World
Out in the World: LGBTQ+ news from Europe & Asia
LGBTQ+ stories from around the globe including Nepal, Malaysia, The Vatican, the United Kingdom, Ireland & Russia
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NEPAL
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KATHMANDU, Nepal – The marriage between Maya Ram Bahadur Gurung and Surendra Pandey this past week in the Nepalese capital city is being hailed by the country’s LGBTQ+ rights activists. Gurung, a transwoman and Pandey, who is gay was registered by the local municipality ward office four months after the Himalayan nation’s highest court legalized same-sex marriages in an interim order.
The former Executive Director/CEO and founder of the Blue Diamond society, first LGBTQ+ rights organization in Nepal, Sunil Babu Pant, who has also served in the country’s parliament was present for the civil ceremony telling the Associated Press: “After 23 years of struggle, we got this historic achievement, and finally, Maya and Surendra got their marriage registered at the local administration office,” Pant said.
In a later interview with Naya Prakashan news Pant noted. “A wedding in Nepal today can become the signpost in South Asia for a more equal tomorrow.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that Gurung, a transgender woman who is legally recognized as male, and Pandey, a cisgender gay man, held a Hindu wedding ceremony in 2017. They first attempted to legally register their marriage in June this year at the Kathmandu District Court, following an interim order by Nepal’s Supreme Court instructing authorities to register same-sex marriages while considering a case that argues for marriage equality across the country.
When that court rejected their registration, saying it did not need to recognize a couple that was not one legal male and one legal female, they appealed to the Patan High Court in September.
But the high court judges rejected the appeal, saying that it was the responsibility of the federal government to change the law before the lower authorities could register such marriages, HRW reported.
Nepal’s civil code currently only recognizes marriages between one man and one woman. The Supreme Court attempted to rectify that by ordering the creation of an interim registry for nontraditional marriages until parliament changes the law. The two lower courts then reversed the logic by claiming that the national law must be changed first.
MALAYSIA
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JOHOR, Malaysia – Malaysian LGBTQ+ rights activists are decrying efforts by the Johor state government to establish a “rehab” centre for “people in same-sex relations,” which would use the globally debunked conversion therapy to change sexual orientation.
Malaysian society is predominately Muslim and conservative. Human Rights Watch has noted that the government authorities in the Malay Archipelago are willing to enforce the rigid gender roles by which they compel all Malaysians to abide with few exceptions.
Speaking at the Johor state assembly on Wednesday, the state’s Islamic Religious Affairs Committee chairman Mohd Fared Mohd Khalid said 400,000 ringgit ($86,000 USD) has been allocated for the rehabilitation center, which was expected to open in July next year the South China Morning Post reported.
“This rehabilitation center is established … for them to get back on the right path,” Fared told the assembly.
Aside from same-sex individuals, Fared proclaimed that the center would also house “those who are deemed deviant” from the state-prescribed religious Islamic orthodoxy, which includes the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and Baha’i among some 42 groups, the state’s religious affairs body has identified as “deviant.”
The Malaysian government relies on the force of law to prohibit expression and conduct that fall outside of a heterosexual, cisgender norm. It is one of only a handful of countries that explicitly makes gender nonconformity a criminal offense.
Reacting to the rehab news, transgender rights group Justice for Sisters told the South China Morning Post that detaining people was a violation of the Malaysian constitution, which safeguards personal liberty, privacy, dignity, equality and prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender.
“Detaining people on the grounds of changing their SOGIE – sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression – amounts to torture without a doubt,” said the group’s spokesperson Thilaga Sulathireh.
Malaysia also criminalizes consensual same-sex conduct at both the federal and state levels. Its officials frequently insist that the laws criminalizing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are intended not primarily to punish, but rather to return them to “the right path,” statements echoed this past week by Johor’s Islamic Religious Affairs Committee chairman.
Human Rights Watch notes that officials under successive Malaysian governments have typically coded their approach to sexual and gender diversity in a logic of “prevention” and “rehabilitation,” backed by the threat of punishment. Former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who was in office between March 2020 and August 2021, described LGBT people as a threat to Islam, backed by “foreign influences,” and a “disorder” that requires counseling.
THE VATICAN
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VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis this past week further disciplined another American prelate, retired Cardinal Raymond Burke, who has publicly critiqued Francis over the Pope’s ongoing efforts for reforming the Catholic Church, especially over issues centered on LGBTQ+ Catholics and the LGBTQ+ community.
The Associated Press reported that Pope Francis revoked Burke’s subsidized Vatican apartment and retirement salary, according to sources because he was a source of “disunity” in the church.
The move is “unprecedented in the Francis era”, Christopher White, a Vatican observer who writes for the National Catholic Reporter, told the BBC.
“Typically, retired cardinals continue to reside in Rome after stepping down from their positions, often remaining active in papal liturgies and ceremonial duties,” he said. “Evicting someone from their Vatican apartment sets a new precedent.”
Burke, who spends much of his time in the U.S. at the Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine he founded in his native Wisconsin, has not yet been notified of the Pope’s actions according to the AP.
At the end of October, the Pope convened a month long conference, known as a Synod of Bishops, followed an unprecedented two-year canvassing of rank-and-file Catholics. During the conference Jesuit Fr. James Martin, a popular spiritual author and editor of the LGBTQ Catholic publication Outreach, noted that on LGBTQ+ issues, “There were widely diverging views on the topic,” he said.
In early November, Bishop Joseph Strickland of Eastern Texas was “relieved” of his position as head of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas by Pope Francis after Strickland’s refusal to resign in a dispute over the Church’s LGBTQ+ inclusion in Catholic practices. Strickland often had echoed Cardinal Burke’s positions.
Although retired in 2014, Burke had an incredibly anti-LGBTQ public record since, especially in vocalizing his opposition to plans to be inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community. Burke was once a high-ranking U.S. archbishop and head of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican court, but was repeatedly demoted under Pope Francis and then forced to retire.
In March of 2020, Burke laid blame on the coronavirus pandemic on the LGBTQ+ community. As churches were forced to close during the lock-downs ordered by health officials, Burke wrote:
“Worship is particularly needed now because of ‘how distant our popular culture is from God,’ he wrote, noting abortion and euthanasia, then attacking the LGBTQ equality movement, particularly activism for recognition of transgender identity.
