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Blade wins journalism awards

Society of Professional Journalists honored Michael Key, Kathi Wolfe

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From left, writer and poet Kathy Wolfe and Blade Photo Editor Michael Key. (Washington Blade file photos by Michael Key)

The Washington Blade this week won several 2023 Dateline Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists’ D.C. chapter.

Photo Editor Michael Key won in the Weekly Newspaper Breaking News category for “Va. students stage mass walkout over anti-LGBTQ policies,” which covered the thousands of Virginia students who walked out of their classes last fall in response to proposed revisions to policies designed to protect trans and nonbinary students. Key also won in the Weekly Newspaper Photography Story category for his “Activists stage ‘smoke-in’ at Russian embassy to protest Griner incarceration” story.

Contributor Kathi Wolfe won in the Weekly Newspaper Features category for “Queer, Crip and Here,” a profile of Caitlin Hernandez, a queer writer and teacher who is blind. The profile is part of the Blade’s “Queer, Crip and Here” series.

Blade contributor Kaela Roeder won in the Weekly Newspaper Business category for “Paying it forward: How one bookstore coffee shop makes a difference in Adams Morgan,” which Street Sense Media published. Roeder was also a finalist in the Weekly Newspaper Investigative Journalism category for “DC receives funds to help homeless students. Why are so many schools missing out?” and a finalist in the Radio Investigative Journalism category for “D.C. gets federal funds to help homeless students. But many schools are shortchanged” for WAMU.

International News Editor Michael Lavers was a finalist in the Weekly Newspaper Features category for “Transgender journalist joins Ukrainian military,” a profile of Sarah Cirillo-Ashton, a transgender journalist who enlisted in the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2022. Lavers was also a finalist in the Weekly Newspaper Editorial/Opinion Writing category for “A reporter’s observations on the Brazilian, U.S. elections,” an op-ed he wrote after covering last year’s Brazilian presidential election and the U.S. mid-term elections. 

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Hungary

Hungarian authorities lift Budapest Pride ban

Country’s new government took office last month

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Budapest Pride participants march over the Erzsebet Bridge in Budapest, Hungary, on June 28, 2025, despite an official ban. The country's new government will allow this year's Budapest Pride march to take place without restrictions. (Courtesy photo)

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.

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Colombia

Claudia López comes up short in Colombian presidential election

Former Bogotá mayor would have been country’s first lesbian head of government

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Former Bogotá Mayor Claudia López speaks at the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute's International LGBTQ Leaders Conference in D.C. on Dec. 7, 2024. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

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.

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Ghana

Ghanaian lawmakers approve anti-LGBTQ bill

Measure that would criminalize allyship awaits president’s signature

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Ghanaian flag (Public domain photo from Pixabay)

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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