LGBT
Latest
Apple will give Siri a less gendered voice option in iOS 15.4
Apple will offer Siri with a less gendered voice option when iOS 15.4 arrives.
Grindr restricts location features at the Beijing Olympic Village
Grindr has limited outside access to the Winter Olympics Village to protect the privacy and safety of athletes.
Dating app Grindr disappears from Apple's App Store in China (updated)
Grindr has abruptly left Apple's App Store in China, raising fears about a renewed government crackdown on 'illegal' content.
Russia investigates complaint over Netflix LGBT content
The company faces a fine and a temporary suspension of services if it's found to have violated the law.
Netflix fires employee for leaking data about controversial Dave Chappelle special
They were reportedly a leader of a trans employee group, which has been criticizing Netflix leadership for defending Chappelle's trans jokes.
Twitch is adding over 350 tags to help make streams more inclusive
Twitch has added over 350 stream tags to foster inclusiveness, including for the LGBTQIA+ community and people with disabilities.
The UK's Alan Turing £50 bank note is a love letter to coding
The UK has unveiled its £50 Alan Turing bank note, and it's appropriately both very secure and a nod to the computer scientist's achievements.
Netflix reportedly cancels Turkish show rather than write-out gay character
Netflix reportedly shut down a Turkish drama rather than write-out a gay character.
Ads on Facebook are spreading misinformation about anti-HIV drugs
While many are focused on Facebook's unwillingness to curb false political ads, there appears to be another misinformation campaign going unchecked. The Guardian and GLAAD have noted that personal injury law firms continue to run Facebook ads making false claims about the risks of Truvada, a drug meant to reduce the likelihood of HIV transmission. Some float the specters of bone loss and kidney damage despite evidence that the risks of either are "not clinically significant," according to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
LGBTQ+ creators file lawsuit charging YouTube with discrimination
In a federal lawsuit filed yesterday, a group of LGBTQ+ video creators claims YouTube discriminates against their content. The group alleges that YouTube suppresses their videos, restricts their ability to monetize their channels and enforces its policies unevenly, giving more leeway to producers with large audiences. According to The Washington Post, the suit argues that YouTube deploys "unlawful content regulation, distribution, and monetization practices that stigmatize, restrict, block, demonetize, and financially harm the LGBT Plaintiffs and the greater LGBT Community."
Tinder will let you list your sexual orientation in your profile
With the arrival of Pride month, dating app Tinder is making moves to be more welcoming to LGBT users for the event and beyond. In collaboration with GLAAD, the company has announced it will now let users list their sexual orientation in their profile.
Facebook's political ad policy also blocked LGBT messages
Facebook's tougher political advertising policy has had more unintended side-effects. The Washington Post has discovered that the social network inadvertently blocked dozens of LGBT-themed ads after its screening system (which includes automated and human moderators) deemed them political. Most didn't contain advocacy or obvious political leanings -- the only common link was a reference to LGBT keywords. When the ad runners complained to Facebook, it responded more than once that mentioning LGBT made it about civil rights and thus a "political topic."
OKCupid users can choose a pronoun to display in their profile
Online dating service OkCupid now allows its non-binary and LGBT users to choose their pronoun. Once they've selected their gender(s) from their profile, they can either select from a trio of options (she/her, he/him and they/them) or type in their chosen pronoun. Once entered, it will show up in the 'details' section alongside gender and sexual orientation for others to publicly see.
Ruby Rose is the latest celebrity driven off Twitter by abuse
It's only been a few days since Ruby Rose was cast as "Batwoman" for the CW series Arrowverse, but the Australian actor has already had to quit Twitter after a stream of abusive messages. Much of the backlash has focused on accusations that Rose -- who identifies as gender fluid and is a prominent LGBTQ activist -- isn't "gay enough" to play the role of Kate Kane (aka Batwoman) who is a lesbian in the comic books. Some others took issue with the fact that, unlike the character in the comics, Rose isn't Jewish. Still others simply questioned her acting ability, leading to the creation of #recastbatwoman campaign on social media.
Weibo reverses planned purge of LGBT content
Last Friday, China's social network Weibo said it had plans to remove violent and gay-themed content on its platform in order to comply with strict new Chinese cybersecurity regulations. Now, however, after many users of the Twitter-like system protested the removal of LGBT content, the company has relented, saying that the main purpose of its cleanup efforts is to remove pornographic, violent and gory content, not homosexuality.
Twitter explains why it blocked LGBT-related searches
This past weekend, searches for LGBT-related terms on Twitter like "#bisexual" and "#gay" simply stopped working. The hashtags yielded no results regardless of people's content settings, leading to accusations that the platform is deliberately silencing LGBT voices. Twitter, however, said it was an honest mistake, and now it has revealed more details about the issue, including why it happened and what it's doing to fix things.
Twitter will fix broken searches for LGBT material
More than a few LGBT Twitter users were alarmed this weekend when searches for relevant terms (such as #bisexual and #gay) no longer produced results, regardless of what their content settings were. At the least, it made discussions unnecessarily difficult; some even accused Twitter of deliberately silencing LGBT voices. However, it looks like those queries will go back to normal soon. Twitter said it has pinpointed an "error" with search results for key terms and hopes to fix the problem as soon as it can. The social network didn't have more to say beyond the tweet when we reached out, but it should have more to say in the future.
New Tesla lawsuit accuses company of LGBT discrimination
Tesla has just been hit with its second discrimination lawsuit in as many days. Just yesterday, the company was sued for racial harassment in its factories. A few months back, its diversity panel uncovered a slew of sexism. Now The Guardian reports that another employee is suing the automaker for anti-LGBT taunts.
Atari partners with LGBT Media to make more inclusive games
Atari is making good on its promise to stake part of its strategy on LGBTQ apps. The company has formed a partnership with LGBT Media, the company behind the social app LGBTQutie, to reach more of the community. The deal will see LGBT Media acquire and "re-launch" Atari's city-building game Pridefest by taking advantage of its connections to the LGBTQ community, including an expansion of the title's social side. Ultimately, the two hope to create a "new standard" for gaming in a demographic that they see as underserved.
Spotify's new series tackles topics like immigration and equality
Spotify's foray into original content began in 2016, with a documentary about the young days of legendary rock band Metallica, followed by a video series on Green Day earlier this year. Now the streaming service is getting ready to launch "I'm with the banned," an in-house initiative that will feature music, videos and a documentary inspired by issues like immigration and LBGTQ equality. The original series brings together artists such as Desiigner, Pusha T, K.Flay and X Ambassadors on six new pieces of music, all created with help from singers, songwriters and producers who are affected by Trump's controversial travel ban.
