Following a playbook from Hungary and Russia’s leaders, Slovakia’s populist government on Friday passed an illiberal ragbag of measures in a constitutional amendment that defines sex as binary, bans adoption by same-sex couples, outlaws surrogacy, and asserts the E.U. member’s “national sovereignty in cultural and ethical matters.”
Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose coalition of populist, leftist, and nationalist parties has faced mounting demonstrations in the country’s capital, Bratislava, promoted the amendment as a bulwark against liberal ideology that was “spreading like cancer” in the central European state.
His populist-nationalist government argued the amendment was necessary to protect “traditional values.”
Fico said he would celebrate with a shot of liquor following the amendment’s knife-edge passage in the 150-seat Slovak National Council on Friday.
“This isn’t a little dam, or just a regular dam – this is a great dam against progressivism,” he declared to followers.
Fico leads a precarious coalition of parties across the political spectrum. His own Smer-Social Democracy party has morphed into a nationalist party far removed from the progressive values of Europe’s center-left mainstream that it was founded on.
Smer was suspended from the Party of European Socialists in 2023 after forming a coalition government with the country’s far-right Slovak National Party. It’s expected to be expelled at a gathering of European Socialists next month.
“The Slovak constitution has fallen victim to Robert Fico’s plan to dismantle the opposition and divert attention from the real problems of society, as well as the austerity measures he had to pass,” Beata Balagova, editor-in-chief of the Slovak daily SME, told the BBC.
“Fico does not genuinely care about gender issues, the ban on surrogate motherhood, or even adoptions by LGBTQ people,” she added.
Fico has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin four times in the last year.
Passage of the amendment was in doubt as late as Thursday.
The amendment required a three-fifths majority in the 150-seat National Council, or 90 votes, while Fico’s coalition only comprises 78 members. In the end, 12 opposition members, including several from former Prime Minister Igor Matovič’s movement, added their votes.
Igor Matovič described them as traitors.
Amnesty International said the vote brings Slovakia’s legal system closer to the authoritarian governments of Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Putin’s Russia.
“Today, the Slovak government chose to follow the lead of countries, such as Hungary, whose policies have led to an erosion of human rights,” it said in a statement.
Legal scholars in Slovakia have said that the amendment enshrining the primacy of the Slovak constitution over E.U. law sets up a direct challenge to the European Union and will doubtless lead to a showdown.
“Seeking to disapply specific rights because they touch upon ‘national identity’ would be fundamentally incompatible with the Slovak Republic’s international obligations,” said Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty before the vote.
The bodies of three trans women have been found dumped on the side of the road in Karachi, Pakistan.
The gruesome find was made in the Memon Goth area of the city, the largest in Pakistan, on Sunday (21 September). Police spokesman Javed Ahmed Abro told the AFP news agency that the bodies were “bullet-riddled”. All three victims were shot at close range.
Syed Murad Ali Shah, the provincial chief minister for Sindh, the province in which Karachi is located, said: “Transgender persons are a vulnerable segment of society and we must all give them dignity and respect.”
Meanwhile, activists in the region described the deaths as an attempt to “silence” trans voices.
Trans rights campaigner Bindiya Rana told The Associated Press that violence aimed at trans people in Pakistan “is not new and it is deeply embedded in our society”, adding: “If the police fail to identify the killers, we will announce a countrywide protest.”
Fellow activist and Karachi councillor Shahzadi Rai said: “When hate speech and campaigns are carried out so openly, outcomes like this are inevitable. Even though the state and police are on our side, killings are still occurring, which indicates that deep-rooted hatred against transgender people persists in our society.”
Pakistan’s transgender community faces “deep-rooted hate”. (ASIF HASSAN/AFP via Getty Images)
According to the BBC, a report in the medical journal The Lancet in 2023 claimed that 90 per cent of transgender people in Pakistan have faced physical assaults.
A spokesperson for rights group Gender Interactive Alliance identified the women as “khawaja sira persons”, a term referring to the third-gender community in Pakistan, and cited an attack just days earlier.
“These back-to-back tragedies show that the khawaja sira community is being systematically targeted. This is not just about individual killings, it’s an attempt to terrorise and silence an entire community,” they said.
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Gender Interactive Alliance set out a series of demands, including calling on the police to conduct “immediate, transparent investigations and arrest all perpetrators”, the introduction of a specific protection unit for trans people, and new legislation to combat hate crime.
