News
Pete Buttigieg makes pitch to LGBT voters in bid to become first out gay president
2020 hopeful backs Equality Act, health care for transgender people
It’s pronounced “Boot-a-judge.”
That was the first thing South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg cleared up for the Washington Blade in response to questions about his 2020 presidential run in a Jan. 31 interview.
Buttigieg, a Rhodes scholar and Afghanistan veteran, beefed up his national profile in his 2017 run to become Democratic National Committee chair.
The 2020 White House hopeful announced his exploratory committee last month. If successful, the long shot Buttigieg would be the first openly gay person to win the Democratic presidential nomination and the White House.
LGBT priorities for Buttigieg, who said he’d run a campaign based on the themes of freedom, democracy and security, include passage of the Equality Act and greater visibility for transgender people.
Distinguishing himself from other 2020 hopefuls, Buttigieg said he supports transgender people having access to transition-related care, even when they’re in prison. Other candidates, including Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, have different records on that issue.
The full Q&A between the Blade and Buttigieg follows:
Washington Blade: You’re running in a field of Democratic candidates, many of whom have been longtime LGBT allies. What do you bring to the table that’s different?
Pete Buttigieg: First of all, I’m very mindful of the possibility of being the first out nominee in American history, and you know, I think it’s safe to say for many reasons, I’m not like the others.
I also just have a different outlook: I am from the industrial Midwest, I’m in local government and I come from a generation that I think really needs to be stepping forward right now. I think our generation has so much at stake in the future and the decisions that are being made today, and I think it really shows the people in charge, like the current president and administration, don’t care very much about the future because they don’t plan to be here.
2054 is the year when I will reach the current age of the current president, and I think you just take some of these decisions about climate, about the economy much more seriously if you’re hoping to be here in 2054.
What we have here right now is a sequence of decisions that have been made that are very short term, very destructive and it’s time for voices from a generation that has a personal stake in that future to step forward and talk about how we can make that future different.
Blade: But what makes you think you can win the White House if you get the nomination?
Buttigieg: I think the message needs to revolve around three themes: freedom, democracy and security. I think that you have a very strong, progressive foundation for those issues, but I also think we’ve not done a very good job of communicating them across the aisle.
Freedom is something that I think has been monopolized by conservatives in terms of political rhetoric, but when I think about everything from the freedom to marry to the freedom to start a new business knowing you can still get health care, it’s really progressive and Democrats have delivered the kinds of freedom that are most important for our daily lived experience.
When it comes to democracy, I think we’ve demonstrated that we are the party that is more interested in making sure that more people can vote, and I think this needs to be part of a national conversation as well. We need to shore up our democracy through a number of reforms, including D.C. statehood, that just make our democratic republic a little more democratic.
And then on security, we’ve got to understand 21st century security means a lot more than just border security and traditional military issues. I was in the military. I certainly spent a lot of time thinking about traditional military issues, but we have to be talking about cybersecurity, election security, climate security, digital security. And I think people are ready for a message that’s just different from what we’ve had before.
We have a profoundly, almost historically, unpopular president, but that doesn’t mean he gets defeated on his own if we don’t have a compelling message that’s different and better.
Blade: Let’s bring this closer to our LGBT readers. How does support for the LGBT community figure into your run for the presidency?
Buttigieg: I think that it will be vital. I think it will be a spruce of lifeblood because we are perhaps the only minority in more or less equal proportion across every racial, ethnic, economic and geographic group in the country, so one thing that will be very important for the success of this project, especially early on when people take your measure based on fundraising is to be able to demonstrate grassroots support from people in the community who believe that representation at the highest levels, actually having someone from the LGBTQ community on the ballot is important, that it will make things better for the next person who comes along and that America needs to be given a chance to demonstrate that it’s ready for this.
Blade: In terms of LGBT rights issues, where do you want to go with that?
Buttigieg: I think one of the big things that we’re looking at, of course, is the Equality Act. I live in a state where it is still — not in South Bend because we took local action, but in most parts of my state it’s still perfectly illegal to be fired for who you are, and I think we need better legislation, civil rights legislation that takes care of that.
Obviously, we have a lot of issues with hate crimes now in Indiana. At the state level, we’ve been pursuing hate crimes legislation. We have federal hate crimes legislation, but we have to do a lot more, including, not just at the policy level, but at the cultural level. There’s several reasons why hate crimes have gone up by most measures in recent years, and I think, a lot of that starts at the top. It has to do with leadership, it has to do with the tone that it set by those in charge and it has to change.
Blade: What concerns you most about how President Trump is handling LGBT issues?
Buttigieg: Obviously the attack on trans rights and the trans military ban is extremely disturbing. When I was in the military, the people I served with could not have cared less whether I was going home to a girlfriend or boyfriend. They just wanted to know that I was going to be someone they could trust with their lives and vice-versa.
Trans members of the military who are willing to put their lives on the line in order to defend this country deserve to be supported by their commander in chief, and it’s extremely disturbing, especially for someone who, let’s face it, kind of pink-washed his campaign early on and portrayed himself as somebody who might change the way the Republican Party related to the LGBT community to turn around and do this demonstrates that he was never serious about that, not to mention the elevation of Mike Pence to one heartbeat away from the presidency.
Blade: What kind of place will transgender people have in your campaign and your presidency?
Buttigieg: A very prominent place. I’ve been really heartened to see more people, especially in my generation, stepping forward. I think Danica Roem opened a lot of doors in terms of elected leadership, and I think we will be looking to make sure that our campaign as well as a future administration reflects the diversity of this country. Obviously, that includes making sure there are visible roles for trans people.
Blade: One question I want to pose to you because it has been a point of differentiation among the Democratic candidates: Should transgender people, even if they’re in prison, have access to gender reassignment surgery?
Buttigieg: Yeah. I believe that’s part of health care. We provide health care to people who are serving the country, we provide health care to people who are incarcerated. I think the bigger issue is that too many people are incarcerated, but if you are, we need to treat everybody the same, and if you regard this, as I do, as part of health care.
