Editor’s note: International News Editor Michael K. Lavers will be on assignment in Israel through Oct. 9. Meta also removed this article from Lavers’s Facebook pages shortly after he published it.

Two LGBTQ Palestinians who spoke with the Washington Blade last week condemned Hamas’s surprise attack against southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. They also expressed condemnation of the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli government’s policies towards the Palestinians.

Zaheer Subeaux is a queer Palestinian producer, DJ, emcee, and community organizer who lives in California. He is originally from Deir Dibwan, a small city on the West Bank that is a couple miles east of Ramallah, the Palestinian capital.

“Nothing justifies Oct. 7,” Subeaux told the Blade during a Sept. 30 telephone interview. He added the “international community, I think specifically the United States, has this perception that Oct. 7 is this new thing.”

“There’s a very short-lived memory for the American public, and there’s this concept that Palestinians are just creating more trouble,” said Subeaux.

He told the Blade that Jewish settlers before Oct. 7 shot his nephew “just for being on (their) land.” Subeaux said the situation on the West Bank “have been getting worse and worse and worse, and have continued to get worse and worse and worse up until this point, up until October of last year.”

“For a lot of Palestinians who have family back home, this seemed like a proportionate response to an oppressed people,” he said. “For everyone else who’s not paying attention, who allow their tax dollars to continue fund this genocide, for them it’s like, oh, shocking, oh, wow, right out of the blue, because they’re not paying attention to what’s happening.” 

“For the rest of us who actually are, this seemed like a completely reasonable thing for a people to feel during a time like this,” added Subeaux. “I don’t think a lot of people have the context for that.”

Hannah Moushabeck is a queer, second-generation Palestinian American who lives in Massachusetts.

Her family is from West Jerusalem. Moushabeck has relatives in Ramallah and in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, and has friends in Gaza with whom she has “been in daily communication.”

“My immediate reactions on Oct. 7 were obviously horror and fear of what’s to come and the violence that happened that day,” she told the Blade on Sept. 30 during a telephone interview.

Moushabeck said it is “not unusual for Palestinians in the diaspora to experience some of this violence happening in our homeland.”

“This is honestly something that’s been going on since well before I was born,” she said. “So, growing up, whenever my parents seemed upset or, Palestinians were being shown in the news, I knew it was likely because they were being killed or involved with some kind of intense violence.” 

Moushabeck said “a lot of Palestinians kind of had an instinct to go through the motions when Oct. 7 happened.”

“We also recognized that it was really unprecedented, and that the reaction and the revenge that the Israeli government took out on Palestinians would be like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” she added. 

Monday marks a year since Oct. 7.

The Israeli government says militants on that day killed roughly 1,200 people, including upwards of 360 partygoers at the Nova Music Festival near Re’im, a kibbutz that is a couple miles from the Gaza border. The Israeli government says the militants also kidnapped more than 200 people on Oct. 7.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed more than 41,000 people in the enclave since Oct. 7.

Hamas, which the U.S. and Israel have designated a terrorist organization, claimed responsibility for an Oct. 1 attack at a Tel Aviv light rail station that left seven people dead and more than a dozen others injured. A Bedouin man on Sunday killed an Israel Border Police officer and injured 10 others when he attacked a bus station in Beersheva in southern Israel on Sunday.

Reuters on Friday reported the Lebanese Health Ministry said Israeli airstrikes in Beirut and elsewhere in the country over the last two weeks have killed more than 2,000 people. Iran last Tuesday launched upwards of 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to an Israeli airstrike in the Lebanese capital on Sept. 27 that killed Hassan Nasrallah, the long-time leader of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group. 

An Israeli airstrike in the West Bank city of Tulkarem on Oct. 3 killed 18 people in a Palestinian refugee camp. 

The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet, the country’s security agency, said the airstrike killed Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, a senior Hamas commander, and 11 other Hamas operatives. The Associated Press reported the airstrike also killed a family of four, including two young children.

The AP cites Palestinian officials who say an Israeli airstrike on a mosque in Deir al-Balah, a town in central Gaza, killed at least 19 people.

The International Criminal Court in May announced it plans to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders — Yehya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh. 

Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, said the five men have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and Israel. (A suspected Israeli airstrike on July 31 killed Haniyah while he was in the Iranian capital of Tehran to attend Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s inauguration.)

The Montreal-based Queering the Map — a “community generated counter-mapping platform for digitally archiving LGBTQ2IA+ experience in relation to physical space” — is an “interface to collaboratively record the cartography of queer life.” Several people who have used Queering the Map are from Gaza.

