World
Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Europe and Asia
Qatari authorities give suspended sentence to British Mexican man arrested in Grindr sting
QATAR
A British Mexican man who was arrested in a Grindr sting operation has been given a six-month suspended sentence and will be deported ā although the state has 30 days to launch an appeal, during which he is not allowed to leave ā the BBC reports.
Manuel Guerrero AviƱa, 44, was arrested on what his family are calling trumped up drug charges in Doha in February, after being lured to a fake meeting on the gay cruising app Grindr. This week, he was handed his sentence, which includes a fine of approximately $2,700.
Guerrero, who has lived in Qatar for seven years and works for an airline, has told the BBC he is considering an appeal.
His family has previously told the BBC that he was approached online by a man named āGio,ā who also used the screen name āMikeā on both Grindr and Tinder. Guerrero invited āGioā to his apartment, but when he went to the lobby to let him in, police were waiting and arrested him.
Police searched his apartment and allegedly found amphetamine and methamphetamine. They later administered a drug test which they say show evidence he had used the substances.
Guerrero says the drugs were planted as part of a sting operation targeting queer people. Under threat of torture and without a translator or lawyer, he was coerced into signing a document written in Arabic, a language he doesnāt read, admitting his possession of the drugs.
He spent 42 days in pretrial detention before being given provisional release, during which time police attempted to coerce him into naming other queer people.
Complicating his situation is the fact that he lives with HIV. While in detention, guards frequently withheld his medication, which could have enabled the virus to build up a resistance to it. He ran out of his prescription, which is not available in Qatar, in April, and has had to use a local substitute.
Several human rights groups have criticized the lack of due process in Guerreroās case, the evidence that he was targeted for his sexual identity, and the implication that a wider crackdown on queer people is in the works.
āThis has been about his LGBT status from the start and his desire to express that status and his identity, and thatās what this case is about,ā James Lynch, co-director of the human rights organization Fair Square, told the BBC. āHeās an LGBT person and he was targeted through a dating app. You donāt do that, unless thatās the thing you are focused on.ā
Qatari officials deny that Guerrero was targeted for any reason other than the possession of illegal substances.
Following Guerrero’s arrest, Grindr began displaying a warning to users in Qatar that āpolice are known to be making arrests on the app.ā
Same-sex intercourse between men is illegal in Qatar, with potential sentences of up to three years. The law also allows a death sentence to be imposed for unmarried Muslims who have sex regardless of gender, though there are no records it has ever been carried out.
UKRAINE
The Kyiv City Council denied a organizers of Kyiv Pride a permit to hold the annual human rights demonstration on the cityās metro system, citing security concerns and the need to maintain service on the subway network, the Kyiv Post reports.
Kyiv Pride organizers say they still plan to go ahead with their march in the metro on June 16 even without a city permit.
Kyiv has not held a Pride festival since the latest Russian invasion began in February 2022. The organizers of Kyiv Pride say they were inspired to hold their march on the metro system by a similar event held in the war-torn eastern city Kharkiv in 2022, where the metro was the safest place to gather during Russian bombardment.
Itās partly because the metro is used as a bomb shelter during Russian attacks that the city denied a permit for the event. The city released a statement on June 3 calling on organizers to find another venue.
āIn order not to endanger the participants and passengers, and to avoid possible provocations, the city authorities cannot allow the Equality March to take place in the metro,ā it said.
Organizers expect up to 500 people to take part in the Pride march this year. Theyāre asking participants to register in advance in order to limit the number of participants who show up at metro.
In a lengthy post on Kyiv Prideās Facebook page, the organizers underscore the importance of holding a highly visible Pride festival, even during the upheaval of wartime.
āIt is our obligation before Ukrainian queer soldiers who are also supporting the March to ensure that they return from the frontlines to a more just legal environment,ā the post says.
āBacked by society, the historic same-sex partnerships law and the law on hate crimes dropped from the parliamentās priority list. We must seize the opportunity to remind the government that ensuring dignity and equality for all Ukrainian citizens is not a second-tier priority. Organizing an LGBTQ+ civil rights march in Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian [sic] invasion is a complex and courageous endeavor.ā
ITALY
An Italian couple is planning to challenge social conventions even as they challenge the bonds of the earth itself, by becoming the first gay couple to get married in outer space.
Alessandro Monterosso, a 33-year-old health software entrepreneur, and Alec Sander, a 25-year-old recording artist, will exchange vows in 2025 aboard a private spaceflight offered by the U.S. company Space Perspective.
