Community grapples with fear over ‘proliferation and normalisation of anti-queer and anti-trans sentiment in politics and the media’

They poured on to streets across Germany by the thousands, waving rainbow flags and signs that read “Choose Love”. Days before an election in which the far right is expected to catapult into second place in Germany’s parliament, the simultaneous rallies in 50 municipalities were billed as a show of strength by an LGBTQ+ community as people braced for what might lie ahead.

“Many queer people are unsettled by the social and political situation,” the organisers of the mid-February, cross-country initiative wrote on their website. “The tone against us is getting harsher, and liberal democracy is under pressure.”

The president has signed orders to ban gender transitions for people under 19, end birthright citizenship and more

Donald Trump has signed more than 50 executive orders since returning to the presidency in January, including enacting steep tariffs, ending birthright citizenship, curbing DEI and “gender radicalism” in the military and pardoning January 6 rioters.

The US president promised in his inaugural speech that these orders would amount to a “complete restoration of America”.

In a new book the scholar traces a line from reactionary tendencies in history to anti-trans feminists today

Is Donald Trump a feminist?

There was a time when anyone asking such a question could reasonably expect to be laughed out of the room. Yet, just three weeks into Trump’s second term, the man responsible for stripping women in the US of the right to an abortion was declared a “feminist kween”, “feminist hero” and “feminist icon” by several prominent feminist writers in the UK.

The show delivers a refreshing depiction of the relationship between a trans woman and her father

Black sitcoms have long featured sincere and thoughtful arcs on a number of issues, including adoption, grief and racial profiling. But many shows have failed to deliver meaningful storylines about transgender characters. Shows such as The Jeffersons and The Parkers, for instance, have leaned on tired, transphobic tropes: the process of transitioning is typically reduced to a single operation that characters get off-screen; trans women are often outed by accident, the punchline in a joke about gender; or trans people are abandoned once a cisgender character who initially expressed romantic interest in them suddenly discovers their gender identity and bolts.

Across television programs, trans characters (usually played by cis actors) function as punchlines, villains or have no legitimate storyline to begin with. But Clean Slate, a new Prime Video series loosely based on the actor Laverne Cox’s upbringing, is an entertaining and wholehearted comedy following a once-estranged father and daughter who become reacquainted and grow together on new terms.

The president talks about trans athletes ‘invading’ women’s sports, while doing nothing at all to elevate, fund or support women athletes

Earlier this month, Donald Trump singled me out. In fact, I was the first example he gave of someone ruining women’s sport.

“Last year”, he said while announcing his Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports executive order, “a male cyclist posing as a woman competed in the 800-mile Arizona Trail Race – a very big deal in cycling – and obliterated the women’s course record by nearly five and a half hours.”

Former sponsors walk away from 2025 event – while organisers say they do not meet partnership requirements

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Google and Meta do not meet the requirements to partner with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the organisation has said, after the two tech giants ended their official involvement and ditched diversity obligations in the US.

At the 47th annual Mardi Gras parade up Oxford Street next Saturday, a notable absence will be the two tech firms, previously event sponsors.

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The order doesn’t fulfill campaign pledges, but does cement the administration’s reputation for promoting childbearing

During Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, as support for reproductive rights mounted, the president promised to force insurance companies to pay for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order that, the White House said, “expands access to in vitro fertilization”.

“PROMISES MADE. PROMISES KEPT,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, posted in all-caps on Twitter/X.

As the defense secretary introduces a flurry of anti-trans policies, servicepeople fear the worst – a blanket ban – is yet to come

For Bree Fram, an active-duty colonel in the US space force with 22 years of military experience, the last few weeks have been “incredibly challenging”.

“Like thousands of other transgender military personnel, I am doing my job every day, while feeling fear and uncertainty of what is coming next,” said Fram.

This watchable but oblique drama owes a debt to Belgian director Chantal Akerman’s provocative monotony as it tracks its two young protagonists’ daily rituals

Chantal Akerman’s 1975 feature Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is the ultimate arthouse exercise in provocative monotony, and was anointed by the 2022 Sight and Sound critics’ poll as the best film of all time. Now it’s hard not to see its influence everywhere, especially in films with a distinctly feminist, queer or queer-adjacent vibe, such as this one from Austrian directors Milena Czernovsky and Lilith Kraxner. Although it doesn’t conclude with any extreme Akermanian violence, Bluish closely observes the rituals of daily life for its two twentysomething protagonists, favouring long takes and deep-breath editing rhythms to explore the quotidian.

Although we never learn the pronouns Errol (Leonie Bramberger) prefers, their name suggests a non-binary disposition and when it comes to romance they seem to mostly prefer other Afab (“assigned female at birth”) people, like a cute young thing seemingly met through a dating app.

Five people charged with murder in Sam Nordquist’s death in upstate New York also identified as LGBTQ+, say officials

Authorities investigating the alleged torture and murder of Sam Nordquist in upstate New York say they have found no evidence the transgender man’s killing was a hate crime, pointing out that five people recently charged in connection with the slaying also identified as LGBTQ+.

“We urge the community not to speculate into the motive behind the murder as we work to find justice for Sam,” authorities said over the weekend in a joint press release from the Ontario county district attorney’s office and New York state police. “At this time, we have no indication that Sam’s murder was a hate crime.”