A person who placed their post near Netzarim Junction in central Gaza notes it was the place where they fell in love with someone in 2021, “the last major Israeli bombardment on Gaza.” The person notes their beloved is a student who has left the enclave.

“Israeli occupation bombs may take everyone and everything you ever loved away: Your mom, your home, your memories,” they wrote in on Queering the Map. “I am so sorry the world failed you, that your mom, sister, best friends, everything is lost in this genocide.”

Another person who used Queering the Map posted their message near Beit Hanoun, a city in the northeast corner of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli city of Sderot less than four miles away.

“IDK how long I will live so I just want this to be my memory here before I die,” reads the post. “I am not going to leave my home, come what may.” 

“My biggest regret is not kissing this one guy. He died two days back. We had told (sic) how much we like each other, and I was too shy to kiss last time. He died in the bombing. I think a big part of me died too. And soon I will be dead. To Younus, I will kiss you in heaven.”

The posts do not indicate when their authors wrote them. The Blade on Saturday heard Israeli airstrikes in Gaza while at the Nova Music Festival memorial and in Yad Mordechai, a kibbutz that is roughly three miles north of the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza.

Moushabeck told the Blade she helped raise funds that allowed her friend, his wife, and two children to leave Gaza and relocate to Cairo. Moushabeck also said she receives photos from other friends who remain inside the enclave.

“Seeing things happen in the news, and then getting personal video, not a video, but a personal video from my friend who’s watching the same things unfold; that was really horrifying,” she said. 

“I’m safe, and I have a lot of privileges living in the diaspora, and so I felt it was my responsibility to bear witness to these,” added Moushabeck.

Tarek Zeidan, the former executive director of Helem, a Lebanese LGBTQ rights group, has launched a fundraiser for a group of transgender women who Israeli airstrikes have made homeless. The campaign has raised more than $19,000.

“While it is contradictory to be focusing on any specific community, vulnerable or otherwise, at a time when entire populations in Lebanon and Gaza are being indiscriminately eliminated, the bitter reality is that humanitarian aid and services will not be available to the majority of queer people in need, especially trans* and non-conforming members of our community,” wrote Zeidan in his appeal. 

“Many humanitarian organizations are not capable or even willing to help, and are now even less likely to given that it is a crisis response,” he added. “We learned this hard lesson during the pandemic and in the aftermath of the 2020 Beirut port explosion and since then little has changed.”

Outright International, National LGBTQ Task Force have called for Gaza ceasefire

Outright International and the National LGBTQ Task Force are two of the many LGBTQ organizations in the U.S. and around the world that have called for a ceasefire in Gaza. 

Upwards of 200 people in February marched from Dupont Circle to the Human Rights Campaign and called upon it and other LGBTQ rights groups to “demand an end to the genocide and occupation of Palestine.” No Pride in Genocide, which describes itself as a “coalition of queer and trans Palestinians, Arab, and SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) people, Jews, and allies,” organized the event.

“As a queer Palestinian, my identity has sort of been weaponized against us for what is ostensibly a propaganda campaign by the State of Israel,” Moushabeck told the Blade. “We refer to it as ‘pinkwashing.’ They have pumped millions of dollars into what they call Brand Israel in order to project this idea of a queer utopia, queer haven, which, you know, a lot of Israelis say is not accurate.” 

“Certainly, Palestinians are not being asked their sexuality is before their homes are bombed or their families are killed,” she added.

Moushabeck also criticized HRC.

“We have organizational leaders like the Human Rights Campaign who are taking money from war profiteers like weapons manufacturer, Northrop Grumman, giving social capital to those profiting off of this violence,” she said.

Subeaux echoed Moushabeck.

“Our narrative of survival in the United States and in the West for queer rights is being co-opted to fear monger,” said Subeaux. “I don’t want that to be done on my behalf. I don’t want a genocide to be done on my behalf. I don’t want a genocide to be done on queer people’s behalf.”

CAMBODIA

Cambodia’s first ever LGBTQ community space, Cocoon, opened in the capital of Phnom Penh last month, with an event featuring art, dance, and drag performances.

Cocoon aspires to be a safe queer space for everyone and has planned a series of events including community brunches, movie nights, speed dating, and an introduction to queer ballroom culture. The space will also host a queer artist residency program beginning next year.