“‘We need only to think of the pervasive attack upon the integrity of human sexuality, of our identity as man or woman, with the pretense of defining for ourselves, often employing violent means, a sexual identity other than that given to us by God,’ he said. ‘With ever greater concern, we witness the devastating effect on individuals and families of the so-called “gender theory.”‘ Burke went on to say, ‘There is no question that great evils like pestilence are an effect of original sin and of our actual sins.’”
Burke once compared lesbian, gay, and bisexual people to murderers.
UNITED KINGDOM
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LONDON, UK – Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss is said to be backing a private bill to be introduced into the House of Commons that will ban minor children under the age of 18 from accessing hormone therapy and block the National Health Service and the UK government from recognizing their social transition.
After Truss was one of 20 backbencher MPs to be selected to bring forward a bill, a source reportedly said she chose the legislation because she believes under-18s need to be protected from “making irreversible decisions about their bodies.”
PinkNewsUK pointed out that argument fails to consider the fact that trans under-18s are typically prescribed physically reversible puberty blockers and are only permitted to do so after lengthy medical checks.
Physically reversible puberty blockers are also typically only given to teenagers over the age of 16. It is exceptionally rare for under-16s to be prescribed puberty blockers.
Despite this, Truss is expected to formally present the bill on Wednesday (6 December) during a House of Commons hearing where its MP backers will also attend, PinkNewsUK also reported.
A spokesperson for the UK government said in a statement: “This government is clear on the fundamental importance of biological sex.
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LIVERPOOL – A magistrate’s court found a fifty-one-year-old man guilty of a hate crime in an assault on Drag Race UK star The Vivienne this past June at a local McDonald’s. Alan Whitfield told the court that he had struck James Lee Williams, aka The Vivienne, in the face claiming that his actions were not motivated by homophobia but by what he described as “banter.”
During his testimony, 31-year-old Williams said he was subjected to a “barrage of abuse” from Whitfield after entering the fast food restaurant PinkNewsUK reported.
“He [Whitfield] carried on, then after the fourth ‘look at the state of you’ I said ‘look at the state of you’, I said ‘look at the state of your face’, to which he said ‘I’ve got skin cancer’ and then punched me straight in the face.”
PinkNewsUK reported that the RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star, who took home the crown in the first series in 2018, argued that the attack was motivated by homophobia because there were “countless other people” in the McDonald’s at the time.
Whitfield maintained throughout the proceedings that the assault “was nothing to do with him [Williams] being gay”, reiterating that he has LGBTQ+ members of his family.
After court deliberation, Justice Anthony Canning said that Whitfield’s evidence was “not credible”.
“Having considered this incident from beginning to end, we believe beyond reasonable doubt that the hostility shown by yourself from that outset was motivated and down to the perceived sexuality of the complainant and this was homophobic in nature.”
Whitfield will be sentenced in January 2024.
IRELAND
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CORK CITY, Ireland – A 25-year-old 2nd year Law student at the University College Cork is set to make history as the first openly transgender person in history to run for local election in the Republic of Ireland.
Saoirse Mackin, who co-founded Trans+ Pride Cork in 2022, was nominated by the Social Democrats to run in Cork City North West’s 2024 election. Mackin, who transitioned in 2017, told LGBTQ+ media outlet GCN – Ireland, that if elected, one of her top priorities will be eliminating the excessive healthcare barriers that are in place for transgender women in Ireland.
Mackin also advocates for better cycling infrastructures, as well as affordable housing and improved public services GCN noted.
She said, “If elected, my priority areas will include the provision of more affordable housing, improved public services, universal access to healthcare and the development of quality cycle infrastructure in Cork. I will also campaign for better local amenities, such as upgraded parks, green spaces, playgrounds and sports facilities.”
In addition to being a transgender activist, Mackin is also a law student and community organizer who has bravely spoken up against the growing far-right movement in Ireland. She was also named in the Irish Examiner‘s 100 Women of 2022 list.
RUSSIA
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MOSCOW – Russia’s Supreme Court this past week on Thursday ruled that “the international LGBTQ movement” is “extremist” which, legal experts and human rights advocates say will lead to all LGBTQ groups and organizations in Russia being banned.
The Russian Ministry of Justice had lodged an administrative legal claim with the High Court to recognize the International LGBTQ public movement as extremist and ban its activity in Russia. Russian Justice Minister Konstantin Chuychenko did not specify whether it was seeking the closure of any specific groups or organizations, or if the designation would apply more broadly to the LGBTQ community, causes and individuals.
Speaking with Agence France-Presse, the head of the Sphere human rights group, which advocates for the Russian LGBTQ community, had criticized Minister Konstantin Chuychenko actions.
“Russian authorities are once again forgetting that the LGBTQ+ community are human beings,” said Sphere head Dilya Gafurova, who has left Russia.
Authorities “don’t just want to erase us from the public field: They want to ban us as a social group,” Gafurova told AFP. “It’s a pretty typical move for repressive non-democratic regimes — the persecution of the most vulnerable. We will continue our fight,” he added.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk in a statement issued from Geneva, Switzerland after the ruling said:
“This decision exposes human rights defenders and anyone standing up for the human rights of LGBT people to being labeled as ‘extremist’ – a term that has serious social and criminal ramifications in Russia,” said the High Commissioner.
“No one should be jailed for doing human rights work or denied their human rights based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
“I call on the Russian authorities to repeal, immediately, laws that place improper restrictions on the work of human rights defenders or that discriminate against LGBT people. The law must uphold and defend the principles of equality and non-discrimination. The law must never be used to perpetuate inequality and discrimination,” Türk added.
Laws that must be reformed include those prohibiting gender-affirming medical and administrative procedures, and banning so-called “LGBT propaganda”,which made it illegal to discuss LGBT issues in Russia on penalty of substantial fines, Türk said.
The High Commissioner also pointed out the wide use of the “extremist” label is more generally used to prosecute all those perceived as opponents, including politicians, journalists, human rights defenders and others.
“LGBTIQ people exist in every country, and a legal ban on the undefined ‘international LGBT movement’ will result in more violence, discrimination, and isolation of LGBTIQ people in Russia, who are already targeted for being who they are,” said Maria Sjödin, Executive Director at Outright International.
“Russia, which has already restricted access to information about LGBTIQ issues, is yet again violating the human rights of LGBTIQ people by restricting freedoms of association and expression. This is a great concern not just for human rights defenders focused on protecting the rights of LGBTIQ people but for everyone who believes in human rights for all,” Sjödin added.
