Historic England is being criticised for funding a queer history trail in Norfolk, prompting right-wingers to describe LGBTQ+ identities as “controversial” and claim it “creates division.”
The trail in King’s Lynn is part of 21 youth-focused projects across the country which are being funded by Historic England, the public body that looks after England’s historic environment and helps people understand and value it, with grants of up to £15,000 ($19,000).
Other projects approved for funding include LGBTQ+ history explorations in rural Staffordshire, Gateshead and Stockport, a podcast about a mosque in East London, and youngsters with additional needs looking at the social history around the oldest cable tramway in Britain.
The King’s Lynn project will “create a trail” through the town centre, focusing on its LGBTQ+ history.
“This will connect to a permanent artwork created in partnership with True’s Yard [fishing museum]. What form this artwork takes will be in the hands of the young people,” the Historic England website revealed.
However, not everyone was happy at the news.
Neil Record, the former director of anti-woke pressure group Restore Trust, told The Telegraph: “The promotion of ‘queer’ history by publicly funded bodies is, in my view highly, inappropriate. It creates division by concentrating on this one controversial aspect of sexuality, whereas history itself is complex and subtle, not best seen through a special-interest lens like this.
“It is also worth noting that homosexuality was illegal in the UK until 1967, so sources of information on sexual preferences prior to this date will be intended to be hidden, and hence could be unreliable.”
This is not the first time public bodies focused on preserving British history have come under fire.
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In 2022, anti-LGBTQ+ members of the National Trust asked their peers to support the banning of Pride events, describing taking part as “unaccountable, divisive and an exercise in virtue signalling… [and] unbecoming in a body which should be dedicated to preserving the nation’s heritage for all and being a faithful steward of its members’ subscriptions”.
Members ignored the plea and voted to continue celebrating Pride. “The National Trust was founded for the benefit of everyone,” a spokesperson told PinkNews in 2022.
“We serve the whole of our wonderfully diverse society and we want to do that to the very best of our ability. This includes supporting our staff, volunteers and visitors to take part in cultural celebrations, including Pride, which they have been doing for many years.”
Two out trans candidates are running for office in Nepal, marking the first time that out trans candidates have run for the positions.
Honey Maharjan and Mouni Maharjan are both rallying for a role in parliament. Both Honey and Mouni, who are not related despite sharing the same surname, are in the running for the local by-elections in the country.
Although Nepal is hailed for having some of the most progressive LGBTQ+ rightsin South Asia, there has not been an out LGBTQ+ member to hold public office since 2008.
Honey, 44, is hoping that her candidacy “will inspire others in the queer community to participate openly in future elections”. On Sunday (1 December), she will run for the role of Mayor of Kirtipur, a Municipality on the outskirts of the capital of Kathmandu.
Honey Maharjan (left) and Mouni Maharjan (centre) are rallying for roles in office in Kirtipur, on the outskirts of Kathmandu. (PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP via Getty Images)
Despite legal advancements, Honey noted that those in the queer community in Nepal often face discrimination in many walks of life, including employment, healthcare, and education settings.
“Until now, not one of our community members had exercised the right to run for mayoral elections in Nepal,” Honey said.
“When I remember my past, it’s like a nightmare because I faced a lot of discrimination and abuse. Like other transgender people, I want to change this,” she added.
“We are also part of this society and can contribute to the betterment of society. This is what I want to do if I am elected.”
Meanwhile, Mouni is running for a ward chair role in the same area. Both candidates are part of the People’s Socialist Party Nepal.
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Mouni, 29, is campaigning against LGBTQ+ discrimination, especially in the workplace and at school. She explained that she wants to create jobs for the community and implement LGBTQ+-focused classes in school to raise awareness.
She said: “I will work to add a curriculum in school courses regarding the community so that the new generation will easily accept our presence and be treated better.”
Former parliamentarian Sunil Babu Pant previously led LGBTQ+-focused campaigns, including fighting for equal marriage rights.
