World
Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Europe and Asia
Human Rights Watch in new report criticizes Jordanian government
Jordan
The government of Jordanian King Abdullah have systematically targeted lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights activists and coordinated an unlawful crackdown on free expression and assembly around gender and sexuality, Human Rights Watch said in a report released earlier this month.
In its Dec. 4 report, HRW documented cases in which Jordan’s General Intelligence Department (GID) and the Preventive Security department of the Public Security Directorate interrogated LGBTQ activists about their work, and intimidated them with threats of violence, arrest and prosecution, forcing several activists to shut down their organizations, discontinue their activities and in some cases, flee the country.
Government officials also smeared LGBTQ rights activists online based on their sexual orientation, and social media users posted photos of LGBTQ rights activists with messages inciting violence against them.
“Jordanian authorities have launched a coordinated attack against LGBT rights activists, aimed at eradicating any discussion around gender and sexuality from the public and private spheres,” said Rasha Younes, senior LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Security forces’ intimidation tactics and unlawful interference in LGBT organizing have driven activism further underground and forced civil society leaders into an impossible reality: severe self-censorship or fleeing Jordan.”
Three activists said the Amman governor interrogated them after they preemptively cancelled the screening of a film depicting gay men. Two LGBTQ organization directors said that because of official intimidation, they were forced to close their offices, discontinue their operations in Jordan and flee the country.
One activist said Preventive Security officers made him sign a pledge that he would report all his venue’s activities to the governor. Another activist reported being targeted online while social media users called for him to be burned alive.
One of the few LGBTQ rights activists who has remained in Jordan described her current reality: “Merely existing in Amman has become terrifying. We cannot continue our work as activists, and we are forced to be hyperaware of our surroundings as individuals.”
More recently, in October 2023, an LGBTQ rights activist said he was summoned for investigation by the intelligence agency. During the interrogation, the activist said intelligence officers searched his phone, intimidated him and threatened him with a travel ban, while asking personal questions about his sexual orientation and sexual relations with other men. After three hours of questioning, the activist said the officers told him he could leave.
“They [Jordanian authorities] invest in intimidation to destroy our minds and isolate us,” the activist said. “Their tactic is to target us mentally, leaving no evidence of our torment behind.”
Jordan’s constitution protects the rights to nondiscrimination (article 6), the right to personal freedom (article 7), and the right to freedom of expression and opinion (article 15).
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Jordan is a state party, provides that everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression, assembly and association. The ICCPR, in its articles 2 and 26, guarantees fundamental human rights and equal protection of the law without discrimination.
The U.N. Human Rights Committee, which interprets the covenant, has made clear that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is prohibited in upholding any of the rights protected by the treaty, including freedom of expression, assembly and association.
France
Legislation that was introduced last month by the openly gay Socialist Senator Hussein Bourgi to acknowledge the French state’s responsibility in the criminalization and persecution of gay men between 1945 and 1982 was adopted.
However, the section of bill that called for compensation of the victims of French homophobic laws, in effect during that period by offering them a lump sum of €10,000 ($10,752.75) was not approved.
Speaking with various French media outlets, Bourgi, who authored the bill, said: “It is high time to bring justice to the living victims of legislation which served as the basis for a politics of repression with brutal and punishing social, professional and familial consequences.”
Agence France-Presse reported:
Bourgi’s text focuses on a 40-year period following the introduction of legislation that specifically targeted homosexuals under the Nazi-allied Vichy regime. The 1942 law, which was not repealed after the liberation of France, introduced a discriminatory distinction in the age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual sex, setting the former at 13 (raised to 15 at the Liberation) and the latter at 21.
Some 10,000 people — almost exclusively men, most of them working-class — were convicted under the law until its repeal in 1982, according to research by sociologists Régis Schlagdenhauffen and Jérémie Gauthier. More than 90 percent were sentenced to jail. An estimated 50,000 more were convicted under a separate “public indecency” law that was amended in 1960 to introduce an aggravating factor for homosexuals and double the penalty.
