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Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Europe and Asia
United Nations Human Rights Committee raised concerns over LGBTQ rights in US
United Nations
In its review of the U.S.’ record on civil and political rights released earlier this month, the United Nations Human Rights Committee condemned a flood of discriminatory state legislation restricting the human rights of LGBTQ
The committee’s summary was first reported on by Human Rights Watch.
“The United States ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1992. Every four years, the HRC reviews laws and policies in countries that have ratified the treaty to evaluate where they are in compliance with the treaty and where they fall short. The review of the US was postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic, making this the first review of the US in nine years.
Among the worrying U.S. laws are those restricting access to gender-affirming care and prohibiting transgender children from participating in school sports or using bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. Also concerning are laws banning books as well as prohibiting classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity, LGBT people and their families in schools.
In its concluding observations, the committee expressed concern about laws limiting transgender people’s access to healthcare, athletics and public accommodations, and restricting discussions of race, slavery, sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. It underscored the prevalence of discrimination against LGBT people in the U.S., including in housing, employment, correctional facilities and other domains.
The committee also condemned derogatory speech aimed at LGBT people, including from public officials, and violence against LGBT people and members of other minority groups.”
Russia
TNT Music, which is owned by parent company Fonbet, the largest sports betting company operating in Russia and Kazakhstan, altered a video of the South Korean K-Pop boy band Seventeen’s hit song “God of Music” that showed a rainbow.
TNT Music transformed the rainbow featured in the original video into a gray cloud.
According to the English-language Russian news outlet the Moscow Times, TNT Music appears to have erred on the side of caution after a Moscow court fined its owner Fonbet TV 1 million rubles ($10,800) in July for violating the country’s draconian “LGBT propaganda law” when it aired Finnish singer Alma’s music video for the song “Summer Really Hurt Us.”
In a March 2019 article in British publication Gay Times, Alma confirmed she is a lesbian and in a relationship with Finnish poet and human rights activist Natalia Kallio.
The channel faces another fine of up to 16 million rubles ($174,000) on four administrative charges of spreading “LGBT propaganda” among minors, according to Russian state media.
The Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, abbreviated as Roskomnadzor, has been directed to ban any websites that contain information about LGBTQ identities or anything that could be construed as promoting LGBTQ related materials.
According to the Moscow Times, there was fear that the rainbow and an all-boy band would provoke Roskomnadzor into fining TNT again.
Latvia
In a Nov. 9 vote, Parliament voted to allow same-sex couples to establish civil unions-partnerships, which gives same-sex couples in this Baltic state legal recognition, but fewer rights than married couples.
The country’s Prime Minister, Evika Siliņa, issued a statement applauding the actions by lawmakers.
“This is a good day. Society has taken an important step in creating a modern and humane Latvia. With the Saeima supporting the introduction of registered partnerships, the state has fulfilled its legal obligations and given a clear signal that all families are important. Thanks for the intelligent vote!” the prime minister said.
The action by Latvia’s Parliament comes five months after lawmakers in Estonia approved a law that extended marriage rights to same-sex couples in that Baltic nation. However, while the new law allows hospital visiting rights, as well as some tax and social security benefits, the law falls short in other critical areas say LGBTQ rights activists.
Speaking with Reuters, Kaspars Zalitis, a gay rights activist, noted same-sex couples would still not be able to adopt children and would continue to face inheritance issues.
“This is a great beginning … Latvia is not one of the six countries in the European Union that have no recognition for same-sex couples,” he said.
European Union
A new global call for civil society organizations projects with a projected total budget of 36 million euros ($38.47 million) under a expanded program on Human Rights and Democracy (part of NDICI/Neighborhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe) was announced on Nov. 7.
The present Global Call for Proposals targets:
- “Fair, Accountable and Inclusive Trade and Business – Flagship Action on Business and Human Rights, Forced and Child Labour and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights;”
- Global, regional or multi-country projects targeting high-risk sectors, value or supply chains that will contribute to the accompanying measures of the upcoming Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence Directive and Forced Labor Regulation.
- CSOs will be better equipped to monitor, report, access remedies, partner with the private sector and/or social partners and advocate for the implementation of relevant EU and international human rights principles and legislations. Projects financed will contribute to the sustainable implementation of the Global Gateway Strategy by reinforcing relevant social and environmental standards.
