Former Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama from the opposition National Democratic Congress has won Saturday’s general elections, defeating current Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia of the New Patriotic Party.

The NDC before the election had pledged its support for the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, which would further criminalize LGBTQ+ people and those who support them.

The bill, which MPs approved in February, has yet to be signed by outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo because of a ruling the Supreme Court is expected to issue on Dec. 18. Richard Dela Sky, a journalist and private lawyer, challenged the law in March.

The NDC, NPP and other parties used recognition of LGBTQ+ rights to persuade Ghanaians to vote for them. Mahama during a BBC interview last week said LGBTQ+ rights are against African culture and religious doctrine.

Berinyuy Hans Burinyuy, LGBT+ Rights Ghana’s director for communications, said homophobic attacks and public demonstrations increased during the campaign.

“The passage of the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill into law will institutionalize State-sanctioned discrimination and violence against LGBTQ+ individuals, leaving little to no legal recourse for those affected,” said Burinyuy. “The climate of fear and uncertainty that has gripped Ghana’s LGBTQ+ community cannot be overstated.”

“While the political atmosphere remains hostile, there is still hope that the Supreme Court will rule in favor of human rights and constitutional protections,” added Burinyuy. “Should the court strike down the bill, it will be a significant victory for LGBTQ+ rights and a blow to the growing wave of homophobia that has swept the country.”

Awo Dufie, an intersex person and cross-dresser, said the LGBTQ+ community is going to be at increased risk under the NDC-led government because it supports anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.

“Mahama supported the anti-LGBT bill as well as the arrest and prosecution of human rights defenders,” noted Dufie. “Politicizing queer rights as a distraction actually started under Atta Mills (the-late president of Ghana) and the NDC government in 2011, and it was an NDC MP (Sam George) who furthered this in 2021 vocalizing support for the anti-LGBT bill.”

Dufie added Ghanaians “voted out a worse corrupt government who had no respect for human rights, and brought in a former corrupt president who has also promised to not respect human rights.”

Activism Ghana, another LGBTQ+ rights group, said the attacks against LGBTQ+ Ghanaians are a series of political ploys designed to win votes as opposed to accelerating development.

“Hate the gays, win the votes, and when they win and fail to deliver development and prosperity, they scapegoat the gays to take away attention from real problems,” said Activism Ghana.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday congratulated Mahama’s election, and noted Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang will become the country’s first female vice president.

“The United States commends the Electoral Commission, its hundreds of thousands of poll workers, civil society, and the country’s security forces, who helped ensure a peaceful and transparent process,” said Blinken in a statement. “We also applaud Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia for his gracious acceptance of the results.”

Mahama’s inauguration will take place on Jan. 7.

Advocacy groups continue to urge Akufo-Addo to veto the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill or amend sections that further criminalize LGBTQ+ people and allies.

Former Bogotá Mayor Claudia López did not specifically discuss the growing speculation over whether she will run for president of Colombia in 2026 when she spoke at Saturday’s LGBTQ+ Victory Institute’s Annual International LGBTQ Leaders Conference in D.C., or with the Washington Blade.

“In a week I am going to return to Colombia and I’m coming back with a very, very punctual task,” she said in a speech she gave after the Victory Institute inducted her into its LGBTQ+ Political Hall of Fame at the JW Marriott. “Democracy in the world in general needs emotional reconnection.”

López, 54, was a student protest movement leader, journalist, and political scientist before she entered politics.

She returned to Colombia in 2013 after she earned her Ph.D in political science at Columbia University.

In her speech, López said Juan Francisco “Kiko” Gomez, a former governor of La Guajíra Department in northern Colombia, threatened to assassinate her because she wrote about his ties to criminal gangs. A Bogotá judge in 2017 convicted Gómez of ordering members of a paramilitary group to kill former Barrancas Mayor Yandra Brito, her husband and bodyguard, sentencing him to 55 years in prison.

López in 2014 returned to Colombia and ran for the country’s Senate as a member of the center-left Green Alliance party after she recovered from breast cancer. López won after a 10-week campaign that cost $80,000.

“I was the only woman, the only LGBTQ member of my caucus,” she said in her speech. “Of course I had the honor, but also the responsibility to represent them particularly well, [and] of course all the citizens who trust me and all the citizens of Colombia.”

“Once you are elected, you are elected to represent equally and faithfully all of the people, not only your own people,” added López.

In 2018, López was her party’s candidate to succeed then-President Juan Manuel Santos when he left office. López in 2019 became the first woman and first lesbian elected mayor of Bogotá, the Colombian capital and the country’s largest city.

“This of course speaks incredibly well of my city,” she said in her speech.

López took office on Jan. 1, 2020, less than a month after she married her wife, Colombian Sen. Angélica Lozano. (López was not out when she was elected to the Senate.) Lozano was with López at the Victory Institute conference.

López’s term ended on Dec. 31, 2023. She will return to Colombia once her Advanced Leadership Fellowship at Harvard University ends this month.

“I ended my mayorship,” López told the Blade. “It has been, of course, the honor of my life to be the first female mayor of my city. It was an absolutely beautiful job, but very challenging.”

“I needed a year of rest, of relaxation, and I was fortunate to receive a Harvard scholarship this year,” she added.

López during the interview called for an end to polarization and reiterated her support for democracy.

“We need to listen to each other again, we need to have a coffee with each other again, we need to touch each other’s skin,” she said.

López said parties, candidates, and their political coalitions in Colombia and around the world need to “listen, reconnect, and organize with people” at the grassroots level. López also told the Blade there is a “global crisis of democracy.”

“Each country has its own contexts and challenges, but it seems to me that there is a common element there,” she said.

“So, I return to Colombia rested, grateful after a year of reflection, with proposals in mind, but determined to dedicate time to what I consider the most important work for democracy at this time, which is to reconnect from the grassroots,” added López.

