World
LGBTQ aid workers reflect on a year in Gaza, working with queer Palestinians
‘The struggles of all marginalized communities are interconnected’
Gaza was different. Over the past two years, Rain Dove Dubilewski has been on the ground helping evacuate conflict areas such as Ukraine, Uganda, and Venezuela.
But still, nothing prepared them for what they would face in Palestine. “[It] is so much different than any other [conflict zone],” said Dubilewski, explaining that in other areas, there are places to flee and organizations in place to support refugees once they get there. Dubilewski and their team’s job was to facilitate movement and help set up refugees with existing services. This is nearly impossible both in Gaza and in Egypt where the small number of refugees able to evacuate have been able to flee.
“It became very apparent to me that everything we did was like pouring water into the desert. There was nothing we can offer that is lasting or stable for the Palestinian people,” said Dubilewski. “They need comprehensive, large aid.”
After reaching fame as a gender-nonconforming model, the LGBTQ rights activist turned almost accidentally to refugee work. A fundraiser for LGBTQ Ukrainians Dubilewski hosted on their Instagram in 2022 blew up. A call for $5,000 snowballed into $500,000 and the direct support of thousands of people on the ground in Ukraine, including members of the LGBTQ community and Holocaust survivors.
Their refugee work in Ukraine has been featured by the Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration and the International Organization for Migration Germany.
The Blade interviewed Dubilewski and two LGBTQ Safebow volunteers, in addition to reviewing hundreds of photos, videos, and messages from the ground in Gaza and Egypt. Several other LGBTQ volunteers introduced themselves but chose not to be interviewed. As a whole, the testimony and documentation paint a photo of mass suffering and transnational queer solidarity.
Over the past year, Safebow has facilitated the evacuation of more than 300 people out of Gaza, which was corroborated by documentation sent by Safebow.
They have distributed LifeStraws, prosthetics, toys, clothing, food, medication, and thousands of dollars of cash to Palestinian refugees. Throughout Dubilewski’s entire time on the ground, they wore a Pride pin and lanyard that said “I am LGBT” in both English and Arabic. Dubilewski said this only posed a problem once during their work. Numerous other volunteers were trans and queer as well.
Despite positive experiences, everyone emphasized serious risks, as the LGBTQ community faces varying risks of persecution in Egypt and Gaza. Safebow largely works through collaboration with a local team, many of whom are LGBT, and Safebow was particularly careful to protect them.
Alyssa Rani Nagpal, a volunteer who oversaw 37 evacuations, is a biracial queer woman. She remains close with two families she helped, speaking with them frequently on the phone. “They remind me, repeatedly, that I’ll always be part of their families and that our connection is one they actively care to maintain,” said Nagpal. They also often ask after Naghpal’s partner, a woman.
Nagpal, who is launching her own non-profit, said that “being an aid worker was an obvious choice, a no-brainer.”
“The struggles of all marginalized communities are interconnected,” she said, “This intersection was always painfully obvious to me as the first-generation gay daughter of a low-income immigrant family living in NYC.” Nagpal specifically points to pinkwashing – “a horrific way to excuse violence in our name”— as a way queer and Palestinian struggles are interconnected.
Though she was able to help many, what Nagpal carries the most is those Safebow couldn’t help. “The moments that stuck out to me, and likely won’t leave my conscious and subconscious mind for a very long time… Their heartbreak and anguish expressed during those conversations still haunts me.”
Afeef Nessouli has spoken to numerous Palestinians who he knows will not be able to evacuate Gaza, let alone survive. This has become a major part of his life over the past year.
Nessouli is a reporter and producer whose work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Daily Show, CNN, and Slow Factory. As an openly queer, Muslim journalist from the Levant – Nessouli’s family is from Lebanon – he found himself in a unique situation as violence escalated in Gaza.
“Queer people from Gaza were getting in touch with me on Instagram,” he said. Being out and proud, “signals to other queer people who might be hiding [that] I exist, and I am here for you to reach out to,” says Nessouli.
Suddenly, he was one of few who held the voices of LGBTQ Palestinians at a time when their very existence was being questioned. He has published sparingly, respecting the unique vulnerability of his sources.
Nessouli emphasizes that there is a diversity of Palestinian queer experiences in Gaza.
“There are some that have hooked up many times and found love and found excitement and surprise and queerness in all of the ways,” said Nessouli. “And then you have people who’ve never met another queer person at all in Gaza. You have people who are struggling with mental health challenges,” said Nessouli.
“You have people who are very aware that they don’t identify as queer as their first identity, even if they do identify as queer, their first identity is Palestinian,” said Nessouli.
For Nessouli, documentation is the biggest concern. “I think journalism is necessarily about documenting history,” he said. “God forbid something happens to them, I want to always be able to point and say we exist in droves, and we exist in multiplicity.”