“People tend to think France was protective of gay people compared to, say, Germany or the UK. But when you look at the figures you get a very different picture,” said Schlagdenhaufen, who teaches at the EHESS institute in Paris.
“France was not this cradle of human rights we like to think of,” he added. “The revolution tried to decriminalise homosexuality, but subsequent regimes found other stratagems to repress gay people. This repression was enshrined in law in 1942 and even more so in 1960.”
The legislation won the backing of Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti in President Emmanuel Macron’s government. However, Dupond-Moretti agreed with the removal of the compensation provision by the right-wing and center senatorial majority. Dupond-Moretti justified this choice noting concerns over “legal difficulties,” telling French magazine Le Monde that “putting into practice” of this compensation measure “appears extremely complex” due to the difficulty of providing proof of an old conviction and its execution.
The Dupond-Moretti added “It was not the law which was responsible for this harm” but “French society, homophobic in all its components at the time” adding, “This is not the fault of the Republic. The law of memory is enough.”
The bill must now be taken up by the lower house, the National Assembly, to be passed and then adopted.
Scotland
The Court of Session in Edinburgh has ruled that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s U.K. government acted within the law by invoking Section 35, which blocked the measure passed by the Scottish Parliament, that would have make it easier for transgender people to change their legally-recognized sex on documents.
The actions by Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, with Sunak’s backing kept the act from receiving the signature of King Charles III and becoming law.
The Gender Recognition Reform bill was introduced by the Scottish government in the country’s Parliament in the spring of 2022 was passed in a final 86-39 vote days before last Christmas. The sweeping reform bill modifies the Gender Recognition Act, signed into law in 2004, by allowing trans Scots to gain legal recognition without the need for a medical diagnosis.
The measure further stipulates that age limit for legal recognition is lowered to 16.
In a statement released in January of this year, Jack said:
“After thorough and careful consideration of all the relevant advice and the policy implications, I am concerned that this legislation would have an adverse impact on the operation of Great Britain-wide equalities legislation.
Transgender people who are going through the process to change their legal sex deserve our respect, support and understanding. My decision today is about the legislation’s consequences for the operation of GB-wide equalities protections and other reserved matters.
I have not taken this decision lightly. The bill would have a significant impact on, amongst other things, GB-wide equalities matters in Scotland, England and Wales. I have concluded, therefore, that this is the necessary and correct course of action.”
The Scottish government sued Westminster in the Court of Session, Scotland’s highest civil court, arguing that Jack did not have “reasonable grounds” to block the bill. The BBC reported that in her ruling for the UK governments, Judge Lady Haldane dismissed the Scottish government’s appeal and said the block on the legislation was lawful.
Haldance noted that Jack followed correct legal procedures when he made his decision to invoke section 35 and that the Scottish government had failed to show that he had made legal errors.
The judge wrote: “I cannot conclude that he (Mr. Jack) failed in his duty to take such steps as were reasonable in all the circumstances to acquaint himself with material sufficient to permit him to reach the decision that he did.”
Haldane also said that “Section 35 does not, in and of itself, impact on the separation of powers or other fundamental constitutional principle. Rather it is itself part of the constitutional framework.”
Stonewall UK, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, expressed its disappointment with Haldane’s ruling in a statement released this past week:
“We’re disappointed that the Court of Session in Scotland has found in favour of the UK government’s unprecedented decision to use Section 35 to block the Gender Recognition Reform Bill from Royal Assent. This bill was one of the most debated in the Scottish Parliament’s history and was passed by a resounding majority of MSPs drawn from all major Scottish parties.
This unfortunately means more uncertainty for trans people in Scotland, who will now be waiting once again, to see whether they will be able to have their gender legally recognised through a process that is in line with leading nations like Ireland, Canada and New Zealand.
