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Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Europe and Asia
Iraqi MPs passed bill that criminalizes same-sex relationships, transgender people
IRAQ
A law passed by the Iraqi parliament Saturday criminalizes same-sex relationships with a maximum 15-year prison sentence and also penalizes transgender Iraqis who face potential prison sentences ranging between one and three years under the new law.
MP Nouri al-Maliki told the AFP news agency that passage of the measure was delayed until after Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani’s visit to Washington earlier this month. A second MP, Amir al-Maamouri, told Shafaq News that the new law was “a significant step in combating sexual deviancy given the infiltration of unique cases contradicting Islamic and societal values.”
In a statement released by State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller noted:
“The United States is deeply concerned by the Iraqi Council of Representatives’ passage of an amendment to existing legislation, officially called the Anti-Prostitution and Homosexuality Law, which threatens constitutionally protected human rights and fundamental freedoms. The law bans same-sex relations with steep fines and imprisonment and punishes those who ‘promote homosexuality.’ Limiting the rights of certain individuals in a society undermines the rights of all.
This amendment threatens those most at risk in Iraqi society. It can be used to hamper free-speech and expression and inhibit the operations of NGOs across Iraq. The legislation also weakens Iraq’s ability to diversify its economy and attract foreign investment. International business coalitions have already indicated that such discrimination in Iraq will harm business and economic growth in the country.
Respect for human rights and political and economic inclusion is essential for Iraq’s security, stability, and prosperity. This legislation is inconsistent with these values and undermines the government’s political and economic reform efforts.”
British Secretary of State David Cameron in a statement posted to X called the law “dangerous and worrying.” He added “no one should be targeted for who they are. We encourage the government of Iraq to uphold human rights and freedoms of all people without distinction.”
GERMANY
According to German media outlet Preussische Allgemeine Zeitung, a group of professional footballers from the German Football League (Deutsche Fußball Liga) will be announcing that they are gay on the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia on May 17.
PinkNewsUK reported the German outlet has quoted Marcus Urban as a source. Urban is a former footballer in Germany who came out after retiring. He was the second player worldwide to come out, only after British player Justin Fashanu in 1990. Fashanu was the only prominent player in pro English football to come out, until Jake Daniels in 2022.
Urban told Editorial Network Germany (Redaktions Netzwerk Deutschland) the move is part of an initiative in Germany in an attempt to encourage closet LGBTQ players and others working in football to come out. All clubs involved are said to have been made aware of the imminent announcement.
Urban is a co-founder of Diversero, a global community who celebrate and live diversity that he said contact with the players. Speaking about the closeted players he noted: “There is controversy there. Do I still want to wait until the world of football becomes the way I want it to be?”
COUNCIL OF EUROPE
The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture has issued a set of standards and recommendations to European prisons aimed at ensuring that trans prisoners, a highly vulnerable segment of the prison population, are treated with respect and protected from the risks of ill-treatment.
In its annual report for 2023, the CPT notes that it is increasingly meeting trans persons held in prisons during its visits to states to monitor the conditions of detention of persons deprived of liberty. The CPT aims to provide guidance to governments and prison administrations, considering that European countries are currently implementing divergent policies and that there is a current debate as to how to treat transgender persons in prison.
CPT President Alan Mitchell said: “Prisons are a microcosm of society, often with amplified issues given the smaller confined settings. Transgender persons held in detention can be in a situation of vulnerability and a heightened risk of intimidation and abuse. It is concerning that a few states still deny the existence of transgender persons and make no specific provision for their treatment in prison, which may expose them to ill-treatment. Governments should put in place safeguards to protect transgender persons in detention and ensure that they are treated with dignity and care.
“The report identifies as a challenge the widely divergent criteria of placement of transgender persons throughout Europe depending on individual states’ policies. Some are based on self-identification and declaration, others on legal recognition, and a few on gender-affirming surgery. Few states have specific policies and legislation to guide prison authorities on placement of transgender persons, often done on a case-by-case basis subject to an individual risk assessment.
In line with the European Court of Human Rights case law, the CPT highlights that national legislation should provide for the recognition of persons of a gender other than that assigned by birth and not establish any pre-condition to legal gender recognition such as gender-affirming surgery. Consequently, when a person self-identifies as transgender in the prison admission procedure, this should be sufficient for the prison administration to treat the person as such.
The CPT considers that transgender persons should be accommodated in the prison section corresponding to the gender with which they identify. Although there have been a few unfortunate cases of the placement in women’s prison sections of transgender persons accused or convicted of sexual offences against women, the committee highlights that, as for any other prisoners, they should only be placed elsewhere for exceptional security or other reasons after an individual risk assessment. In addition, transgender prisoners should be consulted about their placement preference during the entry procedure and be given the option to keep their gender identity confidential.
