News
Trans conservatives tell CPAC: ‘Don’t tread on me’
“Proud to be conservative, Proud to be transgender, Proud to be American, #SameTeam”
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Being transgender doesn’t mean you have to give up your principles as a conservative, nor does it mean you should allow the Republican Party to subject you to political attacks based on your gender identity.
That was the message last week of four transgender attendees at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering where conservative activists hear from high-profile figures in the conservative movement, including, this year, President Trump.
Late on a Friday afternoon during the conference, the transgender attendees gathered in the hallway of the hotel where CPAC was taking place and held up a Pride flag that also bore the snake from the Gadsden flag, which has become a symbol of the Tea Party movement. In their other hand, they held up small placards reading, “Proud to be conservative, Proud to be transgender, Proud to be American, #SameTeam.”
Jennifer Williams, a 49-year-old New Jersey-based transgender woman and Republican activist, said she and her group “felt a responsibility to definitely be here at CPAC.”
“We wanted to make sure people knew that transgender people exist, and LGBTQ people exist, in the conservative movement and we are just like you are,” Williams said. “We may disagree on some issues, but we own houses, we rent, we have jobs, we strive to have health care and good lives and we want to make our own way in the world, but you can’t try to legislate against us because of myths and because of your fear.”
It’s not the first time Williams and other transgender activists unfurled a Pride flag in the halls of CPAC. That happened last year in the same week that the Trump administration rescinded Obama-era guidance assuring transgender kids access to the school restrooms consistent with their gender identity.
Williams recalled attending CPAC in 2016 at the time of the presidential election when she had the same goals of getting conservatives acquainted with transgender people.
“I came here two years ago by myself,” Williams said. “I was the only openly transgender person that I knew of here at CPAC, and I had to reintroduce myself to about 25, 30 different people because I had been a longtime CPAC attendee, and to a person, they all say, ‘It’s OK. We’re still your friend. But only one question: Are you still a Republican? Are you conservative? That’s all I’m worried about.'”
But that presence continued to grow. Last year, two attendees appeared in the halls of the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center to hold up the modified Pride flag. Last week, a total of four transgender attendees were present, with three holding up the flag and another standing nearby.
Aside from Williams, the other transgender attendee at CPAC making a recurrent appearance was Jordan Evans, a 27-year-old transgender woman from Charlton, Mass., who said she had attended CPAC starting in 2014 before she transitioned.
“There are so many different factions of conservatives and Republicans at CPAC, and while I may not agree with them on all of them, I find solace with a number of them,” Evans said. “That makes it worth it. And as someone who came out a few years ago, I didn’t want to let that stop me from coming here, and if anything I wanted to take advantage of my unique experience and stories and try to [engage in] civil dialogue and discourse while I’m here.”
One of the new additions to the group of transgender attendees was Adelynn Campbell, who’s 23 and on the board of the College Republicans group as a student at King’s College in New York City.
“I wanted to come to CPAC because I wanted a voice and I wanted to share my voice in the Republican Party,” Campbell said. “I didn’t think I could do that, and this is just a great place to have the opportunity to do that, and to maybe get to talk to people and share my experiences when otherwise I wouldn’t.”
Another new addition was Gina Roberts, who’s president of the San Diego chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans. The most formidable of the four transgender attendees and a rifle enthusiast, Roberts stood nearby holding up the Pride flag and half-jokingly described herself as the “bodyguard” for the rest.
“Conservatives are wonderful,” Roberts said. “They basically accept you more as a human being than liberals do, especially as a conservative Republican GLBT member. I go to Tea Party meetings. I’m so accepted there, they wonder where I am when I’m not there, so I haven’t had any issues at all.”
In the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, Roberts — who said she’s been a lifelong Republican since 1968, and who transitioned a few years ago — also expressed ideas akin to Trump’s on potential solutions on arming teachers to prevent additional mass shootings.
“So it’s a two-prong approach,” Roberts said. “Let’s provide the last line of defense by volunteering — we’ll hire some security guards and things like that — but let’s give the teachers the right to protect themselves and the students. Can you imagine the football coach in Parkland if he would’ve had a gun instead of being a bullet sponge? He saved countless lives.”
Roberts said she voted for Trump in 2016 and applied to be a delegate for him at the Republican National Convention, but wasn’t selected. However, Roberts said she’ll take part in the California Republican Convention, making her the first openly transgender delegate for the event.
But can the presence of transgender attendees at CPAC really be making a difference? After all, after their appearance last year, the Trump administration followed up on rescinding the guidance for bathroom use for transgender kids with Trump’s attempt to ban transgender people from the U.S. military and the Justice Department asserted transgender people aren’t covered under existing federal civil rights laws.
