Asia
Multilateral development banks pressured to urge Uzbekistan to stop anti-LGBTQ crackdown
Anvar Latipov met with bank representatives in D.C.
A gay man from Uzbekistan has called for the World Bank Group and other multilateral development banks to pressure his homeland’s government to stop its persecution of LGBTQ and intersex people.
Anvar Latipov in a letter he sent to World Bank Group President David Malpass this month notes the bank has $4.76 billion “in 27 active projects in Uzbekistan.” The letter also highlights that more than 33,000 people have signed an AllOut petition “condemning the criminalization, torture and blackmail of LGBTQ+ people in Uzbekistan and demanding that respect for human rights be a prerequisite for the international community’s support for this government.”
“Human rights are the foundation for social and economic inclusion, which we know to be central to the development goals at the heart of the World Bank’s work,” wrote Latipov. “Considering the bank’s commitments to consultation, vulnerable groups and nondiscrimination, how will the World Bank ensure the meaningful participation and protection of LGBTQ+ people in its operations in Uzbekistan? What will the World Bank do to address the widespread violation of human rights in Uzbekistan?”
Latipov has also sent similar letters to Asian Development Bank President Masatsugu Asakawa, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development President Odile Renaud-Basso and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.
• The ADB has $4.64 billion in 35 active projects in Uzbekistan
• The EBRD has $2.4 billion in 69 active projects in Uzbekistan
• Uzbekistan has more than $370 million “in outstanding purchases and loans” to the IMF
Latipov last week met with World Bank Group Executive Koen Davidse in D.C. during the World Bank Group/IMF spring meetings. He also sat down with ADB Managing Director Woochong Um, Renaud-Basso and ADB U.S. Director Chantale Wong, who is the first openly lesbian American ambassador.
Latipov was among those who spoke on a panel that Adriana Kugler, the U.S. executive director of the World Bank Group, moderated.
Three LGBTQ and intersex rights activists from Kosovo, North Macedonia and Albania — Re-course Co-Director Nezir Sinani, Coalitions Margins Executive Director Irena Cvetkovic and ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association for Western Balkans Executive Director Amarildo Fecanji — also met with Davidse. Sinani, Cvetkovic and Fecanji were also with Latipov when he spoke exclusively with the Washington Blade on April 12.
Latipov said the banks “can create change” if “they unite forces,” but he conceded any effort to challenge the Uzbek government over its LGBTQ and intersex rights record will prove difficult.
“If it is done through ways of silent diplomacy there may be a change,” he said.
The Uzbek government previously kicked the EBRD kicked out of Uzbekistan it criticized the country’s human rights record. Latipov referenced this situation when he spoke with the Blade.
“There is this thin line they have to talk to get this, but I think by waiting and not doing anything is also not an option,” he said. “People are suffering.”
The EBRD’s 2023 Annual Meeting of its Board of Governors will take place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan from May 16-17. May 17 is the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.
Living in US has ‘been a blessing’
Latipov, 36, was born in Samarkand.
He moved to Moscow in 2004 and graduated from the Moscow International Institute for Humanities and Linguistics in 2011.
Latipov in 2014 asked for asylum in the U.S. based on the persecution he said he suffered in Uzbekistan because of his sexual orientation. He won asylum in 2017 and now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
“It’s been a blessing,” Latipov told the Blade. “[I’m] very, very grateful for the opportunities I have been given in the United States to be who I am.”
Uzbekistan is among the more than 60 countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized.
The State Department’s 2022 human rights report notes “at least four cases” of authorities forcing men to undergo so-called anal exams between 2017-2020. Latipov noted to the Blade that a group of vigilantes broadcast online a video of a man they forced to sit on a bottle.
The report cites activists who said “members of the LGBTQI+ community in Tashkent (the Uzbek capital) were being harassed by both local authorities and private citizens and were on ‘red alert,’ and were seeking to avoid going out in public” after a group of men attacked blogger Miraziz Bazarov in 2022. Latipov told the Blade that transgender Uzbeks and people with HIV/AIDS face additional discrimination and persecution.
