World
Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Canada, Asia, and Europe
Russian authorities raided four gay bars earlier this month
CANADA
Voters in New Brunswick booted the Progressive Conservative Party from government on Oct. 21 after a tumultuous year that saw the province’s premier lead a trend of Canada’s conservative parties launching policies targeting transgender students in schools.
The New Brunswick Liberals led by Susan Holt won 31 seats to the Progressive Conservatives’ 16 and the Green Party’s 2. Holt will become the province’s first woman premier.
Outgoing Premier Blaine Higgs, who had personally spearheaded the province’s controversial policy requiring parental notification and consent if a student wants to use a different name or pronoun in school, lost his own seat in the election.
Higgs had announced the policy earlier in the year, which led to two of his own cabinet ministers resigning in protest. While the Progressive Conservatives insisted the policy was popular and campaigned hard on maintaining it, voters ultimately rejected it.
Holt has pledged to withdraw the policy and put safeguards in place for LGBTQ students.
New Brunswick is the third Canadian province this year where voters rejected conservative parties that had implemented or proposed anti-trans policies in schools, after Manitoba and British Columbia.
Voters in Saskatchewan on Monday will decide the fate of the right-leaning Saskatchewan Party government, which recently passed a law overriding the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to implement its parental notification and consent policy for trans students. The party has also pledged further crackdowns on trans people in schools.
Polls indicate the race is tight, with some predictions suggesting the New Democrats, who have pledged to repeal the policy, look set to unseat the Saskatchewan Party for the first time in 17 years.
The Progressive Conservative government of Nova Scotia also called snap elections for Nov. 26, and polls indicate that the PCs will cruise to a victory. The Nova Scotia government bucked the anti-trans trend among Canada’s conservative parties and has announced plans to update education policies to make schools more LGBTQ-inclusive.
IRELAND
Ireland’s parliament passed a sweeping hate crimes law addressing a sharp uptick in violence against LGBTQ people both on the Emerald Isle and across Europe.
The Criminal Justice (Hate Offenses) Act was passed by a vote of 78-52 on Oct. 23. The bill adds stiffer penalties to crimes if they are found to be motivated by hatred based on race, color, nationality, religion, national or ethnic origin, descent, disability, gender (including trans and nonbinary identities), sex characteristics, and sexual orientation.
The government said Ireland had been an international outlier due to its lack of hate crime legislation. The lack of hate crime laws had been flagged in the annual Rainbow Index report on Ireland by ILGA-Europe.
Still, the government faced opposition to its initial hate crimes bill, which also included provisions expanding the country’s laws banning hate speech to include hate speech based on gender identity. To get the bill passed, the government stripped those provisions from the bill. Hate speech based on sexual orientation has been illegal in Ireland since 1989.
“Making the decision to remove the incitement to violence or hatred provisions was a difficult one; but it was necessary to move forward to put the hate crime provisions into law. The message this sends is clear — hatred and violence towards others because of who they are will not be tolerated, and now the law will reflect this,” says Justice Minister Helen McEntee in a statement.
“I have been very clear that I believe we need to update the 1989 Act to adequately deal with incitement to hatred offenses, particularly in the context of modern online communications. I absolutely believe this needs to be next on our agenda and amendments to the 1989 Act will be progressed at the earliest opportunity.”
LGBTQ activists had mixed feelings about the bill’s passage, acknowledging the value of getting the bill passed but pledging to continue fighting for hate speech protections for trans people.
“LGBT+ and other communities deserve protection and we welcome the imminent passage into law of this long overdue legislation. There must be consequences for targeting people for who they are,” said Ireland’s National LGBT Federation (NXF) in a statement on X.
“The NXF and our civil society colleagues remain firmly committed to seeing the incitement provisions of (the) bill revisited and enacted. Ensuring the legislation is fit-for-purpose is crucial. The safety of our communities is more important than ‘culture wars’ or political populism.”
SOUTH KOREA
Hundreds of thousands of people attended a demonstration against LGBTQ rights in the South Korean capital on Oct. 27, organized by Christian groups.
Police estimated that around 230,000 people attended the demonstration, while organizers claimed that attendance was over one million, Reuters reports.
The protesters were demonstrating against a recent Supreme Court ruling that found that the National Health Insurance Service was obligated to provide spousal benefits to same-sex couples. While the ruling is binding, reports have emerged that the NHIS is still not providing benefits to same-sex couples, as there remains no legal recognition of same-sex couples in South Korea.
Recently, 11 same-sex couples filed lawsuits seeking to establish same-sex marriage rights in the country.
