Asylum seekers given refugee status in the UK will now only be offered protection for a temporary time, a change which will put vulnerable LGBTQ+ at constant risk of danger, a charity has warned.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the move as part of a shake-up of the government’s asylum rules, which represents most substantial reform to the UK asylum system in a generation.
The changes come into force on Monday (2 March) and revoke the permanent protection given to refugees who are granted asylum, instead adults and accompanied children claiming asylum will now only receive a 30-month period of protection.
At the 30-month mark, those still in need of protection will have their status renewed whilst those deemed to be safe to return to their country of origin will be expected to return home.
The new rules will not apply to anyone who has already submitted an application for refugee status.
“We must ensure our asylum system is not creating pull factors that draw people on dangerous journeys across the world,” Mahmood said of the change.
“Genuine refugees will find safety in Britain, but we must also reduce the incentives that draw people here at such scale, including those without a legitimate need for protection.
“So, once a refugee’s home is safe and they are able to return, they will be expected to do so.”
As Nigerian journalist Daniel Anthony previously set out for PinkNews, the UK asylum system’s designation of Nigeria – where homosexuality is illegal – as a “safe country” poses real risk to queer Nigerians facing persecution.
Minesh Parekh, policy and public affairs manager at Rainbow Migration, condemned the changes.
“The asylum changes the Home Secretary brought in today are cruel, unjust, and will only make it harder for people to put down roots and rebuild their lives in safety,” Parekh exclusively told PinkNews in a statement.
“Determining whether a country is ‘safe’ is extremely complex and blanket designations too often fail to reflect the realities individuals face. Living with the constant threat of being sent back to danger is horribly inhumane.
“Constantly reviewing someone’s right to stay, making them live with uncertainty for decades, will undoubtedly affect their ability to develop lasting work, housing or family ties.”
Parekh continued: “We support LGBTQI+ people like Sam, a trans man from the Middle East who had to escape his home country because he was threatened with violence if he didn’t reverse his transition.
“Or Jalal, a gay man from Pakistan whose family, when they found out about his sexuality, told him that ‘if you come back, we will kill you’.
“Imagine finally being granted refugee status after fleeing these horrors, only to be told that your status will be reviewed in 2.5 years and you could be sent back to danger.”
Parekh urged the government to halt its “anti-migrant agenda”, which they said “is fuelling hostility and hate towards people seeking safety”.
Instead, the government should tackle “real issues the UK is facing, like inequality, unaffordable housing and rising poverty”.
Hate crimes targeting people on the grounds of their sexuality, gender identity or disability would be made an aggravated offence, under a proposed new law.
If passed, an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill would see hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ and disabled people brought in-line with racially and religiously aggravated hate crimes, meaning they too will carry a higher maximum sentencing penalty.
The bill is currently progressing through the House of Lords and is intended to tackle anti-social behaviour alongside crimes including offensive weapons, sexual offences and stalking and public order.
Stonewall CEO Simon Blake described the amendment a “major step in the journey of LGBTQ+ equality”.
“Putting hate crime against LGBTQ+ people on the same footing as religious and racial hate crime has always been the right thing to do. It sends a powerful message that LGBTQ+ people deserve equal access to justice,” Blake said.
“Stonewall, and others, have campaigned hard for this change for many years; and we welcome that the Government is delivering on a manifesto commitment for LGBTQ+ people at a time when many in the community are feeling increasingly under threat.”
He added: “Now that this amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill has been laid, Stonewall will continue to work hard with Government and Parliamentarians to make sure this vital change becomes law.”
LGBT+ anti-abuse charity Galop described it as a “landmark step” towards increasing access to criminal justice for LGBTQ+ and disabled people.
Jasmine O’Connor, co-chief executive of Galop, said: “At a time when our services are seeing consistent rises in LGBT+ hate crime victims seeking support, this long-overdue change sends a clear message that anti-LGBT+ hate crime is as deserving of justice as crimes motivated by religious or racial hate.”
Home Office data shows that in the year ending March 2025, there were a total of 137,550 hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales.
In the 2024/25 year, there were 18,702 hate crimes targeting people on the basis of their sexual orientation and 3,809 targeting trans people because of their gender identity, decreases on 2023/24 by two and 11 per cent respectively.
