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Dispatch → Meta → Reference
by 
The United Socialist States of REichmiller.
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LGBT+ History Month: Second Issue
Matthew Shepard & Acquaintances
Disclaimer; The article "The Call for Hate Crime Legislation: Matthew Shepard & Acquaintances" contains descriptions of brutal crimes; please do not read if this is triggering, or something you do not wish to see.
Matthew Shepard was an American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left for dead near Laramie Wyoming October 6th, 1998. He was found 18 hours later, barely alive, and transferred to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he died six days later as result of severe head injuries caused during the attack.
James Byrd Jr. was an African-American man who was brutally murdered by three men, two of whom were white supremacists. On June 7th, 1998, the three men drug Byrd behind their pickup truck for 3 miles (5 KM) along a dirty road. Byrd, unfortunately was conscious for more than half of this time, until he was killed when his body struck a culvert resulting in the severing of his right arm and decapitation, the killers would continue driving for another 1 and ½ miles (2.5 km) before dumping Byrd’s torso in front of a black cemetery.
Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr.’s murders brought massive attention in the United States and abroad to needs for hate crime legislation; the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, (often called the Matthew Shepard Act), was ultimately signed into law in 2009, expanding the 1968 United States Federal Hate-Crime Law to include crimes motivated by a “victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.”
Daniel Zamudio was brutally attacked, beaten, and tortured for six hours on March 2nd, 2012. Diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, a broken leg, many cuts, and cigarette burns on his body; the cuts in the shape of swastikas, made with broken glass bottles. He would die from his injuries 25 days later.
His murder and the subsequent media coverage lit a proverbial fire under the Chilean government to adopt a hate crimes law that had stalled seven years prior. The law would successfully be passed in July of 2012.
Eudy Simelane’s partially clothed body was found in a creek; she had been abducted, gang raped, beaten, and stabbed 25 times in the face, chest, and legs. One of the first to live openly as a lesbian in KawThema, South Africa. The gang raping of Eudy Simelane is a disgusting practice known in some South African communities as “corrective rape”, which is ultimately done to ‘cure’ the person of their lesbianism.
There is no happy ending with Eudy’s story, only a stark reminder that hate crime legislation is needed around the world to keep LGBT+ people safe.
David Kato Kisule was a Ugandan teacher and is considered a father of Uganda’s gay rights movement, his work with “SMUG”, (Sexual Minorities Uganda), brought him to national fame and the description as “Uganda’s first openly gay man”.
This attention landed him among the 100 people whose names and photographs were published in October 2010 by the Ugandan tabloid “Rolling Stone” (not to be confused the Rolling Stone Magazine). The publication called for the execution of these 100 people as homosexuals.
January 26, 2011 Kato was assaulted in his home in Jukusa, Mukono Town, Uganda, by a man who hit him twice in the head with a hammer; Kato would die in transit to the hospital.
David’s well known status as an LGBT+ rights activist drew a lot of media coverage, with the European Union, United States President Barack Obama, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International all publicly condemning and calling for an investigation into Kato’s murder.
The April 14, 1997, cover of TIME: Ellen DeGeneres "Yep, I'm Gay"
Sarah Hegazi
Born October 1st, 1989 into a conservative Egyptian family, she was the oldest of four siblings.
In 2017, she would attend a concert in Cairo for the Lebanese band “Mashrou’ Leila” whose lead singer, Hamed Sinno, is openly gay. Hegazi, and several others, were arrested for waiving a rainbow flag in support of LGBT rights. She was charged with inciting acts of immorality or debauchery, coinciding with Egypt’s zero-tolerance crackdown response to end public support of LGBT rights in the country. In the three months she was jailed, male agents incited inmates to beat, verbally and sexually assault her. The incident would leave physical scars, in addition to severe emotional scars, she would later be diagnosed with PTSD.
Fearing further persecution, she sought asylum in Canada, and moved there in 2018. She would, unfortunately, fall to her demons, committing suicide in 2020.
In her death, her legacy has become a discussion on the practice and history of LGBT voices being silenced in Egypt.
Eleanor Charlotte Butter & Sarah Ponsby, were two upper-class Irish women who lived together as a couple, their relationship scandalising and fascinating their contemporaries. They would move from Ireland, to a gothic house in Llangollen, North Wales, where they would receive many distinguished visitors over time, such as Byron, Shelley, Wellington, and Wordsworth.
Rather than being forced into unwanted marriages, they left County Kilkenny, Ireland together in 1778; there were attempts by their families to find, and forcefully return them, but those attempts were unsuccessful.