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Within 48 hours of the High Court’s ruling, multiple Russian law enforcement agencies executed a series of raids at multiple queer venues in the Russian capital. At one club located on Ulitsa Malaya Yakimanka street in the center of the city, there were approximately 300 people gathered when Russian security forces burst in under the pretext of searching for drugs in the establishment. Several persons were detained.
“In the middle of the party, they stopped the music and began to enter the halls [the police]. There were also citizens of other countries at the party. At the exit, they photographed passports without permission to do so,” an LGBTQ rights activist who had previously spoken to other media outlets told the Blade in a phone call Sunday.
The raids took place in at least four venues, and were reportedly expected by the clubs management and owners.
Security forces arrived at an establishment near the Avtozavodskaya metro station and a themed strip club for guys near the Polyanka metro station in central Moscow. The administration of the clubs warned visitors about the events in advance, the Moscow Times reported.
According to an eyewitness to the police raid on Mono, a bar also located in the city’s central district on Pokrovsky Boulevard, “there was the usual party, then the owner came out and said that within an hour law enforcement would arrive in connection with the recent ruling by the Supreme Court. Within 20 minutes the dance floor started to empty,” Ostorozhno Novosti, an independent Russian news outlet reported.
The Moscow Times could not independently verify Ostorozhno Novosti’s reporting, and employees from at least two of the clubs believed to have been targeted on Friday denied the reports, which they called “fakes.”
“I wake up… and I’m reading the news, and, of course, it’s hilarious. Where was [this raid] when we had nothing going on?” the manager of the club Mono said in a video posted on social media Saturday.
The Blade has also been unable to verify Ostorozhno Novosti’s reporting on the Mono bar raid but in a series of phone calls and Telegram chats was able to determine that multiple raids had in fact taken place across central Moscow and that gay clubs and LGBTQ+ safe spaces were targeted.
In the Baltic city of St. Petersburg, the largest gay club, Central Station, according to independent news outlet Sota, reported the club’s management said that they were denied further rental of the site due to the “new law.”
Additional reporting from Pahichan Media, the South China Morning Post, Human Rights Watch, The BBC, PinkNewsUK, Agence France-Presse, The Moscow Times, GCN Ireland, The Vatican News and The Associated Press.
Kenya
Kenyan president defends Trump executive order on two genders
Advocacy groups criticized William Ruto’s Jan. 26 comments
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Kenyan President William Ruto is facing backlash for backing U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order that recognizes only two genders: Male and female.
Ruto’s support for Trump’s decision to ban transgender people from serving in the U.S. military and competing on women’s sports teams has drawn criticism from human rights defenders, lawmakers, lawyers, and intersex activists.
Ruto’s critics cite Kenya’s 2022 landmark decision to officially recognize intersex people as the third gender with an “I” gender marker after years of court battles for recognition and their inclusion in a national Census for the first time in 2019.
“We are very proud that contrary to what has been happening in the past, this year we got some very welcoming developments in the United States that as a leading democracy, we have gotten to understand that the policy direction of the U.S. supports what we believe in,” Ruto stated during a Jan. 26 speech at the Global Cathedral Church’s annual convention in Nairobi. “Boys must remain boys, men must remain men, women must remain women and girls must remain girls.”
Ruto’s position to side with Trump on sex and gender identity contradicts his previous stance during the Biden-Harris administration when he was cautious about speaking about transgender and queer rights in order not to jeopardize his relationship with Washington.
Trump on Jan. 21 signed an executive order that directed the U.S. federal government to only recognize male and female genders. This directive revoked the Biden-era policy that recognized trans rights and allowed trans servicemembers.
Trump on Feb. 6 signed another executive order that bans trans athletes from competing on female sports teams
“The war on women’s sports is over,” he said.
“We’re putting every school receiving taxpayer dollars on notice that if you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding,” Trump warned. “From now on, women’s sports will be only for women.”
His executive order relies partly on the U.S. Justice Department’s authority to bring enforcement actions under Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in education and requires schools to offer girls an equal opportunity to play sports. The law, under Trump’s interpretation, forbids trans girls from playing in girls’ sports.
Trump in 2017 banned trans people from serving openly in the U.S. military.
“We thank God that this year the first very news from the U.S. in the new administration is to confirm what the Bible says, what our faith believes in, and what our tradition firmly is grounded on,” Ruto said in his speech.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), a government-funded body, described Ruto’s comments as “embarrassing and unfortunate.”
“In Kenya, the law is very clear and the Children’s Act recognizes the intersex because they are unique persons as they have no issues based on sex identity or gender orientation,” said an intersex rights activist who asked the Washington Blade to remain anonymous. “His sentiments are likely to increase stigma against the intersex persons and if they are discriminated against, anyone will just go to court because they are also protected by the law.”
Esther Passaris, an opposition MP who represents Nairobi County, maintained there are not two sexes in Kenya.
“Let’s face it, we have intersex children with two or incomplete sexes. These children require our love as a society,” she said. “Let God deal with the genders.”
Since the recognition of intersex people, several policy measures to tackle discrimination have been implemented to ensure their protection and equal treatment.
Kenya last week officially recognized intersex people at birth, allowing them to receive birth certificates with an “I” gender marker. The KNCHR described this decision as “a historic milestone” that aligns with the Kenyan constitution and other existing policy measures that include the Children Act and the proposed Intersex Persons Bill, 2024.
“This is a major step towards securing rights, dignity, and equal opportunities for all intersex persons in Kenya,” KNCHR stated.
KNCHR asked Kenyans, state, and non-state institutions to support awareness, policy reforms, and the inclusion of intersex people for the latest reform to be implemented successfully.
World
Suspension of US aid is ‘catastrophe’ for global LGBTQ+ rights movement
Washington funds third of international advocacy
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The Trump-Vance administration’s decision to freeze nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for at least 90 days has had a devastating impact on the global LGBTQ+ rights movement.
The Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights, a Washington-based group that championed LGBTQ+ and intersex rights in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America, on Feb. 1 announced it has suspended programming because it lost nearly 80 percent of its funding.
“Despite some limitations we are facing at the moment, we want to share that our commitment is unwavering,” said the organization in an email it sent to supporters on Wednesday. The message also asked them to make a donation.
Outright International, a global LGBTQ+ and intersex advocacy group, in a statement to the Los Angeles Blade said it has “had to halt direct funding and capacity-building support to LGBTIQ groups in more than 32 countries” in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
“The community-based groups we support with USAID (the U.S. Agency for International Development) funding carry out critical human rights, humanitarian and development work,” said Outright International. “This includes protecting community members from violence, providing skills training that allows LGBTIQ people to access employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, and essential services, including healthcare services.”
