World
Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Europe and South America
Spanish jury convicts four men accused of killing gay man in 2021
RUSSIA
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into a law a bill banning adoption of Russian children into countries where gender transition is legal, citing the supposed danger that adopted children might be given gender care. The Russian parliament had passed the law earlier in the week.
The adoption ban applies to at least 15 countries in Europe, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand. American citizens have already been banned from adopting Russian children since 2012.
The new adoption ban is an escalation of a previous law passed in 2014 that banned adoption by same-sex couples or by single people in countries where same-sex marriage is legal.
The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, who also co-authored the bill, defended the bill’s aims in a telegram post this summer.
“It is extremely important to eliminate possible dangers in the form of gender reassignment that adopted children may face in these countries,” Volodin wrote.
The bill is part of an escalating crackdown on LGBTQ people in Russia.
In 2022, Russia extended a law banning distribution of “LGBTQ propaganda” to minors so that it now bans all information about LGBTQ people or issues to anyone. Last year, Russia banned all gender transition procedures and the supreme court declared the “international LGBTQ+ movement” to be an extremist organization.
The crackdown has led many LGBTQ organizations and businesses to close or go underground amid threats and raids by authorities.
PERU
The congressional justice committee voted 12-9 with four abstentions to advance a bill to legalize civil unions for both same-sex and opposite sex couples, which would for the first time give same-sex couples legal rights in the South American nation. The bill now heads to the full congress for approval.
Efforts to gain legal recognition for same-sex unions in Peru had been stalled for more than a decade, as lawmakers had generally been hostile to the idea. In that time, most Latin American countries have legalized same-sex marriage or civil unions, including all of Peru’s neighbors, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia, and Chile. Peru is the largest country in Latin America that does not recognize same-sex unions.
The civil union bill may be an effort to forestall a rival bill seeking to legalize same-sex marriage proposed by lesbian lawmaker Susel Paredes.
“My fight is for full equality of rights, for our partners, our children, and our families. I am convinced that it is necessary to achieve equal marriage, and it is for this institution that I will continue to fight,” Paredes wrote on her X account.
But other LGBTQ activists think the bill would still be a major advancement for queer Peruvians.
“Civil union is not ideal, but it is a step in the right direction to achieve equal rights for all Peruvians,” former congressman Carlos Bruce wrote on his X account. Bruce married his partner in Madrid in August, and currently serves as the mayor of the Surco neighborhood of Lima.
The bill gives couples in a civil union many of the rights afforded to married couples, including property rights, alimony, medical decisions, conjugal visits, inheritance rights, death benefits, tax rights, and pensions. However, it does not allow couples the right to adopt or to be recognized as parents of each other’s children. Couples in civil unions will not be recognized as families.
SPAIN
Four men were convicted over the weekend for a homophobic murder that sparked nationwide protests in 2021.
Samuel Luiz was a 24-year-old nursing assistant who was assaulted by a group of people outside a nightclub in A Coruña in Galicia on July 3, 2021. He later died in the hospital of his injuries.
After five days of deliberations, a jury found Diego Montaña, Alejandro Freire, and Kaio Amaral guilty of aggravated murder, and Alejandro Míguez of being an accomplice. The prosecution has asked for sentences of between 22 and 27 years.
The initial investigation had uncovered that up to 12 people were involved in the beating of Luiz. The attack took place over more than 15 minutes and covered more than an eighth of a mile as Luiz attempted to escape. Two Senegalese hawkers attempted to intervene to halt the attack and were attacked themselves. Witnesses said they heard the attackers accuse Luiz of being gay and used homophobic slurs during and after the attack.
The barbaric murder sparked demonstrations across Spain and made headlines around the world.
In Spain, many pundits and activists drew a link between the murder and the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric of the far-right Vox Party, which is part of the government in several Spanish regions.
AZERBAIJAN
The U.N. COP29 Climate Change Conference ended without a planned update to the Gender and Climate Change Work Program after concerted opposition from the Vatican, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, and Egypt, who feared that references to “gender” might be interpreted to include trans people and queer women.
The UN Climate Change Conference first adopted its Gender Work Program in Lima, Peru, in 2014, acknowledging that the impacts of climate change are borne disproportionately by women and girls, due to their frequently more precarious economic and social positions relative to men.
The Lima Program is due to expire this year, and in talks to renew it, a coalition of European, African, and Latin American countries had wanted COP29 to add a line recognizing that the impact of climate change on women can vary depending on their “gender, sex, age, and race.”
But the group of countries opposed to the new language argue that it legitimizes transgender people and may be code for promoting sexual expression and homosexuality.
Without unanimous support for a new program, the Lima Program would expire with no replacement.