In Congress, the Republican-controlled U.S. House held a vote on barring the Defense Department from paying for gender reassignment surgery as part of the military’s health care program, although the measure came up a few votes short of passage.
Williams, who said she’s been lobbying Congress on transgender issues for two years, said nonetheless she sees progress in her efforts because when she initially started, she had limited interaction, but eventually started making more progress.
“I’m now getting meetings with staffers, and some of the most hardcore conservative staffers on religious liberty, to have a chance to discuss with them how medical care discrimination particularly is un-Christian, it’s un-American and their senator, their congressman shouldn’t be involved in that,” Williams said. “That’s a conversation we never got to have before.”
During the time on Friday afternoon when the Blade saw the transgender attendees hold up the Pride flag at CPAC, the only interaction between them and the crowd was positive, although more attention came from members of the media seeking interviews. Williams gave a wave to a CPAC attendee whom she said gave her a thumbs-up as she spoke with the Blade.
After CPAC concluded, Williams later on said someone walked behind her group with a crucifix as they spoke to attendees, but she wasn’t “aware of it at the time as our eyes were forward.”
Ian Walters, a spokesperson for the American Conservative Union, which hosts CPAC, said there were “no disruptions reported” as a result of transgender attendees at the event.
Asked whether the ACU supports their presence at CPAC, Walters replied, “We appreciate all of the activists who attend CPAC.”
But the transgender attendees weren’t the only LGBT presence at CPAC. For the third year in a row, the Log Cabin Republicans maintained a booth in the exhibition hall to demonstrate an LGBT presence with the conservative movement.
Gregory Angelo, president of Log Cabin, said his organization’s reception at the conference was “excellent” from the time the booth opened “there remained a constant stream of people visiting our exhibitor’s space here.”
“Without hyperbole or exaggeration, 100 percent, everyone who checked in with us was supportive — either supportive that we were here or supportive that we were here and of the work and message of the organization,” Angelo said.
Indeed, on the first day of CPAC on Thursday, the Blade was unable to approach Angelo because he was too busy interacting with conference attendees. The interview with the Blade had to wait until things quieted down Friday afternoon. According to Log Cabin, 94 people signed up for the organization before the event came to a close Saturday.
Log Cabin was among several conservative groups in the exhibition hall, including institutions like the Heritage Foundation, an anti-LGBT think tank that dolled out free popcorn to CPAC attendees as it advocates principles of social conservatism and limited government.
In what may be a sign that acceptance of gay people has grown to higher levels in comparison to transgender people, Williams and Angelo reported different experiences when asked if the welcoming reception was different than previous years.
Williams said in 2018 she’s “definitely” seen a change in reaction at CPAC compared to earlier years because “people are asking more deeper questions beyond unfortunately, medical questions, shall we say.”
“They ask real questions about how did you transition socially, why you are doing this, continue to tell me why religious freedom doesn’t impinge on what you’re doing,” Williams said. “So you have really good chances to answer questions for people that they’re maybe not going to ask in other venues because they’re afraid to.”
Angelo, on the other hand, denied any change in attitudes toward Log Cabin at CPAC and said the reception has “always been great.”
“This has kind of been the point that we’ve been trying to make in the years that we were excluded from CPAC all along,” Angelo said. “That is, the overwhelming number of attendees at CPAC not only support Log Cabin Republicans, but want to see us here, that we have a valuable role to play in the greater conservative movement.”
At the end of the day, the LGBT attendees felt the goals they set to accomplish at CPAC — which were varied, but with focus on demonstrating presence in the conservative movement — were achieved.
Angelo said CPAC gave Log Cabin a chance to advocate for secondary issues for its organization as opposed to LGBT rights — such as the Second Amendment and Islamic extremism — but also to send a message to Democrats.
“The tertiary goal of why we’re here is to remind LGBT Democrats and liberals that Log Cabin exists, we’ve existed for 41 years, we continue to exist and we’ll continue to be a voice for conservative principles within the LGBT community whether they like that or not,” Angelo said.
Williams said her presence and those of other transgender activists at CPAC enabled one-on-one interactions to help win battles on transgender rights.
“How we do that is by engaging them dispelling their myths and helping them get the courage to finally maybe stand up next year, this next election,” Williams said. “If a candidate locally says I’m against LGBT people, transgender people don’t deserve to have freedom and liberty and we should make sure that we save our restrooms from them, hopefully, we’re given these people the strength to say, ‘No, no, no, you’re wrong. I met these transgender women and they’re not what you’re talking about.’ I’m hoping they see that.”
Ghana
Ghana’s president says anti-LGBTQ+ bill ‘effectively is dead’
Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill passed in 2024
Advocacy groups in Ghana have welcomed the demise of a bill that would have further criminalized LGBTQ+ people and outlawed allyship.