‘I know what love and education can do for any person’

López took office less than three months before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“We were full of hope, ready to go to offer a new social and environmental contract for Bogotá society for the 21st century,” she said. “But a couple of (months) after being sworn into office, the pandemic of COVID-19 came.”

Unemployment and poverty rates soared in Bogotá during the pandemic, and the city’s residents had less access to health care and other basic services.

López noted her administration in response to the pandemic offered scholarships to young people, supported businesses, and increased funding of the city’s social services. López also said her administration implemented Latin America’s first city-based care system for female care givers, and build three more LGBTQ+ community centers in poor and working-class neighborhoods.

“I know what love and education can do for any person,” she said.

The U.N. Refugee Agency says upwards of three million Venezuelans are now in Colombia.

Then-Colombian President Iván Duque in February 2021 announced Venezuelan migrants who register with the country’s government will be legally recognized.

Former Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro, a former senator who was once a member of the M-19 guerrilla movement that disbanded in the 1990s, succeeded Duque as president on Aug. 7, 2022. Colombia and Venezuela restored diplomatic ties less than a month later.

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council on July 28 declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner of the country’s disputed presidential election. Tamara Adrián, the country’s first transgender congresswoman who ran in the presidential primary earlier this year, are among those who denounced voting irregularities.

WPLG, a South Florida television station on March 16, 2021, reported López sparked controversy after she told reporters there have been “some very violent acts from Venezuelans.”

“First they murder, and then they steal,” she said. “We need guarantees for Colombians.”

López made the comments after a Venezuelan migrant murdered a Colombian police officer in Bogotá.

“The problem is not migration from Venezuela,” López told the Blade in response to a question about Venezuela. “The problem is authoritarianism in Venezuela and you have to keep the focus on it.”

“The problem is what it is: It is not the migrants, it is in Maduro, it is in the dictatorship, it is in authoritarianism.”

More than 200,000 people died in the war between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that began in 1962.

Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Commander Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londoño on Sept 26, 2016, signed an LGBTQ-inclusive peace agreement. Colombian voters a few days later narrowly rejected it a referendum that took place against the backdrop of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric from religious and conservative groups.

Santos and Londoño less than two months later signed a second peace agreement, which also contains LGBTQ+-specific references.

López described herself as “a person totally committed to the peace process.” She added, however, she has “a bit of a bad taste in my mouth now that I look back.”

“The peace process with the FARC, which was to demobilize the FARC, period, certainly tried to have and had a gender focus, of course a diversity focus, a focus on human rights for all victims, and certainly (the) many LGBT victims who had been victims of FARC recruitment, abuse, stigmatization, etc.,” López told the Blade. “So, in some sense, or in many senses, having that gender and diversity perspective was a way of recognizing the victims of our community.”

She noted opponents lied about the LGBTQ+-specific provisions “to deceive and delegitimize the peace agreement.”

“It is not about making anything invisible, or even downplaying anything, but rather about being much more strategic in understanding that we do not want our flags and causes to be exposed in a way that ends up being a boomerang for our own community,” López added. “So, I say that is why it is a disappointment, because I think it is a lesson. At least for me, it made me think and it makes me think, and I have said it openly since then, that we have to be much more careful and much more, above all, strategic, in how we raise our flags so that they really do not only have symbolic, but real advances and so that in no case do they become a boomerang against ourselves.”

‘I know how you feel’

López during the interview praised the recent elections of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Uruguayan Vice President Beatriz Argimón, and other women in Latin America. She also expressed sympathy with LGBTQ+ Americans who are concerned about the incoming Trump-Vance administration.

“I know how you feel,” said López in her speech. “I’ve been there when we lost the peace referendum in 2016. I’ve been there when three candidates who represented independent, new alternatives in Colombia, and policies were killed by mafia groups in 1990. I’ve been there when a mafia cartel was able to fund and elect a president for all of us. I’ve been there when paramilitary groups were able to support and elect another president in Colombia.”

“I know how obscure and difficult and challenging and painful democratic times are, but we cannot (back) democracy only when we win,” she added. “It’s precisely when things are challenging, when we suffer defeats that are painful, that we need to attach to our democratic and humanistic values and principles.”

CANADA

Transgender activists in the province of Alberta have filed the first of an expected series of lawsuits against a trio of anti-LGBTQ+ bills passed by the provincial legislature last week

The province’s United Conservative Party government passed the long-promised legislation which bars trans youth under 16 from accessing gender care, bans trans women and girls from women’s sports, requires parental notification and consent if a student under 16 wishes to use a different name or pronoun, and requires parental notification and consent ahead of any discussion of sexual orientation, gender identity or sexuality in classrooms.

On Friday, Canada’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group Egale filed a joint legal challenge with the Calgary-based trans support center Skipping Stone and five families against the medical care ban, as that bill came into effect immediately upon passage.

“The actions of the government of Alberta are unprecedented. Never before in Canada has a government prohibited access to gender affirming health care,” says Kara Smyth, co-counsel in the case, in a press statement.

Egale says that the law violates the rights of trans people under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including the right to security of the person, freedom from cruel and unusual treatment, and equality. 

It also says the law violates Alberta’s recently amended Bill of Rights, including the right to not be subjected to, or coerced into receiving, medical care, medical treatment, or a medical procedure without consent. This was recently added into provincial law as a sop to far-right conspiracy theorists around vaccines in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This government has acted directly counter to expert guidance and evidence, as well as the voices of Albertan families, and introduced policies that use fear and disinformation to target a small and vulnerable part of the community: 2SLGBTQI young people. All Albertan families and youth deserve the ability to access health care and participate fully in their communities,” says Amelia Newbert, co-founder and managing director of Skipping Stone.

Even if the plaintiffs succeed in court, they may still lose, because Canada’s Charter of Rights includes a clause that allows provincial governments to override fundamental rights. That’s what happened when a court in neighboring Saskatchewan ruled against a law requiring schools to out trans students to their parents.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has so far refused to say whether she’ll invoke the “notwithstanding” clause to override a court decision if the province loses.