Ultimately, the gender opponents got their way, and the new language was stripped from the COP29 communique. The countries participating agreed to extend the Lima Program unamended for another decade, while also developing a new gender action plan for adoption at COP30, scheduled to be held next November in Belem, Brazil.
UNITED KINGDOM
The U.S.-based training group SAGECare, which provides LGBTQ aging cultural competency training for health care workers, is teaming up with the UK’s LGBT Foundation to bring enhanced training for care facilities in the UK.
In a press release announcing the partnership, LGBT Foundation CEO Paul Martin says SAGECare will help fill a gap in elder care for LGBTQ Britons while also enhancing care businesses’ ability to compete for LGBTQ market.
“LGBTQ+ health and wellbeing are at the heart of everything we do,” Martin says. “We look forward to using our combined expertise to build a more equitable society.”
SAGE has advocated for LGBTQ elders in the U.S. since 1978, and according to its website, it has trained more than 270,000 workers in LGBTQ cultural competency.
Venezuela
AHF client in Venezuela welcomes Maduro’s ouster
‘This is truly something we’ve been waiting for’ for decades
An AIDS Healthcare Foundation client who lives in Venezuela told the Washington Blade he welcomes the ouster of his country’s former president.
The client, who asked the Blade to remain anonymous, on Thursday said he felt “joy” when he heard the news that American forces seized Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at their home in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, during an overnight operation on Jan. 3.
“This is truly something we’ve been waiting for for 26 or 27 years,” the AHF client told the Blade.
Hugo Chávez became Venezuela’s president in 1999. Maduro succeeded him in 2013 after he died.
“I’ve always been in opposition,” said the AHF client, who stressed he was speaking to the Blade in his personal capacity and not as an AHF representative. “I’ve never agreed with the government. When I heard the news, well, you can imagine.”
He added he has “high hopes that this country will truly change, which is what it needed.”
“This means getting rid of this regime, so that American and foreign companies can invest here and Venezuela can become what it used to be, the Venezuela of the past,” he said.
The AHF client lives near the Colombia-Venezuela border. He is among the hundreds of Venezuelans who receive care at AHF’s clinic in Cúcuta, a Colombian city near the Táchira River that marks the border between the two countries.
The Simón Bolívar Bridge on the Colombia-Venezuela border on May 14, 2019. (Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
The AHF client praised U.S. President Donald Trump and reiterated his support for the Jan. 3 operation.
“It was the only way that they could go,” he said.
The Venezuelan National Assembly on Jan. 4 swore in Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president, as the country’s acting president. The AHF client with whom the Blade spoke said he is “very optimistic” about Venezuela’s future, even though the regime remains in power.
“With Maduro leaving, the regime has a certain air about it,” he said. “I think this will be a huge improvement for everyone.”
“We’re watching,” he added. “The actions that the United States government is going to implement regarding Venezuela give us hope that things will change.”
Colombia
Colombians protest against Trump after he threatened country’s president
Tens of thousands protested the US president in Bogotá
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Tens of thousands of people on Wednesday gathered in the Colombian capital to protest against President Donald Trump after he threatened Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
The protesters who gathered in Plaza Bolívar in Bogotá held signs that read, among other things, “Yankees go home” and “Petro is not alone.” Petro is among those who spoke.
The Bogotá protest took place four days after American forces seized now former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at their home in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, during an overnight operation.
The Venezuelan National Assembly on Sunday swore in Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president, as the country’s acting president. Maduro and Flores on Monday pleaded not guilty to federal drug charges in New York.
Trump on Sunday suggested the U.S. will target Petro, a former Bogotá mayor and senator who was once a member of the M-19 guerrilla movement that disbanded in the 1990s. Claudia López, a former senator who would become the country’s first female and first lesbian president if she wins Colombia’s presidential election that will take place later this year, is among those who criticized Trump’s comments.
The Bogotá protest is among hundreds against Trump that took place across Colombia on Wednesday.
Petro on Wednesday night said he and Trump spoke on the phone. Trump in a Truth Social post confirmed he and his Colombian counterpart had spoken.
“It was a great honor to speak with the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had,” wrote Trump. “I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future. Arrangements are being made between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign minister of Colombia. The meeting will take place in the White House in Washington, D.C.”
Colombia
Gay Venezuelan man who fled to Colombia uncertain about homeland’s future
Heberth Aguirre left Maracaibo in 2018
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — A gay Venezuelan man who has lived in Colombia since 2018 says he feels uncertain about his homeland’s future after the U.S. seized now former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“On one hand I can feel happy, but on the other hand I feel very concerned,” Heberth Aguirre told the Washington Blade on Tuesday during an interview at a shopping mall in Bogotá, the Colombian capital.
Aguirre, 35, is from Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-largest city that is the heart of the country’s oil industry.
