Author: Ross Murray, Senior Director, GLAAD Media Institute

Honor 41 has included GLAAD’s Director of Spanish-Language & Latinx Media and Representation Monica Trasandes in this year’s list of LGBTQ Latinx leaders.

COVID-19 requires everyone to stay at home and practice social distancing, which is a struggle for all of us this Easter season, especially those LGBTQ-identifying individuals who already have been alienated from their places of worship. Fortunately, LGBTQ faith organizations are stepping up. We previously posted some Passover celebrations, and today we are sharing some Easter commemorations.

Passover begins tonight. The traditional practice is for families and communities to gather around a meal to retell the story of struggle and liberation for the Jewish people. While it may feel different not to gather this year, LGBTQ Jews who have felt the exclusion of faith communities may find this year’s virtual Seders more open and accepting, since they can participate and reconnect with their faith tradition from the safety of their own home.

 “Franklin Graham’s call for people to ‘unite and work together’ would be much better received if not for his track record of publicly and vocally vilifying LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups.”

The Samaritan’s Purse field hospital in New York City provides much-needed beds. However, CEO Franklin Graham is an attack dog that hasn’t passed up an opportunity to demonize LGBTQ people. Graham is requiring all healthcare providers in his field hospital to adhere to a statement of faith, in which marriage is defined as “exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female” and the unrighteous are sentenced to “everlasting punishment in hell.”

While the world comes together to fight COVID-19, Singapore decided to further ostracize its LGBTQ citizens, many of whom are already at risk from the virus. Singapore’s high court has dismissed the cases of three men challenging Section 377A of the country’s penal code, which criminalizes LGBTQ people. 

Friday night, tune into The Crystal Maze to cheer on an LGBTQ advocate and her family as they face a completely new set of challenges that bring them closer together as a family.