Advocacy groups across the country are marking National Hispanic Heritage Month.

The Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles on Sept. 20 hosted a comedy night that featured Danielle Perez, Gabe González, Lorena Russ, and Roz Hernandez. The event, which GLAAD organized, also included a screening of “Dímelo,” a digital series the organization produced with LatiNation that features interviews with Latino comedians. 

A press release notes Damian Terriquez, Mimi Davila, Salina EsTitties, and Tony Rodriguez attended the event. GLAAD in a post on its website on Sept. 25 highlighted Essa Noche and other Latino drag queens.

“The art of drag has always been a vibrant expression of resistance, creativity, and identity, particularly within marginalized communities,” reads the post. “Latine drag artists not only embody the resilience and power of their heritage but also elevate queer voices in spaces where their visibility is often limited.”

EsTitties on Sept. 29 hosted Queerceañera, “an inclusive take on the coming-of-age quinceañera tradition throughout Latin America and the United States” the Los Angeles LGBT Center organized.

Celebrate Orgullo, which describes itself as the “first Hispanic and Indigenous LGBTQ+ festival in Greater Miami and Miami Beach,” will take place from Oct. 4-14. Unity Coalition|Coalición Unida, is organizing the events.

“The festival invites you to experience a warm and welcoming ‘wave’ of pride that celebrates what makes us unique while uniting us in a shared spirit of inclusion,” reads a press release.

GLSEN has posted to its website a list of resources for undocumented students.

“Especially in this political climate, it’s important not only to affirm LGBTQ Latinx identities with positive representation but also to ensure that students know how they’re protected, especially those who are among the most marginalized,” says GLSEN.

National Hispanic Heritage Month is from Sept. 15-Oct. 15.

Fenway Health in Boston on its website notes National Hispanic Heritage Month “honors and celebrates the vibrant histories, cultures, languages, traditions, values, and contributions of people whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.”

Hispanic Heritage Week began in 1968. It became National Hispanic Heritage Month in 1988.

Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua mark their respective Independence Days on Sept. 15. Mexico’s Independence Day is on Sept. 16, and Chile’s Independence Day is on Sept. 18. Día de la Raza is Oct. 12.

“Here at Fenway Health, we are grateful every day for the many Latino/a/é staff members, clients, patients, volunteers, and supporters that are part of our community,” said Fenway Health. Their contributions and perspectives help drive Fenway’s mission: To advocate for and deliver innovative, equitable, accessible health care, supportive services, and transformative research and education and to center LGBTQIA+ people, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other people of color) individuals, and other underserved communities to enable our local, national, and global neighbors to flourish.”

President Joe Biden in his National Hispanic Heritage Month proclamation made a similar point.

“In our country, Latino leaders are striving for the American Dream and helping those around them reach it too,” he said. “From those who have been here for generations to those who have recently arrived, Latinos have pushed our great American experiment forward.”  

The proclamation also acknowledges Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Small Business Administration Administrator Isabel Guzman, and other Latino members of his administration.

“I am proud to work with incredible Latino leaders, who are dedicated to bettering our nation every day,” said Biden.

The first LGBTQ+Ñ Literary Festival in Spanish – the first of its kind – will kick-off six days of panels, short film screenings, book signings, performances and a photo exhibit starting today, at different locations across Los Angeles. 

The LGBTQ+Ñ Literary Festival will bring together Spanish-speaking and Latin American writers who explore and celebrate a variety of themes in their work, including sexual diversity and perspectives on identity. 

“Feminist culture and LGBTQ+ culture have been the movements that have most transformed modern societies in recent decades, and therefore deserve special attention,” said Luisgé Martín, director of Instituto Cervantes of Los Ángeles. “There was no stable forum that brought together creators from across the Spanish-speaking world, which is why we have organized this literary festival. It aims to serve as a framework for reflection and a meeting point for LGBTQ+ writers.” 

The festival will bring together authors, readers, academics and activists, to discuss their experiences and share perspectives about the LGBTQ+ community and its academic intersections. 

The first stop for the literary festival is at the Instituto Cervantes of Los Ángeles, from 7 PM to 9 PM on Tuesday, to screen short films that are part of FanCineQueer. 

The festival will feature authors like Myriam Gurba Serrano, Alejandro Córdova “Taylor”, Felipe J. Garcia, Boris Izaguirre, Nando López, María Mínguez Arias, Felipe Restrepo Pombo, Claudia Salazar Jiménez, Pablo Simonetti, and Gabriela Wiener. 

There will also be a photo exhibit and featured photographers such as Gonza Gallego and Liliana Hueso. 

The festival will take place at multiple venues including the Instituto Cervantes of Los Ángeles, The Student Union at Los Angeles City College and Circus of Books. 

For more information on the event visit the Instagram page for Instituto Cervantes of Los Ángeles. 

The Latino Equality Alliance hosted its annual fundraiser on Saturday at Del Records in Bell Gardens as their quinceañera-themed Purple Lily Awards raises nearly $100,000 to create safe spaces for Latin American LGBTQ+ youth and their families. 

This year, LEA honored co-founder Gutiérrez Arámbula, RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 Contestant, Salina Estitties, and the Liberty Hill Foundation. 

“The Latino Equality Alliance’s history and survival underscores the importance of providing critical resources and positive support for LGBTQ+ youth struggling to find a safe space,” said founder and executive director Eddie Martinez. “We are proud to have stood shoulder to shoulder with the Latinx community for 15 years and are excited about the promising future ahead of us.”

LEA’s mission with this event, is also to bring attention to Proposition 3 – which puts same-sex marriage on the November ballot. 

Proposition 3 seeks to reaffirm the right to same-sex marriage. 

This proposition shines light on the California Constitution that still to this day upholds language that does not include gender non-conforming people or queer and trans people in the protections for marriage equality. 

