World
New World Bank US executive director: LGBTQ rights are human rights
Felice Gorordo assumed role last year
Acting U.S. World Bank Executive Director L. Felice Gorordo recently told the Washington Blade that he is committed to the advancement of LGBTQ and intersex rights within the multilateral organization.
“LGBTQI+ rights are human rights and human rights are LGBTQI+ rights. Period. Hard stop,” he said during an exclusive interview at his D.C. office on March 27. “I see it, personally, from a human rights promotion lens.”
Gorordo, a Cuban American who was born in Miami, graduated from Georgetown University in 2005.
He co-founded Roots of Hope, an organization that seeks to empower young Cubans on the island through entrepreneurship and increased access to technology.
Gorordo served in various roles in both the Obama and George W. Bush administrations, and served as advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s cancer initiative after his mother died from pancreatic cancer.
He has also been the CEO of three-venture backed technology companies, an investor and advisor at two venture capital funds with focuses on global healthcare and infrastructure, and has sat on the boards of several for- and non-profit organizations. Gorordo was most recently the CEO of eMerge Americas and executive director of the Technology Foundation of the Americas before the U.S. Senate confirmed him in May 2023.
He has been the World Bank’s acting U.S. executive director since Adriana Kugler joined the Federal Reserve Board.
Gorordo, 41, throughout the interview referenced the Biden-Harris administration’s 2021 memo that committed the U.S. to promoting LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad as part of U.S. foreign policy.
“It starts off with us at the bank trying to build demand for the issues related to LGBTQI+ rights and people,” he said. “It’s about protecting LGBTQI+ rights in and outside of World Bank operations and projects and supporting LGBTQI+ people and rights inside and outside of our projects through inclusion. It’s using our voice and vote at every chance that we get to advance LGBTQI+ people.”
Gorordo pointed out his office reviews roughly 700 projects a year for the World Bank, and they have an average of $90-$100 billion in financial commitments. He said there is a “pretty extensive review process for due diligence” with criteria that include environmental and social frameworks and bank safeguards (that currently do not explicitly include sexual orientation or gender identity.)
“We take a critical lens at each one that it lives up to the values that we want to promote, and that includes looking at it through the lens of LGBTQI+ rights,” said Gorordo.
One LGBTQ-inclusive project is the World Bank International Finance Corporation’s $275 million loan to Banco Davivienda in Colombia, which provides funding for advisory services to LGBTQ and intersex people and for the design of LGBTQ and intersex banking products. The board in 2023 greenlighted $200 million for the Program for Universal Primary Healthcare Coverage and Resilience which, among other things, seeks to improve the quality of healthcare that LGBTQ and intersex people receive in Chile.
The World Bank’s EQOSOGI Project has already collected LGBTQ- and intersex-specific data on legal gaps as well as practices that impact LGBTQ and intersex people in 16 countries, and it plans to expand its work to other nations in 2024. The World Bank is also expanding its research on the economic costs of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The first studies focused on Serbia and North Macedonia, and found both countries’ annual gross domestic product would increase by .6 percent if LGBTQ and intersex people faced less discrimination in the workplace. A study that will focus on Brazil will be released later this year.
“There’s always more we can do,” Gorordo told the Blade. “What we believe we need to do, again, using our convening power and our voice and our vote is to help build because in the end we are still a demand-driven organization.”
“We need to use our research and the data, in my opinion, our opinion, to help generate the demand for LGBTQI rights to be enshrined in our safeguards, in our strategies and in every single one of our products and the data speaks for itself,” he added.
Gorordo also noted the bank in the coming months will release a new gender strategy that recognizes gender as nonbinary.
“That’s a big step,” he said.
Gorordo described World Bank President Ajay Banga as “a champion of the rights of all, including LGBTQI+ people.” Gorordo, however, acknowledged there has been “some pushback from certain constituencies that have different views and opinions than ours” on the new gender strategy and support for LGBTQ and intersex rights.
“I see it as my responsibility to not just advocate for it in the board room or with management, but also using my office and chair to meet with other chairs bilaterally, to make the case for it, to try and bring folks along with us,” he added.
Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act ‘needs to be struck down and repealed’
The World Bank last August suspended new loans to Uganda in response to the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act that President Yoweri Museveni signed.
Uganda’s Constitutional Court earlier this month refused to nullify the law. A group of Ugandan LGBTQ activists have appealed the ruling.
“The law needs to be struck down and repealed. Hard stop,” said Gorordo. “We continue to advocate for that.”
Then-World Bank President Jim Yong Kim in 2014 postponed a $90 million loan to the Ugandan government in response to Museveni’s decision to sign a nearly identical version of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, known as the “Kill the Gays” law that imposed a life sentence upon anyone found guilty of repeated same-sex sexual acts.
