Now, welome to Rainbow News! In this issue; a lesbian couple in Kerala, India was allowed to live together; a study by Stonewall found that homophobes are now a very small minority in the UK; a concerning new bill in North Carolina was approved by the senate; and Google has a new animation to celebrate Pride Month.

Firstly, some happy news! Last Tuesday (May 31), the Kerala High Court (Kerala is a state in India) allowed a lesbian couple, whose parents had separated them, to live together. Adhila Nasrin said that she and her partner, Fatima Noora, had been tortured both physically and mentally by their families, and on the 25, Noora was abducted by Nasrin's family. Nasrin filed a plea for the court to allow her and Noora to live together, and on May 31, a bench of Justice Vinod Chandran said that it is legal for adults to live together, and therefore the couple are allowed to live together! Learn more about this story here.

Next, the results of a survey by Stonewall, a UK-based LGBTQ+ rights organization, were released yesterday (June 1). It surveyed 2,000 adults living throughout the UK, and asked participants to describe their feelings about different LGBTQ+ identities from a list of words. The most common word people chose was "respect," and then "admiration"! "Respect" was chosen most for lesbian (38%) and gay (37%), followed by bi (32%) and trans (31%). However, people selected "admiration" most for trans people (21%), then gay and lesbian people (19%), and finally bi (16%). Meanwhile, only 4% of people said they felt "fear" of any of the identities, and fewer than 10% chose "disgust" (9% for gay men, 8% for bi and trans people, and 7% for lesbians). All in all, the results of this survey bode well for LGBTQ+ people living in the UK, and show that homophobic and transphobic beliefs are just a small minority. Read more about this here!

However, we do have some bad news coming from North Carolina. A bill called the "Parents' Bill of Rights" has passed the senate there. The "Parents' Bill of Rights" is very similar to Florida's "Parental Rights in Education" bill--AKA, the "Don't Say Gay" bill. The "Parents' Bill of Rights" states that "[I]nstruction on sexual orientation or gender identity shall not be included in the curriculum provided in grades kindergarten through third grade." Additionally, it states that teachers would need to notify parents if a child starts using a different name or pronouns at school, unless the teacher suspects that it would cause abuse or neglect at home. This bill passed the 28-18 at the senate yesterday (June 1), and will now go to the House of Representatives for a vote. However, if the bill does pass the House of Representatives, it is unlikely that the governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper (a Democrat) will sign it. Learn more about this here  or here.

And finally, Google is celebrating Pride in classic Google fashion this year. If you search "Pride," "LGBTQ," "LGBT," "LGBTQ+," "LGBTQIA+," or many other variations of the acronym, an animation of several hands waving pride flags pops up, moving across your screen, presumably at a Pride parade, with rainbow confetti raining down on them. At the bottom of your screen is a button with a drawing of a flag on it. Click it, and more people come marching, this time with flags for specific LGBTQ+ identities. Additionally, Google has provided a link beneath the search bar to an article about Pride. Many would call this performative--and it probably is--but it's certainly better than nothing.

That's all for Rainbow News! If you'd like to stay up-to-date on LGBTQ+ news outside of A Gay's Gaze, I encourage you to check out PinkNews, Queerty, r/lgbtnews on Reddit, and Them.!