In terms of disability hate crime, there were 10,224 incidents recorded in 2024/25 compared with 11,131 recorded in 2023/24.
However, these figures are all higher than five years ago in 2020/21 when there were 15,668 sexual orientation hate crimes, 2,510 related to gender identity and 9,418 in relation to disability.
A new human rights report has claimed the US is undermining LGBTQ+ and wider human rights across the world, with the second Trump administration marked by a “blatant disregard for human rights and egregious violations”.
The report from Human Rights Watch, entitled World Report 2026, examines the state of human rights in countries across the globe, with a focus on key events that happened throughout 2025.
“The global human rights system is in peril,” Philippe Bolopion, executive director at Human Rights Watch, said in the introduction to the report.
“Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.”
Bolopion went on to say 2025 “may be seen as a tipping point” for human rights.
“In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish,” he wrote.
“In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.”
A person waves a transgender pride flag during the People’s March and rally to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., United States, on January 18, 2025. (Photo by Nathan Morris/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Bolopion outlined how the Trump administration has “embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology”, whilst the US has left dozens of international organisations and has also culled US aid programmes, including those which support children, women and LGBTQ+ people.
In the specific US section of the report, Human Rights Watch states the Trump’s second administration has “been marked from the start by blatant disregard for human rights and egregious violations”, adding the nation took significant steps backward on various issues including immigration, health, environment, disability, gender and freedom of speech.
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It outlined how in many parts of the US, officials at all levels of government continue to target LGBTQ+ people, with the administration particularly having escalated attacks on transgender communities.
Following his return to the White House, Trump has signed several executive orders seeking to remove the rights of trans people.
Trump has also moved to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programmes across the government and in the military. This move, coupled by campaigning by anti-woke MAGA activist Robby Starbuck, has seen several big name US businesses – including Walmart, Target, Ford, Lowe’s, Harley-Davidson and Jack Daniel’s – drop their DEI policies, programmes and targets.
As the report outlines: “Twenty-seven states now ban medically indicated gender-affirming care for youth, and several impose criminal penalties on providers. In June, the Supreme Court upheld these bans, which have a devastating impact on young peoples’ health and well-being. Eight states require school staff to disclose students’ gender identity to parents and twenty states restrict bathroom access for transgender people in schools. Nineteen states restrict classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Less than half of US states prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Congress has failed to enact comprehensive federal protections for LGBT people in education, housing, public accommodations, and federally funded programs.”
In his introduction, Bolopion mused who will defend human rights in the face of the US “undermining the global human rights system”.
“Despite rhetorical flourishes, many governments treat rights and the rule of law as a hindrance, rather than a benefit, to security and economic growth,” the executive said.
“The European Union, Canada, and Australia appear to hold back out of fear of antagonizing the US and China. Others are weakened by the way political parties displaying illiberal tendencies have skewed their domestic politics and discourse away from a rights-respecting approach. In many parts of Western Europe, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, many voters gladly accept limits on the rights of “others,” whether immigrants, women, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBT people, or other marginalized communities.
“But as history shows, would-be autocrats never stop at ‘others’.”
Lindsay Church never saw themself as a politician, but – amid their identity being bureaucratically erased, masked ICE agents stalking their neighbourhood and the incumbent Democrat representative locking out all other party members from running this November – stranger things have happened.
A veteran, non-profit leader, parent and non-binary person, Church and their wife – who was six months pregnant at the time – fled Richmond, Virginia in 2023 amid ongoing anti-queer harassment and set up just outside Chicago in Illinois, some 800 miles away.
It was a place they had a family connection to, where they no longer heard gun shots at night or felt like they could not use the bathroom for fear of being questioned about their gender. It became home, a safe space that allowed Church to “take some of that armour off” and just enjoy the simplicity of visiting local restaurants, walking around the neighbourhood and taking their child to the park.
Increasingly, as the federal government cracks down on LGBTQ+ rights, immigrants and US citizens alike are violently detained – and shot – and the voices of local voters are effectively silenced by those in power, the newfound safety Church and their family found in Illinois is under threat.
They are not planning on standing by, though.
They have launched a campaign for federal office in the state’s 4th congressional district, forthright in their belief that “safety has never been so important, as it has been in the last few years”, not just for themselves, but their neighbours and all Americans.