Look, people try to turn others against this around the issue of cost, but the spectacular costs of incarceration have very little to do with things like gender reassignment.
Blade: Are you aware Kamala Harris as California attorney general defended the California Department of Corrections in seeking to deny surgery to transgender inmates and what do you make of that?
Buttigieg: I was not aware of that. I do know that California, if I understand correctly, is one of the few places that has been able to provide that, and I think that the rationale for it is based on it being — not only that it can be medically necessary for many inmates, but also there are shockingly high rates of sexual assaults or sexual abuse for transgender people who are incarcerated, so I think that moving in that direction was the right thing to do and I hope that more states take a look at that, especially the ones that want to ensure that we’re preventing sexual abuse.
Blade: What kind of endorsements has your potential candidacy obtained so far and how do you expect them to grow?
Buttigieg: Obviously, this is a very early phase. We just announced the exploratory committee last Wednesday, but we are going to seek endorsements from organizations and individuals. We’ve already reached out to the Victory Fund, to the Human Rights Campaign and to a lot of the people I respect and talked about.
Rightly, they are taking their time and they’re being very deliberate about this, but I do hope that we will earn that and demonstrate somebody like me belongs in this conversation at the highest level. Hopefully, we will continue to mobilize the support we need in order to be taken seriously.
This first quarter is critical because this is where we establish that we belong at the table, then it becomes a matter, once we’ve shown enough early organizational support at the end of the quarter, then we no longer have to answer questions about whether we belong in the conversation and start really focusing on making sure that what we have to say in the conversation justifies more and more support.
Blade: What will it take for you to move from an exploratory committee to a candidacy in the legal sense?
Buttigieg: I want us to be in a position to have a very strong launch coming out of the gate both in terms of the sort of event we are launching and in terms of the organizational support we have on Day One of that phase, that we’re right where we want to be.
Blade: I’ve had experts tell me you face challenges because you don’t have the name recognition of other candidates and you should run for governor and not president. What would you say to that?
This is not about steps for me…I believe in running for an office when you believe what you offer matches the needs of the moment and I am surprised as anybody that things have come this far, but I think we’ve gotten to a moment where what that office most needs is someone entirely new, something very different, something that is not rooted in the way Washington works today and has more generational energy and on the ground local experience than anybody else…
I just don’t believe that you run for office because you would love to have it or because you think it’s the right step along the way because these offices are too important. You run for office because you think what you have meets the moment, and every time I’ve decided to run for office and every time I’ve decided not to run for an office has been the outcome of that same process of discernment.
Blade: Has anyone told you a gay person cannot be elected president in the year 2020?
Buttigieg: Yes. Some believe that’s the case, and I think there is only one way to demonstrate conclusively that that’s not true.
Blade: If there are LGBT people or people anywhere who want to support you, what is the biggest way to help out?
Buttigieg: So, peteforamerica.com is the place where you can add your name to the list, if you want to be on the list so we know you’re a supporter, if you want to make a financial contribution, which again, right now, in terms of showing we belong at the table, part of how they take your measure is that grassroots financial support.
Over time, especially in early states, we will need help on the ground getting known, making introductions, winning people over and then hopefully as that grows, more and more of a field organization that will have all kinds of roles for people, but you can start by going to peteforamerica.com and adding your name so we know who’s out there to support us.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length.
India
Harish Iyer continues his fight for LGBTQ+ rights in India
Long-time activist challenged sodomy law, continues marriage equality fight
The Indian LGBTQ+ community has long grappled with systemic neglect and societal prejudices, but significant victories like the striking down of Section 377 in 2018 and progressive Supreme Court verdicts have sparked hope. The fight for equality nevertheless remains arduous.
Amid this struggle, Harish Iyer has stood out as a beacon of courage, leading the movement with unwavering commitment and inspiring others to unapologetically embrace their identities.
Iyer, with a slight smile, noted to the Washington Blade during a recent interview that he was born into privilege. As the first male child in a patriarchal society, he explained this status came with inherent advantages.
Despite being born into privilege, Iyer’s early life was marked by profound challenges.
At just 7-years-old, he endured and survived a traumatic experience of rape, an event that deeply impacted his childhood. Iyer said he was gang raped at 11, four years after a relative sexually assaulted him. Iyer told the Blade these assaults impacted his confidence.
“Children go through sexual assault but they do not understand what is happening with them,” said Iyer. “Because they are children, they do not know its language. We do not call a penis a penis, we do not call a vagina, a vagina. I am 45 years of age, and I am talking about 1987 or 1988. People had very little understanding. When you do not have language to say what it is, you don’t say about it.”
Iyer said it is easier for girls to talk about sexual assault compared to boys, and as a result it was harder for him to speak out. He also struggled living in two worlds: One of morals and fairy tales, and another filled with hardships that he tried to mask.
“I opened up about my abuse at 18, after 11 years of continuous trauma,” said Iyer. “That was a different battle altogether. It was 1998-1999, a time with little awareness about child sexual abuse. When I told my parents, my mother understood that a child could be abused. My father, however, was not supportive and didn’t understand what was happening.”
Iyer shared how these events shaped his thoughts, values, and empathy for others facing similar challenges.
At 22, he began to understand his sexuality and came out to his parents as gay. At 40, he realized his gender could be fluid and has identified as gender-fluid since then.
Iyer shared his struggles in finding a job as an openly gay man in India’s conservative society. He now works at Axis Bank, one of India’s largest private banks. Iyer said joining the bank was a unique journey — he did not have any other job opportunities at the time.
“I applied for every job on LinkedIn,” said Iyer. “Axis Bank responded. I thought I’d be unhappy there, but I needed the money, so I applied. The process took a long time, but after several interviews, I was selected. During the interviews, I realized I could be myself. People saw me for who I truly am, and that worked wonders.”