Attendees at the protest carried signs that decried LGBTQ rights generally, including opposing a proposed anti-discrimination law, and urging “protect our children from gender pollution, gender confusion, and gender division destruction.”
Not all Christian groups agree with the protesters’ anti-LGBTQ sentiments.
“This rally claims to be a ‘joint worship service,’ but it is nothing but a sinful event in which participants base their claims on outdated conspiracies to push homophobic discrimination,” read a statement signed by 53 LGBTQ organizations and LGBTQ-friendly Christian groups.
“This directly contradicts the values of generosity, diversity, and respect for human rights that our society has worked so hard to instill. They are oppressing the rights of minorities under the name of the ‘majority,’” the statement read.
RUSSIA
The Russian government has escalated its crackdown on LGBTQ people, with raids on four gay bars across the country leading to at least 50 people being detained, Novaya Gazeta reports.
The raids took place on Oct. 12, coinciding with the bars’ events celebrating National Coming Out Day. Two popular queer bars, Central Station and Three Monkeys, were raided in Moscow, while two other queer bars were reportedly raided in Yekaterinburg in central Russia.
Videos of the crackdowns released on Russian propaganda Telegram channels show detainees being forced to lie on the ground or stand with their hands against the wall while police violently frisk them.
The channels variously allege that the purpose of the raids was to crack down on drug trafficking or respond to civilian complaints of impropriety. One channel alleges that the clubs were “discrediting the Russian army” as drag performers at Central Station mocked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has intensified a crackdown on LGBTQ people over the past decade, first banning “LGBTQ propaganda” in 2013. Last year, the Supreme Court declared “the international LGBT movement” an “extremist organization,” causing several queer organizations and venues to close or go underground.
GEORGIA
Georgia’s opposition leaders are crying foul after what they’re saying was a rigged election that let the ruling Georgian Dream party hold onto power. Georgian Dream has led a crackdown on LGBTQ people while leading an increasingly authoritarian, anti-democratic, and pro-Russia government at odds with the country’s largely pro-Western and pro-democracy population.
The opposition parties claim that multiple exit polls showed them winning a combined majority of votes on election day Oct. 26, before official results reported that Georgian Dream had won 53 percent of the vote. Opposition parties claim that the official results come from voter intimidation, ballot stuffing, fraud, and other irregularities seen and reported at polling stations across the country, especially in rural areas where Georgian Dream dominated.
President Salome Zourabichvili refused to recognize the official results, which she claimed were caused by Russian interference. The opposition parties also announced on Monday that they would boycott parliament. They have collectively called for protests against disputed election.
The European Union called for an investigation into the election. Georgia officially seeks to join the EU but has had its membership application suspended due to democratic backsliding under Georgian Dream.
The U.S. government has also previously applied sanctions on Georgian Dream leadership and has said it is observing the situation closely.
Spain
Spanish women detail abuses suffered in Franco-era institutions
Barcelona-based photographer Luca Gaetano Pira created ‘Las Descarriadas’ exhibit
A Barcelona-based photographer, audiovisual artist, and activist has created an exhibit that profiles Spanish women who suffered abuse in institutions that Gen. Francisco Franco’s dictatorship established.
Luca Gaetano Pira, who is originally from Italy, spoke with women who the regime, which governed Spain from 1936-1975, sent to Women’s Protection Board institutions.
The regime in 1941 created the board the country’s Justice Ministry oversaw.
Franco named his wife, Carmen Polo, as the board’s honorary president. Then-Prime Minister Felipe González fully dissolved the board in 1985, a decade after Franco’s death.
Gaetano’s exhibit is called “Las Descarriadas” or “The Misguided Women” in English.
“These are women who were detained between 1941 and 1985 for reasons that are unthinkable today: being lesbian, poor, pregnant out of wedlock, rebellious, politically active … or simply considered ‘morally suspect,'” Gaetano noted to the Washington Blade.
Groups affiliated with the Spanish Catholic Church ran these institutions. Gaetano pointed out they were “presented as social assistance centers.”
“In reality, they were spaces of punishment and forced reeducation, where isolation, unpaid work, and psychological violence were the norm,” he said. “Many of the survivors are still alive. Their testimonies are powerful, urgent, and of extraordinary current relevance.”
The regime sent more than 40,000 women to Women’s Protection Board institutions.
“Despite its seemingly benevolent name, it was in fact one of the most powerful instruments of moral and social control over women during and after the dictatorship,” notes the exhibit. “Under the guise of care and re-education, this institution functioned as a repressive apparatus that punished women who deviated from the ideal feminine model imposed by Franco’s regime: submissive, obedient, married, and dedicated to motherhood within the Catholic family structure.”
