LIFESTYLES Archives | Page 582 of 626

Nowhere to go…the challenges of being homeless and LGBT during a hurricane.

September 7, 2017 compassq Comments Off

There was nowhere for 19-year-old Sean Chavez to go when Hurricane Harvey thundered into Houston less than two weeks ago. The homeless teenager, who is bisexual, sat on a sidewalk drenched in rain. It came down with such fury that it got into his lungs. A sick feeling grew in his stomach. He was getting cold. “I couldn’t really breath,” Chavez told NBC News. “I was praying I could get a place to get out.” Then, he said, a car pulled over and a woman stepped out. She asked him if he had a place to go.

Transgender and homeless in Portland, a rising trend.

September 7, 2017 compassq Comments Off

When she first considered transitioning from a man to a woman, Sophia Conquest made a checklist of “bad and good things.” On the bad side: As a transgender woman, she’d essentially have a target on her back. “I knew it was going to happen,” Conquest says. The day before WW interviewed her last month in Pioneer Courthouse Square, Conquest says, a child threw rocks at her. Earlier that week, she adds, a woman physically assaulted her in a confrontation that began with the woman insulting Conquest with slurs, like “She Man.” Conquest eventually fended her off with her purse while running away.

LGBT hate crimes in Scotland double in four years.

September 6, 2017 compassq Comments Off

HATE crimes against gay and bisexual people in Scotland has almost doubled in four years, shock stats show. A hard-hitting survey by a charity revealed almost one fifth of those who took part had suffered homophobic abuse this year compared with just 9% in 2013.

Greece is on the gay travel radar.

September 6, 2017 compassq Comments Off

Gay Star News, the biggest Gay Media in the United Kingdom, with more than 1.000.000 monthly visitors, recommends Greece as the ideal destination for gay holidays in September, Greek Reporter writes. The initiative is part of Travel by Interest’s international campaign, “September in Greece.” In collaboration with the Editors of Gay Star News, Travel by Interest’s Hotel Experts have selected 10 ideal destinations for Gay Holidays in September.

“Christianity and Queerness” by a gay, Christian pastor.

September 6, 2017 compassq Comments Off

As a gay, Christian pastor, Gary LeCroy says conversation is the first step to ending negative connotations of homosexuality. “I think a lot of the people who are opposed to [homosexuality] have never sat and actually dialogued with people who are,” LeCroy said. LeCroy was the keynote speaker for the “Christianity and Queerness” event on Tuesday, Sept. 5. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lutheran Center and LGBTQA+ Resource Center partnered to host the event in the Jackie Gaughan Multicultural Center.

Montrose Center reopens to help the LGBT community in Houston.

September 6, 2017 compassq Comments Off

As Hurricane Harvey began its punishing descent on Houston, Kennedy Loftin knew the LGBT community in the city would need to pull together to survive. “In the last two storms, in Katrina and Ike, a lot of our community fell through the cracks,” Loftin, chief development officer of the Montrose Center, Houston’s largest LGBT community organization, said on Monday.

More pressure on the LGBT community in Indonesia.

September 6, 2017 compassq Comments Off

Twelve women have been evicted from their home in the conservative Indonesian province of West Java amid renewed fears of crackdown on sexual diversity. The group had been renting a shared house in the village of Tugu Jaya, where their cohabitation and “unfeminine” appearance had unsettled conservatives. Responding to a complaint from religious leaders and an Islamic youth group that the women’s living arrangements was “against the teaching of Islam”, police raided the women’s home last Saturday, giving them three days notice to leave.