“Since I left the parliament [in 2013], no one has been elected. So, our voice has not been present in the lawmaking bodies and policy-making bodies,” Babu Pant told AFP.
“We now have two candidates this election. This is hugely a positive development for Nepal.”
Police in Moscow raided multiple bars early Saturday and arrested the director of a gay travel agency under laws criminalising “LGBT propaganda”, state media reported.
The raids came on the one year anniversary of Russia’s Supreme Court outlawing the “international LGBT movement”, paving the way for arrests and prosecutions of the country’s already repressed LGBTQ community.
Russian security forces raided at least three bars and nightclubs overnight “as part of measures to combat LGBT propaganda”, the state TASS news agency reported.
Social media videos from the Arma nightclub, the former premises of the Mutabor, showed club-goers sitting on the dancefloor while riot police walked around shouting orders.
Another video showed people being walked out of the popular Mono gay club in central Moscow with their hands above their heads, with a police van parked outside.
The interior ministry said police had also raided an unnamed nightclub on Skladochnaya Street that had been “propagandising the ideology of the banned LGBT movement”.
The Interfax news agency named the club as “Inferno Night”.
Police in the capital also arrested the director of a travel agency for gay men on suspicion of “organising tours for members of the LGBT community”.
The 48-year-old director of “Men Travel” was suspected of “preparing a trip for supporters of non-traditional sexual values to go to Egypt for the New Year holidays”, the TASS news agency reported Saturday, citing law enforcement.
The Kremlin has ramped up conservative rhetoric since launching its military assault on Ukraine almost three years ago, casting the conflict as a battleground against the West and its values.
Rights groups say the country is waging an unprecedented crackdown on LGBTQ people that has seen the owners of gay bars arrested and anyone associated with promoting LGBTQ rights prosecuted.
Last week, the Ugandan High Court of the Civil Division awarded $40,000 (the equivalent of 150 million Ugandan shillings) to 20 men who were tortured by police after their 2020 arrests for alleged homosexuality.
“They assert that on the morning of the said date their residence was invaded by a mob, among which were the respondents, that subjected them to all manner of torture because they were practicing homosexuality,” Justice Douglas Singiza reportedly stated.
“The alleged actions of torture include beating, hitting, burning using a hot piece of firewood, undressing, tying, biding, conducting an anal examination, and inflicting other forms of physical, mental, and psychological violence based on the suspicion that they are homosexuals, an allegation they deny.”
The torture occurred in the village of Nkokonjeru in the Kyengera Town Council – Wakiso District. The plaintiffs worked with the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum, a non-profit human rights organization. They filed a human rights complaint against the Kyengera town council, mayor Abdul Kiyimba, principal officer Philimon Woniala, and the Attorney General.
The arrests happened just after the Ugandan government implemented COVID-19 lockdowns.
“Based on the same suspicion [of homosexuality], the applicants were then arrested, taken to Nkokonjeru B police station, and charged with doing a negligent act likely to spread infection by disease,” said Singiza. He noted that there was little evidence given for violations of the country’s anti-homosexuality laws and that the investigations lacked merit.
The men were then sent to prison on March 31, 2020, “Where they were again allegedly beaten, examined, harassed, and subjected to discrimination.”
Uganda has strict laws against homosexuality. The 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act, signed by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in May 2023, makes what it describes as “aggravated homosexuality” — including same-sex acts that transmit HIV — punishable by the death penalty, imposes a life sentence for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities,” and even bans identifying as LGBTQ+ in Uganda. It has been roundly condemned by human rights organizations, members of the U.S. House of Representatives, President Joe Biden, and even Pope Francis.