Whatever happens next in discussions with the UK and Scottish governments on this matter, Stonewall will continue to press all administrations to make progress on LGBTQ+ rights in line with leading international practice.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric used by British Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch during her speech on the floor of the House of Commons on Dec. 6, prompted Labor MP Chris Bryant, an openly gay lawmaker, to rise in opposition and declare her speech left him feeling unsafe.
The debate was triggered by Badenoch claiming that the UK does not recognize self-ID from overseas countries for trans people, PinkNewsUK reported. In his retort to her statements, Bryant explained: “I feel, as a gay man, less safe than I did three years or five years ago.”
PinkNewsUK also noted that Bryant said: “Why? Sometimes because of the rhetoric that is used, including by herself [Badenoch] in the public debate.” He added that some MPs had cheered for Badenoch’s statements on the trans community, and for statements against gender-affirming care for trans people, which could lead to LGBTQ people feeling even less safe in the UK.
“Many of us feel less safe today, and when people over there cheer as they just did, it chills me to the bone, it genuinely does,” Bryant said.
She hit back with force, challenging him to identify which words precisely were so problematic. She later criticized the attempts of trans activists to use emotional blackmail to try to shut down debate.
The UK government has updated the list of countries from which gender-certificates will be accepted.
Replying to Bryant, Badenoch said: “He says that my rhetoric chills him to the bone. I would be really keen to hear exactly what it is I have said in this statement or previously that is so chilling.” She added that the current Tory government had done work on “our HIV action plan” and “around trans healthcare,” as well as “establishing five new community-based clinics for adults in the country.”
“There is a lot that we are doing, so it is wrong to characterize us as not caring about LGBT people,” she said.
Bryant’s colleague, Ben Bradshaw, also failed to get the better of Badenoch. He complained the UK had recently fallen in a set of international rankings on LGBTQ rights. She calmly pointed out that those rankings reward states that adopt the Stonewall-supported policy of self-ID and punish those who do not. To cheers from the Tory benches, she declared “Stonewall does not decide the law in this country,” referring to Stonewall UK, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group.
POLAND
In a turn of events Monday, the lower house of the national legislature of Poland, elected Donald Tusk as the new prime minister after Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki failed to win a vote of confidence by lawmakers in his government.
248 MPs voted for the election of Tusk as prime minister, 201 were against and no one abstained in the 460-seat lower house of Parliament.
“This is a truly wonderful day, not only for me, but for all those who have deeply believed for many years that things will get even better, that we will chase away the darkness, that we will chase away evil,” the 66-year-old new prime minister told Parliament after his election.
There had been considerable turmoil in the Polish government, particularly in Parliament, as many accused the ruling conservative right-wing PiS (Law and Justice Party) of Jarosław Kaczyński, who until last month held the post of deputy prime minister, of leading the country backwards into an authoritarian state.
The PiS lost their parliamentary majority in the critical elections this past October after a larger proportion of the country’s 18-29 year-olds had turned out to vote than over-60s and election officials said that turnout was probably 72.9 percent, the highest since the fall of communism in 1989.
Voter anger had steadily risen over erosion of women’s reproductive rights eroded and Polish LGBTQ people who had faced a government hate campaign that drove some to leave the country and caused the European Commission to threatened to pull economic aid and as the BBC reported, the EU is still withholding more than €30 billion ($32 billion) in COVID-19 recovery funds because of its concerns about the politicization of Poland’s courts.
The Polish government has repeatedly clashed with the EU over the rule of law, media freedom, migration and LGBTQ rights since PiS came to power in 2015.
Tusk, who had served as European Council president from 2014-2019 is expected to improve Warsaw’s standing with the EU. Additionally he previously served as Poland’s prime minister from 2007-2014.
“At the invitation of President Andrzej Duda, after the vote in the Sejm, a meeting was held with Prime Minister Donald Tusk. It was agreed that after obtaining a vote of confidence, the swearing-in of the new government would take place on Wednesday, Dec. 13, at 9 a.m. at the Presidential Palace,” a spokesperson for Duda said in a statement released late Monday.