“There is no way you can lead a life because everyone’s in everyone’s business,” he said. “It’s like being crushed by both sides, by laws on one hand and on another hand by society and family values.”
The U.N. World Tourism Organization has chosen Samarkand as its 2023 World Tourism Capital.
The Blade has reached out to the World Bank Group for comment for this story.
Philippines
Philippines Supreme Court rules same-sex couples can co-own property
Advocacy group celebrated landmark decision
The Philippines Supreme Court in a landmark ruling said same-sex couples can co-own property under the country’s Family Code.
The Philippine News Agency on Tuesday notes the court issued its ruling in the case of two women who bought a house in Quezon City, a suburb of Manila, the Filipino capital, before they broke up.
The two women, according to the Philippine News Agency, “agreed to sell the property” after they ended their relationship, “and the registered owner — the respondent — signed a document acknowledging that the other partner paid for half of the purchase and renovations.” The Philippine News Agency notes “the registered owner” later “refused to sell the property and withdrew her earlier acknowledgment of co-ownership, prompting the other partner to file a complaint.”
A Regional Trial Court and the Philippines Court of Appeals ruled against the plaintiff.
The Supreme Court in a 14-page ruling it issued on Feb. 5 overturned the decisions. The Supreme Court published its decision on Tuesday.
“Considering that there is co-ownership between petitioner and respondent, then each co-owner may demand at any time the partition of the thing owned in common, insofar as her share is concerned,” said the Supreme Court in its ruling, according to the Philippine News Agency. “Having rightful interest over the subject property, petitioner has the right to demand the division of the subject property.”
The predominantly Catholic country’s Family Code defines marriage as “a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman entered into in accordance with law for the establishment of conjugal and family life.” It also states in Article 148 that “in cases of cohabitation” outside of marriage, “only the properties acquired by both of the parties through their actual joint contribution of money, property, or industry shall be owned by them in common in proportion to their respective contributions.”
“In the absence of proof to the contrary, their contributions and corresponding shares are presumed to be equal,” it reads.
The BBC reported the Supreme Court ruling states this provision “applies to all forms of co-habitation,” regardless of the couple’s gender. A Supreme Court press release indicates the decision notes lawmakers and the Filipino government “must address same-sex couples’ rights, as courts alone cannot resolve all related policy concerns.”
“This court does not have the monopoly to assure the freedom and rights of homosexual couples,” it reads. “With the political, moral, and cultural questions that surround the issue concerning the rights of same-sex couples, political departments, especially the Congress must be involved to quest for solutions, which balance interests while maintaining fealty to fundamental freedoms.”
LGBT Pilipinas, a Filipino advocacy group, welcomed the ruling.
“This ruling marks a monumental step forward in the legal recognition of LGBTQ+ families and relationships in the country,” it said in a statement.
LGBT Pilipinas added the ruling “lays a crucial legal foundation for broader recognition of same-sex relationships and strengthens the push for comprehensive anti-discrimination protections.”
“This is a win not only for the LGBTQ+ community, but for fairness and justice in Philippine society as a whole,” said the group.
China
Two Chinese men detained over AI-generated picture of pandas engaging in same-sex behavior
Arrests part of increased online surveillance, LGBTQ rights crackdown
Chinese authorities have detained two men after they shared an artificially altered image that linked queer identity with a specific city.
The Washington Post on Jan. 21 reported the men — who are 29 and 33 — circulated an AI-generated picture depicting pandas engaging in same-sex behavior in Chengdu, a major city in southwestern China often referred to as the “panda capital” due to its association with giant panda conservation. Local officials described the sharing of the image as “malicious,” and police in Chengdu took the men into custody.
Authorities also suspended the two men’s social media accounts, accusing them of spreading misinformation presented as legitimate news. According to the Post, the artificially generated image was posted alongside a fabricated headline, giving the appearance of an authentic news report. The image depicted two male pandas mating.