The LGBTQ+ Victory Institute works with Caribe Afirmativo in Colombia, Promsex in Peru, VoteLGBT in Brazil, and a number of other advocacy groups outside the U.S. LGBTQ+ Victory Institute President Elliot Imse told the Blade his organization has lost around $600,000, which is two-thirds of its entire global program budget.
“We’re scrambling to secure new funding to restore half of the amount we lost, which would allow us to make a similar impact on LGBTQ inclusion worldwide,” he said.
Equal Namibia and Namibia Pride received a $30,000 grant from USAID. Omar van Reenen, co-founder of Equal Namibia, told the Washington Blade it “was the largest grant and biggest grant on such a scale we have received.
“When we received this grant it was the first time we had substantial funding for our organization,” they said.
Van Reenen said the organizations have lost $10,000 of the original $30,000 they received from USAID.
“This means we do are back to zero funds for the organization and will need to continue our campaigns on a voluntary basis,” they told the Blade. “This comes at the worst time as we will need to challenge the new anti-same-sex marriage act passed by the president in October and the upcoming decriminalization case which the Supreme Court will hear soon.”
The Center for Integrated Training and Research, a group known by the Spanish acronym COIN that fights the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Dominican Republic and in other countries in the Caribbean, on Feb. 6 said the funding freeze “directly affects the continuity of the free services that COIN provides to more than 2,300 patients who receive antiretroviral treatment” in the Dominican Republic.
COIN said its patients will continue to receive free antiretroviral drugs because the Dominican government provides them; but the funding freeze has forced it to suspend urology, internal medicine, and pediatric services. COIN said it will continue to provide vaccines and general medicine, gynecological, and family planning services, but “with limitations.” COIN also noted its PrEP service will continue, “but with reduced capacity.”
“In light of this situation, we urgently call upon the national and international community, strategic allies, and sectors sensitive to our cause to find solutions that allow us to continue offering these vital services,” said COIN. “The health and well-being of thousands of people depends on the solidarity and commitment of everyone.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Jan. 24 directed State Department personnel to stop nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for 90 days in response to an executive order that President Donald Trump signed after his inauguration. Rubio later issued a waiver that allows the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the freeze. (The Blade last week reported PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down because of a lack of U.S. funding. Dozens of HIV/AIDS activists on Feb. 6 protested outside the State Department and demanded U.S. officials fully restore PEPFAR funding.)
The Trump-Vance administration is also trying to dismantle USAID.
A statement the White House issued on Feb. 3 said the organization “has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight.” The statement also contains examples of what it described as “the waste and abuse” that include:
• $1.5 million to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities”
• $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia
• $32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru
• $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala
The statement links to an article the Daily Mail published on Jan. 31 that President Donald Trump “strips millions from DEI foreign aid programs funding Irish musicals, LGBTQ programs in Serbia and more.” The claim that USAID paid for “sex changes and ‘LGBT activism’ in Guatemala” appears to come from an article the Daily Caller published on Sept. 19, 2024.
Sources with whom the Blade has spoken say the White House’s claims are incorrect.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Feb. 2 welcomed efforts to dismantle USAID.
“Most governments don’t want USAID funds flowing into their countries because they understand where much of that money actually ends up,” he wrote on X. “While marketed as support for development, democracy, and human rights, the majority of these funds are funneled into opposition groups, NGOs with political agendas, and destabilizing movements.”
Most governments don’t want USAID funds flowing into their countries because they understand where much of that money actually ends up.
While marketed as support for development, democracy, and human rights, the majority of these funds are funneled into opposition groups, NGOs… pic.twitter.com/bXpdK29zH5
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) February 2, 2025
Mónica Hernández, executive director of ASPIDH Arcoíris Trans, a transgender rights group in El Salvador, spoke with the Blade last week in San Salvador, the country’s capital. Posters with USAID’s logo were on the wall inside the organization’s office.
Hernández said she learned on Jan. 27 the U.S. had suspended funding that ASPIDH Arcoíris Trans received through Freedom House and other groups that partnered with the State Department. She told the Blade that Washington cancelled the grants the following day.
“The (challenge) is to look for other funds from another institution that is not USAID, or that is not from the United States that has to go through the State Department,” she said.
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Outright International told the Blade that USAID is not it’s “only source of funding,” but noted “USAID, and the U.S. government more broadly, have in recent years become an extremely important source of funding for LGBTIQ rights around the world, allowing us and our partners to expand our efforts to promote inclusive development and combat pervasive human rights violations.”
Council for Global Equality Chair Mark Bromley told the Blade the U.S. funds roughly a third of the global LGBTQ+ rights movement. Imse said the global LGBTQ rights movement is set to lose more than $50 million.
“It is a catastrophe,” he told the Blade.
Bromley added it will be “challenging, if not impossible” to fill the funding gap.
“There isn’t a short term way to fill the current funding gap,” he said. “It sets the movement back at least 10 years.”
Mexico
Trump executive orders leave LGBTQ+ migrants, asylum seekers in limbo
Suspension of US foreign aid may force shelters to close
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MEXICALI, Mexico — Marlon, a 35-year-old man from Guatemala, used the CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) One app to schedule an appointment that would have allowed him to enter the U.S. at a port of entry.
His CBP One appointment was at 1 p.m. PT (4 p.m. ET) on Jan. 21 in the Mexican city of Tijuana that borders San Diego. Marlon at around 11 a.m. PT (2 p.m. ET) on Jan. 20 learned his appointment had been cancelled.
President Donald Trump took office less than two hours earlier.
“We’re stuck,” Marlon told the Los Angeles Blade on Jan. 31 during an interview at Posada del Migrante, a migrant shelter in the Mexican border city of Mexicali that Centro Comunitario de Bienestar (COBINA), a group that serves LGBTQ+ people and other vulnerable groups, runs.
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The Trump-Vance administration’s immigration policies have left Marlon and many other migrants and asylum seekers — LGBTQ+ and otherwise — in limbo.
Daniela is a 20-year-old transgender woman from Tijuana who has lived at Jardín de las Mariposas, a shelter for LGBTQ+ migrants and asylum seekers in the city’s Obrera neighborhood, for a month. Jardín de las Mariposas is roughly six miles south of the Mexico-U.S. border.
She told the Blade on Jan. 29 during an interview that she was raped in Hermosillo, the capital of Mexico’s Sonora state, four months ago. Daniela said her roommate and five other people later tried to kill her when they “were drunk and on drugs.”