Additional reporting from Human Rights Watch, Agence France-Presse, Le Monde, The BBC and PinkNewsUK.
El Salvador
‘Mani Fiesta tu Orgullo’: memoria, resistencia y celebración marcan inicio del Mes del Orgullo en El Salvador
Actividad reunió a cientos de personas en un espacio de encuentro, cultura y reivindicación
Entre los sonidos vibrantes de la batucada, las luces de colores, la música y los mensajes de reivindicación, el 5 de junio se llevó a cabo una nueva edición de “Mani Fiesta tu Orgullo”, un evento que durante los últimos cuatro años se ha convertido en una de las actividades más emblemáticas para dar inicio a las celebraciones y acciones de incidencia política, cultural y comunitaria del Mes del Orgullo en El Salvador.
La actividad, organizada por la Federación Salvadoreña LGBTI en conjunto con el Centro Cultural de España en El Salvador, congregó entre 200 y 300 personas que se dieron cita para compartir un espacio de encuentro, reflexión, memoria histórica y celebración de la diversidad.
Desde las 7 p.m. y hasta las 10 p.m., el recinto se transformó en un punto de reunión para activistas, artistas, organizaciones de la sociedad civil, personas de la comunidad LGBTQ y aliados que año con año encuentran en esta actividad una oportunidad para reafirmar su identidad y fortalecer los lazos comunitarios.
Más allá de una fiesta, los organizadores destacan que “Mani Fiesta tu Orgullo” representa un acto político y social de gran importancia, pues marca oficialmente el inicio de las actividades que diversas organizaciones desarrollan durante junio y permite posicionar públicamente las demandas, preocupaciones y aspiraciones de la comunidad LGBTQ salvadoreña.
Cuatro años construyendo comunidad y visibilidad
La iniciativa nació hace cuatro años como una propuesta para abrir el Mes del Orgullo desde un espacio cultural, inclusivo y accesible para todas las personas. Desde entonces, la actividad ha evolucionado hasta convertirse en una referencia dentro de la agenda de junio, permitiendo que organizaciones, activistas y miembros de la comunidad encuentren un espacio para compartir experiencias, fortalecer alianzas y proyectar mensajes de incidencia.
Para la Federación Salvadoreña LGBTI, uno de los aspectos más significativos ha sido el respaldo constante del Centro Cultural de España, institución que ha abierto sus puertas para albergar la actividad y contribuir a la promoción de los derechos humanos y la diversidad.
“Para nosotras y nosotros es muy gratificante contar con el apoyo del Centro Cultural de España, que ha sido un aliado importante para poder desarrollar este espacio y hacerlo crecer cada año”, destacaron integrantes de la Federación.
La continuidad del evento también refleja la capacidad de resistencia y organización de la comunidad LGBTQ en un contexto que continúa presentando desafíos relacionados con la igualdad, el reconocimiento y la garantía de derechos.
Durante estos cuatro años, “Mani Fiesta tu Orgullo” ha servido como un espacio de expresión artística, pero también como una plataforma para visibilizar las realidades que enfrenta la población diversa en el país.
Un hecho histórico: la participación activa de la Asamblea Feminista
Uno de los aspectos que marcó esta edición fue la participación activa de la Asamblea Feminista, organización que desde el año pasado se ha incorporado de manera más directa a la coordinación y desarrollo de las actividades del Mes del Orgullo.
Aunque históricamente mujeres lesbianas y bisexuales han formado parte de las marchas y acciones impulsadas por la comunidad LGBTQ, su participación en los procesos organizativos había sido limitada. La incorporación de la Asamblea Feminista representa, según activistas, un paso importante hacia la construcción de un movimiento más amplio, inclusivo y articulado.
Para Karla Guevara, secretaria general de la Federación Salvadoreña LGBTI, este acercamiento constituye un hecho sin precedentes dentro de la historia reciente del movimiento.
