In Argentina, protesters held the Federal Anti-Racist and Anti-Fascist Pride March, the Buenos Aires Herald noted. Demonstrators held rainbow fans, waved smoke flares and danced on protest trucks through the streets of Buenos Aires, Tucumán and more than 100 other towns and cities countrywide—as well as in major cities across the world. The country’s LGBTQIA+ community spearheaded the event but it was explicitly intersectional, encompassing marginalized groups from all walks of life. The march was a response to President Javier Milei’s speech at the 2025 World Economic Forum in which he equated queer people with child abuse, claiming that femicide put women’s lives over men’s and accusing migrants of crime. Some people wore pink baseball caps that read “Make Argentina Gay Again”—a take on U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again.”
In Australia, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan criticized U.S. President Donald Trump as she took part in the 30th anniversary of the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne, according to ABC.net.au. Organizers said thousands of participants and spectators were expected in St. Kilda in a celebration of the “ferocity, uniqueness, and diversity” of Victoria’s LGBTQ+ communities. The 2025 parade marked three decades of the march and was led by the traditional Dykes on Bikes procession, Boon Wurrung elders and a rainbow Aboriginal float accompanied by Allan and Equality Minister Vicki Ward. Allan said, in part, “I say to any right wing leader who wants to take their cues or take their notes from the MAGA movement in the USA that they have to come through me, come through the Victorian Government and come through the Victorian community first, who very resoundingly stand in support of our LGBTIQA+ community.”
After the Canadian Screen Awards qualification theatrical run in Toronto last October, Rez Comedy—promoted as the first all-Indigenous stand-up comedy feature documentary—will premiere on SVOD on AAM.tv and TVOD on Amazon Prime on Friday, Feb. 14, according to a press release. The feature film is produced and co-directed by Keith Nahanee, rising Squamish nation comic and filmmaker, and Comedy Invasion creator Quentin Lee, a 2024 Canadian Screen Award winner. Among the performers are three members of the LGBTQ+ community: Janelle Niles (from Sipekne’katik First Nation, Nova Scotia), Andrea “Drea” Omer (from Saskatchewan) and Denise B. McLeod (from Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, north shore of Lake Huron, Ontario).
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has proposed amendments to the country’s constitution limiting LGBTQ+ rights and “restoring common sense,” TVP World noted. “The Slovak Republic recognizes only two sexes: male and female,” the proposal reads. “Sex can only be changed for serious reasons. Details will be set out in a law.” Fico said that U.S. President Donald Trump inspired the proposal. An LGBTQ+-rights advocate was quoted by Barron’s as saying Fico’s proposal “excludes Slovakia from the EU” and is an attempt to distract attention from the prime minister’s political troubles.
Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that Venezuela had agreed to take back migrants who had come to the United States illegally, per the BBC. The announcement came after a meeting between President Nicolás Maduro and openly gay senior Trump administration official Richard Grenell led to the release of six U.S. detainees held in Venezuela. At least nine people with U.S. citizenship or residency are believed to be among more than 2,200 detained by Venezuelan authorities following nationwide protests over the disputed July 2024 election results, in which Maduro claimed victory.
The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, in suburban Toronto, voted to uphold its policy banning Pride flags from being displayed outside schools after a school trustee introduced a motion to revise the policy on Jan. 22, per The Washington Blade. The school board governs 151 public Catholic schools in Toronto’s western suburbs. In the province of Ontario, Catholic schools receive public funding and are allowed to promote religious teaching, but must generally follow provincial non-discrimination law. The district’s current policy allows Pride flags to be displayed inside schools—but only during a specific “observance period”; they must be removed at other times.
Also in Canada, a court sided with a Catholic school board’s decision to expel a high school student for his harmful conduct toward transgender students, per New Ways Ministry. Josh Alexander—an 18-year old student at St. Joseph’s Catholic High School, Renfrew, Ontario—was suspended and later expelled from the high school in 2022 because of gender-based harassment of transgender students. According to a report in the Ottawa Citizen, the Renfrew County Catholic School Board gave Alexander a 20-day suspension in November 2022 after he “made inappropriate comments to transgender students in class and online, referred to a trans student by a deadname and suggested trans students posed a risk to others in the girls’ washroom.” The three-member Divisional Court rejected Alexander’s argument that he was a victim of “faithism,” and deemed his suspension and exclusion to be reasonable.
A newly remastered version of Crocodile Dundee removes the notoriously transphobic scenes from the 1986 Australian classic, according to QNews. Just shy of the flick’s 40th anniversary, a 4K remastered version of the Paul Hogan film, titled Crocodile Dundee: The Encore Cut, premiered in Sydney. (The film will be re-released in theaters in May.) In the new version, two and a half minutes of footage have been excised, including a scene in which Paul Hogan’s Mick Dundee grabs a bar patron in the groin and says, “That was a guy, dressed up like a Sheila,” while someone else yells “f___t.” Production company Rimfire Films told Nine newspapers, “Some years ago, Paramount Pictures and other distributors requested the reference to the crossdresser [sic] be edited from the original film, as they found it offensive. We agreed to that request.” Hogan said he agrees with the cuts.
The Central Committee of German Catholics—which, along with the German Bishops’ Conference, organized that country’s Synodal Way during 2019-23—wants the formal addition of LGBTQ+ people to the list of protected populations enshrined in the German nation’s constitution, per New Ways Ministry, citing katholisch.de. Theologian Andreas Heek, an organizer of the committee’s effort, told katholisch.de that the LGBTQ+ community asked the German Church to support broader efforts to amend the constitution (or Basic Law), and the committee (a lay body) responded positively. Although parts of German legislation provide civil protections to LGBTQ+ Germans, Heek noted that these provisions are much more easily revoked than ones enshrined in the constitution.