Space Perspective is not yet in commercial operation, but its website says it will offer bespoke experiences aboard a luxury capsule that is lifted to the edge of space by a hydrogen-filled balloon at a speed of 12 miles per hour.
Monterosso and Sander have booked a whole capsule for them and six guests at a cost of $125,000 per person, an even $1,000,000 total. They say they are not seeking sponsors.
Monterosso and Sander first met in Padua in 2017, and they dated for four years until Sander broke it off because it was difficult to date while Monterosso was still in the closet. A year later, they met up again and Monterosso asked Sander to marry him. Sander agreed, but he didnāt immediately know that his fiancĆ© wanted to hold the wedding in space.
āI was planning the trip as a civilian, to fulfill my childhood desire to become an astronaut. When I came into contact with the aerospace agency we relied on, it came naturally to me to ask:Ā but can I also get married in space?ā Monterosso told theĀ Corriere della Sera newspaper.
āIt seemed like such a romantic idea. I had struggled so much to accept myself as homosexual, not because I wasnāt sure, but because of the social context, and I told myself that now I would have to tell the whole world how I felt. Firstly because I know that there are many people who experience what I experienced, and then to confirm the infinite love I feel for Alec,ā he says.
But Monterosso and Sander have a political message behind their space wedding as well. Same-sex marriage is not legal in Italy, and its current far-right government has cracked down hard on same-sex parents.
āCouples like us are not always well regarded in Italy. In other places in the world, they are even illegal. In Russia we are considered terrorists. Well, we just want to say that itās time to normalize everything and amplify this message as much as possible. And if it is therefore so difficult to get married on Earth, then we are going to do it in space, with a galactic wedding whose aim is precisely to normalize these loves,ā Monterosso says. āThe message is aimed at people, because even today we still feel eyes on us if we hold hands while walking down the street. But if people normalize, politics must adapt.ā
Monterosso and Sander already have their sights set on more distant shores.
āFor our 20th anniversary, we are aiming for Mars,ā Monterosso says.
AUSTRALIA
The government of New South Wales issued a historic apology this week to queer people who were persecuted under old laws that criminalized same-sex intercourse.
New South Wales decriminalized same-sex intimacy in 1984, one of the last Australian states to do so. Forty years later, it has become the last state to issue an apology for criminalizing queer people, after all other states did so in 2016 and 2017.
Delivering a speech in the state parliament, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said he ārecognizes and regrets this parliamentās role in enacting laws and endorsing policies of successive governmentsā decisions that criminalized, persecuted and harmed people based on their sexuality and gender.
Minnsās apology acknowledged people were harmed by these laws even if they werenāt directly charged or convicted under them.
āTo those who survived these terrible years, and to those who never made it through, we are truly sorry. Weāre sorry for every person convicted under legislation that should never have existed. For every person that experienced fear as a result of that legislation.
āEveryone who lost a job, who lost their future, or who lost the love of family and friends. We are very sorry for every person, convicted or otherwise, who were made to live a smaller life because of these laws,ā he said.
People who had been convicted under New South Walesās old sodomy laws have been eligible to have the convictions expunged since a law change in 2014.
Minnsā government recently passed a ban on conversion therapy in March, making New South Wales the fourth jurisdiction in Australia to do so.
The stateās only openly gay MP, Independent Alex Greenwich, says that the apology has to be followed by more action to promote equality.
Heās put forward his own bill that would close a loophole in anti-discrimination law to ban discrimination by religious schools against LGBTQ students and teachers, and would allow trans people to change their legal gender without having to undergo a medical procedure.
āI rise as the only openly gay member of the Legislative Assembly to contribute to this apology,ā Greenwich said in the state parliament. āI am one of only two in this chamberās 186-year-old history. This in itself shows how much work we need to do.ā
Books
New book profiles LGBTQ Ukrainians, documents war experiences
Tuesday marks four years since Russia attacked Ukraine
Journalist J. Lester Feder’s new book profiles LGBTQ Ukrainians and their experiences during Russia’s war against their country.
Feder for “The Queer Face of War: Portraits and Stories from Ukraine” interviewed and photographed LGBTQ Ukrainians in Kyiv, the country’s capital, and in other cities. They include Olena Hloba, the co-founder of Tergo, a support group for parents and friends of LGBTQ Ukrainians, who fled her home in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha shortly after Russia launched its war on Feb. 24, 2022.
