Hungary, led by anti-LGBTQ+ authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is seeking to ban the Pride celebration in Budapest and use facial recognition software to identify those who attend the event if it is held in defiance of the ban. And Donald Trump has emboldened Hungary to make the move, Hungarian officials say.
Hungary is also considering a constitutional amendment that would say the nation recognizes only two genders, male and female, mirroring an executive order issued by Trump.
A bill to ban the Pride march was introduced in Parliament Monday, the Associated Press reports. It “would make it an offense to hold or attend events that violate Hungary’s contentious ‘child protection’ legislation, which prohibits the ‘depiction or promotion’ of homosexuality to minors,” according to the AP. The country enacted that law in 2021.
The bill introduced Monday is likely to pass, as Orbán’s ruling coalition has two-thirds of the seats in Parliament.
Orbán, a close ally of Trump, had “hinted at banning the event in his annual state of the nation address” in February, Agence France-Presse reports. His chief of staff said Trump’s election as U.S. president had helped facilitate further anti-LGBTQ+ moves in Hungary.
“We believe that Pride marching through downtown, now that the U.S. ambassador can no longer lead it, should not be tolerated by the country,” Chief of Staff Gergely Gulyas told reporters at the time, according to AFP.
David Pressman, the American ambassador to Hungary under President Joe Biden, resigned in January, a few days ahead of Trump’s inauguration. He had been a fierce critic of Orbán’s administration, with the criticism returned in kind.
A new ambassador has not been named, but Robert Palladino, a diplomat who served in the first Trump administration, is chargé d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Hungary, leading it until an ambassador is chosen.
The “two sexes” constitutional amendment was introduced last Tuesday by Fidesz, the nation’s ruling party. The party also proposed an amendment “emphasizing the protection of children’s physical, mental and moral development over all other rights,” Reuters reports, and this could be used to target the Pride event as well.
Orbán has led Hungary since 2010, but his support may be eroding. He is up for reelection in 2026, and there is “a surging new opposition party posing the strongest challenge yet to his rule,” Reuters notes.
As the new U.S. government takes shape, we are bracing for an uphill fight to defend the safety and dignity of at-risk LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers. This new era of leadership threatens to erode the progress LGBTQI+ and immigrant rights groups have made in securing pathways to protection for LGBTQI+ refugees.
Within 24 hours of taking office, President Trump signed an executive order that suspended the U.S. Refugee Admission Program, halting the processing of LGBTQI+ refugees already approved for resettlement, and leaving vulnerable and displaced queer and trans individuals stranded in dangerous and precarious conditions.
It is critical that we leverage our strength, resilience, and expertise as a community to act swiftly and decisively to lead long-term sustainable initiatives that safeguard the rights and protection of forcibly displaced LGBTQI+ people. Access to safety — a fundamental human right — is being politicized. And, we refuse to stand by. The fight to protect LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers is more urgent than ever. As James Baldwin said: “There is never a time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.”
Over the past two years, we’ve galvanized the LGBTQI+ and ally community, and cultivated partnerships with grassroots organizations, volunteers and local governments to expand our Communities of Care program across the U.S., building safer, welcoming communities for LGBTQI+ people affected by forced displacement. Together, we created pathways to safety and belonging for LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers, providing them with the resources they need to thrive. These networks have transformed lives, creating safe havens for LGBTQI+ individuals fleeing persecution. But this progress is under attack. And, we have made a commitment to mobilize significantly more volunteers this year, increase access to resources for grassroots organizations holding the line for LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers, and build a firewall of support around our community.
The new administration’s anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQI+ agenda will make it harder than ever for queer and trans newcomers to find safety and belonging in the US. We cannot let this happen.
Here’s how we can make an impact together:
Demand Protection for Refugees & Asylum Seekers: Vulnerable LGBTQI+ people can’t access safety if the programs don’t exist. Urge leaders at every level of government to uphold the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, and resume Welcome Corps, a program that leverages the support and commitment of private citizens, not ‘taxpayer resources’. Solidarity makes a difference in the lives of people and communities that have been under attack.
Volunteer with Communities of Care: Be part of the fight by welcoming LGBTQI+ newcomers and helping them access the resources and social integration they urgently need. So many lives have been transformed because of the kindness and commitment of volunteers in our community.
