientific or other information”, an LTA spokesperson said.
The change come a couple of weeks after the Ladies Professional Golf Association restricted golfers in the women’s category to those either assigned female at birth or, if transgender, “[they had] not experienced any part of male puberty”.
In addition, any trans golfer must have “continuously maintained the concentration of testosterone in their serum below 2.5 nmol/l”, to qualify. The average for cis women is between 0.5 and 2.4 nmol/l.
Historic England is being criticised for funding a queer history trail in Norfolk, prompting right-wingers to describe LGBTQ+ identities as “controversial” and claim it “creates division.”
The trail in King’s Lynn is part of 21 youth-focused projects across the country which are being funded by Historic England, the public body that looks after England’s historic environment and helps people understand and value it, with grants of up to £15,000 ($19,000).
Other projects approved for funding include LGBTQ+ history explorations in rural Staffordshire, Gateshead and Stockport, a podcast about a mosque in East London, and youngsters with additional needs looking at the social history around the oldest cable tramway in Britain.
The King’s Lynn project will “create a trail” through the town centre, focusing on its LGBTQ+ history.
“This will connect to a permanent artwork created in partnership with True’s Yard [fishing museum]. What form this artwork takes will be in the hands of the young people,” the Historic England website revealed.
However, not everyone was happy at the news.
Neil Record, the former director of anti-woke pressure group Restore Trust, told The Telegraph: “The promotion of ‘queer’ history by publicly funded bodies is, in my view highly, inappropriate. It creates division by concentrating on this one controversial aspect of sexuality, whereas history itself is complex and subtle, not best seen through a special-interest lens like this.
“It is also worth noting that homosexuality was illegal in the UK until 1967, so sources of information on sexual preferences prior to this date will be intended to be hidden, and hence could be unreliable.”
This is not the first time public bodies focused on preserving British history have come under fire.
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In 2022, anti-LGBTQ+ members of the National Trust asked their peers to support the banning of Pride events, describing taking part as “unaccountable, divisive and an exercise in virtue signalling… [and] unbecoming in a body which should be dedicated to preserving the nation’s heritage for all and being a faithful steward of its members’ subscriptions”.
Members ignored the plea and voted to continue celebrating Pride. “The National Trust was founded for the benefit of everyone,” a spokesperson told PinkNews in 2022.
“We serve the whole of our wonderfully diverse society and we want to do that to the very best of our ability. This includes supporting our staff, volunteers and visitors to take part in cultural celebrations, including Pride, which they have been doing for many years.”
Two new cases of a more-infectious strain of mpox have been detected in the UK, health officials have said.
The new cases come after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced at the end of last month that a single case of Clade 1b mpox had been detected in the country.
The Clade 1b strain is associated with a more severe disease and higher mortality rates than Clade 2.
Two new cases of mpox have been identified in the UK. (Hakan Nural/Getty)
Both new UK patients were household contacts of the original patient and are receiving specialist care at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, in London.
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Professor Susan Hopkins, the chief medical adviser at UKHSA, said: “The overall risk to the UK population remains low. We are working with partners to make sure all contacts of the cases are identified and contacted, to reduce the risk of further spread.”
When the first UK case of the Clade Ib strain was announced, health secretary Wes Streeting praised the doctors and nurses treating the patient and said the government was “working alongside UKHSA and the NHS to protect the public and prevent transmission”, adding: “This includes securing vaccines and equipping healthcare professionals with the guidance and tools they need to respond to cases safely.
“We are also working with our international partners to support affected countries, to prevent further outbreaks.”
Mpox is a viral infection transmitted through close contact such as sex, touch, talking, or breathing close to another person, and is part of the smallpox family of viruses. Sufferers will often get a rash, along with other symptoms such as high temperature, swollen glands and chills.
The rash can go through several stages, beginning as raised spots that turn into small blisters filled with fluid that will eventually form scabs and fall off.
Darts player Noa-Lynn van Leuven has qualified for the darts world championships – the first time a trans woman has done so.
Dutch player Noa-Lynn van Leuven, who transitioned in 2021 and has faced controversy for playing against cis women, qualified for her first PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) World Championship on Saturday (19 October) following a 5-3 victory over English star Beau Greaves in the 21st PDC Women’s Series in Leicester.
