The claim that homosexual men share a “gay gene” created a furore in the 1990s. But new research two decades on supports this claim – and adds another candidate gene. To an evolutionary geneticist, the…
Media coverage of gays and lesbians in 2014 has followed a very different trend to previous years. Rather than good news stories about love and weddings, the majority of reports relate to violence, persecution…
Why does a “gay gene” paper still cause a stir? A similar paper on any other topic would probably have passed unnoticed. But this is sex research – where public interest is huge but real funds and real…
Any lingering doubts about the political power of popular culture have surely been dispelled in the last couple of weeks. When actor Ellen Page courageously fought tears to come out before a global audience…
On 13 January the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, signed a bill against gay relationships, outlawing gay marriage, public displays of same-sex relationships and membership in gay groups. A few days…
It is time for all Australian governments to acknowledge a historic wrong. In doing so they will help to right an injustice and demonstrate a real commitment to respect for all Australians. Earlier this…
Both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are taking steps towards new regulations for the sex work industry, principally aimed at better protecting victims of coercion and trafficking. However…
The Kaleidoscope Trust this week released a report on LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual/transgender and intersex) rights in Commonwealth countries. It found that 41 of the 53 member states still…
In Australia, there is an ongoing debate around the right for same-sex couples to marry. The majority of laws discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people were repealed in…
It has been 10 years since the first evidence emerged of what was until then a completely hidden HIV epidemic among men who have sex with men in Bangkok, Thailand. The term includes all men who engage…
In a recent speech celebrating 30 years of the Victorian AIDS Council, Adam Carr, one of its founders who went onto pursue a PhD in history, made the point that: …not many people get to make history in…
The idea of prisoners having sex upsets people; it offends our sense that prison is a place of punishment not pleasure. But sex still happens, maybe more than we like to think. And if it is happening…
Being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex is joyous! Make no mistake, it’s the experience of homophobia and transphobia that can destroy lives and often leads to depression, anxiety and poor…
A law banning therapists in California from attempting to change the sexual orientation of same-sex attracted youths was tested in the courts this week. At issue were the rights to professional free speech…
Some people are ignorant. There are no cases, however, of ignorance being listed as the cause of death on someone’s death certificate. On the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night, Archbishop Jensen agreed…
Alan Chambers, president of the world’s largest “ex-gay” organisation, Exodus International, recently renounced the group’s long-held position that homosexuality can be “cured” – that gay people can become…
AUSTRALIA BY NUMBERS: The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released the first batch of its 2011 census data. We’ve asked some of the country’s top demographers and statisticians to crunch the numbers…
It may seem surprising, but the number of queer characters in videogames has increased dramatically over the last decade. A key influence of this is “media convergence”, that is, the flow of subject matter…
In the last few years, several laboratory studies have shown that, to some extent, we can tell whether someone is gay or straight, just by glimpsing their face. When asked to categorise male and female…