Guide created to assist LGBTQ Muslims in finding a community
Earlier this month, the Muslim Youth Leadership Council published a resource guide, titled “I am Muslim and I Might Not Be Straight” in hopes of helping LGBTQ Muslims find a community.
The Council is a part of the larger nonprofit organization Advocates for Youth, which aims to provide youth with information about sexuality and sexual health.
The guide quotes an adult named Fatimah on the topic:
“As a 20-year-old queer, non-binary, hijabi Muslim, my identity is complex. My parents often say that there aren’t any LGBTQ people in my community … What I’ve come to understand is that queer Muslims have existed since the beginning of Islam… And Allah made us just the way we are.”
Tanzania authorities gather names of gay citizens
Paul Makonda, a government official in Tanzania, announced recently that a committee of 17 people had been formed to identify gay people in the country, where homosexuality is illegal and gay public displays of affection can lead to arrest.
The committee includes “police, lawyers and doctors.”
Makonda claimed that the government had already been given 18,000 names from civilians. He further stated gay citizens often “boast on social networks” and said his team would pursue them.
Officials claimed they wished to “educate” gay citizens.
Caitlyn Jenner donates to LGBTQ non-profit ()
Early this month, Caitlyn Jenner donated $60K to the transgender community of Phoenix, Arizona. Twenty thousand dollars of the donation was given to the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS for a new program, the Transgender Resource and Navigation Service (TRANS), which attempts to help transgender and gender nonconforming people navigate the United States healthcare system.
The donation comes only weeks after Jenner’s October 25 Washington Post opinion piece, in which she criticized president Donald Trump after having declared her support for him earlier.
Online training program helps improve oncologists’ LGBTQ knowledge ()
After the launch of an online training program, oncologists’ knowledge of the LGBTQ community has improved, according to early results.
Curriculum for Oncologists on LGBT populations to Optimize Relevance and Skills (COLORS), is made up of four 30-minute-long modules that cover LGBTQ identities and terminology.
According to results, the percentage of oncologists that answered over 90 percent of questions correctly on an LGBTQ knowledge test increased from 33 percent before the training to 85 percent afterward.
Fifty-six companies sign letter opposing Trump transgender comments
On Thursday, 56 companies—including Uber, Google, and Facebook—signed and sent a letter to the Trump administration stating their opposition to the recent move to define gender as the genitalia with which an individual is born.
The administration’s announcement and effort has been led by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), just around a year after they controversially told others within the government not to use the word “transgender” in official documents.
The signees stated the policy would harm their workers and that they stand with the United States’ transgender community.
