In Indonesia, Islamic authorities planned to hit a 20-year-old man and a 21-year-old man 80 times with a cane for kissing and hugging each other in a public restroom, per LGBTQ Nation. Witnesses in the Taman Sari city park told police after seeing the men enter the same restroom in April, leading to their arrest and imprisonment. Judge Rokhmadi M. Hum opted for the brutal sentence in a closed-door session of the Islamic Shariah District Court. Caning victims are stripped naked, tied to a wooden frame and bent over with their buttocks exposed to receive each stroke (which occurs every 30 seconds at the caning officer’s maximum strength).
The IGLTA Foundation—the philanthropic arm of the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association (IGLTA)—announced the recipients of the 2025 Global Convention fellowships, via a press release.
Recipients included Denise Lang (she/her), owner of Reach for the Magic Destinations; Jess Osborn (they/he/she), founder and creative director of the GenderChill Fashion Show; Laticia Jacobs (she/her), founder of Travel Concierge Partners; Rainbow Routes founder Lizzy Monroe (she/her); and Sulique Venus Waqa (she/her), owner of South Pacific LGBTQ+ Travel and a pioneering LGBTQ+ advocate from Fiji. The fellowships support LGBTQ+ tourism professionals and emerging leaders worldwide, helping them further their careers and contribute to the advancement of LGBTQ+ tourism.
A female same-sex couple was declared a legal family by a court in Lithuania—and they scored a historic victory for LGBTQ+ people in the Baltic nation, LGBTQ Nation noted. The women were living together and wanted to have their arrangement recognized by the government as a form of partnership. The Vilnius City District Court agreed and ruled that the state should create a way for them to register their relationship. The Lithuanian constitution bans marriage equality, and the country’s civil code also bans the recognition of same-sex relationships as civil partnerships.
Montreal recently welcomed human-rights activists gathered by the LGBTQ+-rights organization Égides, Erasing 76 Crimes noted. More than 350 in-person and 450 online participants attended the Égides International Conference from July 31 to Aug. 3, organized in partnership with the Montreal Pride Festival. The theme of the conference was “Francophone LGBTQI Horizons—Transmitting, Celebrating, and Preparing for Tomorrow,” and issues included achievements, mental-health issues and colonial legacies, among other things.
The Turing Protocol—a fictional novel from author Nick Croydon— is facing criticism for depicting gay British codebreaker Alan Turing fathering a secret child with a woman, according to PinkNews. Published in July by Affirm Press, the thriller envisions an alternate timeline in which Turing constructs a time machine to send a message that enables the Allied forces to succeed on D-Day; during the events of the book, the computer programmer has sex with Joan Clarke and secretly fathers a child. (In reality, while Turing was briefly engaged to Clarke, he was convicted on “gross indecency” charges with another man and was chemically castrated.) Of the 115 ratings on GoodReads at the time of reporting, 64% give the novel one out of five stars; reviewers have described it as “one of the worst things I’ve ever read.”
In October, like his predecessor Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV will open the Vatican’s doors to We Are Church—a reform-minded Catholic movement that has long advocated for inclusion, especially regarding LGBTQ+ individuals, Instinct noted, citing Vatican News. Eight representatives of the organization will attend a Holy Year gathering of synodal teams and participatory bodies at the Vatican on Oct. 24-26. The Holy Year events will also have participants walk through the symbolic Holy Door with the pontiff himself—a ritual meant to signify leaving behind past mistakes and embarking on a new path with hope.
Stripe apologized after staff wrongly said it would no longer process the payments of LGBTQ+-related content or goods, the BBC noted. The firm—which millions of global businesses rely on for their online transactions—was criticized for being one of several payment processors to not allow itself to be used for purchases of adult content online. It turned out that “the information given by our support team was totally wrong,” a Stripe spokesperson told the BBC. Stripe’s policies are in the spotlight after payment processors, including Visa and Mastercard, faced pressure from an Australian campaign group to play their part in stopping online video game distributors selling certain pornographic games.
In France, Catholic lesbian Marine Rosset stepped down from heading one of the nation’s largest youth leadership organizations because of criticism that arose about both her sexuality and her political ideas, New Ways Ministry noted. In June, Rosset was overwhelmingly elected to lead Scouts and Guides of France, a Catholic movement that seeks to bolster education and citizenship among French youth. However, Rosset resigned because of what Katholische.de called “massive hostility, homophobic attacks and death threats.”
The Austrian capital of Vienna was selected as the 2026 host city of the Eurovision Song Contest by the Austrian broadcaster ORF and the European Broadcasting Union, per PinkNews. The selection follows singer JJ’s win at this year’s contest in Basel, Switzerland, earning Austria its third win. Vienna now ties in fourth place with Copenhagen, Malmö and Stockholm for hosting Eurovision three times; only Dublin, London and Luxembourg City have hosted more.
LGBTQ+ Haitian-Canadian DJ Kaytranada has released his new album, Ain’t No Damn Way!, via RCA Records, per a press release. He surprised fans by announcing the album on social media on Aug. 11, releasing the full-length’s lead single, “Space Invader,” later that night. The release described the new album as “an intentional return to Kaytranada’s dance-music roots, iterating on the catalog he’s built as one of the genre’s leading innovators.” In October, Kaytranada and fellow electronic musician Justice will embark on their co-headline fall North American tour, presented by Live Nation.
