Several leading nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) serving Uganda’s LGBTQ+ communities collectively condemned discriminatory and homophobic policies coming from U.S. President Trump, including the decision to freeze nearly all foreign aid, according to Erasing 76 Crimes. The groups—including the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum; Children of the Sun Foundation; Uganda Key Populations Consortium; Freedom and Roam Uganda; Uganda Network of Sex-Worker-Led Organizations; and the Center for Health, Human Rights and Development, among others—convened in the capital of Kampala to plan for how they would adapt to the disappearance of U.S. support. The sudden termination of programs such as USAID/Uganda Voices for Change and the suspension of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) initiatives have already caused devastating results.
Egale Canada—one of Canada’s largest LGBTQ+-advocacy organizations—announced that its members will not be attending any events in the United States, including WorldPride (which is set to take place in D.C. from May 17-June 8), because of policies put in place by President Donald Trump, The Washington Blade noted. The statement says the decision not to come to the U.S. resulted in its cancellation of plans to attend a meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women at U.N. headquarters in New York in March, at which it planned to discuss LGBTQ related issues. The statement marks the first known time that an international LGBTQ+-rights group has declared it will not come to the States to attend WorldPride because of the Trump-Vance administration’s controversial policies, which have included rollbacks of DEI and pro-trans programs and policies.
In the UK, the NHS (National Health Service) will automatically test patients for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C unless they opt out at almost 90 Accident and Emergency (A&E) units in England, the BBC reported. The government is rolling out an expansion of the plan to 30 new hospitals, saying it could lead to an extra 1,900 people receiving earlier care for HIV each year. NHS England data showed a 40% rise in the detection of blood-borne infections after the last Conservative government began piloting the program in November 2023.
Emilia Pérez’s Zoe Saldaña won Best Supporting Actress at the UK’s BAFTA Film Awards. According to Variety, Saldaña dedicated the prize and the film itself to her trans nephew. “I’m dedicating all of these awards and the film Emilia Pérez to my nephew, Eli. He is the reason—they are the reason—I signed up to do this film in the first place,” she told journalists in the winners’ room. “So as the proud aunt of a trans life, I will always stand with my community of trans people.” Even though transgender lead actress Karla Sofía Gascón did not appear after past racist tweets resurfaced in recent weeks, Saldaña still thanked her in her acceptance speech. Emilia Pérez also won for best non-English language film.
Also at the BAFTA Film Awards, host David Tennant (Doctor Who) mentioned Donald Trump and film run times in his opening monologue, earning much applause for the former, Deadline noted. Tennant said it was unlikely that Trump had seen The Apprentice film because “it’s a 15 [the film’s UK rating] and it’s not on Nickelodeon, adding, “Donald Trump. I’m worried. I’ve said his name three times. It’s like Beetlejuice—I have summoned him.” The actor joked that audience members would not get a comfort break like viewers enjoying The Brutalist’s intermission, urging, “Keep speeches the opposite of your films: nice and short.”
A bishop in Ireland praised Bishop Marianne Edgar Budde—the U.S. Episcopalian bishop who advocated for the vulnerable (including migrants and LGBTQ+ people) during a sermon at the prayer service for President Trump’s inauguration, New Ways Ministry noted. During an event at Ireland’s Shrine of St. Brigid, Bishop Michael Router of the Archdiocese of Armagh mentioned the controversy surrounding Budde. In part, Router lauded Budde’s sermon, stating that her words were “a forthright and courageous sermon to give, but it was also in many ways a standard sermon about the basic Christian principles of loving one’s neighbor and about being charitable and generous in our dealings with those less fortunate.”
Mariah Carey and the Sugababes will headline this year’s Brighton Pride festival, the BBC noted. Carey was revealed as the first headliner for the festival—and it’s nearly five years after her planned appearance in 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Sugababes have scored six number-one singles in the UK since their first album in 2000—the second most of any British girl group, behind the Spice Girls. Pride on the Park, this year’s version of the annual Brighton festival, will take place in Preston Park on Aug. 2-3.