“A week after joining, I started pushing boundaries,” he added. “The chief human resources officer called me to her office. After our conversation, she held me close and said, ‘You should not have to fit in — be who you are.’ Within six months, we created a charter with policies for the LGBTQ community. It’s called ‘Come As You Are.'”
Iyer told the Blade that Chief Human Resources Officer Rajkamal Vempati was upset with him.
She felt he was free to express himself at the company, but wasn’t doing so. Iyer said Axis Bank has a dress code policy for employees — one for men, one for women, and one for LGBTQ+ employees that allows them to choose the gender in which they want to present themselves.
He said he never expected to see such inclusion in a private sector bank in India before joining Axis Bank.
Iyer challenged sodomy law, continues to fight for marriage equality
On the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling that struck down Section 377, the provision of the country’s penal code that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations, Axis Bank in 2021 introduced policies and a charter for the LGBTQ+ community. Iyer, a long-time LGBTQ+ activist, continues to fight for equal rights.
He said Axis Bank became the first private bank in India to specifically welcome customers from the LGBTQ+ community.
“I was invited by the Social Justice Ministry for a consultation on LGBTQ+ rights,” noted Iyer. “During the discussion, it was proposed that all banks in India should open their doors to the LGBTQ+ community.”
Iyer was one of those who challenging Section 377.
The Supreme Court struck down the colonial-era law on Sept. 6, 2018. Iyer was also a plaintiff in Supriyo v. Union of India, which sought legal recognition of same-sex marriages in India. The Supreme court heard this case in 2023.
“Culture is an evolving phenomenon,” said Iyer. “It is not static. As culture evolves, we as people need to evolve. I would like to believe that my organization is always evolving and we will get better.”
Iyer told the Blade he doesn’t have a specific game plan for the future. As one of Axis Bank’s prominent figures, however, he feels LGBTQ+ people are equal citizens in India.
Nepal
Two transgender women make history in Nepal
Honey Maharjan and Mouni Maharjan ran in local elections last month
November 22 was a milestone for Nepal’s LGBTQ+ community.
Two transgender candidates, Honey Maharjan and Mouni Maharjan, members of the People’s Socialist Party-Nepal, ran in local elections. It marked the first time that trans people ran for office in the country.
Honey Maharjan ran for mayor in Kirtipur, a municipality outside Kathmandu, the Nepalese capital. Mouni Maharjan ran to become a ward chair in the same municipality. Although both candidates lost the election; experts, and activists consider their participation a significant milestone for LGBTQ+ representation in Nepalese politics.
Honey Maharjan, 44, is a former tour guide who faced discrimination because she is a trans woman. Maharjan nevertheless became a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.
Mouni Maharjan, 29, advocates for local infrastructure and LGBTQ+-inclusive education. Her campaign focused on introducing an LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum in schools and creating employment opportunities for marginalized groups.
The Supreme Court in 2007 ruled the government must legally recognize a third gender. Six years later, in 2013, Nepal hosted its first-ever Pride parade, signaling growing visibility and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community. The country’s new constitution, which ensures equal rights for LGBTQ+ people and all other Nepalese citizens, took effect in 2015.
The Supreme Court in 2018 issued a ruling that expanded protections for LGBTQ+ people in marriage, inheritance, social recognition, and other areas.
Sunil Babu Pant, founder of the Blue Diamond Society, a Nepalese LGBTQ+ rights group, in 2017 became the first openly gay person elected to parliament. Nepal since 2020 has allowed trans people to legally change their gender in official documents without surgery.
A study that UN Women and the Blue Diamond Society published in June 2023 found 81 percent of LGBTQ+ people in Nepal have faced physical violence, discrimination, and verbal abuse. Traditional societal norms and a lack of awareness make this situation worse.
Nepal is seen as a leader in LGBTQ+ rights in South Asia in terms of legal protections and a debate over marriage rights for same-sex couples. A large gap remains between policies and their implementation.
Political representation of LGBTQ+ people remains low.
Pant left office in 2023. There are currently no openly LGBTQ+ people in parliament or in the country’s policy-making policies.
During their campaign in Kirtipur, Honey Maharjan and Mouni Maharjan outlined key promises. They pledged to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion, especially in politics, and vowed to fight discrimination in education, healthcare, and employment.
Their campaigns also focused on ensuring equal rights and opportunities for marginalized groups. Honey Maharjan and Mouni Maharjan promised to raise awareness about LGBTQ+ issues to reduce stigma and discrimination in society.
Honey Maharjan told the Washington Blade said she was happy about running for office, and noted her family and friends supported her.
“Since Kirtipur has a large LGBTQ community still they did not come out to support me,” she said. “Nepal has other political parties like Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center) and many others, we did not had budget like theirs, so it was also our struggle. It is also challenging for us as people are not supporting us for what we are trying to do. They are supporting only prominent political parties in Nepal. So, these are our challenges as a transgender political candidate in Nepal.”
Honey Maharjan told the Blade she would have worked to provide education, health care, and better roads if she were elected.
“I did not win, so I am a little sad this time,” she said. “But I am happy that the media has covered my campaign, so I am grateful to all journalists.”
“Every community member needs to be inspired because we are not alone and we need to think that we have a large number of community members,” added Honey Maharjan. “If we do not come out, there will be difficulty, it’s our right.”
She also dismissed the idea that many trans people are sex workers.
“Many people are working in different sectors. I would request everyone to come out and support the transgender candidate in the next election,” said Honey Maharjan. “Elections are important because it creates awareness about the candidate otherwise everyone would think that transgender community is engaged in sex work only that is not true.”
Congress
Senate braces for anti-LGBTQ+ attacks with incoming Republican majority
Republicans to regain control of chamber in January
Particularly since Republicans took the U.S. House of Representatives in 2023, legislative attacks against the LGBTQ+ community, at least at the federal level, have been blunted by U.S. Senate Democrats exercising their narrow majority in the upper chamber, along with President Joe Biden’s promise to veto any discriminatory bill that should reach his desk.