Van Leuven’s appearance at Alexander Palace in December will mark the first time a trans woman has secured a place in the mixed-gender competition, the largest and most prestigious event in competitive darts.
Commenting on her loss, Greaves said van Leuven “power-housed” her: “Sometimes in darts you’ve just got to allow it to happen and that was one of those days for me. Fair play to her, she played really well and she deserved the win. I fell asleep at times where I should have been hitting more trebles, and she punished me.”
However, not everyone has taken the result with such good grace.
Social media users misgendered the Dutch star, using he/him pronouns and calling her a “man”. Others labelled her a “cheater” and said she “stole a spot from a woman”.
Noa-Lynn van Leuven will play in her first world championships. (PDC Darts)
This is not the first time Van Leuven has been attacked for being a trans darts player.
Earlier this year, she was thrust into the centre of a gender storm after she became the first trans player to win a PDC tour event, the mixed-gender Challenge Tour in Germany, and beat Ireland’s Katie Sheldon in the PDC Women’s Series.
People accused van Leuven of “only being trans to win darts matches”, and tennis legend Martina Navratilova, who has repeatedly opposed trans women competing against cis women, wrote on social media: “No male bodies in women’s sports please, not even in darts. Again, women get the short end of the stick and it stinks.”
Van Leuven’s involvement in the Dutch women’s darts team also prompted two compatriots, Anca Zijlstra and Aileen de Graaf, to quit the national squad, citing disagreement with rules around trans inclusion.
In addition, British darts player Deta Hedman twice refused to take on van Leuven, first at the Denmark Open in May, then in a singles match in July, saying there shouldn’t be “a man in a women’s event”.
Van Leuven spoke out after that, saying that a “lot of people forget that I am also a human being” and telling PinkNews she things got so bad that she didn’t even want to step out of her to house for a while. She has also spoken about getting death threats and being left “haunted” by the abuse.
“In my DMs, on Instagram, it was getting so harsh, from bullying to death threats. I remember going home, I was at Schiphol [Amsterdam airport]. I looked around for one-and-a-half minutes before entering a bathroom because I was getting texts like: ‘If I ever see you walking into the ladies’ room after my daughter, I will kill you’,” she told the i news.
“They still haunt me to this day. It has impacted me massively.”
The Professional Darts Players Association notes on its website that governing body the Darts Regulation Authority (DRA) encourages mixed-gender events in darts with the only exceptions being the Women’s Series and Women’s Matchplay operated by the PDC.
The DRA Trans & Gender Diverse Policy says transgender and non-binary players must be treated with respect, welcomed as any other member would be and accepted “in the gender they present”.
A gay former pupil and his mother are suing a school district where he allegedly experienced relentless bullying, including verbal abuse, threats of violence and another student making a “straight pride” poster with his face on it.
The legal complaint, filed by the student’s mother in June 2023, details that when he attended Ronald Reagan Middle School, in Haymarket, Virginia, he faced “regular and relentless anti-LGBTQ+ bullying” from classmates.
The defendants named in the case are the Prince William County School Board, the principal, Christopher Beemer, and assistant principal Jenita Boatwright.
Beemer still works as the school but Boatwright has left.
The claimant alleges that Beemer, Boatwright and the school board responded to requests for help “with victim-blaming and inaction”.
The openly gay student started in sixth grade at the school in August 2019 which is when the alleged victimisation began, with the first incident involving classmates taking his belongings and passing them around the classroom while voicing homophobic slurs, it is claimed.
The teacher reportedly did not put an end to the bullying and it happened three more times.
The verbal harassment is said to have continued and in December 2021 five students surrounded the boy outside the school building, again using homophobic slurs.
In the complaint, the boy’s mother says two teachers who were nearby did nothing to help and when the student got into his mother’s car, the bullies gave her the middle finger.
It is also alleged that in 2022, one student made the “straight pride” poster while a number of bullies cornered him in the toilet, banged on the stall door and shouted: “There’s a girl in here,” threatening violence.
A judge denied a school board motion dismiss the case but Beemer and Boatwright’s was granted in part.
The case asserts four causes of action: sex discrimination under Title IX civil rights protections against the school board, an equal protection clause violation against the individual defendants, a violation against the individual defendants, which the judge dismissed, and gross negligence against the individual defendants.
