World
Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Europe and Asia
Lufthansa is commemorating Pride Month
FRANCE
Transgender actress Karla Sofía Gascón has filed a legal complaint against French far-right politician Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, after the Reconquête Party leader posted a tweet decrying the fact that Gascón was awarded Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival. The complaint has been joined with complaints from six French LGBTQ advocacy groups.
Gascón has been making waves since her international breakthrough performance in the musical gangster film “Emilia Pérez” at the Cannes Film Festival last month. In the film, she plays a cartel leader who hires a lawyer played by Zoe Saldaña to help her flee Mexico with her wife, played by Selena Gomez, so that she can get gender-affirming surgery so she can live as a woman.
The Spanish actress became the first trans woman to win the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival.
After her win, Maréchal-Le Pen posted a tweet that said Gascón’s victory came at a cost for women.
“Therefore, a man receives the prize for … best actress at Cannes. Progress for the left is the erasure of women and mothers,” Le Pen posted on May 26.
Gascón’s lawyer, Etienne Deshoulières, told Agence France-Presse she had filed a legal complaint for “sexist insult on the basis of gender identity.”
The organizations Mousse, Stop Homophobie, Familles LGBT, Adheos, Quazar, and Fédération LBGTQ+ have all filed similar complaints over Maréchal-Le Pen’s tweet.
Maréchal-Le Pen has responded to the complaint by asserting that she will not be silenced.
She is currently on the campaign trail leading the far-right Reconquête Party in elections to the European Parliament scheduled for June 9. She comes from a long pedigree of far-right French politicians who have all been opponents of LGBTQ rights. Her grandfather, Jean-Marie Le Pen, founded the far-right Front National party, which is now led by her aunt Marine Le Pen as the National Rally Party. She has frequently spoken of her desire to repeal same-sex marriage.
Before this all blew up, Gascón told a press conference at Cannes about her own experiences with discrimination as a trans woman.
“People who are trans are subjected to insults or death threats because they exist. In Mexico, there are harsh phrases when addressing trans people. It can be gross,” she said. “I think we should be taken for what we are. We have to continue fighting for our rights. We have our body and we’re allowed to change it.”
“We’re just normal people … I think in the world, you should be treated with respect.”
“Trans people are just normal people,” Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón said when asked about her non-binary character in Jacques Audiard’s ‘Emilia Perez’ #cannes2024. pic.twitter.com/BRECoys9jV
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 19, 2024
In addition to Gascón’s acting award, “Emilia Pérez” scored tremendous reviews from critics at Cannes. A U.S. release date has not yet been announced.
SPAIN
The coalition of LGBTQ groups that were working together to guide the 2026 Gay Games in Valencia, Spain, has pulled out of the event in protest over what they’ve called a hijacking of the project by the city’s newly elected government, which includes a far-right anti-LGBTQ party in the governing coalition.
Spain’s third-largest city was chosen as the games’ host in November 2021, beating out Munich, Germany, and Guadalajara, Mexico. Originally Valencia’s Gay Games organization was led by a coalition of local LGBTQ groups in partnership with the city council.
But that changed last year, when the center-right People’s Party and the far-right Vox party took over the city government. The LGBTQ groups allege that the city reduced their role on the board in an attempt to take over the games, and that the new government has been hostile to LGBTQ people. They also say that the government has censored LGBTQ books, plays, and films.
On May 27, the LGBTQ+ groups — Lambda, Avegal and Dracs, and the umbrella organization València Diversitat Foundation — announced they were pulling out of the games and encouraging the Federation of Gay Games to withdraw from Valencia and award the 2026 games to another city.
“After the last local elections, the Popular Party and Vox have promoted an entire campaign of attacks and cuts in rights against members of the group,” FVD Secretary Jorge Garcia told Spain’s El Salto newspaper. “We have seen how children’s books were withdrawn or plays and films were canceled simply for addressing LGTBI themes or for showing people from the group.”
