Iranian authorities confirmed the arrest of a suspected gay men for setting up romantic dates on Facebook. President of Azerbaijan UF police arrest people with their mobile phone number on Facebook to prevent immoral relations. Read more
Solidarity with Egypt LGBT Protests Initiative
We invite you to participate in the demonstration that will take place on 18 October 2014 in front of every Egyptian embassy around the world (If accessible) to protest against human rights violations committed by the Egyptian government, relying on unlawful and unethical media tools, towards those of differing sexual orientations and gender identities. Read more
Egypt Begins Surveillance Of Facebook, Twitter, And Skype On Unprecedented Scale
Egyptians’ online communications are now being monitored by the sister company of an American cybersecurity firm, giving the Egyptian government an unprecedented ability to comb through data from Skype, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, among others.
See Egypt, the sister company of the U.S.-based Blue Coat, won the contract over the summer, beating out the British Gamma System, and the Israeli-founded Narus System. See Egypt has begun monitoring Egyptians’ online communications, according to several Egyptian government officials who spoke to BuzzFeed News.
“See Egypt has already worked with the government and has strong ties to the State Security Services,” said one official. He asked to remain anonymous, to protect his position within the government. “They were a natural choice and their system is already winning praise.” Read More
Grindr urges LGBT community to hide their identities as Egypt persecutes nation's gay community
Grindr has warned users to hide their identities on social media following the arrests of scores of gay men and fears Egyptian police are using the social network to seek out members of the country’s LGBT community.
“Egypt is arresting LGBT people and police may be posing as LGBT on social media to entrap you,” Grindr warned users in an on screen message. Read more
Lebanon: Mobiles and phone apps used to entrap LGBTI
In Lebanon police have intensified their campaign against LGBTI people by using arrestees’ mobile phones to try to entrap other allegedly gay men, according to Helem, Lebanon’s LGBTQI advocacy organisation. Meanwhile sources claim Egyptian cops have used popular dating app Grindr to arrest gay and lesbian community members. A reported security flaw compromises users' security by revealing their GPS location.
Hong Kong holds its first ever international symposium on LGBTI rights
York Chow, chairperson of Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission, said "In mapping out our approaches to promote LGBTI rights, we should look at what has been done in other jurisdictions. This symposium is an important opportunity for mutual learning, with the goal to achieve equal opportunities for sexual and transgender minorities." Read More
Josh Hutcherson Wants To Help Low-Income LGBTs, One Computer At A Time
In partnership with Straight But Not Narrow, The Trevor Project, and human I-T the Hunger Games star's “Power On” campaign provides LGBT teens with refurbished laptops, smartphones, and tablets to bring them better access to resources. Read More
Op-ed: What Not To Say to a Trans Person on OkCupid
Despite the human hazards, transgender people, like anyone, can still find love (or at least some halfway decent drunk texting) on dating site OkCupid. If you’re not an asshole and you think of yourself as the kind of person who’d be open to meeting a transgender person on OkCupid, here are some things to avoid saying during conversations with your transgender romantic prospect.
Grindr promotes PrEP & new app helps HIV+ connect to clinics
Massively popular dating app Grindr is working with PrEP groups to utilize it's social network to best and most effectively get the word out about HIV prevention. Yet the 'Truvada Whore' Stigma Endures Among Doctors and LGBTs. Working with AIDS.org, US-based app Hornet shows users the 10 closest HIV clinics.
Meanwhile gay UK pop sensation Sam Smith urges gay and straight singles to stop using 'hook-up apps' like Tinder and Grindr: ‘No offence to people who go on Tinder but I just feel like it’s ruining romance, I really do,’ he said. ‘We’re losing the art of conversation and being able to go and speak to people and you’re swiping people.’
Gay man sentenced for Twitter debauchery in Saudi Arabia
A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced an homosexual man to three years in prison and 450 lashes for using his Twitter account to promote homosexual contacts. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the religious police, was alerted about the tweets and was able to apprehend the young man after it set him up using an undercover agent. Read More
Why One of the Biggest LGBT Orgs Has Stopped Supporting ENDA: Hobby Lobby reverberates in the LGBT community
It’s not just about birth control. When the Supreme Court ruled last week that closely held corporations like Hobby Lobby wouldn’t have to cover the cost of contraception because of sincerely held religious beliefs, it didn’t take long for many to see the coming storm. If companies are allowed to treat women differently in access to health care, after all, what’s to stop them from discriminating against LGBT individuals based on the same religious grounds?
In the fight over LGBT rights, the Hobby Lobby decision is already beginning to do three things: embolden supporters of so-called religious freedom bills in several states; encourage the push for a religious exemption in executive protections for LGBT employees; and put backers of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) in a position where they feel they have to withdraw support. Read More