“The khawaja sira community will not remain silent, our lives are as valuable as every other citizens’,” the spokesperson added. “We demand justice. We demand protection.”
Despite being able to self-identify under the 2018 Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, the transgender community continues to face discrimination, abuse and harassment in the South Asian country.
Two trans women living in Mardan, a city about 30 miles east of Peshawar, were killed in their home in 2024, and a year earlier, Marvia Malik, the country’s first trans newsreader, survived an assassination attempt when two gunmen opened fire while she was at home.
Far-right Polish politician Dawid Szóstak has announced that he will leave his anti-LGBTQ+ Confederation political party after revealing his relationship with intersex model Michalina Manios, who was a finalist on the 2011 season of Poland’s Next Top Model.
During her appearance on the show, Manios explained that she was assigned a male identity at birth and was raised in that gender identity until she was 18 years old, something she said felt like being imprisoned. At that point, she then legally changed her gender to female.
“Functionally, I developed as a woman, but unfortunately, I was assigned a male identity, not any other,” Manios said, according to Euro News. “My body and mind developed toward femininity, but my genitals didn’t. I was ashamed to go to physical education classes because I was embarrassed.”
Intersex individuals have innate variations in physical traits that differ from typical expectations for male or female bodies, including variations in reproductive organs, hormones, or chromosome patterns. An estimated 1.7% of infants are born intersex — roughly the same number of people born with red hair.
In announcing their relationship, Szóstak said that he and Manios met online. “I liked the photos Michalina posted,” he said. “They radiated a lot of energy and femininity.” He also said they bonded over their shared Catholic faith and respect for traditions.
“Everything happened quite naturally. We became a couple,” he explained. “We have respect and understanding for each other.”
Szóstak remained in his political party during the start of their relationship. In 2019, Confederation party leader Sławomir Mentzen said, “We stand against Jews, homosexuals… taxes, and also the European Union!”
Szóstak mentioned his leaving of the party in a recent interview, saying of him and his partner, “We want to focus on what’s important,” meaning their relationship and well-being over political battles, Edge Media Network reported. He deleted his social media account after publicly discussing his relationship with Manios.
“Visibility is crucial,” said a spokesperson from Poland’s leading LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, the Campaign Against Homophobia, regarding the couple’s relationship. “When public figures share their truths, it chips away at stigma and ignorance.”
At the start of 2020, Poland’s anti-LGBTQ+ Law and Justice Party (PiS) began declaring regions across the country as “LGBT-free zones” in an attempt to remove LGBTQ+ “propaganda” from the public as a form of “Western decadence” that “threaten[s] our identity, threaten[s] our nation, threaten[s] the Polish state.” Both the U.S. and the European Union condemned the zones as violations of human rights.
By early 2020, roughly one-third of the country had established “LGBT-free zones.” However, the PiS party suffered defeat in the 2023 national elections. Then, in 2025, the party’s last of the state-sanctioned anti-LGBTQ+ zones was finally eliminated.
Burkina Faso’s Transitional Legislative Assembly passed a law on September 1, 2025, that makes consensual same-sex relations a criminal offense, a major setback for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Under this new law, people found guilty of homosexuality could face two to five years in prison, as well as fines. The law violates LGBT people’s rights to non-discrimination and privacy.
The law is being enacted amid shrinking civic and political space and a major crackdown by the military junta on the political opposition, media, and peaceful dissent.
Until now, Burkina Faso has never had a law criminalizing consensual same-sex relations. Unlike many other African countries, it did not inherit a colonial penal code that outlawed so-called sodomy.
Passed as part of the broader Persons and Family Code, the criminalization provision was adopted unanimously by the assembly’s 71 members. It also would provide prison sentences and fines for “behavior likely to promote homosexual practices and similar practices.”
Burkina Faso’s justice and human rights minister, Edasso Rodrigue Bayala, said the new legislation responded “to the deep aspirations of our society” and showed “respect for cultural values.”
Recent judgments in other African countries like Botswana, Mauritius, and Namibia have confirmed that laws that criminalize same-sex conduct violate the privacy and non-discrimination rights of LGBT people.