“To queer Phnom Penh people who do not have a safe space, this is your Cocoon,” says Cocoon founder Ian Goh. “To queer people visiting Phnom Penh, you now have a place to love and be loved unconditionally.”

While the general human rights situation in Cambodia has faced steady criticism from international observers, there has been progress in recent years on encouraging acceptance of the country’s LGBTQ community. The government has promoted LGBTQ-inclusive schools since 2017, and the nation’s monarch has publicly supported same-sex marriage, although it remains illegal in the southeast Asian nation.

EUROPEAN UNION

The European Court of Justice delivered a pair of rulings important for LGBTQ people this week, requiring all European Union member states to recognize legal gender changes carried out in other member states, and ordering Facebook’s parent company Meta to restrict how it collects data about users’ sexual orientations.

ECJ rulings are binding on all 27 EU member states.

The gender change ruling stemmed from a case where a Romanian transgender man, Arian Mirzarafie-Ahi, obtained a legal gender change after moving to the UK, and wanted his legal gender and name recognized when he later returned to Romania in 2021. 

Romania does not have a clear or simple process for its citizens to change their legal gender and refused to recognize Mirzarafie-Ahi’s UK gender change. Mirzarafie-Ahi filed a claim in Romanian court to have his gender and name change registered, and the national courts referred the matter to the ECJ.

In a preliminary ruling issued on Oct 4, the ECJ found that Romania’s refusal to recognize Mirzarafie-Ahi’s legal gender change was a violation of his mobility rights under the EU treaty.

The court found that EU states must recognize legal gender and name changes that have occurred in another EU member state, and they must issue updated identity documents without requiring any additional legal or medical process. The court found that the fact that the UK is no longer a member of the EU is irrelevant in this case, as Mirzarafie-Ahi had begun her gender change process while the UK was still a member.

The ruling stems from the fundamental right of all EU citizens to reside in any EU member state. The court found that refusing to recognize the legal gender and name of an EU citizen imperils that right, because it could prevent a trans person from residing in a country that does not recognize their identity.

“Today’s verdict has shown us that trans people are equal citizens of the European Union. When you have rebuilt a life in another part of the European Union because you are not welcome in your own country, it is normal to ask to be treated with dignity when interacting with the authorities in your home country,” says Mirzarafe-Ahi’s legal counsel Iustina Ionescu.  

In a similar ruling six years ago, the ECJ ruled that EU members must grant residency rights to the same-sex partners of EU citizens in another case that came out of Romania. However, Romania has yet to implement the ruling and continues to refuse to issue residency permits to same-sex spouses, including to the original complainant.

The ECJ also issued another ruling on Oct 4 restricting the way Facebook’s parent company collects data on users’ sexual orientation.

Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems filed a complaint after he received personalized ads on Facebook directed at gay men. Although Schrems had commented on his sexuality publicly, he objected to Facebook using his information for targeted ads.

The court found that the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation prohibits social media organizations from collection of personal data, including about a person’s sexual orientation, from outside their platforms for use in targeted ads.

GEORGIA

The government’s sweeping anti-LGBTQ bill was signed into law this week by the speaker of parliament, after the president refused to give it her signature.

The draconian law, which has drawn criticism from the opposition and Western allies, imposes some of the strictest restrictions on LGBTQ people in Europe. The law bans recognition of any same-sex relationship, bans LGBTQ people from adopting, bans trans people from marriage, bans all legal or medical gender change, forbids public gatherings and demonstrations for LGBTQ rights, bans positive portrayals of LGBTQ people in schools and the media, and rebrands the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia on May 17 as a holiday for the sanctity of the family.

The law mimics “LGBT propaganda” laws passed in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Hungary, and Bulgaria, and which have been taken up by far-right parties with close ties to Russia across Europe.

It’s the latest anti-democratic and anti-human rights legislation passed by the ruling Georgian Dream Party, which has strained relations with Georgia’s Western allies. Earlier this year, the EU froze accession talks with Georgia after it passed a law curbing opposition activities.

Georgia heads to the polls on Oct. 26.

HONG KONG

Hong Kong’s top court heard the government’s final appeal of a lower court ruling ordering the city to give same-sex couples equal access to public housing last week.

In Hong Kong, families and married couples are given priority access to social housing, and current policy does not recognize same-sex couples, who are barred from living together in the subsidized apartments.

The Court of Final Appeal’s judges did not seem sympathetic to the government’s arguments on Friday, according to the South China Morning Post. After the hearing, the court reserved judgment.