“I love the people that live around the community that I get to call home because I have spent a lot of my life as a military family, never knowing where home was,” Church told PinkNews in an exclusive interview.
“We bought this home 16 days before my baby was born. We had 16 days to get everything together and being able to bring them home and know that this was a community that would love them, support them, and that they could grow in, meant everything to me.
“Forever I’m going to fight for this district, because this district brought me home.”
Covering parts of Chicago’s Southwest side, Cook County and DuPage County, Illinois’s 4th congressional district is staunchly blue and has not elected a Republican since 1986. An area with a predominantly working class, Hispanic population, it has elevated poverty levels where around 12.8 per cent of people live below the poverty line – this rises to 18 per cent for children under the age of 18.
The area was long notable for its downright bizarre design as one of the most gerrymandered congressional districts in the country, with gerrymandering being the term used to describe the manipulation of electoral boundaries to advantage a party. So odd was its shape that it inspired the Ugly Gerry font type, a front created in protest against gerrymandering by using different, unusually shaped US congressional districts as the characters for each letter. The 4th, given its shape, represented the letter ‘U’.
The district has been represented by Jesús “Chuy” García since 2018, who has easily kept a Democrat stronghold in the area and commanded a huge majority victory in each subsequent election.
In November, however, García was widely lambasted for announcing his retirement after the filing deadline had closed for the 2026 mid-term elections. It was a ploy that set up his chief of staff – who filed her own application just before the deadline – to be elected as his successor without competition, because it kept all other Democrats out of the race.
The Democrat voting population were, therefore, left with only that choice and that choice alone – hardly democratic.
That did not sit right with Church.
“Our community and our country deserves real choice. In the district that we live in, we are so heavily Democratic that the Democratic nominee genuinely goes on to win the election, which means that this decision was made for us without us casting a single ballot,” they explained.
“I’m a person that believes that democracy is worth fighting for and that it requires talking to your neighbours, your communities, the cities, everyone, in order to gain the support necessary to run.”
They continued: “Like I said, I did not imagine myself to be a politician or somebody that would run for office, but if not us, then who? And if not now, when?”
Lindsay Church is a non-binary veteran who served under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ (Supplied)
Church is no stranger to having their voice silenced.
They are a veteran who served under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’, a non-binary person whose identity was legislated out of existence last year by a stroke of Trump’s signature on an executive order, and in recent months they have watched as their friends who are still serving are purged from the military under the Trump administration’s re-instated trans ban.
Church was part of the original push to overturn ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and watching the ban return – which has been estimated to impact around 15,000 service people – has put their heart “at a place [they] can’t explain”.
“We don’t have representation on the floor. There’s no trans service member that has made it through to the floor of Congress. We have been fighting from outside the doors and it’s so important for us to be there, to be talking about these issues, to be representing ourselves and to see ourselves in this tapestry of America,” they explained.
“Our administration has made it so dangerous to be just a person in general,” Church continued, going on to admit that they do feel scared of what will happen to them for speaking out.
“What will the administration try to do to me? What will the media turn me into?” they questioned.
“All of it is connected to this bigger attempt to scare us into compliance and to make us so small that we don’t try to make history, that we don’t try to fight these fights.”
“This is existential for me,” Church said. “I’ve watched my existence and my communities, my friends, trans youth, literally lose every bit of their rights while we also don’t have the representation we need to fight back.”
Currently, Delaware representative Sarah McBride – who was sworn-in as the first ever out trans member of Congress in January – is the only political representation trans people have in the Legislative branch of US government.
Since her election, McBride has been subject to threats to her life and vile transphobic abuse by other elected-representatives, with South Carolina Republican and anti-trans MAGA stalwart Nancy Mace tabling a trans bathroom ban for the whole of the US Capitol just to keep McBride from using the female toilets.
That is just for being an out and visible trans person in politics, an elected representative who beyond fighting for trans rights is there to advocate for her constituents on kitchen table issues that impact everyone in her state and beyond: the inflation, job stability, living standards, quality education, healthcare access and so much more.
Lindsay Church is driven by their believe in democracy (Supplied)
People like McBride, Church said, are a “crack in the ceiling” and an “opportunity for us to see that we might be able to have a future here”.