President John Mahama on Jan. 14 said the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill that MP Sam George of Ningo-Prampram co-sponsored in 2021 was essentially dead. Mahama made the remarks to a delegation of bishops from the Ghana Catholic Bishop’s Conference.
“If we are teaching our values in schools, we wouldn’t need to pass a bill to enforce family values,” said Mahama. “More than just passing the Family Values Bill, we need to agree on a curriculum that instills these values in our children as they grow.”
The president also said that although MPs passed the bill last February, parliament dissolved before former President Nana Akufo-Ado, whose term ended earlier this month, signed it.
“I don’t know what the promoters of the bill intend to do, but I think we should have a conversation about it again,” said Mahama. “As far as I know, the bill did not get to the president. So, the convention is that all bills that are not assented to law before the expiration of the life of parliament, expire. So that bill effectively is dead.”
LGBT+ Rights Ghana Communications Director Berinyuy Burinyuy said the president’s remarks offer a glimmer of hope for LGBTQ+ Ghanaians who have long been subjected to systemic discrimination, fear, and violence.
“For many, the mere suggestion that LGBT+ issues could be addressed through education rather than criminalization represents a significant departure from the traditional legislative path championed by the bill’s proponents,” said Burinyuy. “This shift implies a possible opening for dialogue and a more inclusive approach, one that recognizes the need for respect and understanding of diverse sexual identities within Ghanaian society.”
Burinyuy, however, asked about how family values will be incorporated into the educational curriculum.
“Will the curriculum provide a comprehensive, nuanced understanding of human sexuality that respects diversity, or will it risk reinforcing discriminatory attitudes under the guise of cultural preservation?” said Burinyuy. “The fear, particularly among LGBT+ activists is that the emphasis on education could inadvertently foster homophobia in Ghanaian children. If the content is not carefully structured, it could perpetuate harmful stereotypes and deepen existing prejudices.”
“While Mahama may not yet be fully committing to a clear policy direction, his statement leaves open the possibility of a more balanced approach, one that allows for a national conversation on sexual rights without rushing into divisive legislation,” added Burinyuy.
We Are All Ghana said Mahama’s comments are a welcomed approach in addressing anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments and negative stereotyping.
“We need a holistic educational curriculum for our schools,” said We Are All Ghana. “The children at least deserve to know the truth. There is nothing worse than half baked information.”
Yaw Mensah, an LGBTQ+ activist, said Mahama is teaching Ghanaians to be tolerant of everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation.
“Mahama is indirectly saying LGBT persons are not Ghana’s problems. Let’s teach families values that accept and respect everyone. Ghanaian values should be tolerance, respect, honesty, hardworking, hospitality, and integrity,” said Mensah. “Those need to be taught and not the hate, discrimination, barbarism, greediness, and hypocrisy that we are seeing in many leaders which transcends into the young ones.”
George has yet to comment on Mensah’s comments about his bill.
State Department
Trump executive order bans passports with ‘X’ gender markers
President signed directive hours after he took office
A sweeping executive order that President Donald Trump issued on Monday bans the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers.
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June 2021 announced the State Department would begin to issue gender-neutral passports and documents for American citizens who were born overseas.
Dana Zzyym, an intersex U.S. Navy veteran who identifies as nonbinary, in 2015 filed a federal lawsuit against the State Department after it denied their application for a passport with an “X” gender marker. Zzyym in October 2021 received the first gender-neutral American passport.
The State Department policy took effect on April 11, 2022.
“The secretaries of State and Homeland Security, and the director of the Office of Personnel Management, shall implement changes to require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder’s sex,” reads Trump’s executive order.
The gender marker is among the provisions contained within Trump’s executive order titled “Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.” Trump in his inaugural speech said the federal government’s “official policy” is “there are only two genders, male and female.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday told the NOTUS website the executive order is not retroactive and will not invalidate current passports with a gender-neutral gender marker.
“They can still apply to renew their passport — they just have to use their God-given sex, which was decided at birth,” said Leavitt. “Thanks to President Trump, it is now the official policy of the federal government that there are only two sexes — male and female.”
The Los Angeles Blade will have additional reporting on Trump’s executive orders and their impact on the LGBTQ+ community.
National
Meta’s policy changes ‘putting us back in the dark ages’
Expert says rolling back hate speech protections threatens queer youth
LGBTQ advocates have expressed alarm in recent weeks, as Meta has taken steps to undermine protections for queer youth and apparently worked to appease the incoming conservative administration in Washington.
Meta, the parent company of popular social media and messaging companies Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is owned by Mark Zuckerberg, who was once considered to be an ally of the LGBTQ community.
Two weeks ago, the internet was afire with discussion of Liv, the now-deleted Instagram profile of a “proud black Queer momma of 2” AI made by Meta as part of its AI user dreams.