- “Global actions on human dignity, non-discrimination and inclusion;”
- Projects will promote equality, inclusion and respect for LGBTQ+ persons at global, regional or national level and more specifically in Sub-Saharan countries where consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults in private are criminalised. Priorities will include advocacy for anti-discrimination laws, support to social inclusion and empowerment of CSOs working on LGBTIQ rights.
- Promote Freedom of Religion or Belief, and prevent and combat discrimination, intolerance and violence on grounds of religion or belief through regional projects. Under this lot, intersectionality between freedom of religion or belief and gender issues is encouraged.
Projects will be global, multi-country or regional. The lead applicants should be international organizations given the size of the grants and geographic scope, with at least one local co-applicant and mandatory financial support to local organizations.
France
Attorneys representing Groupe des familles LGBT filed a criminal complaint against Seattle-based Amazon Prime for replay of the Sept. 24 soccer match between teams Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille, where homophobic chants were clearly audible.
According to the French English-language news outlet Le Monde, During the match between the bitter rivals, thousands of Paris Saint-Germain supporters chanted homophobic slogans referring to their opponents. An Agence France-Presse reporter covering the game said the chanting in PSG’s Parc des Princes stadium went on for around 10 minutes.
Four PSG players, including Randal Kolo Muani and Ousmane Dembélé, were given suspended one-match bans for also chanting insults directed at the Marseille players while celebrating their 4-0 thrashing of their opponents.
In the legal complaint filed, Groupe des familles LGBT noted that under the French criminal code, that while broadcasters are not responsible for offensive content that may occur during a live match they are liable for content offered on replay.
The complaint says that during the replay, “you can hear several chants from fans coming from the stands, some of which are distinctly homophobic in nature.” Two other LGBT rights groups, Mousse and Stop Homophobie, have said they will also join the complaint against Amazon for public insults and incitement to hatred or violence against people based on their sexual orientation.
An Amazon spokesperson told AFP the match was no longer available on Prime Video at the time the complaint was announced and that, as a broadcaster, it did not condone the comments or behavior of certain fans.
“Homophobia has no place in sport or in society, and we condemn it, like all forms of discrimination, in the strongest possible terms,” the spokesperson said.
Poland
In March 2019, local elected officials of the Polish conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party passed a regional government resolution backed by Radosław Brzózka, who led a vocal and vitriolic anti-LGBTQ campaign. Brzózka, is now chief of staff to Education Minister Przemysław Czarnek, who labeled LGBTQ people, “deviants who do not have the same rights as normal people.”
Earlier this month after the threat of pulling 3.6 million Polish zloty ($867,955) in funding by the European Union the local council rescinded the 2019 resolution.
According to the Polish investigative journalism media outlet OKO.press, in Świdnik, Jakub Osina, a local elected official announced that the resolution has now been repealed and replaced with one that makes no mention of LGBTQ issues but pledges to protect “the moral development of the young generation and the institution of the family based on Christian values.”
In September 2021, the executive branch of the EU, the European Commission, sent letters out to the governors of five of Poland’s provinces warning that pandemic relief funds totaling over 126 million euros ($150 million) will be withheld over anti-LGBTQ measures passed in their jurisdictions.
Poland has seen a resurgence in the past three years of rightwing religious ultra-conservative groups backed by nationalistic extremists in this heavily Catholic country of 38 million, which have led to passage of measures to restrict pride parades and other LGBTQ-friendly events from taking place.
Proponents of these measures claim the necessity of the provinces to be “free of LGBTQ ideology” saying this is mandated by average Poles as well as by the anti-LGBTQ views of the Catholic Church.
ILGA-Europe, a Brussels based advocacy group promoting the interests of LGBTQ and intersex people, at the European level, in a statement it sent to the Washington Blade in June 2021 after the EU letter was issued, noted that both Hungary and Poland, another EU country in which lawmakers have sought to restrict LGBTQ rights in recent years are at odds with the EU position on LGBTQ people.
“For quite some time now, we’ve been informing EU ministers about systematic breaches of EU law committed by Hungary and Poland, which impact on LGBTI rights and the lives of LGBTI people,” says ILGA-Europe.