Next month, however, Republicans will take control of both chambers of Congress as President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, marking the first time since 2018 that the GOP has governed with a trifecta in Washington.
“We expect the Trump administration and House and Senate Republicans to continue their anti-LGBTQ+ attacks on all aspects of life, especially against trans kids,” Josh Sorbe, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Whip and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), told the Washington Blade.
Durbin is among the Democratic senators who spoke out this week against a policy rider added to the National Defense Authorization Act by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.), which would prohibit the military’s health provider Tricare from covering transgender medical treatments for the children of U.S. service members.
“In his first term, Donald Trump enabled LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination, banned trans service members, and vilified trans kids,” Sorbe said, while “The Biden-Harris administration and Democrats codified same-sex marriage, declared mpox a national emergency, and built up the LGBTQ+ movement.”
He added, “Democrats will continue to hold the line against misguided, anti-freedom legislation that we anticipate will be introduced.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee, one of the most powerful in Congress, exercises broad legislative jurisdiction and is responsible for oversight of the Executive Branch as well as the initial stages of confirming the president’s nominees for vacancies on the federal bench, including those picked to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the 117th Congress, control of the Senate was a 50-50 split, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris casting tie-breaking votes. Democrats won another Senate seat in the 2022 midterms and for the past two years Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has led a 51-49 majority.
Despite the party’s narrow margin of control and starting with less than half the number of vacancies than were available for Trump to fill when he took office in 2017, Sorbe noted Senate Democrats are expected to confirm Biden’s 234th and 235th judicial nominees — surpassing, by one, the number of confirmations under the previous administration and also, by one, the record setting number of LGBTQ+ jurists appointed by President Obama over two terms.
These “highly qualified, diverse candidates” will “help ensure the fair and impartial administration of the American justice system,” Sorbe said. Many will decide legal questions with broad implications for LGBTQ+ communities, including challenges brought against anti-LGBTQ+ legislation at the local, state, and federal level, or anti-LGBTQ+ policies enacted by the Trump-Vance administration.
Sorbe highlighted some of the other work Durbin has done to “protect civil rights for all Americans” over the past four years in the majority, pointing to the Judiciary Committee’s 2021 hearing on the Equality Act, legislation that would codify LGBTQ+-inclusive nondiscrimination protections; a 2023 hearing that celebrated “the historic progress made in protecting the right of LGBTQ+ Americans”; the first hearing since 1984 about the Equal Rights Amendment that would “enshrine gender equality into the Constitution”; floor speeches in which the majority whip denounced “the harmful anti-LGBTQ+ legislation being introduced across the country”; and the senator’s co-sponsorship of the Respect for Marriage Act, which solidified the legal rights of interracial and same-sex married couples.
Ghana
Ghanaian Supreme Court dismisses challenges to anti-LGBTQ+ bill
Measure would further criminalize homosexuality, penalize allyship
The Ghanaian Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed challenges to a bill that would further criminalize LGBTQ+ people and penalize allyship.
Lawmakers on Feb. 28 approved the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill. Two lawyers, Amanda Odoi and Richard Sky, challenged it.
Outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo had previously said he would not sign the bill into law until the Supreme Court issued its ruling. His successor, President-elect John Dramani Mahama, will take office on Jan. 7.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Dec. 10 honored Ebenezer Peegah, executive director of Rightify Ghana, a Ghanaian LGBTQ+ advocacy group, and six other human rights activists from around the world during a ceremony at the State Department.
Blinken noted the pending Supreme Court ruling — and discrimination and violence that LGBTQ+ Ghanaians continue to face — before he presented Peegah with the Secretary of State’s Human Rights Defender Award.
“In Ghana, vigilante groups use social media platforms to organize mobs to attack LGBTQI+ people, as well as to entrap, to blackmail, to harass them,” said Blinken. “As these attacks increase, Ghana’s Supreme Court is considering legislation that would criminalize people for identifying as LGBTQI+, as well as threaten Ghanaians’ constitutionally protected freedoms of speech, press, and assembly.”
Obituary
Honoring the life and legacy of Coya White Hat-Artichoker
Life-long advocate for Indigenous, two-spirit rights died on Dec. 4
Born and raised on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, Coya was a proud enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate or Rosebud Sioux Tribe. From the age of 15, she dedicated her life to advocating for Indigenous and Two Spirit rights, becoming a fierce organizer and a visionary leader in movements for justice. As a founding member of the First Nations Two Spirit Collective, Coya worked tirelessly to uplift Two Spirit youth, support Indigenous reproductive justice, and connect these communities to philanthropic spaces to drive transformative change.
Coya’s advocacy for Indigenous reproductive justice was rooted in a deep understanding of its inseparability from the fight for Indigenous sovereignty. She saw this work as part of a 500-year history of resistance to colonization, weaving together the rights to access abortion, raise children in safe and sustainable environments, steward healthy lands and waters, practice Indigenous cultures, speak ancestral languages, and govern sovereign communities. Recently she served as a board member for SisterSong and the American LGBTQ+ Museum. Coya was a fierce leader who brought dedication and brilliance, impacting gender and reproductive justice efforts around the world.
In 2020, Coya’s visionary leadership brought the world’s first fund dedicated to Indigenous reproductive justice, Building the Fire Fund, into existence. Guided by an Indigenous Advisory Council of women and Two Spirit leaders from across Turtle Island, the fund represents a powerful testament to Coya’s dedication and collaborative spirit. Coya co-authored “Tired of Dancing to Their Song: An Assessment of the Indigenous Women’s Reproductive Justice Funding Landscape” with Zachary Packineau. This seminal report provides a critical roadmap for philanthropy to support and grow the emerging field of Indigenous reproductive justice.
In 2023, Coya brought Building the Fire Fund to Solidaire Network, where we are honored to walk alongside the Advisory Council in advancing this vital work. Coya’s passion, wisdom, and dedication will continue to guide and inspire all of us who were privileged to know her and work beside her.
