From the March-April 2023 issue of News & Letters
by Elise
Lesbian mother Julissa was finally reunited with her six-year-old daughter and newborn son thanks to a petition circulated by Lesbian Mothers in Mexico and All Out demanding their reunification. After the Yucatan government received the petition, with over 100,000 signatures, it relented. Yucatan’s institutional violence against Julissa and her children happened after a social worker interviewed her while her son was still in the hospital.
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Matthew Shepard. Photo: Wikimedia
About 50 high school members of the Wyoming Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) met with state legislators on the GSA’s biannual Civics Day. Most of the members do not see a bright future for the LGBTQ+ Wyoming community, in the state where out gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was murdered 25 years ago. Many are planning on attending college in another state. Wyoming has no hate crime laws. Legislation banning Transgender girls and women from participating in sports recently passed the state Senate and is expected to be signed by Governor Mark Gordon. The ironically named “Equality State” also has four “Don’t Say Gay” bills and two more Transphobic bills in the wings. One GSA member said she still doesn’t feel safe being herself, so she will be moving to Colorado for college.
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NGOs including Damj, the Tunisian Association for Justice and Equality, and Mawjoudin Institute for Equality are circulating a petition demanding freedom for Maya, a Trans woman sentenced to the maximum three years in prison and another man sentenced to one year, for suspicion of taking part in an LGBTQ+ event at a private residence, in violation of Tunisia’s Article 230. Tunisia’s Social Protection Unit raided the event, arresting two other individuals who were subsequently acquitted. All four were tortured. Tunisia is being called on to honor the human rights treaties and conventions it has signed and to allow the National Commission for the Prevention of Torture and the Tunisian Association for the Defense of Human Rights to determine if the two prisoners are housed in humane conditions. To sign the petition, go to https://action.allout.org/en/m/55cf4094/.