World
Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Asia, Europe, and the Middle East
Spanish government wants constitution to protect marriage equality, abortion rights
JAPAN
A coalition of 19 prefectures and more than 150 municipalities has created a Partnership System Municipal Cooperation Network, in which all member governments agree to recognize each other’s same-sex partnership registries. The new system should help same-sex couples ensure their partnerships remain valid if they move or maintain multiple residences.
Because same-sex marriage is not currently legal in Japan, 30 of Japan’s 47 prefectures and more than 400 municipalities have established “partnership oath systems,” in which same-sex couple can register their relationships to help them access local services that are restricted to couples, such as housing, insurance, and medical decision-making. However, these registries are not legally binding and confer no direct rights on the couples.
Prior to the establishment of the PSMCN, couples who had registered in one municipality or prefecture could face difficulty having their relationship recognized in a different location. About one quarter of Japan lives in a place that does not recognize same-sex couples of any kind.
Meanwhile, several cases seeking to establish a right to same-sex marriage continue to wind their way through the courts.
Five out of six lower courts that heard equal marriage cases have issued rulings that the ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, as have both upper courts that have heard cases. This week, the Osaka High Court is set to hear an appeal of the lower court’s decision that the ban is constitutional. The Fukuoka High Court will hear an equal marriage case in December. All of these cases will likely eventually be heard by the Supreme Court.
Most of the leading figures in Japan’s long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party have been deeply conservative on sexuality issues, which has stalled hope for progress on same-sex marriage at the legislative level. But last month’s snap elections returned a minority parliament in which a bare majority of legislatures have expressed support for same-sex marriage.
SPAIN
The governing Socialist Party announced it wants to amend the constitution to protect same-sex marriage and abortion rights, amid the rise of far right parties that have stated their goal of rolling back LGBTQ rights in Spain and across Europe.
The proposal is laid out in the party’s plan for the current national congress which was distributed to its provincial counterparts for debate this month. The document aims to include “the social achievements of the last decade” into the constitution, an effort which the document itself acknowledges may be “impossible,” but which the party wants to achieve.
Among other proposals are protections for social housing and setting a floor for the minimum wage at 60 percent of the average wage.
Spain has seen its far-right Vox Party grow rapidly over the last decade winning seats in parliament and local and regional councils. In regional governments where Vox has formed coalition governments with the more mainstream conservative People’s Party, it has already rolled back LGBTQ rights progress.
In the Madrid region, where PP and Vox govern together, they rolled back laws banning anti-LGBTQ discrimination and so-called conversion therapy, and ending recognition of transgender people, though the law was later stopped by the Constitutional Court.
It’s unlikely that the PSOE will be able to amend the constitution as that would require a three-fifths majority of both houses of parliament to pass, and PSOE only holds a minority of seats in both houses.
UNITED KINGDOM
The Conservative Party has elected as its new leader Kemi Badenoch, a legislator with a long history of espousing anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ viewpoints. Badenoch also makes history as the first Black woman to lead a major political party in the UK.
Badenoch was first elected to parliament in 2017 and previously served as the Minister for Women and Equalities in the Rishi Sunak government. She was confirmed as Conservative Party leader on Nov. 2, following an election among party members in which she won 56.5 percent of the vote.
In office, she frequently railed against trans rights and met with the anti-trans group LGB Alliance. She called for the abolition of gender-neutral toilets and was caught on a leaked recording referring to trans women as “men.”
This year, she supported her party’s platform of amending the Equalities Act to ensure that the ban on “sex” discrimination only applied to biological sex, thus allowing discrimination against trans people.
She successfully killed a planned ban on conversion therapy by pushing the government to study it further and consider not banning conversion therapy aimed at trans people.
She also used her office to push the Financial Conduct Authority to remove trans-inclusive workplace policies, and railed against “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives that she claimed “divide, rather than unify.”
In 2019, she abstained on the bill that extended same-sex marriage rights to Northern Ireland — then the only part of the UK where it wasn’t yet legal.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
The World Surf League has named Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates as a stop of its 2025 Championship Tour and Longboard Tour, drawing protests from surfers and surf organizations over the potential for harm to LGBTQ athletes who attend a competition in a country where homosexuality is illegal.
The World Surf League is the governing body for professional surfers, and it sanctions competitions and events around the world. The 2025 Tour features 12 stops, including events in Brazil, Fiji, Tahiti, South Africa, El Salvador, Australia, and the U.S.
It’s the second stop, at Surf Abu Dhabi, UAE from Feb. 14-16 that’s raised eyebrows among surf athletes and fans.
Homosexuality and cross-dressing are illegal under both the Federal Crime and Punishment Law of UAE and the Abu Dhabi Penal Code, with a minimum sentence of six months and up to 14 years in prison.
Yvette Curtis, who runs the UK-based inclusive surf club Wave Wahines, has started a petition on Change.org calling on the World Surf League to drop the Abu Dhabi dates from the tour.