Then, last week, independent tech journalist Taylor Lorenz revealed that Instagram had been blocking teens from searching LGBTQ-related content for months.
This comes as no surprise to Celia Fisher, a professor of Psychology and the Marie Ward Doty University Chair in Ethics at Fordham University who has spent her career studying children and adolescent health, especially for marginalized groups like the LGBTQ community.
When speaking to the Washington Blade in November 2024 on TikTok, Fisher remarked that it was increasingly difficult to research the Meta platforms. Fisher and her team have used advertisements on social media to recruit youth for anonymous surveys for studies. “One of the advantages of social media is that you can reach a national audience,” she says.
The advertisements are specifically linked to keywords and popular celebrities to reach LGBTQ populations of youth. When she spoke to the Bladeagain this week, she was not surprised to hear that keywords were being blocked from youth. “Now, there is a major barrier to being able to recruit when you are doing online studies.”
It makes her research—which has looked at the mental health of youth online, HIV prevention strategies, and COVID vaccine barriers—impossible. “If Meta prevents researchers from using the platform, then the research can’t be done,” she said.
The search blocks are not just a threat to the research, they are a threat to youth. “Hiding those terms from youth means they can’t see that there is a community out there. That’s a tremendous loss, especially for transgender youth,” said Fisher.
Fisher suspects where the restrictions are coming from, not that Zuckerberg has been particularly opaque as he cozies up to the new administration. “I think there’s been a creeping fear on the part of companies not to do anything that might elicit the ire of more conservative politicians,” she said.
A Meta spokesperson told Lorenz that the restriction was a mistake. “It’s important to us that all communities feel safe and welcome on Meta apps, and we do not consider LGBTQ+ terms to be sensitive under our policies,” said the spokesperson.
Meta backtracked immediately; the next day the company removed longstanding anti-LGBTQ hate speech policies.
Zuckerberg announced large changes to the platform via video in which he sported a $900,000 watch. (More than 1 in 5 LGBTQ adults are living in poverty. More than 1 in 3 transgender adults are living in poverty.)
The changes, which eliminate independent fact-checking for a system similar to X’s “community notes,” have been highly critiqued by journalists and fact-checking organizations. Many experts see it as a “bow” to Trump.
Zuckerberg also noted that the platform would “remove restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are out of touch with mainstream discourse.” He directly linked the changes to the recent election.
Those changes happened quickly. That same day GLAAD, an LGBTQ media monitoring non-profit, reported the changes to the hateful conduct policies. Changes include allowances for calling LGBTQ people mentally ill and the removal of prohibitions against the dehumanization of protected groups, among many. Notably, Meta’s guidelines include the right-wing transphobic dog whistle “transgenderism.”
On Jan. 9, reporting from The Intercept and Platformer on internal training documents revealed the use of even more slurs. The t-slur against transgender people is now allowed on the sites with no restrictions. Phrases like—and this is a quoted example—”A trans person isn’t a he or she, it’s an it” are allowed on the sites with no restrictions.
Notably, the training manuals differentiate between different members of the LGBTQ community. For example, The Intercept found that the phrase “Lesbians are so stupid” would be prohibited while “trans people are mentally ill” would not be.
(These training manuals also include permissive use of racist and dehumanizing language for other marginalized groups.)
And then, as a cherry on top, Meta removed DEI programs and deleted the transgender and non-binary Messenger themes, on Jan. 10.
These changes are undeniably bad. Arturo Béjar, a former engineering director at Meta with expertise in online harassment, told the Associated Press, he is horrified by the changes.
“I shudder to think what these changes will mean for our youth, Meta is abdicating their responsibility to safety, and we won’t know the impact of these changes because Meta refuses to be transparent about the harms teenagers experience, and they go to extraordinary lengths to dilute or stop legislation that could help,” he said.
Fisher, who has researched the effects of hate speech online on LGBTQ youths’ mental health, agrees that the results will be devastating. “We had many people who said they observed transgender harassment for others or were actually attacked themselves,” said Fisher. “This prevents people from wanting to come out online and to actually engage in those kinds of online communities that might be helpful to them.”
What is happening also confirms LGBTQ youths’ worst fears. “We’ve found that a major concern is that there would be an increased violation of civil rights and increased violence against LGBTQ individuals,” she said.
Fisher, a psychologist, sees this as “putting us back into the dark ages of psychiatry and psychology when LGBTQ individuals were seen as having some kind of a mental health problem or disorder.”
Fisher emphasized: “This kind of misinformation about mental illness is certainly going to be putting transgender people, especially at even greater risk than they were before.”
(This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab through News is Out. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.)