Beyond violating basic rights, such laws foster violence and abuses against LGBT people. In 2014, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights strongly urged African Union member states to “end all acts of violence and abuse” targeted against persons due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Burkina Faso’s junta president, Ibrahim Traoré, should not sign the Persons and Family Code into law. Instead, he should refer it back to the assembly for revision. The revised code needs to respect the rights of non-discrimination and privacy of everyone in Burkina Faso regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
In the north-east of Ukraine, a mere 18 miles from the Russian border, sits the city of Kharkiv, home to Kharkiv Pride.
Since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the country’s second-largest city has faced relentless strikes by Russian forces with more than 8,000 of its buildings – including schools and homes – destroyed, thousands of people killed and injured whilst countless more have fled westward to Kyiv or abroad for safety.
But despite the on-going war, the destruction, the uncertainty, Pride persists.
Pride continues in Kharkiv, despite the war (Christina Pashkina)
When the conflict began, Kharkiv was quickly identified as one of Russia’s main targets given its proximity to the border, history and infrastructure.
A traditionally Russian-speaking city, Kharkiv was a major centre during the Russian Empire and once served as the capital of Soviet Ukraine between 1919 and 1934.
The city and the wider region of Kharkiv Oblast, which has become increasingly known for its agricultural production and also holds Ukraine’s largest natural gas reserves, unsurprisingly contribute significantly to Ukraine’s economy.
Capturing the Kharkiv – home to 1.4 million before the start of conflict – would be both a strategic and symbolic victory for Putin.
When Russian forces crossed the border in February they captured several towns and villages across Kharkiv Oblast as they made their way towards Kharkiv – but were unable to take the city.
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In those early days of the war, Kharkiv became a powerful symbol of Ukrainian resistance and was one of several cities declared as a Hero City of Ukraine by president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Despite Kharkiv remaining firmly in Ukrainian control the city has been continuously bombarded with shelling, with residents attempting to live their day-to-day lives amongst air sirens, blackouts and ruins.
For LGBTQ+ people living in Kharkiv, there is a further dimension to the fear residents feel at the prospect of the city falling to Putin: Russia’s deeply queerphobic national policies.
Volunteers at KharkivPride are supporting both the LGBTQ+ community and the war effort (Christina Pashkina)
“It is my biggest fear,” Anna Sharyhina, the co-organiser of KharkivPride and president of the Sphere Women`s Association, told PinkNews when asked about a list Russia allegedly has of LGBTQ+ activists, “because I know that it means sexual violence. It means physical violence. They just beat people for hours.
“We have, for instance, a colleague from the LGBT+ Military who was in captivity for 20 months. I have no idea what I should do in that case, it makes me so scared. I feel frozen when I think about that.”
In 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court said that the “international public LGBT movement” – which is not a specific organisation but rather a descriptor for LGBTQ+ activism in general – had been using “signs and manifestations” of an “extremist nature” which included what it describes as “incitement of social and religious discord”.
In 2022, after Russia invaded, KharkivPride held a MetroPride on the city’s subway (Christina Pashkina)
Sharyhina admitted she tries not to think about the threats she and others face from Russia, instead focusing her work for her community – LGBTQ+ and Ukrainian alike.
“We continue our fight and I continue that fight, even if I burn out,” she said, adding that it is not just that she does not want to be in the closet, she “can’t, anymore”.
“The only way I have is to fight. I am really tired but Ukraine, it is my home, and I really need our country to [be its own], not Russian because we are not Russian.”
“Our partners advised us to go from Kharkiv to other cities,” she said, “but we stay here and we continue our work.”
“It was important to continue our fight”
When the war came, KharkivPride, which began in 2019, was unable to go ahead with its usual activities.
Months after the invasion though, the Pride organisation instead held a MetroPride where LGBTQ+ people powerfully and resiliently marched through the city’s subway – protected from both the Russian airstrikes and the far-right groups who would normally seek to violently counter-protest.
That Pride, amidst the harrowing, early days of the conflict, was about still being in the public eye, with Sharyhina explaining “it was really important to continue our fight, continue to be visible in that situation”.
She told PinkNews initially the LGBTQ+ community chose to keep silent about its fight for equal rights when the invasion happened and focused instead on securing Ukrainian independence. But, after they were accused by certain quarters of not fighting for Ukraine, Sharyhina concluded LGBTQ+ people“can’t be silent again”.
