Turing’s victory, gay resistance and Lady Gaga

Your Daily Package of newsy and naughty bits from around the world


The United States of gay resistance

Gay news this week continued to circle around the Trump administration, with the New Yorker reporting on the wave of LGBT resistance to the new president. Meanwhile, a predicted executive order rolling back gay employment rights failed to materialize, possibly due to the intercession of Trump’s daughter and son-in-law. In the media, Lady Gaga performed at the Super Bowl in a show that was criticized for being either too political or not political enough, and Kristen Stewart called herself “gay” for the first time in public on Saturday Night Live.

Turing’s victory

The United Kingdom has finally passed a long-awaited law posthumously pardoning all men convicted under anti-homosexuality laws. Men who are still alive with a conviction can apply to be pardoned under the new law. The law is known as “Turing’s Law” after Second World War gay codebreaker Alan Turing.

Read more from the Canadian Press.

Lebanese legal victory

A Lebanese judge refused to convict two men of having gay sex, in an important legal victory for the country’s LGBT community. A Lebanese law criminalizes “sexual intercourse contrary to the order of nature,” but the judge dismissed the charges and said homosexuality was a personal choice and not illegal.

Read more at the Washington Blade.

Berlin fire kills three

A fire in the Berlin gay sauna Steam Works has killed three men, reports Gay Star News. Another 25 men escaped from the 2,000 square metre sauna.

A very queer family

What was it like to be gay before there were such thing as gay people? At The Atlantic, Deborah Cohen tells the story of a very queer family before the invention of modern sexuality.

 

Niko Bell

Niko Bell is a writer, editor and translator from Vancouver. He writes about sexual health, science, food and language.

Read More About:
Power, Blog, News, The Daily Package

Keep Reading

The new generation of gay Conservative sellouts

OPINION: Melissa Lantsman’s and Eric Duncan’s refusals to call out their party’s transphobia is a betrayal of the LGBTQ2S+ community

Over 300 anti-LGBTQ2S+ bills have been introduced this year. This doesn’t mean we should panic

OPINION: While it’s important to watch out for threats, not all threats are created equally. Some of these bills will die a natural death

Xtra’s top LGBTQ2S+ stories of the year

The best and brightest—even most bewildering—stories from a back catalogue brimming with insight

Elon Musk and Texas attorney general Ken Paxton are suing Media Matters. Here’s why queer and trans people should care

OPINION: When politicians and the rich leverage the power of the state to quell dissent, we all lose