Fuel the Fight: Your donation powers vital programs like Communities of Care. Without critical funding, we cannot sustain the resources and advocacy that LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers need.
The stakes have never been higher. Anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQI+ policies will endanger lives and dismantle the progress we’ve fought so hard to achieve. This is a moment of reckoning, and we must act with urgency.
The Time Is Always Now. Together, we can resist injustice, protect the most vulnerable, and ensure that every LGBTQI+ person has the right to live safely, freely, and with dignity.
The killing of the ‘world’s first out gay imam’ Muhsin Hendricks has sent shockwaves across the world, particularly among LGBTQ+ Muslims.
Hendricks was killed in an execution-style hit in broad daylight on Saturday morning (15 February) after the car he was travelling in, near the coastal city of Gqeberha in the country’s Eastern Cape province, was ambushed. He was 57.
A hooded figure was captured on CCTV getting out of a pick-up truck that had blocked Hendricks’ vehicle before firing shots through the window.
There have been no arrests but deputy justice minister Andries Nel has said the authorities are “hot on the heels” of the suspects. While the exact motive for the killing remains unclear, the incident has left LGBTQ+ Muslims fearful.
Speaking to PinkNews about the killing of the South African imam, UK-based queer Muslim Al asked if someone like Hendricks, who was known around the world, can be killed out in the open, then “what about the rest of us?”
Al went on to say: “People have framed this as an issue that occurs in other spaces, not in the UK, [but] too often queer Muslims in the UK are suffering death threats, abuse, physical violence [and] torture at the hands of family and the greater community.
“Young queer Muslims grow up with this fear – and even as we grow into old age we still live with this fear – that one day something like this could happen to us. When it’s happened to the first openly queer Imam, it has been a realisation that it can happen to any of us.”
Imam Muhsin Hendricks was shot dead when the car he was travelling in was ambushed. (RODGER BOSCH/AFP via Getty Images)
A trailblazer in religiously conservative circles, Hendricks was dubbed the world’s first openly gay imam, after he came out in the 90s.
He went on to create The Inner Circle, later known as Al-Fitrah Foundation, which worked to support LGBTQ+ Muslims reconciling their faith and identities and sought to educate other imams, helping them develop an inclusive understanding of gender and sexuality in Islam.
“A lot of unlearning needs to be done [but] it is amazing what the imams come up with,” he said in 2020. “They bring research and context and match it with the religious text, and there are these ‘aha!’ moments.”
Al, a member of the team at Imaan, the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ Muslim charity, said Hendricks was a personal friend and his death had come as a “deep shock” to the community, leaving some feeling the “need to go back in the closet”.
He added: “[Members of the community] feel they need to conform. The trauma that comes with that is so problematic because the work of people like Muhsin Hendricks, in particular, [allowed] people to live [as] their authentic selves.
“Nobody should be left outside their family, community or faith group, and divinity should not be exclusive to one group. Everybody should have access to that, all across the UK and globally.”
“We feel silenced, our words are not doing justice to our feelings.”
In the wake of Hendricks’ death, Imaan is directly supporting the LGBTQ+ community by continuing its many services therapy sessions, in-person and online meet-ups and support groups.
Hendricks’ killing bore all the hallmarks of a hit. (Facebook/ Muhsin Hendricks)
Two leading Muslim organisations in South Africa, the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) and the United Ulama Council of South Africa (UUCSA), condemned the killing but continue to denounce his teachings on gender and sexuality in Islam, reflecting the view held by many that the Quran prohibits same-sex relationships.
It was initially reported that Hendricks was shot after performing a lesbian wedding ceremony, but his Al-Ghurbaah Foundation released a statementrevealing that he was in Gqeberha to officiate two interfaith heterosexual marriages.
As the BBC’s Johannesburg-based reporter Khanyisile Ngcobo noted, traditional imams in South Africa rarely perform marriages between a Muslim and non-Muslim couple. It is another way Hendricks was at odds with more conservative religious leaders.
Al said the responses of the MJC and UUCSA were the “most hopeful” they have seen among a wave of hatred from within, and outside, the Muslim community. He noted that there had been no similar messages from Islamic organisations in the UK.
“I’d love to see the most major mosques and institutions here talking about this and really taking ownership of how queer Muslims are rejected and not accepted in those spaces, and what they’re going to do to make sure they stop alienating us,” Al said.
“[The] less educated [are] still mocking the cause and mocking his death. This is painful to us.”
