World
Colombian Senate rejects same-sex marriage bill
The measure failed by a 51-17 vote margin
El Capitolio Nacional in Bogotá, Colombia (Photo by Rikimedia via Wikimedia Commons)
The Colombian Senate on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have extended marriage rights to same-sex couples couples in the South American country.
Senators opposed the proposal by an 51-17 vote margin a day after they debated it.
“Marriage is a fundamental right,” Sen. Luís Carlos Avellaneda said. “The principal of equality extends the same protection to all Colombians without discrimination.”
Congresswoman Alba Luz Pinilla Pedraza said the bill is about civil — and not religious — marriage. Sen Luís Fernando Velasco stressed “we are all equal” during his testimony as he spoke in support of LGBT Colombians.
“They don’t want our sympathy, what they want is that we recognize human dignity,” he said.
Colombian lawmakers had been expected to vote on the same-sex marriage bill last week, but it was delayed.
Sen. Roberto Gerleín Echevarría mocked the testimony of Martha Lucía Cuéllar de San Juan, a Bogotá psychologist who referenced her gay son whose partner of 11 years died as she spoke in support of the proposal last Thursday, while speaking against the bill.
Sen. Alexandra Moreno Piraqüive cited Denmark, Sweden and other countries that allow same-sex marriage as she spoke about how she feels nuptials for gays and lesbians harms Colombian children.
“We should not compare ourselves to another country,” she said.
Colombian senators rejected the same-sex marriage bill a day after the French National Assembly gave final approval to a measure that would extend adoption and marriage rights to gays and lesbians.
Argentina, Mexico City and 10 Brazilian states that include São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are among the Latin American jurisdictions in which same-sex couples can legally marry. Uruguayan lawmakers earlier this month approved a bill that will allow nuptials for gays and lesbians.
The Colombian Senate in 2007 defeated a bill that would have allowed same-sex couples to enter into civil unions.
The country’s Constitutional Court in three separate rulings it issued later that year and in 2008 extended property and inheritance rights, social security and pension benefits to same-sex couples. The tribunal in 2009 ruled gay and lesbian couples who live together must receive the same rights that Colombian law affords unmarried heterosexual couples.
The Constitutional Court in 2011 issued a ruling that said the country’s Congress must pass legislation within two years that extends the same benefits heterosexuals receive through marriage to same-sex couples. Gays and lesbians can legally register their unions if lawmakers fail to act on this judicial mandate by June 20.
Hungary
Hungarian authorities lift Budapest Pride ban
Country’s new government took office last month
Hungarian police on May 29 announced they will allow the annual Budapest Pride march to take place.
“The Budapest Metropolitan Police has approved the 2026 Budapest Pride Parade and also has issued restrictive orders in relation to three counter-demonstrations,” a Budapest Metropolitan Police spokesperson told Politico.
Budapest is Hungary’s capital and largest city.
Hungarian lawmakers last year passed a bill that banned Pride events and allowed authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify participants. MPs later amended the Hungarian constitution to ban public LGBTQ events.
More than 100,000 people defied the ban and participated in last year’s Budapest Pride parade. The event became one of the largest protests against then-Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his government since he took office in 2010.
Prime Minister Péter Magyar took office last month after his center-right Tisza party ousted Orbán’s Fidesz-KDNP coalition in elections that took place on April 12. The European Union’s top court, the EU Court of Justice, days after Orbán’s ouster struck down Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ propaganda law that MPs approved in 2021.
The EU on May 29 announced it will release more than €16 billion ($18.59 billion) in funds to Hungary that it withheld while Orbán was in office.
The Budapest Pride march will take place on June 27.
“We will march freely in fresh air for our rights, for the democratic Hungary,” said Budapest Pride on its Facebook page.
Colombia
Claudia López comes up short in Colombian presidential election
Former Bogotá mayor would have been country’s first lesbian head of government
Former Bogotá Mayor Claudia López on Sunday finished fifth in the first round of Colombia’s presidential election.
López, a centrist who ran as an independent, received 225,517 votes. This figure is .95 percent of the total votes cast.
López was the Colombian capital’s mayor from 2020-2023. She was a member of the Colombian Senate from 2014-2018. López, whose wife is outgoing Colombian Sen. Angélica Lozano, would have become the country’s first female and first lesbian president if she would have won the election.
The LGBTQ+ Victory Institute honored López in D.C. in 2024.
“We need to listen to each other again, we need to have a coffee with each other again, we need to touch each other’s skin,” she told the Washington Blade during an interview. She hadn’t yet declared her candidacy, and did not specifically discuss her plans to run.
Runoff to take place June 21
Abrelardo de la Espriella, a far-right lawyer who has praised U.S. President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, on Sunday finished first with 43.74 percent of the vote. Senator Iván Cepeda, a member of outgoing President Gustavo Petro’s Historic Pact party, came in second with 40.9 percent of the vote.
Neither men received a majority of votes. A runoff between them will take place on June 21.
Ghana
Ghanaian lawmakers approve anti-LGBTQ bill
Measure that would criminalize allyship awaits president’s signature
Ghanaian lawmakers on Friday approved a bill that would, among other things, criminalize LGBTQ allyship.
Reuters reported MPs approved the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, in a voice vote after parliament’s Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee backed it.
MPs in 2024 approved a similar bill, but it faced legal challenges and then-President Nana Akufo-Addo didn’t sign it. Lawmakers last year reintroduced the measure after President John Dramani Mahama took office.
The bill awaits his signature.
Rightify Ghana, a Ghanaian LGBTQ advocacy group, in a series of social media posts notes MPs passed the bill days before the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty will take place in Accra, the country’s capital.
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