NOTE: This week’s column mentions details of torture.
Hundreds of thousands of UK residents took part in London Trans Pride 2025 on July 26, per PinkNews. Marching from Langham Place to Parliament Square, activists held various signs that spread trans positivity and criticized institutions, including the Labour government, that have rolled back many of the community’s rights since taking office. Others chanted slogans of LGBTQ+ liberation and opposition to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s continued attacks on the trans community. Marchers also overwhelmingly expressed solidarity with the people of Gaza amid continued Israeli bombings in the region, with multiple Palestinian flags visible within the miles-long crowd.
A group of young transgender activists have staged a “die-in” outside the Supreme Court to protest against transphobia in the UK, PinkNews noted. Dressed in black, the youths from direct-action group Trans Kids Deserve Better, placed a coffin with the trans flag painted along its sides and the word “dignity” written on the lid, outside the doors of the Supreme Court in London’s Parliament Square. Others stood behind them, holding flowers and waving flags. The protest happened after London Trans Pride and the court’s ruling which determined that the 2010 Equality Act’s definition of sex referred to “biological sex” and of women referred to “biological” women.
Gay makeup artist Andry Hernández Romero has been reunited with his family in Venezuela and is now recounting the torture he experienced for 125 days in a Salvadoran megaprison (known as CECOT) after the U.S. wrongly sent him there, per LGBTQ Nation. He told local media that he and his fellow inmates faced torture, sexual abuse and the denial of food at CECOT, among other things. “It was an encounter with torture and death,” Romero said. “Many of our fellows have wounds from the nightsticks; they have fractured ribs, fractured fingers and toes, marks from the handcuffs, others have marks on their chests, on their face … from the projectiles.” Romero was falsely accused of being a member of the transnational Tren de Aragua terrorist gang because of his crown tattoos that said “mom” and “dad.”
Experts meeting at the International AIDS Society’s Conference on HIV Science in Kigali, Rwanda, warned that global gains in the fight against AIDS are at risk because of sudden funding cuts from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), per Erasing 76 Crimes. International AIDS Society Senior Technical Advisor Anna Grimsrud presented evidence from Mozambique that funding cuts have disrupted HIV services and strained national health systems. The study projected that, if the funding interruption persists, Mozambique could see an estimated increase of 83,000 new HIV acquisitions (a 15% rise) and 14,000 additional HIV-related deaths (a 10% increase) by 2030. The conference also heard similar reports from Khensani Chauke of the Gauteng Provincial Department of Health, in Pretoria, South Africa, who presented a study showing how funding cuts halted progress toward ending the HIV pandemic in Johannesburg.
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Hong Kong legislators took two days to complete an examination of a bill to recognize certain rights for same-sex couples, despite strong opposition in the city’s legislature, per The South China Morning Post. Legislators raised almost more than 60 questions during the discussions, with their concerns including criminal offenses associated with the proposed registration policy for same-sex couples. The Registration of Same-sex Partnerships Bill is the government’s response to a 2023 ruling from the Court of Final Appeal that gave authorities two years to construct laws setting “core rights” for same-sex couples, although it did not outline what they might be.
Also regarding Hong Kong, that region’s highest appeals court ruled in favor of a transgender man, finding that a regulation criminalizing “opposite sex” use of public bathrooms is unconstitutional, according to Them. High Court Judge Russell Coleman ruled that a law requiring “segregation of the sexes” in public bathrooms violates Hong Kong’s constitutional guarantee of equality under the law. Coleman’s ruling was based in part on another High Court ruling from 2023, in which the court struck down a requirement for trans people to obtain bottom surgery in order to change the gender markers on official identification cards.
The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court invalidated a colonial-era law in St. Lucia that criminalized same-sex relations, according to ABC News. Nonprofit group Raise Your Voice St. Lucia called the ruling a “monumental step for human rights in the Eastern Caribbean.” St. Lucia’s colonial-era law penalized gay sex with up to 10 years in prison; while the government didn’t enforce the law, activists and legal experts say it remained a threat to the island’s LGBTQ+ community. In 2019, the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality filed five legal challenges against such laws in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia; three years later, courts in Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis struck down those laws.
A Canadian court temporarily paused the deportation of nonbinary individual Angel Jenkel to the U.S., citing the Trump administration’s hostility to transgender and nonbinary people, The Advocate noted. Jenkel, an artist from Minnesota, had planned to stay three months when they arrived three years ago; however, their fiancé has epilepsy and, as his condition worsened, Jenkel overstayed their visa to care for him. Jenkel was scheduled to be deported July 3 “after an initial risk assessment determined they didn’t face a credible threat in the U.S.,” per the CBC—but Federal Court Justice Julie Blackhawk stopped the deportation until Jenkel’s case can be reviewed further.
Colombian man Yostin Andres Mosquera accused of the gruesome murder of two gay men in London has been found guilty, per LGBTQ Nation, citing Sky News. Mosquera, 35, was convicted of the July 2024 murders of 71-year-old Paul Longworth and 62-year-old Albert Alfonso, who were civil partners. The couple struck up a friendship with Mosquera, who shared paid sexual content on the internet, after Alfonso first met him online and later became involved sexually with him. Video of Alfonso’s murder—in which Mosquera stabbed Alfonso repeatedly while they were having sex—was captured by cameras installed in the couple’s home and shown in court.
