Dr. N. Jency—the first trans woman to be appointed professor in Tamil Nadu, India—was given a position at a Catholic college there, New Ways Ministry noted, citing Catholic Connect. Jency is now an assistant professor in the English department at Loyola College, a Jesuit institution in the city of Chennai. Talking with Catholic Connect, she said that she considers her broader mission to be uplifting the transgender community through education and empowerment, with a particular emphasis on visibility and representation especially in higher education settings. “I want to show that a transgender person can be a scholar, a teacher and a role model,” Jency said.
A report concluded that The Catholic Church in England and Wales is among the most LGBTQ+-inclusive in Europe, The Tablet noted. The Rainbow Index of Churches in Europe (RICE) 2025 scores and ranks the measures that churches across Europe take to include and support queer people in their communities; it is the second such index to be published by the European Forum of LGBTI+ Christian Groups. The Catholic Church in England and Wales was ranked joint 22-23 with the Belgian Catholic Church overall; the two countries’ churches came second only to the German Catholic Church (11th overall) within the Catholic index. Almost four dozen national churches across Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions were studied for the 2025 index.
In Israel, the Haifa municipality stopped supporting a youth event at a synagogue that was set to feature Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, who has sparked controversy for his past comments against female soldiers and the LGBTQ+ community, The Times of Israel noted. The event at the Kiryat Shmuel neighborhood’s central synagogue marked Hoshana Rabbah—the week-long Sukkot holiday’s final day, the eve of which is traditionally devoted to all-night Torah study. Levinstein, co-leader of the Eli pre-military religious academy in the West Bank, sparked controversy in 2017 for saying that gay people are “deviants” devoid of “the normalcy of life.”
The European Union (EU) is threatening to bar citizens of the country of Georgia from traveling to the EU without visas over the government’s failure to protect queer people’s rights and its enactment of anti-democratic legislation, per Erasing 76 Crimes. Under the leadership of the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party, the government has rejected previous plans for joining the EU and ignored an Aug. 31 EU deadline for protecting LGBTQ+ people’s rights and repealing anti-democratic legislation if it seeks EU membership. Georgians have not required visas for European travel since 2017.
In Slovakia, legislators approved amendments to their country’s constitution that will only recognize two genders—male and female—and ban same-sex couples from adopting children, according to Watermark Out News. “Instead of taking concrete steps to protect the rights of LGBTI people, children, and women, the Slovakian Parliament voted to pass these amendments, which put the constitution in direct contradiction with international law,” said Amnesty International Slovakia Director Rado Sloboda. “Today is another dark day for Slovakia, which is already facing a series of cascading attacks on human rights and the rule of law.”
Russian media personality Ksenia Sobchak said that she deleted a recent interview on her YouTube channel after the country’s state media regulator warned her that it contained signs of “LGBT propaganda,” The Moscow Times reported. The interview, released in early September, featured the openly gay Russian-born singer/blogger Sergei Grigoryev-Apollonov, who’s known by his stage name Grey Wiese. Sobchak attached the Russian regulator Roskomnadzor’s warning in her post announcing the interview’s “forced removal,” expressing regret but saying that she must comply with Russian law.
Lesbian stand-up comedian Jessica Kirson expressed “sincere regret” for performing at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia, according to Them. The comedic event had been criticized as an attempt to whitewash the Saudi regime, which is distinctly anti-LGBTQ+; almost three dozen comedians were slated to perform at the festival, including Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari and Dave Chappelle—with the latter known for his anti-trans lines in more than one Netflix special. Kirson told The Hollywood Reporter that she regretted accepting the offer, and that she had donated her performance fee to an unspecified human-rights organization.
