Ireland: Warning over homophobic ‘catfish’ attacks

Members of Cork’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual community have been warned to take safety precautions when meeting online dates after reports of orchestrated attacks by assailants using websites and dating apps to attract their victims.

James Upton, auditor of UCC’s LGBT society, said that he was aware of a rise in physical and verbal homophobic attacks against the group’s members in the past six months. He said he believes it is a backlash against the LGBT community as the upcoming Marriage Equality referendum approaches.

“We can’t tell our members not to go on these sites, but we issue a word of caution about meeting people from them, they could be catfished,” he warned. Read More

The Importance of Having Gay Video Game Characters

In a video for PBS Digital’s Game/Show, Jamin Warren discusses the power of having explicitly gay characters in video games. Gaming franchises like Fable and the Sims have long-offered players the ability to create unique characters with customizable sexualities. But, as Warren explains, there's something to be said for queer characters whose sexualities are set in stone.

In particular Warren singles out BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition and Dorian, its resident gay magic user, for crafting a story in which Dorian’s sexuality is integral to the character’s personality, but not burdensome to the game’s plot. Read More

ANZ New Zealand Bank Unveils 'GAYTMs' Benefiting The LGBT Community In Honor Of Pride Events

In an effort to promote "respect, inclusion, equality and acceptance," a local bank chain has unveiled four "GAYTMs" in connection with local Pride events in New Zealand.

The four festively-dressed ATM machines, which were actually introduced last year by ANZ Australia as part of Sydney Mardi Gras, made their debut in Auckland and Wellington via ANZ New Zealand, The New Zealand Herald first reported. The installations will appear throughout the Auckland Pride Festival, which runs through February, and Wellington's Out in the Park, which is slated for Feb. 14.  Read More 

Israel: Hebro Presents First-Ever Gay Jewish Auschwitz Tour

Jayson Littman, founder of Hebro Travel, a new tour company serving “gay Jews and those who love us,” is serving up trips that blend historical exploration, cultural discovery — and some serious partying.

An Israel trip timed for Tel Aviv Pride in June will take travelers to a famously gay-friendly environment. But it’s Littman’s latest tour offering that’s generating attention — and raising eyebrows. The history-making Poland & Prague Pride Trip includes a Jewish heritage tour of the Kazimierz District and Schindler’s List route; visits to historic synagogues; and stops at Auschwitz and Theresienstadt and ends with Prague’s Gay Pride festivities.  Read More

ExxonMobil Relents, Adds LGBT Worker Protections

ExxonMobil has reversed its longstanding opposition to providing LGBT employment protections, a sign of the impact of President Obama’s executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.   Read More

Dominican Republic: Advocates, officials to launch LGBT tourism campaign

Members of the Center for Integrated Training and Research, a Dominican advocacy group known by the Spanish acronym COIN that has fought the AIDS epidemic in the country and throughout the Caribbean for more than two decades, will meet with representatives of the Dominican Ministry of Tourism and Tourism Police to promote LGBT tourism and gay rights in the Caribbean country. Read More 

'Dongle' turns smartphone into mobile lab to diagnose HIV, syphilis

Engineers have created a compact, handheld device that plugs into an iPhone and turns it into a mobile laboratory that can diagnose HIV and syphilis in just 15 minutes. “This kind of capability can transform how health care services are delivered around the world,” study leader Samuel K. Sia, a biomedical engineer at Columbia, said in a statement. Read More

Google+ Now Lets You Define Your Gender

Following on the heels of social networking sites like Facebook and OKCupid, users of Google+ will soon be able to set their own gender, reports TechCrunch. 

Among a cascade of updates rolled out on Tuesday, the tech giant announced it will let users list their gender as more than just “Male” or “Female. In fact, according to Google software engineer Rachael Bennett’s post, Google+ users will now have access to an “infinite number of ways to express your gender identity.”  Read More

Digital security tools and Tactics for the LGBTI community in Sub-Saharan Africa

In recent years, LGBTI persons have indeed become more visible and active in the public sphere. Nonetheless, the State and society all too often force them back “into the closet” with threats of ostracization, harassment, physical violence and even death.  The Internet has emerged as a viable option for LGBTI persons to gain visibility, communicate, network, and express what one cannot express in public. Read More

Philippines: Closure of gay bars “to end AIDS” looms in Baguio

Health officials asked the city government on Wednesday to close down gay bars to prevent the spread of the dreaded disease AIDS, which showed an upsurge in the past several months. Dra. Celiaflor Brillantes, head of the social hygiene clinic, said 80 percent of the 60 AIDS cases in the city have been traced to men having sex with men and returning overseas workers, who got infected abroad.

“We have to close down the gay bars and strictly regulate the operation of nightspots in order to prevent the further increase of individuals contracting the dreaded disease,” Brillantes said. Read More