The CA Constitution says ‘only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California,’ which also only upholds protections and recognition for same-race couples, excluding interracial families, as well as LGBTQ+ families. 

That language — while still on the books — is effectively void after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 allowed same-sex marriage to resume in California, and the high court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in a historic 2015 decision. 

Upholding protections for marriage equality is important to LEA because California has the largest LGBTQ+ population in the United States. 

The grassroots organization is celebrating continued growth in their progress toward equality and celebrating the achievements of the Latin American community members that are at the forefront of creating safe spaces in Boyle Heights and beyond. 

LEA was the first community and school LGBTQ youth civic policy advocacy and empowerment program to lower dropout rates, bullying and increase graduation rates.

Uganda’s state-funded human rights body has broken its silence on the queer community’s rights by advocating for their protection amid the enacted Anti-Homosexuality Act that is currently under appeal at the Supreme Court.

The Uganda Human Rights Commission on Sept. 26 while defending LGBTQ rights asked President Yoweri Museveni’s government to decriminalize homosexuality and other “victimless crimes.” 

“Criminalizing such acts often results in unjust and disproportionate punishment, especially for vulnerable groups in our society,” Mariam Wangadya, who chairs the commission, said. 

Wangadya, a lawyer and human rights advocate, spoke for the first time about the commission’s position on queer rights in Uganda since President Yoweri Museveni in May 2023 signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act.

She spoke during the annual stakeholders meeting for ACTV-Uganda, a rights organization that advocates against torture, gender-based violence, and other forms of violence, and has provided care to victims and survivors for 30 years with the commission’s support. 

Wangadya acknowledged ACTV-Uganda’s important role in providing the commission with medical reports for torture cases to assist it in determining compensation for survivors of torture to rebuild their lives.    

“Of the 939 cases currently pending a hearing before our tribunal, 50 percent of those are allegations of violation of the right to freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment,” she noted.  

Her sentiments on the commission’s stand on LGBTQ rights also come barely two weeks after holding talks with two rights groups: The Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) and Support Initiative for People with Congenital Disorders (SIPD), an intersex lobby group, on Sept. 14.

The meeting between the commission, HRAPF, and SIPD, which also documents and publishes reports on queer rights abuses in Uganda, explored human rights violations based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics.     

“We must ensure that every person in Uganda enjoys their human rights without discrimination,” Wangadya said. 

The commission also noted that engaging the intersex lobby group was vital to address their “often-overlooked issues and rights.” 

The Ugandan government has yet to recognize intersex people as a protected minority group, unlike in Kenya. This year’s national Census did not count them.

HRAPF Executive Director Adrian Jjuuko applauded the meeting with Wangadya as a “progressive step” in defending the rights of the queer community and intersex people.

“We commend the commission on creating a space for dialogue on issues of criminalized minorities in Uganda,” Jjuuko said. 

Wangadya held the first meeting with Jjuuko on Sept. 9. It focused on HRAPF’s periodical reports on violations against sexual minorities in Uganda.

Wangadya and Jjuuko during the meeting both agreed that all people deserve protection under the law and the commission has to protect everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity.   

“You need to talk to the Judiciary, the police, and the director of Public Prosecutions. These are our major disturbing areas,” Jjuuko said, accusing the three government agencies of undermining intersex and LGBTQ rights in the country.

Wangadya acknowledged the contribution of the three judicial agencies in protecting and upholding human rights, but noted that there is a need for working with Kenya, South Africa, and other countries to understand how they navigate LGBTQ and intersex legal issues.

“Kenya will be much better for benchmarking considering that in South Africa the constitution provides for that (queer rights.) Benchmarking from a country like Kenya with similar laws may be more helpful,” she said.    

The Wangadya also committed to tapping into HRAPF’s human rights strategies and experiences to improve the commission’s mechanisms. 

HRAPF promotes respect for the rights of marginalized and minority groups in Uganda through advocacy, offering legal aid, and providing capacity building. Its latest August report on monthly advocacy, violence and other human rights abuses based on sexual orientation or gender identity since the Anti-Homosexuality Act took effect shows anti-LGBTQ violence remains rampant, while evictions and arrests continue to drop.

The report states that a total of 56 human rights violations were recorded in August, versus 72 cases in July. 

Of the 56 cases, 20 cases (35.7 percent) were based on sexual orientation or gender identity, versus 34 cases (41.2 percent) in July. The number of also reported victims also dropped from 40 people in July to 24 people in August. The 20 cases targeting LGBTQ people involved violence and threats (10), eviction from housing (nine), and one arrest.

Uganda’s Women Human Rights Defenders Network welcomed the commission’s inaugural meetings with HRAPF and SIPD, and asked the state-funded rights body to continue holding regular dialogues to help “create an enabling environment for SOGIESC (sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.)” 

Wangadya’s comments coincided with a protest outside Uganda’s Permanent Mission to the U.N. in New York that a group of activists organized. 

The World Bank Group in August 2023 suspended new lending to Uganda in response to the Anti-Homosexuality Act. The activists who organized the protest demanded the World Bank not resume loans to the country.

The Anglican Church of Southern Africa has rejected a proposal that would have allowed bishops to bless couples in same-sex unions.

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba in April urged the Provincial Synod, the ACSA’s highest decision council, to consider offering blessings for couples in same-sex relationships.

The Church of England, which is the ACSA’s parent church, on Dec. 17, 2023, announced it would allow bishops to bless couples in same-sex unions. Since the resolution, however, several churches under the Church of England have not implemented it.

In response to proposals to the Synod from the Right Rev. Raphael Hess, bishop of Saldanha Bay in South Africa, who is the first within the ACSA to approve blessings for couples in same-sex unions after the Church of England’s resolution, and the Right Rev. Stephen Diseko, dean of the province and bishop of Matlosane, which is also in South Africa, the Provincial Synod in a Sept. 25 press release said marriage is between one man and one woman for life.