“It can’t be one person that’s out here trying to fight back against all of this because this is an onslaught that not one person can handle or what not one person can be the fighter for.”
For Church, and all others who have found themselves the fervent target of the Trump administration’s anti-trans rhetoric, winning looks different: it is about showcasing LGBTQ+ people cannot be erased and their voices cannot be silenced.
“At this moment in time when they’re trying to tell us that people like me don’t exist and that we can’t exist, standing up and saying: ‘I don’t care what you do, I don’t care what you say, we’re not going to be erased, we’re not going to go away’.
“This is our country and we deserve to be a part of it.”
A human rights organisation in Uganda that supports members of the LGBTQ+ community was ordered to shut down by the government just days before the country’s election.
Chapter Four Uganda, which is dedicated to the protection of civil liberties and promotion of human rights – including LGBTQ+ rights – in the East African nation, had its operating permit suspended with immediate effect by the National Bureau for Non-Governmental Organisations under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The suspension came just days before the country’s election, which incumbent president Yoweri Museveni – who has led the country since 1986 – won with 72 per cent.
The election was marred by violence, with Museveni’s challenger Bobi Wine alleging his win was down to “fake results” and “ballot stuffing”.
Alongside Chapter Four, several other human rights organisations in the country also had their permits suspended, with the Bureau citing alleged “intelligence information” that claimed the organisation was involved in activities deemed “prejudicial to the security and laws of Uganda” – which would violate Article 42(d) of the Non-Governmental Organisations Act.
In a statement, Chapter Four expressed “concern” over the indefinite suspension.
“The suspension is based on vague allegations that we engaged in activities that are prejudicial to the security and laws of Uganda. As a law-abiding organisation, we have closed our offices and temporarily suspended our operations. We regret any inconvenience this causes to our partners and the community of beneficiaries,” the organisation said.
“We consider this suspension unjustified and are pursuing all available administrative and legal measures to restore our operational status as soon as possible.”
The human rights organisation went on to say for more than a decade it has “worked transparently in courts of law, Parliament, and communities to protect and promote human rights, advance access to justice, and strengthen the rule of law – fostering fairer societies for all.”
It added: “We remain committed to collaborating with government authorities and the people of Uganda to advance the promise of Chapter Four in the 1995 Constitution.”
This crack down on human rights organisations is worrying for LGBTQ+ people in Uganda, who are already at heightened risk following the passage of the country’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act – which immediately became one of the strictest pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the world when it was passed.
The Act doubled down on already cruel sanctions imposed on LGBTQ+ people in Uganda, where same-sex sexual acts and freedom to talk about queer topics were already illegal.
The legislation still punishes homosexuality with imprisonment for up to life but also introduced the new offence of ‘aggravated homosexuality’, which carries the death penalty.
Acts defined as ‘aggravated homosexuality’ include sexual activity with disabled people, those who are HIV positive and people aged 75 and over – with consent to the sexual act not constituting a defence to a charge. This category also applies to criminal offences such as rape of a child or adult and incest.
‘Attempted homosexuality’ is also punishable by law, with a punishment of up to 10 years in prison possible, while ‘attempted aggravated homosexuality’ can be met with up to 14 years imprisonment.
Condemning the suspension of Chapter Four’s permit, Kechukwu Uzoma, senior staff attorney at the Kennedy Human Rights Center, said: “The weaponisation of vague laws and attacks on the right to freedom of association during electoral periods directly violate the right to vote.
“Such repressive actions undermine the integrity of elections and weaken democracy at its core. All stakeholders, including the African Union, must act now.”
Gay hockey rivals-to-lovers show Heated Rivalry is all anyone can talk about, and for fans of the series looking for a real life queer love story in the sport then they need look no further than the upcoming Winter Olympics.
Heated Rivalry is an adaption of Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novel series and follows two hockey players, Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams), who are rivals on the ice but lovers between the sheets.
“Shane and Ilya are two of the biggest stars in major league hockey, bound by ambition, rivalry and a magnetic pull neither of them fully understands,” the show’s synopsis reads, for those who have somehow missed the Heated Rivalrytrain.
“Their secret fling evolves into an eight-year journey of self-discovery and rivalry. Over time, they must learn how to chase their desires on and off the ice.
