World
Uganda’s LGBTQ community remains a target
Police in May arrested 44 people at Kampala party
Despite the annulment of the 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Act that was meant to criminalize the act of same-sex relations by life imprisonment and even capital punishment in Uganda, members of the LGBTQ community continue to face unwarranted reproof.
Several bills have been proposed in Parliament, such as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, the revised Anti-Homosexuality Bill and just recently bills that would criminalize sex work and gay sex. However, none of these bills saw the light of day thanks to the rigorous fight put down by LGBTQ activists against the government through the Constitutional Court and protests.
Nevertheless, this has not stopped the government and members of the public from cracking down on LGBTQ people.
Who could forget the horrific and traumatic experience that was faced by 44 LGBTQ people at the end of May of this year when police raided a private function that was being held in Kampala that saw the 44 being arrested, assaulted and humiliated by the police, who even went an extra mile of posting their faces on social media and national television.
That petrifying moment is still being relived not only by the 44, but other LGBTQ community members as Iga Isma, executive director of Happy Family Youth Uganda, aptly states.
“In May, police raided a private function that had 44 LGBTQI+ personnel and they were arrested for conducting a gay wedding which was not the case as they were just having a party and since their arrest although they have now been released, they have been receiving a lot of stigma because after they were incarcerated their photos were paraded on social media, national television and it is now difficult for them to move, to get a job or do anything because when they get on the streets people intimidate, harass and assault them so they are facing a lot of challenges. They cannot talk in the community, they cannot buy anything, some of them when they were released from prison actually came back to burned down houses. Their houses were set on fire by some members of the community and others were chased away by their families,” said Isma.
In addition, Isma cited that many members of the LGBTQ community now do not have a sense of belonging as they have been rejected and sidelined by those they deem to be their loved ones.
“In Uganda today, hundreds of LGBTQI+ personnel have no place to call home as they are kicked out by their homophobic and transphobic, conservative communities as well as family members due to stigma and a lot of LGBTQI+ personnel continue to live in the shadows and do not come out due to fear of rejection from their families, colleagues and members of their communities.
However, we as LGBTQI+ organizations are trying to educate members of the community, government and all stakeholders about the LGBTQI+ community because that is the only way we can do away with the repugnant attitude towards the LGBTQI+ community. Though it is difficult due to the homophobic and transphobic communities within our midst, we are trying to change the narrative,” said Isma.
It is now yet to be seen whether or not the new administration, which formed earlier in January under President Yoweri Museveni, who has governed the East African country for the past 35 years, will lift the cumbersome tribulations and aspersions that are continuously being faced by members of the LGBTQ community.
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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