Activists around the world will mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia against the backdrop of efforts to curtail LGBTQ rights that are gaining traction in the U.S. and other countries.

The Trump-Vance administration since it took office in January has issued a number of executive orders that have specifically targeted transgender and nonbinary people. They include a declaration that the federal government will recognize “only two genders, male and female” and a directive that bans the State Department from issuing passports with an “X” gender marker.

ILGA-Europe on Wednesday released its annual update to its Rainbow Map, which documents LGBTQ rights in European countries.

The ILGA-Europe press release notes Hungary’s “prohibition of Pride events and criminalization of participants” and the U.K. Supreme Court ruling last month that restricts “the legal recognition of trans people.” The European advocacy group also highlighted a “sweeping ban on all forms of LGBTI representation and assembly” that Georgian lawmakers passed last fall.

“They are merely the most striking examples of a broader trend in which LGBTI human rights are being systematically dismantled under the guise of preserving public order,” said ILGA-Europe. “In reality, such measures pave the way for sweeping restrictions on fundamental freedoms, including the rights to protest and to political dissent.”

Argentine President Javier Milei in February issued a decree that restricts minors’ access to gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatments. An appeals court in Trinidad and Tobago in March recriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations in the Caribbean country.

The Trump-Vance administration’s decision to suspend most foreign aid has forced several LGBTQ rights groups and HIV/AIDS service organizations in South Africa, Kenya, and other African countries that received U.S. funding to curtail operations or shut down. Lawmakers in Vanuatu are considering an amendment to the country’s constitution that would recognize only two sexes: Male and female.

“This Pride season is different,” said Outright International, a global advocacy group, in an email it sent to supporters on Thursday. “From funding cuts and escalating violence to increases in anti-LGBTIQ legislation, the global backlash against our movement is growing.”

IDAHOBiT commemorates the World Health Organization’s declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder on May 17, 1990. This year’s IDAHOBiT theme is “the power of communities.”

“This year, and always, LGBTQIA+ people around the world are with feminist, sexual reproductive health rights, and broader social justice movements,” said ILGA World, a global LGBTQ rights group, earlier this week in an email to supporters.

The Namibian High Court last June ruled Apartheid-era laws that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations in the country are unconstitutional. A law that extended marriage rights to same-sex couples in Thailand took effect on Jan. 23.

Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education, an organization directed by Mariela Castro, the daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro who spearheads LGBTQ issues on the island, this month has organized a series of LGBTQ-specific events across the country.

Activists in Manningham, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, on Tuesday marked IDAHOBiT. The first “Ringing the Bell for LGBTIQ+ Equality” ceremony that is part of a campaign to promote LGBTQ inclusion in the private sector took place at the Toronto Stock Exchange on the same day.

The U.N. LGBTI Core Group, a group of U.N. member states that have pledged to support LGBTQ and intersex rights, will hold an event on Friday at the U.N. in New York that will commemorate both IDAHOBiT and the International Day of Families. (The U.S. earlier this year withdrew from the Core Group after President Donald Trump took office.)

Fondation Émerge and Fierté Montréal will organize a march in Montréal on Saturday. Other IDAHOBiT events are scheduled to take place on that day in South Africa, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, the U.K., and elsewhere around the world on that day.

More than a dozen stock exchanges around the world are participating in an initiative that seeks to promote LGBTQ inclusion in the private sector.

The first “Ringing the Bell for LGBTIQ+ Equality” ceremony took place on Tuesday at the Toronto Stock Exchange when members of the LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors Canada Association rang the closing bell.

(Video courtesy of the TMX Group)

Two “Ringing the Bell for LGBTIQ+ Equality” ceremonies took place on Wednesday at the London Stock Exchange and the Australia Stock Exchange. Similar events are scheduled to occur in Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Chicago, Mexico City, the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, the Namibian capital of Windhoek, and other cities throughout the month.

Koppa: The LGBTI+ Economic Power Lab and various U.N. agencies are behind the campaign that coincides with the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.

IDAHOBiT commemorates the World Health Organization’s declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder on May 17, 1990.

“This is more than just a symbolic gesture – it’s a global call to action to focus on LGBTIQ+ economic equality inclusion,” said Fabrice Houdart, co-founder of Koppa, in a press release that announced the “Ringing the Bell for LGBTIQ+ Equality” campaign. “Economic inclusion remains among the unfinished business of the LGBTIQ+ equality movement of the LGBTIQ+ equality movement around the world, including in the U.S. We are ringing the bell to remind the world: Our journey is far from over.”

