A project called Where Love Is Illegal has captured our attention with heartbreaking accounts of LGBTQ survival from hostile communities around the world.
Each powerful photo is accompanied by a first-person account of the hurdles the subject has found the strength to overcome.
It’s a stark reminder of the day-to-day horrors queer people face.
The project’s website reads, “we’ve created this space for people to share stories of discrimination and survival. Read these stories, share them, and contribute your own. Let the world know that we will not be silent.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Below are some of the stories they’ve posted on Instagram. To see more, and find out how to donate, head here.
“Hold my hand, this is my reward for your courage.” D & O are a #lesbian couple in Russia. They were attacked in the street because they were holding hands. Read their story shared as part of the #WhereLoveIsIllegal campaign: http://j.mp/WC-WLII photo by @hammond_robin A photo posted by Where Love Is Illegal (@whereloveisillegal) on
Alistair Wiseman
“But I have to repeatedly hear about that horribly insensitive woman, Kim Davis,” said the oblivious, self-consumed gay man in America.
Stefano
@Alistair Wiseman:Thank you very much for your conments on Queerty. It reminds us everyday that even when they are gay, right-wingers like you are morons, intolerent and (strangely) homophobes. Thank you very much Alistair Wiseman.
Glücklich
@Alistair Wiseman:
You really are a pus-filled abscess of a troglodyte aren’t you?
Stefano
@Glücklich: love it !
Prinny
Those poor people.Now back to Kim Davies for 100
Curty
It is tougher in other parts of the world no doubt now, this country has made great progress but we must understand we still have progress to be made here in America. Most states no protection for being fired, housing discrimination just to name a few. No you can’t be charged with being gay and put in jail anymore here there’s still ways to go before we reach full equality. I think in other countries they have to rise up like so many people in U.S. have. Got to fight. Thankfully allies have supported us to make progress quicker than other countries.
jwtraveler
This does remind us that there are many parts of the world where LGBT people don’t just face a denial of equal rights, but serious threats to their freedom, safety and lives.
Aires the Ram
In light of all of this, has anyone even QUESTIONED the sanity of our country, and other European countries, letting in thousands upon thousands of Muslims in this current “crisis”??? Do you know what they represent? You think you have gay bashing now in major cities in Europe and here, do you have any idea what an increased population of Muslim “immigrants” will mean to the already marginalized gay community worldwide? Especially when so many of them are male and on the younger side? We “welcome them with open arms”?? Why? There were even “protests” in the UK, FOR letting them in! Why? Do we need more religious intolerance in our countries and communities, that these Muslim immigrants will bring? Let’s think about this……..We’ve made great strides in the Western world for gay tolerance/acceptance/rights. Why would we want to “welcome” those who would reverse those accomplishments, in very short order? I believe Hungary and Serbia are the only ones with any common sense in this matter. Western countries saying they’ll take ‘x’ amount of them, only encourages more of them to try to get here. This has to stop. Our well being as gay individuals/communities is in peril if this continues.
FancyUsername
@Aires the Ram:
Firstly, that is some commendable selective capitalisation. You should be a subeditor for the The Daily Mail (for anyone unfamiliar with that particular “newspaper,” please save yourself the pain of looking it up).
Secondly, it’s “wellbeing,” or “well-being,” and not “well being.” Yes, this is somewhat pedantic, but using a grammatically incorrect version of the term would suggest that you’re not British or European. You say “our” and yet neglect to say where you’re commenting from. Your protestation in saying “our country and other European countries” would suggest that you are not in fact in a country where the refugee crisis is an ongoing disaster right on the doorstep. Nice to judge from afar, isn’t it?
By the way, I am in Germany, where the problem is obvious each time you go to the train station. I’m working with volunteer groups to help to welcome Syrian refugee groups to the country. I can assure you that they are solely concerned with escaping both the Assad regime and ISIS. It has come up in discussion with these refugees that I am gay (as are many of my fellow volunteers), and not a single shit was given. They are more interested in, you know… not dying.
While homosexuality is generally frowned upon in a number of Muslim communities, there are just as many Muslims from these communities who accept it as a fact of life. Particularly those who flee to a European country with more moderate views. They want to learn the language, find work, and assimilate to German culture and values, which includes tolerance.
To anyone reading this, I apologise for veering so far off topic from the actual article, but the comments from Aires the Ram (and shouldn’t it in fact be “Aries”?) contained such idiocy that I felt compelled to comment.
