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Global Pride events in full swing

Activists plan to demand rights, protest inequalities

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4 years ago

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Baltic Pride 2022 took place in Vilnius, Lithuania, on June 4, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius)

Pride events are in full swing around the world.

Thousands of people on June 5 attended Bangkok’s first official Pride parade in 16 years.

Openly gay Lithuanian MP Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius and U.S. Ambassador to Lithuania Bob Gilchrist are among those who participated in Baltic Pride 2022 that took place in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, on June 4. Jerusalem’s annual Pride parade occurred two days earlier against the backdrop of the arrest of a man in connection with death threats made against its organizers.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on June 1 helped raise the Progress Pride flag over his country’s Parliament. “This is a time to celebrate our differences and support one another and to make sure that ever day we are building a Canada where everyone is free to be who they are and love who they love,” he said in a video he posted to his Twitter page.

Olena Shevchenko, chair of Insight, a Ukrainian LGBTQ rights group, told the Washington Blade that she and other activists from her war-torn country plan to attend Warsaw Pride in Poland on June 25.

This year marks London Pride’s 50th anniversary.

The British government was to have hosted a global LGBTQ rights conference in London from June 29-July 1, but it cancelled it in April after advocacy groups announced a boycott in response to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to support a bill to ban so-called conversion therapy without gender identity. The London Pride parade is scheduled to take place on July 2.

The Cayman LGBTQ Foundation in the Cayman Islands will hold its annual Pride parade on July 30. The event will take place less than five months after the Privy Council’s Judicial Committee in London ruled same-sex couples in the British territory don’t have a constitutional right to marry.

The Cayman LGBTQ Foundation is organizing a Pride march on July 30. (Photo courtesy of Cayman LGBTQ Foundation)

Jamaica is among the upwards of 70 countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized. J-FLAG and other Jamaican LGBTQ rights groups will hold a series of Pride events during the first week of August, which coincides with the country’s Emancipation and Independence Days.

“It’s always been incident free,” J-FLAG Associate Director of Marketing and Communications and Engagement Elton Johnson told the Blade on Tuesday from Kingston, the Jamaican capital. “We get support from the police. We get support from many organizations, schools.”

A person participates in a Pride event in Kingston, Jamaica in 2021. (Photo courtesy of Elton Johnson/J-FLAG)

African LGBTQ groups to continue decriminalization push

LGBTQ activists in Africa are also planning to commemorate Pride.

The government of Botswana in January said it will abide by a ruling that decriminalized homosexuality in the country. A plethora of other African countries still outlaw same-sex relations and those found guilty of homosexuality in places where Sharia law exists face the death penalty. Advocacy groups on the continent plan to use Pride to further push for decriminalization.

“The 2SLGBTQIA+ community has made dramatic strides in recent decades that absolutely should be celebrated, [but] there is still much more work to do to ensure intersectional equality and justice for all but as we prepare to commemorate the 2SLGBTQIA+ Pride, let us be cognizant that the discrimination of 2SLGBTQIA+ persons in the country is still rife,” said the Rock of Hope, an LGBTQ rights group in Eswatini. “These events or awareness activities should bring meaning and strengthen the movement such that one day we can reside in a country free of hate, stigmatization and discrimination of individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity expression.”

Members of the Rock of Hope gather outside the Eswatini Supreme Court on April 29, 2022. (Photo courtesy of the Rock of Hope)

Beit el-Meem, an Egyptian LGBTQ rights group, echoed the Rock of Hope.

“The road is not easy, but not impossible, and what distinguishes us is that each individual of us excels with the power of love and acceptance, and with this energy we will give to everyone around us,” said Beit el-Meem.

LGBT+ Rights Ghana has been at the forefront of the campaign against a bill that would criminalize LGBTQ identity and allyship in the country.

The U.S. Embassy in Ghana on Tuesday tweeted a picture of President Biden speaking in support of LGBTQ rights. The tweet also said the U.S. “reaffirms that LGBTQI+ rights are human rights and that no group should be excluded from those protections, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, sex characteristics, disability status, age, religion or belief.”

