The Trump-Vance administration and its policies had a major impact on the global LGBTQ rights movement in 2025. Wars, anti-LGBTQ oppression, protests, and legal advances are among other issues making headlines around the world over the past year.
Introducing the top international news of 2025.
10. Australia lifts ban on LGBTQ blood donors
On July 14, Australia lifted its ban on sexually active LGBTQ people donating blood.
“Lifeblood has been working to make blood and plasma donation more inclusive and available to as many people as possible, while maintaining the safety of the blood supply,” the Australian Red Cross Blood Service said in a press release announcing the new policy.
Joe Pink, Lifeblood’s chief medical officer, said the new policy would allow 24,000 additional people to donate blood each year.
9. Kenyan judge sets rule that government must legally recognize transgender people
A Kenyan judge ruled on August 20 that the country’s government must legally recognize transgender people and ensure that their constitutional rights are protected.
Judge Ruben Nyakundi of Eldoret High Court in western Kenya ruled in favor of a transgender athlete who was arrested in 2019 and forced to undergo a medical examination to determine his gender. The 34-year-old complainant, a director of the transgender rights group Jin Xiang, said authorities arrested her at a medical facility after she claimed to be impersonating a woman.
“This is the first time a Kenyan court has explicitly ordered a state to enact legislation on transgender rights, and the first time on the African continent,” Jinxiang said in a statement. “If enacted, this bill could address the legal invisibility and discrimination that transgender people have faced for decades by establishing clear legal recognition of gender identity, protection from discrimination in employment, housing, health care, and education, and access to public services free of prejudice and harassment.”
8. US withdraws from UN LGBTI Core Group
In 2025, the United States withdrew from the United Nations LGBTI Core Group, a group of United Nations member states committed to supporting LGBTQ and intersex rights.
A source told the Washington Blade that the United States withdrew from the core group on February 14. A State Department spokesperson later confirmed the withdrawal.
“Following the President’s recent executive order, we have withdrawn from the United Nations LGBTI Core Group,” the spokesperson said.
7. Ukraine’s war in Gaza continues to make headlines
Tel Aviv authorities canceled the city’s annual Pride Parade, scheduled for June 13, in response to Israel’s airstrikes against Iran.
Following the airstrikes, Iran attacked Israel with drones and missiles. One of them destroyed Mash Central, a gay bar located a few blocks from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. Marty Rouse, a longtime activist who lives in Maryland, was in Israel with the Jewish Federations of North America when the war began. He and his group left the country on June 15th.
Washington, D.C.’s LGBTQ synagogue Bet Mishapaha welcomed the delicate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that went into effect on October 10, nearly two years after Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 200 in a surprise attack on the country.
Meanwhile, the war that Russia started in 2022 drags on in Ukraine.
6. International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Taliban leaders
On July 8, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders accused of targeting LGBTQ people, women, and others who defy the Taliban’s strict gender norms.
The warrants belong to Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Afghan Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani.
Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, announced a warrant request in January over Taliban officials’ treatment of women and other groups since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021. The request marks the first time a court has specifically named LGBTQ people as victims in a gender persecution case.
5. Hundreds of thousands of people rebel against Budapest Pride ban
On June 28, more than 100,000 people resisted the Hungarian government’s ban on public LGBTQ events and participated in the 30th Budapest Pride Parade.
Former Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, the country’s first openly gay government leader, and Krzysztof Szymiszek, an openly gay member of parliament who served as Poland’s deputy justice minister, were among those taking part in the march.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz-KDNP coalition government have faced widespread criticism over their anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
In March, Hungarian parliamentarians passed a bill that would ban Pride events and allow authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify participants. Lawmakers amended Hungary’s constitution in April to ban public LGBTQ events.
4. LGBTQ delegation heads to Vatican to meet Pope Leo after Francis dies
Pope Francis died on April 21st.
Although the church’s teachings on homosexuality and gender identity remained the same, the Vatican’s tone on LGBTQ and intersex issues softened under the Argentine-born pope’s pontificate.
On May 8, the College of Cardinals elected Pope Leo XVI, an American cardinal from Chicago who served as bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru from 2015 to 2023, to succeed Francis.
On September 1, Leo met with the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest who founded Outreach, a service organization for LGBTQ Catholics. A few days later, gay couple Jim Sweeney and Jason Carson Wilson from Washington, D.C., were among those who took part in an LGBTQ pilgrimage to the Vatican, coinciding with the church’s yearlong Jubilee celebrations that began last Christmas Eve when Francis opened the Holy Doors.
3. EU Supreme Court rules that countries should recognize same-sex marriage
The European Union’s top court ruled on November 25 that member states should recognize same-sex marriages that take place legally in other member states.
The EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg has ruled in favor of a couple who challenged Poland’s refusal to recognize their marriage to a German national.
The couple, who live in Poland, filed a lawsuit in a Polish court. Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court referred the matter to the EU Court of Justice.
Campaign Against Homophobia, a Polish LGBTQ and intersex rights organization, said: “Today’s decision of the EU Court of Justice is of vital importance not only for the couple involved in this case, but also for the entire Polish LGBT+ community.”
2. U.S. funding cuts will devastate the global LGBTQ community
The Trump-Vance administration’s decision to cut U.S. foreign aid spending in 2025 has had a devastating impact on the global LGBTQ rights movement.
Mark Bromley, president of the World Council for Equality, pointed out to the Blade that the United States has historically funded roughly a third of the global LGBTQ rights movement.
U.S.-funded organizations around the world, including those working with people with HIV/AIDS, have had to scale back programs or close altogether. Elliott Imse, president of the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, said earlier this year that the global LGBTQ rights movement will lose more than $50 million in 2025.
“It’s a disaster,” he said.
1. Countries boycott World Pride amid travel advisory
Canada and many European countries have issued travel advisories for transgender and non-binary people planning to visit the United States in 2025.
The advisory issued by the Danish government references President Donald Trump’s executive order banning the State Department from issuing passports with the “X” gender marker. It also states that when applying for a U.S. ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) or visa, “people can choose from two gender designations: male or female.”
E-Girl Canada, one of Canada’s largest LGBTQ advocacy groups, announced in February that its members would not be attending World Pride in D.C. from May 17 to June 8, as well as other events in the U.S., citing policies from the Trump-Vance administration. Other advocacy groups and activists also did not travel to the United States for World Pride.
InterPride, which coordinates WorldPride, has also issued its own travel advisory for transgender and non-binary people.
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
