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Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Europe and Asia
Irish State Minister Jack Chambers has come out as gay
IRELAND
In an Instagram post on Sunday, Irish State Minister Jack Chambers, who is a member of the lower house of the Irish Parliament for Dublin West, the Teachta Dála, came out as gay.
Chambers wrote: “Here’s a look back at some of 2023. As I look forward to 2024 I am sharing with you something a little different but it’s something I wanted to do for a while.
As a politician it can sometimes be difficult to speak about my own personal life and that can lead to things drifting. However, It’s important for me to be true to myself firstly — and to you all in my public service role. I am starting 2024 by telling you all that I am proud to say that I am gay. 🏳️🌈
As a politician and citizen I want to share this today as part of who I am. Having shared it with many of my close family and friends, their support and love has given me the confidence and courage to share this publicly today.
I am fortunate that Ireland is a country that has made so many strides in recent years, — becoming a much more inclusive and equal society to the extent that the sharing of this information is becoming increasingly unremarkable.
I’m looking forward to a busy, productive and hard working year ahead as a TD for Dublin West along with my ministerial responsibilities and helping colleagues across the country as Fianna Fáil’s Director of Local Elections 2024.”
Reaction to the minister’s announcement was overwhelmingly positive including from his fellow Teachta Dála lawmaker, John Lahart, who wrote: “Proud of you Jack — the best colleague one could hope for. Always there for you whenever you need it. You’ve an amazing future ahead of you.”
SERBIA
In another of an ongoing series of attacks on the LGBTQ Pride Info Center in the Serbian capital city of Belgrade, an unknown suspect described only as a masked male, during the afternoon of on January 7, 2024, threw a series of objects at the glass front windows of the center shattering them completely.
In a press release, Goran Miletić, director of Europe and MENA Department at Civil Rights Defenders, stated that this is the 19th attack on Pride Info Center since its establishment in August 2017, and none of the previous attacks has been thoroughly investigated, nor have any of the perpetrators been prosecuted to date.
“We can’t ignore the ongoing danger and vulnerability the community faces. It’s crucial to act now and work together to guarantee the safety and well-being of everyone,” Miletić said.
Miletić went on to express solidarity with the Pride Info Center.
“Civil Rights Defenders has been supporting Pride Info Center since its opening. The center aims to raise awareness about the community, addressing its issues and challenges while also serving as an information point for Belgrade Pride and the broader LGBTQ+ movement. Additionally, it functions as a social and creativity hub, hosting exhibitions, performances, movie screenings, debates and discussions organized by various LGBTQ+ organizations.
We express solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community in the country in demanding justice and equal rights. Together, we strive for a world where love triumphs over hate. The attack is reprehensible because it undermines the very essence of inclusivity and acceptance and is a stark contradiction to the principles of understanding, respect, and unity. It is a call to action for us to stand together, unwavering in our commitment to create a society where diversity is celebrated and everyone can live free from fear.
We strongly condemn the attack and call on the Serbian authorities to thoroughly investigate the case and ensure accountability for those responsible.”
Nearly two years ago on Feb. 18, 2022, another individual had gained access to the center breaking furniture and other things and he threatened the staff. The man was escorted out by security guards and was arrested by a police patrol.
GREECE
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a Jan. 10 interview with state broadcaster ERT announced that his government intended to implement further LGBTQ rights.
The prime minister told ERT that a bill he had pledged in July 2023 to legalize same-sex marriages will be moving forward in the next few months.
“I, and all those who believe in this legislation, must convince our parliamentarians and subsequently those who may still have a negative stance,” Mitsotakis said. “What we are going to legislate is equality in marriage, which means the elimination of any discrimination based on sexual orientation. It is not something radically different from what applies in other European countries.”
Greece’s left-wing opposition leader, Stefanos Kasselakis, who married his longtime male partner Tyler Mcbeth in New York in October 2023, several weeks after winning a party leadership election, told reporters in a press conference last November that legislation legalizing same-sex marriage will be brought to the Greek Parliament before its current term expires in 2027.
