BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- AIDS-Free World, an advocacy NGO, is challenging the immigration law of Trinidad and Tobago. Maurice Tomlinson, our Legal Advisor for Marginalized Groups is carrying the challenge forward; he is a Jamaican lawyer who is gay.

The Associated Press (AP) has decided to ban the use of “phobia,” particularly the word “homophobia.”

Monday’s update to the AP Stylebook, considered the bible of copy editors across the English-speaking world, says that words ending in “phobia” indicate “an irrational, uncontrollable fear, often a form of mental illness” and should not be uses in “political or social contexts.”

Dave Minthorn, AP deputy standards editor, tells Politico:

I had to come back to my hometown to bury my mother. I’ve spent a week in the middle of conservative America, surrounded by some family members who insist on making my sexuality the basis of their desire to keep the family divided and keep the hate alive and living among us.

I had hoped that my mother’s funeral would have been an opportunity to put small-minded, petty ideas aside and come together to honor my mother. I discovered I was wrong to have even hoped for such things.

Taipei Pride celebrated its 10th anniversary on Oct. 27. It is the oldest and biggest Pride event in Asia.

More than 50,000 marchers attended this year, according to the Taipei Times.

On the surface, Taipei Pride is not a celebration of extravagance or politics. It seems to be a celebration of the “normal” lives of “normal” people. Whereas D.C. Pride is filled with churches, NGOs and political groups, and New York Pride is filled with hot men on glitzy floats, the majority of participants in Taipei Pride walked with their friends, dressed in their regular clothes.