Author: Reporter

Activist Chan Po-ying is permitted only 15-minute daily visits to see her husband, Leung Kwok-hung, separated by a plexiglass barrier in a highly guarded Hong Kong jail. Leung, 68, is one of 47 activists who were prosecuted in the largest national security law case to date in the former British colony. Most of them have been separated from their loved ones for years, uncertain when they might reunite. The government had warned there might be legal consequences, but Chan did not stop former pro-democracy legislator Leung from participating in an unofficial 2020 primary election that would lead to his...

Over seven weeks in 1989, student-led pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square became China’s greatest political upheaval since the end of the Cultural Revolution more than a decade earlier. Corruption among the elite was a key complaint, but the protesters were also calling for a more open and fair society, one that would require the ruling Communist Party to relinquish control over many aspects of life, including education, employment, and even the size of families. Today marks the 35th anniversary of the bloody crackdown that ended the protest. The government has never given a clear account of how...

Pride Month, the worldwide celebration of LGBTQ+ culture and rights, kicked off on June 1 with events around the globe. But this year’s festivities in the U.S. will unfold against a backdrop of dozens of new state laws targeting LGBTQ+ rights, particularly transgender young people. Here are things to know about the celebrations and the politics around them. WHY IS JUNE PRIDE MONTH? The monthlong global celebration began with Gay Pride Week in late June 1970, a public celebration that marked the first anniversary of the violent police raid at New York’s Stonewall Inn, a gay bar. At a...

The rights of LGBTQ+ students are protected by federal law and victims of campus sexual assault gained new safeguards under rules finalized in April by the Biden administration. The new provisions were part of a revised Title IX regulation issued by the Education Department, fulfilling a campaign pledge by President Joe Biden. He had promised to dismantle rules created by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who added new protections for students accused of sexual misconduct. Notably absent from Biden’s policy, however, was any mention of transgender athletes. The administration originally planned to include a new policy forbidding schools from...

A legal settlement in Florida, legislative action in Arkansas, and a lawsuit in Georgia have made waves in an ongoing national battle over the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans. Over the past three years or so, many Republican officials have been trying to limit those rights, imposing rules on which sports transgender students can play and which bathrooms they can use, among other policies. The conservative pushback has coincided with more younger people identifying as LGBTQ+. A Gallup poll released in March based on telephone interviews of more than 12,000 Americans finds that about 1 in 13 U.S. adults identify...