Europe
LGBTQ Holocaust victims remembered on International Holocaust Memorial Day
Up to 15,000 gay men sent to concentration camps

Ordinary People is the theme for International Holocaust Memorial Day 2023 as around the globe the day is set aside for everyone to remember the millions of people murdered in the Holocaust under Nazi persecution.
The Nazis targeted anyone they believed threatened their ideal of a “pure Aryan race,” including Roma and Sinti people, disabled people, LGBTQ people, political opponents and others.
In a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Lithuania, whose ambassador, Robert S. Gilchrist, is openly gay, a coalition consisting of other nation’s diplomatic missions to the Baltic nation, including Israel, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan and the European Commission noted:
“As we mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we commemorate the Holocaust of six million Jews, men, women and children, including more than 200,000 Jews murdered in Lithuania. We remember other communities who were also murdered: Roma, disabled persons, LGBTQI+ persons, Slavs and others. We do not forget that the Nazis committed these heinous crimes with the support of local collaborators throughout Europe. And we remember the heroism of countless people who, at great personal risk, stepped in to save thousands of Jews.”
Amy Gutmann, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, tweeted: “Today we remember the horrors of the Holocaust and the six million Jews, and millions of Roma, Sinti, Slavs, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals and political dissidents murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.” Gutmann added: “As my father, a German Jew forced to flee Germany in 1934 said, “Everything we do — and everything we don’t do — makes a difference.”
Today we remember the horrors of the Holocaust and the six million Jews, and millions of Roma, Sinti, Slavs, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and political dissidents murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. pic.twitter.com/wfjBnCeoUB
— Ambassador Amy Gutmann (@USAmbGermany) January 27, 2023
PinkNewsUK journalist Patrick Kelleher wrote:
“It is thought that up to 50,000 gay men received severe prison sentences under Nazi rule. According to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, most were sent to police prisons, but between 10,000-15,000 were sent to concentration camps.
Life for queer people in Weimar Germany was a very different picture to what it would become under the Nazis.

There were gay bars, there was a functioning queer scene — there was even an institute for sexual research, a concept that would be impossible to imagine in most European cities of the day.
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, everything changed. In the years that followed, millions of Jews, alongside other minority groups, were rounded up, tortured and murdered in concentration camps, up until 1945.”
David Pressman, the U.S. ambassador to Hungary who arrived in that country with his husband and their two children last fall, also remembered the Holocaust in a tweet:
— Ambassador David Pressman (@USAmbHungary) January 27, 2023
The Vatican
Pope Leo XIV: Family based on ‘stable union between a man and a woman’
American-born pontiff met with Vatican diplomats on May 15

Pope Leo XIV on May 15 reaffirmed Vatican doctrine that says marriage is between a man and a woman.
The Associated Press reported Leo told Vatican diplomats the family is created upon the “stable union between a man and a woman.” Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and dozens of other world leaders on Sunday attended the American-born pontiff’s installation Mass that took place in St. Peter’s Square.
The College of Cardinals earlier this month elected Leo to succeed Pope Francis, who died on April 21.
Francis, who was from Argentina, was a vocal opponent of the country’s marriage equality law that took effect in 2010. He was the archbishop of Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital, when then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner signed it.
Francis in 2020 publicly backed civil unions for gays and lesbians. Francis in 2023 said priests can bless same-sex couples.