Makgoba before the Synod said the church needed a deeper understanding on the prospects of the LGBTQ community within the ACSA.

“Since Provincial Synod 1989, we have been trying to reconcile our understanding of the nature of God with how we minister to LGBTQI+ members in our pews,” he said. “Have we listened to and adequately sought reconciliation with one another on providing appropriate pastoral care to loving faithful couples in same-sex civil unions? What is this Provincial Synod, 35 years later, going to resolve beyond flowery words?”

“In my past 16 years, I have relied for guidance on such matters on, in no particular order, theological advisers, the Canon Law Council, the Southern African Anglican Theological Commission, Safe and Inclusive Church, the Anglican Board of Education, the Synod of Bishops, Scripture of courses, and on the lived experiences of our parishioners in such unions and relationships,” added Makgoba.

Inclusive and Affirming Ministries, a South African LGBTQ rights group, said it was deeply disappointed over the Provincial Synod’s decision.

“This decision, along with the rejection of a set of prayers drawn up by bishops for providing pastoral ministry to members in civil unions, feels like a missed opportunity to move toward a more inclusive and compassionate expression of faith,” said the organization.

Inclusive and Affirming Ministries also said the decision to withhold blessings and deny prayers of pastoral care to those in civil unions will further marginalize LGBTQ people.

“Through our work, we also know that religious-instigated forms of hostility meted out against LGBTIQ+ people have been the root cause of the perpetuation of violence, hate speech, and hate crimes,” said the group. “The Synod’s choice to move away from this compassionate path suggests that much work remains to be done in the journey toward full inclusion.”

Inclusive and Affirming Ministries nevertheless commended Hess and Diseko for bringing their proposal to the Synod.

“The theological insights offered by Bishop Hess and Bishop Diseko during the debates were grounded in love, respect for conscience, and the universal recognition of human dignity,” said the group. “We remain hopeful and committed to fostering spaces where LGBTIQ+ individuals feel affirmed, supported, and welcomed in their faith communities. We will continue to advocate for pastoral care and recognition of the diversity of sexual orientation within the church and other faith communities.”

Four countries — Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa — and St. Helena, a British overseas territory, comprise ACSA with more than three million parishioners.

South Africa and St. Helena are the only jurisdictions within the ACSA that fully recognize the rights of LGBTQ people.

The Namibian Supreme Court in 2023 ruled the country must recognize same-sex marriages legally performed elsewhere. The country’s government in July appealed a ruling that overturned an apartheid-era sodomy law.

THAILAND

Thailand’s same-sex marriage bill received approval from King Maha Vajiralongkorn and was published in the Royal Gazette on Sept. 24, the final step in the legislative process, and paving the way for marriages to begin on Jan. 22, 2025.

The law grants same-sex couples full equality with heterosexual married couples, including adoption, inheritance, medical, and taxation rights. It was approved overwhelmingly by legislators in the summer, but there was some worry that that the king could block its approval. 

Thailand now becomes the first county in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, and the 39^th country worldwide. 

“Congratulations on everyone’s love,” Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said in a post on X.

Thailand has long been a popular tourist destination for LGBTQ people and its queer community has made big strides in attaining legal rights in recent years. 

A bill to allow Thai people to change their legal gender or identify as nonbinary was ordered drafted by previous Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who was dismissed by a Constitutional Court ruling in August over ethics charges. It’s not yet clear if Shinawatra’s new Cabinet is approaching the gender identity law with the same priority. 

HUNGARY

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is calling on queer candidates of his Fidesz party to discreetly out themselves  to avoid further scandals ahead of 2026 elections. 

Fidesz has pushed numerous anti-LGBTQ policies in the name of protecting family values over its 14 years in power, but over the past two years has found its leaders embroiled in several sex scandals that expose the party’s hypocrisy. 

In February, the decision to pardon a man who had been convicted of helping to cover up sexual abuse a state-run children’s home led to the resignations of Hungary’s president and the woman who was expected to lead Fidesz into this summer’s European Parliament elections.

Earlier in September, Gergő Bese, a Catholic priest with strong ties to Fidesz who had advocated for stronger laws against LGBTQ people was revealed to have had several long-term relationships with men, participated in gay sex parties, and to have filmed himself having gay sex in videos that were available on gay porn web sites. Orbán has since scrubbed all photos of him with Bese from his social media and web sites.

One of the founders of Fidesz resigned in December 2020, after it was reported that Belgian police found him at an illegal gay sex party in Brussels during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

Since coming to power, Fidesz has passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples. It passed a law blocking access to materials seen to promote LGBTQ people to anyone under 18, and another banning recognition of transgender peoples’ gender identity.

According to polls, Fidesz is facing its strongest opposition in years ahead of the next elections scheduled for April 2026. 

POLAND

The European Court of Human Rights delivered another ruling against Poland’s refusal to recognize same-sex couples on Sept.19, finding that the state’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriages concluded abroad violates same-sex couples’ right to private family life.

The case was brought by two lesbian couples who had married in the UK and Denmark respectively. Upon returning to Poland, authorities refused to register their marriages or allow them to file their taxes jointly.

“By refusing to register the applicants’ marriages under any form and failing to ensure that they have a specific legal framework providing for recognition and protection, the Polish authorities have left them in a legal vacuum and have not provided for the core needs of recognition and protection of same-sex couples in a stable and committed relationship. The court finds that none of the public interest grounds put forward by the government prevail over the applicants’ interest in having their respective relationships adequately recognized and protected by law,” the court ruled.

The European Court of Human Rights hears cases from states that have ratified the European Convention on Human Rights. While it does not have power to enforce its rulings, they are nonetheless influential in shaping local laws and decisions by domestic courts.

The European court has not found that the convention contains a right to same-sex marriage, but it has ruled that member states have an obligation to provide same-sex couples with a way to register their relationship and attain the rights of marriage. The court ruled last year that Poland’s lack of civil unions for same-sex couples was similarly a violation of the convention.