On a related note, in a statement to Variety, a spokesperson for Human Rights Watch said the organization “cannot accept” donations from Aziz Ansari and other comedians who have “generously offered to donate part of their performance fees.” “But while we cannot accept, it is not too late for them to call for the release of detained Saudi activists,” said Human Rights Watch Saudi Arabia researcher Joey Shea. On his late-night show Jimmy Kimmel criticized Ansari for his decision to perform at Riyadh Comedy Festival. “It’s a pretty brutal regime,” Kimmel said of the Islamic kingdom led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In London, a homophobic religious mob calling itself the “King’s Army” organized a mob in the streets of Soho—the heart of London’s LGBTQ+ community—shouting Christian Nationalist and anti-gay slogans to passersby, Humanists UK noted. The group marched in a military formation wearing black track suits while shouting “Jesus saves” repeatedly on Old Compton Street, a busy thoroughfare. The protest was promoted online by Turning Point UK, the British branch of the alt-right organization founded by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Mikhail Kovalchuk—a Russian scientist and ally of President Vladimir Putin—baselessly claimed that Western elites are planning to exterminate most of the Earth’s population using “the LGBT agenda” and, eventually, a virus, according to Newsweek. Kovalchuk made the claim during a recent address to the Forum of Class Teachers, a state-backed group of Russian educationalists, according to The Times of London.
In D.C., President Donald Trump mocked trans people in front of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has a child who identifies as non-binary, The Advocate noted. Trump continuously veered off topic to attack Democrats, the media and transgender people, saying that under his leadership, “We have strong borders. We have no men in women’s sports. We’re not going to take your child away and change the sex of your child.” Carney, sitting beside him, did not respond publicly—possibly because more than 77% of Canada’s exports go to the United States, and the countries’ trade pact with Mexico comes up for review next year.
Front Office Sports (FOS) noted that a five-on-five men’s and women’s basketball league, called “Project B,” could launch by the fall of next year with tournaments in Asia, Europe and Latin America, according to AfroTech. It will follow the blueprint of Unrivaled, a three-on-three U.S. basketball league, by offering equity to its players. LGBTQ+ former WNBA player Candace Parker, tennis players Novak Djokovic and Sloane Stephens, ex-WNBA player Alana Beard, ex-NFL quarterback Steve Young and others are listed as investors in the international team.
In a revolutionary moment, gay Vietnamese singer Duc Phuc won the Intervision Song Festival held in Moscow, according to Yahoo! Vietnam was among more than 20 countries participating in the event, which was broadcast live on Russian television and across parts of Asia, Africa, South America and Europe. The contest—originally created during the Soviet era—was relaunched in 2022 after Russia was banned from the Eurovision Song Contest after its invasion of Ukraine.
In a soccer game in the UK, Chew Magna FC, the home team, walked off the pitch (field) and forfeited the game following an opposition player’s use of a homophobic slur, Outsports noted. Callum Hodge—a goal-scorer who is gay and has been out to everyone in his local league for many years—said the club has confidence in its actions. “It’s not the first time someone has said something along those lines to me or to another player on our team,” he said on the podcast Football v. Homophobia.
Several LGBTQ+ artists recently released a single in tribute to the late drag personality The Vivienne, who passed away in January, per Gay Times. Janethan, Bentley Robles, Tia Kofi, Bimini and Eden Hunter united on “Your Light Will Shine,” with all proceeds benefiting Switchboard, the national LGBTQ+ support line that recently marked its 50th anniversary. The song was written by The Vivienne’s close friend and manager, Simon Jones.
G-A-Y, the legendary queer bar in London’s Soho district, is set to close, Gay Times noted. Owner Jeremy Joseph told Metro that long-running rent problems, particularly during COVID, combined with Soho’s fading queer identity and safety concerns, led him to the decision. Joseph ended a social-media post by expressing gratitude to G-A-Y’s customers over the decades while making clear that another venue, Heaven, is his “future.”
Fathom Miracles, Vertigo Live Productions and Roc Nation are planning to release Christina Aguilera: Christmas in Paris Dec. 14 and 21 in theaters, Deadline noted. The concert movie marks the 25th anniversary of the Grammy winner’s holiday album My Kind of Christmas. The concert movie was shot in Paris before 250 guests at the winter-garden terrace above the Musée du Quai Branly. Aguilera performed both holiday classics and career hits against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower fashioned into a Christmas tree.