World
Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Europe and Asia
Malaysian music festival organizers suing English rock band over on stage kiss
MALAYSIA
Rock band The 1975 is being sued by organizers of a music festival kissed a man on stage as a protest against the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws last July. The festival is seeking $2.4 million in damages alleging breach of contract after the festival was shut down by authorities.
The English rock band was headlining the Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur on July 21, 2023, when Healy delivered a performance that festival organizers Future Vibes Asia allege included drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes on stage, appearing to “spit excessively including towards the audience” and giving a “profanity-laden speech,” all of which they say was in violation of their performance contract.
“Variety” reported at the time that Healy told the crowd “I don’t see the fucking point … of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with … I’m sorry if that offends you, and you’re religious … but your government are a bunch of fucking r——. I don’t care anymore. If you push, I’m gonna push back. I’m not in the fucking mood.”
At that point, Healy kissed bassist Ross MacDonald on stage, resulting the band getting booted from the stage by government censors and banned from performing in Malaysia.
Authorities then shut down the entire festival, which still had two more days of performances by local and international acts, including American band The Strokes.
In filings in the UK High Court, Future Sound Asia is seeking $2.4 million in damages from the band, whom they say were paid $350,000 to perform.
The 1975 have not provided a response in court.
The band has also been sued separately by other artists who claim they lost opportunities and income because of the festival being shut down.
THAILAND
Thailand has become the 44th member state of the Equal Rights Coalition, an intergovernmental agency tasked with advancing the rights of LGBTQ and intersex people across the world.
Thailand is the first Asian country to join the international body, which also includes member states from Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East.
The Equal Rights Coalition was founded in 2016 under the leadership of Uruguay and the Netherlands to promote LGBTQ and intersex human rights, through forums and idea exchange with a particular focus on reducing violence and discrimination, ending criminalization of LGBTQ and intersex people, and including LGBTQ and intersex people in development projects.
Thailand has made great progress on LGBTQ rights in recent years, including legalizing same-sex marriage and adoption earlier this year, and introducing a government bill to facilitate legal gender change.
The ERC has worked to expand its own capacity this year, launching a secretariat hosted by ILGA-World in Geneva.
NEPAL
The Supreme Court of Nepal has for the first time ordered that the government recognize a transgender woman as a woman, without her having to submit to medical verification. The ruling applies only to this specific case but may set a precedent for future cases.
Human Rights Watch reported that Rukshana Kapali, a trans law student, was granted the order that she should be recognized as a woman on all government documents. Kapali has sued the government more than 50 times since 2021 in order to get her gender recognized, due to inconsistently applied rules across the country.
Although Kapali has been granted relief, other trans people will continue to have to sue to have their gender legally recognized, until the government creates a consistent regulation.
In 2007, the Supreme Court ordered the government to recognize a “third gender” or “other” option on the basis of self-identification. “Third gender” is a common way that many trans people in South Asian cultures self-identify.
However, because the government has failed to institute a clear nationwide policy around updating legal gender, many trans people face roadblocks. Some are forced to undergo surgery first, which requires travelling outside the country, and then to have invasive medical examinations in-country.
Human Rights Watch has called on the government to address this by creating a clear policy on updating legal gender based on self-determination.
“The government can and should make the system work for everyone by issuing a directive that allows people to self-identify their gender on official documents, without medical or other verification,” Human Rights Watch says in a press release.
UNITED KINGDOM
The British Medical Association has called for the government to pause implementation of the controversial Cass Review of gender care for trans youth, and a lifting of the government’s ban on the use of puberty blockers for under-18s.
The BMA, a trade union that represents nearly 200,000 doctors and medical students across the UK, has made the amid a growing anti-trans moral panic across the UK, fueled by far-right commentators, including “Harry Potter” creator J.K. Rowling, which captured the attention of the Conservative Party that governed the country for 14 years until last month.
But the new Labour government has been swift to uphold some of the previous government’s anti-trans policies, including announcing that it would move to make the ban on puberty blockers permanent.