During its visits to several states, the CPT met transgender women prisoners held in male sections who stated they did not feel safe, and some alleged having been sexually abused and assaulted by other prisoners or verbally abused by staff. In some countries, the CPT also met transgender women who reported that they were often not allowed to shower at different times as male prisoners, were humiliated by being referred to by their male names or prohibited from wearing women´s clothes.
In the CPT’s view, transgender prisoners should be allowed to dress in the clothes associated with their self-identified gender and be addressed by their chosen names by prison staff. Prison administrations should also address them by their preferred names, titles and pronouns in verbal and written communication, irrespective of official documents. Further, national and prison authorities should ensure that all prison staff is trained to understand and address the specific needs of transgender persons and the risks they are exposed to in the prison environment.
The committee urges national authorities to address the risks of discrimination of transgender persons in prison and implement policies to prevent and combat ill-treatment by prison staff and inter-prison violence and intimidation targeting them. It also provides guidance to ensure that body searches of transgender persons are not perceived as degrading by the persons concerned.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Royal Courts of Justice (Photo courtesy of the British government)
The Austen Hays Limited law firm this week launched a class action lawsuit in the High Court of Justice in London against West Hollywood, Calif.,- based Grindr, alleging that the world’s largest LGBTQ casual encounters app had violated British data protection laws.
Reuters reported that the suit claims British users’ highly sensitive information, including HIV status and the date of their latest HIV test, were provided to third parties for commercial purposes.
In a statement released to the media a spokesperson for Grindr said: “We are committed to protecting our users’ data and complying with all applicable data privacy regulations, including in the UK. We are proud of our global privacy programme and take privacy extremely seriously. We intend to respond vigorously to this claim, which appears to be based on a mischaracterisation of practices from more than four years ago, prior to early 2020.”
The Austen Hays Limited law firm’s managing director Chaya Hanoomanjee responded saying:
“Our clients have experienced significant distress over their highly sensitive and private information being shared without their consent. Many have suffered feelings of fear, embarrassment, and anxiety as a result,” Hanoomanjee said.
“Grindr owes it to the LGBTQ+ community it serves to compensate those whose data has been compromised and have suffered distress as a result, and to ensure all its users are safe while using the app, wherever they are, without fear that their data might be shared with third parties,” she added.
So far 670 people have signed up to the claim, and the firm said “thousands” more people had expressed interest in joining.
The Irish Examiner reported on Monday, April 22 that the claim against Grindr will be focused on the periods before April 3, 2018, and between May 25, 2018, and April 7, 2020, meaning newer users are unlikely to be able to join. Grindr changed its consent mechanisms in April 2020.
Grindr, based in Los Angeles, announced it would stop sharing users’ HIV status with third-party companies in April 2018 after a report by Norwegian researchers revealed data sharing with two companies.
HONG KONG
A 33-year-old trans man who has been battling authorities to change his gender from female to male on his Hong Kong ID card since he first launched legal action in 2017, and winning a verdict from the Court of Final Appeal in February 2023, has finally been able to get his new ID card this week.
In an interview with Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post journalist Lo Hoi-ying, Tse told her: “I thought to myself, I have won the lawsuit over a year ago, why do I still have to go through all of this?”
Tse, the chairman of the NGO Transgender Equality Hong Kong, also filed a separate lawsuit against the government in March for what he said was a discriminatory delay in issuing him his new ID card.
He said he would seek monetary compensation for the distress caused by the delay, which could not be forgotten even after changing his card. “Potentially in the future, if there are similar cases for the LGBTQ community, the government should not delay policy updates like this,” he said.
While Tse said that his new ID could make life easier for him and solve some surface issues, he conceded it was only a small step in the fight for trans rights, the South China Morning Post reported.
“The updated policy is not fully trans-inclusive, as measures such as submitting blood test reports for randomized checks still violate our privacy,” he said.
“There are still many hurdles for us, such as marriage. These are all issues we have to confront, which cannot be solved merely by an ID change.”
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse, Shafaq News, Redaktions Netzwerk Deutschland, Office of Public Affairs for the Council of Europe, BBC News, PinkNewsUK, Irish Examiner, and the South China Morning Post.
Ukraine
Ukrainian Supreme Court recognizes same-sex couple as a family
Zoryan Kis and Tymur Levchuk married in US in 2021
The Ukrainian Supreme Court has recognized a same-sex couple as a family.
The couple — Zoryan Kis and Tymur Levchuk — have lived together since 2013. They legally married in the U.S. in 2021.
The Kyiv Independent notes the couple challenged the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s refusal to acknowledge Levchuk as Kis’s family member, therefore denying him spousal rights while Kis was posted at the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel. Kis and Levchuk challenged the decision in court in 2024.