The pair would live together for 50 years, their books and glassware carrying both sets of initials, and their correspondence bearing both signatures.
Wordsworth would compose some of his poems while staying with the Ladies, one such as 
“To Lady Eleanor Butler and the Honourable Miss Ponsonby,":
Sisters in love, a love allowed to climb
Ev'n on this earth, above the reach of time.
Historians speculate, as they did in the days when the Ladies were still alive, whether the pair were truly Lesbian lovers, or simply two women who shared a deep bond of friendship, and formed a ‘Boston marriage’ , a romantic relationship between two women who choose to live together.
Elham Malekpoor Arashlu, is an Iranian poet and LGBT rights activist, who has lived in The Netherlands since 2012. She is partially blind.
Some of her work is available to listen on her SoundCloud, where she describes herself as; “The theoretical human rights activist who believes in saving the world with word”. (eL (Elham Malekpoor Arashlu)--SoundCloud.
Please note, most recordings are recorded in Persian, there are few that are recorded in English.
Ouissem Belgacem
Born in the suburbs of Aix-en-Provence, France, the youngest of five children in a Muslim family. He was entranced with football (soccer), since he was a child, playing defender in local clubs before being spotted when he was 13 by the training center Toulouse FC (TFC), joining TFC drove him to become a professional football player, though at the cost of hiding that he is gay. He realized early on that the field wasn’t an accepting place, and has felt homophobia on his home field and other fields around the world, notably while playing in the Tunisian national team for the Africa Cup of Nations in 2004, and even some clubs in the United States.
Ouissem grew up being ashamed of and actively trying to hide that he is gay, something which made him depressed and crushed his dreams of becoming a professional athlete.
In his book, “Adieu ma honte”, (Farewell to my shame), he chronicles his experiences living as a gay professional athlete, and dealing with him shame and trepidations on coming out. [/size]
"Without football, I'm helpless. The sport is my shield against all of my problems..." --Ouissem Belgacem, writing in “Adieu ma honte”
Belgacem speaks often of the shame, the isolation, and the energy he spent trying to hide his sexuality from everyone, but he says that the support, and the attitudes weren’t there at the time to allow him to come out. He ultimately gave up his dream, and retired from the game at 18, after playing professionally for five years.
The pressures he felt in being unable to be himself drove him from the one thing he wanted and loved most, football. But since coming out, he is free and happy, spending his time advocating for LGBT inclusion, so that people after him don’t have to struggle the same as him, and won’t give up their dreams.
Abdurrack “Zackie” Achmat a South African activist and film director, born March 21st, 1962. He co-founded Treatment Action Campaign, an activist organization that works to spread awareness on HIV/AIDS, and campaigns for access to antiretrovirals.
He co-founded the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality in 1994, and used that platform to ensure protections for gay and lesbians in the new South African Constitution, following the collapse of the apartheid government, and subsequent founding of the new government under president Nelson Mandela.
[i]Abdurrack Achmat (left), with President Nelson Mandela (right), c. 1999. --Source: Mandela and the belated rise of an AIDS activistHis HIV/AIDS advocacy successfully got the government to release antiretrovirals to the public sometime in 2003, and his LGBT activism helped the drive for marriage equality which was adopted in 2006.
Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil proudly holds a rainbow flag in his ancestral homeland of Rajpipla, GujaratManvedra Singh Gohil, the only son of his parents father Maharana Rajendrasinghji of Rajpipla, and his mother Rukmini Devi of Jaisalmer, he is India’s first gay prince.
Though the title of ‘maharaja’ doesn’t actually mean much any longer following the ebb of the political tide in India, by all measures Manvedra was expected to upkeep a ‘normal’ life, marrying and producing heirs, this would change in 1991 when his parents entered him into an arranged marriage, which ultimately did not work out, the marriage was annulled in 1992. He would eventually suffer a nervous breakdown in 2002, and seek psychiatric help; his psychiatrists would ultimately tell his parent’s that he was gay. His parents accepted the truth, though specified that the matter could not become public; and all was well, at least on the outside.
In March of 2006, the story of Manvedra’s coming out hit the headlines, following a chat with a reporter in which he detailed his struggles as a closeted man. The powderkeg lit fast, his family disowned him, his people burned him in effigy. In 2007, he would be part of a three part special on The Oprah Winfrey Show titled “Gay Around the World”. In 2008, he inagurated the gay festival in Stockholm, Sweden.
These days he remains a visible, vibrant supporter of LGBT rights in the region;and an invaluable supporter and champion of HIV/AIDS awareness.