Dr. Frank Mugisha, human rights activist and executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, said on X of the ruling: “A Ugandan court has awarded Shs150 million to 20 Ugandans who were tortured for alleged homosexuality during the COVID lockdown, marking a significant victory for the LGBTQ+ community. This decision builds on earlier successes, including a 2008 ruling for Victor Mukisa and a favorable judgment against Rolling Stone, a Ugandan tabloid known for its harmful publications.”
“Local leaders and politicians have now been put on notice that if you beat up people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, you pay from your own pockets,” said Adrian Jjuuko, executive director of Uganda’s Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum, in a statement to Barron’s.
In addition to the brutality experienced by LGBTQ+ people, Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act has already cost the country as much as $1.6 billion in the year since it became law, according to a new report by Open for Business, a coalition of global companies dedicated to LGBTQ+ inclusion.
“It is estimated that in the twelve months following the AHA’s passage, Uganda has made an economic loss of between $470 million and $1.6 billion,” according to the report, a sum that comprises between 0.9–3.2% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The Vatican has blocked discussions on women’s rights at the UN climate summit, COP29, over concerns that support for them would include trans and gay women.
According to BBC News, representatives for Pope Francis, aligned with Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran and Egypt to prevent an agreement that would have provided more support for women affected by climate change.
The 10-year-old UN action plan, Lima Work Programme on Gender, which ensures that work on climate change acknowledges support for women, including financial support, was due to be updated at the summit in Azerbaijan, which is due to end on Friday (22 November).
Several countries wanted to include a line highlighting that all women’s experiences of the impacts of climate change are different, and can be compounded by “gender, sex, age and race”.
However, the four countries and the Vatican – the world’s smallest independent state – objected, citing concerns that it could be inclusive of trans women. They also want references to gay women removed. This has reportedly stalled the deal completely.
According to LGBTQ+ rights website Equaldex, only Vatican City has fully legalised homosexuality, while in Iran and Saudi Arabia it can be punishable by death. In all but Iran, changing gender is not permitted.
Colombia’s environment minister and lead negotiator Susana Muhamad told the BBC: “It is unacceptable. The Latin American countries are working very hard, we will not allow the gender programme to drop and allow human rights to be dropped.”
And Sostina Takure, from Christian charity ACT Alliance, said she was shocked to hear the Vatican “opposed the human rights language”, adding: “My heart shattered into a million pieces.”
A spokesperson for the Vatican said: “The Holy See hopes that consensus will be reached, with respect for the sensitivities of each participating state and in a language acceptable to all.”
The current UN plan on gender and climate is due to expire at the end of this year, meaning if the countries do not come to an agreement by Friday, there will be no specific global agreement for supporting women facing the effects of climate change.
According to a report by UN Women, by 2050 almost 240 million more women and girls will face food insecurity caused by climate change, compared with 131 million more men and boys. Almost 160 million women and girls will be pushed into extreme poverty by climate change, the report added.
Charities including ActionAid said it was crucial to reach a deal because the UN estimated that women and girls currently make up 80 per cent of those displaced by climate change.
Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (Juridicción Especial para la Paz, JEP) has charged six former leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia,FARC) guerrillas with war crimes for the forced recruitment and use of 18,677 children from 1971 to 2016. In addition to forced recruitment, the charges encompass torture, killings, reproductive and sexual violence, and targeted violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) children.
The JEP, a transitional justice mechanism created by the 2016 Peace Accordsbetween the Colombian government and the FARC, is tasked with trying crimes, including crimes under international law and grave human rights violations, committed during Colombia’s armed conflict.
“Macro-case” 07 before the JEP is focused on child recruitment and involves 9,854 victims, including 8,903 who belong to five indigenous communities and 951 others, including survivors and families who continue the search for missing recruited children.
The JEP’s Chamber of Recognition of Truth charged the former FARC leaders with heinous crimes, including the mistreatment, torture, and homicide of recruited children; reproductive violence affecting recruited girls; and sexual violence against recruited boys and girls, including torture, rape, and sexual slavery.