District judge Rossie D Alston Jr gave the plaintiffs 14 days to file an amended complaint for the charge that was dismissed.
A school board spokesperson told Inside Nova it does not comment on active cases but “remains committed to providing an inclusive and excellent education for every student and has no tolerance for harassment, bullying or intimidation of students”.
US supreme court justices have ruled that president Joe Biden’s expanded Title IX protections cannot be enforced in 26 states where legal challenges are ongoing.
Title IX is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation which protects people from discrimination based on sex, in education programmes or activities that receive federal financial assistance, and is best-known for ensuring gender equality in college sports.
In April, Biden finalised the new anti-discrimination rules – first proposed in 2022 – which aim to protect people in public schools from sex-based discrimination and harassment, providing explicit protections for LGBTQ+ pupils and expressly prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
However, before the amendments could take effect, several Republican-controlled states vowed to reject the law, suing the Biden administration and labelling the legislation “illegal, undemocratic and divorced from reality”, claiming it puts “women at risk”.
On Friday (16 August), in a 5-4 vote, the US Supreme Court denied the administration’s request to allow most of the Title IX rule to go into force where courts have issued injunctions temporarily blocking it.
“In this emergency posture in this court, the burden is on the government as applicant to show, among other things, a likelihood of success on its… argument…” the ruling reads. “On this limited record, the government has not provided this court [with] a sufficient basis to disturb the lower courts’ interim conclusions that the three provisions found likely to be unlawful are intertwined with, and affect, other provisions of the rule.
“Nor has the government adequately identified which particular provisions, if any, are sufficiently independent of the enjoined definitional provision and thus might be able to remain in effect. Moreover… the Sixth Circuit has already expedited its consideration of the case and scheduled oral argument for October.
“The court expects that the Courts of Appeals will render their decisions with appropriate dispatch. In light of all of the circumstances, the court denies the government’s applications for partial stays.”
‘Cruel and hypocritical tactics
In response, Ria Tabacco Mar, the director of the American Civil Liberty’s (ACLU) Women’s Rights Project, said such lawsuits are “using attacks on trans kids as a way to roll back other rights for women and girls”.
She went on to say: “Attacking trans people does nothing to address the real problems women and girls face. We’re disappointed the Supreme Court allowed these cruel and hypocritical tactics to succeed, even temporarily. We will continue to fight for all students to learn in safe and equal schools.”
Jennesa Calvo-Friedman, a senior ACLU staff lawyer, said: “The new guidance from the Biden administration is crucial to clarifying the protections under Title IX for so many students, including transgender and other LGBTQ students, pregnant and parenting students, and other students facing sex-based harassment.
“But even without it, students are not unprotected.
“Despite what the Supreme Court did today, students can still bring private lawsuits against schools to vindicate their Title IX rights, including based on their gender identity or their pregnancy or parenting status, even in places where the rule is blocked.
“Schools should be aware that sex-based discrimination, including harassment, is unlawful, and students can still hold schools accountable. What’s more, schools do not have to wait for a mandate to adopt practices that welcome all kids. Trans-inclusive policies are still lawful, and schools can – and should – move forward with them.”
It has been one year since Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni signed the country’s “gay law”, aka the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act, into effect, with LGBTQ+ people living in fear of arrest and the death penalty.
The passage of the legislation sent shockwaves around the world with activists, human rights organisations and world leaders universally condemning it.
In response, the World Bank cut off new lending to the Ugandan government over the “deeply repressive” law, the European Union denounced it and US president Joe Biden wrote to the House speaker and president of the Senate in October declaring his plan to end the US’s economic relationship with Uganda over “gross violations” of human rights.
Julius Malema and Members of the Economic Freedom Fighters picket against Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill at the Uganda High Commission on April 04, 2023 in Pretoria, South Africa. (Frennie Shivambu/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
LGBTQ+ camapigner Steven Kabuye, who was stabbed nearly to death because of his activism in the country, said that one year on the legislation “has gone on to be more consequential than ever” for queer Ugandans.
“A series of human rights violations leads the way. I myself I’ve been a victim of the hate it came with. Many of my kind in Uganda are still dreaming of the freedom it eroded away from them. Do not forget about Uganda,” he urged.
What is the Anti-Homosexuality Act?