White House
Trump previews anti-trans executive orders in inaugural address
Unclear how or when they would be implemented
President Donald Trump, during his inaugural address on Monday, previewed some anti-trans executive orders he has pledged to sign, though it was not yet fully clear how and when they would be implemented.
“This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life,” he said. “Today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government, that there are only two genders, male and female.”
The president added, “I will sign an order to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political theories and social experiments, while on duty. It’s going to end immediately.”
After taking the oath of office inside the U.S. Capitol building, Trump was expected to sign as many as 200 executive orders.
On issues of gender identity and LGBTQ rights, the 47th president was reportedly considering a range of moves, including banning trans student athletes from competing and excluding trans people from the U.S. Armed Forces.
NBC News reported on Monday, however, that senior officials with the new administration pointed to two forthcoming executive orders — the official recognition of only two genders, and “ending ‘radical and wasteful’ diversity, equity and inclusion programs inside federal agencies.”
With respect to the former, in practical terms it would mean walking back the Biden-Harris administration’s policy, beginning in 2022, of allowing U.S. citizens to select the “x” gender marker for their passports and other official documents.
“The order aims to require that the federal government use the term ‘sex’ instead of ‘gender,’ and directs the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to ‘ensure that official government documents, including passports and visas, reflect sex accurately,'” according to NBC.
Additionally, though it was unclear what exactly this would mean, the first EO would take aim at the use of taxpayer funds for gender-transition healthcare, such as in correctional facilities.
The Human Rights Campaign in a press release Monday indicated that a “fulsome review of executive actions” is forthcoming, but the group’s President Kelley Robinson said, “Today, the Trump administration is expected to release a barrage of executive actions taking aim at the LGBTQ+ community instead of uniting our country and prioritizing the pressing issues the American people are facing.”
“But make no mistake: these actions will not take effect immediately,” she said.
“Every person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect in all areas of their lives,” Robinson said. “No one should be subjected to ongoing discrimination, harassment and humiliation where they work, go to school, or access healthcare. But today’s expected executive actions targeting the LGBTQ+ community serve no other purpose than to hurt our families and our communities.”
She continued, “Our community has fought for decades to ensure that our relationships are respected at work, that our identities are accepted at school, and that our service is honored in the military. Any attack on our rights threatens the rights of any person who doesn’t fit into the narrow view of how they should look and act. The incoming administration is trying to divide our communities in the hope that we forget what makes us strong. But we refuse to back down or be intimidated.”
“We are not going anywhere. and we will fight back against these harmful provisions with everything we’ve got,” Robinson said.
State Department
Senate confirms Marco Rubio as next secretary of state
Fla. Republican will succeed Antony Blinken
The U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to become the next secretary of state.
The vote took place hours after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday advanced Rubio’s nomination before senators approved it by a 99-0 vote margin.
The promotion of LGBTQ+ and intersex rights abroad was a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris administration’s foreign policy.
Rubio in 2022 defended Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed. The Florida Republican that year also voted against the Respect for Marriage Act that passed with bipartisan support.
Rubio during his Jan. 15 confirmation hearing did not speak about LGBTQ+ rights.
World
Out in the World: LGBTQ+ news from Europe and Asia
The British government will build a memorial for queer veterans
UNITED KINGDOM
A memorial for LGBTQ+ veterans will be built at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, the British government announced earlier this month.
Funded by a £350,000 (approximately $425,000) grant from the Office for Veterans’ Affairs, the memorial is part of the government’s response to an independent review of the experience of LGBTQ+ veterans who served before 2000, when the UK government removed restrictions of queer people service openly in the military. Thousands of LGBTQ+ soldiers and service personnel were dismissed from the military while the ban was in effect.
The 9’ tall bronze memorial takes the form of a crumpled letter made up of words taken from testimony of former personnel who were impacted by the LGBTQ+ ban.
“This is extremely personal for some of our members, some of whom have been affected by the armed forces exclusion of LGBTQ+ identities, and some simply affected by lived queer experience. All our members make a living in the arts by designing and delivering beautiful sculpture, making and inspired by the act of collaboration,” says Nina Bilbey, lead artist at the Abraxis Academy, which collectively designed the memorial.
The design was one of 38 submitted in a nationwide competition and selected by a judging panel that included representatives from Fighting with Pride, a national LGBTQ+ veterans advocacy group.
The UK government has taken other steps to restore dignity to LGBTQ+ veterans, including the launch of a financial recognition scheme, qualification of discharge, and restoration of rank, which were launched last December.
“When I joined the Royal Marines in 1999, this abhorrent ban on homosexuality in the armed forces was still in place. A quarter of a century later, we turn a page on that shameful chapter in our national story,” says Veterans Minister Alistair Carns in a statement.