In a historic first under a transitional justice mechanism, the chamber also charged the former leaders with violence against recruited boys and girls based on prejudice related to the children’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. The chamber found that several LGBT girls and boys “suffered sexual violence and abuse as a way of ‘correcting’ or ‘punishing’ them.” This unprecedented recognition of violence targeted against LGBT children sets a new standard for addressing discrimination as an element of human rights abuses in conflict.
These indictments go a long way in addressing the impunity that has long characterized Colombia’s armed conflict. The JEP should now make sure that defendants are fairly prosecuted and, if found guilty, appropriately punished for their crimes.
Romania has been described as being “in shock” today (25 November) after far-right candidate Calin Georgescu won the first round of the country’s presidential elections.
Calin Georgescu, an independent candidate who is a NATO critic, won with a 22.95% share, beating incumbent prime minister Marcel Ciolacu of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), who had been the favourite to win the first round.
62-year old Calin Georgescu will now go on to face Elena Lasconi of the centre-right Save Romania Union party on 8 December. It’s the first time in 35 years that the left-wing PSD won’t have a second round candidate.
What is life currently like for LGBTQ+ people in Romania?
Things haven’t exactly been rosy for the LGBTQ+ community under left-wing rule, so it’s concerning to see this far-right surge in the country, which was formerly run by tyrannical communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Could things get worse, and could queer peoples’ hard-won rights be rolled back?
More than 25,000 people joined this year’s Bucharest Pride in July 2024, marking the largest march to date. The Pride Festival featured 20 events and spanned over nine days.
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However, on the same day a counter-demonstration called March for Normality was held in the capital.
Also in July 2024, an MP named George Simion shared a social media post to say that LGBTQ+ people are to blame for the weather conditions, which are divine punishment. In the same month, the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church also said that “homosexuality was, is and will remain unnatural”.
Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu during a meeting with Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street on November 13, 2024 in London (Getty)
Marcel Ciolacu: country ‘not ready’ to uphold LGBTQ+ rights
A year ago, in November 2023, Romania’s Prime Minister said that the country isn’t ready to uphold LGBTQ+ rights in line with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
It came after the ECHR ruled in May 2023 that Romania had breached of article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights – the right to respect for private and family life – by refusing to legally recognise same-sex relationships.
In an interview with Europa FM, left-wing Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu was asked about his thoughts on the ECHR ruling and whether Romania would now consider expanding protections for the LGBTQ+ community.
Ciolacu said: “Romanian society is not ready for a decision at the moment. It is not one of my priorities and… I don’t think Romania is ready.”
Two women kiss as they take part in Bucharest Pride 2018. (DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP via Getty)
He continued: “I am not a closed-minded person, I… have friends in relationships with a man, I don’t have a problem with that, I am talking now from the point of view of a prime minister.”
Ciolacu added that he didn’t believe it would be the last time that Romania failed to enforce the ECHR’s rulings.
Although Romania decriminalised homosexuality in 2001, it has yet to legalise marriage or civil partnerships for same-sex couples.
In the ECHR’s investigation into Romania’s failure to recognise same-sex couples, it was determined that the societal opposition to same-sex marriage in Romania should not override same-sex couples’ right to have their relationships legally recognised.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said ‘Romanian society is not ready” to introduce same-sex rights. (Getty Images)
The investigation had been prompted by complaints lodged by 21 different Romanian couples to the ECHR, arguing that there was no way to legally safeguard their relationships due to the country’s lack of recognition.
Each of the couples had given notice to their local registry offices expressing their intention to marry, but their requests were rejected under an article that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman.
Their requests were also rejected under a separate article which states that same-sex marriage is “prohibited” in Romania.
LGBTQ+ propaganda bill
In 2022, Romanian lawmakers came under fire when the government introduced a so-called LGBTQ+ “propaganda” bill, which would ban the use of materials in schools that “promote” being queer.