“The WSL have chosen to support a government that criminalizes LGBTQIA+ people and discriminates against women, and in doing so are choosing to place their athletes, support teams, and spectators at risk,” the petition states.
“By removing Abu Dhabi from its event calendar, the World Surf League would make a powerful statement: Human rights and the safety of its athletes and employees are paramount. Ignoring this issue would tacitly endorse discriminatory practices and betray the inclusive values at the heart of Olympic sports. Only through decisive action can we ensure that everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, has an equal opportunity to compete in professional surfing.”
Curtis says the issue is personal to her, as the mother of a trans surfer.
“As a mother of three, the safety of my children is my utmost priority. My eldest child, who has bravely embraced their true self, is transgender. They also have a passion for surfing, but existing regulations in certain regions rob them of this joy and access to the waves. Abu Dhabi, named as a stop in World Surf League’s event calendar, presents a stark reality. My child, due to their identity, would be breaking laws by merely existing in such an environment,” she says.
The petition, which has already drawn more than 1,600 signatures, has been endorsed by surf clubs all over the world,
The controversy around the Abu Dhabi tour stop mirrors similar controversy over hosting the 2022 World Cup in Doha, Qatar, and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, both countries with dismal records on LGBTQ rights.
Chile
Far-right Chilean President José Antonio Kast takes office
Former congressman opposes LGBTQ rights
Chilean President José Antonio Kast took office on Wednesday.
Kast — the far-right leader of the Republican Party who was a member of the country’s House of Deputies from 2002-2018 — defeated Jeannette Jara — a member of the Communist Party of Chile who was the former labor and social welfare minister in former President Gabriel Boric’s government — in last year’s presidential election.
The Chilean constitution prevented Boric from running for a second consecutive term.
The Washington Blade has previously reported Kast has expressed his opposition to gender-specific policies, comprehensive sex education, and reforms to Chile’s anti-discrimination laws. Kast has also publicly opposed the country’s marriage equality law that took effect on March 10, 2022, the day before Boric took office.
The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, a Chilean LGBTQ and intersex rights group known by the acronym Movilh, declared a “state of alert” after Kast’s election, “given this leader’s (Kast’s) public and political trajectory, characterized for decades by systematic opposition to laws and policies aimed at equality and nondiscrimination of LGBTIQ+ individuals.”
Argentine President Javier Milei and Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Christopher Landau are among those who attended Kast’s inauguration that took place in the Chilean Congress in Valparaíso.
Ukraine
Ukrainian Supreme Court recognizes same-sex couple as a family
Zoryan Kis and Tymur Levchuk married in US in 2021
The Ukrainian Supreme Court has recognized a same-sex couple as a family.
The couple — Zoryan Kis and Tymur Levchuk — have lived together since 2013. They legally married in the U.S. in 2021.
The Kyiv Independent notes the couple challenged the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s refusal to acknowledge Levchuk as Kis’s family member, therefore denying him spousal rights while Kis was posted at the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel. Kis and Levchuk challenged the decision in court in 2024.
Kyiv’s Desniansky District Court last year in a landmark ruling recognized Kis and Levchuk as a family. Vsi Razom, an anti-LGBTQ organization, appealed the decision.
Insight, the Ukrainian LGBTQ rights group that represented Kis and Levchuk, said the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling on Feb. 25.
“The Supreme Court of Ukraine has upheld the legality of recognizing a same-sex couple as a family based on their factual relationship, despite the absence of legal recognition of same-sex partnerships in Ukrainian legislation,” Insight Chair Olena Shevchenko noted to the Washington Blade on Tuesday. “The court confirmed the decision, establishing the fact that (the) two men had lived together as a family, affirming that such recognition can be based on proven circumstances of their shared life rather than on political decisions or the existence of formal partnership laws.”
Insight in a Facebook post added the Supreme Court ruling sets “a tremendous precedent.”
“No homophobic or conservative organization will be able to use the courts as a tool to persecute or overturn decisions in favor of LGBT+ people under the guise of ‘social morality,’” said Insight. “The state has protected the boundaries of private life.”
The Supreme Court issued its ruling a day after Ukraine marked four years since Russia began its war against the country.
The Ukrainian constitution defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2022 publicly backed civil partnerships for same-sex couples. Shevchenko pointed out Ukrainian law “currently does not provide a mechanism for registering same-sex marriages or partnerships.”
Iran
Man stuck in Lebanon as Iran war escalates
Mario was traveling to India when conflict began on Feb. 28
The Washington Blade on March 6 spoke with a man who remains stuck in Lebanon because of the escalating Iran war.
Mario, who asked the Blade not to publish his last name, lives in the U.S., but was born in Lebanon. He decided to stop in the country to see his doctor before traveling 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 airline personnel announced “we cannot fly anymore” because authorities had closed the country’s airspace.
The U.S. and Israel earlier that day launched airstrikes against Iran.
One of them killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran in response launched missiles and drones against Israel and Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, and other countries.