FVD is calling on the Federation of Gay Games to move the event to another city that is more LGBTQ-friendly, suggesting Munich as a possible alternate venue as it was one of the original bidders for the 2026 event. They’re also saying that unless FVD moves the event, they will “call for a boycott at the local, national, and international level.”
But so far, the federation has said it’s not budging.
In response to the pullout, the federation issued a statement saying that the games would go ahead in Valencia and that the federation has faith that the city government is hosting the games for the right reasons.
“After confidently receiving assurances from the València City Council about their commitment to the organization of the event, the FGG can confirm that the Gay Games will continue to be held in Valencia in 2026,” the statement reads. “The FGG has met various times with them to gain assurances from them about their commitment to the funding of the event, the availability of government-owned sports and culture venues, and the confirmation that participants will be able to attend and compete as their authentic selves.”
This isn’t the first time the Gay Games has experienced turmoil.
After being postponed a year due to the pandemic, last year’s Gay Games Hong Kong was divided and co-hosted with Guadalajara, Mexico, amid concerns about the worsening human rights and democracy situation in China, and deepening opposition from some local officials who were more closely aligned with Beijing.
The far-right Vox party has long been hostile to LGBTQ rights in Spain and has seen its fortunes rise along with other conservative or right-leaning parties across Europe. In Spanish cities and regions where they’ve come into power either alone or in coalition with the People’s Party, it has repealed local laws meant to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination and conversion therapy. On the national level, it has campaigned to repeal same-sex marriage and legal recognition of trans people.
GERMANY
German airlines Lufthansa is celebrating Pride Month 2024 by spoofing the company’s name with “Lovehansa” on several aircraft in its fleet. On X Deutsche Lufthansa AG wrote:
“It’s that time of the year where we highlight the importance of openness, tolerance, and equal love. We’ve been coloring the air with Lovehansa for the last two years and will continue to spread the love across borders and skies. Happy Pride Season!
It’s that time of the year where we highlight the importance of openness, tolerance, and equal love.
We’ve been coloring the air with Lovehansa for the last two years and will continue to spread the love across borders and skies.
Happy Pride Season! 🏳️🌈🫶#Lufthansa pic.twitter.com/OrJMYBjJ7P
— Lufthansa (@lufthansa) June 1, 2024
UNITED KINGDOM
A conservative Christian group has launched a petition calling for the city of Westminster in central London to remove Progress Pride flags from Regent Street, alleging that the flags are divisive, offensive, and “ugly.”
The group Christian Concern has collected more than 20,000 signatures of its 50,000 goal on its CitizenGo petition. The petition is addressed to Westminster City Council Leader Adam Hug and calls on him to “stop authorizing large scale displays of Pride Progress flags in Westminster, in particular Regent Street.”
Progress Pride flags have been strung across Regent Street — home to a world-famous luxury shopping district — for years, and they’re scheduled to return for June and July this year. Regent Street is controlled by the Crown Estates, a semi-public agency that manages the monarch’s property holdings.
In their letter, Christian Concern says the Progress Pride flags sow division in society.
“They do not promote inclusion — in fact, they exacerbate tensions between people of different characteristics — religions, sexual orientations, and gender identity. Many people experience these flags as an attack on historic, traditional beliefs about sex and gender. They send the message that people holding these views — which are worthy of respect in a democratic society — are not welcome,” the letter says.
In the petition’s explanatory note, Christian Concern alleges the Progress Pride flag is particularly offensive, because it includes colors symbolic of trans people and people of color.
“Rainbow flags are bad enough — but ‘Progress Pride’ flags add transgender stripes — a movement that has done untold damage to gender-questioning children in recent years. They also add brown and black stripes, wrongly conflating racial identity with sexual and gender identities,” it says.
“These flags are particularly offensive, and ugly to boot,” it says. “These divisive, gaudy displays are completely inappropriate for this historic, iconic street at the center of London.”