“Creo que esto es inédito, y a nosotras y nosotres como Federación nos llena de orgullo que las compañeras lesbianas y bisexuales se hayan podido sumar a estas actividades del Mes del Orgullo”, expresó.
La participación de organizaciones feministas también evidencia una creciente convergencia entre distintas luchas sociales que comparten principios relacionados con la igualdad, la dignidad humana y la defensa de los derechos fundamentales. Para muchas personas asistentes, esta articulación representa una oportunidad para fortalecer redes de apoyo y construir agendas comunes frente a desafíos que afectan a diversos sectores históricamente excluidos.
Arte, música y celebración como herramientas de resistencia
La jornada estuvo marcada por expresiones artísticas que aportaron energía y color a la celebración. La reconocida batucada Las Musas fue una de las agrupaciones encargadas de animar la noche, aportando ritmos vibrantes que acompañaron gran parte de la actividad.
Asimismo, la participación de la DJ Drag Alexa Evangelista contribuyó a crear un ambiente festivo y diverso, donde la música se convirtió en un lenguaje común para las personas asistentes.
Más allá del entretenimiento, las expresiones artísticas desempeñan un papel fundamental dentro de los movimientos sociales, especialmente en aquellos relacionados con la diversidad sexual y de género.
El arte, la música, la danza y las expresiones culturales permiten construir comunidad, fortalecer identidades y generar espacios seguros donde las personas pueden expresarse libremente. En este sentido, “Mani Fiesta tu Orgullo” demuestra cómo la celebración también puede convertirse en una forma de resistencia frente a la discriminación y la exclusión.
Un manifiesto dedicado a la memoria y la gratitud
Uno de los momentos más significativos de la noche fue la lectura del manifiesto del orgullo correspondiente a este año. A diferencia de otros años, el documento estuvo enfocado principalmente en la memoria histórica y el reconocimiento de quienes construyeron los primeros espacios de organización y resistencia en condiciones mucho más adversas.
El mensaje recordó a aquellas personas que, en décadas pasadas, comenzaron a construir comunidad desde la clandestinidad, cuando la discriminación social era aún más intensa y los espacios seguros prácticamente inexistían. También rindió homenaje a quienes fallecieron durante la pandemia del VIH/Sida en las décadas de 1980 y 1990, una de las etapas más dolorosas para la población LGBTQ a nivel mundial.
El manifiesto destacó además la importancia de recordar la primera Marcha del Orgullo realizada en El Salvador en 1997, un acontecimiento histórico que marcó un antes y un después en la visibilidad pública de la comunidad diversa. Asimismo, se hizo un reconocimiento especial a las personas adultas mayores de la comunidad, incluyendo mujeres lesbianas, hombres gays, personas bisexuales y mujeres trans, cuyas experiencias y luchas han contribuido a abrir camino para las nuevas generaciones.
Para muchas de las personas presentes, este enfoque representó una invitación a mirar hacia atrás con gratitud, reconociendo que los avances actuales son el resultado de décadas de trabajo, organización y valentía.
El orgullo como memoria, comunidad y esperanza
Aunque junio suele asociarse con celebraciones, desfiles y manifestaciones públicas, para muchas organizaciones LGBTQ el orgullo también implica memoria, reflexión y compromiso con las generaciones futuras.
Eventos como “Mani Fiesta tu Orgullo” permiten recordar que detrás de cada conquista existen historias de personas que enfrentaron discriminación, violencia y exclusión para abrir espacios de participación y reconocimiento. Al mismo tiempo, estas actividades fortalecen los vínculos comunitarios y generan oportunidades para que nuevas personas se integren a los movimientos de defensa de derechos humanos.
La edición de este año dejó en evidencia que la comunidad LGBTQ salvadoreña continúa apostando por la organización colectiva, la construcción de alianzas y la recuperación de la memoria histórica como herramientas fundamentales para avanzar. Con una asistencia que superó las expectativas de los organizadores y una creciente participación de distintos sectores sociales, “Mani Fiesta tu Orgullo” reafirmó su lugar como una de las actividades más significativas del inicio del Mes del Orgullo en El Salvador.