Not that Nessouli was going to sit passively waiting for something to happen. He quickly connected with Dubilewski through actor Sara Ramirez. “Rain’s reputation precedes them,” he said, speaking to their work across other war zones.
Nessouli, who also has a J.D. in human rights law and a master’s in international relations, connected Dubilewski and the Safebow team with LGBTQ Palestinians living in Gaza. He also provided much-needed logistical support on the back end. “It was 1,000 conversations, hours upon hours of just logistics and also just venting, being comrades and bonding over the impossibility of just trying to help where we could help,” he said.
Nessouli recently went to Cairo to visit refugee families helped by Safebow and document their stories. Safebow documented the stories of every LGBTQ person they evacuated, which will not be published but will be available for preservation in archives and future museums, as agreed to by the refugees.
“Importantly, a genocide has been happening for a year, and it’s important to record people’s stories because of the act of ethnic cleansing and the act of erasure has been upon us,” said Nessouli. “Journalism is aid work, in some ways. It’s not, but it’s heavily connected.”
At the directive of the Egyptian government, Safebow has to wrap up its work by the end of this year as part of a larger trend of not supporting refugees, says Dubilewski. Many volunteers continue the work through other initiatives, like Nagpal, whose non-profit is working to fill the education gap for Palestinian youth in Egypt who are ineligible for Egyptian public schools.
As Dubilewski works on the next steps, they reflect on the tenacity of their team. “I will forever be grateful to every single person group, they are some of the bravest, boldest, kindest, funniest, and just most dedicated people you’ll ever meet.”
Uganda
World Bank resumes lending to Uganda
New loans suspended in 2023 after Anti-Homosexuality Act signed
The World Bank Group has resumed lending to Uganda.
The bank in 2023 suspended new loans to the African country after President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act, which contains a death penalty provision for “aggravated homosexuality.” Reuters reported the bank decided to resume lending on June 5.
“We have now determined the mitigation measures rolled out over the last several months in all ongoing projects in Uganda to be satisfactory,” a bank spokesperson told Reuters in an email. “Consequently, the bank has prepared three new projects in sectors with significant development needs – social protection, education, and forced displacement/refugees – which have been approved by the board.”
Activists had urged the bank not to resume loans to Uganda.
Richard Lusimbo, director general of the Uganda Key Population Consortium, last September described the “so-called ‘mitigation measures’ are a façade, designed to provide the illusion of protection.”
“They rely on perpetrators of discrimination — the government of Uganda — to implement the measures fairly,” said Lusimbo. “How can they be taken seriously?”
South Africa
South African activists demand action to stop anti-LGBTQ violence
Country’s first gay imam murdered in February
Continued attacks of LGBTQ South Africans are raising serious concerns about the community’s safety and well-being.
President Cyril Ramaphosa in May 2024 signed the Preventing and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill into law that, among other things, has legal protections for LGBTQ South Africans who suffer physical, verbal, and emotional violence. Statistics from the first and second quarters of 2025 have painted a grim picture.
Muhsin Hendricks, the country’s first openly gay imam, in February was shot dead in Gqeberha, in a suspected homophobic attack. Authorities in April found the body of Linten Jutzen, a gay crossdresser, in an open field between an elementary school and a tennis court in Cape Town.
A World Economic Forum survey on attitudes towards homosexuality and gender non-conformity in South Africa that Marchant Van Der Schyf conducted earlier this year found that even though 51 percent of South Africans believe gay people should have the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts, 72 percent of them feel same-sex sexual activity is morally wrong. The survey also notes 44 percent of LGBTQ respondents said they experienced bullying, verbal and sexual discrimination, and physical violence in their everyday lives because of their sexual orientation.
Van Der Schyf said many attacks occur in the country’s metropolitan areas, particularly Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg.
“Victims are often lured to either the perpetrator’s indicated residence or an out-of-home area under the appearance of a meet-up,” said Van Der Schyf. “The nature of the attacks range from strangulation and beatings to kidnapping and blackmail with some victims being filmed naked or held for ransom.”
The Youth Policy Committee’s Gender Working Group notes South Africa is the first country to constitutionally protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation and the fifth nation in the world to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples. A disparity, however, still exists between legal protections and LGBTQ people’s lived experiences.
“After more than 20 years of democracy, our communities continue to wake up to the stench of grief, mutilation, violation, and oppression,” said the Youth Policy Committee. “Like all human beings, queer individuals are members of schooling communities, church groups, and society at large, therefore, anything that affects them should affect everyone else within those communities.”
The Youth Policy Committee also said religious and cultural leaders should do more to combat anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
“Religious institutions seem to perpetuate the hate crimes experienced by queer individuals,” said the group. “In extreme cases, religious leaders have advocated for killings and hateful crimes to be committed against those in the queer community. South Africa’s highly respected spiritual guides, sangomas, are also joining the fight against queer killings and acts of transphobia and homophobia.”