The prime minister faces steep opposition from right-wing conservatives and the powerful Greek Orthodox Church. Opinion polls indicate that Greeks are evenly divided on the issue of same-sex marriage but generally oppose granting full parental rights to gay couples.
Mitsotakis stated that his proposed law would not extend to allowing same-sex couples to adopt children via surrogacy, saying: “We won’t change the law on assisted parenthood. The idea of women who are turned into child-producing machines on demand … That is not going to happen.”
It would, however, protect existing children of same-sex parents, including adopted children or those born to surrogacy abroad.
The legal clarification would mean that should one of the parents die, the other will be given parental rights.
A member of the church’s governing body, the Holy Synod, the Metropolitan of Piraeus, Seraphim, has threatened to excommunicate lawmakers if they voted in favor of legalizing same-sex unions, and has called homosexuality “an abuse of the body” and a “great sin.”
“The position of the Church of Greece remains that children have an innate need and therefore a right to grow up with a male father and a female mother. No amount of social modernization and no amount of political correctness can bypass (this),” the church said.
POLAND
A Polish nationwide daily economic and legal newspaper confirmed with a Warsaw District Court this week that two pardons issued before Christmas by President Andrzej Duda were given to two anchors of state television who were found guilty by the court of criminal defamation against a prominent activist for abortion and LGBTQ rights.
Magdalena Ogórek and Rafał Ziemkiewicz were given pardons in a case against the pair dating back to 2019. They were accused of defaming Elżbieta Podleśna, a licensed psychotherapist and civil rights activist who was a leading person in the Polish Women’s Strike protests in 2017 and 2018.
English language Polish media outlet Notes from Poland reported that in one episode of the news show W tyle wizji on TVP, the state broadcaster, the pair spoke about Podleśna, an activist best known for being put on trial for the crime of “offending religious feelings” by adding LGBTQ rainbow colors to an image of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.
During their show, Ogórek and Ziemkiewicz suggested that Podleśna, who is a practicing psychologist, used her “quasi-medical skills” to “manipulate” her “brainwashed” patients into attending protests.
In response, Podleśna launched action against the TV presenters using Poland’s criminal defamation law Notes from Poland reported. The pair were found guilty in December 2022, with an appeal against the conviction rejected in May 2023. As a punishment, Ogórek and Ziemkiewicz were ordered to pay Podleśna 10,000 zloty ($2,506.06) each.
TVP was heavily aligned with the anti-LGBTQ Law and Justice (PiS) government which suffered a major defeat this past fall. Duda’s office told Polish media that he had made the decision to pardon the pair based on “the principles of justice and rationality of criminal repression, as well as the incidental nature of the acts of the convicted persons.”
Notes from Poland noted that Duda was an ally of the former PiS government and approved a large increase in state funds for TVP, which subsequently supported the president during his successful 2020 re-election campaign.
Human Rights Watch issues World Report 2024
Editor’s note: The following article was provided by Human Rights Watch, an international NGO headquartered in New York that conducts research and advocacy on human rights.
Global leaders have failed to take strong stands to protect human rights during 2023, a year of some of the worst crises and challenges in recent memory, with deadly consequences, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2024. Governments should stop engaging in transactional diplomacy and do their utmost to uphold universal human rights principles.
Renewed armed conflict between the Israeli government and Hamas caused tremendous suffering, as did conflicts in Ukraine, Myanmar, Ethiopia and the Sahel. The year 2023 was the hottest since global records began in 1880 and the onslaught of wildfires, drought and storms wreaked havoc on communities from Bangladesh to Libya to Canada. Economic inequality rose around the world, as did anger about the policy decisions that have left so many people struggling to survive.
“The international system that we rely on to protect human rights is under threat as world leaders look the other way when universal principles of human rights are violated,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch. “Every time a country overlooks these universal and globally accepted principles, someone pays a price and that price is sometimes peoples’ lives.”