Más que una celebración, fue un espacio para recordar, agradecer y reconocer que cada paso dado en la búsqueda de igualdad ha sido posible gracias a quienes, desde distintos momentos de la historia, decidieron levantar la voz y construir comunidad. Y precisamente allí radica la esencia de esta actividad: en recordar que el orgullo no solo se celebra, también se hereda, se construye y se comparte.
The Dutch Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would ban so-called conversion therapy in the Netherlands.
NL Times, an online Dutch newspaper, reported 57 of 75 senators backed the proposal. The Dutch House of Representatives, the lower house of the country’s parliament, approved the measure last September.
Conversion therapy practitioners could face up to two years in prison and a €25,000 ($28,980) fine under the bill once it becomes law after King Willem-Alexander gives his royal assent.
“We have been fighting for the ban with victims and colleague organizations for almost 15 years and are very happy with this result,” said COC Nederland, a Dutch LGBTQ and intersex rights group, in a statement after Tuesday’s vote. “We see it as a victory for the victims.”
Seven EU countries — Belgium, Cyprus, France, Malta, Norway, Portugal, and Spain — have banned conversion therapy outright.
Greece in 2022 banned the practice for minors. German lawmakers in 2020 passed a law that prohibits conversion therapy for minors and for adults who have not consented to undergoing the widely discredited practice.
The European Parliament in April voted in favor of prohibiting conversion therapy across the EU. The European Commission last month said all EU countries should ban it.
Rob Jetten, the country’s first openly gay prime minister, took office in February.
This year’s World Pride will take place in Amsterdam from July 25-Aug. 8.
World
War, geopolitical tensions with U.S. overshadow Pride month events
Hungary’s new government has lifted Budapest Pride ban
Activists around the world are marking Pride month this year against the backdrop of war and geopolitical tensions with the U.S.
KyivPride on June 21 will hold its annual Pride march in the Ukrainian capital. The group, which is raising funds for the country’s air defense, on June 14 hosted KyivPride Park, an event that highlighted LGBTQ service members and veterans.
Russia in 2022 launched its war against Ukraine.
Oleksandr Demenko is the head of Ukrainian LGBT Military for Equal Rights. He also fought to defend Azovstal, a sprawling steel mill in Mariupol, a city in eastern Ukraine that Russian forces occupied after a months-long siege that ended on May 20, 2022.
Demenko in a KyivPride press release said that “almost no one talked about LGBTIQ+ servicemembers” before the war.
“Today we have our own platform, and every year more and more people are ready to speak openly,” he noted. “This is the best proof of how the country is changing.”
“When we talk about rights and equality, we are talking about specific people — service members who defend Ukraine. We carry out the same duties as everyone else, yet we still do not have the same rights,” added Demenko. “That is why it is so important that the state finally recognizes our families. On June 21, we will remind everyone of this at the KyivPride March.”
More than 100,000 people participated in Tel Aviv’s 28th annual Pride parade on June 12.
“Each year, we share a joyful day in Tel Aviv-Yafo,” said Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai. “It is a day when we come to celebrate the society we strive to be: one where people are valued not for who they are, whom they love, where they fall on the spectrum, or the kind of family they choose to create.”
Tel Aviv authorities last year cancelled the parade, which was to have taken place hours after Israel launched airstrikes against Iran. Tehran, in turn, launched hundreds of missiles toward the Jewish State.
President Donald Trump on June 23, 2025, announced a ceasefire that ended the 12-day war.
Israel and the U.S. on Feb. 28 launched airstrikes against Iran. The Jewish State continues to carry out airstrikes against Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia militant group the U.S. and Israel have designated a terrorist organization, in Lebanon.