Uganda’s Constitutional Court later struck down the law on a technicality, but Kim’s decision to postpone the loan without first consulting the World Bank’s board sparked widespread criticism among board members. Advocacy groups had asked the World Bank not to fund future projects in Uganda, but they did not ask for the cancellation of existing loans.
The World Bank earlier this year organized a seminar with the Human Rights Promotion Forum of Uganda that upwards of 50 people attended virtually and in person.
“One of the things that I think is incredibly critical is hearing directly from those we seek to serve and who are being impacted by these discriminatory laws,” said Gorordo.
Gorordo said the World Bank in lieu of the law’s repeal has “been doing a review of mitigation efforts” that includes “a three-month trial period once there is an agreement of what those mitigation efforts would be, to see if they are fit for purpose.”
“At the crux of it includes the protection as well as the equal access of benefits for LGBTQ communities in Uganda. If it is not fit for purpose, then we have to go back to the drawing board., So we will continue to push for the strictest mitigation measures that can be put into place, a very critical review through that process … and ensuring that we are able to guarantee equal access and protection for the LGBTQ community.”
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has delayed a decision on whether he will sign a bill that would further criminalize LGBTQ people in his country. Lawmakers in Kenya and Tanzania have proposed similar measures.
“One of the reasons why we’ve taken such a critical view of the Uganda case is this is potentially one of many of these types of cases that we’ll have to deal with,” said Gorordo. “What we do in Uganda could have a ripple effect in other countries and we need to ensure that we are setting the right precedents for how we react in these cases.”
Gorordo further noted consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in upwards of 60 countries around the world.
“The discrimination that’s against LGBTQI+ people is unacceptable across the board,” he said. “We will use all the tools in the U.S. government’s toolbox to be able to make it known our objection and to try and stop discrimination and protect the rights of LGBTQ+ people every chance we get.”
Advocacy groups are demanding the Trump-Vance administration not to deport two gay men to Iran.
MS Now on Jan. 23 reported the two men are among the 40 Iranian nationals who the White House plans to deport.
Iran is among the countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death.
The Washington Blade earlier this month reported LGBTQ Iranians have joined anti-government protests that broke out across the country on Dec. 28. Human rights groups say the Iranian government has killed thousands of people since the demonstrations began.
Rebekah Wolf of the American Immigration Council, which represents the two men, told MS Now her clients were scheduled to be on a deportation flight on Jan. 25. A Human Rights Campaign spokesperson on Tuesday told the Blade that one of the men “was able to obtain a temporary stay of removal from the” 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the other “is facing delayed deportation as the result of a measles outbreak at the facility where they’re being held.”
“My (organization, the American Immigration Council) represents those two gay men,” said American Immigration Council Senior Fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick in a Jan. 23 post on his Bluesky account. “They had been arrested on charges of sodomy by Iranian moral police, and fled the country seeking asylum. They face the death penalty if returned, yet the Trump (administration) denied their asylum claims in a kangaroo court process.”
“They are terrified,” added Reichlin-Melnick.
My org @immcouncil.org represents those two gay men. They had been arrested on charges of sodomy by Iranian moral police, and fled the country seeking asylum. They face the death penalty if returned, yet the Trump admin denied their asylum claims in a kangaroo court process.
They are terrified.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 8:26 AM
Reichlin-Melnick in a second Bluesky post said “deporting people to Iran right now, as body bags line the street, is an immoral, inhumane, and unjust act.”
“That ICE is still considering carrying out the flight this weekend is a sign of an agency and an administration totally divorced from basic human rights,” he added.
Deporting people to Iran right now, as body bags line the street, is an immoral, inhumane, and unjust act. That ICE is still considering carrying out the flight this weekend is a sign of an agency and an administration totally divorced from basic human rights. www.ms.now/news/trump-d…
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) January 23, 2026 at 8:27 AM
HRC Vice President of Government Affairs David Stacy in a statement to the Blade noted Iran “is one of 12 nations that still execute queer people, and we continue to fear for their safety.” Stacy also referenced Renee Good, a 37-year-old lesbian woman who a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, and Andry Hernández Romero, a gay Venezuelan asylum seeker who the Trump-Vance administration “forcibly disappeared” to El Salvador last year.
“This out-of-control administration continues to target immigrants and terrorize our communities,” said Stacy. “That same cruelty murdered Renee Nicole Good and imprisoned Andry Hernández Romero. We stand with the American Immigration Council and demand that these men receive the due process they deserve. Congress must refuse to fund this outrage and stand against the administration’s shameless dismissal of our constitutional rights.”
