This archive tracks real progress on LGBTQ+ rights and well-being — from legal protections and policy wins to health access, community support, and cultural recognition. Each story focuses on what’s working and where momentum is building, offering a grounded, hopeful look at a topic that shapes millions of lives.
President Moon also plans to close at least 10 ageing coal-fired power plants before his term ends in 2022, as well as boosting renewables’ share of the country’s energy mix from 6.6 per cent today to 20 per cent by 2030.
Leo Varadkar was elected Irish Prime Minister on Wednesday, making the 38-year-old son of an Indian immigrant the first gay premier of the once-staunchly Catholic country and the youngest person to hold the office.
The Kirk’s general assembly, meeting in Edinburgh, instructed officials to consider changes to church law that would allow ministers to preside over same-sex-marriage ceremonies.
Lawmakers voted in favor of a draft law on Wednesday which will no longer require transgender people to undergo sterilization or a mental health diagnosis in order for their preferred gender to be legally recognized.
Tomoya Hosoda has taken part in various campaigns to raise the profile of LGBTQ in his country.
Majorities of Americans support legal protections for lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender people, opposing laws that force transgender people to use bathrooms according to the gender on their birth certificate and that allow business owners to refuse to service to LGBT people based on religious beliefs.
In November 2016, Oregon voters elected Kate Brown governor, making her the first openly LGBT person — and first openly bisexual person — elected governor of any U.S. state. Brown had already spent decades in Oregon politics, winning the Secretary of State race in 2008. Her victory offered lasting proof that identity alone would not disqualify a candidate at the highest levels.
Georgia’s first openly gay state legislator was elected on a November night in 2016, when 28-year-old Sam Park flipped a Republican-held House seat in Gwinnett County. The son of Korean immigrants, Park campaigned on schools and healthcare rather than identity alone. In a Southern statehouse long without LGBTQ+ representation, his win cracked a door open.
Ireland legalized same-sex marriage by popular vote on May 22, 2015, becoming the first country to enshrine it through a national referendum. More than 1.2 million voters said yes, with only one of the country’s constituencies returning a No majority. In a nation where divorce had been illegal two decades earlier, citizens rewrote their own constitution.
Lesotho decriminalized male same-sex activity in 2012, lifting a colonial-era common law offense that had long shadowed gay and bisexual men in the small southern African kingdom. A year later, Maseru held its first pride march, with police escorting hundreds through the streets. The reform echoed Basotho traditions of same-sex partnership that predated colonial rule.