Poland’s government has tabled a civil union bill that it hopes to pass by the end of this year, but which faces a rough ride through a narrowly divided parliament, and it has been threatened with a veto by the country’s far-right president.

This week, a new poll showed that nearly two-thirds of Poles support civil unions, and narrow majorities also support same-sex marriage and adoption rights.

IRELAND

The government has decided to press ahead with new LGBTQ-inclusive hate crime legislation after bowing to opposition pressure to remove sections that would have expanded hate speech laws to protect trans people. The government expects to table the legislation is parliament in the coming weeks.

The new hate crime legislation will allow judges to impose harsher sentences on people convicted of crimes that are motivated by a victim’s “protected characteristic,” which includes their race, color, nationality, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, gender (including gender identity and expression), and disability.

Hate speech laws in Ireland already include provisions criminalizing hate speech based on sexual orientation, but not based on sex or gender. A bill passed by the lower house of parliament last year would have expanded hate speech laws to include protections based on gender and included provisions for spreading hatred on the internet along with the new hate crime provisions, but it stalled in the upper house. 

Opposition to the bill centered on free speech concerns and eventually grew to include members of the government coalition.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee announced this week that the government was dropping the hate speech elements of the bill to focus on getting the hate crime provisions passed before the current term of parliament ends in March 2025.

Also this summer, the government announced it no longer believed it could introduce and pass conversion therapy legislation before the election.

Ireland’s LGBTQ community has expressed mixed feelings about the government’s decision.

“While we feel this is a missed opportunity to strengthen legislation on extreme hate speech, we nonetheless welcome their commitment to pass the hate crime sections of the legislation,” the Coalition Against Hate Crime said in a statement.

AUSTRALIA

LGBTQ activists in South Australia state scored a victory this week when the state legislature became the latest to pass a ban on so-called conversion therapy. 

The new law criminalizes practices that seek to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity and taking someone out of South Australia to undergo conversion therapy. It also gives survivors an opportunity for redress through civil courts.

“This new law confirms we are not broken, disordered or in need of fixing,” Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown says in a statement. “The legislation is not perfect but it’s an important step forward, and it will protect thousands of vulnerable South Australians into the future.”

Conversion therapy has now been banned in all parts of Australia except the Northern Territory,  Western Australia, and Tasmania, although the governments of the latter two have announced plans to bring forward legislation to do so. 

While Australia’s state governments are moving forward on protections for LGBTQ Aussies, the federal government under Labor Party Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has dragged its feet on promised reforms since it was elected in 2022. 

The federal government walked back earlier campaign commitments to pass a national ban on the practice, and also gave up on a promise to repeal loopholes in federal anti-discrimination laws that allow anti-LGBT discrimination in religious schools. The government also abandoned a pledge to introduce a ban on anti-LGBTQ vilification.

Earlier this summer, the government did an embarrassing policy 360 when it announced it was breaking a pledge to count LGBTQ people in the national Census, only to reverse that and announced that LGBTQ people would be counted in the 2026 survey after all. 

A group of activists who organized a protest outside Uganda’s Permanent Mission to the U.N. in New York on Thursday demanded the World Bank Group not resume loans to the country.

The World Bank in August 2023 suspended new lending to Uganda in response to the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act that President Yoweri Museveni signed.

“The law needs to be struck down and repealed. Hard stop,” acting U.S. World Bank Executive Director L. Felice Gorordo told the Washington Blade during a March 27, 2024, interview at his office in Washington. “We continue to advocate for that.”

Thursday’s protest coincided with the U.N. General Assembly that began earlier in the week in New York.

A press release the activists issued before the protest notes the World Bank “recently started testing a package of ‘mitigation measures’ to determine if discrimination is taking place.” The Council for Global Equality, the Human Rights Campaign, Immigration Equality, Outright International, Sexual Minorities Uganda, and Health GAP are among the more than 100 LGBTQ rights organizations from around the world that urged World Bank President Ajay Banga in a Sept. 16 letter not to restart lending to Uganda.

“We are writing to you from Uganda and around the world now because we are alarmed by the World Bank’s plan for mitigation measures in Uganda,” reads the letter. “The World Bank has announced that it will be testing the effectiveness of ‘mitigation measures’ from July-September 2024 and that the World Bank will restart lending if they decide the measures are effective in protecting LGBTQ+ people from discrimination.”

Richard Lusimbo, director general of the Uganda Key Population Consortium, in the press release said the World Bank’s “so-called ‘mitigation measures’ are a façade, designed to provide the illusion of protection.”

“They rely on perpetrators of discrimination — the government of Uganda — to implement the measures fairly,” he said. “How can they be taken seriously?” 

A World Bank spokesperson on Friday responded to the Washington Blade’s request for comment about the protest.

“The World Bank cannot deliver on its mission to end poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet unless all people can participate in, and benefit from, the projects we finance,” said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson referred the Blade to an Aug. 8, 2023, statement that announced the suspension of new loans to Uganda. 

“Immediately after the law was enacted, the World Bank deployed a team to Uganda to review our portfolio in the context of the new legislation,” reads the statement. “That review determined additional measures are necessary to ensure projects are implemented in alignment with our environmental and social standards. Our goal is to protect sexual and gender minorities from discrimination and exclusion in the projects we finance. These measures are currently under discussion with the authorities.”  

“We will not propose any new public financing for Uganda to our board until we are satisfied that additional mitigation measures are in place,” the spokesperson told the Blade on Friday. “These mitigation measures have been designed to ensure beneficiaries of bank-financed projects are not discriminated against and receive equal access to services.”  

One such mitigation measure is “stakeholder engagement” that, among other things, seeks to strengthen “consultations to detect instances of exclusion or discrimination (do-no harm safety.)” Another specifically highlights “labor and working conditions” and focuses on the need for “training on inclusion and non-discrimination for borrowers (e.g., contractors and sub-contractors) and mobilization of communities” and including “provisions of non-discrimination in contracts.”