To honor Coya’s legacy and her vision for the Indigenous reproductive justice movement, we invite you to contribute to the Building the Fire Fund. Your support ensures that her transformative work will continue, lighting the way for generations to come.
Coya White Hat-Artichoker’s life was a powerful testament to resilience, love, and unwavering commitment to justice. While her presence will be deeply missed, her legacy will endure as a beacon of hope and strength for all who carry her vision forward.
Kenya
Man convicted of killing Kenyan activist, sentenced to 50 years in prison
Edwin Chiloba’s partner murdered him in Eldoret on New Year’s Day in 2023
Kenyan queer rights organizations have welcomed the sentencing of a freelance photographer to 50 years in prison for murdering prominent LGBTQ+ activist and fashion designer Edwin Chiloba nearly two years ago
Justice Reuben Nyakundi on Monday sentenced Jacktone Odhiambo, 25, Chiloba’s partner, after the Eldoret High Court in western Kenya two weeks ago found him guilty of murder.
The 2-year trial, which comprised evidence from 23 witnesses and DNA tests the prosecution presented that placed him at the scene of the crime on New Year’s Day in 2023. Chiloba had disappeared and his body was found stuffed in a metal box that had been dumped along the side of a road.
The court was told that Chiloba and Odhiambo were last seen together at Tamasha Club in Eldoret on the night of Dec. 31, 2022, only for the deceased’s decomposing body to be discovered three days later. His brutal murder sent shockwaves through the LGBTQ+ community in Kenya and attracted both local and international condemnation and calls for the conviction of perpetrators.
Nyakundi in his sentencing ruling noted the prosecution provided evidence beyond a reasonable doubt and described the brutal murder of Chiloba, 25, as “premeditated, malicious, and aggravated homicide.”
“The footprints of the murder are all traceable to the accused (Odhiambo),” Nyakundi said.
The judge noted Odhiambo showed no respect for the sanctity of life and Chiloba’s brutal killing left a void that cannot be filled.
Odhiambo became the prime suspect after three other accused people were freed due to a lack of evidence linking them to the murder.
Johansen Oduor, the government pathologist who conducted Chiloba’s autopsy, told the court during the trial that the victim had been smothered to death using six pairs of socks stuffed into his mouth and his face was wrapped with a piece of denim.
Despite overwhelming evidence linking Odhiambo to the murder, the court noted the accused did not show any remorse for his actions during the trial and described him as a “vengeful person.” This lack of remorse influenced the severity of his 50-year sentence, even though he fell and wailed after the judge sentenced him.
“The accused deserves the death penalty, which is not implemented in Kenya,” Nyakundi ruled.
Kenya’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions acknowledged the judge’s verdict, noting the death sentence “would have been unnecessary” because the country has not executed anyone on death row since 1987. The death penalty, however, has not been abolished from Kenyan criminal laws for offenses like murder, robbery with violence, treason, mutiny, and other crimes.
There have been calls by human rights groups, such as the International Commission for Jurists-Kenya, for Kenya to abolish the death penalty. A bill in parliament would repeal the death penalty.
Additionally, Nyakundi could not sentence Odhiambo to life in prison, which the ODPP also noted as “undesirable” because of the uncertainty surrounding offences that constitute a death sentence.
The National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in response to Odhiambo’s sentencing said it marks a significant step toward justice for Chiloba, his family, and all LGBTQ+ people in Kenya, Africa, and around the world.
“This verdict marks a long-awaited moment of accountability, offering a glimmer of justice for Edwin and a reminder that no act of violence against any LGBTQ+ resident of Kenya will go unchallenged or unchecked,” NGLHRC stated.
NGLHRC also remembered Chiloba as a fondly celebrated, vibrant young queer activist, and budding fashion model whose promising future was robbed from him. NGLHRC added his murder also sent a chilling message of fear and injustice to marginalized queer Kenyans.
“We continue to call on the Kenyan government, law enforcement agencies, and the judiciary to strengthen their commitment to addressing violence against LGBTQ+ residents of Kenya as espoused and guided by Resolution 275 of the African Charter on Human and People Rights,” NGLHRC stated.
The Initiative for Equality and Non-Discrimination, a local queer rights group, acknowledged the court’s 50-year sentence for Odhiambo “deemed appropriate for the gravity of the offense.” INEND also applauded NGLHRC and other queer organizations for “pursuing justice for our sibling Chiloba” in the corridors of justice without relenting.
Los Angeles
The dedicated life and tragic death of gay publisher Troy Masters
‘Always working to bring awareness to causes larger than himself’
Troy Masters was a cheerleader. When my name was called as the Los Angeles Press Club’s Print Journalist of the Year for 2020, Troy leapt out of his seat with a whoop and an almost jazz-hand enthusiasm, thrilled that the mainstream audience attending the Southern California Journalism Awards gala that October night in 2021 recognized the value of the LGBTQ community’s Los Angeles Blade.
That joy has been extinguished. On Wednesday, Dec. 11, after frantic unanswered calls from his sister Tammy late Monday and Tuesday, Troy’s longtime friend and former partner Arturo Jiminez did a wellness check at Troy’s L.A. apartment and found him dead, with his beloved dog Cody quietly alive by his side. The L.A. Coroner determined Troy Masters died by suicide. No note was recovered. He was 63.
Considered smart, charming, committed to LGBTQ people and the LGBTQ press, Troy’s inexplicable suicide shook everyone, even those with whom he sometimes clashed.
Troy’s sister and mother – to whom he was absolutely devoted – are devastated. “We are still trying to navigate our lives without our precious brother/son. I want the world to know that Troy was loved and we always tried to let him know that,” says younger sister Tammy Masters.
Tammy was 16 when she discovered Troy was gay and outed him to their mother. A “busy-body sister,” Tammy picked up the phone at their Tennessee home and heard Troy talking with his college boyfriend. She confronted him and he begged her not to tell.
