Namibia's High Court ruled against two same-sex couples fighting for recognition of their marriages, with Judge Hannelie Prinsloo saying she agreed with them but was bound by the nation's prohibition of same-sex relations, Reuters reported. Daniel Digashu and Johan Potgieter had married in South Africa, and Anette Seiler-Lilles and Anita Seiler-Lilles in Germany—but both couples now live in Namibia. In court, they argued that the word "spouse" should include same-sex couples or the clause be declared unconstitutional.
Murdered Honduran transgender activist Thalia Rodriguez was buried in Tegucigalpa, the country's capital, according to The Washington Blade. Rodríguez led Asociacion Cozumel Trans, a Honduran trans rights group. The U.S. Embassy in Honduras, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras and the U.N. Refugee Agency have all condemned Rodríguez's murder.
A married lesbian couple from El Paso, Texas was found dead after being tortured, shot and dismembered in Juarez, Mexico, IBTimes.com noted. Authorities discovered the bodies of Julissa Ramirez and Nohemi Medina Martinez in garbage bags. The couple were believed to be in their late 20s and they leave behind three children: two girls and one boy. "We cannot allow Chihuahua to continue to be the second state in the country with the most hate crimes, and that each year there are more," The Chihuahua Community for Sexual Diversity tweeted.
Organizers of Iris Prize LGBT+ Film Festival announced that submissions are open for the 2022 Iris Prize LGBT+ Film Festival, per a press release. The festival is looking for LGBT+ short and feature films, and has 11 awards to hand out; the honors include the 30,000-pound (approximately $40,000 U.S.) Iris Prize the Michael Bishop Foundation is supporting. The festival has also confirmed two new performance awards, sponsored by Out & Proud: Best Performance in Female Role and Best Performance in a Male Role.
A court in Uzbekistan's capital, Tashkent, sentenced a blogger to three years in prison for slander after he publicly criticized the education system and called for same-sex relations to be decriminalized, EurasiaNet reported. Miraziz Bazarov was charged last year after a savage beating put him in the hospital for a month. Police at the time blamed Bazarov for provoking the attack because he had made "insulting and inappropriate public statements that are not in correspondence with our mentality."
Out tennis player Samantha Stosur, 37, completed her singles career at the Australian Open, concluding it with a 6-2, 6-2 loss to No. 10 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, according to ESPN.com . "I've done more than I ever thought possible. I dreamed of winning a Grand Slam [singles title], and I couldn't have asked for anything more," Stosur told the crowd in Kia Arena. She received a standing ovation from the crowd before departing after a record 20th Open campaign—the most by any Australian women's tennis player. Stosur won a Grand Slam singles title at the 2011 US Open, beating Serena Williams in the final.
Soccer fans in Mexico will be given five-year bans from stadiums if they are found to have made an anti-gay chant, Mexican Football Federation (FMF) Chair Yon de Luisa said, according to ESPN.com . The FMF has struggled to curtail an anti-gay chant that is often shouted by Mexico supporters when an opposing goalkeeper takes a goal kick. FIFA has, in recent years, handed the FMF fines and stadium bans that have forced matches behind closed doors due to fan behavior.
In the United Kingdom, non-binary politician Tom Pashby was selected to run as a Green Party candidate in the 2023 Brighton and Hove city council election, according to PinkNews. If elected, Pashby—who previously campaigned to become deputy leader of the Green Party—would become the first-ever non-binary person elected to Brighton's city council. They were selected to run alongside Kahina Bouhassane after local Greens Alex Phillips and Tom Druitt announced that they would stand down in May 2023.
Munroe Bergdorf has become the first out transgender woman to grace the cover of Cosmopolitan UK, PinkNews noted. Inside the magazine (which has the trailblazing model on the cover of the 50th-anniversary issue), Bergdorf discussed their career, the climate, cancel culture, pronouns and the future of trans rights. "I hope there's a young trans girl looking at this cover thinking: 'I can do it too and who I am is not going to hold me back,'" she said.
