In Zambia, a high uptake of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is possible in prison populations that have adequate resources and support from the criminal-justice health system, according to an AJMC (The American Journal of Managed Care) article that cites The Lancet. The study authors implemented a PrEP program supporting 16 criminal-justice facilities across four provinces in Zambia between Oct. 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021. The study's authors said this cross-sectional observational study demonstrated that HIV treatment and prevention methods used in Zambian prisons could serve as a model for other prisons worldwide.
Shrapnel from a Russian artillery shell recently wounded a transgender woman from Las Vegas who is serving in the Ukrainian military, The Washington Blade reported. Sarah Ashton-Cirillo told the Blade that part of the artillery shell hit her in the head and right hand while her unit, the 209th Battalion of the 113th Brigade in the Donbas, was on the frontlines in Ukraine's Donbas region. "I was hit this morning," she tweeted. "My injuries are permanent. I've lost part of my hand and have scarring on my face." Feb. 24 marked a year since Russia launched its war against Ukraine.
CNN ran a piece about how LGBTQ+ relationships are getting the Bollywood treatment. Not long after India's top court overturned a colonial-era law criminalizing same-sex relations, Shelly Chopra Dhar and Gazal Dhaliwal's 2019 comedy-drama Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga depicted a queer woman's attempt to come out to her family. Since then, a number of Bollywood rom-coms—such as Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (2020), Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui (2021) and Badhaai Do (2022)—have put LGBTQ+ relationships front and center. However, although commercial Hindi films have only recently begun to show explicitly LGBTQ+ couples, same-sex relationships and gender fluidity have been depicted in art and literature from the Indian subcontinent for thousands of years.
The British LGBT Awards will take place June 23 at The Brewery in London, according to the event's website. Previous guests have included Stephen Fry, Ellie Goulding, Sir Ian McKellen, Alan Carr, Little Mix and Graham Norton, among many others. People can currently vote at britishlgbtawards.com/top-10s-2023/ in categories like Celebrities, Sports Personalities, Online Influencers and even Media Moments; just a few of the nominees include Billy Porter, Bridgerton's Golda Rosheuvel, Kit Connor, Rebel Wilson, Emma Watson, P!nk, Michelle Visage, the organization Queer Britain and retired swimmer Michael Gunning.
Mpox can have a devastating impact on people with advanced cases of HIV, leading to severe lesions and causing death in as many as one in four of those with a highly compromised immune system, an NBC News item noted. This is according to the first major study of mpox (involving 382 people from 28 countries) in this population, which a global team of authors published in The Lancet. "The data is horrifying for people with advanced HIV," Dr. Chloe Orkin, an infectious disease expert at Queen Mary University of London and the lead author of the study, told NBC News. "It's really distressing." The summary can be read at https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00273-8/fulltext .
Two students at one of China's top universities who were disciplined last year for distributing rainbow flags on campus filed a petition with the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court against the Ministry of Education, demanding it review the penalty, the South China Morning Post reported. The two women were given formal disciplinary warnings by Tsinghua's student affairs office in July last year after they left 10 rainbow flags in a campus supermarket.
Australian citizen Scott White has admitted his role in the 1988 death of U.S. citizen Scott Johnson, according to Out. A coroner initially ruled that Johnson had killed himself, although his family didn't believe that conclusion. In 2017, a new coroner's report said that he "fell from the clifftop as a result of actual or threatened violence" by someone who "attacked him because they perceived him to be homosexual." White was arrested in 2020 after Johnson's brother offered a $1 million Australian reward; he pled not guilty at the time.
A group of global Anglican leaders rejected the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as their leader after the Church of England backed prayers of blessing for same-sex couples, the BBC reported. Archbishops representing 10 of the 42 provinces in the Anglican Communion signed a statement saying they no longer consider Welby "leader of the global communion." The 10 archbishops, plus two from breakaway conservative provinces in the United States and Brazil, are opposed to the blessing or marrying of same-sex couples.
In South Korea, the Seoul High Court ruled in favor of a same-sex couple demanding the same spousal coverage from the state health insurance program as heterosexual couples, The Korea Times reported. The plaintiff, So Seong-wook, filed the administrative lawsuit against the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) in February 2021, after the agency ordered him to pay insurance premiums as he is not qualified as a dependent of his male spouse.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with representatives of LGBTQ+ groups Friday and apologized for discriminatory remarks made by his former aide Masayoshi Arai that sparked nationwide outrage and calls for the government to ensure equal rights, NBC News noted. Kishida said Arai's remark was "deemed unjust discrimination and was extremely inappropriate" and offered an apology to LGBTQ activists in person: "I apologize sincerely for making all of you here and many other people feel uncomfortable."
In the UK, a boy and girl, each aged 15, appeared in court and were charged with fatally stabbing 16-year-old trans schoolgirl Brianna Ghey, the BBC reported. Hundreds of people attended candlelit vigils for Ghey in cities such as Dublin, Belfast, Manchester, Lancaster and Leeds. Cheshire Police initially said there was no evidence Ghey's killing was hate-related but detectives said all lines of inquiry were "being explored," including hate crimes.
In women's soccer, Alex Morgan and Mallory Swanson scored as the United States defeated Brazil 2-1 to win the SheBelieves Cup for the fourth straight year, ESPN noted. Japan—which defeated Canada 3-0 in the earlier match at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas—was runner-up in the four-team, round-robin tournament. All four SheBelieves Cup teams will play in the Women's World Cup this summer in Australia and New Zealand.
Out actress and jury president Kristen Stewart joined Iranian filmmakers in a demonstration showing solidarity for Iran's "Women, Life, Freedom" protests on the red carpet of the Berlin Film Festival, Deadline noted. Festival co-chiefs Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek also joined the demonstration, flanking Stewart. The demonstration followed news that the protests—sparked by the killing in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September—took place in several cities across Iran.
Sean Penn said he was happy to be a "propagandist" for the Ukrainian war effort and called Russia President Vladimir Putin a "creepy little bully" in Berlin after the world premiere of his documentary Superpower, which is about Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Variety noted. "This is not an unbiased film because this is not an ambiguous war," Penn said, calling the war "extremely personal."
Singers Adele and Ed Sheeran reportedly turned down King Charles' offer to perform at his coronation concert on May 7, according to Yahoo! Life. Sheeran will be performing in Texas the day before the coronation concert, making it difficult to squeeze it all in; however, Adele, according to OK!, "turned down the invitation without explanation." Lionel Richie and the Spice Girls are likely to be at the concert, and rumors are swirling that Harry Styles might also take the stage.
All Quiet on the Western Front made good on its record number of BAFTA nominations by leading all films with seven wins. In addition, per The Hollywood Reporter, The Banshees of Inisherin won four awards, including half the performance honors, with Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan landing supporting wins. Elsewhere, Austin Butler won leading actor for Elvis, Cate Blanchett was named leading actress for her role as a lesbian music conductor in Tar and Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio was named best animated film.
Publisher Puffin U.K. will release The Roald Dahl Classic Collection, which will have the author's original texts, per Variety. The collection will be available alongside the newly released Puffin Roald Dahl books for young readers, "which are designed for children who may be navigating written content independently for the first time," Puffin said. Puffin recently received blowback when it emerged that the works of Dahl, who died in 1990, had been rewritten, with the phrase "enormously fat" edited to just "enormous," for example.