Mr Aires – I’m not sure where you’re located. I hope it’s a country with good healthcare. Schedule an appointment with a cardiologist. Please ask him or her to confirm that you in fact have a heart.
o.codone
@FancyUsername: sanctimonious liberal smugness. let me just express that being gay and Jewish in NY, i’m not happy to see the muslims turn up to protest the gay pride parade. i don’t want those haters here. once your fabulously submissive muslims are fed, rested and fu*cked, they will bring that sharia knife to your parade, just like they did in Jerusalem. you have a mental disease i think. liberalism. sadly when your intellectual errors catch up with you, it will also catch up with me. you are taking all of us down because of your naivete. finally, kindly don’t show your pettiness by correcting my english.
o.codone
@Aires the Ram: BRAVO!
FancyUsername
@o.codone:
My goodness. I am so lucky that there are literal and figurative oceans that separate us. Enjoy clinging to your sinking ship.
P.S. Naivete is not a word. Naiveté and naivety are words. Indeed this is petty, but I feel that it would make you unhappy.. You seem to be resigned to being unhappy, and since you don’t seem to like change…
o.codone
sanctimonious liberal smugness. let me add petty to that list.
I notice that you did not respond to any issue here, you just pointed a finger, corrected my english and told me I was unhappy. You are brilliant.
FancyUsername
@o.codone:
I was replying to a comment that did not relate to the topic, and merely used the article as an opportunity to express intolerance… Intolerance you subsequently agreed with.
As you perhaps neglected to notice in my previous post, “I apologise for veering so far off topic from the actual article.”
And I am brilliant, so thank you kindly.
Aires the Ram
Funny how it draws them out of the woodwork (oops! Did I spell that correctly?), when you bring up the elephant standing in the room. Works every time. The political correctness that’s been forced upon us by the ultra left wing, is making everyone afraid to discuss the real issues, because God forbid that we “offend” anyone. Even if they’re our sworn enemy. Naive can’t even describe the position of these people who are ‘welcoming with open arms’ these so-called ‘immigrants’. I prefer to call it what it is, a continuation of a very long war, called the Crusades. This time the Muslims are invading, and as another poster mentioned, as soon as they have a roof over their head and food in their belly, they’ll be holding the knife to our throats and insisting on Sharia Law, in the Western countries they’ve supposedly “assimilated” into. Wait and see.
Glücklich
God, at least no one’s said “muzzies” yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySQ2oIIO9Ik
John Durso
“Antigay parts of the world”
You mean most of the US?
Yung Gunz
lol u can add Nigeria to ur Top list
Brian JC Kneeland
so much hate!!
Dirty Jockstraps
:'( I feel for them.
Phil Harrison
For some reason I just realized how very pathetic the bible thumpers homophobic group is. You must really hate yourself if you must have a book to tell you that you are okay and what is right to do in your life. Most healthy whole adults have a developed sense of self worth and they are not so sociopathic that someone or something must tell them what is right and wrong. Ethics become more developed than a bunch of lines in a book and 10 rules. It’s call spirituality and it manifests no matter what religion or path a person chooses.
To use their own phrase on them…. God, you are really pathetic, aren’t you? You disgust me. It doesn’t matter what any book tells you, it matters what you are inside and I hate to tell you but you are exactly what you really fear you are.
Billy Brower
I would like to see that movie
Ian McIntyre
It’s wonderful that people contribute their stories, however, whats really needed here is a little more support – don’t you think a worldwide organisation that deals with these kind of human rights that so many people are denied would be a very constructive way of taking things forward e.g this kind of thing would be deemed out of sync with the rest of the world and we would’nt have to deal with so much of the negatives? Ta Ian McIntyre
Mar Beltran Pascual
â¤â¤â¤â¤â¤â¤â¤â¤
Robert Valentine
Sometimes we forget how far we’ve come! How terrible it is for these poor people!
Lawrence Jackson
Evil is real .
Dug J Doll
Who calls Love illegal
is a control freak with a god ego complex
Susie Watson
“powerful queer stories” <– reading that alone just…i don't know. is it socially acceptable to call gay people queers, seeing how much it's used as an insult? :/
Theodora Nayler
Shit like this makes me really wish I were straight. Fuck it, back in the closet I go and straight as that is the norm. FFS. SMH.
Victoria Russell
For whatever amount of discrimination I face (or might face) as a lesbian, I feel blessed to live in a country where it is legal to marry the woman I love. I can post on this forum and say, “I love you, Isabelle Adamson. You are my world.”