World
Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Europe and Canada
Three Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna cancelled after attack plot uncovered
BULGARIA
Parliament rushed through passage of a Russia-style “LGBT propaganda” law Aug. 7 in a marathon session that was marked by speeches that queer activists have denounced as bordering on hate speech, and that sparked protests around the capital.
The vaguely worded law bans “propaganda, popularization and encouragement, directly or indirectly, of ideas and views connected to nontraditional sexual orientation or to gender-identifying different from the biological,” in Bulgarian schools. The law does not prescribe any specific punishment for infractions.
The bill was introduced by the Revival Party, which maintains strong ties to Russia’s government, but passed with surprising support from the pro-European Union center-right GERB party. Altogether, 159 MPs voted for the bill, while only 57 voted against it, mostly from the reformist We Continue the Change Party.
Bulgaria is currently without an elected government, as June national elections yielded a hung parliament. Fresh elections are scheduled for Oct. 20 — Bulgaria’s fifth election in three years. Parties are likely using the threat of “LGBT propaganda” to shore up votes.
Nevertheless, the passage of the law sparked protests from queer, women, and human rights groups around the capital, Sofia, calling on President Rumen Radev to veto the law.
“This is the first step in making non-traditional sexual orientation a crime. I consider this absolutely unacceptable and out of the spirit of what we strive to be as a country and society,” Ivan Ivanov, a protestor at the Aug. 7 rally, told Euronews.
Anti-LGBTQ “propaganda” laws have been spreading since Russia passed its law in 2013. Hungary and Lithuania have laws restricting LGBTQ speech in schools or around children, but Bulgaria is the first EU country to pass such a law since the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Lithuania’s law breached the European Convention in January 2023.
Other countries considering such laws right now are Georgia and Kazakhstan. Several African states have also recently passed or are considering laws criminalizing promotion of LGBTQ rights, including Uganda, Ghana, Namibia, and Liberia. Increasingly, similar laws are also being passed in Republican-led U.S. states.
AUSTRIA
Local organizers Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour cancelled three dates in Vienna after authorities arrested two suspected extremists on charges that they planned to attack a concert.
Swift had been scheduled to play at the Ernst Happel Stadium on Aug. 9, 10, and 11.
Authorities said they had arrested a 19-year-old main suspect in Ternitz, about 50 miles south of Vienna, and a second 17-year-old suspect in the capital.
Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of Austria’s Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, says the 19-year-old had been radicalized in the direction of the Islamic State, and that they had found material related to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda at the home of the 17-year-old.
Haijawi-Pirchner says that the suspect was employed by a company providing services at the concerts and was planning to use knives or self-made explosives to “kill as many people as possible” at the concert.
Initially, promoters said the concerts would go ahead with extra security provided by the national police, but the dates were quickly cancelled hours later.
Promoters Barracuda Music said all tickets would be automatically refunded within 10 business days.
The concert dates had been sold out for months, with an estimated 170,000 people expected to attend.
This isn’t the first time an Islamic extremist has allegedly targeted a pop concert. In 2017, an extremist suicide-bombed an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, killing 22 people and wounding more than 100.
CANADA
The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from alt-right figure Jordan Peterson of the decision by the College of Psychologists of Ontario requiring him to undergo social media training or risk losing his license to practice.
Peterson, who rose to international prominence for his strident opposition to a transgender rights bill passed by the Canadian government in 2017, has become a darling of the alt-right movement for his writings and social media posts advancing frequently misogynistic and transphobic views on women, masculinity, and gender identity, as well as general antipathy to other left-wing issues.
In 2022, the College of Psychologists found that his posts may be “degrading” and call into question his ability as a psychologist and bring the profession disrepute. It ordered he undergo social media training.
Peterson sought judicial review, but he lost at lower courts. The Supreme Court did not give reasons why it dismissed the appeal. Peterson was ordered to pay costs.
Initially, Peterson said he would continue to fight the order, somehow, but days later his lawyer had told CBC that Peterson would attend the training.
The case has divided rights groups in Canada, with the LGBTQ advocacy group Egale intervening on behalf of the College of Psychologists of Ontario, while the Canadian Civil Liberties Union intervened on behalf of Peterson, arguing that professional associations shouldn’t regulate speech unrelated to the profession.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, who has also courted the alt-right and far right in Canada, also posted in support of Peterson.
“Another government bureaucracy threatens to ban a Canadian from practicing his profession because he expressed political opinions the state doesn’t like,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The College of Psychologists of Ontario is not a government bureaucracy. It is a professional association.