The threat of losing funds led many Polish local authorities to begin repealing the resolutions local non-profit Polish news outlet Notes from Poland reported.
Indonesia
Roughly a hundred conservative Muslims took to the streets of the Indonesian capital city protesting the upcoming concert by British rock band Coldplay on Tuesday at Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno stadium.
The protestors are angered by the group’s support of the LGBTQ community. Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin has been known to wear rainbow colors and wave gay Pride flags during performances.
The Asian leg of Coldplay’s “Music Of The Spheres World Tour” has been a sell out in every major city on the tour. The AP reported that more than 70,000 tickets were scooped up in less than two hours when sales opened in May as Jakarta is one of the band’s top streaming hubs with 1.6 million fans in the city.
The Associated Press reported that demonstration was organized by Islamist group the 212 Brotherhood Alumni, whose name refers to the Dec. 2, 2016, mass protests against the polarizing Christian politician Basuki Tjahaja Purnama. The crowd chanted “God is Great” and “We reject Coldplay” as they marched to the heavily guarded British Embassy in Jakarta.
“We are here for the sake of guarding our young generation in this country from efforts that could corrupt youth,” Hery Susanto, a protester from West Java’s city of Bandung told Associated Press journalist Fadlan Syam. “As Indonesian Muslims, we have to reject the Coldplay concert.”
Novel Bamukmin, a protest coordinator, gave a speech criticizing the government for allowing the band to hold a concert in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country. He said if the concert was not canceled, thousands of protesters would confront the band on its way from the airport.
“Coldplay has long been a strong supporter of LGBT and its lead singer is an atheist,” Bamukmin said, standing on the top of a truck, “We must reject their campaign, their concert here.”
Security concerns in this deeply conservative nation have previously caused other Western musical artists who support the LGBTQ community to cancel their scheduled shows.
Lady Gaga canceled her sold-out show in Indonesia in 2012 over security concerns after Muslim hard-liners threatened violence if the pop star went ahead with her “Born This Way Ball” concert.
Additional reporting by Human Rights Watch, the Moscow Times, Agence France-Presse, Le Monde, Reuters, OKO.press, the Associated Press, and the BBC.
Cuba
Cuba bajo presión y sin respuestas
Cubanos no hablan en términos geopolíticos. Hablan de sobrevivir
Las tensiones entre Estados Unidos y Cuba han vuelto a subir de tono. No es algo nuevo, pero este momento se siente distinto. Las medidas más recientes desde Washington buscan cerrar aún más los espacios financieros del gobierno cubano, limitar sus fuentes de ingreso y presionar sectores clave de la economía. No es simbólico. Es una política directa.
Desde Estados Unidos, el mensaje es claro. Se busca provocar cambios que no han ocurrido en más de seis décadas. También hay un componente interno, una presión política que responde a sectores del exilio que llevan años exigiendo una postura más dura. Todo eso forma parte del escenario.
Pero esa es solo una parte.
Del lado cubano, la respuesta sigue un patrón conocido. El gobierno habla de agresión externa, de guerra económica, de un embargo que se endurece. Cada medida se convierte en argumento para reforzar su narrativa y cerrar filas. No hay espacio para reconocer errores propios. Todo apunta hacia afuera.
Mientras tanto, la vida en la isla va por otro camino.
La crisis energética que hoy vive Cuba no empezó con estas medidas. Lleva años acumulándose. El sistema eléctrico está deteriorado, sin mantenimiento suficiente, con fallas constantes. Los apagones no son nuevos. Lo que ha cambiado es la frecuencia y la duración.
Durante años entró petróleo a Cuba, especialmente desde Venezuela. Hubo acuerdos. Hubo suministro. Y aun así, la vida del cubano no mejoró. La electricidad seguía fallando, el combustible seguía racionado, el transporte seguía siendo un problema diario.
Entonces la pregunta sigue siendo la misma.
Si el petróleo estaba entrando, ¿por qué nada cambiaba?
¿Dónde fue a parar ese recurso?
¿Dónde está el dinero que generó?
Hoy se habla de restricciones al petróleo como si fueran la causa principal de la crisis. No lo son. Empeoran una situación ya frágil, pero no la explican completamente.
Hay una historia más larga que no se puede ignorar.
