4 h. ago ‘Harvey would say, we’re on the brink’: why conservatives are coming for a gay rights hero

Emboldened by Trump, the right is trying to chip away the legacy of the trailblazing politician Harvey Milk. Activists say it’s a sign of a wider assault on the LGBTQ+ communityAs San Francisco’s pride festivities came to a close last week, a cloud hung over the otherwise joyful celebrations as the city’s LGBTQ+ community learned that the US government had stripped a naval ship of its name honoring the gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk.Donald Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, claimed the action showed the administration’s commitment to “taking the politics” out of military naming conventions. San Francisco’s queer community saw things differently. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Hegseth announces new name of US navy ship that honored gay rights icon Harvey Milk

Defense secretary said the vessel will be renamed after Oscar V Peterson to take ‘politics out of ship naming’The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has formally announced that the US navy supply vessel named in honor of the gay rights activist Harvey Milk is to be renamed after Oscar V Peterson, a chief petty officer who received the congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of the Coral Sea in the second world war.“We are taking the politics out of ship naming,” Hegseth announced on Friday on X. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Public’s ‘gut instinct’ should count in reviewing criminal cases, says Tice

It comes after Lucy Connolly, the wife of Conservative councillor Ray Connolly, was jailed last year for 31 months for inciting racial hatred.

Events

2 w. ago From LA to Paris, the populist right hates cities – and it’s fuelled by a sense of bitter defeat | Andy Beckett

LA was once a conservative stronghold; now the military is occupying it. Liberal cities have become targets for politicians looking to stir up their voters elsewhereFrom Los Angeles to London, Istanbul to Warsaw, cities are making rightwing populists angry. Their liberal elites, immigrants, net zero policies, leftwing activists, globalised businesses, expensive transport infrastructure and outspoken municipal leaders – all are provocations to populist politicians whose support often comes from more conservative, less privileged places.Three years ago the founders of national conservatism, the transatlantic ideology on which much of modern rightwing populism is based, published a statement of principles. One of these, surprisingly little noticed at the time, declared with some menace: “In those [places] in which law and justice have been manifestly corrupted, or in which lawlessness, immorality, and dissolution reign, national government must intervene energetically to restore order....

Politics

2 w. ago Row breaks out in Peak District town as Pride flag is removed by council after complaints from Christians worried about 'the gay rights situation'

Matlock Town Council put up a number rainbow flags along its highstreet for the first time to mark the start of national Pride month, which takes place in June.

Politics

2 w. ago Dismay as Derbyshire council removes Pride flag after Christians complain

LGBTQ+ emblem disappears from above Matlock Christian bookshop as manager says they are ‘not happy with the gay rights situation’The spa town of Matlock in the Peak District is known for the joyful flags adorning its historical high street. The St George’s Cross, the union flag, the Derbyshire county flag and the Pride flag flutter brightly above the town’s many independent businesses.That was until a row erupted that has divided the town, after the mysterious disappearance of a Pride flag turned out to be the work of the very council that had installed it. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Dismay as council removes Pride flag in Derbyshire after Christians complain

LGBTQ+ emblem disappears from above Matlock Christian bookshop as manager says they are ‘not happy with the gay rights situation’The spa town of Matlock in the Peak District is known for the joyful flags adorning its historical high street. The St George’s Cross, the union flag, the Derbyshire county flag and the Pride flag flutter brightly above the town’s many independent businesses.That was until a row erupted that has divided the town, after the mysterious disappearance of a Pride flag turned out to be the work of the very council that had installed it. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Astonishing act of bravery that sparked a revolution for gay people

Homosexuality was once considered to be both a crime and a mental illness, and gays and lesbians were vilified, attacked and pitied - but then something groundbreaking happened

Politics

4 w. ago Lambda Legal, a nonprofit supporting LGBTQ+ rights, exceeded fundraising goal by $105M

The legal aid group Lambda Legal has raised $285 million at a time when attacks on the rights of gay, intersex and transgender people have again intensified

Economics

last month Badenoch to launch review examining whether UK should pull out of ECHR

It comes ahead of a speech Conservative leader Mrs Badenoch is expected to make on Friday.

Politics

last month Why is defence such a hard sell? The same reason Starmer is struggling in the polls | Martin Kettle

Decades of failures have left liberal democratic governments unable to command public confidence when it really mattersDefence reviews and foreign policy resets seem to turn up almost as often as the Sussexes’ lifestyle brand relaunches these days. Labour’s strategic defence review this week comes less than two years after the Conservatives’ hardly less detailed defence white paper in July 2023, which in turn was a “refresh” of Boris Johnson’s ambitious integrated review of defence and foreign policy of March 2021. By this measure, it must be doubtful if, come the 2030s, analysts will look back on Keir Starmer and John Healey’s review and say it broke the mould.The Labour government was entitled to try to put its own stamp on defence policy, of course, and its review team of George Robertson, Richard Barrons and Fiona Hill did a good, reasonably independent job. Yet this 2020s pattern of repeated strategic adaptation and refocus feels like the new normal now. It is also true that gr...

Politics