The previous government had launched a review of trans youth care under Hilary Cass, who published her findings this spring. The Cass Review ultimately called for a move away from medical interventions for trans youth and instead proposed a model of better mental health support.
Trans activists and medical researchers criticized the report for its selective review of studies and lack of consultation with trans patients, which they have said give the impression that the review was designed to come to a conclusion that would effectively bar young people from transitioning or forcibly detransition them.
A government spokesperson has rebuffed the BMA’s call for a pause on implementation of the Cass Review while it completes its own research.
“NHS England will be implementing Dr. Cass’s recommendations so that children and young people get the safe, holistic care and support they need. We do not support a delay to vital improvements from the NHS to gender services,” a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told the BBC.
The ban on puberty blockers had also been challenged in court by the advocacy group TransActual, but a judge ruled last week that the ban was lawful.
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.
National
LGBTQ Catholic groups slam Trump over pope criticism
‘Moral truth and compassion always overcome ignorant hate’
LGBTQ Catholic groups have sharply criticized President Donald Trump over his criticisms of Pope Leo XIV.
Leo on April 13 told reporters while traveling to Algeria that he had “no fear of the Trump administration” after the president described him as “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy” in response to his opposition to the Iran war. (Trump on the same day posted to Truth Social an image that appeared to show him as Jesus Christ. He removed it on April 13 amid backlash from religious leaders.)
Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, during a Fox News Channel interview on the same day said “in some cases, it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of what’s going on with the Catholic church, and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.” Vance on April 14 once again discussed Leo during an appearance at a Turning Point USA event in Athens, Ga., saying he should “be careful when he talks about matters of theology.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni; former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Miguel Díaz; and Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, are among those who have criticized Trump over his comments. The president, for his part, has said he will not apologize to Leo.
“The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants,” said Leo on Thursday at a cathedral in Bamenda, Cameroon.
Francis DeBernardo is the executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based LGBTQ Catholic organization. He told the Washington Blade on Thursday that Trump’s comments about Leo “are one more example of the ridiculous hubris of this leader (Trump) whose entire record shows that he is nothing more than a middle-school bully.”
“LGBTQ+ adults were often bullied as children, and they have learned the lesson that bullies act when they feel frightened or threatened,” said DeBernardo. “But secular power does not threaten the Vicar of Christ, and Pope Leo’s response illustrates this truth perfectly.”
DeBernardo added Trump “is obviously frightened that Pope Leo, an American, has more power and influence than the president on the world stage.”
“Like most Trumpian bullying, this strategy will backfire,” DeBernardo told the Blade. “Moral truth and compassion always overcome ignorant hate. Trump’s actions are not an example of his power, but of his impotence.”
Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, an LGBTQ Catholic organization, echoed DeBernardo.
“He [Trump] has demonstrated throughout both presidencies that he doesn’t understand the basic concepts of any faith system that is founded on the dignity of human beings, the importance of common good,” Duddy-Burke told the Blade on Thursday during a telephone interview. “It’s just appalling.”
Duddy-Burke praised Leo and the American cardinals who have publicly criticized Trump.
“The pope’s popularity — given how much more respect Pope Leo has than the man sitting in the White House — is a blow to his ego,” Duddy-Burke told the Blade. “That seems to be a sore sport for him.”
“It’s such an imperialistic world view,” she added.
Leo ‘is the real peacemaker’
The College of Cardinals last May elected Leo to succeed Pope Francis after his death.
Leo, who was born in Chicago, is the first American pope. He was the bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru from 2015-2023.
Francis made him a cardinal in 2023.
Juan Carlos Cruz — a gay Chilean man and clergy sex abuse survivor who Francis appointed to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors — has traveled to Ukraine several times with Dominican Sister Lucía Caram since Russia launched its war against the country in 2022. Cruz on Thursday responded to Trump’s criticism of Leo in a text message he sent to the Blade from Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.
“I am in Ukraine under many attacks,” said Cruz. “Trump is an asshole and has zero right to criticize the Pope who is the real peacemaker.”
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