This year’s KharkivPride celebrations are taking place between 30 August and 6 September, under the slogan: “Together for equality and victory”.
AutoPride will see a fleet of rainbow coloured cars travel through the city (Christina Pashkina)
On 30 and 31 August the group hosted a PrideFest, followed by a commemoration of fallen LGBTQ+ military personnel on 5 September and will conclude with an AutoPride on 6 September – which will see a convoy of cars decked out in rainbows travel through the city.
More than half a decade on from the first KharkivPride, when the group “collected people from zero” because the queer community was not publicly active, organisers continue to mobilise the community.
“Our community centre is a safe space for LGBT people. When people come to the community centre they feel freedom and like they can be themselves and proud of it. They don’t feel scared about coming out.
“When you have a place and know people like you – homosexual, queer or trans people – you can feel yourself,” Sharyhina said, adding LGBTQ+ residents feel “inspired” by that space.
“After that, they come to Pride because they are ready to say something about their rights.”
Beau Lamarre-Condon, 30, entered a plea of not guilty on Tuesday to two counts of domestic violence-related murder and one count of breaking and entering with the intent to commit an indictable offense. He stands accused of killing Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in February, 2024 at the couple’s shared house in Sydney.
Police believe that Lamarre-Condon used his service Glock firearm to fatally shoot the two shortly before 10 a.m. on February 19. Lamarre-Condon was reportedly previously in a sexual relationship with Baird, with investigators theorizing that Lamarre-Condon killed the couple because he was angry Baird ended their relationship.
Lamarre-Condon was arrested four days later on February 23 following a nationwide manhunt. He revealed the location of Baird and Davies’ bodies to law enforcement, leading to their discovery on February 27 at a remote rural property in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales (NSW). The two had been stuffed into surfboard bags and hastily covered with debris.
Baird, a television host and red carpet reporter for Network 10’s morning show until its cancellation, and Davies, a flight attendant for Qantas Airlines, were beloved within the local LGBTQ+ community. Their murders took place during Mardi Gras, the Australian version of Pride Month, which commemorates the violent police raid of a gay Mardi Gras celebration in 1978.
The event has been likened to the Stonewall Riots and is considered the beginning of the country’s modern queer rights movement. In response to the murders, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras board asked NSW not to march in the 2024 parade, saying that their presence “could intensify the current feelings of sorrow and distress.”
If convicted, Lamarre-Condon could face a sentence of lifetime imprisonment for each murder, plus an additional penalty of up to 20 years in prison for breaking and entering.
Ottawa’s Pride parade ground to a halt on Sunday afternoon when Queers4Palestine protesters blocked the route and demanded to negotiate with parade organizers over their stance on the war in Gaza.
After nearly an hour of talks, and with the route still blocked, the two sides failed to reach an accommodation. Capital Pride, the event’s organizers, decided to cancel the remainder of the march.
“We are bummed, of course, but we had a blast for the block and a half that we walked,” said Stefania Wheelhouse, who marched in the short-lived parade with a local theater company.
“We sang, we spread the word,” she told the Ottawa Citizen. “Everyone was so positive, so it was still a net win for us,” Wheelhouse said.
The atmosphere was less positive for parade and protest leaders, who tried and failed to come to terms over Israel’s continuing occupation of Gaza in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks, and Capital Pride’s response.
Last year, the group was resolute in its support of Palestinians, issuing a letter that condemned both the “acts of terrorism” committed on October 7 by Hamas and Israel’s “endless and brutal campaign in Gaza,” which the letter said had caused the deaths of “innocent Palestinians.”
The Jewish Federation of Ottawa called the 2024 statement “antisemitic” and vowed to boycott last summer’s Pride parade in response. Other groups, and Ottawa’s mayor, Mark Sutcliffe, withdrew their support and sponsorship as well.
This year, that statement quietly disappeared from Capital Pride’s website.
“This is what a village looks like!” the pro-Palestinian protesters chanted from Parliament Hill in the Canadian capital, a reference to this year’s “We Are a Village” parade theme. The parade ground to a halt there, Q4P said, with the ascent of Grand Marshall Patience Plush.
Protesters unfurled Palestinian flags and a giant pink-and-black banner that read “All of us or none of us” and “Stonewall was an intifada.” Many signs read, “No pride in genocide.”
