World
Grant Wahl died from burst blood vessel, not foul play
Journalist passed away in Qatar on Dec. 9
The family of reporter, blogger and author Grant Wahl announced Wednesday that his death while covering the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was the result of a rupture in a blood vessel connected to his heart, according to an autopsy performed in New York.
The 49-year old journalist, who made headlines when Qatari security at a sports stadium detained him for wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with rainbows surrounding a soccer ball in support of his gay brother and the LGBTQ community, died Dec. 9.
As the Washington Blade reported, Eric Wahl raised suspicions in a since-deleted Instagram video that his brother’s death was not natural, and revealed Grant Wahl had received death threats.
But according to the New York Times, the sportswriter’s death was the result of a weakness in an artery wall called an aneurysm. According to the Times, “Wahl experienced a catastrophic rupture in the ascending aorta, which carries oxygenated blood from the heart.”
There’s been rampant speculation since Wahl’s death was reported, especially on social media, with claims it was related to COVID vaccines or retaliation by the Qatari government, for either wearing the shirt or for an article Wahl wrote about the deaths of immigrant workers building the sports complex in Qatar.
The newspaper noted Wahl’s widow, Dr. Celine Gounder, is a leading infectious disease physician and former adviser to President Joe Biden’s transition team on COVID-19. Speculation that his death was the result of vaccines was especially insulting, she said, because of her work.
“He probably died instantly and did not feel pain,” Gounder told the Times. “I really do feel some relief in knowing what it was.”
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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