He developed cultural and art initiatives for the Zulia State government.
“Little by little, I suddenly became involved in politics because, in a way, you had to be involved,” recalled Aguirre. “It was necessary to be involved because the regime often said so.”
“I basically felt like I was working for the citizens, but with this deeply ingrained rule we had to be on their side, on the side of the Maduro and (former President Hugo) Chávez regime,” he added.
Maduro in 2013 became Venezuela’s president after Chávez died.
“There are things I don’t support about the regime,” Aguirre told the Blade. “There are other things that were nice in theory, but it turned out that they didn’t work when we put them into practice.”
Aguirre noted the Maduro government implemented “a lot of laws.” He also said he and other LGBTQ Venezuelans didn’t “have any kind of guarantee for our lives in general.”
“That also exposed you in a way,” said Aguirre. “You felt somewhat protected by working with them (the government), but it wasn’t entirely true.”
Aguirre, 35, studied graphic design at the University of Zulia in Maracaibo. He said he eventually withdrew after soldiers, members of Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard, and police officers opened fire on students.
“That happened many times, to the point where I said I couldn’t keep risking my life,” Aguirre told the Blade. “It hurt me to see what was happening, and it hurt me to have lost my place at the university.”
Venezuela’s economic crisis and increased insecurity prompted Aguirre to leave the country in 2018. He entered Colombia at the Simón Bolívar Bridge near the city of Cúcuta in the country’s Norte de Santander Province.
“If you thought differently, they (the Venezuelan government) would come after you or make you disappear, and nobody would do anything about it,” said Aguirre in response to the Blade’s question about why he left Venezuela.
The Simón Bolívar Bridge on the Colombia-Venezuela border on May 14, 2019. (Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
Aguirre spoke with the Blade three days after American forces seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at their home in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, during an overnight operation.
The Venezuelan National Assembly on Sunday swore in Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president, as the country’s acting president. Maduro and Flores on Monday pleaded not guilty to federal drug charges in New York.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday in a Truth Social post said Venezuela’s interim authorities “will be turning over between 30 and 50 million barrels of high quality, sanctioned oil, to the United States of America.”
“This oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me, as president of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States,” wrote Trump.
Trump on Sunday suggested the U.S. will target Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a former Bogotá mayor and senator who was once a member of the M-19 guerrilla movement that disbanded in the 1990s.
Petro has urged Colombians to take to the streets on Wednesday and “defend national sovereignty.” Claudia López, a former senator who would become the country’s first female and first lesbian president if she wins Colombia’s presidential election that will take place later this year, is among those who criticized Trump’s comments.
“Let’s be clear: Trump doesn’t care about the humanitarian aspect,” said Aguirre when the Blade asked him about Trump. “We can’t portray him as Venezuela’s savior.”
Meanwhile, Aguirre said his relatives in Maracaibo remain afraid of what will happen in the wake of Maduro’s ouster.
“My family is honestly keeping quiet,” he said. “They don’t post anything online. They don’t go out to participate in marches or celebrations.”
“Imagine them being at the epicenter, in the eye of the hurricane,” added Aguirre. “They are right in the middle of all the problems, so it’s perfectly understandable that they don’t want to say anything.”
‘I never in my life thought I would have to emigrate’
Aguirre has built a new life in Bogotá.
He founded Mesa Distrital LGBTIQ+ de Jóvenes y Estudiantes, a group that works with migrants from Venezuela and other countries and internally placed Colombians, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aguirre told the Blade he launched the group “with the need to contribute to the general population, not just in Colombia.”
Aguirre met his husband, an American from California, at a Bogotá church in December 2020 during a Christmas event that SDA Kinship Colombia, an LGBTQ group, organized. A Utah judge virtually officiated their wedding on July 12, 2024.
“I love Colombia, I love Bogotá,” said Aguirre. “I love everything I’ve experienced because I feel it has helped me grow.”
He once again stressed he does not know what a post-Maduro Venezuela will look like.
“As a Venezuelan, I experienced the wonders of that country,” said Aguirre. “I never in my life thought I would have to emigrate.”
The Colombian government’s Permiso por Protección Temporal program allows Aguirre and other Venezuelans who have sought refuge in Colombia to live in the country for up to 10 years. Aguirre reiterated his love for Colombia, but he told the Blade that he would like to return to Venezuela and help rebuild the country.
“I wish this would be over in five years, that we could return to our country, that we could go back and even return with more skills acquired abroad,” Aguirre told the Blade. “Many of us received training. Many of us studied a lot. We connected with organizations that formed networks, which enriched us as individuals and as professionals.”
“Returning would be wonderful,” he added. “What we’ve built abroad will almost certainly serve to enrich the country.”
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