World
Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Europe and Asia
Qatar has detained a man with HIV who is a dual British and Mexican citizen
AUSTRALIA
As the 46th Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras ended its two week long celebrations with the annual massive Mardi Gras parade on Oxford Street this past weekend, this year’s celebration marred by the murder of a gay couple that jarred the country’s entire LGBTQ community, the parade came to a halt on Saturday in a powerful act of remembrance for the couple, Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
In its annual float, Qantas Airways paid tribute to Davies who worked for the carrier as a flight attendant. A Qantas spokesperson confirmed that Davies’ name was added prominently on the side of the Qantas float, and Executive Manager Crew Leeanne Langridge in a statement said that Davies “was a much-loved member of the Qantas cabin crew community in Brisbane and Sydney.
“He had a passion for travel, life, his family and friends and the customers that he served. He will be deeply missed. The whole team at Qantas are thinking of Luke and Jesse’s loved ones,” Lanridge said.
The Star Observer, the country’s largest queer news media outlet, reported that a New South Wales police officer, Beaumont Lamarre-Condon, who reportedly once dated Baird, a Network 10 reporter and a sports official who umpired in AFL matches in the Northern Football and Netball League, has been charged with their murders.
Lamarre-Condon is accused of shooting them dead with his police-issued sidearm at Baird’s home in Paddington, Sydney. The couple’s remains were found at a property at Bungonia, near Goulburn, around 115 miles south of Sydney on Feb. 27, 2024.
The murder of the couple caused the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras organizers to uninvite police from the iconic Mardi Gras parade the BBC reported.
The parade’s board said the decision to exclude police, who have taken part in the annual march for over two decades, was “not taken lightly” but that it was essential to create a safe environment “to protest, celebrate” and “honor and grieve those we’ve lost.”
Sydney’s Mardi Gras parade has a complex history of both LGBTQ activism and police brutality, after the first march in 1978 resulted in dozens of people being beaten and arrested by local officers, the BBC noted.
CHINA
A Chinese transgender activist is facing deportation back to mainland China as she is scheduled for release on Sunday from Siu Lam Psychiatric Center, a psychiatric detention institution where Hong Kong authorities usually hold trans detainees.
Lai Ke, also known as Xiran, was convicted of using “forged” documents to attempt to travel from China to Toronto via Hong Kong last year. Lai was detained at Hong Kong International Airport on May 3, 2023, while transferring to a flight to Toronto having begun her journey in Shanghai.
Lai was convicted in a Hong Kong court on June 16, 2023, and sentenced to 15 months in prison, which she served at the Siu Lam Psychiatric Center. A release notice from the Siu Lam Psychiatric Center seen by Amnesty International states that Lai is due to be released early for good behavior on March 2. As Lai is not a resident of Hong Kong, she is subject to being deported to mainland China under Section 19 of the Hong Kong Immigration Ordinance.
“Time is of the essence to prevent Lai Ke from being unlawfully deported to mainland China, where she would be at grave risk of serious human rights violations — including arbitrary detention, unfair trial, and even torture and other ill-treatment — due to both her transgender identity and her activism,” Sarah Brooks, the deputy regional director for Asia for Amnesty International said.
“To return her given these risks would be an abandonment of Hong Kong’s obligations under international law.”
Lai had been a vocal advocate for trans rights in China alongside her partner. According to her friends, her partner was imprisoned in China in June 2023 on account of her own activism and her trans identity.
While serving her sentence, Lai has been denied access to the medication she was taking as a part of her hormone replacement therapy and held in solitary confinement for complaining about the denial of her medical treatment, her friends added.
“There is a very real risk that Lai Ke will face persecution — including further imprisonment — if she is returned to mainland China,” said Brooks.
PHILIPPINES
A 33-year-old drag queen who had been incarcerated in a Manila jail last fall for allegedly violating the Catholic-majority country’s obscenity laws for his performance dressed as Jesus Christ, performing a rock version of the Lord’s Prayer in Tagalog, was arrested again this past week.
Investigators from the Manila Police District, charged Amadeus Fernando Pagente, who performs under the stage/drag name Pura Luka Vega, for six counts of alleged violation of Article 201 including immoral doctrines, obscene publications and exhibitions and indecent shows. The arrest of the drag artist on Feb. 29 was due to a warrant issued by a court in Quezon City.