And the temperature for LGBTQ+ rights in Alberta keeps getting worse. Also last week, the town of Barrhaven passed a citizen-initiated referendum that bans Pride flags — and all flags other than the Canadian, Albertan, or town flag — from being raised or painted on municipal property. That’s going to require that the city remove a recently installed rainbow crosswalk.

It’s the second town in Alberta to ban the Pride flags this year, after Westlock held a similar referendum in February.

ROMANIA

A scheduled second-round presidential election was cancelled by the Constitutional Court amid allegations that Russia was interfering to aid far-right nationalist Călin Georgescu against progressive reformer Elena Lasconi.

The unprecedented move was condemned by both candidates, who accused Romania’s establishment parties of trying to usurp the democratic process. 

Declassified intelligence reports released by the government assert that Georgescu’s campaign was supported by a Russian influence operation, which was largely played out through a massive TikTok campaign that raised his profile from obscurity to winning the first-round election on Nov. 24. 

Fresh elections will be called by the new parliament that was elected separately on Dec 1. In those elections, establishment parties lost ground — and their parliamentary majority — as three far-right ultranationalist parties made major gains.

Georgescu and the three parties supporting him have long been hostile to LGBTQ+ rights. Lasconi’s record on LGBTQ+ rights is mixed. She’s previously expressed opposition to same-sex marriage, but during the campaign said she would support civil union legislation and eventually would be open to equal marriage. 

Regardless of who wins the election, it is unlikely Romania’s parliament will bring forward much pro-LGBTQ+ rights legislation.

LITHUANIA

A court in Lithuania has for the first time recognized a same-sex partner as a child’s parent, in a groundbreaking ruling in a country where same-sex couples and families have few legal rights.

The Vilnius District Court ruling came into effect on Friday, recognizing both women as the child’s parent, LRT English reports.

The couple at the center of the case are Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson Birutė Sabatauskaitė and her partner Jūratė Juškaitė, director of the Lithuanian Center for Human Rights. Juškaitė will now be able to have her name listed as a parent on all of her daughter’s documents, giving her all the rights of a mother.

“From today, our family feels safer. The Vilnius District Court’s ruling that recognises me as the mother of our little girl has come into effect,” Juškaitė posted on Facebook.

While the case does not set a legal precedent, it shows that the Lithuanian courts are open to same-sex couples in the interest of protecting family rights and children’s rights. 

“Family cases are very individual, but yes, it could certainly inspire and give hope to families who don’t fit into the traditional definition of a family,” says Donatas Murauskas, who represented Juškaitė in court.

Same-sex couples are not generally afforded legal recognition or any of the rights that married heterosexual couples have in Lithuania. A bill to recognize civil partnerships awaits a final vote in the Lithuanian parliament, but the newly elected government, a coalition of Social Democrats and nationalists, has not agreed to put the bill in their program. 

CHINA

A Hong Kong lawmaker is calling on the city to ignore last year’s Court of Final Appeal ruling ordering the government to recognize same-sex unions, and is urging the city to instead appeal to mainland China to overrule the court.

Under the “One Country, Two Systems” form of government that Hong Kong has had since the end of the British colonial period in 1997, the city enjoys limited autonomy from Beijing. But China has the power to intervene on matters with “permanent, serious consequences.”

Lawmaker Junius Ho says that a series of Court of Final Appeal rulings that require the city to recognize same-sex couples and grant them equal access to public housing and inheritance rights are serious enough to warrant intervention from Beijing.

He made the comments at a forum hosted by a group he founded to fight the rulings, International Probono Legal Services Association Limited.

“The Court of Final Appeal [made these rulings] on so-called same-sex marriages under just one notion, equal rights. What equal rights? Diversity, inclusiveness and equality,” Ho said. “[These] universal values cannot override the constitution.”

Last year, the Court of Final Appeal gave the city two years to establish a legal mechanism to recognize same-sex couples, but LGBTQ+ activists have been frustrated by the lack of legislative progress on the issue.

Even as same-sex couples have continued to win victories in court, queer people have noticed that space for free expression has shrunk as the government has cut funding for LGBTQ+ service organizations and it has become more risky to accept funding from foreign sources amid a broader crackdown from the mainland on Hong Kong’s democratic institutions.

Cape Town last month secured enough votes to host WorldPride in 2028.

The bidding process, which started in late October, took place in Medellín, Colombia, where the Guadalajara (Mexico) Pride and WorldPride Cape Town bidding teams contended for the rights to host WorldPride. InterPride, which organizes the event, on Nov. 8 officially declared Cape Town the host of WorldPride 2028.

It will be the first time WorldPride will take place in an African country.

South Africa is the only country on the continent that constitutionally recognizes LGBTQ+ rights. South Africa, as a result, in recent years has seen a surge in the number of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers from Africa and around the world.

Reacting to the historical precedence, Cape Town Pride said it was now time for Africa to shine and acknowledged the WorldPride Cape Town bidding team and the city of Cape Town for their role in the bidding process.

“This is a first for the whole continent of Africa,” said Cape Town Pride CEO Tommy Patterson. “A few weeks ago, in Medellín, Cape Town Pride, the city of Cape Town, and the bidding team presented our bid. The team did a wonderful job and we all forged great friendships and allies from Pride groups all over the globe.”

“Cape Town Pride is thrilled by the news and support shown by the global LGBTI+ family,” added Patterson.

Michael Gladwin of the WorldPride Cape Town bidding team echoed Patterson’s excitement.

“This will mark the first time WorldPride is held on the African continent, and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome the global LGBTQ+ community to our beautiful city,” said Gladwin. “A heartfelt thank you goes out to all our incredible partners who supported this journey. Together, we will showcase Cape Town as a beacon of inclusivity and diversity.”

Gladwin also congratulated Guadalajara Pride for their bid.