Members of Imaan at a EuroPride parade. (Gideon Mendel/Corbis via Getty)
At the time, non-binary practising Muslim Ferhan Khan said the event challenged the idea that Islam was “inherently queer-phobic”, adding: “This is an assumption that’s not necessarily based on fact because if you read the parts of the Quran that supposedly condemn homosexuality, it’s not clear cut.
“For a lot of queer Muslims, this is a difficult one because they might want to retain their faith. They might want to simply be in a space where they are validated for being both queer and Muslim, and that’s what Imaan is doing: serving up a space where you can be… validated for that choice.”
Germany has issued a warning that transgender and nonbinary travelers may face difficulties entering the United States under the Trump administration’s new policies. The warning, first reported by the German newspaper Rheinische Poston February 26, advises travelers to check with U.S. authorities before making their trip as the federal government moves to erase legal recognition of transgender people and restrict their ability to update official documents.
A German official confirmed to The Advocate that “transgender and nonbinary individuals traveling from Germany to the United States should contact the responsible U.S. authorities prior to travel to the U.S. to inquire about current entry regulations.” The advisory follows an executive order from President Donald Trump on the day of his inauguration on January 20, mandating that all government-issued documents, including passports, reflect only an individual’s sex assigned at birth. The state department policy instructs consular officers to flag applications where there is “reasonable suspicion” that an applicant is trans, a move critics say amounts to a ban on transgender visa holders.
The State Department, in response to The Advocate’s inquiry, defended the changes, stating that “each visa applicant is required to establish his or her credibility, identity, and purpose of travel to the satisfaction of the consular officer.” A State Department spokesperson added that consular officers “have the authority to request any information or documents necessary to establish the applicant’s identity and qualifications for the visa.”
“This includes any time there is a discrepancy in the identity documents that an applicant provides,” the spokesperson continued. “To verify an applicant’s sex at birth, the consular officer may consider documents provided by the applicant, including his or her passport or birth certificate and any others as needed.”
The spokesperson also confirmed that the State Department is no longer issuing passports with an X gender marker, following Trump’s executive order.
“We are only issuing U.S. passports with a male or female sex marker that matches the applicant’s biological sex as defined in the Executive Order,” the spokesperson said. “U.S. passports previously issued with an X marker will remain valid for travel until their expiration date.”
However, the department is allowing individuals with an X marker to apply for a replacement passport reflecting their sex assigned at birth free of charge if their X passport was issued less than one year ago. The updated policy is outlined on the State Department’s website.
Germany’s warning underscores the growing international consequences of Trump’s anti-transgender policies. While the U.S. is restricting legal gender recognition, the German official noted that the European country is moving in the opposite direction. On November 1, the country’s Self-Determination Act went into effect, making it easier than ever for transgender and nonbinary individuals to update their legal documents.
“The self-determination law makes changing your first name and gender marker easier than it has been in the past,” the German official told The Advocate. “Transgender and nonbinary persons can now change their first name and their gender marker through a notarized declaration. Through this process, they can obtain new birth certificates and ID documents reflecting their gender identity.”
German citizens — whether in Germany or abroad — can now submit their declarations at local registry offices, consulates, or embassies instead of going through a court process, according to the German Embassy. The German government strongly encourages individuals to obtain a certificate confirming their gender marker change before applying for an updated passport.
For U.S. citizens traveling to Germany, entry requirements remain unchanged. The German official said, “U.S. citizens traveling to Germany need to be in possession of a valid passport and need to have sufficient financial means for the duration of their stay, among other requirements.” The official added that “U.S. citizens traveling to Germany do not need a visa for stays under 90 days in a 180-day period. Even for long-term stays in Germany, a residence permit can be obtained directly in Germany without a visa prior to travel.”
Germany’s warning follows Trump’s sweeping executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order eliminates federal recognition of transgender people, mandates that all government documents reflect sex assigned at birth, rescinds protections for trans individuals in federally funded institutions, and strips funding for gender-affirming health care.
Rubio’s State Department memo builds on Trump’s executive order by granting consular officers broad discretion to deny visas to transgender travelers. Immigration experts warn that this could shut out transgender people from the U.S. entirely, including those seeking asylum or attending international LGBTQ+ events like WorldPride in Washington, D.C., from May 17 until June 8.