On 29 May 2023, president Museveni – who previously called declared that homosexuals are “deviants” – gave assent to the Anti-Homosexuality Act. The bill immediately became one of the strictest pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the world and was passed to apparently “protect the sanctity of family”.
The Ugandan parliament initially approved an earlier version of the bill in March 2023 which criminalised people for simply identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community. However, this clause was later removed by lawmakers after Museveni returned the bill to parliament for reconsideration.
The Act doubled down on already cruel sanctions imposed on LGBTQ+ people in Uganda, where same-sex sexual acts and freedom to talk about queer topics were already illegal.
The legislation still punishes homosexuality with imprisonment for up to life but also introduced the new offence of ‘aggravated homosexuality’, which carries the death penalty.
A parade goer holds a sign in solidarity with Uganda during the Gay Pride Parade on July 01, 2023 in London, England. (peter Nicholls/Getty Images for Pride In London)
Acts defined as ‘aggravated homosexuality’ include sexual activity with disabled people, those who are HIV positive and people aged 75 and over – with consent to the sexual act not constituting a defence to a charge. This category also applies to criminal offences such as rape of a child or adult and incest.
‘Attempted homosexuality’ is also punishable by law, with a punishment of up to 10 years in prison possible, while ‘attempted aggravated homosexuality’ can be met with up to 14 years imprisonment.
The legislation also intensifies censorship of LGBTQ+ issues where people can be punished by a fine or five-year prison term for ‘promoting homosexuality’ or use electronic devices for the ‘purposes of homosexuality’.
Someone simply advocating for LGBTQ+ rights could also be jailed for 20 yearsand landlords knowingly renting to LGBTQ+ people face up to a seven-year prison sentence.
What is the situation like now for queer Ugandans?
Following the legislation being given assent, it was not long before LGBTQ+ Ugandans were being targeted with the new laws and faced a huge increase in abuse.
A report from a committee of the Convening for Equality (CFE) coalition found the Anti-Homosexuality Act was – unsurprisingly – putting LGBTQ+ people at risk and in danger but revealed such danger was mostly coming from private individuals, rather than government authorities.
Between 1 January and 31 August 2023 the researchers found 306 rights violations in the East African based on the victims’ sexual orientation and gender identity, with just 25 of those carried out by state actors. The report noted there has been an increase in “mob-aided arrests” with the public feeling they are the “custodians of enforcing the witch hunt”.
This report, however, should not be considered exhaustive due to the issues queer Ugandans face in reporting anti-LGBTQ+ prejudice and abuse.
In August, PinkNews reported that a number of citizens had been detained and charged under the new law, including the arrest of four people at a massage parlour allegedly engaging in same-sex activity and one man charged with ‘aggravated homosexuality’ and subsequently facing the death penalty.
A Ugandan man with a sticker on his face takes part on August 9, 2014 in the annual gay pride in Entebbe, Uganda. (ISAAC KASAMANI/AFP via Getty Images)
Speaking with PinkNews in November, the executive director of LGBTQ+ group Uganda’s Children of the Sun Foundation (COSF) Henry Mukiibi was forced to flee to Nairobi in Kenya after receiving information that the authorities wanted to arrest him under the anti-LGBTQ+ law.
Mukiibi said he has seen people become “so homophobic” that they “started attacking” COSF committee members and “beating them because of who they are”.
Following this, January of this year, Kabuye was attacked and stabbed outside his home by two men who had allegedly been following him for a number of days, leaving him in a critical condition.
Kabuye, the executive director of the advocacy group Colored Voice Truth to LGBTQ, went on to blame the brutal attack he suffered on the intolerance being pushed by Uganda’s politicians “who are using the LGBTQ+ community as a scapegoat to move people away from what is really happening in the country”.
Also in January a trans woman named Arianna spoke with The Guardian and recalled being attacked by an angry mob outside of her home after a TikTok video falsely accused her of forcing hormones on young men.
She was beaten so violently that she was in a coma for two weeks.
“When they saw me, they started grabbing me and shouting that I needed to die,” Arianna told the publication. “The only thing I remember next was waking up in hospital.”
“We have no freedom.” she said. “I can’t go to the market, I can’t work, because if I go out, I will be a target.”