Kyiv’s Desniansky District Court last year in a landmark ruling recognized Kis and Levchuk as a family. Vsi Razom, an anti-LGBTQ organization, appealed the decision.
Insight, the Ukrainian LGBTQ rights group that represented Kis and Levchuk, said the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling on Feb. 25.
“The Supreme Court of Ukraine has upheld the legality of recognizing a same-sex couple as a family based on their factual relationship, despite the absence of legal recognition of same-sex partnerships in Ukrainian legislation,” Insight Chair Olena Shevchenko noted to the Washington Blade on Tuesday. “The court confirmed the decision, establishing the fact that (the) two men had lived together as a family, affirming that such recognition can be based on proven circumstances of their shared life rather than on political decisions or the existence of formal partnership laws.”
Insight in a Facebook post added the Supreme Court ruling sets “a tremendous precedent.”
“No homophobic or conservative organization will be able to use the courts as a tool to persecute or overturn decisions in favor of LGBT+ people under the guise of ‘social morality,’” said Insight. “The state has protected the boundaries of private life.”
The Supreme Court issued its ruling a day after Ukraine marked four years since Russia began its war against the country.
The Ukrainian constitution defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2022 publicly backed civil partnerships for same-sex couples. Shevchenko pointed out Ukrainian law “currently does not provide a mechanism for registering same-sex marriages or partnerships.”
Iran
Man stuck in Lebanon as Iran war escalates
Mario was traveling to India when conflict began on Feb. 28
The Washington Blade on March 6 spoke with a man who remains stuck in Lebanon because of the escalating Iran war.
Mario, who asked the Blade not to publish his last name, lives in the U.S., but was born in Lebanon. He decided to stop in the country to see his doctor before traveling to India for work.
Mario was about to board a flight at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Feb. 28 when airline personnel announced “we cannot fly anymore” because authorities had closed the country’s airspace.
The U.S. and Israel earlier that day launched airstrikes against Iran.
One of them killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran in response launched missiles and drones against Israel and Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, and other countries.
An Iranian drone that hit a command center in Kuwait on March 1 killed six U.S. soldiers: Sgt. Declan Coady, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, Capt. Cody Khork, Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, and Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien. Another American servicemember, Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, died on Sunday, a week after Iranian drones and missiles targeted the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
Iranian drones and missiles have also damaged civilian infrastructure, including hotels and airports in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. An Iranian missile on March 1 killed nine people and injured 27 others in Beit Shemesh, Israel.
The war has left Mario and hundreds of thousands of others stranded in the Middle East.
“I had to come back home,” Mario told the Blade.
“Luckily, I’m with family,” he added.
‘War is between Israel and Hezbollah’
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia militant group the U.S. and Israel have designated a terrorist organization, after Khamenei’s death launched rockets at Israel. The Jewish State in response has carried out airstrikes against Hezbollah targets across Lebanon.
Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, killed upwards of 1,200 people when they launched a surprise attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah the following day began to launch rockets into Israel.
An Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Sept. 27, 2024, killed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s long-time leader. Iran four days later launched upwards of 200 ballistic missiles at Israel.
The U.S. helped broker a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that took effect on Nov. 27, 2024. Israel nevertheless continued to carry out airstrikes in Lebanon.
Israel on June 13, 2025, launched airstrikes against Iran that targeted the country’s nuclear and military facilities. The subsequent war, which lasted 12 days, prompted the cancellation of the annual Tel Aviv Pride parade.
Mario noted the Israeli airstrikes have targeted Hezbollah infrastructure in Dahiyah, a Beirut suburb that is predominantly Shia, and in southern Lebanon.
His family’s home is about five miles from downtown Beirut. Mario said there is a mountain “that separates me from the area that is being bombed, so I don’t even hear the sounds.”
“Lebanon is such an interesting juxtaposition, because depending on which area you are in, your quality of life can be different during these times,” he said. “Right now, the war is not between Israel and Lebanon as a government. The war is between Israel and Hezbollah.”
“If you are in the areas where Hezbollah is concentrated, then you are severely impacted,” added Mario. “If you are in other areas, even if they are Shia or … Muslims that usually align themselves with Hezbollah, you’re still relatively in a safe place, in a safe location.”
Israeli evacuation orders have prompted hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in Dahiyah and in southern Lebanon.
Mario said many of the evacuees are sleeping in their cars, or on the street. He also noted a video that showed a shepherd with his sheep and goats on a highway in downtown Beirut.
“He took his animals with him because he had to vacate where he was living,” said Mario. “That’s the first time you see in downtown Beirut maybe 100 goats walking the streets with two people sitting on jackasses and herding them.”
“It is very absurd,” he added.
The Lebanese government has opened schools and public shelters for people who have been displaced, but Mario said many of them do not have enough food. He also said gas prices have increased, and people are afraid to drive.