Central America
Dignidad para vidas LGBTQ en Centroamérica
Embajada canadiense en El Salvador se presentó ‘Historias de vida desde los cuerpos y territorios de la disidencia LGBTIQ+’
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — “A los 16 años, mi papá me echó”. Esa frase directa, sin adornos ni concesiones, es parte de una de las historias más impactantes del libro “Historias de vida desde los cuerpos y territorios de la disidencia LGBTIQ+”, presentado el 23 de enero. El testimonio pertenece a Estrella Cerón, mujer trans salvadoreña, cuya vida quedó marcada por la expulsión familiar y la violencia cotidiana ejercida contra su identidad.
Estrella relata que fue descubierta abrazando a un muchacho en la panadería que pertenecía a su familia, lugar donde también trabajaba. La respuesta fue inmediata: no le permitieron cambiarse de ropa ni llevar sus pertenencias. Salió “sucia, con olor a grasa, sin zapatos”. Su padre lloró al verla irse, pero no la detuvo. “Así ándate”, le dijo. Ese episodio no solo marcó su historia personal, sino que hoy se convierte en un reflejo de una realidad compartida por muchas personas trans en El Salvador y la región.
Durante la presentación del libro, Cerón tomó la palabra y compartió lo que significó volver a su historia frente a otras personas. Reconoció que no fue un proceso sencillo, pues implicó enfrentarse a recuerdos profundamente dolorosos.
“Fue doloroso hablarlo, sentí como un muro que fui rompiendo a poco a poco, saliendo adelante y pues hasta el día de hoy me siento más empoderada y más fuerte”, expresó. Sus palabras resonaron entre las y los asistentes, evidenciando que narrar la propia vida puede convertirse en un acto de sanación y afirmación personal.
Este momento público subrayó uno de los ejes centrales del proyecto: el derecho de las personas LGBTQ a contar sus historias en sus propios términos, sin miedo y con dignidad.
Rostros de la Equidad: un proyecto regional de memoria y justicia
La presentación de las publicaciones se realizó en el marco del proyecto Rostros de la Equidad, impulsado por COMCAVIS TRANS, con el apoyo de OIKOS y la Embajada de Canadá en El Salvador. El evento reunió a activistas, representantes de organizaciones sociales, cooperación internacional y público en general.
Como parte de este proyecto se presentaron dos materiales: el libro “Historias de vida desde los cuerpos y territorios de la disidencia LGBTIQ+” y el glosario vivencial y de conceptos sobre la diversidad sexual y de género. Ambos productos buscan aportar a la visibilización, sensibilización y defensa de los derechos humanos de las personas LGBTQ en Centroamérica.
El proyecto se concibió como un proceso colectivo, regional y participativo, en el que las voces protagonistas fueran las de quienes históricamente han sido marginadas.
El libro de historias de vida se distancia de la lógica del simple recopilatorio de testimonios. Tal como lo expresa su prólogo, se trata de “un acto de memoria, reparación, justicia personal y colectiva”. Su objetivo es mostrar voces que han resistido al silencio y al miedo, y que hoy deciden narrar sus verdades.
Las historias incluidas atraviesan experiencias de expulsión familiar, discriminación, violencia institucional, migración forzada y exclusión social. Sin embargo, también dan cuenta de procesos de resistencia, organización comunitaria, reconstrucción personal y esperanza.
En ese equilibrio entre dolor y dignidad, el libro se convierte en una herramienta política y pedagógica que interpela a la sociedad y a las instituciones.
Junto al libro se presentó el glosario vivencial y de conceptos sobre la diversidad sexual y de género, una propuesta que busca ir más allá de las definiciones tradicionales. El glosario no se limita a explicar términos, sino que los conecta con experiencias reales de personas LGBTQ.
Cada concepto está atravesado por el derecho a la identidad, el reconocimiento y la dignidad. De esta forma, las palabras dejan de ser etiquetas para convertirse en relatos vivos que reflejan cuerpos, territorios e historias concretas.
Las organizaciones impulsoras señalaron que el glosario pretende ser una herramienta accesible para procesos formativos, educativos y comunitarios, aportando a una comprensión más humana de la diversidad sexual y de género.
El respaldo internacional y el valor de la resistencia
Durante la presentación, la embajadora de Canadá en El Salvador, Mylène Paradis, reconoció el trabajo de COMCAVIS TRANS, OIKOS y de todas las personas que hicieron posible Rostros de la Equidad.
“Las historias de vida reunidas en este libro nos recuerdan que resistir no es solo sobrevivir, sino también afirmar la propia existencia, reclamar derechos y construir esperanza incluso en contextos adversos”, afirmó Paradis, destacando la importancia de apoyar iniciativas que promueven la justicia social y los derechos humanos.