BELGIUM
Former Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo spoke out against transphobia in an open letter after the current deputy prime minister raised alarms this week by recommending a transphobic book on his social media channels.
Deputy Prime Minister David Clarinval of the center-right Reformist Movement was accused of transphobia after he posted on X praise of the book “Transmania: Investigation into the Excesses of Transgender Ideology” by Marguerite Stern and Dora Moutot.
The book, originally published in France, is full of conjectures and conspiracy theories asserting that trans people aren’t real and that they are associated with pedophilia. It has become a symbol of the far right in France since it was published in April 2023.
Clarinval defended his post to the Brussels Times.
“This book gives a broader view of the transgender issue,” he said.
Di Rupo, who was Belgium’s first openly gay prime minister and now serves as a member of the European Parliament, wrote an open letter calling for conservatives and liberals to agree to protect all people’s rights in the wake of the controversy.
“In this reactionary climate, it is essential to emphasize that the freedoms granted to transgender people in no way diminish the freedoms of other citizens. The extension of rights and freedoms to some never diminishes those of others,” Di Rupo writes.
“Finally, it is important to remember that the freedoms we enjoy today are the fruit of fierce struggles, countless political battles and incalculable human tragedies. They are indeed heroic struggles, often marked by great suffering and sacrifice, that have shaped the free world in which we live in the West. Whether it is the fights for civil rights in the United States, for gender equality, for the rights of LGBTQIA+ people or for freedom of expression, they have all been driven by the same unwavering will: That of defending the dignity, freedom and respect of the human being in all its complexity.”
Poland
Polish court rules country must recognize same-sex marriages from EU states
Poland ‘must comply with European Union law’
Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court on March 20 ruled the country must recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other European Union states.
The EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg last November ruled in favor of a same-sex couple who challenged Poland’s refusal to recognize their German marriage.
The couple, who lives in Poland, brought their case to Polish courts in 2019. The Supreme Administrative Court referred it to the EU Court of Justice.
“Today’s ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court clearly demonstrates that Poland, as a member state of the European Union, must comply with European Union law,” said Przemek Walas, advocacy manager for the Campaign Against Homophobia, a Polish LGBTQ advocacy group, in a statement. “The Supreme Administrative Court rightly upheld the interpretation of the Court in Luxembourg and indicated that the only way to implement this ruling is to allow the transcription of a foreign marriage certificate.”
“This ruling is a significant step towards marital equality, but certainly not sufficient,” added Walas.
Ireland, Portugal, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Slovenia, Malta, Greece, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia are the EU countries that have extended full marriage rights to same-sex couples. Poland — along with Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia — are the four EU countries with no legal recognition of same-sex couples.
The Washington Blade on Wednesday spoke with Max Polonsky, a queer American who lives in Israel, about the Iran war and its impact on the country.
“It’s been tiring,” Polonsky told the Blade during a telephone interview from his home in Jaffa, an ancient port city with a large Arab population that is now part of Tel Aviv.
Polonsky grew up in Cherry Hill, N.J. He lived in D.C. for eight years before he moved to Israel in March 2022.
Israel and the U.S. on Feb. 28 launched airstrikes against Iran.
One of them killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran in response launched missiles and drones against Israel and other countries that include Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, and Cyprus.
An Iranian missile on March 1 killed nine people and injured 27 others in Beit Shemesh, an Israeli town that is roughly 20 miles west of Jerusalem. Shrapnel from an Iranian missile that struck a hair salon in Beit Awa, a Palestinian town in the West Bank, on Wednesday killed four women and injured more than a dozen others.
An Iranian drone that hit a command center in Kuwait on March 1 killed six U.S. soldiers: Sgt. Declan Coady, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, Capt. Cody Khork, Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, and Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien. Another American servicemember, Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, died on March 8, a week after Iranian drones and missiles targeted the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
Iranian drones and missiles have damaged hotels, airports, oil refineries, and other civilian and energy infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and elsewhere. Israel on Wednesday attacked Iran’s South Pars natural gas field in the Persian Gulf.
The Associated Press notes roughly 20 percent of the world’s crude oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz that connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Gas prices in the U.S. and around the world continue to increase because the war has essentially closed the strategic waterway to ship traffic.
The war also left hundreds of thousands of people who were traveling in the Middle East stranded.
The Blade on March 6 spoke with Mario, who had stopped in his native Lebanon while traveling from the U.S. to India for work.
Mario was about to board a flight at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Feb. 28 when the war began and authorities closed the country’s airspace. Mario is now back in the U.S.