The World Bank has said the Ugandan government has agreed to the mitigation measures.

Clare Byarugaba of Chapter 4 Uganda said there “can be no business as usual between the World Bank and the government of Uganda while this law remains in force.” 

“We are gravely concerned that President Banga is turning his back on us, and breaking his commitments to ensuring non-discrimination,” she said.

Outright International on Thursday unveiled a report that documented LGBTQ resistance to Myanmar’s coup.

The report — LGBTQ Anti-Coup Resistance in Myanmar” — sheds light on the resistance of the LGBTQ community in Myanmar against the backdrop of military oppression. It documents the alarming effects of violence and impunity the junta perpetrates against LGBTQ people, revealing the harsh realities they face daily.

The report also illustrates how the 2021 coup has abruptly stifled the progress for which LGBTQ human rights activists had been striving, derailing their efforts toward achieving legal reform and fostering social acceptance. The findings underscore the resilience and determination of the LGBTQ community; even in the face of grave adversity, highlighting their unwavering fight for dignity, and rights amid turmoil.

Outright International Asia Regional Coordinator Grace Poore presented the report.

Poore as she took the stage expressed gratitude to all the human rights defenders and members of the LGBTQ community who contributed to the report.

She painted a vivid picture of what it means to be LGBTQ in a time of political turmoil and military dictatorship. Poore emphasized the unique challenges that LGBTQ people in Myanmar face — a context where they are already vulnerable to police bigotry and discrimination. She highlighted the oppressive environment that criminalization laws create, illustrating the profound impact of these societal and legal barriers on the lives of LGBTQ people.

Poore during her presentation emphasized its critical findings, noting the alarming use of sexual and gender-based violence against LGBTQ people in Myanmar. She stressed how these acts of violence are not merely statistics but represent the harsh realities that countless individuals struggling for their rights and dignity face. Poore also called on the international community to take decisive action, stressing the report offers vital recommendations aimed at restoring democracy in Myanmar and safeguarding the rights of all its citizens, including LGBTQ people.

Poore said Outright International interviewed 14 LGBTQ people from 2021-2024: Eight gay men, one bisexual man, two bisexual women, one lesbian, one transgender woman, and one trans man who identifies as a lesbian. She emphasized Outright International worked closely with LGBTQ organizations in Myanmar and along the country’s border with Thailand.

2021 coup toppled democratically-elected government

Myanmar’s military on Feb. 1, 2021, claimed, without any evidence, the results of the country’s election that took place in November 2020 were fraudulent. This unfounded assertion sparked a military coup d’état, leading to the arrest of political leaders who had won the election and the ouster of the democratically-elected government. 

The military almost immediately declared a national emergency, igniting widespread protests against the dictatorship. The demonstrators comprised a diverse coalition of university students, workers from unions, everyday citizens, and members of the LGBTQ community. They peacefully demanded the restoration of a civilian government, and evolved into a robust civil disobedience campaign that spread across the country.

Police and security forces used high-powered rifles, rubber bullets, and water cannons to suppress the growing protests. This crackdown resulted in numerous casualties and injuries — an 18-year-old gay man who was shot in the head died. A lesbian and a trans man were also killed during the protests.

Poore said the total number of LGBTQ deaths remains unknown, underscoring the devastating toll of violence on the community during this time of upheaval.

She noted exiled National League for Democracy leaders in April 2021 formed a shadow government, known as the National Unity Government. Poore emphasized years of LGBTQ advocacy played a crucial role in making the National Unity Government more inclusive and supportive of LGBTQ rights.

“There was no objection at all to my sexual orientation,” said Aung Myo Min, the first openly gay man named to a government post. The National Unity Government in April 2021 appointed him as Human Rights Minister. “It’s such a breakthrough. I do not need to hide or stay in the closet as a Cabinet minister. I feel very proud. This is new history for Myanmar.”

The report notes the National Unity Government in September 2021 declared war on the military junta.

The shadow government swiftly mobilized its supporters to join the People’s Defense Force, a move that marked a significant escalation in the resistance. Poore said this widespread mobilization of people transformed the nature of the anti-junta struggle, intensifying the fight against military oppression and reshaping the resistance movement across Myanmar.

The report notes volunteers who joined the People’s Defense Force underwent extensive training to take on various critical roles. They were trained not only for combat but also to conduct intelligence operations and ensure clandestine food and medical supplies. This covert network of support played a vital role in sustaining the resistance, allowing volunteers to effectively challenge the military junta while helping communities survive under harsh conditions.

“Before the coup, the LGBTQ human rights defenders were working to abolish or amend Section 377 of Myanmar Penal Code, a British colonial law that criminalized consensual same-sex intimacy,” noted Poore while presenting the report. “They were pushing for reform of the 1899 Rangoon Police Act that targets trans people and queer men for criminalization and gives police broad, arbitrary powers to enforce the law. Myanmar held public events for Yangon Pride, the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia from 2014 to 2020.”

Poore noted the National League for Democracy in its 2020 election platform pledged to eliminate discrimination against LGBTQ people. 

The report highlights people — including LGBTQ activists — in Myanmar faced severe charges for their involvement in the resistance. The junta accused them of sedition and acting against the state for participating in peaceful protests, attending protest-related meetings, providing shelter and hiding places for LGBTQ people, and sharing anti-coup information on social media. Any expression of criticism against the dictatorship was also met with harsh consequences, as the military junta targeted those who dared to speak out, further silencing dissent and endangering activists.

Outright International’s report notes the junta has weaponized laws, such as Section 505 of the penal code, and counter-terrorism laws to punish LGBTQ people and others. The report emphasizes these are antiquated laws the junta expanded and strengthened during the coup to wield greater power against those fighting for democracy. 