“Their commitment in promoting LGBTQ+ rights is inspiring, and we look forward to collaborating in the future,” said Gladwin.

Cape Town’s LGBTQ+ community is celebrating the successful bid, while others in the city have criticized it.

Rev. Oscar Bougardt, founder and lead pastor of the Calvary Hope Baptist Church, described WorldPride as “garbage” and “filth” that should be condemned.

“I am happy to say I am amongst the pastors in Cape Town who are in opposition and are outraged at this garbage planned for 2028,” said Bougardt. “The city of Cape Town and LGBTQ+ organizations planned this event without consulting rate payers, this bid was done in secret and taxpayers’ money will be used to fund this filth.”

“Just as the LGBTQ + organizations have the right to host WorldPride 2028, we have the right to say we don’t want it in Cape Town,” he added. “I pray more church leaders will stand up against the planned WorldPride 2028. To church leaders and parents, this is the time to unite and tell the city of Cape Town and LGBTQ+ organizations that we are disgusted at the planned event. Untied we stand and divided we will fall!”

Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 2022 won the bid to host WorldPride 2025, but the local planning committee withdrew it amid a dispute with InterPride. WorldPride 2025 will take place in D.C. from May 17-June 8, 2025.

The 2024 ILGA World Conference took place last month in Cape Town.

At least 1,000 people rallied outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday as the justices considered whether a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth is unconstitutional.

Dueling rallies began early in the morning, with protesters supporting trans rights and protesters supporting Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care each stationed with podiums on opposite sides.

Trans rights protesters, who significantly outnumbered the other group, held signs reading “Keep hate out of healthcare,” and “Respect family medical decisions.” On the other side, protesters carried signs with messages like “Sex change is fantasy,” and “Stop transing gay kids.”

Ari, a trans person who grew up in Nashville and now lives in D.C., spoke to the Washington Blade about the negative effects of the Tennessee law on the well-being of trans youth. 

“I grew up with kids who died because of a lack of trans healthcare, and I am scared of that getting worse,” they said. “All that this bill brings is more dead kids.”

The Tennessee law that is being challenged in U.S. v Skrmetti took effect in 2023 and bans medical providers from prescribing medical treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapies to trans youth. 

A number of Democratic lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, and U.S. Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) addressed the crowd in support of trans rights. 

In his speech, Merkley said Americans deserved freedom in accessing gender affirming care and criticized the law as political intervention in private medical decisions. 

“Americans should have the freedom to make medical decisions in the privacy of their doctor’s office without politicians trying to dictate to them,” he said. 

Robert Garofalo, a chief doctor in the division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at a Chicago children’s hospital, emphasized the importance of trans youth having access to gender affirming care. 

“We [providers] are seeing patients and families every day, present with crippling fears, added stress and anxiety as they desperately try to locate care where it remains legal to do so,” Garofalo, who is also a professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University, told the crowd. “Transgender children and adolescents deserve health care that is grounded in compassion, science and principles of public health and human rights. They must not be denied life saving medical care — their lives depend on it.”

Major U.S. medical associations, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, support gender affirming care. 

Research has found gender affirming care improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender diverse children and adolescents. Those who are denied access to gender affirming care are at increased risk for significant mental health challenges.  

An unlikely coalition came out to support Tennessee’s ban on gender affirming care. Far-right figures, such as U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Matt Walsh — both of whom have a history of making homophobic statements — were joined by groups such as the LGBT Courage Coalition and Gays Against Groomers. 

The groups questioned the quality of the research finding gender-affirming care to have a positive effect on the well-being of trans and gender nonconforming youth and argued that minors cannot consent to medical treatment. Ben Appel, a co-founder of the LGBT Courage Coalition, which he notes was “co-founded by gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans adults who oppose pediatric gender medicine, which we know to be non-evidence-based and harmful to young gay people,” said gender nonconformity is often part of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual experience and should not be “medicalized.” 

“I care about the adult gay detransitioners who have been harmed … by these homophobic practice,” he said “They should have just been told they’re gay.” 

Claire, a Maryland resident who attended the rally in favor of the Tennessee law and claims to have detransitioned, described being prescribed testosterone and having a mastectomy at 14, medical treatments she says she was unable to consent to at that age. She doesn’t oppose gender affirming care for adults but is opposed to “medical experimentation on children.”

“I think that adults should be allowed to do whatever they want with their bodies. I think that it is if someone is happy with the decision that they made that’s great,” she said. “I was not able to make that decision. I was a child.” 

But trans activists fear that a ruling in favor of Tennessee could pave the way for states to restrict access to gender-affirming care for adults.

“There’s also broader implications for civil rights and trans rights, more broadly, for adults in the future. There are some states that have tried to ban some healthcare for adults — they haven’t yet — but I think that’s something we might also see if the Supreme Court rules that way,” Ethan Rice, a senior attorney at Lambda Legal, one of the legal organizations representing the plaintiffs in U.S. v Skrmetti, said.

In the case, three Tennessee families and a physician are challenging the Tennessee law on the grounds that it violates the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment by drawing lines based on sex and discriminating against trans people. The statute bans medications for trans children while allowing the same medications to be used when treating minors suffering from other conditions, such as early-onset puberty. 

A 2020 Supreme Court decision determined sex-based discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. The key question in U.S. v. Skrmetti is whether this interpretation applies under the Equal Protection Clause.

“We really hope that the Supreme Court recognizes their own precedent on sex discrimination cases and comes out the right way, saying this is sex discrimination by the state of Tennessee and thus is unconstitutional,” Rice said. 

Twenty-six states currently have laws or policies restricting minors’ access to gender-affirming care. If the court rules against Tennessee, similar bans in other states would also be unconstitutional, granting trans youth greater access to gender affirming care nationwide. 

Edith Guffey, the board chair at PFLAG, expressed doubt the court will strike down the law, citing its sharp ideological turn to the right in recent years. But she said she remains hopeful. 