Prison served as a wakeup call for her, after release she would go on to study for her A-Levels, and moved to Brighton, one of the most notably LGBT-friendly cities in the United Kingdom. After moving to Brighton she would begin to publicly identify and live as a women, of this time she recalls, "In the space of six weeks I went from living in Nottingham as a boy [...] to living in Brighton as a girl." (Paris Lees: From prison to transgender role model.
Paris would later move to London, pursuing a career in journalism, and would go on to found the first British magazine targeting the trans community, "Meta", which has since been discontinued, ad would also go on to work at Gay Times the UK-based LGBTQ+ magazine.
She would also becoming the first trans-woman presenter on both BBC Radio 1 and Channel 4.
Lees has spent much of her career using her voice to advocate against the misrepresentations of Trans and LGBT people by the media, and has also written numerous articles in many publications centering around her life and experiences as a Bisexual Trans Woman.
Assigned female at birth in 1985, Mason Dunn had experienced challenges related to his gender identity through his adolescence; it wasn't until he was 18 and an undergraduate student that he would discover the term "Transgender" provided him the framework for understanding his experiences.
After discovering the lack of awareness about transgender and gender-nonconforming identities within the faculty and staff at the school, he would conduct research on the topics and began lecturing in university courses. His advocacy grew to include launching a Safe Zone project, leading the campus Gay-Straight Alliance, and working with student advocacy groups across the state.
Dunn struggled early on with finding trans-competent healthcare resources, including mental health support, and treatment for severe endometriosis, which became life-threatening following multiple denied requests for a hysterectomy, (the removal of the uterus).
Dunn co-chaired the "Yes on 3" campaign in 2018, which successfully defended Massachussett's "Gender Identity Guidance for Public Accommodations" law. The 2018 ballot included 'Question 3' which would determine the fate of the previous law. Some 68% of the voters voted in favor of keeping the law, which was one of the first Trans-inclusive laws passed across the United States.
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Claudia Pía Baudracco in 1992
Born October 22, 1970, Claudia Pia Baudracco was an Argentinian Trans-Activist. June 25th, 1993 Baudracco, Marian Belen Correa, and many other activists found the Association of Travestis of Argentina, which would later become the Argentine Travesti Transsexual Transgender Association (ATTTA). She would lead the movement for the repeal of the Codigos de Faltas in 15 provinces of Argentina, the codes criminalized trans identities. The codes would ultimately be repealed in several provinces.
Baudracco campaigned heavily for the approval of the "Gender Identity Law", which would give Trans people the rights to their preferred name and access to healthcare.
In September 2005, Claudia cofounded the " Federación Argentina de Lesbianas, Gays, Bisexuales y Trans" or FALGBT, a melding of five founding organizations, (La Fulana, Fundación Buenos Aires SIDA, NEXO, ATTTA and VOX Asociación Civil), currently tying 150 organizations together from across Argentina.
Claudia passed away March 18th, 2012 at the age of 42 due to health complications from a lifetime healthcare inaccessibility, which would have been afforded to her under the 'Gender Identity Law" which was passed May 9th, 2012, but would not become effective until June 1st of 2012.
Claudia's legacy in activism for the rights of women, sexual minorities, and LGBT people as a whole, is recorded nationally with the "Day of Promotion of the Rights of Trans People", which takes place annually on March 18th.
Tran Activists following an Injunction blocking Decree 62/2025 which blocked hormone treatments for minors under the age of 18. --Source:
Justice for trans youth in Buenos AiresNational Coming Out Day was inaugurated by Robert Eichberg and Jean O’Leary in 1988, Eichberg a psychologist from New Mexico and the founder of the personal growth workshop ”The Experience”, and O’Leary an openly lesbian political leader and activist from New York. LGBT activists did not want to respond defensively to anti-LGBT action, instead they chose to establish National Coming Out Day to celebrate coming out, thereby focusing on the positive by establishing that we are here, we are queer.
National Coming Out Day was first observed in all 50 of the United States and seven other countries in 1990, and is now (in 2026) observed by the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand, Ireland, Portugal, among others. (That’s a total count of 10 countries).
In a broad sense, Coming Out is the act of self-disclosing one’s sexual, romantic, or gender orientation to themselves, and those around them. Coming Out is also something symbolic, both for ourselves and for the world around us. In coming out, we are telling ourselves and the world who we are, it is visibility and being seen.
Some great resources on coming out: Advocate for LGBTQ+ Young People: A Guide on How to Be an Active Ally (Born This Way Foundation)
Issue One
My apologies to anyone who viewed this previously using any of the white-background themes, I did not take the background color into account when formatting. Issue has been fixed going forward.