Supporters and fans raised the bail of 720,000 Philippine pesos, ($12,852.55) and Pagente was released on March 1. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the drag artist thanked his benefactors writing: “The fight still goes on, life still goes on. I am very grateful to those who helped me with my bail. To my drag sisters who tirelessly helped me and organized fund raising for legal fees, thank you very much. Thank you.”
These latest charges stem from a complaint issued by the Kapisanan ng Social Media Broadcasters ng Pilipinas, a broadcast media organization, on behalf of Philippines for Jesus Movement.
This is the second time the Philippines for Jesus Movement, comprising Protestant church leaders, has registered a criminal complaint with prosecutors against the drag performer. He was accused of violating obscenity laws for his performance dressed as Jesus Christ, performing a rock version of the Lord’s Prayer in Tagalog last August. He was incarcerated and then later released.
At the time Pagente told Agence France-Presse: “The arrest shows the degree of homophobia” in the Philippines. “I understand that people call my performance blasphemous, offensive or regrettable. However, they shouldn’t tell me how I practice my faith or how I do my drag.”
Ryan Thoreson, a specialist at the Human Rights Watch’s LGBT rights program, also called for the charges against Pagente to be dropped. “Freedom of expression includes artistic expression that offends, satirizes or challenges religious beliefs,” Thoreson told the BBC.
UKRAINE
A Ukrainian army combat medic was stripped of honors awarded to his unit by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church after the church leadership was informed that he was gay.
Viktor Pylypenko, a medic with 1st mechanized battalion, 72nd Black Zaporozhians Brigade medical corps, along with his fellow servicemembers were awarded medals for “sacrifice and love to Ukraine” by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate’s Patriarch Filaret for their actions and deeds serving in the Donbas region against the Russian invaders.
Pylypenko who serves as an openly gay soldier together with the commander of the medical corps, Yurii Lytvynenko, arrived from Donbas to receive the medals from Filaret. The patriarch personally thanked Pylypenko for his service.
According to the Ukrainian news website obozrevatel.com, that after receiving the award, the soldier published a post on his Facebook page thanking Filaret for the award, thinking that in this way the UOC changed its attitude towards the LGBTQ community.
“I am sincerely glad that Patriarch Filaret took such a step and thanked me, an openly gay man and human rights activist, for the protection. He gave me a medal with his signature and seal. He and the Kyiv Patriarchate headed by him have radically changed their position on LGBTQ+ people and no longer consider us ‘sinful’ or the cause of the coronavirus,” Pylypenko wrote.
On Feb. 25 the church responded in its own Facebook post calling Pylypenko’s post a falsehood:
“Among the distinguished military personnel of the medical point was Victor Pylypenko. Unfortunately, on his social media pages, he posted false information about Patriarch Filaret awarding him a distinction as openly gay for human rights and that Patriarch Filaret and the Kyiv Patriarchate radically changed their negative position on LGBT.
This is an outright lie and manipulation.
Taking into account the efforts of the dark forces to distort the consistent position of the upc of the Kyiv Patriarchate, we want to officially state:
1. Soldier Victor Pilipenko received a thank you from the church, exclusively as a defender of Ukraine, not as an LGBT activist, at the submission of his fellow soldiers from the combat unit of the heroic 72nd Brigade of the Black Zaporozhye. Patriarch Filaret did not personally award the Pilipenkoví medal and did not know about his sinful tendencies.
2. Holy Patriarch Filaret and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, based on the foundations of the Holy Scriptures, the thousand-year teaching of the Orthodox Church, invariably occupies a principled negative position on Sodom sin, condemns propaganda t. zv ‘same-sex marriages.’ Homosexual sex relationships are a false distortion of the God-given nature of man. As said in the Bible, the Lord Himself for the sins of people destroyed Sodom and Homorrah. The patriarch repeatedly stated it publicly and in court proved the legality of such his right.
3. We thank warrior Victor Pilipenko (as well as all our defenders for defending our liberty and territorial integrity) for his military service, but we do not divide his sinful likeness and LGBT agitation. We inform that due to open propaganda of sinful ideology and the denial of the existence of God, consider the church award to Victor Pilipenko from 08.02.2024 Order no. 27468 — revoked.
The Apostle Paul in the first letter to the Corinthians warned: ‘he deceive yourself: Neither prostitutes, nor idolosuluzeliji, nor adulterous, nor malakí̈, nor mužoložcí, nor thieves, nor lehvari, nor drunkards, nor lihoslovci, nor predators — the kingdom of God will not inherit. And such were some of you; but washed, but sanctified, but justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God’ (1 Cor. 6, 9-11).
