French Group Sues Twitter, Facebook, & YouTube Over Harassment

While social media has helped people connect, it has also served as an amplifier for hate speech and online a harassment, which is sadly as frequent as it is ugly. One French group is preparing a lawsuit against YouTube, Twitter and Facebook for allegedly not doing enough to end harassment. We’ve got that and more in our roundup of LGBTQ-culture news from around the world!

• The UN Free & Equal campaign released a new music video ‘Why We Fight’ featuring LGBT activists and allies from around the world.

• From the Philippines author Laurel Fantauzzo described the daily struggle and fear she faces when deciding whether to be public about her homosexuality. 

• The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) released its latest edition of the Rainbow Index, a multi-factor evaluation of the best and worst places to be gay in Europe. Since last year’s Index, Malta and Belgium overtook the UK for the best ranking — with Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan retaining the lowest ranking.

• The East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative released several new reports on the situation faced by LGBT and sex workers in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.

• The Human Dignity Trust published a new report with specific focus on the impact of criminalization of lesbian and bisexual women around the world. And the Harvard Kennedy School published the 6th edition of LGBTQ Policy Journal with a focus on global and local policy issues affecting trans people.

• South African LGBTI community members gathered in the Limpopo province to protest recent hate crimes and violence. In Uganda, the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum held a workshop to educate LGBTI and sex worker organizations about taking advantage of the protections afforded in the new ‘NGO Act 2016’.

• Led by the efforts of Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, and Technology Hiroshi Hase, local LGBT activists are hoping that hosting the 2020 Olympic games will put a spotlight on LGBT rights issues in the country. 

• Heralded video game ‘Fragments of Him’ — a game about coping with death told through the sudden passing of a bisexual man — is now available to the public. 

• YouTube bowed to Kenyan censors by adding a warning to ‘Same Love,’ a music video supporting equality that the Kenyan board claimed ‘promotes’ homosexuality.  Meanwhile, the Union des étudiants juifs de France — Union of French Jewish Students — announced plans for legal action against YouTube, Twitter and Facebook over hate speech and bullying, accusing the social media sites for taking more action against female nudity than racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic or violence-inciting speech.

• And from China LGBTI activist Xiaogang Wei has run webcast ‘Queer Comrades’ for nearly a decade, giving a voice to the local queer community despite stringent Chinese censors. 

• In the U.S., the National Football League upheld its promise to keep the Super Bowl in states without anti-LGBT legislation through 2021 — the announcement included awarding the 2019 event to Georgia following the governor’s veto of a local ‘religious liberty’ bill. 

• South Africa’s first gay rugby club is recruiting new members with a provocative campaign that pairs homophobic slurs with pictures of players defying stereotypes. 

• In China, the Dutch embassy hosted China’s ‘First LGBT Stamp Design Competition’. Traditional paper-cut artist Xiyadie won with his stamps honoring ‘peace, harmony, and happiness to LGBT people everywhere.’

• Check out this video by the Asian Pride Project showcasing LGBT Muslims and their allies, family, and friends. And this short video from Egypt explains how LGBTQ+ people are targeted by officials and victimized by local legislation.

• And finally, you can check out and vote now for Bangladeshi artist Gazi Nafis Ahmed—shortlisted for the Prix Levallois Award for his “Inner Face” photographic series, addressing human rights of LGBT community in Bangladesh.

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Unicorn Booty brings attentions to global issues of significance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. Our partnership with Equal Eyes, a news source produced in collaboration with UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, is part of that effort. To learn more, visit their site at Equal-Eyes.org. 

This coverage promotes sexual and gender equality while highlighting issues of health, violence, culture, and legal and human rights. Equal Eyes provides advocates and allies a common frame of reference for the realities of global LGBTI communities. Through followup reporting and disseminating this coverage, our effort is to ensure we have a representation of the global stories that matter most or may have under-reporting.

(Featured image via Fixers UK/Flickr)