Russian soldiers killed civilians as they withdrew from Bucha. Videos and photographs that emerged from the Kyiv suburb showed dead bodies with their hands tied behind their back and other signs of torture.
Olena Shevchenko, chair of Insight, a Ukrainian LGBTQ rights group, wrote the book’s forward.
The book also profiles Viktor Pylypenko, a gay man who the Ukrainian military assigned to the 72nd Mechanized Black Cossack Brigade after the war began. Feder writes Pylypenko’s unit “was deployed to some of the fiercest and most important battles of the war.”
“The brigade was pivotal to beating Russian forces back from Kyiv in their initial attempt to take the capital, helping them liberate territory near Kharkiv and defending the front lines in Donbas,” wrote Feder.
Pylypenko spent two years fighting “on Ukraine’s most dangerous battlefields, serving primarily as a medic.”
“At times he felt he was living in a horror movie, watching tank shells tear his fellow soldiers apart before his eyes,” wrote Feder. “He held many men as they took their final breaths. Of the roughly one hundred who entered the unit with him, only six remained when he was discharged in 2024. He didn’t leave by choice: he went home to take care of his father, who had suffered a stroke.”
Feder notes one of Pylypenko’s former commanders attacked him online when he came out. Pylypenko said another commander defended him.
Feder also profiled Diana and Oleksii Polukhin, two residents of Kherson, a port city in southern Ukraine that is near the mouth of the Dnieper River.
Ukrainian forces regained control of Kherson in November 2022, nine months after Russia occupied it.
Diana, a cigarette vender, and Polukhin told Feder that Russian forces demanded they disclose the names of other LGBTQ Ukrainians in Kherson. Russian forces also tortured Diana and Polukhin while in their custody.
Polukhim is the first LGBTQ victim of Russian persecution to report their case to Ukrainian prosecutors.
Feder, who is of Ukrainian descent, first visited Ukraine in 2013 when he wrote for BuzzFeed.
He was Outright International’s Senior Fellow for Emergency Research from 2021-2023. Feder last traveled to Ukraine in December 2024.
Feder spoke about his book at Politics and Prose at the Wharf in Southwest D.C. on Feb. 6. The Washington Blade spoke with Feder on Feb. 20.
Feder told the Blade he began to work on the book when he was at Outright International and working with humanitarian groups on how to better serve LGBTQ Ukrainians. Feder said military service requirements, a lack of access to hormone therapy and documents that accurately reflect a person’s gender identity and LGBTQ-friendly shelters are among the myriad challenges that LGBTQ Ukrainians have faced since the war began.
“All of these were components of a queer experience of war that was not well documented, and we had never seen in one place, especially with photos,” he told the Blade. “I felt really called to do that, not only because of what was happening in Ukraine, but also as a way to bring to the surface issues that we’d had seen in Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan.”
Feder also spoke with the Blade about the war’s geopolitical implications.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2013 signed a law that bans the “promotion of homosexuality” to minors.
The 2014 Winter Olympics took place in Sochi, a Russian resort city on the Black Sea. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine a few weeks after the games ended.
Russia’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown has continued over the last decade.
The Russian Supreme Court in 2023 ruled the “international LGBT movement” is an extremist organization and banned it. The Russian Justice Ministry last month designated ILGA World, a global LGBTQ and intersex rights group, as an “undesirable” organization.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has sought to align itself with Europe.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after a 2021 meeting with then-President Joe Biden at the White House said his country would continue to fight discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. (Zelenskyy’s relationship with the U.S. has grown more tense since the Trump-Vance administration took office.) Zelenskyy in 2022 publicly backed civil partnerships for same-sex couples.
Then-Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova in 2023 applauded Kyiv Pride and other LGBTQ and intersex rights groups in her country when she spoke at a photo exhibit at Ukraine House in D.C. that highlighted LGBTQ and intersex soldiers. Then-Kyiv Pride Executive Director Lenny Emson, who Feder profiles in his book, was among those who attended the event. Ā
āThank you for everything you do in Kyiv, and thank you for everything that you do in order to fight the discrimination that still is somewhere in Ukraine,ā said Markarova. āNot everything is perfect yet, but you know, I think we are moving in the right direction. And we together will not only fight the external enemy, but also will see equality.ā
Feder in response to the Blade’s question about why he decided to write his book said he “didn’t feel” the “significance of Russia’s war against Ukraine” for LGBTQ people around the world “was fully understood.”