Based on the foundations of Christian evangelical love for all, sinners in particular, desiring them salvation, we urge everyone to repent of their personal sins.
Then the church’s press service said: “We would like to inform you that in view of the open propaganda of a sinful ideology and the denial of the existence of God, the church award to Viktor Pylypenko is hereby revoked.”
Pilipenko then accused the Kyiv Patriarchate of awarding the medals as a PR campaign:
“I wrote words of gratitude to Filaret, naively imagining that he deliberately awarded me and showed his colleagues a Christian, undoubtedly noble gesture, a signpost to reconciliation and mutual respect for gays, atheists, and people of other faiths. But everything turned out to be more prosaic: Filaret was just handing out his awards as a PR campaign for his denomination.”
Outrage from his fellow soldiers and others has been building regarding the Kyiv Patriarchate’s actions.
Ilia Krotenko, a fighter with the 72nd Black Zaporozhians Brigade, emphasized that the “trinkets” handed out by the church are worthless.
“In connection with the absolutely disgusting act of the UOC-Kyiv Patriarchate and Patriarch Filaret, who took away the award from war veteran Viktor Pylypenko only because he is openly gay, I also refuse a similar award of my own,” he wrote.
SLOVENIA
Activists from across Europe, including Slovenia, Spain, France and Poland formed an alliance to launch a petition to collect over 300,000 signatures as a first step towards laying the groundwork to ensure that in Europe, reproductive rights are safeguarded and accessible for each and every woman.
This event marks a pivotal moment where voices from diverse European nations unite to advocate for reproductive rights, underscoring the collective resolve to ensure the safety and accessibility of abortion services across the continent.
Nika Kovac, founding director of the 8th of March Research Institute, part of the new alliance, said, “The need to kick off the petition is driven by a deep concern over the erosion of reproductive rights, as witnessed in various parts of the world, including the United States and Poland. We are dedicated to creating a network of friends united by shared values of empathy and solidarity. The key to change is international solidarity.”
“The freedom to choose our body is a common value in every single country of Europe. We are here to demand that it also becomes a right that everyone has in practice,” she added.
Though a large majority of Europeans support abortion, the values of women’s bodily autonomy and their freedom to choose are not shared by all governments and state laws. In a significant number of EU countries, legal and access restrictions prove to be a considerable hurdle for those who need it the most. Slovenia has proven to be a significant outlier, being the only European country to enshrine the right to abortion in its constitution with France currently trying to do the same.
“Ban on abortion kills women, ban on abortion ruins lives and the lack of access to abortion kills women and ruins lives,” said Marta Lempart, founder of Polish Women’s Strike, who has been the loudest advocate for reproductive rights in the country.
“In my country, women die in state hospitals because they are denied abortions. Each time it happens, we cry and protest and say ‘not one more’ but today I am not here to cry and shout but to say that we can get through it. You will never walk alone.”
“In many countries, abortions are legal but not free, so, it’s only for rich people; Also, in many countries abortions are legal, but women are intimidated, and humiliated for accessing a health service. This should not be happening. We need solidarity as we need to protect women not only in Poland but across Europe.”
Alice Coffin, who leads permanent action against patriarchal structures that harm French society and is a member of the alliance, said, “While Poland is infamous for severely restricted access to abortion, populist far-right parties with the same agenda are emerging across the continent. Their anti-abortion agenda is rarely in the forefront of their public communication but it becomes an important policy point if they achieve power. However, there is widespread public opposition to these measures.”
She added, “The French Senate is due to vote on including abortion in its constitution on Wednesday, Feb. 28. The president of the Senate is opposed. The Vatican has expressed its anger. But we have every hope that it will come to pass. So, abortion is an issue that will be very much on the political and media agenda in France over the next few days.”
The petition will actively be distributed among various individuals across multiple countries to ensure wide reach and engagement with the aim of gathering an initial 300,000 signatures. With this petition, the coalition hopes to build momentum and support for the substantive changes they aim to achieve.