RUSSIA
A Russian man was fined under the country’s LGBTQ+ propaganda laws for jokingly claiming to be the founder of the “international LGBT movement,” which the Russian Supreme Court declared to be an extremist terrorist organization last year.
Anton Yevdokimov, a pro-democracy activist, was found guilty of spreading “propaganda of non-traditional relations” by a Moscow court last November, but the decision was only made public last week. He was ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 rubles (approximately $975.)
Yevdokimov posted the offending statements on VKontakte, a Russian social media platform, in December 2023, shortly after the Russian Supreme Court declared the “international LGBT movement” to be an extremist terrorist organization.
“Now that they’ve banned LGBT, it’s time to confess: I am the founder and main organizer of the LGBTQ+ extremist organization!” Yevdokimov wrote, according to Novaya Gazeta.
“I went to Rainbow High School, was recruited there, and now irradiate all homophobes with rainbows! Every time a homophobe looks at a rainbow, they get a tingle in their ass and want to suck dicks,” he wrote, also saying that “KGB cocksuckers” should “be afraid.”
Yevdokimov was already in police detention over a separate social media that is alleged to have “justified terrorism” post when he received the fine.
Russian authorities have stepped up persecution of LGBTQ+ people and activities since the Supreme Court ruling. Earlier this month, police detained the staff at a restaurant in Yakutsk in the Russian Far East, after the mayor’s office accused the restaurant of hosting performances by visiting queer and transgender artists from Thailand.
TURKEY
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attacked the country’s LGBTQ+ community in a speech launching what he’s calling a “year of the family,” aimed at reversing declining birth rates.
Erdogan has long targeted the LGBTQ+ as a political tactic, even though Turkey’s queer community is relatively low profile. He often portrays LGBTQ+ rights activists as part of a foreign conspiracy designed to weaken Turkey.
“It is our common responsibility to protect our children and youth from harmful trends and perverse ideologies. Neoliberal cultural trends are crossing borders and penetrating all corners of the world,” he told an audience in the capital, Ankara. “They also lead to LGBT and other movements gaining ground.
“The target of gender neutralization policies, in which LGBT is used as a battering ram, is the family. Criticism of LGBT is immediately silenced, just like the legitimate criticisms of Zionism. Anyone who defends nature and the family is subject to heavy oppression.”
Critics of LGBTQ+ rights are not routinely silenced in Turkey, as should be evident by the fact that the current president is a vocal critic of LGBTQ+ rights. Parties opposed to LGBTQ+ rights make up a majority of the national parliament and run the majority of Turkey’s cities.
It is more accurate to say that the government routinely shuts down speech in favor of LGBTQ+ rights in Turkey.
Since 2016, Istanbul Pride has been banned every year. People who’ve defied the ban have been subjected to tear gas, plastic bullets, and mass arrests.
Last year, the city of Istanbul’s film censors banned a screening of the Luca Guadagnino film “Queer,” leading to the cancellation of the film festival it was set to open.
Erdogan’s announcement came with a suite of policies he says will reverse a trend of declining birth rates, including better income supports for newlyweds and new parents.
Turkish law does not recognize any same-sex relationships or same-sex parents.
MYANMAR
The military junta that governs Myanmar has banned seven books with LGBTQ+ themes and has said it will take action against the books’ publishers, according to Radio Free Asia.
The banned books are “A Butterfly Rests on My Heart” by Aung Khant, “1500 Miles to You” and “Love Planted by Hate” by Mahura, Myint Mo’s “Tie the Knot of Love,” “Match Made in Clouds” by DiDi Zaw, “DISO+Extra” by Red in Peace and “Concerned Person U Wai” by Vivian. All the books are published domestically by Myanmar writers.
“These books are not accepted by Myanmar society, they are shameless and the content that can mislead the thinking and feelings of young people,” the Information Ministry said in a statement published in state-run media.
The LGBTQ+ community typically maintains a low profile in the socially conservative country, where gay sex is still criminalized under a criminal code that was drafted by the British colonial administration in the 19th century.
LGBTQ+ people can also be charged or harassed by authorities under laws that criminalize the production and distribution of “obscene” materials.
Myanmar’s military has had effective control of the government since 1962. A brief democratization in the 2010s ended when the military seized power following the victory of pro-democracy forces in the 2020 election.
Cuba
Transgender woman who protested against Cuban government released from prison
Brenda Díaz among hundreds arrested after July 11, 2021, demonstrations
A transgender woman with HIV who participated in an anti-government protest in Cuba in 2021 has been released from prison.
Luz Escobar, an independent Cuban journalist who lives in Madrid, on Saturday posted a picture of Brenda Díaz and her mother on her Facebook page.
“Brenda Díaz, a Cuban political prisoner from July 11, was released a few hours ago,” wrote Escobar.