Many LGBTQ individuals in Myanmar after the coup stopped publicly identifying themselves as LGBTQ to protect themselves from military violence. 

The report noted an increase in sexual and physical violence, particularly against those who were visibly trans or gay, after the coup. The escalating brutality against them underscores the heightened risks faced by those who could not easily hide their identities, revealing a grim reality for Myanmar’s LGBTQ community during the military regime.

The report details the story of a trans woman, well known for her beauty parlor and her role in organizing anti-junta protests. 

Security forces detained her for three days. Officers whipped her with a belt, forcibly cut her hair, stripped her naked, and groped her breasts while she was in custody. They also used pliers to remove her long fingernails. 

“In general, the experiences of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women, as well as transgender men, had much lower visibility during the coup,” Poore said while presenting the report. 

She explained it was particularly challenging to find information about lesbian, bisexual, and queer women actively involved in the anti-coup resistance and to gather their testimonies about sexual and gender-based violence. 

The report also notes the coup forced many LGBTQ organizations in Myanmar to shut down, compelling them to relocate to Thailand to continue their work from exile. This displacement not only disrupted vital support networks but also underscored the harsh reality faced by activists who were now operating under constant threat. These organizations nevertheless remain committed to advocating for LGBTQ rights and to provide assistance to those who are still in Myanmar.

Outright International in its report called on the Myanmar military junta to immediately stop its attacks on civilians, particularly LGBTQ people who are on the frontlines of the resistance. 

The report urged companies to halt any trade or business engagements with the junta and its affiliates without delay. It also recommends economic sanctions on junta leaders and increasing support funding for Myanmar’s LGBTQ activists. The report further emphasizes the need for greater engagement with lesbian and queer women’s groups in Myanmar, as well as providing both emergency and long-term resources for LGBTQ people in the country. 

The report also highlights the importance of ensuring the effective implementation of reporting and redress mechanisms for LGBTQ people; lesbian, bisexual, and queer women, and other marginalized groups, aiming to protect their rights and dignity in the face of ongoing violence and oppression.

Human rights activist May Sabe Phyu during the webinar explained that Myanmar has a deeply patriarchal society that favors men over women.

Feminist organizations before the coup focused on shifting these entrenched gender norms. Their work involved unpacking and challenging gender stereotypes, aiming to create a more equal society where women, including lesbian, bisexual and queer women, could thrive without being limited by traditional expectations.

Aung Myo Min said the National Unity Government strives to be as inclusive as possible, even though it is in exile, and is making a conscious effort to represent and support the diverse communities of Myanmar, including the LGBTQ population.

“Myanmar has a very diverse ethnicity,” said Aung Myo Min. “You can see the composition of the NUG. We have members who are winners of the election, some are nominated from ethnic groups. I came from a civil society background. I was an openly gay man, one of the first openly gay men from the 1980 movement. So having me as Union Minister is such a progressive and inclusiveness of the LGBTQ people in the government. This is the result of decades longs struggle of LGBTQ people.”

Sai Kham La (a pseudonym), an LGBTQ activist working from exile in Thailand, emphasized the importance of continuing the fight for LGBTQ rights and broader human rights. 

Speaking from his experience in exile, he highlighted that despite the challenges, it remains crucial to persist in advocating for the LGBTQ community and ensuring their rights are upheld, even in the face of oppression and displacement.

“We have seen the impact of our work from those days,” said Sai Kham La. “The harder the oppression is, the greater the unity becomes. We were never this much united before.”

Senior Director of Law and Policy at Outright International Senior Director of Law and Policy Neela Ghoshal at the end of the webinar emphasized the severity of the situation for LGBTQ people under the junta. 

“The harm LGBTQ people are facing under the junta is grave and pervasive,” she said.

Ankush Kumar is a reporter who has covered many stories for Washington and Los Angeles Blades from Iran, India, and Singapore. He recently reported for the Daily Beast. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is on Twitter at @mohitkopinion. 

People across the country from Sept. 22-28 are observing Banned Books Week, which has taken on added significance amid a surge of censorship efforts.

Banned Books Week, organized by PFLAG and a coalition of other advocacy groups, literary organizations, and educational institutions, seeks to raise awareness about efforts to remove content from public libraries, schools, and bookstores.

The current wave of book bans, which began intensifying in 2021, is driven primarily by conservative groups who disproportionately target titles featuring the voices and experiences of LGBTQ people and people of color.

“This is part of an organized effort to divide our communities by stoking fears against LGBTQ+ people, Black people, and immigrants,” PFLAG Vice President of Advocacy Katie Blair said. “[It] is targeted not only to banning books and censoring schools, but to infiltrating the lives of LGBTQ+ people and those who love them.”

While LGBTQ books have always been a target of book bans, censorship efforts in recent years are more focused on restricting access to LGBTQ content than in the past.

The Washington Post reports “LGBTQ books were the targets of between less than 1 and 3 percent of book challenges filed in schools” from the 2000s to the early 2010s. In 2022, however, 45.5 percent of unique titles that were challenged were written by or about LGBTQ people.

“Book bans have no place in our democracy,” the Congressional Equality Caucus said in a post to its X account.

Book bans have no place in our democracy.

During #BannedBooksWeek, we’re proud to stand with the authors, teachers, librarians, and readers who constantly stand up and say #LetFreedomRead! pic.twitter.com/T4uhCfnzjN

— Congressional Equality Caucus (@EqualityCaucus) September 22, 2024

On the American Library Association’s 2023 list of the 10 most challenged books, seven books featured LGBTQ voices; with Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer,” George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” and Juno Dawson’s “This Book is Gay” topping the list.

The consequences of restricting access to LGBTQ stories and voices are far reaching especially for young people, Blair said.

“These bans contribute to the erasure of our communities and our histories, and all our stories deserve to be told. We believe that all students deserve the freedom to learn. They deserve to be able to develop their critical thinking skills, to be in schools that are open and affirming,” she said.

Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom, said another difference in the current wave of censorship is that most calls to censor books in school libraries and public libraries are now driven by organized advocacy groups.

She explained that in the past, most book challenges were initiated by parents and guardians who were concerned about a particular book their child was reading and brought those concerns to a teacher or librarian.

“But now we’re seeing organized groups or their spokespersons showing up at board meetings demanding the censorship of sometimes hundreds of titles all at once. And we’re seeing state legislatures pass laws that are intended to remove hundreds of books, if not thousands of books, all at once, from library shelves,” she said.

Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31, 2024, ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 1,128 unique titles targeted for censorship. While this number marks a decline from the 1,915 titles challenged during the same period in 2023, it remains far higher than pre-2020 levels, when challenges hovered between 200 and 300 unique titles annually.

Moreover, PEN America, which tracks the total number of book bans rather than unique titles, counted more than 10,000 books that were banned in public schools during the 2023-2024 school year, nearly triple the amount from the previous year. Both ALA and PEN America’s reports exclude instances of soft censorship, where libraries and organizations preemptively avoid purchasing certain books or restrict access due to fear of potential challenges.

According to PEN America, around 8,000 books were banned in Florida and Iowa alone. Both states passed laws in recent years restricting access to books in schools that depict or describe sex. The vague language of the laws has drawn criticism for exacerbating soft censorship, and has often been interpreted to ban books with discussions of gender and LGBTQ identities.

Vera Eidelman, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said, it is “not clear what [the language] means, and that is a problem in and of itself, because if teachers and librarians and other educators face discipline for violating that law, and they don’t know what the law means, that’s a due process problem.”

She noted that the laws have been and are being challenged on grounds of vagueness, and for violating the First Amendment.

Banned Books Week, which library activist Judith Krug founded in 1982, will culminate in “Let Freedom Read Day” on Saturday, on which organizers urge people to take at least one action to defend the freedom to read, such as participating in this year’s elections.

Caldwell-Stone emphasized the importance of being engaged at all levels of government.

“This is an intensely local issue,” she said. “While we are seeing state legislation intended to engage in broad censorship across the state, primarily these decisions are made at the local level.”

Banned Books Week recommends engaging with school and library administrators, school board and library board members, city councilpersons, and elected representatives at meetings to voice support for access to books. People are also encouraged to attend town halls or rallies to demonstrate opposition to book bans, purchase banned books, and volunteer at local libraries.

Throughout the week, filmmaker Ava DuVernay and student activist Julia Garnett, the honorary chairs of this year’s Banned Books Week, are discussing the various ways people can stand up against censorship attempts in virtual events accessible through the Banned Books Week website.

Libraries in D.C. and across the nation, meanwhile, are hosting readings, art exhibitions, and other activities to educate families about the freedom to read.

The Anne Arundel County Public Library system on Wednesday held an event to celebrate its launch as a “book sanctuary,” designating its libraries as “safe havens where the freedom to read is fiercely protected.”

Caldwell-Stone recommends those who are interested in countering up to censorship efforts view the action toolkit available at www.uniteagainstbookbans.org and the ALA’s “Reader. Voter. Ready.” guide at www.ala.org.

Sam Alleman, national LGBTQ+ engagement director for the Harris-Walz 2024 campaign, talked with the Washington Blade last week for an exclusive interview about his work building and strengthening coalitions within the community in hopes of winning in November.

On the Democratic side, organizing LGBTQ voters for a presidential campaign goes back at least a decade, he said, to 2012 when Jamie Citron — currently the deputy assistant to the president and principal deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement — helped to lead these efforts on behalf of then-President Barack Obama’s reelection bid.

On Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Alleman said, it was Dominic Lowell working in close coordination with Sean Meloy, director of LGBT engagement for the Democratic National Committee, who now serves as vice president of political programs at the LGBTQ Victory Fund and Institute.

“Something that we’re very proud of as the little crew of folks who all are friends,” Alleman said, “is really building off each other’s work to continue scaling this and building out infrastructure to organize within the community.”

He added that in 2020, Reggie Greer, who led LGBTQ engagement for the Biden-Harris campaign and is now the State Department’s senior adviser to the U.S. Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons, “was dealt the very difficult hand of a global pandemic.”

He explained, despite the challenges, Greer and others managed to build “a wonderful program that’s very much virtual, put forward from folks that did this work and were online,” which has shaped efforts through to this day as the Harris-Walz campaign seeks to “really get people back in person” as they focus their push in, especially, the seven battleground states.

The goal, Alleman said, is “not losing the virtual component, but complementing it” to “get people back on board, back to the event, back to the rally, back to the business that is a presidential campaign in 2024.”

“That’s a question and a piece of this work that is not necessarily unique to the LGBTQ+ portfolio,” he said. “But then it’s been something that we’ve worked through, and I think getting that from 2020 and rebuilding and fleshing that out has been a top priority.”

“We have wonderful working relationships with Liam Kahn over at the DNC right now,” Alleman said, referring to the committee’s director of LGBTQ+ coalitions, “and then, of course, my counterpart in finance, James Conlon, we work hand in glove as a team to execute on all of this work,” together with “my deputy, oh my gosh, he just started, I’m so excited, Cesar Toledo — who is like an absolute force and really runs the day to day of the organizing program.”

For his part, Alleman’s career has taken him from organizing work as a college student for then-Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis to campaign work for Clinton to the center of the reproductive rights movement at Planned Parenthood to the White House and, now, the Harris-Walz 2024 race.

“I started on the campaign in April of 2024,” he said, working on behalf of what was then the Biden-Harris ticket, while before that, “I was at the DNC for two and a half years. So I started over there as the LGBTQ coalitions director in October of 2021 and helped to manage all their LGBTQ+ programming through the midterm elections.”