The initiative represents a powerful, united front of committed individuals and organizations, and was attended by prominent feminist activists including Nika Kovač who has been one of the initiators of the #MeToo movement in Slovenia; Lempart, activist, and founder of the Polish Women’s Strike, who has been the loudest advocate for reproductive rights in a country with an almost total ban on abortions and has organized the biggest pro reproductive rights protests in the history of Poland; Alice Coffin, renowned feminist and author from France; Silvia Casalino, activist from France, along with Dr. Imma Clarà, director of the Spanish organization L’Associació; LGBTQ activist and researcher Kika Fumero; feminist activist and journalist Cristina Fallarás who launched the Spanish #MeToo movement. #Cuéntalo (Spain) participated in the petition launch.
The coalition’s political stance stems from a fundamental disagreement with the reality that women in Europe still face life-threatening risks due to lack of access to safe abortion services.
The coalition’s overall goal is to safeguard and advance abortion rights across Europe, ensuring that all women have access to the safe, respectful and legal healthcare services they deserve.
QATAR
An HIV positive openly gay dual British and Mexican citizen is being held because of his sexuality in this peninsular Arab country bordering the Persian Gulf. Manuel Guerrero Aviña, 44-year-old Qatar Airways employee, has been imprisoned since Feb. 4 after responding to a false Grindr text.
PinkNewsUK reported according to his brother Enrique Aviña, who is leading the campaign QatarFreeManuel, his brother is being imprisoned because of his sexuality, and has been denied access to antiretroviral medicines.
“Qatar police used a false Grindr profile to contact Manuel and invite him to participate in a meeting with other people from the LGBT community in the city of Doha,” Enrique Aviña told British newspaper the Mirror.
“Manuel was supposed to meet a person he thought he had arranged an appointment with on the night of Feb. 4 but instead encountered police officers who were waiting to arrest him.”
“He has been denied the right to a lawyer and has been forced to sign documents in Arabic without a translator to assist him. Even worse, he has been prevented access to antiretroviral medicines he needs to be able to live with HIV, which constitutes an act of torture and puts his life at risk,” Enrique Aviña said.
PinkNewsUk also reported because Aviña registered as a British national when he was hired by Qatar Airlines and moved there to work, the Mexican Embassy in Qatar said, the British Embassy is dealing with his case, but Mexican consular officers been in contact with his family.
“With regards to the case of Manuel Guerrero Aviña, who has Mexican and British nationality and is currently under arrest in Doha, the Mexican Embassy in Qatar confirms it has been following developments since it was informed about the detention,” an embassy statement read.
“It has been in constant contact with his relatives and has confirmed Manuel has legal representation.”
A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office told PinkNewsUK: “We are providing consular assistance to a British man who is detained in Qatar and are supporting his family.”
Additional reporting from the Star Observer, ABC News Australia, the BBC, Agence France-Presse, Obozrevatel.com, Kyiv Post and PinkNewsUK.
Fiji
Spike in HIV cases prompts Fiji to declare national emergency
Country recorded 2,016 new diagnoses in 2025
Fiji, a small Pacific island nation, on Sept. 15 declared a national emergency as it confronted one of the sharpest increases in new HIV infections globally.
The surge had been building for years, prompting the government to begin intensifying its response two years before the emergency declaration.
In 2024, the government adopted a four-year HIV Surge Strategy, covering 2024 through 2027, and later put in place a national plan to respond to the outbreak. UNAIDS and the World Health Organization have supported that effort.
The scale of the crisis is stark.
An estimated 9,100 people were living with HIV in Fiji in 2025, according to UNAIDS — a 12-fold increase from 2010. HIV has no cure, but effective treatment can suppress the virus, allowing people living with HIV to live long, healthy lives, and preventing sexual transmission when the virus remains undetectable.
In announcing the emergency, Health and Medical Services Minister Ratu Atonio Lalabalavu said the country recorded 2,016 new HIV diagnoses in 2025, the highest annual total on record. He called the figures a sign of the “seriousness of the epidemic and the urgent, coordinated response our country now needs.”
The crisis is also affecting children.
Save the Children Fiji said this week that a two-month-old baby is currently the youngest patient in the country living with both HIV and tuberculosis. The organization said 59 babies acquired HIV through mother-to-child transmission in 2025, while 67 new HIV cases were recorded among children under 15.
Five years ago, about one in every 167 people in Fiji was estimated to be living with HIV, according to government figures cited by the Associated Press. Since then, Fiji has also emerged as an important transit point in the regional drug trade, with international criminal networks moving narcotics from Latin America and Asia toward markets including Australia and New Zealand. Some of those drugs are also reaching Fiji’s domestic market, where injecting drug use has become an increasingly important route of HIV transmission.