“Of course, I ran and told Mom,” Tammy says, chuckling during the phone call. “But she – like all mothers – knew it. She knew it from an early age but loved him unconditionally; 1979 was a time [in the Deep South] when this just was not spoken of. But that didn’t stop Mom from being in his corner.”
Mom even marched with Troy in his first Gay Pride Parade in New York City. “Mom said to him, ‘Oh, my! All these handsome men and not one of them has given me a second look! They are too busy checking each other out!” Tammy says, bursting into laughter. “Troy and my mother had that kind of understanding that she would always be there and always have his back!
“As for me,” she continues, “I have lost the brother that I used to fight for in any given situation. And I will continue to honor his cause and lifetime commitment to the rights and freedom for the LGBTQ community!”
Tammy adds: “The outpouring of love has been comforting at this difficult time and we thank all of you!”
No one yet knows why Troy took his life. We may never know. But Troy and I often shared our deeply disturbing bouts with drowning depression. Waves would inexplicitly come upon us, triggered by sadness or an image or a thought we’d let get mangled in our unresolved, inescapable past trauma.
We survived because we shared our pain without judgment or shame. We may have argued – but in this, we trusted each other. We set everything else aside and respectfully, actively listened to the words and the pain within the words.
Listening, Indian philosopher Krishnamurti once said, is an act of love. And we practiced listening. We sought stories that led to laughter. That was the rope ladder out of the dark rabbit hole with its bottomless pit of bullying and endless suffering. Rung by rung, we’d talk and laugh and gripe about our beloved dogs.
I shared my 12 Step mantra when I got clean and sober: I will not drink, use or kill myself one minute at a time. A suicide survivor, I sought help and I urged him to seek help, too, since I was only a loving friend – and sometimes that’s not enough.
(If you need help, please reach out to talk with someone: call or text 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. They also have services in Spanish and for the deaf.)
In 2015, Troy wrote a personal essay for Gay City News about his idyllic childhood in the 1960s with his sister in Nashville, where his stepfather was a prominent musician. The people he met “taught me a lot about having a mission in life.”
During summers, they went to Dothan, Ala., to hang out with his stepfather’s mother, Granny Alabama. But Troy learned about “adult conversation — often filled with derogatory expletives about Blacks and Jews” and felt “my safety there was fragile.”
It was a harsh revelation. “‘Troy is a queer,’ I overheard my stepfather say with energetic disgust to another family member,” Troy wrote. “Even at 13, I understood that my feelings for other boys were supposed to be secret. Now I knew terror. What my stepfather said humiliated me, sending an icy panic through my body that changed my demeanor and ruined my confidence. For the first time in my life, I felt depression and I became painfully shy. Alabama became a place, not of love, not of shelter, not of the magic of family, but of fear.”
At the public pool, “kids would scream, ‘faggot,’ ‘queer,’ ‘chicken,’ ‘homo,’ as they tried to dunk my head under the water. At one point, a big crowd joined in –– including kids I had known all my life –– and I was terrified they were trying to drown me.
“My depression became dangerous and I remember thinking of ways to hurt myself,” Troy wrote.
But Troy Masters — who left home at 17 and graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville — focused on creating a life that prioritized being of service to his own intersectional LGBTQ people. He also practiced compassion and last August, Troy reached out to his dying stepfather. A 45-minute Facetime farewell turned into a lovefest of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Troy discovered his advocacy chops as an ad representative at the daring gay and lesbian activist publication Outweek from 1989 to 1991.
“We had no idea that hiring him would change someone’s life, its trajectory and create a lifelong commitment” to the LGBTQ press, says Outweek’s co-founder and former editor-in-chief Gabriel Rotello, now a TV producer. “He was great – always a pleasure to work with. He had very little drama – and there was a lot of drama at Outweek. It was a tumultuous time and I tended to hire people because of their activism,” including Michelangelo Signorile, Masha Gessen, and Sarah Pettit.
Rotello speculates that because Troy “knew what he was doing” in a difficult profession, he was determined to launch his own publication when Outweek folded. “I’ve always been very happy it happened that way for Troy,” Rotello says. “It was a cool thing.”
Troy and friends launched NYQ, renamed QW, funded by record producer and ACT UP supporter Bill Chafin. QW (QueerWeek) was the first glossy gay and lesbian magazine published in New York City featuring news, culture, and events. It lasted for 18 months until Chafin died of AIDS in 1992 at age 35.
The horrific Second Wave of AIDS was peaking in 1992 but New Yorkers had no gay news source to provide reliable information at the epicenter of the epidemic.
“When my business partner died of AIDS and I had to close shop, I was left hopeless and severely depressed while the epidemic raged around me. I was barely functioning,” Troy told VoyageLA in 2018. “But one day, a friend in Moscow, Masha Gessen, urged me to get off my back and get busy; New York’s LGBT community was suffering an urgent health care crisis, fighting for basic legal rights and against an increase in violence. That, she said, was not nothing and I needed to get back in the game.”
It took Troy about two years to launch the bi-weekly newspaper LGNY (Lesbian and Gay New York) out of his East Village apartment. The newspaper ran from 1994 to 2002 when it was re-launched as Gay City News with Paul Schindler as co-founder and Troy’s editor-in-chief for 20 years.
“We were always in total agreement that the work we were doing was important and that any story we delved into had to be done right,” Schindler wrote in Gay City News.
Though the two “sometimes famously crossed swords,” Troy’s sudden death has special meaning for Schindler. “I will always remember Troy’s sweetness and gentleness. Five days before his death, he texted me birthday wishes with the tag, ‘I hope you get a meaningful spanking today.’ That devilishness stays with me.”
Troy had “very high EI (Emotional Intelligence), Schindler says in a phone call. “He had so much insight into me. It was something he had about a lot of people – what kind of person they were; what they were really saying.”