“Torn between the sport they live for and the love they can’t ignore, Shane and Ilya must decide if there is room in their fiercely competitive world for something as fragile and as powerful as real love.”
The show has been a smash-hit since it premiere in November, scoring 99 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes and becoming Crave’s most-watched original series to date, with a huge fandom emerged in just two months – if the 8,000 works on AO3 are anything to go by…
For those eager for some real life queer hockey romance, you only need to look to pro hockey stars Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen, who play on different teams in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) and will face off against each other at the Winter Olympics in northeastern Italy but are engaged to be married.
Swedish star Kjellbin defenceman for the Toronto Sceptres while Finnish player Savolainen is a defenceman for Ottawa Charge.
Back in 2024, Savolainen confirmed love does not get in the way of competition, saying of playing against Kjellbin: “I don’t care who’s in front of me … if it’s going to be her, I’m going to hit her. We can take it up after the game.”
She added: “When you play, you just play. You don’t really think about who’s there. You’re friends after. On the ice, she’s my enemy. That’s how it goes.”
As per Out Sports, the couple were dating for five years before announcing their engagement in 2024.
Alongside Kjellbin and Savolainen, Cosmopolitan has also featured a story about skeleton sliders Kim Meylemans and Nicole Silveira, who are married and previously faced off against each other during the 2022 Winter Olympics.
“It’s very special to be able to share [the] Olympic Games with your partner,” Meylemans said back in 2022.
“It’s an extremely stressful, high-pressure period, so to have my person there as a comfort and safe space is of immense value to me, and also my performance. It brings a sense of calmness and normality into the [craziest] weeks of our career.”
The couple tied the knot on 1 August 2025 in a small, pre-Olympics ceremony, with plans for a “big dream beach wedding” in 2026.
“With the Games being in Italy and the current Italian government making decisions/laws that hurt the LGBTQ+ community…it feels extra special to potentially compete as a married couple and shine a light on marriage equality while doing so,” the couple said in a joint Instagram post.
“We’re still having our big dream beach wedding next year… We really love heading into this huge season and possibly last Olympic Games as spouses…no matter what curve balls this year and the challenges ahead will throw at us, our love comes first.”
The official LGBTQ+ supporters group for the England football team has announced it will not have a “visible presence” at the 2026 Men’s World Cup due to what they describe as the United States’ “dangerous rollback of human rights”.
Three Lions Pride, which represents queer England fans, published a strongly worded statement on its website on Thursday (15 January), criticising the United States’ reversal and attacks on human rights, particularly LGBTQ+ rights.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is set to take place from 11 June to 19 July across the US, Canada and Mexico, with 16 cities hosting the tournament – 11 in the US, three in Mexico, and two in Canada.
The three countries were announced as joint hosts of the sporting competition back in 2018, news that – at the time – came as a relief to many LGBTQ+ football fans, as that year Russia was hosting, with Qatar was set to be in charge in 2022. Both Russia and Qatar have abysmal records on LGBTQ+ rights, with many queer fans choosing not to attend those tournaments in-person due to the restrictive laws and regressive attitudes.
However, in the years since that hosting decision, the United States’ reputation as a nation which is safe for LGBTQ+ travellers – indeed, same-sex marriage was legalised across the US in 2015 – has diminished under the Trump administration. According to the Spartacus Gay Travel Index, a widely shared global index that ranks countries on LGBTQ+ legal rights and safety conditions the United States dropped from 41st place in 2024 to 48th place in the 2025 edition.
In their statement, Three Lions Pride said the US, Canada and Mexico tournament has long been in the diaries of LGBTQ+ fans as they believed it would be an opportunity “for queer fans to enjoy a tournament focused more on the football rather than their personal safety”.
However, “that hope, that optimism, is well and truly shattered”, the organisation said.
“As a group that provides support and community for all the LGBT+ family, the rhetoric and dangerous rollback of human rights in the US has caused considerable concern to fans who were previously planning to attend the 2026 World Cup. There is a fear that our trans+ family would be at high risk of violence and discrimination, our butch lesbian family would be caught in the crosshairs of anti-trans legislation around bathrooms and our queer family generally would be a target for abuse.
“This is unsafe and unacceptable,” the statement reads.