According to the World Values Survey conducted between 2017 and 2020, three-quarters of the population said that they believed that homosexuality is “not justifiable”.
What rights could Romanian LGBTQ+ people lose under Calin Georgescu?
LGBTQ+ rights in Romania (Equaldex)
Equaldex – a collaborative knowledge base for the LGBTQ+ movement – give Romania an overall score of 46/100 for its treatment of LGBTQ+ people, taking into account factors like legal rights and also public opinion about queer people in general.
Trans people are currently banned from serving in the military and can’t legally change gender unless they have gender affirming surgery. Non-binary people are not legally recognised. Gay marriage is banned.
Homosexuality is, however, legal, as is gender affirming care. LGBTQ+ people are permitted to donate blood and the age of consent for queer people is equal to that of heterosexual people.
At the time of writing, it is still unclear whether Elena Lasconi or Calin Georgescu will win on 8 December, and what the premiership of either candidate could mean for the already less-than-comprehensive LGBTQ+ rights in the country. We’ll update this article when the results are known.
Four men became the latest victims of anti-LGBTQ+ mob “justice” in the African country of Nigeria earlier this month, after they were accused of engaging in consensual same-sex sexual activity.
As the Los Angeles Blade reports, the four young men were paraded down a street and run out of Edo State capital Benin City on November 17 wearing only their boxer shorts. The angry mob threatened to kill them if they ever returned.
Nigerian LGBTQ+ activist Samson Mikel told the Blade that queer people have become scapegoats in Benin City, which he described as “backward” and a hotbed of “scammers and other crimes.”
“The people are proud of their roughness, they are never concerned about these other crimes or how the government is impoverishing them, but will light gay men on fire the moment they think,” Mikel said.
LGBTQ+ people he insisted, simply want to “live and experience love.”
“They are not the cause of the economic meltdown in the country, neither are they the reason why there are no jobs in the streets of Nigeria,” Mikel said.
The November 17 incident is just the latest example of the epidemic of mob violence in Nigeria. Between January 2012 and August 2023, Amnesty International recorded at least 555 people who were killed by violent mobs across the country, according to a report released in October. Of those victims, 32 were burnt alive, 2 were buried alive, and 23 were tortured to death.
“The menace of mob violence is perhaps one of the biggest threats to the right to life in Nigeria,” Amnesty International Nigeria director Isa Sanusi said in a statement. “The fact that these killings have been happening for a long time, with few cases investigated and prosecuted, highlights the authorities’ shocking failure to uphold and fulfil their obligation to protect people from harm and violence.”
As Daniel Anthony wrote for LGBTQ Nation earlier this month, LGBTQ+ people are especially at risk of being targeted: “The combination of strict anti-LGBTQ+ laws, social stigma, and a flawed justice system that fails to protect minorities has created an environment where the lives of queer individuals are not only expendable but also actively endangered.”
Homosexuality is illegal in Nigeria. The country’s Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, which was signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014, makes same-sex relationships punishable by up to 14 years in prison. In predominantly Muslim areas of northern Nigeria, homosexuality is punishable by death under Sharia law, though death penalties passed by Sharia courts must be approved by the state governor. According to Daily Trust, the punishment has never been enforced.
According to Anthony, Nigeria saw a dramatic surge in violence and mob attacks against LGBTQ+ in the six years after the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act became law.
“Homophobic mobs typically operate without fear of legal repercussions, knowing that the public is on their side,” he wrote, citing a 2019 Pew Research survey that found that 87% of Nigerians oppose gay rights. “These mob attacks are often perceived not as crimes, but as acts of moral policing — methods for the community to ‘cleanse’ itself of perceived corruption.”
As one man who witnessed the “lynching” of two gay men in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria, told Anthony, “We catch homosexuals all the time and teach them a lesson they won’t forget.”