Alleman continued, “I was also the regional coalitions director for the Midwest. We affectionately called it the “snow belt,” but [it was] our Great Lakes and Northeast states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire in 2022 as well, working in that pod in tandem with all of our state programming.”

When transitioning into the new role, Alleman said “it was keenly important” for him to facilitate the continued investment in building “infrastructure for our community at the DNC” which is something the organization has shown is a priority focus.

“At the DNC, the work is very infrastructure focused,” he said, through the vehicle of coordinating with “our state parties” and “making sure that they have the resources to do this work to mobilize voters.”

Alleman added that a few dozen state Democratic parties have LGBTQ caucuses, so at the DNC he was working to “make sure that they were getting organized” in coordination “of course, with the partners, too.”

Asked to compare his experiences working in similar roles for the committee and then the presidential campaign, Alleman said “The party has a bigger responsibility, I should say, to think about the totality of the ticket” which means considering questions like “how are we getting resources to [down-ballot] races, like city council members and state reps and state senators?”

He noted “there are a lot of LGBTQ state reps and state senators with big names [who are doing] amazing work in this moment.”

By contrast, “when we’re here on the presidential [ticket] it’s a lot of the same strategies and tactics, but really homed in on our battleground states, really homed in on [the question of] ‘how are we building out capacity to talk to those voters where we know our pathway to victory is?'”

In between the Clinton campaign and the DNC was a long stint at Planned Parenthood, Alleman said, an opportunity that found him via a friend who reached out after Trump’s victory in 2016.

Packed into the Javits Center, where the Clinton team had organized what they — and most Americans — expected to be a victory party, Alleman said “everything changed from that point on” as “things that had felt so certain and so set in terms of what I was planning on doing, just sort of all changed.”

“I feel like it was that way for so many of us, both in terms of work, our personal lives, everything that happened in 2016,” he said. “And so I got a call from a friend — a good friend of mine who’s still one of my best friends, actually, I just officiated her wedding.”

The personal is political

“Everything really just sort of clicked there,” Alleman said, adding, “I worked at Planned Parenthood for five or six years, doing various jobs,” starting with the Metropolitan Washington affiliate where he worked to “plan the logistics and busses for the Women’s March” in 2017 to protest Donald Trump’s election.

Reproductive rights, he said, is “a big part of my story and why I’m in the work.”

Alleman is a Texas native. In college, he worked for the campaign of then-state senator Wendy Davis, who famously held a 13-hour-long filibuster in 2013 to block legislation that would have imposed harsher abortion restrictions.

“I’m originally from Plano,” he said. “By virtue of being from Texas, these things that feel like very big issues now have sort of always been litigated, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, in our state based off just conservative extremists,” adding, “we would call them MAGA Republicans now.”

While he was always supportive of reproductive rights, Alleman said that as a young man who was grappling with his sexuality and on his own coming out journey, he did not fully understand “the totality” of those freedoms and how they intersect with other core American values.

“A very important part of my story, and a big part of why I do this work, is my sister,” Alleman said. Just seven months after getting health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act, he said his sister was “diagnosed with breast cancer at a Planned Parenthood health center via a breast exam.”

While she “is now cancer free and in remission and doing very well,” Alleman said, “I don’t know what my family would have done if we had not been able to access health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.”

“It would have bankrupted my family,” he said, “and I would have dropped out of college. I wouldn’t be sitting here today, right? Like, nothing that happened would have happened, would have been possible. She very well may not be alive, you know?”

Alleman continued, “And so, the importance of healthcare and access to affordable healthcare, and then the ability for us to have bodily autonomy and then control of our own decisions and destinies, has always just been something that has been critically important for me.”

“We talk about all the accomplishments that we’ve seen from the Biden-Harris administration,” he said, like “the Affordable Care Act and what that means, but my story is an example of the impact of that, [of] what this actually means for people to have access to health care and health insurance, what this actually means for people to be able to go to their Planned Parenthood health center and feel safe in accessing reproductive health care in its totality, from abortion to breast exams.”

He described falling “in love” with the work at Planned Parenthood as well as with the movement for reproductive freedom. “I moved up to the national office about six or seven months after starting at the affiliate on their political team,” he said, “and ended as their national political manager before moving over to the DNC.”

From there, Alleman said, “I worked at the DNC for two and a half years managing the LGBTQ coalition work” during which time “we were really proud of the Biden-Harris administration, but it always felt [like] it was so clear where we would probably be in terms of who we were running against, right, where we are today in 2024.”

So the focus remained, he said, on “what was at stake, not only in the work that we needed to get done politically to, you know, get infrastructure done, get the Inflation Reduction Act done, make sure that we help the Senate and House as best we could in the midterms, so that we can continue achieving things like the Respect for Marriage Act — but as well, to put us in as best a position as possible to take on what was the looming threat to our democracy, and what is the looming threat to our democracy, that is Donald Trump.”

Alleman added, “And we see now” from “Project 2025” what “things will look like should he win — though we have, I think, a pretty good plan to keep that from happening.”

Storytelling and organizing go hand-in-hand

“I consider myself first and foremost an organizer, and there’s nothing more powerful for an individual than knowing your story and being able to tell that and stand in its truth and what that means for you and your power,” Alleman said.

He sees this as an important part of not just his work and career but also a focus of the campaign.

“So storytelling is absolutely, to me, one of the most fundamental things we do as organizers — it’s helping people find their voice and how they want to use that to benefit their communities, to turn out voters, and really just participate in our democracy,” he said.

Storytelling is also an important element of communicating about our intersectional identities, Alleman said. “We talk about these communities sometimes in such different lanes, but in reality, we’re all creatures of narrative.”

He added, “We’re all sort of experiencing life in that more qualitative, narrative way. And those stories are where people not only are able to sort of synthesize all the things that they are, but also provide the actual emotion and the human aspect of these issues in life.”