Since returning to office in January 2025 for his second term, Donald Trump has enacted hundreds of executive orders that are reshaping the government and country in his image, with many of those attacking the LGBTQ+ community, trans people in particular.
“We cannot guarantee the safety and security of our members”
Three Lions Pride went on to say that a number of factors have contributed to this decision, including the US government’s travel bans on certain nations, US visas planning to require five years of social media history and the controversial deployment of ICE to various US cities – which at the start of the year lead to the death of a Renee Nicole Good, a mother and US citizen – alongside ticket prices.
“Three Lions Pride, in light of the issues around the tournament, will not be having a visible presence at the 2026 Men’s World Cup,” the group concludes.
“We cannot guarantee the safety and security of our members and cannot endorse the appalling decisions of FIFA around ticketing and safety by tacit acceptance through our visible attendance as a group.
“For any of our members, or queer fans generally, who are travelling or attending games at the World Cup – we will not abandon you. We will continue to provide advice and support remotely, including key contacts should any issues arise. Further details will be sent to members before the tournament, and will be available to non-members through our email and social media on request.
“This is a tournament that had so much promise. Less than six months out from the tournament it only promises to line FIFA’s corrupt pockets whilst TV viewers see empty seats and exclude loyal fans whilst creating a real risk of numerous human rights violations based on disability, race, gender and sexuality.
“Today, and every day, Gianni Infantino should feel ashamed.”
Ten people in France have been found guilty of cyberbullying first lady Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, by claiming she is secretly a transgender woman.
A court in Paris on Monday (5 January) ruled the defendants, which includes eight men and two women aged between 41 and 65, had spread false claims about her gender and sexuality alongside making “malicious remarks” about the 24-year age gap between the couple.
The court noted “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious” comments made by the defendants about Macron’s gender, amid a wide-ranging conspiracy theory that she is secretly a trans woman who was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux – which is, in fact, the name of her brother.
The court decision comes as the Macron’s pursue a separate defamation case in the United States against far-right influencer Candace Owens, who has repeatedly pushed the conspiracy theory about Brigitte’s gender including releasing an eight-part audio and video series on the topic. The defamation complaint, which is 219 pages long, was filed in Delaware state court in July 2025 and names both Owens and her business entities, which are incorporated in the Democratic state.
The defendants were also accused of linking the age gap between the French president, 48, and first lady, 72, to a peadophillic relationship. The couple met when he was a 15-year-old student at Le Providence, a Catholic school in northern France, and she was his drama teacher, then aged 39. They married in 2007 after Brigitte divorced her first husband, when Macron was 29 and she was 54. Their relationship has been the subject of much press and public scrutiny.
Brigitte Macron is the wife of Emmanuel Macron, the current President of France (Edward Berthelot/Getty Images)
Some of the posts made by the defendants were said to have been viewed tens of thousands of times.
The first lady did not attend the trial hearings in October but reportedly told investigators after filing the legal complaint that the false claims she is trans have “strongly affected” herself and loved ones.
Her daughter, 41-year-old Tiphaine Auziere, also testified that the faux claims had impacted her mother and their whole family, saying there had been a “deterioration of her health” and a “deterioration of her quality of life”.
“She’s constantly having to pay attention to what she wears, how she holds herself because she knows that her image can be distorted,” she said, as per French outlet Le Monde.
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Auziere also said: “Not a day or week goes by when someone does not talk about this to her … What is very hard for her are the repercussions on her family … Her grandchildren hear what is being said: ‘Your grandmother is lying’ or ‘Your grandmother is your grandfather.’
“This affects her a lot. She does not know how to stop it … She’s not elected, she has not sought anything, and she is permanently subjected to these attacks.
“I – as a daughter, a woman and a mother – would not wish her life on anyone.”
The defendants were given sentences that ranged from cyberbullying awareness training to suspended prison sentences of up to eight months.
At the time of writing, Brigitte Macron has not yet commented on the outcome of the case but speaking with TF1 on Sunday evening (4 January) defended her action against cyberbullying, saying such people are “playing with my family tree”.
“A birth certificate is not nothing. It is a father or a mother who goes to declare their child, who says who he is or who she is,” she said of the conspiracy theory about her gender.