The Spanish Catholic Church last month issued a public apology, but Gaetano described it as “very soft” and noted “the women did not accept it.” Gaetano also compared the Women’s Protection Board institutions to Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries.
The Associated Press notes tens of thousands of “fallen” women were sent to the laundries that Catholic nuns operated in Ireland from the 18th century until the mid-1990s. Then-Irish Prime Minister Edna Kenny in 2013 issued a formal apology for the abuses that women suffered in the laundries and announced the government would compensate them.
The Spanish government has yet to offer compensation to the women abused in Women’s Protection Board institutions.
“My work focuses on recovering the historical memory of marginalized communities, particularly through the portrayal of survivors of institutional violence and the use of archival materials,” Gaetano told the Blade, noting he has also sought to highlight the repression that LGBTQ people suffered during dictatorships in Portugal and Latin America.
Gaetano’s exhibit can be found here:
Afghanistan
ICC issues arrest warrants for Taliban leaders over persecution of LGBTQ people, women
Groups ‘non-conforming’ with group’s gender policy targeted
The International Criminal Court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for two top Taliban officials accused of targeting LGBTQ people, women, and others who defy the group’s strict gender norms.
The warrants are for Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, and Afghanistan Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani.
“Based on evidence presented by the Office (of the Prosecutor), the judges found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that they have committed — by ordering, inducing, or soliciting — the crime against humanity of persecution, under article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute, on gender grounds, against girls, women, and other persons non-conforming with the Taliban’s policy on gender, gender identity or expression; and on political grounds against persons perceived as ‘allies of girls and women,’” reads an ICC press release that announced the warrants.
Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, in January announced a request for warrants against Taliban officials over their treatment of women and other groups since they regained control of Afghanistan in 2021. The request marked the first time the court specifically named LGBTQ people as victims in a gender persecution case before it.
“The issuance of the first arrest warrants in the situation in Afghanistan is an important vindication and acknowledgement of the rights of Afghan women and girls,” reads the press release the ICC released on Tuesday. “It also recognizes the rights and lived experiences of persons whom the Taliban perceived as not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, such as members of the LGBTQI+ community, and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women.”
A report that Outright International released in 2023 notes Taliban officials have systematically targeted LGBTQ people — especially gay men and transgender women.
Taliban officials have subjected them to physical and sexual assault as well as arbitrary detention. The Outright International report also notes Taliban authorities have carried out public floggings for alleged same-sex sexual relations, and have collected intelligence on LGBTQ activists and community members.
Artemis Akbary, executive director of the Afghanistan LGBTIQ Organization, praised the ICC.
“Today is a historic moment for LGBTIQ victims and survivors,” he said on social media.
El Salvador
#JusticiaParaKarla: una lucha por el derecho a la identidad en El Salvador
Karla Guevara inició su camino legal y personal en 2020
Cinco años han pasado desde que Karla Guevara inició un camino legal y personal para lograr que su nombre y género sean reconocidos en su Documento Único de Identidad (DUI). Cinco años de sentencias, apelaciones, puertas cerradas y vulneraciones que hoy se resumen en una sola palabra: resistencia.
En medio de un país que aún arrastra estructuras jurídicas y sociales poco sensibles a las realidades trans, Guevara se ha convertido en una voz visible. No solo por la denuncia pública de su caso, sino por su capacidad de transformar el dolor en acción: ha iniciado la campaña #JusticiaParaKarla, la cual acompaña con conversatorios llamados “Si tú fueras yo” en diferentes zonas del país.
Su historia se remonta al año 2018, cuando, junto a otras tres defensoras de derechos humanos —Mónica Hernández, Bianca Rodríguez y Verónica López— interpuso una demanda para lograr el cambio de nombre legal. La acción se inspiró en la Opinión Consultiva 24/17 de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, que obligó a los Estados miembros de la OEA a garantizar los derechos de las personas trans, incluyendo el reconocimiento de su identidad.
A diferencia de sus compañeras, cuyo proceso fue resuelto favorablemente, Guevara fue la única a quien el Estado salvadoreño le negó el derecho, incluso tras contar con una sentencia favorable. El camino ha sido empinado, desgastante y doloroso, y ha implicado múltiples etapas legales con resoluciones contradictorias.
El 8 de enero de 2020, el juzgado declaró su demanda improponible. Guevara apeló el 22 de ese mismo mes, pero la Cámara de Familia desestimó su recurso. Aun así, perseveró. En abril de 2021 presentó una segunda apelación, y en septiembre se revocó la decisión del juzgado, ordenando admitir su demanda. Una pequeña luz parecía abrirse.