Reports have already surfaced of transgender Americans facing delays in passport renewals, with some receiving passports with incorrect gender markers despite previous updates. There is growing concern that these policies could trap transgender Americans inside the country while blocking transgender foreigners from entering.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to The Advocate’srequest for comment.
Delivering his State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa emphasised that South Africa must stay true to its values to navigate an increasingly uncertain world. Ramaphosa warned that “fundamental shifts are underway” that will affect every aspect of human life. “In the face of these challenges, we are witnessing the rise of nationalism and protectionism, the pursuit of narrow interests, and the decline of common cause,” said the president.
Ramaphosa highlighted the country’s core values, making it clear that these include equality for LGBTQI+ individuals. “As South Africans, we stand for peace and justice, for equality and solidarity. We stand for non-racialism and democracy, for tolerance and compassion,” said Ramaphosa. “We stand for equal rights for women, for persons with disabilities, and for members of the LGBTQI+ community. We stand for our shared humanity, not for the survival of the fittest,” he continued.
Russia’s Interior Ministry has plans for a sweeping electronic database of LGBTQ+ people in the country, Meduza, an independent Russian news outlet, revealed this week.
Citing anonymous sources at the Interior Ministry, the outlet reported that the Orwellian plan has been in discussion since last year after Russia’s Supreme Court outlawed the so-called “international LGBT movement” as an “extremist organization” at the urging of President Vladimir Putin.
The database will be a “large-scale” system to track members of the LGBTQ+ community at large, according to sources.
The plans were corroborated by Dmitry Chukreyev, an official with the Civic Chamber of Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth largest city. He said police have been keeping informal lists of LGBTQ+ individuals since the Supreme Court ruling was announced.
In 2024, police conducted at least 42 raids on LGBTQ+-friendly venues across Russia, according to an investigation by independent news outlet Current Timeand human rights organization Sphere. Beatings, forced confinement, and sadistic humiliations based on sexual and gender identities are regular features of the sweeps.
Russian officials and state-aligned media regularly describe Russia’s LGBTQ+ community as a network of “paramilitary groups” calling for an “open gender war,” who engage in “dehumanization” and “devil worship,” the outlet reports. Officials and media credit security forces’ actions with “suppressing” anti-state activity.
The raids, in addition to intimidating the queer community at large and forcing the closure of several venues, have provided security officials with information that would supply an electronic LGBTQ+ registry.
An employee at a Siberian queer establishment told Meduza, “Security forces copied the entire database from the computer where we keep track of reservations,” obtaining information about hundreds of clients. Fingerprints and mouth swabs were collected from visitors during a raid the Eden club in Chelyabinsk, and employees and patrons at the Orenburg club Pose were forced to state their registered residential address on camera.
At a house party raided by security forces in Leningrad Oblast, guests were forced to surrender their passports and unlock their phones; if someone refused, the others were subjected to collective punishment and forced to squat.
According to human rights activists, such raids are also aimed at exposing LGBTQ+ government officials. The organizer of one queer-friendly event in the Urals region revealed police who raided the venue hoped to “catch deputies [officeholders] and other significant individuals” at the event.
While security forces continue to collect data in ever-more sadistic operations, progress on a full-scale LGBTQ+ registry has been hampered by Putin’s other current obsession: the expansion of Greater Russia through his war on Ukraine. Forces assigned to that conflict are draining the ranks of police who would otherwise be hunting down members of the “international LGBT movement.”
But the raids continue to produce results.
One sweep at a restaurant and club in Gorno-Altaysk last year yielded data on 80 patrons and staff alone, an employee said.
“We know all of you now,” security forces repeated as the raid dragged on.
The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor has filed applications for arrest warrants for two senior Taliban officials, charging them with gender persecution, including of LGBTQ+ Afghans.
In a January 23 statement, ICC Prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan said that after an investigation of alleged crimes committed against Afghan civilians, his office has determined that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhunzada, and the Chief Justice of the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,’ Abdul Hakim Haqqani, bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds, under article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute,” the 1998 international treaty that established the ICC.
As Artemis Akbary, executive director of the Afghanistan LGBTIQ Organization, told the Washington Blade, Khan’s application marks “the first time in history that the ICC has officially recognized the crimes committed against LGBTIQ+ people.”
“These applications recognize that Afghan women and girls as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban,” Khan wrote in his statement.