London’s annual Pride Parade will occur this year on June 29, and as usual, the route will pass through Piccadilly Circus, at the foot of Regent Street.
Pride in London, which organizes the parade, says it expects up to 35,000 people marching this year, making it the largest London Pride ever. The festivities come amid a growing moral panic against trans people in the U.K., fueled by a government that has been increasingly hostile to trans and queer people, and celebrities like JK Rowling, who have made opposing trans rights a key part of their identity.
The march comes just days before national elections, scheduled for July 4, which the governing Conservative Party is widely expected to lose.
RUSSIA
The governor of Russia’s Samara oblast has resigned amid accusations that his government violated Russia’s “LGBT Propaganda” law by appointing staff who were in same-sex relationships, Novaya Gazeta Europe reports.
Dmitry Azarov announced his resignation over the Russian social media network Vkontakte on May 28. His move came after several of his government’s officials were arrested on corruption charges, and following several allegations related to the “LGBT propaganda” law.
Since 2013, Russian law has banned the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relationships” among minors, and in 2022, the law was expanded to ban promotion of LGBTQ rights to people of any age.. Last year, the Russian Supreme Court and the Russian government added the “LGBT movement” to a list of banned extremist movements, intensifying the crackdown on LGBTQ expression.
Alex Khinshtein, a member of the President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party who represents Samara in the Russian parliament, and who authored the original ‘LGBT propaganda law, kicked off a series of allegations against officials in Azarov’s government.
He alleged that the Youth Policy Minister Sergey Burtsev and another official working in youth policy, Denis Leontovich, were in same-sex relationships. Both denied the allegations, but left their positions shortly after.
The resignations come amid a worsening crackdown on LGBTQ people in Russia. In March, several Moscow gay bars were raided by police, and a man was charged with using extremist symbols after he allegedly used a rainbow flag emoji in a private group chat.
JAPAN
Three cities across Japan announced that they would begin registering same-sex couples the same way that they register heterosexual couples in common-law marriages, the latest advancement in an ongoing struggle for legal recognition of same-sex couples in the East Asian nation.
Omura in Nagasaki prefecture announced the change on May 2, after Keita Matsuura, 38, and Yutaro Fujiyama, 39, made the request to register their relationship.
It was followed quickly by Kanuma in Tochigi prefecture. Kurayoshi in Tottori prefecture had initiated a similar procedure in October 2023. In all three cities, people in same-sex couples will be listed as “husband” or “wife” on their resident registration cards, with “not yet notified” added in brackets to indicate that the marriage is not officially registered, similar to opposite-sex common-law marriages.
In Japan, common-law heterosexual couples are treated equally to married couples, but it’s not clear yet if that treatment will carry over to same-sex couples who are registered this way.
“The possibility of obtaining rights equivalent to those of de facto marriages will arise,” Matsuura told Asahi news.
Same-sex marriages are not recognized in Japan, although several cases seeking to have it legalized are currently winding their way through district courts on their way to a likely Supreme Court case. Five district courts and one appellate court have found the current ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional, while one has upheld the ban.
Meanwhile, hundreds of municipalities and 26 of Japan’s 47 prefectures across Japan have created partnership oath registries for same-sex couples. While these registries are not legally binding, they have helped some couples access some services and benefits only available to married couples.
Cuba
Trans parent charged with kidnapping, allegedly fled to Cuba with child
Cuban authorities helped locate Rose Inessa-Ethington
Federal authorities have charged a transgender woman with kidnapping after she allegedly fled to Cuba with her 10-year-old child.
An affidavit that Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Jennifer Waterfield filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Utah on April 16 notes the child is a “biological male who identifies as a female” and “splits time living with divorced parents who share custody” in Cache County, Utah.
Waterfield notes the child on March 28 “was supposed to be traveling by car to” Calgary, Alberta, “for a planned camping trip with his transgender mother, Rose Inessa-Ethington, Rose’s partner, Blue Inessa-Ethington, and Blue’s 3-year-old child.”