Sexual transmission has continued to fuel the outbreak, with health officials pointing to inconsistent condom use and gaps in HIV testing. Stigma and misinformation have made the problem harder to confront, according to UNAIDS Pacific adviser Renata Ram, who has warned that limited knowledge about HIV can discourage people from seeking testing and care.
In a statement to the Washington Blade, Eamonn Murphy, UNAIDS’ regional director for Asia and the Pacific and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, cautioned against viewing Fiji’s epidemic through the lens of a single behavior or community. Among cases where the mode of transmission is known, he said, more than half are linked to sexual transmission and more than 42 percent to injecting drug use.
“The rise in infections among women and infants also shows that HIV has reached more widely across society,” Murphy said. “What stands out is how quickly the epidemic changed compared with the pace of the response. Access to PrEP and harm reduction remained limited, Fiji did not yet have a needle and syringe programme, and stigma and policy barriers continued to keep some people away from services.”
Murphy noted only 39 percent of people with HIV in Fiji knew their status in 2025, and only 22 percent of them were receiving treatment. He also pointed out a wider system-level problem.
“COVID-19 and the years that followed disrupted services, shifted attention and resources, and left community-led outreach operating below the scale that was increasingly needed,” said Murphy. “The epidemic moved faster than the response.”
Murphy said the immediate challenge is to bring HIV prevention and treatment closer together and make both easier to access at scale. He said PrEP, condoms, testing and harm reduction — including Fiji’s planned needle and syringe program — need to reach people earlier. At the same time, people diagnosed with HIV need a clear path into same-day treatment, care and support that helps them remain in treatment.
The tool at the center of the harm-reduction debate is hardly new.
Needle and syringe programs provide people who inject drugs with sterile equipment, helping them avoid sharing needles and reducing the risk of HIV and other blood-borne infections. Decades of evidence have found that NSPs reduce HIV transmission without increasing drug use, and WHO describes them as a proven and cost-effective public health intervention. Such programs operate in more than 90 countries worldwide. Yet Fiji, even as injecting drug use has become an increasingly important route of HIV transmission, is only now moving toward introducing one.
“Trust is just as important as access,” Murphy told the Blade. “People most affected by HIV are more likely to use services when they are confidential, respectful and connected to organisations they already know. Community groups and peer workers are increasingly part of Fiji’s response, including the rollout of free PrEP, and that closer link with the health system can make a real difference.”
“As UNAIDS has stated, the national crisis declaration is ‘a call for action, not fear,’” he added. “Fiji has the tools to change the trajectory; the priority now is to turn political commitment into rapid, coordinated action that reaches people at scale. The UN Joint Team is working to support the national response.”
Joeli Colati, executive director of Fiji Network Plus, a nongovernmental support and advocacy network established by and for people living with HIV, told the Blade that HIV affects people in ways that extend far beyond their health. Some people are afraid to get tested because they fear being judged or worry that others will discover their HIV status. Others fear the consequences for their families, jobs and relationships, as well as stigma and gossip. For LGBTQ people and other vulnerable populations, Colati said, those fears can be even harder to navigate because some already face discrimination. When people do not feel safe, he said, they may avoid testing, treatment and other HIV services.
Fiji does not have a reliable national count of its broader LGBTQ population.
UNAIDS estimates that about 16,000 men who have sex with men and transgender people live in the country, though that figure should not be treated as an estimate of the entire LGBTQ community.
“We are also seeing a lot of HIV misinformation, especially on social media. This includes people sharing wrong information about how HIV is spread, how it is treated, and what it means to live with HIV,” said Colati. “Another serious concern is the increase in herbal healers claiming they can cure HIV. There is currently no cure for HIV. These claims can be dangerous if they make people stop or delay their HIV treatment. Herbal medicine should never be promoted as a replacement for antiretroviral therapy (ART).”
Colati said HIV peer counselors and NGO outreach workers are helping people at the community level, from supporting those newly diagnosed and helping them stay in care to reaching people who may not visit clinics, providing accurate information and connecting them with testing and treatment. He said people are often more comfortable seeking help from someone who understands what they are going through.
