USA Today reported that South African runner Caster Semenya could be one of the most intriguing people in this year's Olympics. Semenya has never said she is intersex, but speculation follows her around the globe. Track observers believe Semenya is hyperandrogenous, meaning her body naturally produces high amounts of testosterone, the hormone that helps build muscle, endurance and speed. The difficulty, at least one person has maintained, is balancing the human rights of intersex athletes with the competitive rights of other athletes.
British field-hockey players Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh are the first married same-sex couple to be in the Olympics, the UK Telegraph noted. They have been playing hockey together since they were teenagers, in a relationship since 2008 and married for three years. Rio is their fourth Olympics together, but their first since they married.
London 2012 bronze medallist Tom Daley and colleague Dan Goodfellow won bronze Aug. 8 at Rio 2016 in the Olympic men's synchronized 10-meter platform diving competition, BBC News reported. Daley, an out gay British diver who is engaged to U.S. screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, is competing at his third Olympic Games, having made his debut as a 14-year-old in Beijing in 2008. The Mirror noted that Black shared his own Instagram picture showing him looking at Daley and writing, "So happy for you. So proud #Team #TeamGB #TeamDaley #Diving #Rio2016ï."
Brazilian rugby player Isadora Cerullo got the surprise of the Olympics Aug. 8 when her longtime girlfriend proposed marriage to her shorty after Brazil's final match of the Olympics, Outsports reported. Marjorie Enya, Cerullo's now-fiancee, is a volunteer helping out the organizing committee for the Rio Olympics. The couple live together in Sao Paulo, Brazil, although Cerullo also lives in North Carolina.
Amnesty International reported that Iran's regime executed a gay adolescent in Julythe first confirmed execution of someone convicted as a juvenile in the Islamic Republic in 2016, The Jerusalem Post reported. Hassan Afshar, 19, was hanged in Arak Prison in Iran's Markazi Province on July 18 after he was convicted of "forced male-to-male anal intercourse" ( 'lavat-e be onf' ) in early 2015. Amnesty said the Iranian authorities received a complaint accusing Afshar and two other adolescents of forcing a teenage boy to have sex. Afshar, who was arrested in December 2014, said that the same-sex relations were consensual and the accuser had freely engaged in prior same-sex activities.
Serbia's prime minister-designate said his new government will include an openly gay minister for the first time in the conservative Balkan country, an ABC News item noted. Aleksandar Vucic said future Public Administration Minister Ana Brnabic does not hide her sexual orientation, adding he is aware it may draw public attention in a country where LGBT people often face harassment. Serbia has pledged to boost gay rights as it seeks to join the European Union.
An anti-gay killer who murdered a gay man in Manchester, England, in February was has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 23 years and four months, according to NewNowNext. Lee Arnold, 34, confessed in Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court that he murdered 30-year-old William Lound, a gay man who occasionally wore women's clothing and makeup, in a fit of rage shortly after the two had sex. Police labeled the crime both homophobic and transphobic after learning Arnold called Lound "weird" and a "freak" just days before the murder, and how he was "incensed" after seeing Lound in women's clothing.
An 80-year old Church of England ( CoE ) clergymanthe former archdeacon of Aucklandwas found guilty by a Durham crown court of sex offenses against two young men, prompting the CofE to offer its "unreserved apology" amid accusations of a mass cover-up, The Christian Post noted. The Guardian reported that George Granville Gibson was convicted by the crown court of two counts of indecent assault against two men, aged 18 and 26, back when the crimes were committed in the 1970s and '80s. Paul Butlerthe present bishop of Durham, who ordered an independent review of the caseresponded to the guilty verdict by offering an "unreserved apology" to the victims and those affected by what happened, and saying, "We commend the bravery of those who brought these allegations forward, acknowledging how difficult and distressing this would have been."
A same-sex married London couple have told how they were brutally beaten unconscious during a family vacation on the Greek island of Mykonos, Gay Times Magazine reported. Tristan and Vestal were reportedly returning from a gay bar when they were attacked from behind, punched to the ground and kicked. Tristan told The Evening Standard that his two front teeth were knocked out and that the couple has experienced "headaches, dizziness and general fatigue since returning to the UK." Friends of the couple have set up a GoFundMe donation page ( www.gofundme.com/smiletristan ) to help with the costs of expensive dental surgeries following the brutal beating.
Denmark's given a last-minute reprieve to a Ugandan lesbian asylum seeker, announcing a review of her case on the day she was to be sent home, TheLocal.dk reported. The Danish Refugee Appeals Board said it would review the woman's casea process her lawyer Jytte Lindgaard said would take at least three months. Denmark's decision last month to deny asylum to three Ugandan lesbians was harshly criticized by the campaign group LGBT Asylum.
In Australia, Today Extra's Sonia Kruger has referred to a scholarship for LGBT children as "reverse discrimination," The Daily Mail reported. The Australian Business and Community Network Scholarship Foundation ( ABCN ) has begun targeting high school students who identify as LGBTI for financial and mentoring scholarships. The television host, who recently caused controversy by saying Australia should stop all Muslim immigration, said she found it "odd" to ask students about their sexual orientation.
Another gay space in Toronto's gay village has closed its doors for the final time, Daily Xtra noted. After 18 years, Zipperz/Cellbock said goodbye in July with an aptly named "Last Call" event. The former Zipperz building will be demolished "within the next month or two," according to Peter Jakovcic, project manager at Tribute Communities, the development company behind the condo tower at Church and Carlton. The developer says the new building should be finished by 2019.