Erasing 76 Crimes, citing The Guardian, said that Peter Marocco—a Trump ally newly appointed to a leadership role at the USAID foreign aid agency—has led the Trump-authorized shutdown of foreign aid that jeopardizes the lives of more than 20 million people receiving regular HIV medication. Marocco’s return to USAid has not been formally announced and the department website still lists a previous director for the office of foreign assistance; many staffers only learned that Marocco had been appointed from emails and cables drafted by him ordering them to stop work. A former marine and conservative activist from Dallas, Marocco served short stints at the state department, commerce department, defense department and USAid during the first Trump presidency. In 2020, a complaint from USAid staffers accused Marocco of undermining and micromanaging employees in a way that “rapidly degraded” a small department focused on political transitions.
The number of Scottish residents who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual is 4.3%, according to new data released by the Office for National Statistics, Yahoo! News noted. The news comes as the number of people who say they are lesbian, gay or bisexual in the UK has risen from 2.2% in 2018 to 3.8% in 2023. Recent results from the separate British Social Attitudes Survey “support the view that society is becoming more welcoming toward diversity in sexual identity—a view supported by the recognition of same-sex relationships in law through same-sex marriage and same-sex civil partnership legislation,” the Office of National Statistics stated.
Two Canadian LGBTQ+-rights groups have launched a legal challenge against legislation passed by the right-wing provincial government in Alberta that sets new restrictions on the care health professionals can provide minors who identify as transgender, according to an InForney article. Alberta’s Bill 26 prohibits gender-reassignment surgery on minors and bars the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies “for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” for anyone 15 and under. Advocacy groups Egale Canada and Skipping Stones, as well as several Alberta families who joined in starting the challenge, classified Alberta’s actions as “unprecedented.”
In the world of global soccer, former Premier League football referee David Coote discussed what led to his termination by the Professional Game Match Officials in December 2024, according to Instinct Magazine. Speaking with sources like The Sun and the BBC, Coote said the pressure of hiding his sexuality, constant traveling and the overall aggressive nature of sports fans led to things such as a video of him doing cocaine while refereeing a game as well as allegations of match-fixing. Coote noted that, even before the controversy, he was receiving death threats and rude comments about his late mother.
LGBTQ+ Russian tennis player Daria Kasatkina was incorrectly listed as representing Spain during the official draw ceremony for the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open—and that could result in repercussions for her, according to Tennis. The mistake could fuel what her management later called “incorrect” speculation that she will be, or has any plan to, switch nationalities. Russian and Belarusian tennis players, including Kasatkina, have played as neutral athletes since shortly after the Russian government’s decision to invade Ukraine, with Belarusian support, nearly three years ago. She has not returned to Russia in the last two-and-a-half years, following her decision to both come out as a lesbian and criticize her home nation’s invasion of its sovereign neighbor in an interview with a Russian vlogger in July 2022. “This carries some strong implications for Daria if the Russian authorities feel she is trying to switch—which she is not,” a spokesperson said.
Sarah Swingler—the British television executive hired to clean up bullying and poor working conditions in the industry—had her role scaled back after she was the subject of multiple misconduct complaints, according to Deadline. Swingler was appointed late last year as project lead for the new, broadcaster-backed Action for Freelancers (AFF) group. Film & TV Charity (FTVC)—which led the recruiting of Swingler but which has heard objections almost immediately after she was announced—has scaled back her role to a one-day-a-week lobbying position; her job title, project lead, will also change.
Villads Raahauge Jensen—a professional handball athlete with experience of playing in Europe’s top leagues—has come out publicly as gay, Outsports noted. Jensen is a 28-year-old attacking player from Denmark who currently plays for Lugi HF in the second-tier Swedish Allsvenskan league, and has said that his news has been “received positively” by his teammates. In a feature interview with the newspaper Sydsvenskan, Jensen said: “I don’t want anyone to think that I’m ashamed of being gay, because that’s not the case. But it is a taboo in sports.”
Gay OnlyFans and TikTok star Rossy Rankin has been removed from Police Scotland’s domestic-abuse campaign over BDSM videos, according to PinkNews. The campaign, “Domestic abuse in the LGBTQI+ community,” warned about how “controlling behavior can turn a loving relationship into an abusive one” and was shared by Police Scotland on social media. However, after being made aware of Rankin’s OnlyFans content, Police Scotland removed him from the campaign. Rankin confirmed to The Herald that all of the acts performed in his videos are “completely consensual.” Subsequently, he said in a now-deleted post, “Tells you a lot about Police Scotland’s vetting processes if they missed all the many links directing people to my porn.”
The iconic queer nightclub G-A-Y Bar in Soho has been put up for sale following a chaotic year for the club and its related businesses, G-A-Y Late and Heaven, The Washington Blade noted. One of the best-known queer nightlife brands in London, G-A-Y has been around in some form or another since 1976. In December 2023, G-A-Y Late closed, with owner Jeremy Joseph saying safety and crime issues were among the reasons; last November, Heaven nightclub was forced to shut down for several weeks when its license was pulled after one of its security guards was accused of rape. Joseph cited the stress caused by Heaven’s closure as a reason why he’s selling G-A-Y Bar.