The November 17 incident also follows another similar mob attack in Edo Statelast month, in which two men were allegedly caught “engaging themselves indecently as fellow men” in a car. At least one of the men, 32-year-old Eguabor Precious, was attacked by a mob and beaten unconscious. He was reportedly handed over to police, but managed to escape. Authorities have offered “a handsome reward” for information leading to his capture.
Russian lawmakers have moved to outlaw adoption by people from countries where gender-affirming care is legal.
Russian language outlet Zona Media reports that the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Federal Assembly, has unanimously approved a bill that would prohibit the adoption of Russian children by citizens of foreign countries where gender transition is allowed.
Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said the bill was aimed at protecting children who can’t protect themselves, characterizing “the West’s policy towards children” as “destructive.”
“It is necessary to do everything so that new generations of our citizens grow up oriented toward traditional family values,” Volodin wrote in a Telegram post.
Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning transgender individuals from receiving gender-affirming care, changing their gender in official documents and public records, fostering or adopting children, and legally marrying.
But the new bill’s authors warned that while the Russian state can prevent transgender people from adopting Russian children at the time of adoption and on Russian soil, it cannot stop foreign parents from transitioning or receiving gender-affirming care in their home countries following adoption. Worse, according to the bill’s authors, adoptive parents can “change the gender of the adopted child” once safely back in their home country.
State Duma deputies noted that the bill is aimed at preventing members of the LGBTQ+ community from adopting Russian children and that it also effectively bans adoption by citizens of NATO member states.
The bill, which will have to be signed into law by Putin, is just the latest in Russia’s ongoing crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights. In 2013, the Russian president signed a law banning so-called LGBTQ+ “propaganda” in the presence of minors. That same year, Putin signed a law prohibiting adoption of Russian children by same-sex foreign couples whose homeland recognizes their union as marriage, as well as by single people or unmarried couples from those countries.
In late 2022, Putin signed a new law expanding the country’s definition of what constitutes LGBTQ+ “propaganda” to include any “promotion” of homosexuality in public, online, or in media. The law also bans the “demonstration” of homosexuality to children. The 2022 law effectively outlaws any public expression of LGBTQ+ life in Russia.
Last November, the Russian Supreme Court declared the “international LGBT social movement” an “extremist organization,” effectively giving authorities wide latitude to arrest and prosecute members of the LGBTQ+ community. In the year since the court’s decree, there have been multiple raids on LGBTQ+ bars and other establishments in cities across Russia, and multiple people have been arrested and charged under the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
The leader of one of the parties in Uzbekistan’s government coalition announced that they are working on a law to ban LGBTQ+ “propaganda” in the Central Asia country. And they’re giving credit to Donald Trump for the move.
Alisher Qodirov is the leader of the Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival) party, which, along with the Liberal Democrats, controls the lower chamber of the parliament of Uzbekistan. He posted on the social media network Telegram that his party is working on a draft law to ban discussions of LGBTQ+ people.
In the post, he referenced a post written by Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, where she promoted her father’s opposition to “inappropriate sexual content” and “transgender ideology” in schools. The idea that schools are teaching children to be transgender or exposing them to gay sexual content is false and has been used to ban all mentions of LGBTQ+ people in schools in certain states and school districts in the U.S.
“The change in the center of the disease is very good,” Qodirov wrote. “We are working on adopting a law prohibiting any kind of propaganda in this regard.”
Homosexuality is currently illegal in the Muslim-majority nation, punishable by up to three years in prison. It is one of only two post-Soviet states (along with Turkmenistan) to ban homosexuality. There are no protections against anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination or hate crimes.
A 2021 Human Rights Watch report noted that gay and bi men in Uzbekistan face abuse from vigilante mobs as well as the police.
“Because of the violence and discrimination that LGBT people are subjected to, we had to stop most of [our] projects, news feeds or groups online,” one activist told Human Rights Watch. “We’ve gone completely underground.”
Five men told the organization that they have had to pay bribes of up to $1000 to keep police from outing them to their families or to the public.
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