Hallmark Channel to premiere first holiday romantic comedy centered on a gay couple
In 2019, LGBTQ Nation published an essay urging the networks to include more diversity in their holiday programming.
Good News Links
Youth crime in the U.S. has plummeted 78% since 1994
Law enforcement agencies made an estimated 424,300 arrests of youth in 2020, a 38% drop from the previous year and half the number from five years earlier.
India’s top court legalizes abortion regardless of marital status
A law dating from 1971 had limited the procedure to married women, divorcees, widows, minors, “disabled and mentally ill women” and survivors of sexual assault or rape.
Māori tribe secures landmark apology and compensation over colonial atrocities
As well as an apology, the Waikato-based iwi of nearly 46,000 members received NZ$177m in financial redress – New Zealand’s fifth-largest sum of its kind – and the return of 36 sites of cultural significance.
Chinese company gets airworthiness certificate for groundbreaking bio jet fuel made of cooking oil
Compared to traditional petroleum-based aviation kerosene, bio jet fuel can reduce carbon emissions by up to 50% throughout the entire lifecycle.
Wild mammals are making a comeback in Europe thanks to conservation efforts
By the first half of the 20th century, many of Europe’s mammals had been reduced to just a fraction of historical levels. But many mammal populations have seen a dramatic increase over the last 50 years.
Indian company develops country’s first HPV vaccine
The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine maker, has developed the country’s first cervical cancer shot that will hit the market within a few months.
U.S. Senate ratifies Kigali Amendment, joining more than 130 countries in treaty to eliminate HFCs
HFCs were widely adopted in the 1980s and 1990s to replace CFCs, which damage the Earth’s ozone layer. But then HFCs emerged as some of the most potent greenhouse gases, far more potent than carbon dioxide.
Cuba approves same-sex marriage in historic turnabout
Cubans approved a measure to legalize same-sex marriage, part of a new family code that’s among the most progressive in Latin America, defying a long tradition of machismo on the island.
Connecticut becomes one of the first U.S. states to require schools to teach climate change
A recent national survey of science teachers found that most middle school and high school teachers devote just one to two hours of instruction on climate change during the entire academic year.