New statistics have revealed the alarming prevalence of drink spiking in the LGBTQ+ community, with one man telling of the experience that left him cutting himself off from work, family, friends and “anything that looked towards the future I didn’t think I would ever have”.
Released on Thursday (4 April), the Ladbible Group and Stamp Out Spiking study surveyed 2,063 people aged between 16 and 24, in an effort to understand the rise in the number of drinks being spiked.
“Spiking” refers to when someone is given alcohol or drugs without their consent, usually in a drink. A person might spike a victim with the intention of stealing from them, harming them physically or sexually, or even supposedly as a joke.
The findings of the research revealed that of those surveyed, 70 per cent of people aged between 18 and 24 had either experienced or witnessed drink spiking, with more than half of women (51 per cent) and 69 per cent of LGBTQ+ respondents affected.
Stamp Out Spiking ambassador Stephen Hart was spiked then raped in 2006, contracted HIV as a result.
Hart had been in a bar with a friend who had to leave unexpectedly. He decided to stay a bit longer and bought himself two more drinks.
“Within minutes of him leaving I started to feel dizzy, confused, nauseous, hot and cold. I couldn’t lift my head but was aware of a guy asking me if I needed some fresh air. I thought he was going to help so said yes,” Hart told PinkNews.
“The next thing I knew was the sun was waking me up shining through my window. I still felt really unwell and found it hard to walk to the bathroom but thought a shower would help so started to get undressed.
“I kicked off my boots, undid my [trousers] and let them fall to the floor. When I did, I saw blood on my jeans and on the back of my legs, and just collapsed into a heap asking: ‘How could this have happened’ and ‘How can I remember so little?’”
While he knew from crime programmes not to wash away evidence, he felt he was “on fire”, so “crawled into the shower and spent the next 45 minutes in there, scrubbing at my skin until it bled”.
The hospital confirmed he had been raped and had traces of Rohypnol – commonly known as roofies – in his blood.
Roofies is a central nervous system depressant, commonly used as date-rape drug because the effects are felt quickly and persist for upwards of 12 hours, with victims having little memory of what has happened.
Hart was tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and the results came back negative. He was told to return in three months for a second HIV test, which came back positive.
“I had grown up during Section 28 so had no education in school about HIV. All I knew was what was splashed across the newspapers about the deaths of Freddie Mercury, Rock Hudson and Kenny Everett, so I did not think I would survive.
“There was a big part of me that hoped I wouldn’t.
“I spent the next two years cutting myself off from work opportunities, friends, relationships and anything that looked towards the future I didn’t think I would ever have.”
‘There were no men talking about being spiked and raped’
Despite the research showing the prevalence of drink spiking, there is significant under reporting.
87 per cent of victims surveyed chose not to report their experiences to the police. The reasons they gave for that decision were insufficient evidence (48 per cent), believing it was too late to report the crime (38 per cent), and concerns that no action would be taken (27 per cent).
Hart recalled not accepting help for the first two years, but at the same time does not “remember much being on offer”.
He went on to say: “There were no men talking about being spiked and raped so I didn’t talk about it myself for another few years.”
The research comes at a time when the government is looking to bring in a raft of new measures related to spiking.
As it stands, a staggering 86 per cent of those surveyed did not know there was not a specific law to convict against spiking and only 29 per cent of them were aware of the proposed amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill announced by home secretary James Cleverly in December.
Hart said people need to understand that drink spiking can happen to anyone.
“Without government funding to train door, bar and security staff – but also police and first responders – the rates of this crime will continue to rise,” he said.
Commenting on the research, Emily Driscoll, the head of data, intelligence and planning at Ladbible Group, said: “The results highlight the urgent need for greater education, awareness and action to address the concerning prevalence of drink spiking, especially [among] Gen Z.
“As a business, we are committed to using the scale and reach of our platforms – which reaches nearly six in 10 18 to 24 year olds in the UK – to raise awareness and advocate for change to ensure the safety and well-being among young adults.”
Meanwhile, Dawn Dines, the chief executive and founder of Stamp Out Spiking, said: ”We firmly believe key safeguarding education is urgently needed to ensure the safety of partygoers across the UK.
“The numbers speak for themselves, with 60 per cent of young adults supporting our mission, advocating for advanced training for venue staff and greater education regarding spiking awareness.”