“As someone living with HIV myself for 19 years, I know that a person who is newly diagnosed needs more than medicine. They also need support, correct information and hope. With treatment, people living with HIV can live long and healthy lives,” Colati said. “We also need people to understand undetectable equals untransmittable, or U=U: when a person living with HIV takes treatment and maintains an undetectable viral load, they do not sexually transmit HIV. That is both a prevention message and a powerful message against stigma. Fiji Network Plus, the national network for people living with HIV, reinforced this message in our response to Fiji’s national HIV crisis.”
Asaeli Sinusetaki, acting chief executive of Rainbow Pride Foundation, an LGBTQ advocacy group based in Suva, the Fijian capital, in a statement to the Blade said the organization welcomed the government’s declaration because it showed officials now recognized the seriousness of the situation.
“It is unfortunate that it took this long to respond, because the warning signs were always there,” Sinusetaki added.
“For LGBTQ+ people, experiences can differ depending on how comfortable they are accessing services,” Sinusetaki said. “At the same time, LGBTQ+ communities in Fiji have been one of the driving forces behind prevention efforts. Yes, accessing services independently can be a challenge because of fear, particularly stigma and discrimination. But because many LGBTQ people are also part of the Peer Outreach Worker network, they have established trust within their communities and networks to help people access information and services.”
Sinusetaki said access to HIV testing remains a major challenge, with testing unavailable at many local health centers, forcing some people to travel to sexual and reproductive health clinics or hospitals. He said that can be a significant barrier in a country where people often do not seek medical care unless they are already sick, making it unlikely that someone would make a separate trip simply to get an HIV test.
“The emergency has also highlighted that HIV cannot be treated as a stand-alone issue,” said Sinusetaki. “LGBTQ people need access to a broader package of sexual and reproductive health services, STI screening and treatment, mental health and psychosocial support, prevention information, condoms and lubricants, PrEP and PEP and, where relevant, harm-reduction services.”
“For people who receive a positive diagnosis, the challenge does not end with testing,” Sinusetaki added. “We need to ensure that they are linked rapidly to treatment, supported to remain in care and treated with dignity throughout that journey.
The Blade reached out to Lalabalavu multiple times for comment, but did not receive a response.
United Nations
UN human rights chief sounds alarm over ‘comprehensive onslaught’ against LGBTQ rights
Volker Türk on Monday spoke at UN LGBTI Core Group event
UNITED NATIONS — U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Monday said there is a “comprehensive onslaught” against LGBTQ and intersex rights around the world.
“We know that progress for human rights has never been linear … but today’s backlash is deep and it is coordinated and the persecution of LGBTIQ+ people around the world is escalating at an alarming rate,” he said during an U.N. LGBTI Core Group event that took place on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
The Core Group is a group of U.N. member states that have pledged to support LGBTQ and intersex rights.
Mexico and Norway are the current co-chairs. The U.S. withdrew from the Core Group shortly after the Trump-Vance administration took office in 2025.
“We know that across every region, LGBTIQ+ people continue to live and to love in the face of hostility and exclusion,” said Türk. “Their rights, safety, well-being are under attack … it’s a comprehensive onslaught.”
The event took place days after Turkish authorities carried out raids in Istanbul and in other cities across the country that targeted the country’s LGBTQ community.
Türk in his remarks specifically referenced Turkey and Senegal, which further criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations earlier this year. He also noted some countries have deemed LGBTQ and intersex rights groups as “terrorists, extremists, or national security threats.”
The Trump-Vance administration’s anti-terrorism strategy that it released in May specifically references “radically pro-transgender” groups.
Türk noted “more and more candidates and political parties … use bigotry in order to promote anti-LGBTIQ+ sentiments” during election campaigns. He pointed out trans people and women are often targeted.
“These attacks are designed to confuse and to distract,” said Türk. “They cloak bigotry in the language of decency and morality. They evoke the protection of children against manufactured threats, while real and growing dangers to children’s lives and futures, including those linked to technology, to inequality and to the climate disaster remain unaddressed.”
“More broadly those who seek to erase difference and independent thought, expression, and voices from our societies often begin this by erasing LGBTIQ+ people from books and classrooms, from film and culture and from our streets,” he added. “So, this is always the beginning. It’s a wedge issue that unfortunately is used politically to erase other portions of society eventually.”
90 percent of LGBTQ, intersex groups have lost funding since 2025
The event took place less than two weeks after Outright International released a report that found 90 percent of LGBTQ and intersex rights groups around the world have lost funding since January 2025.