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 Sunday, a week after Iranian drones and missiles targeted the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
Iranian drones and missiles have also damaged civilian infrastructure, including hotels and airports in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. An Iranian missile on March 1 killed nine people and injured 27 others in Beit Shemesh, Israel.
The war has left Mario and hundreds of thousands of others stranded in the Middle East.
“I had to come back home,” Mario told the Blade.
“Luckily, I’m with family,” he added.
‘War is between Israel and Hezbollah’
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia militant group the U.S. and Israel have designated a terrorist organization, after Khamenei’s death launched rockets at Israel. The Jewish State in response has carried out airstrikes against Hezbollah targets across 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. Hezbollah the following day began to launch rockets into Israel.
An Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Sept. 27, 2024, killed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s long-time leader. Iran four days later launched upwards of 200 ballistic missiles at Israel.
The U.S. helped broker a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that took effect on Nov. 27, 2024. Israel nevertheless continued to carry out airstrikes in Lebanon.
Israel on June 13, 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 the annual Tel Aviv Pride parade.
Mario noted the Israeli airstrikes have targeted Hezbollah infrastructure in Dahiyah, a Beirut suburb that is predominantly Shia, and in southern Lebanon.
His family’s home is about five miles from downtown Beirut. Mario said there is a mountain “that separates me from the area that is being bombed, so I don’t even hear the sounds.”
“Lebanon is such an interesting juxtaposition, because depending on which area you are in, your quality of life can be different during these times,” he said. “Right now, the war is not between Israel and Lebanon as a government. The war is between Israel and Hezbollah.”
“If you are in the areas where Hezbollah is concentrated, then you are severely impacted,” added Mario. “If you are in other areas, even if they are Shia or … Muslims that usually align themselves with Hezbollah, you’re still relatively in a safe place, in a safe location.”
Israeli evacuation orders have prompted hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in Dahiyah and in southern Lebanon.
Mario said many of the evacuees are sleeping in their cars, or on the street. He also noted a video that showed a shepherd with his sheep and goats on a highway in downtown Beirut.
“He took his animals with him because he had to vacate where he was living,” said Mario. “That’s the first time you see in downtown Beirut maybe 100 goats walking the streets with two people sitting on jackasses and herding them.”
“It is very absurd,” he added.
The Lebanese government has opened schools and public shelters for people who have been displaced, but Mario said many of them do not have enough food. He also said gas prices have increased, and people are afraid to drive.
“It really saddens me seeing the kids affected by it,” said Mario. “Hezbollah made this decision, and it was a unilateral decision.”
“I doubt that the Shia people support them,” he added, referring to Hezbollah. “They cannot say it out loud that they do not support them, but I doubt people are happy within less than two years, for the second time in a row, to have to leave their homes and try to find a place to stay.”
Lebanese government urged to develop LGBTQ-inclusive plan for displaced people
Article 534 of Lebanon’s Penal Code states “any sexual intercourse contrary to the order of nature is punishable” by up to a year in prison. Several judges in recent years have opted not to use the statute to prosecute LGBTQ people who have been charged under it.
Helem, a Lebanese LGBTQ and intersex rights group, on March 4 called upon the Lebanese government and international NGOs to develop a response to the Israeli airstrikes that is “comprehensive, fair, and inclusive of all groups, without exception or discrimination.
“The experience of the previous war demonstrated that state response plans were not sufficiently inclusive of displaced LGBTQ+ individuals,” said Helem. “Many faced compounded challenges, including the inability to access state collective shelters, exposure to harassment or violence, difficulty accessing health and psychosocial services, and fear of disclosing their gender identity or sexual orientation due to stigma and discrimination.”
“Any emergency plan that fails to take the most vulnerable groups into account exposes their lives and dignity to additional risks,” added the group.
Helem also made the following requests:
• Integrating a rights-based and nondiscrimination approach in all stages of planning and implementation, ensuring safe and equal access to assistance and services.
• Training staff working in shelters and emergency response on principles of protection from gender-based violence and discrimination, including issues related to gender identity and sexual orientation.
• Reassessment of the currently adopted shelter model, which relies exclusively on the concept of the “traditional family” aligned with a specific social structure. In practice, this leads to the systematic exclusion of non-traditional families and individuals who do not belong to conventional family units, including LGBTQ+ individuals, survivors of domestic violence, migrant workers, and people without supportive family networks.
• Involving civil society organizations specialized in gender issues and LGBTQ+ rights in the design, implementation, and monitoring of the emergency response plan.
• Establishing clear monitoring and accountability standards to ensure that violations or discriminatory practices do not occur during the implementation of the emergency plan.
“Disasters and conflicts do not justify the suspension of rights or the neglect of marginalized groups. On the contrary, the need for a humanitarian approach grounded in dignity and equality becomes even more urgent in times of crisis.”
“Helem places its expertise and experience at the disposal of relevant authorities and affirms its readiness to cooperate to ensure that the emergency plan is more just, effective, and inclusive,” said Helem. “Dignity is indivisible, and protection must include everyone without exception.”
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