News
Uruguay same-sex marriage law takes effect
South American country among 11 nations to allow gay nuptials

Uruguayan lawmakers earlier this year approved a same-sex marriage bill. (Photo by Fedaro via Wikimedia Commons)
The South American nation’s first same-sex marriage took place in a hospital in which one of the men who tied the knot is dying of cancer.
Sergio Miranda and Rodrigo Borda, who have been together for 14 years, were the first gay couple to register to marry in Uruguay.
The couple plans to exchange vows next month.
“We feel good,” Miranda told the Uruguayan newspaper El País after he and Borda left a registrar’s office in Montevideo, the country’s capital. “As of today, we are starting to apply a law that eliminates discrimination.”
Uruguay also now recognizes the marriages of same-sex couples who legally married in other countries.
Federico Graña of Colectivo Ovejas Negras, a Uruguayan LGBT advocacy group, applauded the same-sex marriage law.
“Uruguay is once again in the headlines for expanding liberty and equality,” he tweeted earlier on Monday.
The country’s same-sex marriage law took effect three months after President José Mujica signed it. The measure received final approval in the Uruguay House of Representatives in April.
Neighboring Argentina is among the 11 countries in which gays and lesbians can legally marry.
Same-sex couples can also tie the knot in Mexico City and 13 U.S. states and D.C.
Two gay men on July 25 became the first legally recognized same-sex couple in Colombia when a judge in Bogotá, the country’s capital, solemnized their relationship. Brazil’s National Council of Justice in May ruled registrars in South America’s most populous nation cannot deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Gays and lesbians in New Zealand will be able to legally marry on August 19. The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales are expected to take place next spring after a gay nuptials bill received final approval in the British House of Lords last month.
Angelica Lozano, a lesbian city councilwoman in the Colombian capital, is among the LGBT rights advocates throughout Latin America who praised Uruguay’s same-sex marriage law.
“Total respect and admiration to Uruguay and Uruguayans,” she tweeted. “Equality is unstoppable.”
United Nations
UN Human Rights Council extends LGBTQ rights expert’s mandate
29 countries voted for resolution

The U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday extended the mandate of the United Nations’ independent LGBTQ rights expert for another three years.
The resolution passed with 29 countries (Albania, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Kenya, the Marshall Islands, Mexico, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, South Korea, Romania, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, and Vietnam) voting for it and 15 countries (Algeria, Bangladesh, Burundi, China, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malawi, Maldives, Morocco, Qatar, and Sudan) voted against it.
Benin, Ghana, and Kyrgyzstan abstained.
The U.S. in February withdrew from the Human Rights Council. The Trump-Pence administration in 2018 pulled the U.S. from it. The U.S. in 2021 regained a seat on the Human Rights Council.
Graeme Reid has been the UN’s independent LGBTQ rights expert since 2023. The South African activist, among other things, previously ran Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Rights Program.
Maryland
Maryland’s oldest rural gay bar — and one of the last — is a log cabin in the woods
The Lodge is a Boonsboro watering hole resembling a log cabin

By SAPNA BANSIL | In the woods of a conservative Western Maryland town of fewer than 4,000 people is an unlikely landmark of state LGBTQ history.
The Lodge, a Boonsboro watering hole that resembles a log cabin, is Maryland’s oldest rural gay bar — one of a few remaining in the country, according to historians.
For about four decades, the Washington County venue has offered safety, escape and community to queer people far from large, liberal cities. Starting Friday night, The Lodge will close out Pride month with one of its biggest parties of the year: a weekend of dancing, drinking and drag in celebration of Frederick Pride, held about 20 miles away in the area’s largest city.
The rest of this article the Baltimore Banner published on June 27 can be read on its website.

South Africa National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza on June 17 swore in lesbian feminist Palomino Jama as a new MP.
Jama joins other LGBTQ legislators — including Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson; Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Dion George; and Deputy Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities Minister, Steve Letsike.
Jama said she will work hard and excel as MP.
“What a great moment to be alive. Thank you youth of 1976, thank you Simon Nkoli, Phumi Mthetwa, Paddy Nhlaphos, Vanessa Ludwig, and others for what you did for the LGBTI people in the 80s and 90s. Lastly, for the fierce fist of the Jamas to always hit where it matters for the people of this country,” said Letsike.
Embrace Diversity Movement, a local LGBTQ organization, said Jama’s inauguration came at an appropriate time, during Pride month.
“Her swearing-in took place during a month of profound significance in June, which marks both international Pride Month and Youth Month in South Africa,” said the group. “Palomino is a seasoned queer activist and dedicated community builder with a distinguished record of leadership and service.”
“The EDM proudly supports Palomino in her deployment to parliament, her presence meaningfully advances youth and queer representation in public office,” added the Embrace Diversity Movement. “We are confident that she will serve the people of South Africa with integrity, courage, and distinction.”
South Africa is the only African country that constitutionally upholds LGBTQ rights. There are, however, still myriad challenges the LGBTQ community faces on a daily basis that range from physical attacks to online abuse.
Letsike in May faced a barrage of online attacks after she released a scathing statement against popular podcaster Macgyver “MacG” Mukwevho, who during a podcast episode in April insinuated that the reason behind popular socialite Minnie Dlamini’s “unsuccessful” relationships were probably due to the bad odor from her genitals.
Letsike, who viewed MacG’s comments as offensive, called for the podcaster to be summoned before parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities and criticized the local television station that aired the podcast.
X users and other social media subscribers bombarded Letsike with anti-lesbian comments. She, however, was unphased.
Letsike continues to face anti-lesbian comments, even though MacG apologized and the television station on which his podcast had aired cancelled its contract with him.