News
Cameroonian LGBT rights advocate murdered
The State Department described Eric Ohena Lembembe’s death as a “terrible act”
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.”
World Pride 2025
Pabllo Vittar to perform at WorldPride
Brazilian drag queen, singer, joined Madonna on stage in 2024 Rio concert

A Brazilian drag queen and singer who performed with Madonna at her 2024 concert on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach will perform at WorldPride.
The Capital Pride Alliance on Thursday announced Pabllo Vittar will perform on the Main Stage of the main party that will take place on June 7 at DCBX (1235 W St., N.E.) in Northeast D.C.
Vittar and Anitta, a Brazilian pop star who is bisexual, on May 4, 2024, joined Madonna on stage at her free concert, which was the last one of her Celebration Tour. Authorities estimated 1.6 million people attended.
Federal Government
RFK Jr.’s HHS report pushes therapy, not medical interventions, for trans youth
‘Discredited junk science’ — GLAAD

A 409-page report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services challenges the ethics of medical interventions for youth experiencing gender dysphoria, the treatments that are often collectively called gender-affirming care, instead advocating for psychotherapy alone.
The document comes in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order barring the federal government from supporting gender transitions for anyone younger than 19.
“Our duty is to protect our nation’s children — not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions,” National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement. “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”
While the report does not constitute clinical guidance, its findings nevertheless conflict with not just the recommendations of LGBTQ advocacy groups but also those issued by organizations with relevant expertise in science and medicine.
The American Medical Association, for instance, notes that “empirical evidence has demonstrated that trans and non-binary gender identities are normal variations of human identity and expression.”
Gender-affirming care for transgender youth under standards widely used in the U.S. includes supportive talk therapy along with — in some but not all cases — puberty blockers or hormone treatment.
“The suggestion that someone’s authentic self and who they are can be ‘changed’ is discredited junk science,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “This so-called guidance is grossly misleading and in direct contrast to the recommendation of every leading health authority in the world. This report amounts to nothing more than forcing the same discredited idea of conversion therapy that ripped families apart and harmed gay, lesbian, and bisexual young people for decades.”
GLAAD further notes that the “government has not released the names of those involved in consulting or authoring this report.”
Janelle Perez, executive director of LPAC, said, “For decades, every major medical association–including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics–have affirmed that medical care is the only safe and effective treatment for transgender youth experiencing gender dysphoria.
“This report is simply promoting conversion therapy by a different name – and the American people know better. We know that conversion therapy isn’t actually therapy – it isolates and harms kids, scapegoats parents, and divides families through blame and rejection. These tactics have been used against gay kids for decades, and now the same people want to use them against transgender youth and their families.
“The end result here will be a devastating denial of essential health care for transgender youth, replaced by a dangerous practice that every major U.S. medical and mental health association agree promotes anxiety, depression, and increased risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts.
“Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice, and no amount of pressure can force someone to change who they are. We also know that 98% of people who receive transition-related health care continue to receive that health care throughout their lifetime. Trans health care is health care.”
“Today’s report seeks to erase decades of research and learning, replacing it with propaganda. The claims in today’s report would rip health care away from kids and take decision-making out of the hands of parents,” said Shannon Minter, legal director of NCLR. “It promotes the same kind of conversion therapy long used to shame LGBTQ+ people into hating themselves for being unable to change something they can’t change.”
“Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice—it’s rooted in biology and genetics,” Minter said. “No amount or talk or pressure will change that.”
Human Rights Campaign Chief of Staff Jay Brown released a statement: “Trans people are who we are. We’re born this way. And we deserve to live our best lives and have a fair shot and equal opportunity at living a good life.
“This report misrepresents the science that has led all mainstream American medical and mental health professionals to declare healthcare for transgender youth to be best practice and instead follows a script predetermined not by experts but by Sec. Kennedy and anti-equality politicians.”
The White House
Trump nominates Mike Waltz to become next UN ambassador
Former Fla. congressman had been national security advisor

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he will nominate Mike Waltz to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
Waltz, a former Florida congressman, had been the national security advisor.
Trump announced the nomination amid reports that Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, were going to leave the administration after Waltz in March added a journalist to a Signal chat in which he, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other officials discussed plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“I am pleased to announce that I will be nominating Mike Waltz to be the next United States ambassador to the United Nations,” said Trump in a Truth Social post that announced Waltz’s nomination. “From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our nation’s Interests first. I know he will do the same in his new role.”
Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as interim national security advisor, “while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department.”
“Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to make America, and the world, safe again,” said Trump.
Trump shortly after his election nominated U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Trump in March withdrew her nomination in order to ensure Republicans maintained their narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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