Del LaGrace Volcano’s 1988 photo series Queer Dyke Cruising is being published for the first time in full, by Climax Books, according to AnOther. The photos were shown at Tate’s group show Women In Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990 last year. In part, they told journalist Amelia Abraham, “I like making work out in the world, combining the urban or natural landscape with the artificial or constructed, where we perform for the camera, for each other, and for the sheer pleasure of being seen on our own terms.” In addition, when asked about the cruising they did, Volcano responded, “I didn’t think of it as cruising back then but it was similar in the sense that fear of the unknowable was an ever-present factor. Looking back today, I actually find it somewhat hard to understand what was driving me to do all the super kinky things I did.”
In the UK, the Liberal Democrats Warwickshire Pride Group contacted The Courier and Warwickshire World to “express its regret” over not being part of Warwickshire Pride 2025—a march and festival due to take place in Leamington in August. In response, Warwickshire Pride’s board of trustees said it did not want to show political bias, stating, in part, “Permitting some political parties to attend Warwickshire Pride but not permitting others would raise questions.” The full statement is at this link.
Regarding the death of former RuPaul’s Drag Race UK champion The Vivienne (aka James Lee Williams), 32, authorities provided a troubling update, according to Out. Authorities confirmed that the drag personality was found dead in a bathroom due to an “unnatural cause of death,” as reported by BBC News. However, local law enforcement also confirmed that “no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death” were found after opening an investigation at Cheshire Coroner’s Court in Warrington, England. Further investigation is required, extending this open investigation through June 30.
Brazilian Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet formally charged former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro with attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat, the AP reported. The plot included a plan to poison his successor and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as well as kill Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a foe of Bolsonaro. Gonet alleges that Bolsonaro and 33 others participated in a plan to remain in power. Bolsonaro’s defense team said it met the claims with “dismay and indignation,” and Bolsonaro’s son, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, posted on X that the indictment was “empty” and there was no evidence of wrongdoing.
In India, a court in Saharanpur ordered Uttar Pradesh police to file criminal charges against the in-laws of a 30-year-old woman after they allegedly injected her with an HIV-infected syringe after her parents did not meet dowry demands, per The Times of India. “They (victim’s in-laws) started harassing her immediately after the wedding day. They humiliated my daughter and even said that they would get another wife for their son. She was kicked out of her marital home on March 25, 2023. … [When she returned,] she was again subjected to physical and mental torture,” the victim’s father’s complaint read. He added that the victim, after she was allegedly injected, was confirmed to be HIV-positive “while her husband was found HIV-negative.”
In the wake of the recent release of Drive Back Home, a film about New Brunswick’s queer history, Canada’s first gay film was screened in the province, according to NB Media Co-op. The remastered 1965 film Winter Kept Us Warm (directed by David Specter)—often referred to as the “first gay film in Canada”—was shown in Fredericton in early February. This film has been praised by many, including renowned filmmaker David Cronenberg (a classmate of Specter), who stated, “Winter Kept Us Warm is the most influential film of my life.” One of the guests at the event was Chris Dupuis, the author of a study of the film who was visiting from Toronto.
Actress Tilda Swinton got political as she accepted Berlin Film Festival‘s Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement at its opening ceremony, saying “the inhumane is being perpetrated on our watch” and that “state-perpetrated and internationally-enabled mass murder is currently actively terrorizing more than one part of our world,” per Variety. She added that the “great independent state of cinema [is] innately inclusive— immune to efforts of occupation, colonization, takeover, ownership or the development of riviera property.” This year’s Berlinale comes amid political turmoil in Germany, with elections having been marked by the rise of right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has caused controversy with its anti-immigration stance. Also, Swinton plans to not work again for the rest of the year, Deadline noted.