The Trump-Vance administration froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid shortly after it took office.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in March 2025 announced 83 percent of U.S. Agency for International Development contacts had been cancelled, and the State Department would administer the remaining programs. USAID officially shut down on July 1, 2025.
Rubio issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the funding freeze. The Washington Blade has previously reported PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down because of gaps in U.S. funding.
Dutch Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma in his remarks at the Core Group event noted his government — openly gay Prime Minister Rob Jetten took office in February — will pledge €50 million ($57.29 million) to support LGBTQ groups around the world. British Under Secretary of State Chris Elmore pointed out his government has pledged £21 million ($28.05) from 2026-2029 to bolster LGBTQ and intersex rights around the world.
“Equality benefits everyone,” said Elmore.
Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Roberto Velasco Álvarez, Norwegian International Development Minister Åsmund Aukrust, Icelandic Foreign Affairs Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, Maltese Foreign and European Affairs Minister Chris Fearne, Brazil’s National Secretary for the Promotion and Defense of the Rights of LGBTQIA+ People Symmy Larrat, Irish State Minister for International Development and Diaspora Neale Richmond, South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation Director-General Zane Dangor, Uruguayan Multilateral Affairs Director María Noel Beretta, French Ambassador-at-Large for Human Rights Isabelle Rome, Cabo Verdean Permanent U.N. Representative Tania Romualdo, Estonian Department of International Organizations and Human Rights Director General Käthlin Saluveer, and Swedish International Development Cooperation Director-General Camilla Nevstad Bruzelius also spoke at the event that Outright International Executive Director Maria Sjödin moderated.
Other speakers included Jon Tilli of Deutsche Bank, UN Women Civil Society Division Director Lopa Banerjee and two activists: Gloria Quaye of Ghana and Nhuun Wannapong Yodmuang of Thailand.
Quaye was among the 21 people who Ghanaian authorities arrested in 2021 during a human rights workshop for LGBTQ activists. She was detained for three weeks until a court dropped the charges.
“In times of adversity, countries can often be tempted to turn inward at precisely the moment when international cooperation is needed the most,” said Sjödin. “The United Nations, of course, brings together sovereign states, but sovereignty cannot be used to decide whose rights count.”
Then-first lady Jill Biden in 2024 spoke at a Core Group event that took place on the sidelines of that year’s U.N. General Assembly. Then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2016 headlined the Core Group event that coincided with that year’s U.N. General Assembly.
The U.S. did not send any representatives to this year’s event.
Jessica Stern, the former special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights under the Biden-Harris administration, and former U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Eric Nelson were among those from the U.S. who attended.
“The movement for the equal rights of LGBTIQ+ people has much to teach the world, particularly at this moment, but some seek to erase or reject those lessons,” said Türk. “The history of the movement for the equal rights is full of courage, dignity, and solidarity and it is an integral part of the human rights movement.”
“It’s not something separate; it’s an integral part of the full human rights movement,” he added. “In claiming their freedom, the LGBTIQ+ communities helped free our societies. We need to see it as a broader strive for freedom.”
Turkey
Activists protest outside Turkish Embassy in D.C.
Dozens detained during anti-LGBTQ ‘My Family Is Safe’ campaign raids
A group of activists on Friday gathered in front of the Turkish Embassy in D.C. to protest the country’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
The protest — which the Council for Global Equality, Amnesty International USA, Outright International, and Health GAP organized — took place less than a week after Turkish authorities detained dozens of people during raids that targeted the country’s LGBTQ community and advocacy groups and HIV/AIDS service organizations.
Authorities in Istanbul on Sept. 15 detained more than 150 people who gathered outside a courthouse to protest the raids that are part of the government’s “My Family Is Safe” campaign. Journalists are among those who were taken into custody.
“This crackdown is not making families safer,” said Amnesty International USA Executive Director Nadia Daar, speaking in front of the Turkish Embassy.
Council for Global Equality Managing Director Keifer Buckingham stressed that “homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey.” Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell and Outright International Senior Director of Law, Policy, and Research Neela Ghoshal also spoke.
View on Threads
Activists in Madrid and in other cities around the world held similar protests on Friday.
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Spike in HIV cases prompts Fiji to declare national emergency
United States Conference on HIV/AIDS grapples with federal budget cuts
Activists protest outside Turkish Embassy in D.C.
A roundup of fall events not to be missed
Over 2,000 turn out for Hands Around the Kennedy Center protest
Furries take over the Metro