Khan wrote that since at least August 2021, Akhunzada and Haqqani have been responsible for “severe deprivations of victims’ fundamental rights” under international law, “including the right to physical integrity and autonomy, to free movement and free expression, to education, to private and family life, and to free assembly.” He added that these crimes have been committed in connection with others under the Rome Statute, “including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts.”
The Taliban returned to power following the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, instituting an immediate return to its interpretation of Sharia law, which Khan argued should not “be used to justify the deprivation of fundamental human rights.” As the Blade notes, a 2022 Human Rights Watch report documented nearly 60 cases of targeted violence against LGBTQ+ Afghans in just the months following the Taliban’s return to power. The following year, Outright International reported that Taliban security officials appeared to have ramped up their systematic attacks on the country’s LGBTQ+ community, targeting gay men and transgender women in particular, “subjecting them to physical and sexual assault and arbitrary detention” as well as public floggings.
In October 2023, Afghan LGBTQ+ rights group Rainbow Afghanistan detailed the harrowing abuses queer people in the country have faced since 2021. In an open letter, the group said that LGBTQ+ Afghans had been tortured, stoned to death, sexually assaulted, and forced into heterosexual marriages, among other atrocities, while “a large number of members of the LGBT community lost their lives due to suicide.” The group called on the United Nations and international human rights organizations to act.
“This application for an arrest warrant sends a strong message that the international community rejects the gender persecution of LGBTIQ+ people,” Afghanistan LGBTIQ Organization’s Akbary said of Khan’s action. “LGBTIQ+ people in Afghanistan need our support and solidarity more than ever, and we must ensure that they have access to justice and accountability.”
Human Rights Watch International Justice Director Liz Evenson said that Khan’s application for the warrants “should put the Taliban’s oppression of women, girls, and gender nonconforming people back on the international community’s radar.”
“With no justice in sight in Afghanistan, the ICC warrant requests offer an essential pathway for a measure of accountability,” Evenson said, according to the Blade.
ILGA World Executive Director Julia Ehrt called the ICC’s recognition of LGBTQ+ people among the victims of gender persecution “groundbreaking.”
As Khan noted in his statement, ICC judges will determine whether arrest warrants for Akhunzada and Haqqani will be issued, and if so, Khan said his office would work closely with ICC Registrar Osvaldo Zavala Glier to ensure that Akhunzada and Haqqani face justice.
Ecuador’s Constitutional Court recently made public a ruling upholding the rights of a transgender girl whose private school in Santa Elena failed to support her during her gender transition. The court ordered comprehensive remedies after finding that the school discriminated against the girl, failed to act in accordance with her best interests, and violated a wide range of other rights, including her right to education.
In its ruling, the court refers to the girl as C.L.A.G in order to protect her identity. In 2017, C.L.A.G.’s parents sought the school’s support, requesting psychosocial assistance and gender diversity training for the school’s staff. While initially cooperative, the school later failed to consistently use her preferred name, refused her access to the girls’ bathroom, required her to wear the boys’ uniform, and asked her parents to produce a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or “transsexuality.”
The girl’s parents turned to the District of Education, which issued recommendations to the school to better accommodate her gender identity. The school rejected them, and C.L.A.G’s parents turned to the courts. After receiving unfavorable decisions from lower courts, the parents filed an appeal before the Constitutional Court.
Among its remedies, the court ordered the Ministry of Education and other key authorities to develop and disseminate a mandatory protocol for respecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans children in schools within six months. The protocol must include guidelines on the use of a child’s preferred name, dress, and bathroom use consistent with their gender.
This ruling comes as Ecuador struggles to fully implement remedies ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Paola Guzmán Albarracín v. Ecuador to prevent school-related sexual and gender-based violence. The Ministry of Education’s strategy on comprehensive sexuality education – a cornerstone of its prevention efforts – aims to equip students with essential information on topics such as puberty, healthy relationships, and gender identity. It has faced resistance from some teachers and officials, as well as groups that rail against so-called gender ideology.
In 2024, the Ministry of Education caved in to external pressure and temporarily removed materials from its “Sexualipedia” platform, which included age-appropriate content on gender identity. Some content has been restored, but episodes on gender identity remain offline, awaiting “scientific validation.”
C.L.A.G.’s case underscores the need for clear policies to ensure all students, including trans children, can access their right to education without discrimination. Ecuador should develop and implement the protocols ordered by the court, ensuring students receive accurate, inclusive information on gender identity. This will have an important impact on the safety and dignity of countless students and Ecuadoran society.