Demonstrators also chanted slogans including “Free, free Palestine!” “Long live the intifada!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
Queers4Palestine issued several demands of Capital Pride, including a commitment to join the long-running boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.
They also demanded that Mayor Sutcliffe and other elected officials publicly apologize for the 2024 boycott of Capital Pride and called on them to “stand with us and all oppressed peoples, including Palestinians.”
“We are in the parade today to affirm very clearly that our Pride is not for sale, and that 2SLGBTQIA+ communities will not accept sponsors and elected officials dictating what we stand for, how we celebrate ourselves, and how we claim our space,” a press release from the group said.
“CP had multiple discussions with those who boycotted over the last year, not with Q4P and allies. Why prioritize corporations and right-wing politicians over the queer community?” the group asked.
“CP’s board voted to publish last year’s solidarity statement. This year’s removal was not voted on. One board member even quit in protest.
“Mayor Sutcliffe and others boycotted Pride last year, hurting our community financially. Now he wants to show up without apology — using Pride for political gain,” the group said.
Capital Pride can’t say it wasn’t aware of Q4P’s demands. Sunday’s stoppage came after at least a week of public calls to reinstate the statement.
But Capital Pride organizers slow-walked a response, as former sponsors and Ottawa’s mayor returned in the absence of the polarizing document.
Belatedly, the group said it stood by the views expressed in last year’s letter about Israel’s actions in Gaza, and said the statement was missing online due to a website “refresh,” reiterating Executive Director Callie Metler’s description of the removal as part of the organization’s annual process of “refreshing their online environment.”
By that time, the parade had launched and was aborted.
Capital Pride released a “Clarification on Parade cancellation” message to social media that said that Q4P was marching in the parade as “guests invited by the parade garnd marshall,” before the group forced the parade to stop.
“As a community organization, we strive to engage with our community members in good faith and to balance the various interests and demands that are made of us while also organizing one of the largest festivals in our city,” the statement said. “Throughout the summer, we had several meetings with Q4P along with other community groups to discuss the issues that are important to them.
“Unfortunately, the group refused to have a meaningful discussion about how to move forward. After over an hour of attempting to resolve the stoppage, it became clear that Q4P was unwilling to engage in a good faith conversation and was insistent on misrepresenting our discussions.”
“Rerouting the parade mid-way was not possible and the street closures for the parade route were only permitted to 4:00 pm. Given the constraints we were facing and the nature of the discussion with Q4P, we were left with no other choice than to cancel the remainder of the parade.”
The message said that other parts of Ottawa’s Pride festivities would continue as planned.
In a statement, Mayor Sutcliffe said it was “deeply regrettable that a group of activists chose to block the parade, ultimately leading Capital Pride officials to cancel the event.”
“My heart goes out to the many people in our city who were deprived of the opportunity to participate in this celebration of joy, resilience, and community.”
Nepal has held its first Pride since President Donald Trump cut foreign aid funding. Hundreds of LGBTQ+ people and allies rallied in support of the queer community at Nepal’s Pride parade 2025.
During the annual Gai Jatra festival in the capital of Kathmandu, which honours relatives passed away throughout the year, the LGBTQ+ community and allies came together as part of Nepal Pride 2025 to advocate for queer rights.
Hundreds of people attended the event on Sunday (10 August), holding Pride, Trans Pride, Lesbian Pride and Asexual Pride flags, while signs proclaimed, “Pride for all intersectional queer identities”, “Transgender men are men”, and “Transgender women are women”. A large Progress Pride flag was also carried down the street by a group of people attending the event.
The country’s LGBTQ+ community has, in particular, been hit by Trump’s cuts to foreign aid, which saw over 80 per cent of USAID programs being cancelled as of March this year.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community participated in the Nepal Pride parade 2025. (Ambir Tolang/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Many help centres for Nepal’s LGBTQ+ community have remained closed since USAID was dismantled, leaving thousands without support, as per the Independent. The organisation partnered with local help centres to roll out HIV prevention and care and safe sex counselling.
Funds from USAID were said to be “vital” for the day-to-day operation of the centres and clinics, which helped distribute free condoms, sexual health screenings, and follow-up treatment for people living with HIV. The USAID office in Nepal is currently closed.
Cuts also affected LGBTQ+-inclusive programs in India and the UK.