Daniela, like Marlon, had a CBP One appointment, but it was cancelled once Trump took office.
“I am completely alone both in Tijuana and elsewhere,” said Daniela. “I think the United States is a better option to be able to start over.”
Stephanie, a 25-year-old from El Paraíso, Honduras who identifies as a lesbian, arrived in Tijuana last July and lives at Jardín de las Mariposas.
She told the Blade her family is “very religious,” and she is the “only one in my family who is a member of the (LGBTQ+) community.” Stephanie said a cousin in Louisiana agreed to allow her to live with her once she entered in the U.S., but she refused once she saw she had cut her hair.
“I felt a bit of freedom once I arrived here in Mexico … and I decided to cut my hair because it was very long,” recalled Stephanie. “One day she did a video call and she saw my short hair and she was like I cannot receive you; I cannot receive you because what example are you going to be to my son.”
Trump, in addition to shutting down the CBP One app on Jan. 20, issued several immigration-specific executive orders after his inauguration. They include:
• Declaring a national emergency on the Southern border
• Suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program
• Ending birthright citizenship under the 14th amendment. (U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, who Ronald Reagan appointed, in a Jan. 23 ruling that temporarily blocked the directive described it as “blatantly unconstitutional.”)
Trump has reinstated the Migrant Protection Protocols program, also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy that forced asylum seekers to pursue their cases in Mexico.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce on Tuesday said Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele during his meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio “agreed to take back all Salvadoran MS-13 gang members who are in the United States unlawfully,” and “promised to accept and incarcerate violent illegal immigrants, including members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, but also criminal illegal migrants from any country.” The Department of Homeland Security in a press release notes Tren de Aragua members were on the first U.S. military “flight of criminal aliens” that arrived at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba on Tuesday.
Jardín de Las Mariposas Director Jamie Marín on Jan. 29 told the Blade that Trump’s policies have sparked “a lot of fear.”
She said some of the shelter’s residents who had their CBP One appointments cancelled have either returned to their countries of origin or have found another way to enter the U.S., including with the help of smugglers who are known as “coyotes” in Mexican Spanish. Marín said Jardín de las Mariposas is working with those who have decided to stay in Tijuana to help them secure identity documents and employment.
“Our goal was to be a temporary shelter to move to the United States,” she told the Blade. “Now it’s almost becoming like we’re going to become a permanent shelter until we find another solution for them.”
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Susy Barrales is president of Casita de Unión Trans, a trans support group that she founded in Tijuana in 2019 after she was deported from the U.S.
She told the Blade during a Jan. 30 interview at her office, which is a few blocks from the border, that two migrants who the U.S. deported arrived at Casa de Unión Trans the day before without medications. Barrales, like Marín, said the Trump’s immigration policies have sparked concern in Tijuana.
“He is doing this political campaign,” said Barrales in response to the Blade’s question about Trump’s policies. “I think it is something political, a political strategy that he wants to do, as a way to slow down immigration. This is why he makes these types of racist comments against migrants and against the community.”
Situation along Mexico-US border is ‘tense’
The Trump-Vance administration’s decision to suspend nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for at least 90 days has had a direct impact on Mexican organizations that serve LGBTQ+ migrants and asylum seekers.
Casa Frida works with upwards of 300 LGBTQ+ asylum seekers and migrants in Mexico City and in the cities of Monterrey and Tapachula. Sixty percent of Casa Frida’s annual budget comes from U.S. government grants — specifically from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the State Department, and its Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
Casa Frida Director Raúl Caporal on Monday told the Blade the U.S. on Jan. 24 suspended funding for five of his organization’s initiatives.
A poster inside COBINA’s offices on Jan. 31 contained a QR code that brought migrants to a WhatsApp page that had information about how they could “migrate informed and legally.” The State Department partnered with Partners of the Americas, a Washington-based NGO, on the initiative.
Maky Pollorena, a Mexicali-based activist who volunteers with COBINA, told the Blade the WhatsApp page stopped providing information on Jan. 24. Pollorena also said COBINA and the majority of migrant shelters in Mexico’s Baja California state of which Mexicali is the capital have lost between 50 and 70 percent of their funding.
“All of us who are in Baja California’s border strip are tense,” said COBINA President Altagracia Tamayo.
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Marín noted Jardín de las Mariposas’ funding does not come from the U.S. government, but rather from the Transgender Law Center and other NGOs that include AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila’s administration donated the building in which Jardín de las Mariposas is located. The International Organization for Migration, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration are also support Jardín de las Mariposas.
Despite this lack of dependence upon U.S. government funding, Marín said the Trump-Vance administration’s policies could prove deadly.
“These decisions from the Trump administration are going to cost a lot of lives for the LGBT community, not only here,” she said. “It’s also going to cost a lot of lives in the United States.”
Mexico
Mexican group that serves LGBTQ+ migrants may close without US funding
60 percent of Casa Frida’s annual budget comes from Washington
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Editor’s note: International News Editor Michael K. Lavers is on assignment in Mexico to cover the impact that President Donald Trump’s immigration policies are having on LGBTQ+ migrants and asylum seekers.
MEXICO CITY — The Trump-Vance administration’s decision to freeze nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for at least 90 days could force a Mexican organization that serves LGBTQ+ migrants and asylum seekers to close.
Casa Frida works with upwards of 300 LGBTQ+ asylum seekers and migrants in Mexico City and in the cities of Monterrey and Tapachula.
Casa Frida Director Raúl Caporal on Monday told the Los Angeles Blade during an interview at his Mexico City office that 60 percent of his organization’s annual budget comes from U.S. government grants — specifically from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the State Department, and its Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
Caporal said the U.S. on Jan. 24 suspended funding for five Casa Frida initiatives that specifically focused on “organizational strengthening, humanitarian assistance, financial inclusion, digital security” and fighting human trafficking.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the same day directed State Department personnel to stop nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for 90 days in response to an executive order that Trump signed on Jan. 20. Rubio last week issued a waiver that allows the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the funding freeze.
“All of these (Casa Frida) services are now extremely limited and compromised because the suspension was immediate,” Caporal told the Blade.
He said Casa Frida has already laid off several staffers. Caporal also told the Blade the U.S. funds that remain in Casa Frida’s bank account may have to be returned to Washington.
“That implies many problems,” said Caporal. “It’s not only the continuity of our services, but it also puts the organization’s future at risk.”
Casa Frida has already laid off several staffers. Caporal told the Blade that he and his colleagues are working with the European Union, foreign governments, local officials, and private donors to find additional funding sources.