In the 740-page World Report 2024, its 34th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In her introductory essay, Executive Director Tirana Hassan says that 2023 was a consequential year not only for human rights suppression and wartime atrocities but also for selective government outrage and transactional diplomacy that carried profound costs for the rights of those not in on the deal. But she says there were also signs of hope, showing the possibility of a different path, and calls on governments to consistently uphold their human rights obligations.
Governments’ double standards in applying the human rights framework not only put countless lives at risk, but they chip away at trust in the institutions responsible for enforcing and protecting rights, Human Rights Watch said. When governments are vocal in condemning the Israeli government’s war crimes against civilians in Gaza but silent when it comes to Chinese government crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, or demand international prosecution for Russian war crimes in Ukraine while undermining accountability for U.S. abuses in Afghanistan, they weaken the belief in the universality of human rights and the legitimacy of the laws designed to protect them.
Governments have found it easier to disregard human rights issues in the international arena in part because their violations of human rights at home have gone unchallenged by the international community, Human Rights Watch said.
The human rights and humanitarian crises have led many to question the effectiveness of the human rights framework, when abusive governments are able to benefit from the lukewarm endorsement of a rights approach by more democratic and rights-respecting governments, Human Rights Watch said. Civil society organizations, grassroots movements and human rights defenders can help to re-establish the human rights framework as the roadmap to building thriving, inclusive societies.
Many governments that condemned Hamas’ war crimes have been reserved in responding to those by the Israeli government. The unwillingness to call out Israeli government abuses follows from the United States and most European Union member countries’ refusal to urge an end to the Israeli government’s 16-year closure of Gaza.
Tradeoffs on human rights in the name of politics are clear when many governments fail to speak out about the Chinese government’s intensifying repression. Chinese authorities’ cultural persecution and arbitrary detention of a million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims amount to crimes against humanity, yet many governments, including in predominantly Muslim countries, stay silent.
In Sudan, which descended into armed conflict in April 2023 when the two most powerful Sudanese generals began battling each other for power, the U.N. has failed to stop massive abuses against civilians, most notably in the Darfur region. The U.N. Security Council closed its political mission in Sudan at the insistence of the Sudanese government, ending what little remained of the U.N.’s in-country capacity to protect civilians and publicly report on the rights situation. It has also done nearly nothing to tackle the Sudanese government’s intransigence in cooperating with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In the U.S., President Joe Biden has shown little appetite to hold responsible human rights abusers who are key to his domestic agenda or those in China’s sphere of influence. US allies like Saudi Arabia, India and Egypt continue to violate the rights of their people on a massive scale.
The EU has circumvented its human rights obligations, pushing asylum seekers and migrants back to other countries or striking deals with abusive governments like Libya and Turkey to keep migrants out. Democratic governments in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, South Korea, and Australia consistently deprioritize human rights in the name of assuring military alliances and trade.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s democracy has slid toward autocracy, with authorities targeting minorities, tightening repression and dismantling independent institutions.
In Tunisia, President Kais Saied has eliminated checks and balances. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has manipulated high levels of crime for a security crackdown to grab and consolidate power. In Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government ordered the arrest of over 10,000 opposition leaders and supporters ahead of the January 2024 election.
But just as these threats are interconnected, so too is the power of the human rights framework to protect people’s freedom and dignity.
In a milestone decision, in November, the International Court of Justice ordered the Syrian government to prevent torture and other abuses. The Japanese parliament passed its first law to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from “unfair discrimination.” In Mexico, a civil society coalition persuaded Congress to pass a law establishing full legal capacity, benefiting millions of people with disabilities and older people.
In March, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner for war crimes relating to the forcible transfer of children from occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia. Brazil’s Supreme Court upheld all Indigenous peoples’ rights to their traditional lands, one of the most effective barriers against deforestation in the Amazon.