“This was an opportunity to tell that big story,” he said.
“The crackdown on LGBT rights inside Russia was essentially a laboratory for a strategy of attacking democratic values by attacking queer rights and it was one as Ukraine was getting closet to Europe back in 2013, 2014,” he added. “It was a strategy they were using as part of their foreign policy, and it was one they were using not only in Ukraine over the past decade, but around the world.”
Feder said Republicans are using “that same strategy to attack queer people, to attack democracy itself.”
“I felt like it was important that Americans understand that history,” he said.
Netherlands
Rob Jetten becomes first gay Dutch prime minister
38-year-old head of government sworn in on Monday
Rob Jetten on Monday became the Netherlandās first openly gay prime minister.
Jettenās centrist D66 party won the countryās elections last October, narrowly defeating Geert Wildersā far-right Party for Freedom.
King Willem-Alexander on Monday swore in Jetten, who is also the countryās youngest-ever prime minister. The Associated Press notes Jettenās coalition government includes the center-right Christian Democrats and the center-right Peopleās Party for Freedom and Democracy.
āProud to be able to do this together,ā said Jetten in an X post before Willem-Alexander swore him in.
COC Nederland, a Dutch LGBTQ advocacy group, in a statement said Jetten ābecoming prime minister shows that your sexual orientation doesnāt have to matter.ā
āYou can become a construction worker, a doctor, a lawyer, and even prime minister,ā said COC Nederland.
The advocacy group noted Jetten has said his government will implement its āRainbow Agreementā that include calls for strengthening nondiscrimination laws āto better protect transgender and intersex people,ā appointing more ādiscrimination investigators … to address violence against LGBTQ+ people and other minorities,ā and introducing measures āto promote acceptance in schools.ā
āCOC will hold the Cabinet to that promise,ā said COC Nederland.
Jettenās fiancĆ© is NicolĆ”s Keenen, an Argentine field hockey player who competed in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Jetten is one of two openly gay heads of government: Andorran Prime Minister Xavier Espot Zamora came out in 2023. Gay Latvian President Edgars RinkÄviÄs, who is the countryās head of state, took office in 2023.
Leo Varadkar, who was Irelandās prime minister from 2017-2020 and from 2022-2024, and Xavier Bettel, who was Luxembourgās prime minister from 2013-2023, are gay. Ana BrnabiÄ, who was Serbiaās prime minister from 2017-2024, is a lesbian.
Former Icelandic Prime Minister JĆ³hanna SigurĆ°ardĆ³ttir in 2009 became the worldās first openly lesbian head of government. Former Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, former San Marino Captain Regent Paolo Rondelli, and former French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal are also openly gay.
Colombian presidential candidate Claudia LĆ³pez, who is the former mayor of BogotĆ”, the Colombian capital, would become her countryās first female and first lesbian president if she wins the countryās presidential election that is taking place later this year.
Ecuador
Justicia reconoce delito de odio en caso de bullying en Instituto Nacional MejĆa de Ecuador
Johana B se suicidĆ³ el 11 de abril de 2023
A casi tres aƱos del suicidio de Johana B., quien estudiĆ³ en el Instituto Nacional MejĆa, colegio emblemĆ”tico de Quito, el Tribunal de la Corte Nacional de Justicia ratificĆ³ la condena para el alumno responsable del acoso escolar que la llevĆ³ a quitarse la vida.
SegĆŗn informaciĆ³n de la FiscalĆa, el fallo de Ćŗltima instancia deja en firme la condena de cuatro aƱos de internamiento en un centro para adolescentes infractores, en una audiencia de casaciĆ³n pedida por la defensa del agresor, tres meses antes de que prescriba el caso.
Con la sentencia, este caso es uno de los primeros en el paĆs en reconocer actos de odio por violencia de gĆ©nero, delito tipificado en el artĆculo 177 del CĆ³digo OrgĆ”nico Penal Integral (COIP).
El suicidio de Johana B. ocurriĆ³ el 11 abril de 2023 y fue consecuencia del acoso escolar por estereotipos de gĆ©nero que enfrentĆ³ la estudiante por parte de su agresor, quien constantemente la insultaba y agredĆa por su forma de vestir, llevar el cabello corto o practicar actividades que hace aƱos se consideraban exclusivamente para hombres, como ser mando de la Banda de Paz en el Instituto Nacional MejĆa.