“I hope that the court will … step outside agendas and look at the needs of people and who has the right to say what’s good for their children,” she said.

Chase Strangio, an ACLU attorney representing the families, on Wednesday became the first openly trans lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court. He addressed the trans rights protesters after the hearing. 

“Whatever happens, we are the defiance,” Strangio said. “We are collectively a refutation of everything they say about us. And our fight for justice did not begin today, it will not end in June — whatever the court decides.”

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti on Wednesday, the case brought by the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Justice to challenge Tennessee’s ban on gender affirming care for minors.

At issue is whether the law, which proscribes medical, surgical, and pharmacological interventions for purposes of gender transition, abridges the right to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits sex-based discrimination.

The petitioners — U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who represents the federal government, and Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project — argue the Supreme Court should apply heightened scrutiny to laws whose application is based on transgender status rather than the rational basis test that was used by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, which is more deferential to decisions by legislators.

Legal experts agree the conservative justices are unlikely to be persuaded even though, as Tennessee Solicitor General J. Matthew Rice made clear on Wednesday, under the state’s statute “If a boy wants puberty blockers, the answer is yes, if you have precocious puberty; no, if you’re doing this to transition. If a girl wants puberty blockers, the answer is yes, if you have precocious puberty; no, if you’re doing this to transition.”

Oral arguments delved into a range of related topics, beginning with conservative Justice Samuel Alito’s questions about debates within the global scientific and medical communities about the necessity of these interventions for youth experiencing gender dysphoria and the risks and benefits associated with each treatment.

“Isn’t the purpose of intermediate scrutiny to make sure that we guard against — I’m not intending to insult — but we all have instinctual reactions, whether it’s parents or doctors or legislatures, to things that are wrong or right,” said liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

“For decades, women couldn’t hold licenses as butchers or as lawyers because legislatures thought that we weren’t strong enough to pursue those occupations,” she said. “And some, some people rightly believe that gender dysphoria may cause may be changed by some children, in some children, but the evidence is very clear that there are some children who actually need this treatment. Isn’t there?”

After Prelogar answered in the affirmative, Sotomayor continued, “Some children suffer incredibly with gender dysphoria, don’t they? Some attempt suicide. Drug addiction is very high among some of these children because of their distress. One of the petitioners in this case described going almost mute because of their inability to speak in a voice that they could live with.”

Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh focused his initial questions on whether the democratic process should adjudicate questions of science and policy, asserting that both sides have presented compelling arguments for their respective positions.

There are solutions that would allow policymakers to mitigate concerns with gender affirming medical interventions for minor youth without abridging the Equal Protection clause and Section 1557 of the ACA, Prelogar said.

For instance, “West Virginia was thinking about a total ban, like this one, on care for minors,” she said, “but then the Senate Majority Leader in West Virginia, who’s a doctor, looked at the underlying studies that demonstrate sharply reduced associations with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, and the West Virginia Legislature changed course and imposed a set of guardrails that are far more precisely tailored to concerns surrounding the delivery of this care.”

She continued, “West Virginia requires that two different doctors diagnose the gender dysphoria and find that it’s severe and that the treatment is medically necessary to guard against the risk of self harm. The West Virginia law also requires mental health screening to try to rule out confounding diagnoses. It requires the parents to agree and the primary care physician to agree. And I think a law like that is going to fare much better under heightened scrutiny precisely because it would be tailored to the precise interests and not serve a more sweeping interest.”

Later, in an exchange with Rice, Sotoyamor said, “I thought that that’s why we had intermediate scrutiny when there are differences based on sex, to ensure that states were not acting on the basis of prejudice.”

She then asked whether a hypothetical law mirroring Tennessee’s that covered adults as well as minor youth would pass the rational basis test. Rice responded, “that just means it’s left to the democratic process, and that democracy is the best check on potentially misguided laws.”

“Well, Your Honor, of course, our position is there is no sex based classification. But to finish the answer, that to the extent that along with dealing with adults, would pass rational basis review, that just means it’s left to the democratic process, and that democracy is the best check on potentially misguided laws.”

“When you’re one percent of the population or less,” said Sotomayor, “it’s very hard to see how the democratic process is going to protect you. Blacks were a much larger percentage of the population and it didn’t protect them. It didn’t protect women for whole centuries.”

Advocacy groups in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s election fear his administration’s proposed immigration policies will place LGBTQ+ migrants and asylum seekers at increased risk.

“What we are expecting again is that the new administration will continue weaponizing the immigration system to keep igniting resentment,” Abdiel Echevarría-Cabán, an immigration lawyer who is based in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, told the Washington Blade.

Trump during the campaign pledged a “mass deportation” of undocumented immigrants.

The president-elect in 2019 implemented the Migrant Protection Protocols program — known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy — that forced asylum seekers to pursue their cases in Mexico.

Advocates sharply criticized MPP, in part, because it made LGBTQ+ asylum seekers who were forced to live in Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, Matamoros, and other Mexican border cities even more vulnerable to violence and persecution based on their gender identity and sexual orientation.

The State Department currently advises American citizens not to travel to Tamaulipas state in which Matamoros is located because of “crime and kidnapping.” The State Department also urges American citizens to “reconsider travel” to Baja California and Chihuahua states in which Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez are located respectively because of “crime and kidnapping.”

The Biden-Harris administration ended MPP in 2021.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in March 2020 implemented Title 42, which closed the Southern border to most asylum seekers and migrants because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy ended in May 2023.

Robert Contreras, president of Bienestar Human Services, a Los Angeles-based organization that works with Latino and LGBTQ+ communities, in a statement to the Blade noted Project 2025, which “outlines the incoming administration’s agenda, proposes extensive rollbacks of rights and protections for LGBTQ+ individuals.”

“This includes dismantling anti-discrimination protections, restricting access to gender-affirming healthcare, and increasing immigration enforcement,” said Contreras.