Su intervención subrayó el valor político de la memoria y el papel de la cooperación internacional en el acompañamiento de procesos liderados por organizaciones locales.
Un proceso regional de escucha y construcción colectiva
El libro y el glosario son el resultado de una consulta a 10 personas LGBTQ: cuatro de Guatemala, dos de El Salvador y cuatro de Honduras. Además, se realizaron grupos focales en cada uno de estos países para profundizar en las experiencias compartidas.
El proceso inició en agosto de 2024 y concluyó con la presentación pública de los resultados en enero de 2026. Para las organizaciones participantes, este trabajo evidenció la necesidad de generar espacios seguros de escucha y diálogo en la región.
La dimensión regional del proyecto permite identificar patrones comunes de violencia, pero también estrategias compartidas de resistencia y organización.
Georgina Olmedo, encargada del área de formación y nuevos liderazgos de COMCAVIS TRANS El Salvador, destacó que el libro busca reconocer las historias que atraviesan las personas LGBTQ.
“Son historias marcadas por la resistencia, la dignidad, el aprendizaje y toda la esperanza”, señaló, subrayando que muchas de estas vivencias continúan siendo invisibilizadas en el discurso público.
Para Olmedo, visibilizar estas narrativas es un paso necesario para transformar las realidades de exclusión y violencia que enfrenta esta población.
Escuchar sin juzgar: el valor del acompañamiento
Desde OIKOS, Jason García resaltó que el libro incluye voces de Guatemala y Honduras, lo que le otorga un carácter regional. Señaló que fue un honor conocer historias de personas que se atrevieron a contar lo que nunca antes habían contado.
García explicó que muchas de las personas participantes expresaron estar cansadas de ocultar quiénes son y que, durante el proceso, encontraron por primera vez espacios donde fueron escuchadas sin ser juzgadas.
“Cada historia que se comparte es un recordatorio de que ninguna violencia puede apagar la dignidad de una persona”, afirmó, destacando los procesos de sanación y reconstrucción que emergen incluso en contextos adversos.
Marielos Handal, integrante del equipo de OIKOS que acompañó la investigación, compartió una reflexión sobre los retos que implicó construir estas publicaciones. Las entrevistas, explicó, dejaron nudos en la garganta, silencios densos y muchas preguntas abiertas.
Entre ellas, cómo continuar escribiendo después de escuchar relatos de abandono, rechazo y violencia sistemática; cómo narrar sin revictimizar, sin simplificar ni maquillar la verdad, pero tampoco explotarla.
Estas preguntas atravesaron todo el proceso editorial, marcando el cuidado con el que se construyeron tanto el libro como el glosario, priorizando siempre la dignidad de las personas participantes.
Palabras que se convierten en dignidad colectiva
La presentación cerró con un llamado a leer estas publicaciones no desde la lástima, sino desde la responsabilidad colectiva de reconocer las deudas históricas con las personas LGBTQ en Centroamérica.
Historias de vida desde los cuerpos y territorios de la disidencia LGBTQ y su glosario vivencial se consolidan como documentos necesarios en un contexto marcado por la exclusión, pero también por la lucha, la memoria y la esperanza.
En cada relato, como el de Cerón, queda claro que narrar la propia historia es un acto profundamente político: contar lo vivido no borra el dolor, pero lo transforma en palabra, memoria y dignidad compartida.
Russia
Russia designates ILGA World an ‘undesirable’ group
Justice Ministry announced designation on Jan. 21
Russia has designated a global LGBTQ and intersex rights group as an “undesirable” organization.
ILGA World in a press release notes the country’s Justice Ministry announced the designation on its website on Jan. 21.
The ministry’s website on Tuesday appeared to be down when the Washington Blade tried to access it. ILGA World in its press release said the designation — “which also reportedly includes eight other organizations from the United States and across Europe” — “has been confirmed by independent sources.”
“ILGA World received no direct communication of the designation, whose official reasons are not known,” said ILGA World.
The Kremlin over the last decade has faced global criticism over its crackdown on LGBTQ rights.
ILGA World notes Russians found guilty of engaging with “undesirable” groups could face up to six years in prison. The Russian Supreme Court in 2023 ruled the “international LGBT movement” is an extremist organization and banned it.
“Designating human rights groups ‘undesirable’ is outlandish and cynical, yet here we are,” said ILGA World Executive Director Julia Ehrt. “But no matter how much governments will try to legislate LGBTI people out of existence, movements will stay strong and committed, and solidarity remains alive across borders. And together, we will continue building a more just world for everyone.”
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