The College of Cardinals on Thursday elected Cardinal Robert Prevost from Chicago as the Catholic Church’s next pope.
Leo XIV’s election took place less than three weeks after Pope Francis died at Casa Santa Marta, his official residence at the Vatican. The conclave to choose his successor began on Wednesday.
Leo XIV, who was born in Chicago in 1955, is the first American pope.
Leo XIV was bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru from 2015-2023. Francis made him a cardinal in 2023
“We salute the appointment of the new Pope Leo XVI,” said the U.S. Embassy in Peru on X.
“A celebration for the world’s Catholics, and a joy especially shared between the American people and the Peruvian people. From Chicago to Chiclayo.”
U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), a gay man of Peruvian descent, also congratulated Leo XIV.
“As a Catholic and Peruvian American, I wish Pope Leo XIV strength as he steps into his role as a global and spiritual leader,” said the California Democrat on X. “He has demonstrated that he believes in justice for the poor and immigrants. May his leadership reflect these ideals as he spreads peace across the world.”
As a Catholic and Peruvian American, I wish Pope Leo XIV strength as he steps into his role as a global and spiritual leader. He has demonstrated that he believes in justice for the poor and immigrants. May his leadership reflect these ideals as he spreads peace across the world.
— Congressman Robert Garcia (@RepRobertGarcia) May 8, 2025
Francis died on April 21 at Casa Santa Marta, his official residence at the Vatican. The conclave to choose the Argentine pontiff’s successor began on Wednesday.
The Vatican’s tone on LGBTQ and intersex issues softened under Francis’s papacy, even though church teachings on homosexuality did not change.
Francis, among other things, described laws that criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations as “unjust” and supported civil unions for gays and lesbians. Transgender people were among those who greeted Francis’s coffin at Rome’s St. Mary Major Basilica before his burial on April 26.
The New York Times reported Leo XIV in a 2012 speech to bishops specifically cited “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children” when he said Western media and popular culture has promoted “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel”
Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, a group that represents LGBTQ Catholics, traveled to Rome for the conclave.
She told the Washington Blade in a text message from St. Peter’s Square shortly after Leo XIV’s election that she “heard him speak” last October and “found him thoughtful and gently challenging.”
“[He] hasn’t said a lot since early 2010s. [I] hope he has evolved,” said Duddy-Burke. “His commitment to synodality is a hopeful sign.”
Her group later issued a statement.
“This election appears to signal a willingness to continue building on Pope Francis’s commitment to synodality and social justice,” said DignityUSA. “We pray that the needs of those whom our church has historically marginalized, including LGBTQ+ people and their families, will continue to be heard and addressed by the Vatican and other church leaders.”
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based LGBTQ Catholic organization, in a statement said there is “a special pride in having the first pope from the United States, his longtime ministry in Latin America most likely had an equally formative influence on his spirituality and approach to church issues.” DeBernardo, however, criticized Leo XIV’s 2012 comments.
“We pray that in the 13 years that have passed, 12 of which were under the papacy of Pope Francis, that his heart and mind have developed more progressively on LGBTQ+ issues, and we will take a wait-and-see attitude to see if that has happened,” he said.
“We pray that as our church transitions from 12 years of an historic papacy, Pope Leo XIV will continue the welcome and outreach to LGBTQ+ people which Pope Francis inaugurated,” added DeBernardo. “The healing that began with ‘Who am I to judge?’ needs to continue and grow to ‘Who am I, if not a friend to LGBTQ+ people?'”
DignityUSA agreed.
“We express concern with the former Cardinal’s statements — as reported in the New York Times — in a 2012 address to bishops, where he stated that Western news media and popular culture fostered ‘sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel’ including the ‘homosexual lifestyle’ and ‘alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.'” We note that this statement was made during the papacy of Benedict XVI, when doctrinal adherence appeared to be expected,” said the organization in its statement. “In addition, the voices of LGBTQ people were rarely heard at that level of church leadership. We pray that Pope Leo XIV will demonstrate a willingness to listen and grow as he begins his new role as the leader of the global church.”
The Vatican
Executive director of LGBTQ Catholic group to travel to Rome for conclave
Marianne Duddy-Burke met Pope Francis in 2023

The executive director of a group that represents LGBTQ Catholics will travel to Rome next week for the papal conclave that starts on May 7.
DignityUSA Executive Director Marianne Duddy-Burke on Thursday told the Washington Blade she will arrive in Rome on May 6. Duddy-Burke said she plans to spend time in St. Peter’s Square “and have conversations with people.”
“I will wear Dignity insignia, have rainbow flags,” she said.
Pope Francis died on April 21. His funeral took place five days later.
The Vatican’s tone on LGBTQ and intersex issues softened under the Argentine-born pope’s papacy, even though church teachings on homosexuality did not change.
Francis, among other things, described laws that criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations as “unjust” and supported civil unions for gays and lesbians. Transgender people were among those who greeted Francis’s coffin at Rome’s St. Mary Major Basilica before his burial on April 26.
Duddy-Burke and two others from the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics met with Francis in October 2023 during a meeting that focused on the Catholic Church’s future. Duddy-Burke noted Francis “invited” her and her colleagues as his “special guests for the audience and then had a conversation with him afterwards.”
“For me the sort of visibility that he (Francis) brought to our community and to our concerns feels irreversible,” said Duddy-Burke. “He empowered so many people and so many new ministries.”
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu — the archbishop of Kinshasa in Congo who has described homosexuality as an “abomination” — is among the cardinals who are reportedly in the running to succeed Francis.
“I really don’t know,” said Duddy-Burke when the Blade asked her who the next pope will be. “Of course, I am hoping and praying hard that it will be someone who will continue to lead the church on responsiveness of human need and greater inclusivity.”
“What happens in that room is such a mystery,” she added.