Reports indicate the U.S. and Iran this week are poised to formally sign a ceasefire agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said his government would continue its efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, killed roughly 1,200 people, including upwards of 360 partygoers at the Nova Music Festival, when they launched a surprise attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip. The militants also kidnapped more than 200 people.
A case that South Africa filed with the International Court of Justice accuses Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Hamas-controlled enclave after Oct. 7.
Roma Pride organizers earlier this month banned two Jewish LGBTQ groups from having floats in their June 20 parade in the Italian capital because they refused to categorize the Israeli government’s post-Oct. 7 war in Gaza as a genocide. The decision has sparked outrage among Jewish organizations around the world.
“The participation of a float in Roma Pride therefore also assumes — regardless of the sexual orientation, identity, religion, ethnicity or nationality of the person you see — a clear and unequivocal position of condemnation of the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli government,” said Roma Pride in a May 26 statement. “The history of our republic is a history of resistance. The history of our movement is a history of resistance. Roma Pride, therefore, supports the right to exist and to resist (for) the Palestinian people oppressed by Israeli government’s criminal and genocidal conduct.”
Sipineq+, a Greenlandic LGBTQ rights group, organized its annual Pride parade that took place in Nuuk, the mineral-rich island’s capital, on June 13.
Trump since he took office for the second time has called for the U.S. to take control of Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory with a population of less than 60,000 people. Trump claims the U.S. needs to control the island in the Arctic Ocean between Europe and North America because of national security.
Cuba’s National Center for Sexual Education, a group that Mariela Castro, the daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro directs, last month held a series of events that commemorated the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia.
The IDAHOBiT commemorations took place against the backdrop of widespread blackouts and a severe fuel shortage after Venezuela stopped oil shipments to Cuba after American forces seized now former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Jan. 3. Federal prosecutors last month also indicted Raúl Castro over his alleged role in the 1996 shooting down of four planes that Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based Cuban exile group, operated over the Florida Straits that separate Cuba and the Florida Keys.
Raúl Castro, 94, was Cuba’s defense minister when the incident took place.
New Hungarian government lifts Budapest Pride ban
The Budapest Pride march will take place in the Hungarian capital on June 27, less than two months after Prime Minister Péter Magyar took office.
Hungarian lawmakers last year passed a bill that banned Pride events and allowed authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify participants. MPs later amended the Hungarian Constitution to ban public LGBTQ events.
More than 100,000 people defied the ban and participated in last year’s Budapest Pride parade. The event became one of the largest protests against then-Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his government that Magyar and his center-right Tisza party ousted on April 12.
Hungarian police on May 29 announced they will allow the Budapest Pride march to take place.
“We will march freely in fresh air for our rights, for the democratic Hungary,” said Budapest Pride on its Facebook page.
Erika Hilton, a Black travesti and former sex worker who has been in the Brazilian Congress since 2022, is among those who spoke at the annual São Paulo Pride Parade that took place on the city’s Paulista Avenue on June 7. Reports indicate more than 1 million people took part in the event.
Equal Namibia will hold several events in the country.
The Namibian High Court in 2024 struck down Apartheid-era statutes that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations — the country gained its independence from neighboring South Africa in 1990. The Namibian Supreme Court the year before ruled the country must recognize same-sex marriages legally performed elsewhere.
Patrick Reissner, co-founder of Equal Namibia, on Monday told the Washington Blade the organization is preparing to file a marriage equality case. Reissner said two Equal Namibia staffers are planning to participate in this year’s World Pride, which will take place in Amsterdam from July 25-Aug. 8.
“By staying visible, engaging with the international (business) community, and pushing for more research in queer spaces — Namibian, regional, and continental — we hope to prove to our government that the economic and social costs of discrimination cause more damage, affect productivity, limit innovation, and hold back our nation’s investment attractiveness,” Reissner told the Blade. “Diversity and inclusion — across the board — are not only social values, but increasingly vital arguments in shaping our local economies for future generations.”
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