En agosto de 2022, después de varios peritajes que, según Guevara, incluyeron momentos donde se sintió expuesta y violentada, recibió una sentencia favorable: se autorizaba su cambio de nombre y género en la partida de nacimiento. Sin embargo, esta victoria fue parcial y breve. Aunque se ordenó marginar su partida, no se ordenó cancelarla como en otros casos similares.
El 4 de octubre de ese mismo año, la sentencia fue enviada al Registro del Estado Familiar. Pero la respuesta institucional fue sorprendente: el 3 de noviembre, la Alcaldía de San Salvador se negó a realizar el cambio. El jefe del registro y el registrador presentaron un amparo ante la Sala de lo Constitucional, paralizando el proceso.
“No solo me lo negaron, sino que ahora me exponen a un juicio aún mayor”, expresa Guevara. La frustración y la indignación fueron creciendo. En febrero de 2023, presentó una denuncia ante la Fiscalía General de la República, aunque lo hizo con poca esperanza. “Temía que no harían nada”, dijo. Y el 16 de abril de 2024, sus temores se confirmaron: la Fiscalía archivó el caso alegando que “no existe delito que perseguir”.
El 19 de noviembre de ese mismo año, Guevara decidió acudir a instancias internacionales y presentó su caso ante la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos. La CIDH ya notificó al Estado salvadoreño y le otorgó un plazo de cuatro meses para responder por qué no ha ejecutado el cambio ordenado por el juzgado.
“Obviamente no van a dar respuesta”, lamenta Guevara. Lo dice con la voz entrecortada, como quien ya ha llorado mucho, pero no ha perdido la voluntad de hablar. Reconoce que el proceso le ha afectado emocionalmente. “Cada vez que hablo de esto se me corta la voz”.
Las heridas no solo vienen de las oficinas estatales, sino también de las calles. Las miradas, los comentarios, el momento de presentar el DUI en cualquier trámite. “Es como si cada vez tuviera que explicar mi existencia. Es un juicio constante sobre quién soy”.
Guevara no está sola. Reconoce que hay otras personas trans en la misma situación. “Lo preocupante es que solo pasa en algunas zonas del país. En otras ha habido casos exitosos”, afirma. La disparidad en el trato revela una preocupante arbitrariedad institucional.
Uno de esos casos exitosos es el de Valeria Mejía, coordinadora de monitoreo y evaluación de ASPIDH. Su DUI ya refleja su nombre identitario, aunque no su género.
“Cuando recibí mi DUI con el nombre que me identifico pensé: aquí empieza una nueva vida”, relata.
Para Mejía, el cambio fue profundamente simbólico. “Uno ve pasar toda su vida frente a los ojos. Toda la discriminación, todos los rechazos. Sentí que algo sanaba”. A pesar de ello, su género asignado al nacer sigue apareciendo en el documento, lo que le genera inseguridad.
“El problema es que tengo que ir a todas las instituciones donde aparezco con mi nombre anterior. En el Seguro Social, por ejemplo, aún estoy registrada con el nombre masculino y no pueden atenderme, aunque el número del DUI sea el mismo”, explica.
Casos como los de Guevara y Mejía visibilizan una problemática estructural: el Estado salvadoreño no garantiza de forma uniforme el derecho a la identidad de las personas trans. Las resoluciones favorables son solo el primer paso. Su implementación efectiva aún tropieza con prejuicios, burocracia y omisiones.
Con la campaña #JusticiaParaKarla, la activista busca más que una solución a su caso personal. Busca generar conciencia, exigir coherencia legal y empujar una transformación cultural. En la marcha del 17 de mayo contra la LGBTIfobia, su presencia se hizo notar con camisetas, banners y mensajes que interpelan directamente al sistema.
Guevara ha hecho de su cuerpo, su voz y su historia una herramienta de resistencia. En cada conversatorio de “Si tú fueras yo”, invita a imaginar, a empatizar, a incomodarse.
“Lo que me pasa a mí le puede pasar a cualquier persona trans. Y si el Estado no nos reconoce, nos niega también la posibilidad de existir plenamente”, expresa.
Hoy, la resolución está en manos de la CIDH y el tiempo corre. La lucha de Guevara ya no es solo por una partida de nacimiento. Es por el derecho a ser, a vivir sin miedo, a que el nombre que la representa no siga siendo un motivo de juicio, burla o rechazo.
Mientras tanto, sigue esperando. Sigue alzando la voz. Sigue sembrando esperanza en quienes vienen detrás. Porque como ella misma dice: “Esto no se trata solo de mí. Se trata de justicia”.
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