Lo mismo ocurre con las brigadas médicas.
Durante años se presentaron como un gesto de solidaridad internacional. Y en muchos casos lo fueron. Médicos cubanos trabajaron en condiciones difíciles, salvaron vidas, sostuvieron sistemas de salud en otros países. Eso es real.
Pero también funcionaron como una de las principales fuentes de ingreso del Estado cubano.
Muchos de esos profesionales no recibían el salario completo por su trabajo. Una parte significativa quedaba en manos del gobierno. En algunos casos, ni siquiera tenían control sobre el dinero que generaban.
Y hay algo más duro.
Si uno de esos médicos decidía no regresar a Cuba, ese dinero no llegaba a su familia. Se quedaba retenido.
Hoy varios países están revisando o cancelando esos acuerdos. Y otra vez, la respuesta oficial es señalar hacia afuera. Pero la pregunta sigue siendo inevitable.
¿Se está perdiendo un modelo de cooperación o un sistema que dependía del control sobre sus propios profesionales?
Dentro de Cuba, la conversación suena diferente.
La gente no habla en términos geopolíticos. Habla de sobrevivir. De cómo llegar al final del día. De los apagones, de la comida que no alcanza, del transporte que no aparece, de una vida que cada vez se hace más difícil.
Hay quienes miran las medidas de Estados Unidos con cierta expectativa. No porque quieran más escasez, sino porque sienten que el sistema no cambia por sí solo. Hay una sensación de estancamiento que pesa.
Pero esa expectativa convive con una realidad concreta.
Las sanciones no golpean primero a quienes toman decisiones. Golpean al ciudadano común. Al que hace la fila. Al que pierde la comida por falta de electricidad. Al que no tiene cómo moverse.
Esa es la contradicción.
El gobierno cubano pide solidaridad internacional. Y la recibe. Países que envían ayuda, organizaciones que se movilizan, voces que defienden a la isla.
Pero hay otra pregunta que también está ahí.
¿Esa ayuda llega realmente al pueblo?
La falta de transparencia en la distribución de recursos es parte del problema. Porque no se trata solo de lo que entra, sino de lo que realmente llega a quienes lo necesitan.
Reducir lo que pasa en Cuba a un conflicto entre dos gobiernos es no querer ver el cuadro completo.
Aquí hay responsabilidades compartidas, pero no iguales.
Estados Unidos ejerce presión con efectos reales sobre la economía cubana. Eso no se puede negar. Pero dentro de la isla hay un sistema que ha tenido décadas para corregir, para abrir, para responder a su gente, y no lo ha hecho.
Esa parte no se puede seguir esquivando.
Yo escribo esto como cubano. Desde lo que vi, desde lo que viví y desde la gente que sigue allá tratando de resolver el día.
Porque al final, más allá de lo que se diga entre gobiernos, la realidad es otra.
Cuba hoy está más apretada, sí. Pero también lleva años arrastrando problemas que nadie ha querido enfrentar de verdad.
Y mientras eso siga así, da igual lo que venga de afuera. El problema sigue estando adentro.
Iran
LGBTQ groups condemn Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilization
Ceasefire announced less than two hours before Tuesday deadline
The Council for Global Equality is among the groups that condemned President Donald Trump on Tuesday over his latest threats against Iran.
Trump in a Truth Social post said “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Tehran did not reach an agreement with the U.S. by 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Iran is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death.
Israel and the U.S. on Feb. 28 launched airstrikes against Iran.
One of them killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran in response launched missiles and drones against Israel and other countries that include Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, and Cyprus.
Gas prices in the U.S. and around the world continue to increase because the war has essentially closed the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway that connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s crude oil passes.
Trump less than 90 minutes before his deadline announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran that Pakistan helped broker.
“We the undersigned human rights, humanitarian, civil liberties, faith-based and environmental organizations, think tanks and experts are deeply alarmed by President Trump’s threat regarding Iran that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight’ if his demands are not met. Such language describes a grave atrocity if carried out,” reads the statement that the Council for Global Equality more than 200 other organizations and human rights experts signed. “A threat to wipe out ‘a whole civilization’ may amount to a threat of genocide. Genocide is a crime defined by the Genocide Convention and by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as committing one or more of several acts ‘with intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, racial or religious groups as such.'”