India's defense ministry rejected the script of a film showing a gay soldier in the country's army, NDTV noted. National award-winning filmmaker Onir said that his script, inspired by a now two-year-old NDTV interview of a gay major who quit the service, was "very respectful of the army" and not some "salacious story," but got rejected as it shows a gay soldier. Major J Suresh (retired), whose interview inspired the movie, said the ministry should rethink its stand on this issue.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected a top United Nations job offer from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Politico noted. Guterres wanted Merkel to lead a U.N. advisory board on global public goods, such as oceans and the ozone layer—one of his flagship reform projects to "identify global public goods and other areas of common interests where governance improvements are most needed." When Merkel left office in December 2021 after 16 years leading Germany, she said she would no longer be involved in politics and intended to sleep and read.
Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton's HiddenLight Productions (HLP) has set up a new unscripted label that has won its first piece of business with an eight-part Channel 4 series (in Britain), Variety noted. HLP Studios has been commissioned by the UK broadcaster for a series that goes behind the scenes of eight of the world's biggest brands. Hosted by Helen Skelton, Inside The Superbrands looks at Britain's most iconic brands, such as Kellogg's, Heinz and Guinness.
Elliot Page has boarded Berlin-bound transgender-themed doc Nel Mio Nome (Into My Name), by Italian director and producer Nicolo Bassetti, as its executive producer, Variety noted. The doc—which will have its world premiere during February's Berlin International Film Festival, in the Panorama Dokumente section—stems from Bassetti's personal experience with the gender transition of his child, Matteo. Into My Name provides an intimate look at the universal challenges of gender transition by observing the transition within a tight-knit group of friends in the central Italian city of Bologna.
Nino Cerruti—the Italian fashion designer credited with revolutionizing menswear in the 1960s and who gave Giorgio Armani his first fashion break—has died at age 91, the Los Angeles Times reported. In 1967, Cerruti founded the luxury menswear fashion house Cerruti 1881 in Paris, then the international fashion capital, while maintaining production in Italy. Cerutti also launched a womenswear line as well as perfumes, watches, accessories and leather goods.
Sinead O'Connor honored her late 17-year-old son, Shane O'Connor, during his funeral service by wearing bright colors, as he would've wanted, Page Six noted, citing The Daily Mail. The singer held a Hindu homegoing service for her "beautiful" son that was attended by about 50 mourners—including his father Donal Lunny in West Dublin, Ireland. O'Connor said of her bright pink sweatsuit that son Shane would've "loved it." The teen escaped suicide watch in an Irish hospital the day before taking his own life, the pop star tweeted shortly after his passing.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern canceled her wedding as the country continues to curb a new wave of Omicron cases, CNN noted. Last month, New Zealand said it was pushing back its phased border reopening until the end of February over concerns about the COVID variant.
Gaspard Ulliel—one of France's best-known model-actors, and star of Hannibal Rising and Marvel's upcoming Moon Knight series—died at age 37 following a ski accident, EW.com noted. According to the AP, the actor was skiing in the Savoie region in the Alps when he collided with another skier on the slopes, suffering serious brain trauma from the accident after being hospitalized for his injuries.
Russian protest art collective Pussy Riot released "PUNISH," a song co-written by the Swedish Grammy-nominated artist Tove Lo, who assumes the role of executive producer for the forthcoming project as well, a press release noted. The song was made available to NFT collectors as a 69-piece limited-edition series via the Sound.xyz platform, with all items selling out in 20 seconds.
Novak Djokovic could be barred from playing in the French Open after the sports ministry said there would be no exemption from France's new vaccine-pass law, according to ESPN.com . World number-one Djokovic, who has not been vaccinated against COVID-19, was deported from Australia before the first Grand Slam tournament of the year after losing a court case to have the cancellation of his visa overturned.