Trans woman in Tijuana nervously awaits response to asylum application

A Biden-Harris administration policy that took place in May 2023 says “noncitizens who cross the Southwest land border or adjacent coastal borders without authorization after traveling through another country, and without having (1) availed themselves of an existing lawful process, (2) presented at a port of entry at a pre-scheduled time using the CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) One app, or (3) been denied asylum in a third country through which they traveled, are presumed ineligible for asylum unless they meet certain limited exceptions.” The exceptions under the regulation include:

• They were provided authorization to travel to the United States pursuant to a DHS-approved parole process; 
• They used the CBP One app to schedule a time and place to present at a port of entry, or they presented at a port of entry without using the CBP One app and established that it was not possible to access or use the CBP One app due to a language barrier, illiteracy, significant technical failure, or other ongoing and serious obstacle; or 
• They applied for and were denied asylum in a third country en route to the United States.  

Biden in June issued an executive order that prohibits migrants from asking for asylum in the U.S. if they “unlawfully” cross the Southern border.

The Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration works with LGBTQ+ migrants and asylum seekers in Tijuana, Mexicali and other Mexican border cities.

ORAM Executive Director Steve Roth is among those who criticized Biden’s executive order. Roth told the Blade the incoming administration’s proposed policies would “leave vulnerable transgender people, gay men, lesbians, and others fleeing life-threatening violence and persecution with little to no opportunity to seek asylum in the U.S. stripped of safe pathways.”

“Many will find themselves stranded in dangerous regions like the Mexico-U.S. border and transit countries around the world where their safety and well-being will be further jeopardized by violence, exploitation, and a lack of support,” he said. 

Jennicet Gutiérrez, co-executive director of Familia: TQLM, an organization that advocates on behalf of transgender and gender non-conforming immigrants, noted to the Blade a trans woman who has asked for asylum in the U.S. “has been patiently waiting in Tijuana” for more than six months “for her CBP One application response.”

“Now she feels uncertain if she will ever get the chance to cross to the United States,” said Gutiérrez.

She added Trump’s election “is going to be devastating for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers.”

“Transgender migrants are concerned about the future of their cases,” said Gutiérrez. “The upcoming administration is not going to prioritize or protect our communities. Instead, they will prioritize mass deportations and incarceration.”

TransLatin@ Coalition President Bamby Salcedo echoed Gutiérrez.

“Trans people who are immigrants are getting the double whammy with the new administration,” Salcedo told the Blade. “As it is, trans people have been political targets throughout this election. Now, with the specific target against immigrants, trans immigrants will be greatly impacted.”

‘We’re ready to keep fighting’

Trans Queer Pueblo is a Phoenix-based organization that provides health care and other services to undocumented LGBTQ+ immigrants and migrants of color. The group, among other things, also advocates on behalf of those who are in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers.

“We refuse to wait for politicians to change systems that were designed to hurt us,” Trans Queer Pueblo told the Blade in a statement. “The elections saw both political parties using our trans and migrant identities as political pawns.”

Trans Queer Pueblo acknowledged concerns over the incoming administration’s immigration policies. It added, however, Arizona’s Proposition 314 is “our biggest battle.”

Arizona voters last month approved Proposition 314, which is also known as the Secure the Border Act.

Trans Queer Pueblo notes it “makes it a crime for undocumented people to exist anywhere, with arrests possible anywhere, including schools and hospitals.” The group pointed out Proposition 314 also applies to asylum seekers.

“We are building a future where LGBTQ+ migrants of color can live free, healthy, and secure, deciding our own destiny without fear,” Trans Queer Pueblo told the Blade. “This new administration will not change our mission — we’re ready to keep fighting.”

Contreras stressed Bienestar “remains committed to advocate for the rights and safety of all migrants and asylum seekers.” Gutiérrez added it is “crucial for LGBTQ+ migrants to know that they are not alone.”

“We will continue to organize and mobilize,” she said. “We must resist unjust treatments and laws.”

Karla Guevara, una reconocida activista por los derechos de las personas trans en El Salvador, comunicó su denuncia ante organismos nacionales e internacionales de derechos humanos. 

En su petición presentada a la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, solicita que se declare la responsabilidad internacional del Estado salvadoreño por violaciones a la Convención Americana sobre Derechos Humanos y la Convención de Belém do Pará. La activista señala que estas vulneraciones han ocurrido en perjuicio de su persona, particularmente en el marco de su lucha por el reconocimiento de su identidad de género.

Desde 2019, Guevara ha enfrentado un complejo y prolongado proceso judicial para obtener el cambio de nombre y género en sus documentos oficiales, debido a la inexistencia de una ley de identidad de género en El Salvador. Actualmente, las personas trans solo pueden recurrir a los juzgados de familia para solicitar dicho reconocimiento, un camino que, como señala la activista, está plagado de obstáculos y re-victimización.

“Como la primera mujer trans en El Salvador en acceder a cambiar de nombre y género en mis documentos de identidad, he luchado desde mi activismo por una Ley de Identidad de Género”, expresó Guevara en una entrevista con Washington Blade.

El proceso iniciado en el Juzgado Primero de Familia de San Salvador en diciembre de 2019 fue inicialmente declarado improponible en enero de 2020. Sin embargo, tras apelar dos veces a la Cámara de Familia, Guevara obtuvo una sentencia favorable en agosto de 2022. La resolución ordenaba el cambio de nombre y género en sus documentos de identidad y la marginación de su partida de nacimiento, pero la Alcaldía Municipal de San Salvador interpuso un amparo que ha impedido la ejecución de esta decisión durante los últimos dos años, alargando a cinco años su búsqueda de reconocimiento oficial.

Tratos discriminatorios y violencia psicológica

Durante este extenso proceso, Guevara denunció ser víctima de tratos discriminatorios y revictimizantes que han afectado su salud mental y vulnerado su integridad personal. Entre estos tratos destacan la patologización y genitalización de su identidad, el escrutinio judicial e inspección física de su cuerpo y el escepticismo constante de las autoridades sobre su femineidad y motivaciones. 