The affidavit notes the group instead flew from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Mexico City on March 29. Waterfield writes the Inessa-Ethingtons and the two children then flew from Mérida, Mexico, to Havana on April 1.
The 10-year-old child called her biological mother on March 28 after they arrived in Canada. The custody agreement, according to the affidavit, required Rose Inessa-Ethington to return the child to her former spouse on April 3.
“Interviews of MV [Minor Victim] 1’s family members provided significant concerns for MV 1’s well-being, as MV 1 was born a male, however, identifies as a female child, which is largely believed to be due to manipulation by Rose Inessa-Ethington,” reads the affidavit. “Concerns exist that MV 1 was transported to Cuba for gender reassignment surgery prior to puberty.”
The affidavit indicates authorities found a note in the Inessa-Ethingtons’ home with “instruction from a mental health therapist located in Washington, D.C., including instruction to send the therapist the $10,000.00 and instructions on gender-affirming medical care for children.”
The affidavit does not identify the specific “mental health therapist” in D.C.
A Utah judge on April 13 ordered Rose Inessa-Ethington to “immediately” return the child to her former spouse. The former spouse also received sole custody.
“Your affiant believes that due to the extensive planning and preparation exhibited by both Rose Inessa-Ethington and Blue Inessa-Ethington to isolate MV 1 and take MV 1 to Havana, Cuba, without notifying or requesting permission from MV 1’s mother indicates they are likely not planning to return to the United States,” wrote Waterfield.
The affidavit notes Cuban authorities found the Inessa-Ethingtons and the child.
A press release the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah issued notes the Inessa-Ethingtons “were deported from Cuba” on Monday “with the assistance of the FBI.”
The couple has been charged with International Parental Kidnapping. The Inessa-Ethingtons were arraigned in Richmond, Va., on Monday. The press release notes a federal court in Salt Lake City will soon handle the case.
The New York Times reported the child is now back with their biological mother.
“We are grateful to law enforcement for working swiftly to return the child to the biological mother,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak of the District of Utah in the press release.
The case is unfolding against the backdrop of increased tensions between Washington and Havana after U.S. forces on Jan. 3 seized now former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
President Donald Trump shortly after he took office in January 2025 issued an executive order that directed the federal government to only recognize two genders: male and female. A second White House directive banned federally-funded gender-affirming care for anyone under 19.
The U.S. Supreme Court last year in the Skrmetti decision upheld a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for minors.
Cuba’s national health care system has offered free sex-reassignment surgeries since 2008.
Activists who are critical of Mariela Castro, the daughter of former President Raúl Castro who spearheads LGBTQ issues as director of Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education, have previously told the Washington Blade that access to these procedures is limited. The Blade on Wednesday asked a contact in Havana to clarify whether Cuban law currently allows minors to undergo sex-reassignment surgery.
Australia
Australia lifts additional restrictions on LGBTQ blood donors
Gay, bisexual men, trans people in long-term monogamous relationships can now donate
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service (Lifeblood) has lifted additional restrictions on LGBTQ people who want to donate blood.
The Star-Observer, an Australian LGBTQ newspaper, reported new Lifeblood rules that took effect on Monday will allow “gay and bisexual men and transgender people in long-term monogamous relationships to donate blood and platelets for the first time.”
The new policy defines “long-term monogamous relationships” as those that are at least six months.
All potential donors — regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity — will answer the same questions about recent sexual activity.
“Previous donor rules prevented many people from the LGBTQIA+ community from donating blood or platelets if they’d had sex within the past three months,” said Lifeblood CEO Stephen Cornelissen in a press release that announced the new policy. “These latest changes mean many gay and bisexual men and transgender people in long-term, monogamous relationships will become eligible to donate blood or platelets for the first time.”
Lifeblood in 2025 ended its blanket ban on sexually active LGBTQ people from donating blood.