Troy was also very mischievous. Schindler recounts a time when the two met a very important person in the newspaper business and Troy said something provocative. “I held my breath,” Schindler says. “But it worked. It was an icebreaker. He had the ability to connect quickly.”
The journalistic standard at LGNY and Gay City News was not a question of “objectivity” but fairness. “We’re pro-gay,” Schindler says, quoting Andy Humm. “Our reporting is clear advocacy yet I think we were viewed in New York as an honest broker.”
Schindler thinks Troy’s move to Los Angeles to jump-start his entrepreneurial spirit and reconnect with Arturo, who was already in L.A., was risky. “He was over 50,” Schindler says. “I was surprised and disappointed to lose a colleague – but he was always surprising.”
“In many ways, crossing the continent and starting a print newspaper venture in this digitally obsessed era was a high-wire, counter-intuitive decision,” Troy told VoyageLA. “But I have been relentlessly determined and absolutely confident that my decades of experience make me uniquely positioned to do this.”
Troy launched The Pride L.A. as part of the Mirror Media Group, which publishes the Santa Monica Mirror and other Westside community papers. But on June 12, 2016, the day of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., Troy said he found MAGA paraphernalia in a partner’s office. He immediately plotted his exit. On March 10, 2017, Troy and the “internationally respected” Washington Blade announced the launch of the Los Angeles Blade.
In a March 23, 2017 commentary promising a commitment to journalistic excellence, Troy wrote: “We are living in a paradigm shifting moment in real time. You can feel it. Sometimes it’s overwhelming. Sometimes it’s toxic. Sometimes it’s perplexing, even terrifying. On the other hand, sometimes it’s just downright exhilarating. This moment is a profound opportunity to reexamine our roots and jumpstart our passion for full equality.”
Troy tried hard to keep that commitment, including writing a personal essay to illustrate that LGBTQ people are part of the #MeToo movement. In “Ending a Long Silence,” Troy wrote about being raped at 14 or 15 by an Amtrak employee on “The Floridian” traveling from Dothan, Ala., to Nashville.
“What I thought was innocent and flirtatious affection quickly turned sexual and into a full-fledged rape,” Troy wrote. “I panicked as he undressed me, unable to yell out and frozen by fear. I was falling into a deepening shame that was almost like a dissociation, something I found myself doing in moments of childhood stress from that moment on. Occasionally, even now.”
From the personal to the political, Troy Masters tried to inform and inspire LGBTQ people.
Richard Zaldivar, founder and executive director of The Wall Las Memorias Project, enjoyed seeing Troy at President Biden’s Pride party at the White House.
“Just recently he invited us to participate with the LA Blade and other partners to support the LGBTQ forum on Asylum Seekers and Immigrants. He cared about underserved community. He explored LGBTQ who were ignored and forgotten. He wanted to end HIV; help support people living with HIV but most of all, he fought for justice,” Zaldivar says. “I am saddened by his loss. His voice will never be forgotten. We will remember him as an unsung hero. May he rest in peace in the hands of God.”
Troy often featured Bamby Salcedo, founder, president/CEO of TransLatina Coalition, and scores of other trans folks. In 2018, Bamby and Maria Roman graced the cover of the Transgender Rock the Vote edition.
“It pains me to know that my dear, beautiful and amazing friend Troy is no longer with us … He always gave me and many people light,” Salcedo says. “I know that we are living in dark times right now and we need to understand that our ancestors and transcestors are the one who are going to walk us through these dark times… See you on the other side, my dear and beautiful sibling in the struggle, Troy Masters.”
“Troy was immensely committed to covering stories from the LGBTQ community. Following his move to Los Angeles from New York, he became dedicated to featuring news from the City of West Hollywood in the Los Angeles Blade and we worked with him for many years,” says Joshua Schare, director of Communications for the City of West Hollywood, who knew Troy for 30 years, starting in 1994 as a college intern at OUT Magazine.
“Like so many of us at the City of West Hollywood and in the region’s LGBTQ community, I will miss him and his day-to-day impact on our community.”
“Troy Masters was a visionary, mentor, and advocate; however, the title I most associated with him was friend,” says West Hollywood Mayor John Erickson. “Troy was always a sense of light and working to bring awareness to issues and causes larger than himself. He was an advocate for so many and for me personally, not having him in the world makes it a little less bright. Rest in Power, Troy. We will continue to cause good trouble on your behalf.”
Erickson adjourned the WeHo City Council meeting on Monday in his memory.
Masters launched the Los Angeles Blade with his partners from the Washington Blade, Lynne Brown, Kevin Naff, and Brian Pitts, in 2017.
“Troy’s reputation in New York was well known and respected and we were so excited to start this new venture with him,” says Naff. “His passion and dedication to queer LA will be missed by so many. We will carry on the important work of the Los Angeles Blade — it’s part of his legacy and what he would want.”
AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, who collaborated with Troy on many projects, says he was “a champion of many things that are near and dear to our heart,” including “being in the forefront of alerting the community to the dangers of Mpox.”
“All of who he was creates a void that we all must try to fill,” Weinstein says. “His death by suicide reminds us that despite the many gains we have made, we’re not all right a lot of the time. The wounds that LGBT people have experienced throughout our lives are yet to be healed even as we face the political storm clouds ahead that will place even greater burdens on our psyches.”
May the memory and legacy of Troy Masters be a blessing.
Veteran LGBTQ journalist Karen Ocamb served as the news editor and reporter for the Los Angeles Blade.
The Vatican
LGBTQ+ pilgrimage to take place during Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee
Event not ‘sponsored or organized by’ the Vatican
A group of LGBTQ+ Christians in Italy has said the Vatican has approved its request to make a pilgrimage during the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee.
The National Catholic Register on Dec. 11 reported La Tenda di Gionata (Jonathan’s Tent) — an Italian Christian group that helps “LGBT people and their families feel welcome in their church” — asked members to “save the date” of Sept. 6, 2025, and invited “all associations and groups dedicated to supporting LGBT+ individuals and their families to join us as we officially cross the Holy Door of the Jubilee at St. Peter’s Basilica” at 3 p.m.