Authorities arrested Díaz in Güira de Melena in Artemisa province after she participated in an anti-government protest on July 11, 2021. She is one of the hundreds of people who authorities took into custody during and after the demonstrations.
A Havana court in 2022 sentenced Díaz to 14 years in prison. She appealed her sentence, but Cuba’s People’s Supreme Court upheld it.
Escobar in her Facebook post said authorities “forced” Díaz to “be in a men’s prison, one of the tortures she suffered.” Mariela Castro, the daughter of former Cuban President Raúl Castro who directs the country’s National Center for Sexual Education, dismissed reports that Díaz suffered mistreatment in prison. A source in Cuba who spoke with the Washington Blade on Saturday said Díaz was held in a prison for people with HIV.
The Cuban government earlier this week began to release prisoners after President Joe Biden said the U.S. would move to lift its designation that the country is a state sponsor of terrorism. The Vatican helped facilitate the deal.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is Cuban American, on Wednesday criticized the deal during his confirmation hearing to become the next secretary of state. President-elect Donald Trump, whose first administration made the terrorism designation in January 2021, will take office on Monday.
White House
GLAAD catalogues LGBTQ+-inclusive pages on White House and federal agency websites
Trump-Vance administration to take office Monday
GLAAD has identified and catalogued LGBTQ+-inclusive content or references to HIV that appear on WhiteHouse.gov and the websites for several federal government agencies, anticipating that these pages might be deleted, archived, or otherwise changed shortly after the incoming administration takes over on Monday.
The organization found a total of 54 links on WhiteHouse.gov and provided the Washington Blade with a non-exhaustive list of the “major pages” on websites for the Departments of Defense (12), Justice (three), State (12), Education (15), Health and Human Services (10), and Labor (14), along with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (10).
The White House web pages compiled by GLAAD range from the transcript of a seven-minute speech delivered by President Joe Biden to mark the opening of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center to a readout of a roundtable with leaders in the LGBTQ+ and gun violence prevention movements and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s 338-page FY2024 budget summary, which contains at least a dozen references to LGBTQ+-focused health equity initiatives and programs administered by agencies like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Just days after Trump took office in his first term, news outlets reported that LGBTQ+ related content had disappeared from WhiteHouse.gov and websites for multiple federal agencies.
Chad Griffin, who was then president of the Human Rights Campaign, accused the Trump-Pence administration of “systematically scrubbing the progress made for LGBTQ+ people from official websites,” raising specific objection to the State Department’s removal of an official apology for the Lavender Scare by the outgoing secretary, John Kerry, in January 2017.
Acknowledging the harm caused by the department’s dismissal of at least 1,000 employees for suspected homosexuality during the 1950s and 60s “set the right tone for the State Department, he said, adding, “It is outrageous that the new administration would attempt to erase from the record this historic apology for witch hunts that destroyed the lives of innocent Americans.”
In response to an inquiry from NBC News into why LGBTQ+ content was removed and whether the pages would return, a spokesperson said “As per standard practice, the secretary’s remarks have been archived.” However, NBC noted that “a search of the State Department’s website reveals not much else has changed.”
Argentina
Javier Milei rolls back LGBTQ+ rights in Argentina during first year in office
Gay congressman, activists lead resistance against president
Javier Milei’s rise to power marked a sea change in Argentine politics that profoundly impacted the country’s LGBTQ+ community.
His first year in office has seen a combination of hostile rhetoric and concrete measures that have dismantled historic advances in human rights.
“Javier Milei’s administration is fighting a two-way battle,” Congressman Esteban Paulón, a long-time LGBTQ+ activist, pointed out to the Washington Blade. “On the one hand, symbolically, with an openly homo, lesbo and transodiant discourse, and on the other, in concrete facts, such as the closure of the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity, and INADI (the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism).”
The decision to eliminate these key institutions sent a clear message: Diversity policies are no longer a state priority. This dismantling left LGBTQ+ Argentines without national advocacy tools.
Some provinces have tried to fill this void, but many others have followed the national government’s lead. This trend, according to Paulón and other activists, has left LGBTQ+ Argentines even more vulnerable.
“What we are seeing is not only a setback in public policies, but also a direct attack on the dignity of thousands of people who, until recently, felt the support of the state,” said Paulón.
One of Milei administration’s first acts was to close the Women, Gender and Diversity Ministry and INADI. These decisions, which Milei said was necessary to reduce “unnecessary public spending,” eliminated agencies that played an essential role in the promotion of human rights and the fight against discrimination.
“Without these institutions, the LGBTQ community has been left unprotected against violence and prejudice. Now, discrimination cases that used to be handled by INADI end up shelved or without follow-up,” Paulón warned. “The message this sends is that our lives don’t matter to this government.”