Rodney Croome, an Australian LGBTQ activist who is the spokesperson for Let Us Give, a campaign that has championed the changes, donated blood on Monday.
“After three decades of advocacy, and for the first time in my life, I was able to donate blood today,” said Croome in a Facebook post that showed him donating blood. “From today, gay men, and bisexual men and transgender women who have sex with men, are able to give blood without the traditional three month abstinence period. All donors are now asked the same questions about sex regardless of the gender of our sexual partners.”
Croome in the post said “there are still problems with the new donor regime,” but said Let Us Give will continue to work with Lifeblood.
“Those who may have not been monogamous in the recent past should not be subject to a six month wait time,” he wrote. “Three months is considered more than enough in the UK, US and Canada. It should be here too. People on PrEP and trans people also face continued barriers. Let Us Give will continue to work towards greater equity in donation.”
European Union
Top EU court strikes down Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ propaganda law
Ruling issued days after voters outed Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
The European Union’s top court on Tuesday struck down Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ propaganda law.
Hungarian MPs in 2021 approved Act LXXIX of 2021.
“It shall be forbidden to make accessible to persons who have not attained the age of 18 years advertisement that depicts sexuality in a gratuitous manner or that propagates or portrays divergence from self-identity corresponding to sex at birth, sex change or homosexuality,” it reads.
The European Commission in 2022 challenged the law. Sixteen EU countries — Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden — joined the lawsuit. The European Parliament also supported it. Outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, for his part, said his government would defend the law.
The EU Court of Justice heard the case in 2024.
A press release that announced the ruling on Tuesday said Hungary “acted in breach of EU law.”
“The court finds, for the first time, a separate infringement of Article 2 TEU (Treaty on European Union), which lists the values on which the (European) Union is founded and which are common to all the Member States,” it reads. “The aspects of the amending law targeting content which portrays or promotes deviation from the self-identity corresponding to the sex assigned at birth, gender reassignment, or homosexuality constitute a coordinated series of discriminatory measures which are in breach, in a way that is both manifest and particularly serious, of the rights of non-cisgender persons — including transgender persons — or non-heterosexual persons, as well as the values of respect for human dignity, equality and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.”
“Consequently, that law is contrary to the very identity of the (European) Union as a common legal order in a society in which pluralism prevails,” notes the press release. “Hungary cannot validly rely on its national identity as justification for adopting a law which is in breach of the values referred to above.”
The Háttér Society, a Hungarian LGBTQ rights group, said the ruling “is a milestone for the protection of human rights in the European Union, and it is also a historic victory for LGBTQI people in Hungary.”
The court issued its ruling nine days after Péter Magyar ousted Orbán in Hungary’s elections.
Orbán took office in 2010.
He and his government faced widespread criticism over its anti-LGBTQ crackdown that included laws that banned Pride events and other public LGBTQ events. (Upwards of 100,000 people last June denied the prohibition and marched in Budapest’s annual Pride parade.)
“Those amendments constitute a particularly serious interference with several fundamental rights protected by the (EU) Charter (of Fundamental Rights), namely the prohibition on discrimination based on sex,” notes the court’s press release.
The EU since Orbán took office has withheld upwards of €35 billion ($41.2 billion) in funds to Hungary in response to concerns over corruption, rule of law, and other issues. Magyar has said he will work with Brussels to unfreeze the money.
ILGA-Europe Deputy Director Katrin Hugendubel urged Maygar’s government to repeal the law.
“With this ruling, the CJEU (The EU Court of Justice) is confirming what we have been saying for six years,” said Hugendubel. “There is now no excuse for the Commission not to require Hungary to quickly withdraw the law. Hungary cannot enter a post-Orbán era without repealing this legislation, including the Pride ban.”
“If Péter Magyar truly aims to be pro-EU, he must place this at the top of his agenda for his first 100 days in office, as an essential part of his EU facing reforms,” added Hugendubel.
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