News
Mary Cheney to host Ind. marriage equality fundraiser
Lesbian Republican takes dig at sister’s opposition to gay nuptials
The Cheney family has drawn media attention for its public dispute on same-sex marriage (Photo public domain).
In an e-mail sent out to supporters of Freedom Indiana on Tuesday, Cheney announces she’ll take part in a fundraiser scheduled to take place in Indianapolis on Dec. 11.
“Freedom means freedom for everyone,” Cheney writes in the e-mail. “For me, that’s not just another saying. It’s who I am — the core of what I believe. No one should be denied the fundamental liberties we all deserve.”
Cheney’s use of “freedom means freedom for everyone” recalls the use of the phrase by her father, former Vice President Richard Cheney, when he came out for marriage equality during a National Press Club appearance.
Mary Cheney also takes an indirect dig at her sister, Liz Cheney, who declared during an appearance on Fox News Sunday that she opposes marriage equality despite as she pursues a run for U.S. Senate in their family’s home state.
“Speaking out against HJR-6 isn’t a matter of politics,” Mary Cheney writes. “It’s about family. It’s about everyone feeling welcome in the state they call home. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect my wife Heather and our two children. And then I think about the thousands of same-sex couples and their families in Indiana who would be directly impacted by HJR-6, I’m committed to standing together and working across party lines to keep this amendment out of Indiana’s constitution.”
Mary Cheney, who was unable for an interview with the Washington Blade, previously generated media attention last week when she shared a Facebook post from her spouse, Heather Poe, that criticized Liz Cheney for opposing same-sex marriage. Later, Mary Cheney said in an email that she wouldn’t support her sister’s campaign.
To become part of the state constitution, the anti-gay marriage amendment in Indiana must must be agreed to in the state legislature by two separately elected general assemblies. Afterward, it comes to the ballot and will be ratified if approved by a majority of voters.
The amendment has already been approved once by the Indiana Legislature in 2011. Anti-gay groups are setting their sights on passing the amendment for the second round in 2014.
Although Mary Cheney has criticized her sister over the marriage issue, the lesbian Republican donated $2,500 dollars to the 2012 presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, who campaigned on a U.S. constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Jennifer Wagner, a spokesperson for Freedom Indiana, said her organization has been working on bringing Mary Cheney in support of the campaign even before the flap with her sister.
“She reached out to us after the launch of our campaign in August about doing an event,” Wagner said. “We’ve been working with her ever since to get it scheduled.”
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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