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The waiver that Rubio issued notes it does not apply to “activities that involve abortions, family planning conferences” and “gender or DEI ideology programs, transgender surgeries, or other non-life saving assistance.”
Caporal said there is a chance the White House could extend the funding freeze in order to “review which international cooperation projects align or coincide with the current administration’s political interests.”
“We are quite certain that much of this aid is going to return,” he said. “But (Trump) since the campaign has made it very clear that nothing, not a single dollar for the LGBT community, or for sexual rights, reproductive rights, women, migrants.”
“It is therefore very possible that projects that have more to do with eliminating inequality gaps, poverty, urban development, etc., will return,” added Caporal. “But we are not waiting for these projects to be reactivated.”
Casa Frida is among the global LGBTQ+ organizations dependent upon U.S. support that have been left scrambling. The Blade is in touch with several of them that may have to curtail programming or even close if they cannot secure alternate funding sources.
The Blade will update this story.
Argentina
Millions march against Javier Milei in Argentina
Protests took place after president’s comments at World Economic Forum
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Millions of people in Buenos Aires and across Argentina participated in marches against President Javier Milei in response to his controversial comments at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The Buenos Aires march, led by LGBTQ+, women’s and human rights organizations in Argentina, shaped up to be one of the largest demonstrations against Milei since he became president in December 2023. The mobilization is a direct response to Milei’s disparaging comments about feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, and other progressive movements.
Milei called “wokism” and “gender ideology” harmful during his Jan. 23 speech at the World Economic Forum, even comparing them to pedophilia. These statements sparked outrage across Argentina with protesters demanding the defense of human rights and equality.
María Rachid, president of the Argentine LGBT+ Federation, told the Los Angeles Blade on Sunday “the march was massive, a strong message to President Milei putting a limit to hatred, discrimination and violence.”
“Argentine society built the values of respect for diversity, equality, and true freedom and yesterday it came out to defend them with massive demonstrations throughout the country and in many cities around the world,” said Rachid. “We are proud of what we were able to build because although they want to destroy it, it is already part of the heart of Argentine society.”
The Buenos Aires march began at the National Congress and ended at the Casa Rosada, the seat of the country’s presidency. Thousands of demonstrators, many with rainbow flags and banners that read “rights are not negotiable,” expressed their strong rejection of Milei’s policies.
Gay Congressman Esteban Paulón highlighted to the Blade “the call for the march was impressive.”
“I think it exceeded any forecast, not only because of the massiveness in the City of Buenos Aires, where it is estimated more than a million people, but also because of the massiveness in the 150 cities in which it was held throughout the country,” he said. “The truth is that it was a very, very big march in Rosario, in Córdoba, in Santa Fe, in Mar del Plata, in Bariloche, in the north, in Salta.”
“There was no expectation that it would be so, so massive, beyond the one in Buenos Aires, which had had an important call, an important visibility, which had added several actors,” added Paulón.
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Sofía Díaz, a transgender woman who worked as a civil servant before Milei’s administration fired her, marched in Corrientes, a city in Chaco province.
“After President Milei’s speeches in Davos, the next day we started texting each other on WhatsApp,” she said, referring to public employees at the national level. “We were really afraid of what he had said.”
Activists around the world expressed solidarity with their Argentine counterparts.
Marches took place in cities around the world — including in Santiago, Chile; Montevideo, Uruguay; Rio de Janeiro; São Paulo; Mexico City; London; Madrid; Amsterdam; Berlin; Geneva; Paris; New York; Lisbon, Portugal; and the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Granada.
The Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, a Chilean LGBTQ+ rights group, on Feb. 1 organized a march to the Argentine Embassy. Activists delivered a letter that expressed solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community and repudiated Milei’s policies against it.
Mexico
VIDEO: Blade visits Mexico-US border
Trump policies put LGBTQ+ migrants, asylum seekers at risk
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TIJUANA, Mexico — The Los Angeles Blade on Jan. 29 visited the Mexico-U.S. border in the Mexican border city of Tijuana.
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
The Blade since Jan. 28 has been on assignment in Mexico to cover the impact that President Donald Trump’s immigration policies are having on LGBTQ+ migrants and asylum seekers. The Blade will remain on assignment in the country and in El Salvador through Feb. 8.
World
Blade returns to Mexico-U.S. border
Trump’s immigration policy putting LGBTQ+ migrants, asylum seekers at risk
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Washington Blade International News Editor Michael K. Lavers will be on assignment in Mexico and El Salvador through Feb. 8 to cover the impact of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy on LGBTQ+ migrants and asylum seekers.
Lavers will report from Tijuana and Mexicali, two Mexican cities that border the U.S. He will also be in Mexico City and San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital, before returning to D.C.
The Blade reported from the Mexico-U.S. border and from El Salvador and other Central American countries — Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama — several times during the first Trump administration. Lavers also traveled to the region during the Biden-Harris administration.
“The second Trump administration’s immigration policies have had immediate consequences along the Mexico-U.S. border and elsewhere in the region,” said Lavers. “It is critically important for the Washington Blade to continue its coverage of U.S. immigration policy and its impact on LGBTQ+ migrants and asylum seekers who are seeking a better life for themselves and their families.”
Lavers’s reporting can be found on the Blade’s website.
“This reporting trip highlights the Blade’s ongoing commitment to enterprise journalism,” said Blade Editor Kevin Naff. “It’s imperative that reporters are in the field, telling these important stories. We know that the LGBTQ community will be disproportionately impacted by the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant crackdown.”
World
ICC for first time recognizes LGBTQ+ people as victims of gender persecution
Chief prosecutor to seek arrest warrants for Taliban leaders behind human rights abuses
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The International Criminal Court on Jan. 23 for the first time recognized LGBTQ+ people as victims of gender persecution under international criminal law.
Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, announced a request for arrest warrants against Taliban officials accused of targeting women and others perceived as defying the group’s strict gender norms in Afghanistan. It is the first time LGBTQ+ people have been explicitly named as victims in a gender persecution case before the court.
Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, there has been a significant escalation in the repression of LGBTQ+ people and women. A report that Human Rights Watch released in 2022 documented nearly 60 cases of targeted violence against LGBTQ+ people in the months following the Taliban’s return to power.
The Washington Blade in October 2022 reported the Taliban have frequently used the contents of seized cell phones to track and target LGBTQ+ people, further intensifying the climate of fear, and violence against the community in Afghanistan.