Openly LGBTQ+ award-winning creator/screenwriter Russell T Davies said that gay rights are “rapidly and urgently getting worse” thanks to the rise of Reform UK and the influence of the Trump presidency on British politics, The Guardian noted. Davies—best known for shows like Doctor Who and the original Queer As Folk— said the queer community should be “revolting in terror and anger and action” in response to growing support for Reform, which has pledged to “ban transgender ideology” in schools. Talking with the Big Issue, he added, “What happens in America always happens here, and as we look down the barrel of a Reform government, we, the gay community, queer community, should be revolting in terror and anger and action.”
German Catholics protested the awarding of a prestigious prize to a United States bishop, saying that some of his views—including his anti-LGBTQ+ record—contradict the prize’s ideals, New Ways Ministry noted. Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, was awarded the Josef Pieper prize (given once every five years) in July. The diocesan chapter of the Federation of German Catholic Youth objected to Barron’s selection for the prize, citing Barron’s endorsement of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning gender-affirming care for youth as an example of his unfitness for the prize.
After finishing fifth at U.S. Track and Field Championships, queer runner Yared Nuguse won the men’s 1,500 –meter contest in 3:33.41 at Silesia Diamond League meeting in Poland on Aug. 16, according to Let’s Run. Nuguse has one path to the World Championships in Tokyo next month: He must win the Diamond League 1,500 final to earn an automatic bye to Worlds. After the Silesia win, he’s in fourth place—which practically guarantees his spot in the 10-man final in Zurich.
British actor Terence Stamp—who thrilled fans in Superman films and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert—died at age 87, Deadline noted. “He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and as a writer that will continue to touch and inspire people for years to come,” his family said, according to Reuters. Stamp’s performance as trans woman Bernadette Bassenger in Priscilla earned him nominations for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA, and the film remains an LGBTQ+ classic.
Author John Boyne responded after Polari Prize organizers halted this year’s literary competition following backlash over his inclusion, PinkNews noted. The awards were halted after Boyne’s novel, Earth, was included in the long list of nominees less than a month after he described himself as a “TERF”—a trans-exclusionary radical feminist. Following Boyne’s nomination, several nominated authors—including Queer As Folklore author Sacha Coward—withdrew their names. In his second public statement on the controversy, Boyne wrote in a column for The Telegraph that while the competition wasn’t of “major importance” to him, he refused to withdraw, claiming it would support “mob mentality.”
World of Wonder revealed the trailer for the documentary Dear Viv, which looks at the life and legacy of Drag Race UK season one winner and All Stars season 10 star The Vivienne, a press release noted. Dear Viv—which will debut Aug. 28 on WOW Presents Plus worldwide —features interviews with The Vivienne’s mother, Cassie Williams, father Lee Williams,and sister Chanel Williams alongside vivid memories and reflections from close friends, collaborators and fellow RuPaul’s Drag Race queens: such as Baga Chipz, Blu Hydrangea, Raja, Monet X Change, Trinity the Tuck and others.
Controversial gay actor Kevin Spacey plans to follow his Cannes appearance with one at the upcoming Venice Film Festival to promote new movie, Holiguards Saga—The Portal of Force, Deadline revealed. The sci-fi thriller marks Spacey’s first feature directorial effort in more than two decades. According to the film’s producer, Elledgy Media, the film’s trailer will be screened on Aug. 29 during a “gala dinner” attended by the film’s cast and crew. Interestingly, the Venice Film Festival, which runs Aug. 27-Sept. 6, confirmed to the outlet that there is no Kevin Spacey event within its official program. Spacey shot Holiguards in Mexico between 2023-24 with a cast including himself, Dolph Lundgren, Tyrese Gibson, Brianna Hildebrand, Disha Patani, Eric Roberts and Lado Okhotnikov.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance was reportedly turned away by popular British pub The Bull (in Charlbury, Oxfordshire) after staff members threatened not to show up for work if the restaurant booked his reservation, The South China Morning Post noted. Some residents of the Oxfordshire town have become upset by Vance choosing their south-central England region to spend some downtime. The Oxford Mail reported in late July that former vice-president Kamala Harris had just visited The Bull and at least one other establishment in the area without incident; however, locals told the BBC that Vance’s visit complicated everyday life for some.
Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk—a world championships silver medalist from Ukraine in the long jump and triple jump—received a four-year suspension after testing positive for testosterone metabolites, per NBC News. Bekh-Romanchuk denied taking testosterone, speaking on May 21 with anti-doping authorities; on July 9, she said that a doctor alleged that her medical condition and treatment could explain an elevated level of (endogenous) testosterone. Her suspension began May 13—the date she was initially provisionally banned.
The BBC documentary Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home was removed from the schedule hours before it was due to air, according to Deadline. It was not initially known why the doc was pulled but it is slated to run. Osbourne passed away on July 22—just two weeks after he reunited with Black Sabbath for one final concert.