The CFA ruled last year that Hong Kong must provide a legal framework for recognizing same sex couples and gave the city two years to implement it. So far, the city government has not yet proposed a way to implement the ruling.

Hong Kong is formally part of China, but governs itself semi-autonomously, with a separate court and legal system inherited from the British colonial administration that ended in 1997.

CANADA

A provincial government minister facing reelection in New Brunswick is facing calls to resign after she used the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to compare trans-inclusive education policies to the genocide of Canada’s Indigenous People.

September 30 was established as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation by the Canadian government in 2021. The focus of the day has largely been on the abuse First Nations children suffered in the residential school system, a nationwide network of schools, often run by churches, where First Nations children who had been taken from their families were forcibly assimilated into European Canadian culture. 

Many children suffered loss of culture and language, physical beatings, sexual abuse, starvation, denial of medical care, and thousands of children died in the care of schools, with many being buried in unmarked graves.

Conservative politicians across Canada, who have taken a sharp anti-trans turn over the past few years, used the opportunity to compare trans-inclusionary policies in education to the genocide of First Nations.

Sherry Wilson, New Brunswick’s minister for women’s equality, wrote in a lengthy, since-deleted post on Facebook that her province’s previous policies that allowed trans children to use different names or pronouns at school without parental notification or consent were comparable to the residential schools. Earlier this year, New Brunswick put in place a policy requiring parental notification and consent if a student wants to use a different name or gender.

“The government of the day actually tried to make the case that parents were harmful to their children, and that government schools needed to change their culture and lifestyle,” Wilson’s post read. “The horrible tragedy is a stain on Canadian history, but it was only allowed to happen because children enrolled in school were isolated from their parents’ oversight, input and influence … This must never be allowed to happen again in Canada! We must never put our teachers in a position where they have to hide important parts of a child’s development from their own parents!”

New Brunswick goes to the polls on Oct 21, and the incumbent Progressive Conservatives are in a tight race. Wilson has faced calls to drop out of her reelection bid, but she has remained in the race.

“That she would try to draw this dog-whistle comparison on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation should make every New Brunswicker ashamed that she was recently a minister for this province,” the six chiefs of the Wolastoqey Nation also said in a statement.

Using residential schools as a talking point against trans-inclusive school policies and sex education generally has become a recurring talking point for Canada’s conservatives. 

Another New Brunswick PC candidate, Faytene Grasseschi, made similar statements to CBC last year.

British Columbia Conservative Party leader John Rustad compared residential schools to the province’s LGBTQ-inclusive sex ed curriculum last year. His party is running neck-and-neck with the incumbent New Democrats in BC’s provincial election on Oct 19.

Editor’s note: International News Editor Michael K. Lavers will be on assignment in Israel through Oct. 9.

TEL AVIV, Israel — It has been quiet in Israel’s largest city since I arrived on Friday afternoon.

An Israeli airstrike in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Sept. 27 killed Hassan Nasrallah, the long-time leader of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group. Iran on Oct. 1 launched upwards of 200 ballistic missiles at Israel.

Rosh Hashanah ended on Friday. 

Monday will mark a year since Hamas launched its surprise attack against southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. The group, which the U.S. and Israel have designated a terrorist organization, claimed responsibility for an Oct. 1 attack at a Tel Aviv light rail station that left seven people dead and more than a dozen others injured.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed more than 41,000 people in the enclave since Oct. 7. Reuters on Friday reported the Lebanese Health Ministry said Israeli airstrikes in Beirut and elsewhere in the country over the last two weeks have killed more than 2,000 people.

An Israeli airstrike in the West Bank city of Tulkarem on Thursday killed 18 people in a Palestinian refugee camp. 

The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet, the country’s security agency, said the airstrike killed Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, a senior Hamas commander, and 11 other Hamas operatives. The Associated Press reported the airstrike also killed a family of four, including two young children.

The International Criminal Court in May announced it plans to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders — Yehya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh.

Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, said the five men have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and Israel. (A suspected Israeli airstrike on July 31 killed Haniyah while he was in the Iranian capital of Tehran to attend Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s inauguration.)

Here are some things I have seen since I arrived in Tel Aviv.

• Banners that read “Bring Them Home Now!” in reference to the hostages who remain in Gaza are on overpasses and buildings throughout the city. Several people who were jogging along Tel Aviv’s seafront promenade on Saturday morning were wearing “Bring Them Home Now!” t-shirts.

• “FCK HMS” stickers are on streetlights across Tel Aviv.