LGBTQ+ people and supporters rallied for “Pride for all intersectional queer identities” at Nepal Pride parade 2025. (Ambir Tolang/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In 2023, Nepal’s Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage could be legally registered. Last year, a lesbian couple made history as the first sapphic pair to have their marriage recognised in Nepal.
Nepal is the second Asian country to legalise same-sex marriage, following Taiwan, whose parliament passed a law to legalise equality in 2019.
“American voters, and to some extent the American media, don’t understand how many years the Republicans have been working in order to get us to this point,” Clinton said. “It took 50 years to overturn Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court will hear a case about gay marriage. My prediction is they will do to gay marriage what they did to abortion. They will send it back to the states.”
WATCH: @HillaryClinton predicts to @JessicaTarlov that SCOTUS will overturn marriage equality and “send it back to the states” (like abortion) — leading to a ban in much of 🇺🇸 On Trump & Republicans stealing seats: “they don’t want a fair fight” Full: https://youtu.be/L4h9wllCtLo?si=QSnQgAPUvel8b9HI
If the Supreme Court reverses Obergefell , marriages between same-sex couples will still be recognized federally under the Respect for Marriage Act. Signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022, the act mandates that the federal government recognizes same-sex and interracial marriages, and that all states recognize those performed in other states.
The act does not require states to allow marriages between same-sex couples. As state bans on these unions were struck down in Obergefell, such bans could be enacted again if Obergefell is overturned. If that were to happen, the fallout would likely be similar to that after Roe v. Wade‘s reversal, in which red states immediately enacted bans.
While the Supreme Court has made no official move to reconsider marriage equality, nine states have recently introduced resolutions asking the court to hear the case again. None have yet passed, and even if they were to, the resolutions are nonbinding — meaning they carry no legal weight, and the court is not obligated to hear them.
However, some justices have voiced opposition to Obergefell even after the ruling. When the conservative majority created by Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, Clarence Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion at the time that the court should also revisit and overrule decisions that prevent state restrictions on contraception, marriage equality, sodomy, and other private consensual sex acts, calling the rulings “demonstrably erroneous.”
“Anybody in a committed relationship out there in the LGBTQ community, you ought to consider getting married,” Clinton continued. “‘Cause I don’t think they’ll undo existing marriages, but I fear that they will undo the national right.”
The Polari Prize has announced it will “pause” its 2025 awards competition following controversy over its inclusion of author and self-proclaimed ‘TERF’ John Boyne in its long list.
In a statement issued on Monday (18 August), organisers of the LGBTQ+ writing award confirmed that this year’s proceedings had been put on hold in the wake of the backlash, which has seen other nominated authors withdraw from the competition.
Public backlash was ignited earlier this month after the Polari Prize included Earth, the latest novel from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas author Boyne, on its long list.
In July, Boyne described himself as a “TERF” – a trans exclusionary radical feminist – in defence of his friend and fellow author, JK Rowling, whose views on trans issues are well-documented.
Writing in a column for the Irish Independent, Boyne expressed support for the Harry Potter author, claiming that “grown women” who publicly disagree with her are “astonishingly complicit in their own erasure” while comparing them to characters in The Handmaid’s Tale who are “ready to pin a handmaiden down as her husband rapes her.”
Author Sacha Coward, who was nominated for his book Queer as Folklore, was among those who withdrew from the competition in protest at Boyne’s inclusion, writing on X/Twitter that he could not “continue in good faith” to participate in the event.
Multiple nominated authors had withdrawn from the Polari Prize 2025 over the inclusion of ‘TERF’ author John Boyne (Polari Prize)
The Polari Prize issued several statements in the face of the backlash, stating it was committed to the principles of “diversity and inclusion” while defending Boyne’s inclusion as a decision based on “merit as judged by our jury.”
In its latest statement, Polari acknowledged that the awards ceremony had been “overshadowed by hurt and anger”, which it described as “painful and distressing for all concerned.”
The organisation wrote that it plans to undertake a review of its policies, including its “aims and values”, to better support LGBTQ+ authors from across the community, including trans and non-binary people.
“Many discussions have been undertaken over the last two weeks – with authors, judges, stakeholders, and funders – about the impacts and ramifications of the longlisting of John Boyne’s novel and how we can learn from this experience and move forwards.
“We extend our heartfelt apologies to everyone affected this year, for the disappointment and despair this has caused.”
