News
Cameroonian LGBT rights advocate murdered
The State Department described Eric Ohena Lembembe’s death as a “terrible act”
Yaounde, Cameroon (Photo by Mac9 via Wikimedia Commons)
Human Rights Watch said advocates found Eric Ohena Lembembe’s body on his bed in his home in Yaoundé, the country’s capital, after they were unable to reach him for two days.
One of Lembembe’s friends told Human Rights Watch that his neck and feet “appeared to be broken.” An iron was also reportedly used to burn Lembembe’s face, hands and feet.
Lembembe, who was the executive director of the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS, worked with Human Rights Watch and two other LGBT advocacy groups in the country — Alternatives-Cameroun and the Association for the Defense of Homosexuals — to document anti-gay persecution in the nation. He also contributed to Erasing 76 Crimes, a blog that chronicles efforts to report on efforts to decriminalize homosexuality around the world.
“Eric was an inspiring activist whose work was deeply appreciated by human rights activists in Cameroon and around the world,” Neela Ghoshal, a researcher for Human Rights Watch’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program, said. “Advocating for equal rights in Cameroon, where LGBTI people face severe discrimination and violence, takes tremendous courage. Eric’s activism paved the way for a society based on equality and nondiscrimination.”
State Department spokesperson Marie Harf also condemned Lembembe’s murder.
“We condemn this terrible act in the strongest terms and urge the Cameroonian authorities to thoroughly and promptly investigate and prosecute those responsible for his death,” she said in a statement issued late on Tuesday.
Lembembe’s death comes against the backdrop of ongoing anti-gay persecution and violence in the country.
Cameroonian authorities since 2010 have prosecuted more than 30 people under the section of the country’s penal code that imposes a sentence of up to five years in prison and a roughly $400 fine against anyone convicted of same-sex sexual activity.
Police in Yaoundé in March 2011 arrested Jean-Claude Roger Mbede after sending a flirtatious text message to another man. Authorities later that year arrested Jonas Kimie and Franky Ndome outside a nightclub in the Cameroonian capital and charged them under the country’s anti-homosexuality law.
A judge sentenced Kimie and Ndome to five years in prison, but an appellate court in January released them. The Washington Blade’s attempts to interview the men earlier this year were unsuccessful because they had gone into hiding.
Human Rights Watch said a group of unidentified assailants torched Alternatives-Cameroun’s headquarters in the city of Douala on June 26. The organization noted burglars took legal files and a laptop from the Yaoundé office of Michel Togué, a lawyer who represents gay men charged under the country’s anti-homosexuality law, when they broke into it 10 days earlier.
Togué said during a forum at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights in D.C. in February that he moved his family to Maryland because of death threats he and his colleagues received.
“Gay people are not seeking everyone to approve of their behavior,” he said. “They are seeking freedom.”
The State Department and Amnesty International are among the government agencies and human rights organizations that have criticized Cameroon’s LGBT rights record in recent years.
President Paul Biya told journalists in January after a meeting with French President François Hollande that attitudes towards gay Cameroonians are changing.
Ghoshal and other human rights advocates continue to urge Cameroonian authorities to publicly condemn Lembembe’s murder and arrest those responsible for his death.
“We don’t know who killed Eric Lembembe, or why he was killed, but one thing is clear: the Cameroonian authorities’ utter failure to stem homophobic violence sends the message that these attacks can be carried out with impunity,” Ghoshal said. “The police should not rest until the perpetrators of this horrific crime are brought to justice. President Biya should break his silence on the wave of homophobic violence in Cameroon and publicly condemn this brutal attack.”
District of Columbia
Laverne Cox, Reneé Rapp, Deacon Maccubbin named WorldPride grand marshals
Three LGBTQ icons to lead parade
WorldPride organizers announced Thursday that actress and trans activist Laverne Cox, powerhouse performer Reneé Rapp, and LGBTQ trailblazer Deacon Maccubbin will serve as grand marshals for this year’s WorldPride parade.
The Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., revealed the honorees in a press release, noting that each has made a unique contribution to the fabric of the LGBTQ community.
Cox made history in 2014 as the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in an acting category for her role in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black.” She went on to win a Daytime Emmy in 2015 for her documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” which followed seven young trans people as they navigated coming out.
Rapp, a singer and actress who identifies as a lesbian, rose to prominence as Regina George in the Broadway musical “Mean Girls.” She reprised the role in the 2024 film adaptation and also stars in Max’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” portraying a character coming to terms with her sexuality. Rapp has released an EP, “Everything to Everyone,” and an album, “Snow Angel.” She announced her sophomore album, “Bite Me,” on May 21 and is slated to perform at the WorldPride Music Festival at the RFK Festival Grounds.
Deacon Maccubbin, widely regarded as a cornerstone of Washington’s LGBTQ+ history, helped organize D.C.’s first Gay Pride Party in 1975. The event took place outside Lambda Rising, one of the first LGBTQ bookstores in the nation, which Maccubbin founded. For his decades of advocacy and activism, he is often referred to as “the patriarch of D.C. Pride.”
“I am so honored to serve as one of the grand marshals for WorldPride this year. This has been one of the most difficult times in recent history for queer and trans people globally,” Cox said. “But in the face of all the rhetorical, legislative and physical attacks, we continue to have the courage to embrace who we truly are, to celebrate our beauty, resilience and bravery as a community. We refuse to allow fear to keep us from ourselves and each other. We remain out loud and proud.”
“Pride is everything. It is protection, it is visibility, it is intersectional. But most importantly, it is a celebration of existence and protest,” Rapp said.
The three will march down 14th Street for the WorldPride Parade in Washington on June 7.
Congress
House passes reconciliation with gender-affirming care funding ban
‘Big Beautiful Bill’ now heads to the Senate
The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted 215-214 for passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” reconciliation package, which includes provisions that would prohibit the use of federal funds to support gender-affirming care.
But for an 11th hour revision of the bill late Wednesday night by conservative lawmakers, Medicaid and CHIP would have been restricted only from covering treatments and interventions administered to patients younger than 18.
The legislation would also drop requirements that some health insurers must cover gender-affirming care as an “essential health benefit” and force states that currently mandate such coverage to find it independently. Plans could still offer coverage for transgender care but without the EHB classification patients will likely pay higher out of pocket costs.
To offset the cost of extending tax cuts from 2017 that disproportionately benefited the wealthiest Americans, the reconciliation bill contains significant cuts to spending for federal programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The Human Rights Campaign criticized House Republicans in a press release and statement by the group’s president, Kelley Robinson:
“People in this country want policies and solutions that make life better and expand access to the American Dream. Instead, anti-equality lawmakers voted to give handouts to billionaires built on the backs of hardworking people — with devastating consequences for the LGBTQ+ community.
“If the cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP or resources like Planned Parenthood clinics weren’t devastating enough, House Republicans added a last minute provision that expands its attacks on access to best practice health care to transgender adults.
“This cruel addition shows their priorities have never been about lowering costs or expanding health care access–but in targeting people simply for who they are. These lawmakers have abandoned their constituents, and as they head back to their districts, know this: they will hear from us.”
Senate Republicans are expected to pass the bill with the budget reconciliation process, which would allow them to bypass the filibuster and clear the spending package with a simple majority vote.
Changes are expected as the bill will be reviewed and amended by committees, particularly the Finance Committee, and then brought to the floor for debate — though modifications are expected to focus on Medicaid reductions and debate over state and local tax deductions.
2025 D.C. Trans Pride was held at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library on Saturday, May 17. The day was filled with panel discussions, art, social events, speakers, a resource fair and the Engendered Spirit Awards. Awardees included Lyra McMillan, Pip Baitinger, Steph Niaupari and Hayden Gise. The keynote address was delivered by athlete and advocate Schuyler Bailar.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
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