• I could not access Al Jazeera’s website on Saturday. (The Israeli government in May banned the Qatar-based network from working in the country, and shut down its bureaus in East Jerusalem and Nazareth, a predominantly Arab city in northern Israel. A judge in June extended the ban for 45 days. Israeli soldiers on Sept. 22 raided Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah, the Palestinian capital, and ordered its closure for 45 days.)

• Two men and a woman who were wearing nightclub wrist bands were sitting on beach chairs at Hilton Beach at around 8 a.m. on Saturday and talking about traveling to the Philippines and Thailand. A helicopter with what appeared to be two missiles attached to it flew south along the city’s seafront while swimmers, kayakers, and paddleboarders were in the water.

• A middle-aged man who was wearing an IDF uniform had a machine gun strapped across his body while he had dinner with his family at a restaurant on Friday night.

The situation in Gaza, in northern Israel, in Lebanon, and on the West Bank is obviously very different than in Tel Aviv.

The events of the last year have been horrific for LGBTQ communities in Israel, in Palestine, and throughout the region. The Los Angeles Blade remains committed to documenting this impact while on the ground in Israel.

International News Editor Michael K. Lavers will be on assignment in Israel through Oct. 9.

Lavers will be in the country on Oct. 7, a year after Hamas launched its surprise attack against Israel, and will cover how the country’s LGBTQ community has coped with that horrible day and its ongoing aftermath. Lavers will also cover how the war in the Gaza Strip has impacted LGBTQ Palestinians — in both Gaza and the West Bank and among the Palestinian diaspora in the U.S.

Lavers arrived in Israel three days after Iran launched upwards of 200 ballistic missiles at the country.

An Israeli airstrike in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Sept. 27 killed Hassan Nasrallah, the long-time leader of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group.

Hezbollah since last October has launched rockets into northern Israel. The Israeli military earlier this week began a ground incursion into southern Lebanon. 

“The horrific events of Oct. 7 and their aftermath have impacted LGBTQ people in Israel, in the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, and elsewhere throughout the Middle East and around the world,” said Lavers. “It is critically important for the Washington Blade to document the situation on the ground, and to show how the horrific events of the last year have impacted LGBTQ communities throughout the region.”

“We are committed to objective coverage of the situation in the Middle East and to highlighting the plight of LGBTQ Palestinians and Israelis caught up in the war,” said Blade editor Kevin Naff. “The generous support of our readers enables this coverage so please consider making a donation at bladefoundation.org to ensure the Blade’s 55-year record of award-winning journalism continues.”

The LGBTQ+ Victory Institute will honor Peruvian Congresswoman Susel Paredes at its annual International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference that will take place in D.C. in December.

Paredes, a long-time activist who in 2021 became the first lesbian woman elected to the South American country’s Congress, will receive the 2024 LGBTQ+ Victory Institute Global Trailblazer Award.

Paredes and her wife, Gracia Aljovín, married in Miami in 2016. The two women sued the Peruvian government after the country’s Constitutional Court denied their request to register their marriage. 

“It is a true honor and a recognition that I deeply value,” said Paredes in a post to her X account after she learned the Victory Institute will honor her in D.C.

Victory Institute Executive Director Elliot Imse described Paredes as “a true champion through her activism and political engagement for decades.”

“Her historic election to the Congress of Peru is just one of many testaments to her status as a true trailblazer who is exceptionally deserving of this honor,” added Imse.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday took office.

Sheinbaum, Mexico City’s former mayor who is a member of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s leftist Morena party, on June 2 defeated Xóchitl Gálvez of the opposition National Action Party and Jorge Álvarez Máynez of the Citizens’ Movement.

Sheinbaum, who is also a scientist, is Mexico’s first female and first Jewish president.

First lady Jill Biden, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Isabel Guzman, and U.S. Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.) are among the American officials who attended Sheinbaum’s inauguration.

“Mexico and the United States are strong partners and close neighbors and we share deep political, economic, and cultural ties,” said President Joe Biden in a statement in which he congratulated Sheinbaum on her inauguration. “The United States is committed to continuing to work with Mexico to deliver the democratic, prosperous, and secure future that the people of our two countries deserve.” 

Sheinbaum before the election released a policy paper that reiterated her support for LGBTQ rights in Mexico. The platform, among other things, reiterated “absolute respect for diverse gender identities” and pledged to create “public policies to (end impunity) and to eradicate hate crimes and violence against LGBTIQ+ communities because of gender and sexual orientation.”

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.