Paulón and other activists say one of the Milei government’s most alarming decisions is to allow employers to fire employees without legal consequences.
“Today, a person can be fired because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, without the possibility of recovering their job,” warned Paulón.
The new policy has left many employees — especially transgender people — without legal recourse. Advocacy groups say companies have taken advantage of this regulation to carry out selective firings. The freezing of a trans-specific labor quota has deepened employment discrepancies for one of the country’s most vulnerable communities.
Paulón told the Blade that anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric from Milei and several of his ministers has also had an effect on Argentine society.
“Today, anyone feels they can say anything without consequences,” said Paulón, who noted that ultraconservative and religious sectors view Milei’s government as an ally.
This rhetoric, according to Paulón, has yet to translate into widespread violence.
“We are not yet in a situation of systematic violence as in other countries, but the risk is there,” he said. “Every word of hate from power legitimizes violent actions.”
Congress, civil society leads resistance
In the face of this adverse scenario, resistance has taken various forms.
Paulón and other opposition lawmakers have worked on bills to protect LGBTQ+ rights and reverse regressive measures.
“We will not stand idly by. We put forward concrete proposals to guarantee access to health care, inclusive education and labor protections,” said Paulón.
Activists have strengthened alliances with their counterparts in neighboring countries, such as Brazil and Chile, and Mexico. They are also working with international organizations that have expressed concern about the situation in Argentina.
Although the outlook is bleak, Paulón said he remains hopeful.
“Milei is going to pass, like all processes in democracy,” he said.
Paulón stressed that marriage equality and the transgender rights law are deeply rooted in Argentine society, and act as barriers to stop further setbacks. The challenge now, he says, is to maintain resistance, organize the community, and strengthen international ties.
“We have an organized movement, tools to defend ourselves and a mostly plural and diverse society. This process will also come to an end,” said Paulón. “In this context, the struggle for LGBTQ rights in Argentina is a reminder that social conquests are never definitive and that resistance is vital to preserve the achievements made.”
U.S. Federal Courts
Appeals court hears case challenging Florida’s trans healthcare ban
District court judge concluded the law was discriminatory, unconstitutional
Parties in Doe v. Ladapo, a case challenging Florida’s ban on healthcare for transgender youth and restrictions on the medical interventions available to trans adults, presented oral arguments on Wednesday before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta.
The case was appealed by defendants representing the Sunshine State following a decision in June 2024 by Judge Robert Hinkle of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, who found “the law and rules unconstitutional and unenforceable on equal protection grounds,” according to a press release from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which is involved in the litigation on behalf of the plaintiffs.
The district court additionally found the Florida healthcare ban unconstitutional on the grounds that it was “motivated by purposeful discrimination against transgender people,” though the ban and restrictions will remain in effect pending a decision by the appellate court.
Joining NCLR in the lawsuit are attorneys from GLAD Law, the Human Rights Campaign, Southern Legal Counsel, and the law firms Lowenstein Sandler and Jenner and Block.
“As a mother who simply wants to protect and love my child for who she is, I pray that the Eleventh Circuit will affirm the district court’s thoughtful and powerful order, restoring access to critical healthcare for all transgender Floridians,” plaintiff Jane Doe said. “No one should have to go through what my family has experienced.”
“As a transgender adult just trying to live my life and care for my family, it is so demeaning that the state of Florida thinks it’s their place to dictate my healthcare decisions,” said plaintiff Lucien Hamel.
“Members of the legislature have referred to the high quality healthcare I have received, which has allowed me to live authentically as myself, as ‘mutilation’ and ‘an abomination’ and have called the providers of this care ‘evil,’” Hamel added. “We hope the appellate court sees these rules and laws for what truly are: cruel.”
“Transgender adults don’t need state officials looking over their shoulders, and families of transgender youth don’t need the government dictating how to raise their children,” said Shannon Minter, legal director of NCLR. “The district court heard the evidence and found that these restrictions are based on bias, not science. The court of appeals should affirm that judgment.”
Noting Hinkle’s conclusion that the ban and restrictions were “motivated by animus, not science or evidence,” Simone Chris, who leads Southern Legal Counsel’s Transgender Rights Initiative, said, “The state has loudly and proudly enacted bans on transgender people accessing healthcare, using bathrooms, transgender teachers using their pronouns and titles, and a slough of other actions making it nearly impossible for transgender individuals to live in this state.”
Lowenstein Sandler Partner Thomas Redburn said, “The defendants have offered nothing on appeal that could serve as a valid basis for overturning that finding” by the district court.
“Not only does this dangerous law take away parents’ freedom to make responsible medical decisions for their child, it inserts the government into private health care matters that should be between adults and their providers,” said Jennifer Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights at GLAD Law.
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