And in November, the United Kingdom’s highest court unanimously found that Rwanda is not a safe third country for the government to send asylum seekers, striking down an agreement that effectively shifted the UK’s asylum responsibilities to Rwanda.
“Human rights crises around the world demonstrate the urgency of applying longstanding and mutually agreed principles of international human rights law everywhere,” Hassan said. “Principled diplomacy, by which governments center their human rights obligations in their relations with other countries, can influence oppressive conduct and have a meaningful impact for people whose rights are being violated.”
Additional reporting from Greek Public Broadcasting ERT, Notes from Poland, PinkNewsUK, Agence France-Presse, the BBC and Human Rights Watch.
Turkey
Activists protest outside Turkish Embassy in D.C.
Dozens detained during anti-LGBTQ ‘My Family Is Safe’ campaign raids
A group of activists on Friday gathered in front of the Turkish Embassy in D.C. to protest the country’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
The protest — which the Council for Global Equality, Amnesty International USA, Outright International, and Health GAP organized — took place less than a week after Turkish authorities detained dozens of people during raids that targeted the country’s LGBTQ community and advocacy groups and HIV/AIDS service organizations.
Authorities in Istanbul on Sept. 15 detained more than 150 people who gathered outside a courthouse to protest the raids that are part of the government’s “My Family Is Safe” campaign. Journalists are among those who were taken into custody.
“This crackdown is not making families safer,” said Amnesty International USA Executive Director Nadia Daar, speaking in front of the Turkish Embassy.
Council for Global Equality Managing Director Keifer Buckingham stressed that “homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey.” Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell and Outright International Senior Director of Law, Policy, and Research Neela Ghoshal also spoke.
View on Threads
Activists in Madrid and in other cities around the world held similar protests on Friday.
Turkey
More than 150 people detained outside Istanbul courthouse
Protesters gathered after raids targeted Turkey’s LGBTQ community
Turkish authorities on Tuesday detained more than 150 people who gathered outside an Istanbul courthouse to protest raids that targeted the country’s LGBTQ community.
CNN reported the protesters had planned to speak with reporters outside the city’s Caglayan courthouse, but authorities prevented them from doing so.
Turkish authorities over the weekend detained dozens of people in Istanbul and in other cities during raids that were part of the government’s “My Family is Safe” campaign.
A statement from a group of Turkish advocacy groups the Washington Blade received on Tuesday notes “at least 112 people have been detained in connection with the operations.” The organizations said 43 of those taken into custody are “LGBTI+ rights defenders,” and “at least” 62 of those detained “have been arrested, while judicial proceedings remain ongoing in Istanbul.”
“Among those arrested, at least 16 are LGBTI+ activists or individuals connected to LGBTI+ associations, including founders and members of association bodies,” reads the statement. “Per press statements by the prosecutor’s offices, dissolution cases will also be launched against associations.”
“The majority of those arrested are trans women who are charged with prostitution-related offences,” it adds. “While authorities have framed the operations as part of investigations into alleged crimes such as obscenity, prostitution and child exploitation, human rights defenders and civil society organizations have raised serious concerns regarding the use of criminal law mechanisms and public morality narratives to target legitimate LGBTI+ rights activities. Civil society views the ‘My Family is Safe’ narrative as a smokescreen to distract the public from deep economic crises and actual domestic violence, weaponizing moral panic to scapegoat LGBTI+ rights defenders, who have long been targeted by the government.”
The raids have sparked outrage among LGBTQ activists in Europe and elsewhere around the world.
The Congressional Equality Caucus and U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.) are among those who have publicly condemned them in the U.S. The Council for Global Equality on Friday is scheduled to hold a rally in support of Turkey’s LGBTQ community in front of the Turkish Embassy in Northwest D.C.