LGBT+ Rights Ghana said it plans to mark Pride with its virtual Color Dialogue conversations it holds every year.

“This year promises to be fun, hopeful and filled with lots of love,” said the group. “Join us everyday at 6 p.m. GMT on our Instagram page as we discuss the struggles, hopes and joy of the Ghanaian Queer community.”

Brazil presidential election overshadows São Paulo Pride

São Paulo’s annual Pride parade, which is one of the largest in the world, will take place on June 19.

Brazilian activists will mark Pride against the backdrop of their country’s presidential election campaign. HIV/AIDS service providers and LGBTQ activists with whom the Washington Blade spoke while on assignment in Brazil in March said they are afraid of what may happen in their country is President Jair Bolsonaro wins a second term later this year.

“He represents a danger to the environment,” Mariah Rafaela Silva, a transgender woman of indigenous descent who works with the Washington-based International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights, told the Blade on March 21 during an interview at a Rio de Janeiro restaurant. “He represents a danger to diversity. He represents a danger to Black people. He represents a danger to indigenous people.”

Anti-Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro flyers on Paulista Avenue in São Paulo, on March 13, 2022. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

Activists in other South American countries plan to use Pride events to demand further rights.

Organizers of the annual Pride parade that will take place in Santiago, Chile, on June 25 plan to call for additional reforms to the country’s Penal Code and anti-discrimination law and demand an end of violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The event will take place less than a month after a trans woman, Yuridia Pizarro, was killed in Iquique, a city in northern Chile.

Pride parades are also scheduled to take place in the capitals of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia respectively on June 25.

Somosgay, an LGBTQ rights group in Paraguay, is planning to hold a Pride march in Asunción, the country’s capital, on July 2. A Pride march dedicated to León Zuleta and Manuel Velandia, the founders of Colombia’s LGBTQ rights movement, will take place in Bogotá, the country’s capital, on the same day.

A Pride march is scheduled to take place in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas on July 3. Activists in Argentina and Uruguay will hold Pride marches later this year.

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Ghana

Ghanaian lawmakers approve anti-LGBTQ bill

Measure that would criminalize allyship awaits president’s signature

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4 hours ago

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May 29, 2026

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Ghanaian flag (Public domain photo from Pixabay)

Ghanaian lawmakers on Friday approved a bill that would, among other things, criminalize LGBTQ allyship.

Reuters reported MPs approved the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, in a voice vote after parliament’s Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee backed it.

MPs in 2024 approved a similar bill, but it faced legal challenges and then-President Nana Akufo-Addo didn’t sign it. Lawmakers last year reintroduced the measure after President John Dramani Mahama took office.

The bill awaits his signature.

Rightify Ghana, a Ghanaian LGBTQ advocacy group, in a series of social media posts notes MPs passed the bill days before the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty will take place in Accra, the country’s capital.

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Russia

Nine Russian LGBTQ groups deemed ‘extremist’ banned

Human Rights Watch: authorities ‘intensifying their criminalization’ of queer people

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11 hours ago

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May 29, 2026

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(Washington Blade photo by Ernesto Valle)

Nine LGBTQ groups in Russia have been banned so far this year after authorities deemed them as “extremist.”

Human Rights Watch on Thursday noted courts in seven regions between March and May banned Coming Out, the LGBT Resource Center, Parni Plus, the Moscow Community Center for LGBT+ Initiatives, Irida, the Russian LGBT Network, the Kallisto movement, T9 NSK, and Center T. Human Rights Watch also pointed out a lawsuit has been filed against the Alliance of Straights and LGBT for Equality.

Parni Plus is an LGBTQ media outlet.

“Russian authorities are intensifying their criminalization of those who provide critical support to the very LGBT people they have systematically persecuted,” said Human Rights Watch Europe and Central Asia Director Hugh Williamson in a press release. “Authorities should vacate all court decisions and criminal convictions based on these spurious ‘extremism’ charges.”

The Kremlin over the last decade has faced global criticism over its crackdown on LGBTQ rights.

The Russian Supreme Court in 2023 ruled the “international LGBT movement” is an extremist organization and banned it.