Polonsky told the Blade there were “alarms all day … sometimes multiple alarms an hour, sometimes every hour, every two hours” on Feb. 28.
Israel’s Home Front Command typically issues warnings about 10 minutes ahead of an anticipated Iranian missile attack. Sirens then sound 90 seconds before an expected strike.
People in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and in other cities in central Israel have 90 seconds to seek shelter if a rocket or missile is fired from Lebanon or the Gaza Strip. (Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia militant group in Lebanon that Israel and the U.S. have designated a terrorist organization, launched rockets at the Jewish State after Khamenei’s death. Israel, in turn, continues to carry out airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, killed upwards of 1,200 people when they launched a surprise attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip.) People who live close to Lebanon and Gaza have 15 seconds to seek shelter.
Polonsky has a safe room — known as a “mamad” — in his apartment. Polonsky also uses it as his home office and a second bedroom.
He told the Blade the alerts in recent days have become less frequent.
“We’ll get maybe a handful of alarms during the day, maybe some at night,” said Polonsky.
Israel on June 12, 2025, launched airstrikes against Iran that targeted the country’s nuclear and military facilities. The subsequent war, which lasted 12 days, prompted the cancellation of Tel Aviv’s annual Pride parade. An Iranian missile destroyed Mash Central, the city’s last gay bar.
Iran on Oct. 1, 2024, launched upwards of 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. This reporter arrived in Israel three days later to cover the first anniversary of Oct. 7 and the impact the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip had on LGBTQ Israelis and Palestinians.
‘Iranian regime was bad’
Polonsky admitted he doesn’t “know what to think” about the latest war against Iran.
“I don’t know what I think about the war,” he said. “Ultimately what happens is just not in my personal control: whatever Donald Trump, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, the ayatollah, whoever is running Iran are going to organize and launch attacks and reach any deals is not anything I personally have any control over, so I try to just kind of let that aspect of it go as I’m living my life.”
Polonsky told the Blade he understands “there are very serious questions about how” the war started, and Congress’s role in it.
“Those are serious and valid, important questions,” he said. “And at the same time, the Iranian regime was bad.”
Polonsky noted Iran has supported and funded Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthi rebels in Yemen, and other groups “who were attacking Israel.” Polonsky added the Iranian government has “terribly oppressed their people.”
Iran is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death.
Reports indicate Iranian authorities killed upwards of 30,000 people during anti-government protests that began late last year. Sources with whom the Blade spoke said LGBTQ Iranians are among those who participated in the demonstrations.
“I’m not sad to see them pressured,” said Polonsky, referring to the Iranian regime.
He also described Khamenei as “a bad guy.”
“Him not being there is better,” said Polonsky.
State Department
Report: US to withhold HIV aid to Zambia unless mineral access expanded
New York Times obtained Secretary of State Marco Rubio memo
The State Department is reportedly considering withholding assistance for Zambians with HIV unless the country’s government allows the U.S. to access more of its minerals.
The New York Times on Monday reported Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a memo to State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs staffers wrote the U.S. “will only secure our priorities by demonstrating willingness to publicly take support away from Zambia on a massive scale.” The newspaper said it obtained a copy of the letter.
Zambia is a country in southern Africa that borders Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Times notes upwards of 1.3 million Zambians receive daily HIV medications through PEPFAR. The newspaper reported Rubio in his memo said the Trump-Vance administration could “significantly cut assistance” as soon as May.
“Reports of (the) State Department withholding lifesaving HIV treatment in return for mining concessions in Zambia does not make us safer, stronger, or more prosperous,” said U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday. “Monetizing innocent people’s lives further undermines U.S. global leadership and is just plain wrong.”
The Washington Blade has reached out to the State Department for comment.
Zambia received breakthrough HIV prevention drug through PEPFAR
Rubio on Jan. 28, 2025, issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during a freeze on nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending. HIV/AIDS service providers around the world with whom the Blade has spoken say PEPFAR cuts and the loss of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which officially closed on July 1, 2025, has severely impacted their work.
The State Department last September announced PEPFAR will distribute lenacapavir in countries with high prevalence rates. Zambia two months later received the first doses of the breakthrough HIV prevention drug.
Kenya and Uganda are among the African countries have signed health agreements with the U.S. since the Trump-Vance administration took office.
The Times notes the countries that signed these agreements pledged to increase health spending. The Blade last month reported LGBTQ rights groups have questioned whether these agreements will lead to further exclusion and government-sanctioned discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
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