According to an official police report, police said the fabricated image was presented in the format of a legitimate news article and accompanied by a false headline. The caption read, “Chengdu: Two male Sichuan giant pandas successfully mate for the first time without human intervention,” authorities said.
Chinese regulators have in recent years tightened oversight of AI and online content.
Under the Interim Measures for the Administration of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services, issued in 2023, providers and users of generative AI systems are required to comply with existing laws, adhere to social and ethical standards, and refrain from producing or disseminating false or misleading information. Additional rules that took effect on Sept. 1, 2025, require online platforms to clearly label AI-generated content, a measure authorities have said is intended to curb misinformation and maintain order in digital spaces.
Police under Chinese law are permitted to impose administrative detention of up to 15 days for offenses deemed to disrupt public order, a category that includes the fabrication or dissemination of false information online. Such cases are handled outside the criminal court system and do not require formal prosecution.
According to a statement the Chengdu Public Security Bureau’s Chenghua branch released, police opened an investigation after receiving public reports that online accounts were spreading false information about the city. Authorities said officers collected evidence shortly afterward and placed the two individuals under administrative detention.
The detentions are not an isolated case.
The Washington Blade in July 2025 reported a Chinese female writer was arrested and subjected to a strip search after publishing gay erotic fiction online. At least 30 other writers — most of them women in their 20s — in the months that followed publicly described similar encounters with law enforcement, including home raids and questioning related to their online writing.
ShanghaiPRIDE, a Chinese LGBTQ advocacy group that organized annual Pride events in the city, has remained indefinitely suspended since 2021. In the same period, dozens of LGBTQ-focused accounts have been removed from WeChat, China’s largest social media platform, as authorities intensified oversight of online content related to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Authorities in 2021 detained the founder of LGBT Rights Advocacy China. They later released them on the condition that he shut down the organization, which ceased operations shortly afterward.
China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997 when it removed consensual same-sex sexual relations from the country’s criminal code. The Chinese Society of Psychiatry in 2001 formally removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. Despite those changes, same-sex relationships remain unrecognized under Chinese law, and there are no legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Public advocacy for LGBTQ rights remains tightly restricted, with authorities continuing to limit community organizing, public events and online expression related to sexual minority issues.
Within China’s LGBTQ community, transgender and gender non-conforming people remain among the most vulnerable. Under current regulations, access to gender-affirming surgery is subject to strict requirements, including being at least 18 years old, unmarried, obtaining parental consent and having no criminal record — procedures that are required in order to legally change one’s gender on official documents.
China’s system of online governance places responsibility on both users and platforms to prevent the spread of prohibited content. Social media companies are required to conduct real-name verification, monitor user activity and remove posts that violate regulations, while individuals can be punished for content authorities determine to have caused public misunderstanding or social disruption.
“Actually, at least three similar incidents have occurred in Chengdu recently, all involving netizens posting on social media linking Chengdu with homosexuality, resulting in legal repercussions. This isn’t just about giant pandas. I think the local police’s reaction was somewhat excessive,” said Renn Hao, a Chinese queer activist. “The content was actually praising Chengdu’s inclusivity, and there was no need to punish them with regulations like ‘maliciously spreading false information.’”
“This situation reflects the strict censorship of LGBT related content in the area,” they added. “This censorship makes LGBT-related content increasingly invisible, and people are even more afraid to post or mention it. This not only impacts the LGBTQ+ community in China but also hinders public understanding and awareness of this group.”
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Tuesday signed a bill that will ban so-called LGBTQ propaganda in the country.
Members of Kazakhstan’s lower house of parliament last month unanimously approved the measure that would ban “‘LGBT propaganda’ online or in the media” with “fines for violators and up to 10 days in jail for repeat offenders.” The Kazakh Senate on Dec. 18 approved the bill.
Kazakhstan is a predominantly Muslim former Soviet republic in Central Asia that borders Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and China. Russia, Georgia, and Hungary are among the other countries with anti-LGBTQ propaganda laws.
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