Indonesia
Indonesia’s top Muslim clerical body proposes criminalizing LGBTQ people, advocacy
Proposal underscores increased pressure against community
Indonesia’s top Muslim clerical body has proposed replacing the term “LGBT” with “LGSP,” grouping lesbian and gay people with sodomy and sexual abuse, as it prepares a proposed law that would criminalize conduct and advocacy it consideres prohibited.
Asrorun Niam Sholeh, head of the Indonesian Ulema Council’s Fatwa Commission, announced the proposal in Jakarta in late July, saying the council was preparing an academic paper and draft bill to submit to the government and MPs
The council in August also warned men against wearing women’s clothing during Independence Day festivities, despite a long-standing tradition in some Indonesian communities of men dressing in dresses and hijabs to play football as part of the annual celebrations. In a statement issued Aug. 7, the Fatwa Commission said such cross-dressing was “haram,” or forbidden under Islamic law, and linked the practice to what it described as a covert campaign by the “Lesbian, Gay, Sodomy and Obscenity (or LGSP) movement.
Indonesia on Aug. 17 marks its 1945 declaration of independence from the Netherlands with flag ceremonies, neighborhood gatherings, and a lively tradition of community competitions known as “lomba tujuhbelasan.” Children and adults take part in games ranging from sack races and cracker-eating contests to tug-of-war and “panjat pinang” — teams climb a greased pole to reach prizes at the top. Some communities also hold football matches in sarongs or “daster,” a loose-fitting house dress traditionally associated with women, turning the celebrations into an occasion for communal play and laughter.
The pressure extends beyond religious authorities.
In a report published in July, Human Rights Watch said attacks against LGBTQ university students had escalated during June’s Pride Month, while at least 10 public universities had recently adopted discriminatory regulations and curbed student media coverage and social media discussions about gender and sexual diversity. The rights group said the measures undermine freedom of expression and academic freedom.
Reacting to Pride Month celebrations, the Ulema Council called for “sexual deviation” to carry criminal penalties heavier than those for adultery and said it was preparing a draft law to criminalize LGBTQ conduct and campaigning.
President Prabowo Subianto in October 2025 signed Presidential Regulation No. 111 of 2025, which sets Indonesia’s General National Defense Policy for 2025–2029 and classifies the spread of LGBTQ culture as a non-military threat to the state. The provision places it among other perceived threats that include terrorism, radicalism, separatism, and the spread of prohibited ideologies.
The regulation drew public attention in July after Indonesian media reported on the provision, prompting Amnesty International Indonesia Executive Director Usman Hamid to warn that it could institutionalize discrimination against LGBTQ people.
“Amnesty International Indonesia unequivocally condemns these attacks and intimidation by both state and non-state actors based on perceived sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Amnesty International Indonesia. “We urgently call upon the Indonesian government to repeal this regulation and uphold its constitutional mandates and the international human rights treaties it has ratified.”
Indonesia on Jan. 2 began enforcing a new national criminal code, replacing the Dutch-era penal code that had governed the country for more than eight decades.
MPs had approved the 345-page code in December 2022 after years of debate and public protests over provisions concerning morality, religion, and individual rights. Among its new provisions is Article 411, which makes sexual intercourse outside marriage a criminal offense punishable by up to one year in prison.
Article 412 makes living together as husband and wife outside a legally recognized marriage punishable by up to six months in prison. The offenses can be prosecuted only after a complaint by a spouse, parent or child, but rights groups have warned that the provisions can disproportionately affect same-sex couples, whose relationships are not legally recognized in Indonesia.
Purba Widnyana, chairman of GAYa Nusantara, an Indonesian LGBTQ rights organization, told the Washington Blade that the situation for LGBTQ people in Indonesia has become increasingly worrying.
Widnyana told the Blade that the concern extends beyond increasing violence, pointing to stronger anti-LGBTQ sentiment in public spaces, on social media and within educational institutions, as well as in politics, including Presidential Regulation No. 111 of 2025.