“With an increasing number of governments trying to force businesses around the world to retreat on their support for basic equality, companies must step in and defend their right to do business as they see fit, including their support for equality for all,” he added.

Pope Leo XIV’s election has sparked global reactions, but his appointment has struck a deeper chord in Peru.

The now-pontiff served for years as bishop of Chiclayo, a city in northern Peru. For LGBTQ leaders and activists in the country, Leo represents a figure who, while unlikely to overhaul church doctrine, could signal a shift towards a less hostile and more open Catholic Church.

“The fact that the new pope lived and served pastorally in Peru is no small thing,” said George Hale, director of Promsex, an advocacy group that is based in Lima, the Peruvian capital. “Leo XIV is deeply familiar with inequality, abuses of power, popular religiosity, and the pain of a society scarred by classism and exclusion. His support for victims of the Sodalitium scandal showed a courageous figure willing to listen when others remained silent.”

The Sodalitium of Christian Life, a Peruvian Catholic lay group implicated in cases of sexual and psychological abuse against minors, became one of the church’s worst scandals in Latin America. Leo’s direct involvement in sanctioning those responsible — and his central role in the group’s eventual dissolution — was widely viewed as a sign of his commitment to reform from within.

Former Congressman Alberto de Belaunde, one of Peru’s few openly gay political figures, also welcomed Leo’s election, describing his trajectory as “good news within the Vatican.” De Belaunde emphasized Leo’s time at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, where he served on the university’s assembly as the church’s representative.

“Unlike other pontifical universities, the PUCP is progressive and diverse,” De Belaunde said. “Monsignor Prevost always demonstrated a remarkable ability to dialogue and showed respect for differing views. That speaks volumes about both his intellectual and pastoral approach.”

The question still remains: How much could the church change under Leo’s papacy when it comes to LGBTQ rights?

“Sometimes, even just a change in tone makes a difference,” De Belaunde noted. “I grew up under the influence of Pope John Paul II and Bishop Cipriani, both known for confrontational rhetoric. When the pope says things like ‘Who am I to judge?’ — it doesn’t change doctrine, but it humanizes the discourse. And that matters.”

De Belaunde specifically referred to Pope Francis’s 2013 comments about gay priests. (The Vatican’s tone on LGBTQ and intersex issues softened under Francis’s papacy, even though church teachings on homosexuality did not change.)

“There are very conservative factions within the church, outright enemies of our rights,” said Congresswoman Susel Paredes, who is a lesbian. “But there’s also space for love of neighbor, as Jesus taught. Even if Pope Leo XIV were to chart a path toward full inclusion of LGBTQ people, resistance would remain. These things don’t change overnight.”

Paredes also highlighted Francis’s legacy — especially his vision of a synodal church. The Argentine-born pontiff who died on April 21 was Leo’s direct mentor.

“Pope Francis spoke of a church where ‘everyone, everyone, everyone’ walks together without distinction,” she said. “Leo XIV was already part of that vision when he worked in some of Peru’s poorest areas. That gives us hope and reason to watch his papacy with expectation.”

Activists, however, are clear-eyed about the limits of symbolic change.

“He (Leo) doesn’t appear to be a hostile figure,” Hale said. “But he’s not pushing for radical reform either. He won’t lead the fight for same-sex marriage or trans rights. But his more humane tone — his closeness to those on the margins — can help de-escalate hate speech, especially in a country like ours.”

Hale also pointed to a recent gesture from the new Leo that raised concerns: His public support for the Peruvian bishops’ statement opposing a court ruling that granted Ana Estrada, a woman with a degenerative disease, the right to die with dignity through euthanasia.

“By endorsing that statement, he reaffirmed official doctrine. And while he may be compassionate, he’s still aligned with traditional positions on some key issues,” Hale said. “That’s why we insist: We’re not expecting a revolution, but a shift in tone matters.”

Peru does not recognize same-sex marriages, and transgender people lack legal protections. Expectations about Leo’s papacy remain measured because church rhetoric remains a roadblock to civil rights.

“Rights are granted by laws, and the separation of church and state must remain fundamental,” said Paredes. “That’s where progress happens, in secular legislation.”

“Yes — it’s a breath of fresh air to have a pope who doesn’t slam the door shut, who has walked with Peru’s most excluded,” she added. “That gives us encouragement to keep going.”