In its February 2023 report, “A Mountain on My Shoulders: 18 Months of Taliban Persecution of LGBTIQ Afghans,” Outright International detailed how Taliban security officials systematically targeted LGBTQ+ people, especially gay men and transgender women, subjecting them to physical and sexual assault as well as arbitrary detention. The report also noted Taliban authorities had carried out public floggings for alleged same-sex relations, with the Taliban Supreme Court publicly defending these punishments on social media at the time.
The report indicates Taliban officials had escalated their efforts to target LGBTQ+ people, making it a greater priority. They collected intelligence on LGBTQ+ activists and community members, hunted them down, and subjected them to violence and humiliation as part of their systematic campaign of repression.
Khan has sought charges against the Taliban’s Supreme Leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani for crimes against women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people. Khan said there are reasonable grounds to believe that Akhundzada and Haqqani orchestrated systematic violations of fundamental rights, including physical integrity, autonomy, free movement, free expression, education, private and family life, and free assembly.
Khan further detailed that the Taliban’s persecution was committed in connection with other crimes under the Rome Statute, including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts.
Reports indicate the Taliban has banned education for girls beyond sixth grade, severely restricting their access to education and limiting employment opportunities in health and education sectors. Taliban members have also beaten, detained, and tortured women who participated in protests in support of their rights, and have carried out violent attacks against LGBTQ+ people.
Khan’s requests have been submitted to a pretrial chamber comprising three ICC judges, who will decide whether to issue the warrants. The ICC initially authorized the Afghanistan investigation in March 2020, following a preliminary examination that began in 2007. The investigation, however, was paused for several years as the prosecutor and ICC judges considered a request by Afghanistan’s former government to defer ICC proceedings in favor of domestic prosecutions the government claimed to be pursuing.
The judges noted any cases pursued by the former Afghan government represented, at most, a “very limited fraction” of those falling within the scope of an ICC investigation. They also observed that the current government displayed no interest in upholding the deferral request. The ICC, as a result, authorized the resumption of the investigation in October 2022.
“This is a historic moment since it is the first time in history that the ICC has officially recognized the crimes committed against LGBTIQ+ people. This application for an arrest warrant sends a strong message that the international community rejects the gender persecution of LGBTIQ+ people,” said Artemis Akbary, executive director of the Afghanistan LGBTIQ Organization. “LGBTIQ+ people in Afghanistan need our support and solidarity more than ever, and we must ensure that they have access to justice and accountability.”
Outright International in its press release stated this development marks a significant step toward addressing the unique vulnerabilities of LGBTQ+ people in conflict and crisis situations.
“The Taliban’s reign of terror over women and LGBTIQ people has been based on the assumption that gender persecution can persist with impunity. The ICC’s recognition of LGBTIQ victims challenges that presumption by recognizing the humanity of our communities,” said Outright International Senior Director of Law, Policy, and Research Neela Ghoshal. “Once arrest warrants are issued against Taliban officials, member states should support the court’s efforts to swiftly bring them to justice.”
Human Rights Watch International Justice Director Liz Evenson also welcomed Khan’s announcement.
“The ICC prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants against two senior Taliban leaders for the crime against humanity of gender persecution should put the Taliban’s oppression of women, girls, and gender nonconforming people back on the international community’s radar,” said Evenson. “With no justice in sight in Afghanistan, the ICC warrant requests offer an essential pathway for a measure of accountability.”
She added the “international crimes committed in Afghanistan are vast, but a broad approach to accountability is needed to break cycles of impunity that have led to more abuses.”
“ICC member countries should ensure the court has the backing and practical assistance it needs to expand its Afghanistan investigations,” said Evenson.
The Afghan Justice Ministry has not responded to the Washington Blade’s request for comment.
“It is truly groundbreaking for the International Criminal Court to recognize our communities among the victims and survivors of the most heinous crimes and their consequences, and to acknowledge gender identity and gender expression among the drivers of human rights violations,” said ILGA World Executive Director Julia Ehrt. “These warrants of arrest highlight human rights violations that civil society has long documented and that the world can no longer ignore.”
Argentina
Gay Argentine congressman files criminal complaint against Javier Milei
President made anti-LGBTQ+ comments during World Economic Forum speech
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Argentine President Javier Milei is facing a new controversy after he made a series of homophobic and transphobic comments at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Congressman Esteban Paulón, a long-time LGBTQ+ rights activist, in a criminal complaint he filed argues the president used discourse that promotes negative stereotypes, and encourages violence against the LGBTQ+ community.
Milei in his Jan. 23 speech made statements that linked the LGBTQ+ community to pedophilia, specifically citing the case of a gay couple in Georgia sentenced to life in prison last year after they pleaded guilty to sexually abusing their two adopted children. Milei also claimed 5-year-old children undergo gender-affirming surgeries, an argument that experts have categorically denied.
These statements sparked national and international outrage.
“Milei radicalizes hate speech based on lies and fabricated truths,” said Paulón in an exclusive interview with the Los Angeles Blade. “He raises harmful stereotypes against the LGBTQ+ community, which generates fear and anguish in our communities. We have filed a criminal complaint, understanding that his statements constitute several crimes aggravated by his presidential investiture.”
Paulón also highlighted the societal impact of Milei’s words, noting many LGBTQ+ families live in fear of having their rights revoked.
“There are fathers and mothers afraid of being denounced for allowing their children to express their gender identity. LGBTQ+ couples fear that their children will be taken away from them,” said Paulón. “This type of discourse activates ultra-conservative groups that politically support Milei, but do not reflect the feelings of the majority of Argentine society.”
LGBTQ+ activists and human rights groups in Argentina have organized a march in Buenos Aires, the country’s capital, that is scheduled to take place on Feb. 1. The event’s slogan, “for a country without hate,” seeks to highlight their rejection of Milei’s statements and a reaffirmation of their commitment to defend LGBTQ+ rights.
Milei, for his part, denied the accusations in a recent interview, pointing out they are part of a campaign that so-called elites have orchestrated.
“I never compared homosexuals with pedophiles, but certain sectors mount these campaigns to generate indignation,” he said.
Paulón stressed his complaint also seeks to have a broader impact on Argentine society.
“Beyond the judicial outcome, we want to open a space for reflection on the importance of not validating hate speech,” he said. “These attacks not only affect a community, but also damage social cohesion and mutual respect.”
Milei has rolled back several LGBTQ+ rights initiatives since he took office in December 2023.
