Africa
Mauritius hosts Pan Africa ILGA conference
Jessica Stern, Victor Madrigal-Borloz among speakers
Upwards of 400 activists and organizations from around the world attended the Pan Africa ILGA conference that took place this week in Mauritius.
The conference, which took place at the Ravenala Attitude Hotel | Solitude, focused on the vitality of Pride and resilience amid an environment where LGBTQ and intersex rights remain under threat. The conference also sought to promote LGBTQ and intersex rights in Africa and highlight the severity of homophobia and transphobia on the continent.
The World Bank Group estimates the economic cost of homophobia and transphobia on the continent amounts to $14 billion a year due to lost productivity, health care and education.
Despite the harrowing experiences some of the delegates shared, the conference highlighted some of the positive strides that some African countries have undertaken to combat homophobia and transphobia. Angola, Botswana, Mozambique and Seychelles are among the nations that have decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations over the last few years. (Homosexuality remains criminalized in Mauritius.)
“Five years ago I spoke at the Pan Africa ILGA conference in Botswana,” said Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the outgoing U.N. independent expert on LGBTQ issues. “This week I had the honor of addressing the conference on the decolonization of law, mores and language and the great strengths of our movement going forward. Great to see these African gatherings bookend my mandate.”
Doctor Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, a British LGBTQ and intersex activist who was also in attendance, said she learned a lot at the conference and urged activists to remain resolute.
“Steve Letsike (director of Access Chapter Two, a South Africa-based LGBTQ and intersex rights organization) gave an opening speech, which was powerful, moving and a direct call to action for donors, partners to keep on working in unity with each other as the urgency is very real in Africa, Victor Madrigal-Borloz also gave a brilliant account of his mandate as it comes to an end in October, and we thank him for all that he has done in fulfilling this mandate,” said Opoku-Gyimah. “My African queer siblings, comrades, friends who are on the front lines organizing, mobilizing, and movement building, continue to take my breath away, it certainly feels like home when I am around such a chosen family, many of whom I have not seen in such a long time, my experience is humbling.”
Collectif Arc-en-Ciel, a Mauritian LGBTQ and intersex rights group that co-organized the conference, commended the event for offering a unique platform to explore and engage in discussions that enhance LGBTQ and intersex rights on the African continent. Outgoing Pan Africa ILGA Chair Barbra Wangare charged everyone to keep working on dismantling all form of ignorance, prejudice and intolerance until a safer society is achieved.
Omar Van Reenen of Equal Namibia also urged young people to protect the rights of the LGBTQ and intersex community.
“Queer youth are the key to emancipation across Africa. We are the epitome of what a born-free Africa looks and feels like,” said Van Reenen. “Until liberation rings, it is African queer youth who will carry the baton to a more equal Africa. By 2030, African youth will be 42 percent of global youth. We are tomorrow’s stewards of democracy and protectorates of constitutionalism. We are queerly African and proud. We are queer and we are here.”
Jessica Stern, the special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad, and U.S. Agency for International Development Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam and USAID LGBTQI+ Inclusive Development Advisor Ryan Kaminski are among those who also attended the conference.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on May 29 signed his Anti-Homosexuality Act, which contains a death penalty provision for “aggravated homosexuality.”
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday announced his office in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, will close after the government did not “renew the Host Country Agreement.” Türk said an office in the city of Gulu shut down on June 30 and offices in Kampala and the town of Moroto will close on Saturday.
“Türk warned against retrogression from Uganda’s commitments under the international human rights treaties it has ratified, including in the passage of the deeply discriminatory and harmful anti-homosexuality law, that is already having a negative impact on Ugandans,” said the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights press release.
Egypt
Egyptian authorities refuse to allow gay cruise to dock in country
Scarlet Lady earlier this week blocked from visiting Turkey
Egyptian authorities have refused to allow a gay cruise to dock in the country.
The Scarlet Lady, a Virgin Voyages ship that Atlantis Events chartered, was to have docked in Alexandria, a port city on the Mediterranean Sea. The Washington Blade obtained a letter that Atlantis Events President Rich Campbell sent to passengers on Thursday, hours before the cruise was to have arrived.
“Early this morning, we were informed that Scarlet Lady has been denied entry into Egyptian waters and, as a result, will no longer be able to call in Alexandria today,” he wrote.
“I know how much this visit meant to so many of you,” added Campbell. “We successfully sailed a similar itinerary last year, so we were surprised by this unfortunate decision.”
Campbell noted “both the Atlantis and Virgin Voyages teams worked tirelessly to make this call in Alexandria a possibility.”
“This news came as a surprise to all of us, and we’re just as disappointed as you are,” he said.
The 10-day cruise left Athens on July 5. It is scheduled to end in Trieste, Italy, on July 15.
The ship had been scheduled to dock in Kusadasi, a Turkish resort town on the Aegean Sea, and Istanbul earlier this week. Turkish authorities refused to allow it in the country.
Former Tempe, Ariz., Mayor Neil Giuliano, who is an LGBTQ+ Victory Institute board member, is among those on the cruise.
“Just a few hours before arriving in Alexandria, Egypt — a city founded by and named for one of the ancient world’s best-known homosexuals — government authorities rescinded permission for our ship of 2,000 gay men to enter Egypt,” wrote Steve May, who is also on the ship, on Thursday in a Facebook post.
Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331 B.C.
“As with Turkey, we have been sent away not because of what we did, but because of who we said we are,” said May. “‘I am what I am’ is too much liberty for some to bear. So it was in the United States as well not long ago, where even I ended up as a convicted homosexual after a military trial in 2001 for saying ‘I am gay.’ This is just a reminder that for all the progress we have made, our freedom is never secure — for any of us, regardless of who or how we love. Back to Europe!”
Discrimination and persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity is commonplace in Egypt. The Egyptian Football Association, along with the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran, objected to playing in the World Cup’s “Pride Match” that took place in Seattle on June 26.
Iran and Egypt on Friday faced off during the World Cup’s “Pride Match” in Seattle.
Iran is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death. Discrimination and persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity is commonplace in Egypt.
Friday’s match coincided with Pride weekend in Seattle. The Egyptian Football Association and the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran both objected to playing in the “Pride Match.”
Egypt and Iran tied 1-1.
FIFA, for its part, allowed Pride flags inside the stadium during the match.
“The FIFA World Cup 2026 is an inclusive event that welcomes people from all backgrounds,” a FIFA spokesperson told the Washington Blade in a statement. “Fans of all sexual orientations and gender identities are welcome at matches and events. General statements of human rights, including rainbow flags and other flags representing sexual orientation and gender identity, are permitted under the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Stadium Code of Conduct and may be displayed inside stadiums provided they are used in a manner consistent with the code.”
Human Rights Watch welcomed FIFA’s decision to allow Pride flags inside the stadium. Outright International, a global LGBTQ and intersex rights group, distributed Pride flags in Seattle on Friday, which was Pride Match Day.
“Visibility matters,” said Outright International Executive Director Maria Sjödin. “Pride is now being celebrated in more than 100 countries, including this weekend in Seattle. For many LGBTIQ people, seeing a Pride flag in public is a reminder that they are not alone, and that their rights and dignity are recognized.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino earlier this year told Die Weltwoche, a Swiss magazine, that “there will be no ‘Pride Match’ at the (FIFA) World Cup.”
“There will be a FIFA World Cup match in Seattle, and on the same day, events organized by external organizations will be taking place in the city,” said Infantino. “But that has nothing to do with the match itself.”
Peter Tatchell, a long-time LGBTQ activist from the U.K. who is director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, was among those who traveled to Seattle for Friday’s match. Tatchell accused FIFA of not vetting World Cup teams — specifically Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, Senegal, Qatar, Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, Uzbekistan, and Algeria — over whether they would allow gay players.
“FIFA is protecting LGBT+ visibility in the stands while failing to protect LGBT+ players on the pitch,” said Tatchell.
South Africa
White House to end PEPFAR funding for South Africa
State Department says country failed to respond to 2025 executive order demands
The Trump-Vance administration will end PEPFAR funding for South Africa.
A State Department spokesperson on Wednesday told the Washington Blade the State Department “will begin a phased drawdown of PEPFAR programming in South Africa, with most programs ending by Sept. 30, 2026, and critical personnel support continuing through March 31, 2027.”
Semafor last week reported South Africa has received more than $8 billion in PEPFAR funding since President George W. Bush created the program to combat the global HIV/AIDS pandemic in 2003.
President Donald Trump on Feb. 7, 2025, issued an executive order that addressed what it described as “egregious actions of the Republic of South Africa.” The State Department spokesperson with whom the Blade spoke noted the directive included five specific requests:
• South African government provides exemptions or alternatives for U.S. companies to Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment laws and other race-based mandates.
• Senior government officials (e.g., president, deputy president, or minister of justice) unequivocally condemn all race-based incitement to violence, including the “Kill the Boer” song, more frequently.
• The South African government prevents the implementation of measures that would allow expropriation without fair compensation and due process under the Expropriation Act of 2024.
• South African Police Service designates rural crime a “priority crime” and increases resources dedicated to high-crime rural areas.
• South Africa refrains from actions that would significantly interfere with the implementation of the refugee program, within the confines of South African law.
“The United States communicated to the government of the Republic of South Africa multiple times at many levels that PEPFAR funding was likely to be terminated in the absence of progress on the five asks,” said the State Department spokesperson.
The State Department spokesperson further noted South Africa is “one of the largest economies in sub-Saharan Africa” and “has funded the vast majority of its own HIV response, estimated at 76 percent of the total, including procurement of all treatment commodities.”
“South Africa will continue to be supported by the Global Fund, including for the introduction and scale up of lenacapavir through Global Fund Resources,” the spokesperson told the Blade.
Lenacapavir is groundbreaking HIV prevention drug that users inject twice a year. Eswatini, which borders South Africa, is among the African countries that have received doses of the drug through PEPFAR.
HIV/AIDS service organizations in the U.S. and around the world have sharply criticized the Trump-Vance administration over plans to not fully fund PEPFAR and to cut domestic HIV/AIDS funding.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio shortly after the current White House took office issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during a freeze on nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending. HIV/AIDS service providers around the world with whom the Blade has spoken say PEPFAR cuts and the loss of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which officially closed on July 1, 2025, has severely impacted their work.
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