A memorial for LGBTQ+ veterans is to be built at the National Arboretum in Staffordshire, 25 years after the ban on queer service personnel was lifted in the UK.
The UK’s first memorial dedicated to LGBTQ+ veterans, which looks like a crumpled letter made of bronze, is created from words taken from evidence from military service members who were affected by the ban.
The memorial is being funded by a £350,000 ($428,000) grant from the Office for Veterans’ Affairs within the Ministry of Defence, with the construction overseen by LGBTQ+ military charity Fighting With Pride.
Ed Hall, the non-executive chairman of Fighting With Pride, said: “The trustees are delighted that we have such a strong winner for the LGBT+ armed forces community memorial.
“It’s been incredibly important to all of us at Fighting With Pride that we held a rigorous creative process to find the right design that will provide a place of peace and reflection for the LGBT+ armed forces family.”
Minister for veterans’ affairs Alistair Carns denounced the defunct ban as shameful.
“When I joined the Royal Marines in 1999, this abhorrent ban on homosexuality was still in place,” he said. “A quarter of a century later, we turn a page on that shameful chapter in our national story.”
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The National Arboretum in Staffordshire. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
LGBTQ+ veterans who were dismissed or discharged because of their sexual orientation or gender identity will receive £50,000 ($61,000). Those who endured harassment or ill-treatment in addition will get an extra £20,000 (close to $25,000).
When the compensation was announced, defence secretary John Healey said: “The historic treatment of LGBT veterans was a moral stain on our nation. Our government is determined to right the wrongs of the past and recognise the hurt that too many endured.”
Isreal’s war on Gaza has made finding medication nearly impossible for people trying to survive in the region, and Palestinians living with HIV have been hit particularly hard.
According to The Intercept, aid groups like Glia say that HIV medication has specifically been blocked from entering Gaza, though Isreal’s agency for the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories denies the allegation. “Israel neither blocks nor limits the entry of medications, including those for HIV, which can be brought in without quantitative restrictions,” the agency told the outlet.
But Dr. Tarek Loubani, a Palestinian Canadian emergency physician with Glia told The Intercept that Israel has treated caches of medication “basically like weapons depots.” He alleges that the Israeli military has burned medication warehouses and posted snipers outside others.
Earlier this week, prior to news that Isreal and Hamas were close to a ceasefire agreement, The Intercept published a long piece detailing one queer HIV-positive Palestinian man’s struggle to get vital medication amid the ongoing horrors in the region over the past year.
The 27-year-old, identified as E.S., uses a walker for mobility so was forced to remain in Gaza City rather than fleeing south to Rafah like many of his neighbors. He’s also been diagnosed with neurosyphilis and requires not only common antiretrovirals used to treat HIV, but also the more rarely prescribed lopinavir/ritonavir. The violence in the region since October 2023 has caused food as well as medication shortages, exacerbating E.S.’s mobility issues.
E.S. was able to obtain a three-month supply of his medication in November 2023. The following March, as his supply dwindled, he began reaching out on social media hoping to find a way to access more medication. In July, his brother made a dangerous trip to E.S.’s doctor’s home and secured enough pills to last until October 2024. E.S. began rationing his medication, fearing that there would be none left in Northern Gaza when his supply ran out.
In August, he lost contact with his doctor. “For the past ten months, I was lucky,” he wrote the following month. “I had access to my HIV medication because I stayed in the north of Gaza. But now, I’m running out. I took the last doses in the north.”
By early October, E.S. was in touch with Loubani from Glia, who had procured three bottles of lopinavar/ritonavir pills in Canada. But Loubani’s team was first denied entry into neighboring Jordan. Then a three-month supply of meds that Glia was able to get to the Gaza border was later confiscated, and Israel reportedly banned the organization, along with five other medical NGOs, from entering Gaza. (In an October 30 press release, Glia announced that Israel had lifted the ban.)
E.S. and his family were forced to relocate to another part of Gaza City in mid-October, after a missile struck their home. Later that month, however, E.S. reconnected with his doctor, who managed to get him more of his medication — albeit in doses produced for children. And early last month Loubani told him he had finally gotten a three-month supply of lopinavar/ritonavir into Gaza. E.S. currently has enough medication to last him a few months.