“The impact is not always in the form of physical violence. Many LGBT+ people, especially trans women, that mostly work in entertainment or other informal jobs, beginning to lose job opportunities because they are considered to pose a ‘risk’ to the event organizers,” Widnyana said. “There are also concerns that the rising stigma and fear could deter people from accessing health services, including HIV test and STI, due to the fear that their identity or sexual orientation might be revealed.”
Widnyana said the changing environment has placed an additional burden on LGBTQ organizations; making spaces for gatherings, educational activities, and public information campaigns increasingly sensitive.
“We are constantly in alert mode,” he said, adding that since the previous wave of anti-LGBTQ sentiment in 2016, organizations have developed security and risk-mitigation plans before holding events. Previously, he said, the primary concerns were physical attacks, raids and threats that could force venues to cancel events. Now, organizations also have to account for online attacks, including WhatsApp hijacking and social media account hacking, as well as the possibility of an event or organization being targeted after going viral.
“It’s been limiting our movements,” he said.
Asked about the proposed LGSP framework and its decision to replace the term LGBTQ with a classification combining sexual orientation with sexual conduct, Widnyana said the council was conflating fundamentally different concepts.
“I really don’t know where to begin. They are definitely confused by mixing identities, in this case sexual orientation, with sexual behavior and actions that are understood as violations or offenses, that are sodomy and sexual indecencies,” he said.
Widnyana said the change should not be viewed as merely a change in terminology.
“The change shifts how Indonesians understand or perceive LGBT+ issues, moving from identities, rights and existence to behavior, morality, and criminality,” he told the Blade. “We also see it in the context of narrative that has been for so long evolving that frames LGBT+ as the ‘product of the West’ or ‘Western propaganda’,” he said. “In this framework, LGSP can be interpreted as their effort in rejecting how LGBT+ people define themselves and changing it with a category that is defined by those who oppose the existence of LGBT+ people.”
Widnyana also pointed to Indonesia’s long history of diverse gender identities and expressions, citing traditions such as the “bissu,” “calalai,” “calabai,” and “waria,” as well as artistic traditions in which men perform female characters. He cautioned against imposing modern LGBTQ categories on those traditions, but said gender and sexual diversity are not foreign to Indonesian history.
Widnyana said his main concern was the lack of clarity around terms such as “campaigning,” “promoting,” and “spreading LGBT+ culture,” which he said could be interpreted broadly enough to affect legitimate work in education, health care, human rights, and community services. He cited HIV and sexual health information, legal assistance for victims of violence, discrimination research, training on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics, and academic discussion as examples. Widnyana also questioned whether a gay man publicly saying he is gay and demanding to live safely, or a transgender woman speaking about discrimination she has experienced, could be deemed “campaigning” or “spreading LGBT+ culture.” Such legislation, he warned, could turn existing social stigma into a tool for systematically limiting the lives, expression, services and LGBTQ organizations.
“For me, the situation is becoming more difficult. And I think we need to look beyond just what the law says. Because sometimes, when we talk about Indonesia, people say, ‘Well, being LGBTQ+ is not generally criminalized under the national criminal law,’” said Arisdo, outreach representative of Pelangi Nusantara, an LGBTQ community group in Indonesia advocating for love, equality, and the right to live with dignity. “technically, that’s an important distinction. But that’s not really what people on the ground are experiencing. What we’re seeing is more pressure. More harassment. More public shaming. More people being targeted simply because they are perceived to be LGBTQ+.”
Arisdo told the Blade that transgender women are facing escalating violence, citing Pelangi Nusantara’s documentation of 10 attacks in Bogor between March and July 2026 involving 45 victim-survivors. He said the emergence of “Boti Hunter” groups was particularly alarming, reflecting a shift from anti-LGBTQ rhetoric toward actively targeting people. He added that fear of being outed or attacked prevents many victims from reporting violence, while doxxing and online harassment are increasingly forcing LGBTQ organizations to limit their visibility.
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