News
Trump extols ‘religious freedom’ order at Liberty University
Slams critics as ‘pathetic’

President Trump disparaged critics as “pathetic” in a Liberty University commencement speech. (Screenshot via CSPAN)
In a commencement speech at a school with an anti-LGBT reputation, President Trump extolled a recent executive order he signed in the name of “religious freedom” that opponents say could lay the groundwork for anti-LGBT discrimination.
Trump made the remarks during his commencement speech Saturday at Liberty University, saying in reference to the executive order he “did some very important signings” recently for religious freedom.
“America is better when people put their faith into action,” Trump said. “As long as I am your president, no one is ever going to stop you from practicing your faith or from preaching what’s in your heart.”
It wasn’t clear whether Trump was referencing the issue of clerks refusing to marry same-sex couples in his remarks, although he has endorsed “religious freedom” legislation known as the First Amendment Defense Act that critics say would allow anti-LGBT discrimination.
Although the religious freedom executive order on its face doesn’t allow discrimination against LGBT people, the measure instructs U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to “as appropriate, issue guidance interpreting religious liberty protections in Federal law.” Some LGBT advocates have said that language will empower Sessions to find ways to discriminate against LGBT people, such as allowing workers at federal agencies to refuse to process paperwork for same-sex couples in the name of “religious freedom.”
Other observers don’t read the executive order the same way. The American Civil Liberties Union had threatened to sue Trump over the executive order, but later declined to take that action on the basis that it was “an elaborate photo-op with no discernible policy outcome.”
The “religious freedom” executive order reference was a small component of a commencement speech in which Trump encouraged graduates to look to the future and emphasized the importance of faith in America. On the day before Mother’s Day, Trump invoked the idea of his late mother smiling down on him from heaven and the late Rev. Jerry Falwell smiling down on his son, Jerry Falwell Jr., who’s president of Liberty University.
At a time when Trump is under fire for his administration’s actions and the firing of FBI Director James Comey as he was conducting an investigation on whether he colluded with Russian in hacking in the 2016 election, Trump also during his speech belittled critics when encouraging graduates to pursue their dreams.
“Nothing is easier or more pathetic than being a critic, because they’re people that can’t get the job done. But the future belongs to the dreamers, not to the critics,” Trump said. “The future belongs to the people who follow their heart no matter what the critics say because they truly believe in their vision.”
Trump’s commencement speech marks the first time since President George H.W. Bush spoke at Liberty University in 1990 that the school has hosted a sitting U.S. president. The speech is also the first commencement address Trump delivered as president.
A Baptist school, Liberty University has an anti-LGBT reputation. The university has a policy of prohibiting “sexual relations outside of a biblically ordained marriage between a natural-born man and a natural-born woman,” which prohibits intimate relationships with LGBT people.
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.
-
Opinions4 days agoDual endorsement for Independent Council-at-large: Patterson or Crawford
-
Real Estate4 days agoIntroducing Next-Generation Assisted Living & Memory Support.
-
District of Columbia4 days agoD.C. Pride flag raising ceremony set for June 1
-
Theater4 days agoCedric Neal on his juicy narrator role in ‘Pippin’