“El Estado salvadoreño ha impedido y sigue impidiendo que mi persona cuente con documentos de identidad acordes con mi identidad de género, pese a que existe una sentencia firme que me reconoce este derecho”, declaró Guevara.

Estas experiencias, según la denuncia, constituyen violaciones a su integridad psíquica y violencia psicológica según la Convención de Belém do Pará. Además, Guevara argumenta que el Estado salvadoreño ha vulnerado derechos fundamentales reconocidos en la Convención Americana, como la integridad personal, la protección de la vida privada, la libertad personal, la igualdad ante la ley y las garantías judiciales, entre otros.

Acompañamiento de organizaciones sociales

La denuncia de Guevara cuenta con el respaldo de organizaciones como la Colectiva Feminista para el Desarrollo Local y Synergia, quienes han apoyado su caso ante la CIDH. Estas organizaciones destacan que la falta de una Ley de Identidad de Género en El Salvador perpetúa la discriminación estructural hacia las personas trans. Además, recalcan la importancia de visibilizar casos como el de Guevara para impulsar reformas legales que garanticen el reconocimiento y la protección de los derechos de la población LGBTQ.

“Consideramos que llevar el caso a esta instancia, es la forma más eficiente y efectiva para tener este reconocimiento de las violaciones que el Estado de El Salvador cometió hacia Karla”, expresó Mirta Moragas de Synergía – IHR – Initiatives for Human Rights.

Para Alejandra Burgos de Colectiva Feminista para el Desarrollo Local, es importante mostrar el apoyo a Guevara desde la Red Feminista. 

“También mostramos nuestro apoyo con todas las personas trans que no tienen acceso a ser reconocidas con su nombre en este país”, agregó. 

Ambas organizaciones reconocen la valentía de Guevara, como también la de muchas organizaciones en El Salvador, que han luchado contra la impunidad ante los crímenes de odio en el país. 

Impacto del discurso de odio en El Salvador

El contexto nacional en materia de derechos de la población LGBTQ es preocupante, con un aumento de discursos de odio promovidos por funcionarios públicos, incluyendo al presidente, así como diputados y otras figuras políticas. Este clima hostil, según varios activistas de El Salvador, ha generado retrocesos significativos en materia de derechos humanos. Aseguran que estos discursos no solo perpetúan la violencia y la discriminación, sino que también afectan la capacidad del Estado para cumplir con sus obligaciones internacionales.

El caso de Guevara se suma a una creciente lista de denuncias contra el Estado salvadoreño por violaciones a los derechos humanos de la población LGBTQ. Organismos internacionales, como la CIDH, están llamados a evaluar esta denuncia y emitir recomendaciones que impulsen cambios estructurales en el país.

Colectivo Alejandría y otras organizaciones han instado a la comunidad internacional a presionar al gobierno salvadoreño para que adopte medidas concretas que garanticen el reconocimiento de los derechos de las personas trans, porque las evidencias de un mal proceder son claras. 

“Este es un ejemplo claro de todos los desacatos del Estado salvadoreño, con órdenes judiciales estrictas y específicas”, expresa Aranza Santos de Colectivo Alejandría.

Un camino hacia la justicia

El proceso de Guevara es un recordatorio de la urgente necesidad de una legislación inclusiva en El Salvador. Su lucha es un símbolo de resistencia y esperanza para la población trans, que enfrenta diariamente barreras legales y sociales para vivir con dignidad. Con el apoyo de organizaciones diversas organizaciones que luchas por los derechos de la población LGBTQ, Guevara continúa su batalla no solo por su reconocimiento personal, sino por el derecho de toda una comunidad a ser vista, escuchada y respetada.

En un contexto marcado por retrocesos en derechos humanos, el caso de Guevara resalta la importancia de construir un país más inclusivo y justo, donde todas las personas puedan vivir libres de violencia y discriminación. 

December is AIDS/HIV awareness month and this year West Hollywood is honoring the lives lost, by breaking ground on a project in West Hollywood Park that has been in the works since 2012. 

Members of Hollywood’s City Council joined representatives from the Foundation of AIDS Monument to announce the commencement of the construction of STORIES: The AIDS Monument, which will memorialize 32 million lives lost. This monument, created by artist Daniel Tobin,  will represent the rich history of Los Angeles where many of those afflicted with HIV/AIDS lived out their final days in support of their community.

Tobin is a co-founder and creative director of Urban Art Projects, which creates public art programs that humanize cities by embedding creativity into local communities. 

The motto for the monument is posted on the website announcing the project. 

“The AIDS Monument:

REMEMBERS those we lost, those who survived, the protests and vigils, the caregivers.

CELEBRATES those who step up when others step away.

EDUCATES future generations through lessons learned.”

The monument will feature a plaza with a donor wall, vertical bronze ‘traces’ with narrative text, integrated lighting resembling a candlelight vigil, and a podium facing North San Vicente Blvd.

World AIDS Day, which just passed, is on December 1st since the World Health Organization declared it an international day for global health in 1988 to honor the lives lost to HIV/AIDS. 

The Foundation for the AIDS monument aims to chronicle the epidemic to be preserved for younger generations to learn the history and memorialize the voices that arose during this time. 

The HIV/AIDS epidemic particularly affected people in Hollywood during the onset of the epidemic in the 1980s. The epidemic caused a devastatingly high number of deaths in the city. The city then became one of the first government entities to provide social service grants to local AIDS and HIV organizations. 

In 1985, the city sponsored one of the first awareness campaigns in the country, nationally and globally becoming a model city for the response to the epidemic. 

Earlier this year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the theme for World AIDS Day, ‘Collective Action: Sustain and Accelerate HIV Progress.’