Anthony Morley—the first-ever winner of the Mr. Gay UK pageant in 1993—was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the October 2008 slaying, dismembering and eating of Damian Oldfield, per LGBTQ Nation, citing The Mirror. After killing Oldfield, Morley walked to a nearby takeout restaurant wearing a blood-drenched bathrobe and sandals, and quietly asked employees to call police while he waited outside. Presiding Judge James Stewart called the case one of the most gruesome he has ever encountered.
Amanda Donaghey—the mother of Air India crash victim Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek—said she was “heartbroken” after she received the wrong body for burial, per PinkNews. Greenlaw-Meek, 39, and his 45-year-old husband Jamie were among the 260 people killed when Flight 171 crashed just seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad in June; they were returning to Britain after celebrating their wedding anniversary in India. “We don’t know what poor person is in that casket,” she told The Sunday Times. “I had my doubts but to be told that was heartbreaking. This is an appalling thing to have happened.” Another relative has said the coffin he believed to contain his mother’s body was found to have “other remains,” Metro reported.
In Germany, an educational commission of Catholic bishops drafted a document on sexual diversity in Catholic schools that emphasizes visibility and respect for queer (including trans) students and staff, per New Ways Ministry, citing Katholisch.de. The paper was crafted as a response to a recent survey of more than 2,000 students, teachers and parents at German Catholic schools conducted by the Berlin Institute for Christian Ethics and Politics; most of the surveyed individuals said addressing the “diversity of sexual identities” as an important task for their schools.
Queer Grammy-nominated artist/actor Omar Apollo has teamed with alt-pop trio Latin Mafia on a new cumbia single called “Hecho Para Ti” (“Made For You”), Variety noted. The Spanish-language single is co-produced by Tyler Spry (who contributed to Bad Bunny’s hit “DTMF”). The song was first performed live during Latin Mafia’s July 5 show at Mexico City’s Palacio de los Deportes, where they surprised fans with Apollo and the unreleased preview.
Out ran an article on K-pop stars who are openly LGBTQ+. They include South Korean singer Cherry, the first K-pop star to open up about their transgender identity; Lara Raj, who opened up about her identity on the Korean social-media app Weverse; KATSEYE member Megan; Holland, who came out in 2018; JUST B member Bain; former WASSUP member Jiae, who came out as bi in 2020; and MRSHLL, who became the first openly gay K-pop idol back in 2017. K-pop star Bibi has hinted about her own sexual fluidity in her music and on stage.
Mario Paglino and Gianni Grossi—a couple who were famous for collaborating with Mattel on custom Barbie dolls, including a Madonna-inspired doll—died in a car accident in Italy, Out noted. According to an Italian publication, the older man involved in the collision, Egidio Ceriano, 82, and the passenger in the couple’s car died. The Daily Beast also reported that Ceriano renewed his license in 2023 and was driving on the wrong side of the road for a little more than four miles. The couple owned a company called Magnia2000, where they created tribute dolls to icons like Cher, Victoria Beckham, Lady Gaga and Sarah Jessica Parker.
British actress and staunch queer ally Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton) is leading the BAFTA-winning anthology series I Am’s fourth season, per Variety. Kate Winslet, Letitia Wright, Lesley Manville and Samantha Morton are among those who have starred in the series. I Am Helen (starring Coughlan) follows the success of three previous I Am series, exploring the personal experiences of women through what is described as “provocative, emotionally raw storytelling.”
World of Wonder unveiled the superstar guest judge lineup in the official trailer for the inaugural season of Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale, which will debut Aug. 13, a press release touted. The judges joining host Paolo Ballesteros on the new series include RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars winner Alyssa Edwards, RuPaul’s Drag Race S16 winner Nymphia Wind, RuPaul’s Drag Race S15 winner Sasha Colby and RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars 8 winner Jimbo, among other Drag Race alumni. Resident Drag Race Philippines panel judge/TV personality/activist KaladKaren also returns as a guest judge in the new series.
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season 4 star Pixie Polite said she was targeted in a “homophobic” assault “in Tesco at Colliers Wood [an area in London]” that involved “violence,” per Out. On Instagram Stories, she noted that she was specifically punched “in the back of her neck/head.” At one point, Polite said, “Main point is I’m ok, police were surprisingly great. An incident that evolved from general comments and mocking, into verbal homophobic abuse, then into violence.”
Derek Huffman—a Texas man who fled the United States to “protect” his three daughters from what he called “LGBT propaganda”—ended up being scammed, exploited and sent to the front lines in Ukraine by the very government he once idolized, per an op-ed in The Washington Blade. Huffman moved to Russia in early 2025 with his wife, DeAnna, and their younger children; eventually, he launched a pro-Kremlin YouTube channel, Huffman Time, in which he praised Russia as a haven from U.S. modern life and celebrated its stance on gender and sexuality. In May, Huffman signed a contract with the Russian military—reportedly under the impression that he would be working in a non-combat role as a welder—he was deployed to the front lines after receiving military training in Russian, a language he didn’t understand.