The statement states “the law is clear that civilians must not be targeted, and they must also be protected from indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks.”
“Strikes on civilian infrastructure — such as the recent attack on a bridge and the attacks President Trump is repeatedly threatening to carry out to destroy power plants — have devastating consequences for the civilian population and environment,” it reads.
“We urge all parties to respect international law,” adds the statement. “Those responsible for atrocities, including crimes against humanity and war crimes, can and must be held accountable.”
The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice, Amnesty International USA, Human Rights Watch, the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP, MADRE, and the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center are among the other groups that signed the letter.
Hungary
Vance speaks at Orbán rally in Hungary
Anti-LGBTQ prime minister trailing ahead of April 12 vote
Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday urged Hungarians to support Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the country’s April 12 elections.
“We have got to get Viktor Orbán re-elected as prime minister of Hungary,” Vance told Orbán supporters who gathered at Budapest’s MTK Sportpark.
Vance and Orbán on Tuesday met before they held a press conference in Budapest. Orbán also spoke at the rally.
The U.S. vice president after he took to the stage called President Donald Trump, who told the crowd he is “a big fan of Viktor” and is “with him all the way.” Vance, as he did during Tuesday’s press conference with Orbán, criticized the European Union.
“We want you to make a decision about your future with no outside forces pressuring you or telling you what to do. I’m not telling you exactly who to vote for, but what I am telling you is that the bureaucrats in Brussels, those people should not be listened to,” said Vance. “Listen to your hearts, listen to your souls, and listen to the sovereignty of the Hungarian people.”
Vance in his speech noted “across the West, we’ve got a small band of radicals” who, among other things, “condemn children to mutilization and sterilization in the name of gender care.” Vance also criticized a “far-left ideology given quarter in university circles, in the media, and in our entertainment industry, and increasingly among bureaucrats on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Vice President JD Vance speaks at MTK Sportpark in Budapest, Hungary, on April 7, 2026
Orbán has been in office since 2010. He and his Fidesz-KDNP coalition government have faced widespread criticism over its anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
A Hungarian activist with whom the Washington Blade previously spoke said it is “impossible to change your gender legally in Hungary” because of a 2020 law that “banned legal gender recognition of transgender and intersex people.” Hungarian MPs the same year effectively prohibited same-sex couples from adopting children and defined marriage in the country’s constitution as between a man and a woman.
The European Commission in 2022 sued Hungary, which is a member of the EU, over the country’s anti-LGBTQ propaganda law.
Hungarian lawmakers in March 2025 passed a bill that banned Pride events and allowed authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify those who participate in them. MPs later amended the Hungarian constitution to ban public LGBTQ events.
Upwards of 100,000 people last June defied the ban and marched in Budapest’s annual Pride parade.
Polls indicate Orbán is trailing Péter Magyar and his center-right Tisza party ahead of the April 12 election. Vance at Tuesday’s rally told Orbán supporters that he and Trump “want you to make a decision about your future with no outside forces pressuring you or telling you what to do.”
“I’m not telling you exactly who to vote for, but what I am telling you is that the bureaucrats in Brussels, those people should not be listened to,” said Vance. “Listen to your hearts, listen to your souls, and listen to the sovereignty of the Hungarian people.”
“Unlike some of the leadership of Brussels, I’m not threatening you or telling you that we’re going to withhold funds to which you’re legally entitled,” he added. “You will make the decision about Hungary’s future.”
Magyar on Tuesday appeared to dismiss Vance’s comments.
“No foreign country may interfere in Hungarian elections. This is our country. Hungarian history is not written in Washington, Moscow, or Brussels — it is written in Hungary’s streets and squares,” said Magyar on his X account.
A spokesperson for the Háttér Society, a Hungarian LGBTQ rights group, told the Blade that neither Magyar, nor his party have reached out to the organization.
The spokesperson said the group does not “campaign directly for them or for any other political party.” The Háttér Society, however, is encouraging LGBTQ Hungarians to vote.
“Ahead of election day, we will encourage everyone on our social media channels to go out and vote, as this is the only way we can act against a system that has been working against the LGBTQI community for many years,” said the spokesperson.
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