“I want to help adolescents to fight against harassment, and if I do not set an example, it will be difficult.”
Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has signed a Russian-style anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda bill into law, with those who violate the legislation set to face fines or detention.
The country’s lower chamber of parliament passed the bill, which bans “information containing propaganda of pedophilia and/or non-traditional sexual orientation in public spaces, as well as in the media”, back in November.
The bill’s passage came despite urgent calls from international rights groups – including Access Now, Civil Rights Defenders, Eurasian Coalition on Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, International Partnership for Human Rights, and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee – for lawmakers to reject the legislation, saying it would “blatantly violate” Kazakhstan’s human rights commitments.
“Adopting an ‘LGBT propaganda ban’ would blatantly violate Kazakhstan’s international human rights commitments, including children’s rights to education, health, and information,” the group of seven organisations said in a statement published on 11 November.
“Discriminatory and rights-violating provisions like those being proposed have no place in any democratic society, which Kazakhstan aspires to be.”
The bill’s second reading was subsequently approved by senators on 18 December and went to Tokayev for signing into law, which he did so on 30 December.
Content that promotes “nontraditional sexual relations and pedophilia” is now officially banned in the country, with those who share it now facing up to 10 days in detention and financial fines of up to 144,500 Kazakh Tenge ($280/£208).
Despite homosexuality being decriminalised in Kazakhstan in 1998, LGBTQ+ rights in the central Asian country – which is an ally of Russia – are dire, with queer people having no protections from employment and housing discrimination, hate crime or conversion therapy. Same-sex marriage is also banned with co-habitation between couples defined as “not be recognised as the marriage (matrimony)” whilst trans people can only access gender-affirming care if they are over the age of 21 and undergo sterilisation.
Many members of the LGBTQ+ community in the country have reported experiencing assaults, threats, blackmail, and extortion at the hands of law enforcement officers, as well as society wide discrimination.
The BBC has allegedly issued a “formal, full and unconditional apology” to a former radio presenter for “repeated incidents of homophobic and discriminatory abuse” which he received while working at the corporation.
Jack Murley, who worked as a presenter for BBC Radio Cornwall for five years, was sacked in 2024 for breaching the BBC’s editorial and social media policies with posts that criticised cuts to local radio and which the broadcaster said failed to be impartial.
Murley took the BBC to employment tribunal in which he alleged he was discriminated against for being a gay man as well as a union representative for the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).
However, in February of this year, employment judge Alastair Smail ruled Murley was not discriminated against and in a subsequent hearing in October judgedthe BBC’s dismissal had been “reasonable”.
A separate internal investigation was carried out by the BBC and allegedly found there had been several instances of Murley experiencing homophobic abuse at the hands of BBC employees and there were “managerial failings” in handling this.
In an update published on social media, Murley said on Thursday (18 December) that he met “in-person” with senior members of the BBC’s management to “receive a formal, full and unconditional apology for repeated incidents of homophobic and discriminatory abuse that I was subjected to while working at the Corporation”.
“The abuse occurred over a number of years, from individuals inside and outside the BBC, and was thoroughly documented in a high-level whistleblowing report compiled by the BBC’s Corporate Investigations Team,” Murley captioned a lengthy post on Instagram detailing his experiences.
“I have known about that report for some time, along with how serious its conclusions are.
“And today, the BBC has confirmed to me that it acknowledges and accepts – without reservation – every single one of that report’s conclusions, and the repeated incidents of homophobic and discriminatory abuse that the Corporation’s own investigators found.”
Murley added: “I’ve written more above – and, as I’m sure you can imagine, it wasn’t easy for me to relive these experiences.
“But for two years, I’ve had my credibility questioned in the most public way possible when I alleged that I was subjected to repeated incidents of homophobic, discriminatory and inappropriate behaviour while working for the BBC.
“Today, the BBC has admitted those incidents occurred – and apologised unconditionally for them. I wasn’t lying. It did happen. I was telling the truth. And today, the BBC has accepted that I was telling the truth as well.”
Murley concluded it will take him “some time to process this” but added: “Your support – today, over the past two years, always – has meant everything.
“So, thank you.”
A spokesperson for the BBC said on the matter: “We welcomed the tribunal judgement, which was widely reported on in October, and won’t be commenting further.”
