Russian Film Festival Powers On

It's so heart-warming to see people standing up in the face of violence and threats to bodily harm. Eleven years and no one has knocked them down!

Last week, the annual Side by Side (Bok o Bok in Russian) LGBT International Film Festival was held in Moscow. Amid screenings of films, gatherings within the community and providing a safe space for the LGBT community, the presence of anti-LGBT protestors and bomb threats tainted an otherwise peaceful event in the capital.

“The first festival in 2008 (in St. Petersburg) faced a lot of challenges, with pressure on the venues not to support [us], and emergency services closing down spaces,” organizer Manny de Guerre told The Moscow Times. “In some respect, we still face the same challenges today.”

In spite of these ongoing difficulties, the festival has powered through and has no intention of stopping. “Hundreds came to the event [in 2008] and it was clear that the festival was needed and in demand,” de Guerre said. “That is what kept us going.”

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Ariana Grande Headlines Manchester Pride with Criticism

I understand the anger. I think the organisers of Manchester [UK] Pride should rethink this whole thing. Any Pride event should focus on the LGBT community and any artist performing there should do so for free or take a cut or something. I don't like Ariana Grande and feel she's a little full of herself.

Ariana Grande has been forced to step in and defend herself after facing criticism when she was announced as the headliner of an LGBTQ pride festival.

It had been rumoured for weeks that Ariana was set to top the bill at Manchester Pride this year. The performance would mark her first visit to Manchester since the One Love concert two years ago.

But when it was finally announced that she would indeed be performing, both Ariana and Manchester Pride were heavily criticised for a number of things. Many took issue with the price of the tickets, calling the jump in price "exploitation of LGBT people".

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Trump administration wants homosexuality decriminalized around the world

This completely boggles the mind.

The Trump administration is reportedly launching a campaign to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. According to NBC News, Iran is one of the primary targets of the effort, drawing attention to President Donald Trump’s history of conflating support for the LGBTQ community with Islamophobic messaging.

The catalyst for the decision appears to have been Iran’s hanging of a gay man in January. Iran has long been one of Trump’s biggest international foes, and the president has repeatedly threatened the nation against pushing back on the administration’s decision to reimpose sanctions that were rolled back under the Iran nuclear deal.

Leading the new campaign is Richard Grenell, U.S. ambassador to Germany. Grenell, an openly gay man and ultra-conservative, lashed out after the hanging, calling it “a wake-up call for anyone who supports basic human rights.”

Grenell himself has frequently pushed the concept of homonationalism in his social media posts. The term “homonationalism,” HuffPost notes, was coined by Rutgers University professor Jasbir K. Puar in 2007 and is considered “the intersection of gay identity and nationalist ideology” — including the reinforcement of Islamophobia.

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House Bans LGBT Employment Discrimination

A huge win for the LGBT community. Three big changes with the new Democratic controlled House of Representatives include a ban on discrimination for staffers and jobseekers.

When the 116th Congress met for the first time on Thursday, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed a package of rules that will govern the legislative body’s operation for the next two years.

Three major changes differentiate this year’s House rules package: a ban on members serving on corporate boards, a requirement that members take ethics training every year and a ban on employment discrimination against LGBTQ staffers and jobseekers. The rules package was pushed by Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., one of eight openly LGBTQ lawmakers in the House.

“Government at its best works for the benefit of all Americans, not just the powerful and privileged,” Cicilline said in a statement. “Protecting the rights of LGBT employees is just the right thing to do.”

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