One of his administration’s first acts was to close the Women, Gender and Diversity Ministry and the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism, which was known by the acronym INADI. Milei has also dismissed transgender people from public sector jobs.
World
Out in the World: LGBTQ+ news from Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia
Catholic school board outside Toronto upholds Pride flag ban
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CANADA
A Catholic school board in suburban Toronto has voted to uphold its policy banning Pride flags from being displayed outside schools after a school trustee introduced a motion to revise the policy on Jan. 22.
The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board governs 151 public Catholic schools in Toronto’s western suburbs. In the province of Ontario, Catholic schools receive public funding and are allowed to promote religious teaching, but must generally follow provincial nondiscrimination law.
The board’s policy limits the flags that may be flown outside schools based on the number of flagpoles the school has. Those with one pole must fly the Canadian flag, those with two must also fly the Ontario flag, while those with three must fly a flag that is either associated with the liturgical season of the church, the school board itself, or a local Catholic charity.
Trustee Brea Corbet had proposed that the third flagpole could be used to fly the Pride flag or other appropriate flags.
“When we remove rainbow flags or other heritage flags, we’re not protecting Catholic identity. We’re revealing institutional fragility. The rainbow flag doesn’t threaten Catholic education. Policies of exclusion do. And exclusion is a strong form of bullying,” Corbet said.
But other trustees rejected the motion.
“The LGBTQ+ community is not our enemy. We all fall short of God’s glory. We are not judging, but we are also not promoting. We don’t want to outwardly promote, because our faith doesn’t allow us to. We are called to love all people, whatever their beliefs are. We are not discriminating against anyone,” Trustee Paula Dametto-Giovannozzi said at the meeting.
The current policy allows Pride flags to be displayed inside schools, but only during a specific “observance period” and they must be removed at other times.
“Prohibiting these flags from flying outside the board office and removing them inside schools after an observance period ends does not make school environments more welcoming, safer, more inclusive. It doesn’t,” Corbet said of the policy.
Catholic school boards in Ontario and other parts of Canada have a long history of disputes over LGBTQ+ inclusion, including a historic legal fight over whether a student could bring a same-sex date to prom, and an eventual political fight over whether gay-straight alliances would be allowed at Catholic schools. Pride flags have become the latest flashpoint as the school boards have lost more and more of these battles in the courts and legislatures.
UNITED KINGDOM
The iconic queer nightclub G-A-Y Bar in Soho has been put up for sale following a year of turmoil for the club and its related businesses G-A-Y Late and Heaven.
One of the best-known queer nightlife brands in London, G-A-Y has been around in some form or another since 1976, but recently it’s come under evident trouble.
In December 2023, G-A-Y Late closed, with owner Jeremy Joseph citing safety and crime issues among the reasons why he shut the bar down. Last November, the Heaven nightclub was forced to shut for several weeks when its license was pulled after one of its security guards was accused of rape.
Joseph cited the stress caused by the closure of Heaven as one reason why he’s selling G-A-Y Bar.
“I was clear to Westminster CC’s Licensing committee that if they closed Heaven for even a short time it would potentially put G-A-Y Bar at risk financially,” Joseph said in a statement posted to Instagram. “Even now after Heaven’s reopening, the damage financially and and mentally has been irreparable.”
Joseph also said that the changing nature of the gay scene has made it difficult to sustain a queer nightclub.
“When I started G-A-Y it was always about having a venue on Old Compton Street and Canal Street, being the gayest streets in the gayest capitals. But it’s not like that anymore,” he said.
“My goal would be for G-A-Y Bar to remain an LGBT venue and will consider franchise options, but my guts is that in the current climate, and it won’t be because Old Compton Street is not the same anymore, it has a new identity and when you look down the street, you see restaurants, cafes, take aways but the street that was the LGBT capital, is no more.”
The nightclub has been listed online with annual rent of £410,000 ($510,000).
AUSTRALIA
The classic 80s Australian film “Crocodile Dundee” is getting recut to remove an unpleasant transphobic scene ahead of a rerelease later this spring.
The 4K remastered edition of the 1986 film, titled “Crocodile Dundee: The Encore Cut” was screened at Sydney’s OpenAir Cinema on Jan 23. The new cut removes about two minutes from the film, including a scene where the titular naïve hunter played by Paul Hogan grabs a trans woman by the groin and says, “that was a guy, dressed up like a Sheila,” while another character yells a homophobic slur.
The new cut also includes an aboriginal land acknowledgment and some extended scenes.
Hogan, who was on hand for the screening, told reporters he “totally” agreed with the cuts, which had been made in the past for broadcast edits of the film.
“I heard about it years ago, it started, and it wasn’t about being woke,” Hogan said.
“They pointed out to me and said, ‘This guy is a folk hero around the world, and he shouldn’t be groping people.’ And I thought, ‘Yeah that’s right, he shouldn’t be,’ so take it out. I mean, he did it in all innocence, in naivety, but it’s better without it.”
The original “Crocodile Dundee” remains, by a wide margin, the highest-grossing Australian film of all time, and was a genuine global phenomenon. It was the second-highest grossing film at the U.S. box office in 1986 and inspired two sequels and a brief fad for all things Australian.
PHILIPPINES
Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos is pledging to veto a proposed sex education bill designed to fight teen pregnancy because he says he believes the new curriculum includes instruction for kindergarteners on how to masturbate, which, it should go without saying, it does not.
“You will teach 4-year-olds how to masturbate. That every child has the right to try different sexualities. This is ridiculous. It is abhorrent. It is a travesty of what sexual [orientation] and sex education should be to children,” Marcos told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Marcos concedes that schools need to teach children about the consequences of teen pregnancy — which has seen an alarming increase in recent years — and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, but said he does not support the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy Bill currently before congress.
“To include the so-called ‘woke’ absurdities are abhorrent to me — and I’m already guaranteeing, this would not be passed into a law if this bill is passed in that form,” he said. “I guarantee all parents, teachers, and children: I will immediately veto it.”
The allegations about the subject matter of the proposed sex ed seems to come from a religious group led by a former chief justice, which has popularized the false claim that the bill would require schools to provide lessons on “bodily pleasure” and “sexual rights.” These bogus claims about sex education are familiar tropes pushed by religious conservatives across the world.
But Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who authored the bill, has fought back hard against the allegations.
“Mr. President, with all due respect, it’s clear that even the word ‘masturbation’ is not in the bill. It also did not mention ‘try different sexualities,’” Hontiveros said in a statement.
Hontiveros says she’s willing to accept amendments to get the bill passed.
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