“It really saddens me seeing the kids affected by it,” said Mario. “Hezbollah made this decision, and it was a unilateral decision.”
“I doubt that the Shia people support them,” he added, referring to Hezbollah. “They cannot say it out loud that they do not support them, but I doubt people are happy within less than two years, for the second time in a row, to have to leave their homes and try to find a place to stay.”
Lebanese government urged to develop LGBTQ-inclusive plan for displaced people
Article 534 of Lebanon’s Penal Code states “any sexual intercourse contrary to the order of nature is punishable” by up to a year in prison. Several judges in recent years have opted not to use the statute to prosecute LGBTQ people who have been charged under it.
Helem, a Lebanese LGBTQ and intersex rights group, on March 4 called upon the Lebanese government and international NGOs to develop a response to the Israeli airstrikes that is “comprehensive, fair, and inclusive of all groups, without exception or discrimination.
“The experience of the previous war demonstrated that state response plans were not sufficiently inclusive of displaced LGBTQ+ individuals,” said Helem. “Many faced compounded challenges, including the inability to access state collective shelters, exposure to harassment or violence, difficulty accessing health and psychosocial services, and fear of disclosing their gender identity or sexual orientation due to stigma and discrimination.”
“Any emergency plan that fails to take the most vulnerable groups into account exposes their lives and dignity to additional risks,” added the group.
Helem also made the following requests:
• Integrating a rights-based and nondiscrimination approach in all stages of planning and implementation, ensuring safe and equal access to assistance and services.
• Training staff working in shelters and emergency response on principles of protection from gender-based violence and discrimination, including issues related to gender identity and sexual orientation.
• Reassessment of the currently adopted shelter model, which relies exclusively on the concept of the “traditional family” aligned with a specific social structure. In practice, this leads to the systematic exclusion of non-traditional families and individuals who do not belong to conventional family units, including LGBTQ+ individuals, survivors of domestic violence, migrant workers, and people without supportive family networks.
• Involving civil society organizations specialized in gender issues and LGBTQ+ rights in the design, implementation, and monitoring of the emergency response plan.
• Establishing clear monitoring and accountability standards to ensure that violations or discriminatory practices do not occur during the implementation of the emergency plan.
“Disasters and conflicts do not justify the suspension of rights or the neglect of marginalized groups. On the contrary, the need for a humanitarian approach grounded in dignity and equality becomes even more urgent in times of crisis.”
“Helem places its expertise and experience at the disposal of relevant authorities and affirms its readiness to cooperate to ensure that the emergency plan is more just, effective, and inclusive,” said Helem. “Dignity is indivisible, and protection must include everyone without exception.”
Colombia
Claudia López wins primary in Colombian presidential race
Former Bogotá mayor’s wife lost reelection bid on Sunday
Former Bogotá Mayor Claudia López on Sunday won her primary in the race to succeed Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
López, a centrist who is running as an independent, defeated Leonardo Huerta in the “Consulta de las Soluciones” primary.
López was the Colombian capital’s mayor from 2020-2023. She was a member of the Colombian Senate from 2014-2018.
López is running to succeed Petro, the country’s first leftist president who cannot seek a second consecutive term under Colombia’s constitution. Other presidential candidates who won their respective parties’ primaries on Sunday include Sen. Iván Cepeda, a member of Petro’s Historic Pact party, and Sen. Paloma Valencia of the conservative Democratic Center, the country’s main opposition party that former President Álvaro Uribe leads.
Juan Daniel Oviedo, who finished second in the Democratic Center’s primary, is openly gay.
The first-round of Colombia’s presidential election will take place on May 31.
Polls indicate López is trailing Cepeda and Valencia, who are considered the two frontrunners.
A second round will take place is no candidate receives at least 50 percent of the vote on May 31. López would become Colombia’s first female and first lesbian president if she wins the election.
López’s wife loses Senate seat
Colombia’s congressional elections also took place on Sunday.
Former Congressman Mauricio Toro, a member of the center-left Green Alliance party, in 2018 became the first openly gay man elected to Colombian Congress when he won a seat in the House of Representatives.
He lost his reelection bid in 2022. Voters on Sunday elected Toro for a second term.
Congresswoman María del Mar Pizarro, a bisexual Historic Pact member, won re-election.
Caribe Afirmativo, a Colombian LGBTQ and intersex rights group, notes only two of the 33 openly LGBTQ congressional candidates won their respective races. Among those who lost is Sen. Angélica Lozano, a bisexual woman who in 2018 became the first openly LGBTQ person elected to the Colombian Senate.
Lozano is married to López.
Lozano in a message posted to her Instagram page expressed “heartfelt gratitude to everyone for their support and love.”
“I will end my work in Congress on a high note by ensuring (the) child support and service contractor protection bills will become a reality in June,” she said.
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