Desde la muerte de Johana, su familia buscaba justicia. Su padre, JosĆ©, en una entrevista concedida a ediciĆ³n cientonce para la investigaciĆ³n periodĆstica Los suicidios que quedan en el clĆ³set a causa de la omisiĆ³n estatal afirmĆ³ que su hija era acosada por su compaƱero y otres estudiantes con apodos como āmarimachaā, lo que tambiĆ©n fue corroborado en los testimonios recogidos por la Unidad de Justicia Juvenil No. 4 de la FiscalĆa.
Los resultados de la autopsia psicolĆ³gica y del examen antropolĆ³gico realizados tras la muerte de Johana confirmaron las versiones de sus compaƱeras y docentes: que su agresor la acosĆ³ de manera sistemĆ”tica durante dos aƱos. Los empujones, jalones de cabello o burlas, incluso por su situaciĆ³n econĆ³mica, eran constantes en el aula de clase.
La violencia que recibiĆ³ Johana escalĆ³ cuando su compaƱero le dio un codazo en la espalda ocasionĆ”ndole una lesiĆ³n que le imposibilitĆ³ caminar y asistir a clases.
DĆas despuĆ©s del hecho, la adolescente se quitĆ³ la vida en su casa, tras escuchar que la madre del agresor se negĆ³ a pagar la mitad del valor de una tomografĆa para determinar la lesiĆ³n en su espalda, tal como lo habĆa acordado previamente con sus padres y frente al personal del DECE (Departamento de ConsejerĆa Estudiantil del colegio), segĆŗn versiones de su familia y la FiscalĆa.
#AFONDO | Johana se suicidĆ³ el 11 de abril de 2023, tras ser vĆctima de acoso escolar por no cumplir con estereotipos femeninos š¢.
Dos semanas antes, uno de sus compaƱeros le dio un codazo en la espalda, ocasionĆ”ndole una lesiĆ³n que le imposibilitĆ³ caminar š§µ pic.twitter.com/bXKUs9YYOm
— EdicionCientonce (@EdCientonce) September 3, 2025
āEra una chica linda, fuerte, alegre. Siempre nos llevamos muy bien, hemos compartido todo. Nos dejĆ³ muchos recuerdos y todos nos sentimos tristes; siempre estamos pensando en ella. Es un vacĆo tan grande aquĆ, en este lugarā, expresĆ³ JosĆ© a EdiciĆ³n Cientonce el aƱo pasado.
Para la fiscal del caso y de la Unidad de Justicia Juvenil de la FiscalĆa, Martha Reino, el suicidio de la adolescente fue un agravante que se contemplĆ³ durante la audiencia de juzgamiento de marzo de 2024, segĆŗn explicĆ³ a este medio el aƱo pasado. Desde entonces, la familia del agresor presentĆ³ un recurso de casaciĆ³n en la Corte Nacional de Justicia, que provocĆ³ la dilataciĆ³n del proceso.
En el fallo de Ćŗltima instancia, el Tribunal tambiĆ©n dispuso que el agresor pague $3.000 a la familia de Johana B. como reparaciĆ³n integral. AdemĆ”s, el adolescente deberĆ” recibir medidas socioeducativas, de acuerdo al artĆculo 385 del CĆ³digo OrgĆ”nico de la NiƱez y Adolescencia, seƱala la FiscalĆa.
El caso de Johana tambiĆ©n destapĆ³ las omisiones y negligencias del personal del DECE y docentes del Instituto Nacional MejĆa. En la etapa de instrucciĆ³n fiscal se comprobĆ³ que no se aplicaron los protocolos respectivos para proteger a la vĆctima.
De hecho, la FiscalĆa conociĆ³ el casoĀ a raĆz de la denuncia que presentĆ³ su padre,Ā JosĆ©, y no por el DECE, asegurĆ³ la fiscal el aƱo pasado a EdiciĆ³n Cientonce.
Pese a estas omisiones presentadas en el proceso, el fallo de Ćŗltima instancia sĆ³lo ratificĆ³ la condena para el estudiante.
PHOTOS: Queen of Hearts
New book profiles LGBTQ Ukrainians, documents war experiences
More than a dozen LGBTQ athletes medal at Olympics
Rob Jetten becomes first gay Dutch prime minister
US Embassy in Mexico issues shelter in place order for Puerto Vallarta
Judge rescinds order against activist in Capital Pride lawsuit
Trans activists arrested outside HHS headquarters in D.C.
How do we honor Renee Good, Alex Pretti?
Calendar: February 20-26
