January LGBTQ+ News Review

With a deluge of news coming at all hours of the day and night, I hope that one central place to read through LGBTQ+ news stories from the month is a helpful resource. Since this is our first time publishing a rundown like this, I wanted to give some context: the date listed is the article’s publication date, and every date is hyperlinked so you can easily access the full article. Next to the date is a brief summary, so you can get the basics from the article at a glance.

January 4 - Beginning on January 1, ​​Hawaiʻi enacted Act 298 (SB1231 HD1). This legislation updates the state’s parentage laws and aims to strengthen legal protections for LGBTQ+ parents and their children.

January 5 - A federal court ruled that California teachers can tell parents about their child’s gender identity at school. California immediately appealed the decision, so it’s likely this isn’t the last we will hear of this.

January 6 - Missouri Democratic state Representative, Ray Reed, has introduced legislation to make grant funding available to LGBTQ+ community centers as well as houses of worship for safety improvements.

January 6 - U.S. Representative Angie Craig represents south metro areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul has introduced a bill that if passed would keep federally funded adoption and foster agencies from discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.

January 7 - On New Year’s Day in California, AB 727 went into effect, a law that requires all student ID cards at California public middle schools, high schools, and colleges to include The Trevor Project’s 24/7 crisis hotline number.

January 7 - A study published in Nature Human Behaviour has linked anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry and unfavourable socio-economic conditions.

January 10 - Renee Good was tragically murdered by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. Almost immediately, she was vilified for having pronouns in her social media bio and being a lesbian, among many other things.

January 11 - Three days before the US Supreme Court was set to hear two key cases that challenge state laws banning trans girls and women from participating in sports, hundreds gathered in a rally for transgender youth at Union Square in New York City.

January 12 - In Malaysia, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah has directed religious authorities to stop all LGBT-related activities in Selangor.

January 12 - Josh Cavallo is Australia’s first openly gay soccer player, and he believes that homophobia hindered his playing opportunities at Adelaide United, a claim that the club denies.

January 12 - A study led by Imperial College London researchers analysed data from almost 500 species of non-human primates, and they found that same-sex behavior isn’t rare and may help strengthen social bonds in primates.

January 13 - Chicago LGBT+ and civil rights activist and community organizer, Rick Garcia, died this week at age 69.

January 14 - Russian streaming services censored the LGBT plotline in the final episode of “Stranger Things,” significantly changing the story. This comes as the Kremlin continues to fight for “traditional values.”

January 14 - Police in Azerbaijan raided a known LGBTQ+ safe space, detaining over 100 people who were abused by the police in a targeted raid on LGBTQ+ minorities.

January 15 - 47.5% of US adults said that over the past year they are less out in some area of their lives.

January 16 - On the 6 train in New York City, a man was kissing his boyfriend when an assailant yelled an anti-gay slur and slashed one of the men in the face.

January 16 - Utah’s proposed bill HB183, stands out as particularly troubling. This far reaching bill would impact trans people in numerous avenues including to “Ban changes to the sex designation field of a birth certificate.”

January 19 - “The decades-long rise in the acceptance of gay people in the United States peaked around 2020 and has sharply reversed since then. The popularity of “Heated Rivalry,” it seems, is a welcome burst of enthusiasm for gay life in a new era of anti-gay prejudice.”

January 20 - Don Weise, a gay book publisher who emphasized publishing queer and diverse voices has died at the age of 59.

January 22 - “While Florida already prohibits gender-affirming care to those under 18, Republican leaders in the Florida Legislature are looking to expand that law and attempting to pass a pair of bills that would penalize health care practitioners who provide transgender-affirming care or “aids or abets another” in providing that care to a minor.”

January 23 - “A U.S. District Court judge on Jan. 21 denied a request by attorneys representing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a gay captain accusing police officials of illegally demoting him for taking parental leave to join his husband in caring for their newborn son.”

January 24 - “Two gay Iranian men who fled their home country after being arrested for “homosexual conduct” and facing possible execution are at risk of being deported by the United States as early as Sunday, according to their attorney, even as one federal court has intervened to temporarily block one of the removals. Advocates warn that the case exposes a deeper collapse of asylum protections.”

January 26 - A man was shot in Manchester’s gay village in a targetted anti-lgbt hate crime.

January 27 - Pakistani transgender women, Zehrish Khanzadi and Bindiya Rana, work for the Gender Alliance Interactive (GIA), a group that advocates for transgender rights. Late at night, the two were still up when the doorbell rang. Rama unlocked the door, and three shots were immediately fired, narrowly missing her. This attempted shooting is just the latest in the growing wave of anti-transgender violence.

January 28 - “Prosecutors in Hungary have filed charges against the progressive mayor of Budapest, seeking to fine him months after hundreds of thousands of people heeded his call to take to the streets in defiance of the government’s ban on Pride.”

January 28 - “Under a new bill introduced Wednesday, the Idaho Legislature would ban local policies in more than a dozen cities that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

January 29 - “A broad coalition of 47 anti-LGBTQ+ organizations announced this week the launch of a campaign to end marriage equality in the U.S.”