Europe
Pope Francis meets with transgender people at Vatican
Meeting took place during weekly audience at St. Peter’s Basilica on Aug. 10.

The Vatican’s newspaper LāOsservatore Romano reported that during the weekly papal audience in St. Peter’s Basilica on Aug. 10, Pope Francis met with a fourth group of transgender people who are staying in a church on the outskirts of Rome.
Sister Genevieve Jeanningros and the Rev. Andrea Conocchia told LāOsservatore Romano that this was the fourth papal audience since the Blessed Immaculate Virgin Church in the Torvaianica neighborhood of Rome’s suburbs opened its doors to trans people during the coronavirus pandemic.
LāOsservatore Romano noted that the pope previously met with some of the trans residents sheltering in the church on April 27, June 22 and Aug. 3.
āNo one should encounter injustice or be thrown away, everyone has dignity of being a child of God,ā the paper quoted Jeanningros as saying.
Francis has earned praise from some members of the LGBTQ and intersex community for his outreach.
When asked in 2013 about a purportedly gay priest, he replied,Ā āWho am I to judge?āĀ He has met individually and in groups with trans people over the course of his pontificate the Associated Press reported.
But he has strongly opposed āgender theoryā and has not changed church teaching that holds that same-sex sexual acts are āintrinsically disordered.ā In 2021, he allowed publication of a Vatican document asserting that the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions sinceĀ āGod cannot bless sin,ā the AP noted.
Europe
Andorran prime minister comes out as gay
Xavier Espot Zamora spoke with country’s public broadcaster

Andorran Prime Minister Xavier Espot Zamora has come out as gay.
“I’m gay. I’ve never hid it,” he saidĀ during an interview with Radio and Television of Andorra, the country’s public broadcaster,Ā on Monday. “Now, if I’m not asked I don’t have to say it, in the sense that it doesn’t define the entirety of who I am and even less my personal politics, but at the same time I think it shouldn’t be a problem to express it. And if this helps many children, young people or teenagers who are going through a difficult time see that in the end, regardless of their condition or sexual orientation, you can prosper in this country and reach the highest magistracy, then I am happy to express it.”
Andorra is a small country known for its ski areas that is nestled between Spain and France in the Pyrenees.
Espot has been prime minister since 2019. The country’s lawmakers in 2022 extended marriage rights to same-sex couples.
The prime minister is one of a handful of heads of state and government who are openly gay or lesbian.
Latvian President Edgars RinkÄviÄs took office in July.
Luxembourgish Prime Minister Xavier Bettel has been in office since 2013, while Ana BrnabiÄ became Serbia’s prime minister in 2017. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar is openly gay.
Deputy Belgian Prime Minister Petra De Sutter is a transgender woman.
Then-Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurưardóttir in 2009 became the world’s first openly LGBTQ head of government.
Europe
Dozens detained after Istanbul Pride march
Anti-LGBTQ crackdown expected to worsen after president re-elected

Turkish police on Sunday detained dozens of people after they participated in an Istanbul Pride march.
Reuters reported police in riot gear blocked access to the city’s Istiklal Avenue and Taksim Square and limited access to public transportation in the area.
The news agency noted police detained at least 50 people. An activist with whom the Washington Blade spoke on Sunday said police took 60 “of our friends … into custody.”
“Two of the people the police unlawfully took from the streets to take statements are under the age of 18,” said the activist.
Turkish authorities over the last decade have cracked down on LGBTQ and intersex activists in the country.
Police in 2015 used tear gas and water cannons against people who were about to participate in an Istanbul Pride march. Authorities in 2017 arrested nearly two dozen people who defied a ban on Pride events in the city.
Police in Ankara, the Turkish capital, on May 10, 2019, arrested 18 students and an academic who participated in a Pride march at the Middle East Technical University. They faced up to three years in prison, but a court in 2021 acquitted them. Police in 2022 violently broke up a Pride parade at the same Ankara university.
The State Department in 2021 criticized Turkey after police once again used tear gas to disperse Istanbul Pride march participants. Security forces last June arrested more than 370 people who tried to participate in another Istanbul Pride march.
The activist with whom the Blade spoke noted police in Izmir, the country’s third largest city, on Sunday detained at least 10 people who participated in a Pride march.
President Recep TayyipĀ ErdoÄan, a former Istanbul mayor who has governed Turkey since 2003,Ā won re-electionĀ on May 28. The activist and others across the country say they expect ErdoÄan will further restrict on LGBTQ and intersex rights.
Europe
Iceland becomes latest country to ban conversion therapy
Country’s lawmakers passed bill on June 9

Lawmakers in Iceland on June 9 approved a bill that will ban so-called conversion therapy in the country.
Media reports note 53 members of the Icelandic Parliament voted for the measure, while three MPs abstained. Hanna KatrĆn Friưriksson, an MP who is a member of the Liberal Reform Party, introduced the bill.
“This is a really important issue for all gay people and a step worth celebrating,” said Samtƶkin ’78, an Icelandic LGBTQ and intersex rights group, after the vote. “There is no cure for being gay and any attempt to do so is violence. It’s so good that the government recognizes it with legislation.”
Malta, Cyprus, Brazil and Ecuador are among the other countries that ban conversion therapy.
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