World
This year’s IDAHOBiT to highlight democracy
Criminalization laws, US funding cuts among global movement’s challenges
Activists around the world on Sunday will mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia.
The IDAHOBiT Advisory Group — which includes 18 LGBTQ and intersex rights organizations around the world — in a press release notes IDAHOBiT events are expected to take place in more than 60 countries. Advocacy groups are also using IDAHOBiT to highlight discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity and other LGBTQ-specific issues.
Caribe Afirmativo, a Colombian advocacy group, on May 8 released a report that notes one LGBTQ person was reported murdered in the country every 32 hours in 2025. Caribe Afirmativo also said the Colombian government has not done enough to address anti-LGBTQ violence.
“The evidence is clear: violence against LGBTIQ+ persons in Colombia does not begin with homicide, but with tolerated prejudice and ignored threats,” reads Caribe Afirmativo’s report. “In 2025, the State not only failed to protect — it also failed to count, investigate, and sanction. The crisis is not invisible. It is structural. And it requires an urgent, comprehensive, and sustained response.”
The Initiative for Equality and Discrimination, a Kenyan group known by the acronym INEND, issued a report that details how the country’s law enforcement treats LGBTQ and intersex people. “A widespread pattern of arbitrary arrests, extortion, and both physical and sexual violence” are among the abuses the INEND report notes.
“These abuses not only inflict severe physical and psychological trauma but also foster a widespread distrust of the law enforcement, further marginalizing the community and hindering its ability to seek justice, access essential services such as healthcare, and fully enjoy fundamental freedoms,” it reads.
IDAHOBiT commemorates the World Health Organization’s declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder on May 17, 1990. This year’s IDAHOBiT theme is “At the Heart of Democracy.”
This year’s IDAHOBiT will take place against the continued impact that the lack of U.S. funding is having on the global LGBTQ and intersex rights movement.
The IDAHOBiT Advisory Group notes consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in 65 U.N. member states, and the number of countries with criminalization laws increased in 2025. The IDAHOBiT Advisory Group also indicates more than 60 countries have laws that restrict “freedom of expression related to sexual and gender diversity issues.”
“No matter where we live, who we are, or the faiths that drive us, most people want to nurture neighborhoods and communities where every life can bloom,” said the IDAHOBiT Advisory Group. “But today, reactionary governments worldwide are poisoning our gardens with the invasive weeds of their authoritarian policies and exclusionary legislations.”
‘Progress is still happening’
Activists around the world since last year’s IDAHOBiT have seen several legal and political victories.
New Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar on April 12 defeated his predecessor, Viktor Orbán, whose government faced widespread criticism over its anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court last July struck down St. Lucia’s colonial-era laws. The Dominican Republic’s Constitutional Court a few months later ruled the country’s National Police and Armed Forces cannot criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations among its members. Botswana late last month repealed a provision of its colonial-era penal code that criminalized homosexuality.
A Hong Kong judge last September ruled in favor of a lesbian couple who sought parental recognition for their son. The European Union Court of Justice over the last year issued two landmark decisions: one said EU countries must recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other member states and another directed member states to allow transgender people to legally change their name and gender on ID documents.
“Time and again, LGBTQIA+ people have resisted, rolled up their sleeves together with all the good people caring about their communities, and sowed the seeds of change,” said the IDAHOBiT Advisory Group in its press release.
Celebrity News
Madonna to perform at World Pride in Amsterdam
‘Confessions II’ album released earlier this month to rave reviews
Editor’s note: International News Editor Michael K. Lavers and Photo Editor Michael Key will be on assignment in the Netherlands through Aug. 10. They will be covering World Pride in Amsterdam.
AMSTERDAM — Madonna on Saturday will perform at World Pride in Amsterdam.
She is scheduled to appear alongside Stuart Price, Honey Dijon, and other “special guests” at the World Pride Music Festival at AFAS Live concert hall. The Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade will take place earlier on Saturday.
MISTR, a telehealth platform that offers free access to PrEP, Doxy PEP, STI testing, and long-term HIV care, is organizing Madonna’s performance.
Madonna on July 2 released her new album, “Confessions II,” to rave reviews.
She appeared at The Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif., in April. Madonna in June celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York’s Times Square.
“Everyone here is a work of art,” says the World Pride Music Festival performance poster, referring to a line from “Danceteria” on “Confessions II.”
Netherlands
Blade participates in Dutch university course on international LGBTQ rights law
Michael K. Lavers will be in the Netherlands through World Pride
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — International News Editor Michael K. Lavers is participating in a course at Leiden University in the Netherlands that examines the role that international law plays in the LGBTQ and intersex rights movement.
The course — Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in International Law — begins on Wednesday and ends on Aug. 4.
Jessica Stern, the former special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights, is among the presenters. The course also includes a visit to the International Criminal Court.
Lavers will remain in the Netherlands through Aug. 10 to cover World Pride in Amsterdam. Photo Editor Michael Key will be joining him.
Brazil
US official protested at 2026 International AIDS Conference
White House funding cuts have adversely impacted global HIV/AIDS fight
HIV/AIDS activists on Sunday protested a Trump-Vance administration official at the 2026 International AIDS Conference in Rio de Janeiro.
Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell and others disrupted U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Jeff Graham, who is leading the Trump-Vance administration’s AIDS 2026 delegation, as he spoke. They were protesting the Trump-Vance administration’s cuts to U.S. foreign aid that they maintain have had a devasting impact on the global HIV/AIDS fight.
“The U.S. government has stolen HIV treatment from 77,163 HIV positive children, slashed PrEP enrollment by 42 percent, closed 1,700 PEPFAR HIV treatment sites, decimated programs led by and for key populations, implementers report slashing condom programming by 93 percent, and so much more,” said Russell in a Bluesky post that contained pictures of her and other activists on stage at AIDS 2026.
The US government has stolen HIV treatment from 77,163 HIV positive children, slashed PrEP enrolment by 42%, closed 1700 PEPFAR HIV treatment sites, decimated programs led by and for key populations, implementers report slashing condom programming by 93% and so much more
— Asia Russell (@asia-ilse.bsky.social) July 26, 2026 at 2:26 PM
Secretary of State Marco Rubio shortly after the Trump-Vance administration took office 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 Washington 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 International AIDS Society in a press release it issued last week noted PEPFAR “has saved more than 26 million lives” since President George W. Bush implemented it in 2003, “and changed the trajectory of the HIV pandemic.” The group also said PEPFAR “was a a success under the first Trump administration, with major progress toward the 95-95-95 goals.”
The UNAIDS’s 95-95-95 goals are 95 percent of people with HIV knowing their status, 95 percent of people with HIV having access to antiretroviral therapy, and 95 percent of those receiving ART having suppressed viral loads by 2030.
“Since the start of the second Trump administration, however, it has undergone major disruptions,” added the International AIDS Society.
“No one has to accept being lied to by this administration, particularly not the scientists and communities and activists who know the best what is at stake and what is actually happening,” said Russell on Bluesky.
many many people stood up and applauded during our protest, and thanked us afterward.
No one has to accept being lied to by this administration, particularly not the scientists and communities and activists who know the best what is at stake and what is actually happening
— Asia Russell (@asia-ilse.bsky.social) July 26, 2026 at 2:45 PM
AIDS 2026 will end on Friday.
Calendar: July 31-August 6
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