Apple CEO Comes Out, Russians Angr

Apple CEO Tim Cook came out last week as gay and proud. Not soon thereafter, Vitaly Molanov expressed concern stating that Cook would bring an “infectious disease” into the country. He explicitely named Ebola, AIDS and Gonorrhea as some of the diseases a gay man could bring into the country.

Molanov is known around the world for starting the ban on public images and demonstrations that call attention to LGBT issues. Because of him, President Vladimir Putin called for a country-wide ban on gay propaganda. Molanov believs the Russians are victim to hate crimes committed by the gay population and that gay people rape children.

Molanov has asked for a ban on all Apple products in Russia.

Study Says Trans Parents are Raising Happy Kids

Despite what many conservatives believe, a new study has found that transgendered parents are raising their children in healthy and positive relationships.

According to the William Institute at the University of California Los Angeles, a majority of transgendered families have positive and healthy relationships.  The study also found that kids raised in transgendered families were developmentally on target with children raised in non-trans families and were not more likely to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered that children from non-trans families.

Italy has Annual Gender Bender Festival

The Gender Bender festival is an international event taking place in Italy that introduces new imagery related to gender identity, sexual orientation and body representation to the Italian public.

The festival includes films, theater productions, dances, visual art exhibition, concerts and clubbing events. It has been an annual occurrence since 2003, hosted by the Il Cassero LGBT center.

Senators Urge Obama to Stand Up for LGBT Rights Worldwide

25 Senators have started pressuring Obama to appoint special officers to enforce LGBT rights internationally.

The senators sent Obama a letter urging him to change his global LGBT policy, which said “in nearly eighty nations around the world there exist laws that criminalize homosexuality, prohibit public support for the LGBT community, or promote homophobia.” They also wrote, “in seven countries, homosexuality is punishable by death. Even more troubling, though, is the recent trend of countries passing barbaric laws that deliberately try to persecute the LGBT community.”

They urge him to help pass the International Human Rights Defense Act, which would make responding to violence and discrimination against the LGBT community a priority for the U.S. government.