The National Catholic Register notes the pilgrims have also been invited to a Mass at the Jesuit Church of the Gesù that Msgr. Francesco Savino, vice president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, will celebrate.
Church Jubilees take place every 25 years.
Jubilee 2025 officially begins on Christmas Eve.
Jubilee spokesperson Agnese Palmucci confirmed to the National Catholic Register that La Tenda di Gionata’s proposed pilgrimage has been “included in the general calendar as a pilgrimage, along with all the other pilgrimages that other dioceses will make,” but noted it is “not a Jubilee event sponsored or organized by us.”
“It is a pilgrimage organized by this association which, like the other dioceses, bodies and associations, will make the pilgrimage as they wish,” said Palmucci.
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based LGBTQ+ Catholic organization, on Dec. 10 noted he traveled to Rome in 2000, the last Jubilee year, and spoke at the first WorldPride that took place that summer.
“One of the things I remember most about that time was the anger expressed by the Vatican and the pope himself that World Pride was taking place in Rome during the Jubilee year,” wrote DeBernardo on New Ways Ministry’s website. “Perhaps particularly galling to John Paul II was that the pride event was taking place in the first week of July, which was the same week that pilgrims from the pope’s native Poland were scheduled to flood the city. And indeed, everywhere you looked you saw people with bright red neckerchiefs, a symbol of Polish heritage.”
DeBenardo noted the “mood in” Rome “was incredibly tense.”
“Vatican anti-gay rhetoric had fueled anti-gay sentiment beyond the Catholic Church, and many right-wing Italian political groups were denouncing World Pride, which was to culminate in a march from the Porta San Paolo to the Colosseum,” he wrote. “Anti-gay messages were plastered all over the city buildings. One message in particular remains strong in my memory: ‘Gay al Colosseo? Sì, con i leoni.’ (Translation: ‘Gays at the Colosseum? Yes, with lions.’)”
DeBenardo wrote the inclusion of an LGBTQ+ pilgrimage during the 2025 Jubilee “touched my heart.”
“While 2025’s event may seem like a small step, when compared with how the Vatican reacted to the presence of gay people in Rome during 2000, we can see what a sea change has taken place in terms of responding to LGBTQ+ people,” he said.
The Vatican’s tone towards LGBTQ+ and intersex issues has softened since Pope Francis assumed the papacy in 2013.
Francis publicly backs civil unions for same-sex couples, and has described laws that criminalize homosexuality as “unjust.”
He met with two African LGBTQ activists — Clare Byarugaba of Chapter Four Uganda and Rightify Ghana Director Ebenezer Peegah — at the Vatican on Aug. 14. Sister Jeannine Gramick, one of the co-founders of New Ways Ministry, organized a meeting between Francis and a group of transgender and intersex Catholics and LGBTQ+ allies that took place at the pontiff’s official residence on Oct. 12.
Francis during a 2023 interview with an Argentine newspaper described gender ideology as “one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations” in the world because “it blurs differences and the value of men and women.” A declaration the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released in March with Francis’s approval condemned gender-affirming surgeries and “gender theory.”
White House
Biden establishes national monument for first female Cabinet secretary
Frances Perkins may have been the first lesbian Cabinet pick
President Joe Biden on Monday signed a proclamation to establish a national monument in Newcastle, Maine, that will honor Frances Perkins, who became the first woman named to a Cabinet-level position when she was chosen by FDR to serve as secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.
The move highlights the Biden-Harris administration’s record of advancing women’s rights and strengthening the labor movement while also commemorating Perkins’s achievements, including the establishment of pensions, unemployment, and workers’ compensation, the minimum wage and overtime pay, the 40-hour workweek, and child labor laws.
Perkins is also credited with helping to lay the blueprint for legislation like the Social Security Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the National Labor Relations Act.
Research suggests she may have been a lesbian, perhaps even the first LGBTQ+ Cabinet secretary.
According to the National Park Service, “Perkins’ relationship with one roommate, Mary Harriman Rumsey,” who was a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, “was very intimate,” though an entry for the late labor secretary on the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project quotes her biographer Kirsten Downey’s assertion that “it is probably impossible to know whether Frances’s relationship with Mary was also sexual or romantic.”
White House
Trump appoints Richard Grenell to his administration
Former US ambassador to Germany will be special missions envoy
President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday named former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell to his administration.
Grenell will serve as special missions envoy.
“Ric will work in some of the hottest spots around the world, including Venezuela and North Korea,” Trump said on Truth Social, according to the Associated Press.
Grenell, 58, was U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2018-2020.
The Trump-Pence administration later named him acting director of national intelligence, which at the time made him the highest-ranking openly gay presidential appointee in American history. Grenell was also the previous White House’s special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations.
The Trump-Pence administration in 2019 tapped Grenell to lead an initiative that encouraged countries to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. Grenell and then-U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Knight Craft later that year organized an event on the sidelines of a U.N. Security Council meeting that focused on decriminalization efforts.
Many activists around the world with whom the Washington Blade has previously spoken questioned whether this effort had any tangible results. Grenell also faced sharp criticism when he told Breitbart News shortly after he arrived in Berlin that he wanted to “empower” the European right.
Grenell was among those who the president-elect reportedly considered to nominate to become the next secretary of state. Trump instead tapped U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
“Working on behalf of the American people for (Trump) is an honor of a lifetime,” said Grenell on X on Saturday. “President Trump is a problem solver who keeps Americans safe and prosperous.”
Working on behalf of the American people for @realDonaldTrump is an honor of a lifetime.
President Trump is a problem solver who keeps Americans safe and prosperous.
We have so much to do.
Let’s get to work. https://t.co/xGpTLr1QHy— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) December 15, 2024
Log Cabin Republicans President Charles Moran and Amir Ohana, the openly gay speaker of the Israeli Knesset, are among those who congratulated Grenell.
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