The city of West Hollywood continues to strive to become a HIV Zero city with its current implementation of HIV Zero Initiative. The initiative embraces a vision to “Get to Zero” on many fronts: zero new infections, zero progression of HIV to AIDS, zero discrimination and zero stigma.

Along with the initiative and the new AIDS monument, the city also provides ongoing support and programming through events for World AIDS Day and the annual AIDS Memorial Walk in partnership with the Alliance for Housing and Healing. 

For more information, please visit www.weho.org/services/human-services/hiv-aids-resources.

SLOVENIA

The Constitutional Court has issued a ruling that laws barring same-sex couples and single women from accessing assisted reproduction are unconstitutional discrimination. 

The court has left the laws in place while giving parliament one year to bring the laws governing assisted reproduction into compliance with the constitution. 

The Slovenian LGBTQ+ advocacy group LEGEBITRA celebrated the ruling in a post on its web site.

“The decision of the Constitutional Court is a victory for all those who wanted to start a family in Slovenia and were unfairly deprived of this opportunity in the past. Rainbow (and single-parent) families are part of our society, and their children are part of the community in the country in which they live and grow up. It is only fitting that their story begins here,” the post says.

The Treatment of Infertility and in Vitro Fertilization Procedures Act has had its restrictions on single women and same-sex couples from fertility treatment targeted by progressive legislators since it was introduced in 2000. 

Amendments that would have allowed single women to access in vitro fertilization were passed in 2001 but were immediately put to a citizen-initiated referendum, which voted them down. 

Since then, the former Yugoslav republic has undergone a number of progressive changes, including joining the European Union in 2004 and gradually expanding LGBTQ+ rights.

In 2020, a group of legislators from the Left party asked the Constitutional Court to review the law, and the following year, their request was joined by the state’s Advocate for the Principal of Equality. 

The court spent more than four years deliberating the appeal, during which time it also struck down laws banning same-sex marriage in 2022. Parliament later amended the law so that same-sex couples enjoy all rights of marriage, including adoption, but left the ban on assisted reproduction in place.

The Slovenia Times reports that the ruling was welcomed by the governing coalition, which includes the Left party. The government has pledged to move quickly to implement the ruling.

“This corrects one of the gravest injustices done to women by right-wing politics and the Catholic Church in Slovenia, who denied women the right to become mothers,” the Left said.

The case was brought by a group of left-leaning MPs four years ago — but perhaps the delay is related to the fact that in that time, the court also struck down the ban on same-sex marriage in 2022. 

RUSSIA

Russian authorities raided three nightclubs in Moscow over the weekend as part of the state’s deepening crackdown on LGBTQ+ people and expression, Radio Free Europe reports.

The raids took place late Saturday night and early Sunday morning at the Mono, Arma, and Simach nightclubs in the capital. All three clubs have been known to host themed events for LGBTQ+ clientele. 

According to Russian state-owned media outlet TASS and several Telegram channels, patrons, and employees of the clubs were forced to lie on the floor with their hands behind their heads before they were carted away in police wagons. Patrons and workers had their phones, laptops, and cameras seized and documents inspected

It’s not yet known what prompted the raids, although Russian authorities frequently claim to be inspecting for illegal substances and drug users.

Russian authorities have carried out several raids on LGBTQ+ establishments since the passage of a law banning positive portrayals or information about queer people in 2022. Last year, the Russian Supreme Court ruled that the “international LGBT movement” is an “extremist organization” and granted a request from the Ministry of Justice to ban it from the country. 

Russia’s crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights has inspired copycat legislation among its neighbors, notably in Georgia, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan.

CANADA

A small town in Northern Ontario has been fined C$10,700 (approximately $10,000) for its refusal to issue a Pride Month declaration or raise the rainbow flag.

The town of Emo population 1,300, which sits on the border with Minnesota about 200 miles northwest of Duluth, had been requested to issue the Pride declaration by Borderlands Pride in 2020 and raise the flag for one week, but the town council refused in a 3-2 vote, prompting a years-long legal battle. 

Last week, that came to an end as the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal found the town and its mayor guilty of discrimination and ordered the town to pay Borderlands Pride C$10,000 in compensation, and the mayor to pay an additional C$5,000 ($3,559.92).

“We didn’t pursue this because of the money. We pursued this because we were treated in a discriminatory fashion by a municipal government, and municipalities have obligations under the Ontario Human Rights Code not to discriminate in the provision of a service,” Doug Judson, a lawyer and board member of Borderlands Pride, told CBC News.

The tribunal also ordered the mayor to take a Human Rights 101 training course offered by the Ontario Human Rights Commission within 30 days. 

Mayor Harold McQuaker has not commented publicly on the ruling.

CHINA

Calls for Hong Kong government’s to officially recognize same-sex unions have intensified after the city’s Court of Final Appeal issued rulings last week that affirmed lower court rulings that found same-sex couples have equal rights to inheritance and social housing as heterosexual couples.

The ruling was in line with a similar ruling issued last year by the city’s top court, in which the city was ordered to provide legal recognition for same-sex couples by September 2025. 

The new ruling with facilitate same-sex couples’ access to public housing, a vital need in one of the world’s most housing-crunched cities. The ruling also affirms that same-sex spouses can inherit public housing from a deceased spouse. 

In both cases, the ruling only applies to spouses who have legally married overseas, because Hong Kong does not yet have a way for same-sex couples to legally register their relationships.

The nearest places where same-sex Hong Kong citizens can marry are Australia and the U.S. territory of Guam, with Thailand becoming available in the new year. Although same-sex marriage is legal in nearby Taiwan, residency requirements may block access there.

Although legislators have been slow to act on demands for civil unions or same-sex marriage, Hong Kongese same-sex couples have gradually gained access to more rights through court actions. 

The Court of Final Appeal has previously ordered the government to have foreign marriages recognized for immigration purposes, to allow same-sex couples to file their taxes jointly, and to stepchild adoption.