“The LGBTQIA+ community is raising their voice and they need to be supported because they add a unique color to our rainbow nation,” it added.
Steve Letsike, the government’s deputy minister for women, youth, and persons with disabilities, in marking the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia on May 17 noted Ramaphosa’s administration has enacted legislative framework that protects the LGBTQ community. Letsike, however, stressed the government still needs to ensure its implementation.
“We have passed these policies and we need to make sure that they are implemented fully and with urgency, so that (LGBTQ) persons can self-determine and also have autonomy without any abusive requirements,” said Letsike. “We need families, faith leaders, traditional authorities, and communities to rise together against hate. Our constitution must remain respected.”
Siphokazi Dlamini, a social justice activist, said LGBTQ rights should be respected, as enshrined in the constitution.
“It is terrible to even imagine that they face discrimination despite the fact that this has been addressed numerous times,” said Dlamini. “How are they different from us? Is a question I frequently ask people or why should they live in fear just because we don’t like the way they are and their feelings? However, I would get no response.”
Dlamini added people still live in fear of being judged, raped, or killed simply because of who they are.
“What needs to be addressed to is what freedom means,” said Dlamini. “Freedom means to have the power to be able to do anything that you want but if it doesn’t hurt other people’s feelings while doing it. There is freedom of speech, freedom from discrimination, freedom of expression, of thought, of choice, of religion, of association, and these needs to be practiced. It is time to take such issues seriously in order to promote equality and peace among our people, and those who do not follow these rules should be taken into custody.”
Van Der Schyf also said LGBTQ South Africans should have a place, such as an inquiry commission, that allows them to talk about the trauma they have suffered and how it influences their distrust of the government.
Chile
Gay pharmacist’s murder sparks outrage in Chile
Francisco Albornoz’s body found in remote ravine on June 4
The latest revelations about the tragic death of Francisco Albornoz, a 21-year-old gay pharmacist whose body was found on June 4 in a remote ravine in the O’Higgins region 12 days after he disappeared, has left Chile’s LGBTQ community shocked.
The crime, which was initially surrounded by uncertainty and contradictory theories, has taken a darker and more shocking turn after prosecutors charged Christian González, an Ecuadorian doctor, and José Miguel Baeza, a Chilean chef, in connection with Albornoz’s murder. González and Baeza are in custody while authorities continue to investigate the case.
The Chilean Public Prosecutor’s Office has pointed to a premeditated “criminal plan” to murder Albornoz.
Rossana Folli, the prosecutor who is in charge of the case, says Albornoz died as a a result of traumatic encephalopathy after receiving multiple blows to the head inside an apartment in Ñuñoa, which is just outside of Santiago, the Chilean capital, early on May 24. The Prosecutor’s Office has categorically ruled out that Albornoz died of a drug overdose, as initial reports suggested.
“The fact that motivates and leads to the unfortunate death of Francisco is part of a criminal plan of the two defendants, aimed at ensuring his death and guaranteeing total impunity,” Folli told the court. “The seriousness of the facts led the judge to decree preventive detention for both defendants on the grounds that their freedom represents a danger to public safety.”
Prosecutors during a June 7 hearing that lasted almost eight hours presented conservations from the suspects’ cell phones that they say showed they planned the murder in advance.
“Here we already have one (for Albornoz.) If you bring chloroform, drugs, marijuana, etc.,” read one of the messages.
Security cameras captured the three men entering the apartment where the murder took place together.
Hours later, one of the suspects left with a suitcase and a shopping cart to transport Albornoz’s body, which had been wrapped in a sleeping bag. The route they followed to dispose of the body included a stop to buy drinks, potato chips, gloves, and a rope with which they finally descended a ravine to hide it.
Advocacy groups demand authorities investigate murder as hate crime
Although the Public Prosecutor’s Office has not yet officially classified the murder as a hate crime, LGBTQ organizations are already demanding authorities investigate this angle. Human rights groups have raised concerns over patterns of violence that affect queer people in Chile.
The Zamudio Law and other anti-discrimination laws exist. Activists, however, maintain crimes motivated by a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity are not properly prosecuted.
“This is not just a homicide, it is the cruelest expression of a society that still allows the dehumanization of LGBTQ+ people,” said a statement from Fundación Iguales, one of Chile’s main LGBTQ organizations. “We demand truth, justice, and guarantees of non-repetition.”
The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh), meanwhile, indicated that “since the first day the family contacted us, we have been in conversations with the Prosecutor’s Office so that this fatal outcome is thoroughly investigated, including the possible existence of homophobic motivations or components.”
The investigation into Albornoz’s murder continues, and the court has imposed a 90-day deadline for authorities to complete it.
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