Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, many vulnerable LGBTQ people around the world are being forced to move back into unsafe domestic spaces. The crisis has created an unprecedented situation.

Beyond the obvious issues around income, housing and food, LGBTQ people are significantly more susceptible to mental health issues due to discrimination and inequalities. For those LGBTQ people moving back into unsafe spaces where they have to either go “back in the closet” or remain silent about their sexuality, the loss of being able to socialise with supportive queer friends and allies is very concerning.

The United Nations has urged countries to protect LGBT+ people against discrimination when seeking health care during the pandemic, saying they may be hesitant to seek medical services and be especially vulnerable to the coronavirus.

Photo: Polish anti-gay protesters march.

Poland is set to vote on Thursday on a law that would jail people who promote underage sex for up to three years, in a move which liberals said aimed to ban sex education by labelling those who teach it as paedophiles and LGBT+ activists.

Pride events around the globe are being cancelled due to COVID-19. Famous events like Amsterdam Pride, Trans Pride Scotland and LA Leather Pride are just three out of hundreds of events that have already been cancelled due to concerns about community health, travel restrictions and economic woes.

The coronavirus lockdown could test your relationship. Here's how to keep it intact (and even improve it).

With the raft of social distancing measures in place to control the spread of coronavirus, you may be spending more time with your partner than ever before.

If you’re both working from home, and with nowhere to go out to in the evenings, there’s a chance you might start to get on each other’s nerves. Perhaps it’s happening already.

Is your mental health deteriorating during the coronavirus pandemic? Here's what to look out for. Before the pandemic, one in five Australians experienced mental ill-health every year.

But the uncertainty and instability around coronavirus has the potential to exacerbate existing anxiety and depression and contribute to the onset of new mental health problems.

So what are some of the signs your mental health might be declining during the pandemic? And what can you do about it?

IN THIS ISSUE: 2019 SpringOut Festival Guide. Muir caps to Jackboots leather community goes hi-vis. Amsterdam, pride & glory. Canberra celebrates 20 years of Pride. Trouble in paradise, Phuket's dark secret. Canberra together. Drag race is heading down under. Lick of approval: marriage equality stamps released... and more.

Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu is mostly known to the world for his highly prominent role in the campaign against apartheid in South Africa. This role was internationally recognised by the awarding of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize.

Tutu continued his activism even after the country’s democratic transition in South Africa in the early 1990s. Among other things, he served as chair of the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission which sought to deal with the crimes and injustices under apartheid, and to bring about justice, healing and reconciliation in a wounded society. He retired as Archbishop of Cape Town in 1996.

Homosexuality may have evolved for social, not sexual reasons.

The argument is this: gay sex alone can’t produce children, and for traits to evolve, they have to be passed onto children, who get some form of competitive advantage from them.

These are common refrains that we hear everyday — from others, from the media, from ourselves. “Life is stressful”. Yes, life is full of challenges and stressors — deadlines, traffic jams caused by the new light rail building works, arguments with a spouse, work pressures, social anxieties, too many competing priorities, new relationships, navigating school or study — all are potential causes of stress in some degree or other.

In the nearly five thousand years since its birth, yoga has been serving as a positive influence in the lives of countless people around the world.

In the last century, yoga, in its many forms, has made its way into mainstream western culture as an accepted physical practice which encourages strength, flexibility and balance. There will be many who will tell you that practising yoga on a regular basis will make you happy.

The anonymous author of the pamphlet Onania (1716) was very worried about masturbation. The ‘shameful vice’, the ‘solitary act of pleasure’, was something too terrible to even be described. The writer agreed with those ‘who are of the opinion, that… it never ought to be spoken of, or hinted at because the bare mentioning of it...