The country in January designated ILGA World, a global LGBTQ and intersex rights group, as an “undesirable” organization. ILGA World in response to the designation noted Russians who are found guilty of engaging with “undesirable” groups face up to six years in prison.

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China

China’s top court acknowledges anti-LGBTQ discrimination

Postgraduate student petitioned for legal clarification

Published

3 days ago

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May 27, 2026

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(Photo by Aylandy/Bigstock)

China’s Supreme People’s Court on May 8 issued a rare response to a petition involving LGBTQ discrimination.

In a surprising response; it discussed sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. The response also mentioned workplace discrimination, public humiliation, and school bullying, language considered uncommon from China’s legal system.

The response stemmed from a proposal submitted by a postgraduate student in Qingdao through China’s xinfang petition system on March 25, urging the court to establish clearer judicial standards against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Six weeks later, the Supreme People’s Court Research Office issued a written reply.

The Research Office is an internal legal and policy body within the Supreme People’s Court. It studies legal issues, drafts judicial guidance, and responds to legal inquiries submitted through official channels. Its responses do not carry the same legal weight as a judicial interpretation or court ruling.

“The opinions and suggestions you raised are of great value,” reads a translated version of the Supreme People’s Court Research Office response. “In order to thoroughly implement the Constitution, Civil Code, Employment Promotion Law and other legal provisions, and effectively protect citizens’ personality rights from infringement, the Supreme People’s Court has guided local courts at all levels to handle a number of related cases, and through typical cases and other forms has clarified adjudication rules.”

The response stated that courts may determine public insults, defamation and, discriminatory conduct targeting sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression as infringement of personality rights. It also said employers treating individuals differently in hiring, employment, transfer or dismissal based on those characteristics could face employment discrimination claims. Schools could also bear legal responsibility for improper discipline or bullying involving students based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, according to the response.

“It’s not a systematic change from the authorities recognizing LGBTQ rights,” said Renn Hao, an LGBTQ activist in China. “However, it’s an informal statement from the Supreme Court. According to a scholar researching LGBTQ legal cases in China, courts are recognizing more cases involving LGBTQ discrimination and same-sex partners through their verdicts.”

China decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations in 1997 and removed homosexuality from the country’s list of mental disorders four years later. Chinese law, however, does not recognize same-sex relationships.

Public advocacy involving LGBTQ issues also remains tightly controlled. Authorities in recent years have continued restricting community organizing, public events, and online expression involving sexual minorities.

Discussions involving LGBTQ issues are also frequently censored on Chinese social media platforms. 

Activists and advocacy groups say Chinese authorities in recent years have removed online content, shut down LGBTQ student group accounts and restricted public discussion involving sexual minority issues. After the Supreme People’s Court response began circulating online, related posts and articles were also removed from some Chinese platforms.

“It may still be too early to fully assess the long-term impact, as this development has only just happened and the situation is still unfolding,” said Xiaogang Wei, a Beijing-based LGBTQ rights activist, filmmaker, and founder of the China Rainbow Collective Foundation. “Although the reply is not legally binding, it represents a rare form of institutional acknowledgment of SOGIE-related discrimination in China. For Chinese LGBTQ people and advocates, this could become a meaningful reference point for future legal advocacy, public communication, and community awareness.”

Wei said the rapid removal of related posts and articles limited the development’s broader public impact and underscored how fragile LGBTQ visibility remains in China. 

“This is why we believe it is important to continue sharing verified information and ensuring that this development is not erased from public understanding,” Wei said.

Chinese courts in recent years have also heard a number of LGBTQ-related employment discrimination cases, despite the absence of explicit nationwide protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity. In one notable case, the Supreme People’s Court in 2018 formally recognized “equal employment rights disputes” as a legal cause of action, allowing some discrimination-related cases to proceed through the courts.

Chinese courts have previously handled several LGBTQ-related disputes involving employment discrimination, custody, and so-called conversion therapy. In 2024, a Beijing court drew attention after recognizing visitation rights for a child involving a same sex couple, a decision activists described as a milestone for LGBTQ families in China.

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