Reuters World News - Special episode: Pride and prejudice – LGBTQ+ around the world

Episode Date: June 24, 2023

It’s Pride month – which can mean big parties and big protests. But elsewhere in the world, members of the LGBTQ+ community fear to do either as repercussions for visibility are great. In this special episode, we look at LGBTQ+ reality around the world, from the restrictive laws of Uganda to the Pride marches for peace in Cyprus.  Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt-out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Pride Month. While that can mean big parties, it can also mean big protests. But not everywhere. In fact, across large parts of the world, members of the LGBTQ plus community fear to do either as repercussions for visibility are great. In today's special episode,

we look at where anti-LGBQ Plus laws are most restrictive, and where pride is being used as a lever for peace. I'm Kim Vennel in London. We start in Uganda, where one of the harshest anti-LGBQ laws in the world was enacted earlier this year. It even carries the death penalty

for aggravated homosexuality, an offence that includes transmitting HIV through gay sex. Since the bill passed, patients have been afraid to access HIV care for fear of being publicly labeled as gay. Aaron Ross has been looking into the story for us. So, Aaron, can you just start by describing this HIV-AIDS clinic in Kampala? So this is a clinic as referred to by the US government program that funds it as a drop-in center,

which means that patients can come when it suits them to receive treatment or counseling. And the one that our team visiting specifically caters to the LGBTQ community, for whom it can be difficult to find a doctor at a hospital or a regular clinic, who would be willing to treat them. Up until these new laws, this place was quite busy, right? That's right. What they told us is that they were getting about 50 patients a day. For various services, they provide treatment for HIV-AIDS,

but there are also other medical services. There's mental health counseling. And since the legislation started to be considered by Parliament in March, that's dropped off to about two or three a day. What is the health ministry said? So the ministry denies that the law will have any impact on people's ability to access care. They say there's nothing in the law that stands in the way of doctor-patient confidentiality

and therefore LGBT patients, they can go, they can receive care, they can speak openly to their doctor about their sexual history and their sexual orientation. However, members of the community say that there's a broader culture of fear that this legislation has instill. That's why so many people are staying away so it's not to attract unwanted attention to themselves. This transgender patient is one of the few who still goes to the clinic. they asked not to be named. I feared we are not going to get the treatment we have been getting.

The organization, they are not going to operate. You can't access even rubricants, but even keeping lub in my place, I can't do that. In the US, millions of Americans are taking part in this year's pride celebrations against a backdrop of increasing hostility. The ACLU has tracked nearly 500. anti-LGBQ bills in this year's state legislators, a record high for the last century. There's been a Republican-led effort to limit drag in at least 15 states.

There's even been a shift of what America's top beer is. Bud Light lost its dominance after a social media promotion with a transgender influencer. The divisions over LGBTQ rights often rare as its head in schools. In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a school board's decision to remove two books dealing with LGBTQ issues has split the community. Tabitha Delangelo is a school board member. I think that what Bucks County has become is really this microcosm of the division that we see across the country where people on both sides are so sure that they're right. The decision sparked outrage in the community, as Jonathan.

and Ellen explains. The policy drew a lot, a lot of debate at these monthly board meetings. Public comment would stretch on for hours. Some parents would read out the most sort of sexually explicit passages from books they wanted to remove. Other parents, students, teachers would say, this is book banning. And so that became a huge point of contention. Soon after this debate, pride flags in the district schools came down after the board's

Republicans passed a policy requiring teachers to be neutral in political or social issues. So one student we spoke with Leo Berchel, he's a transgender student at one of the high schools. He says that the fact that Pry Flax have come down, the fact that the only books that have been removed so far are LGBT-themed books, sends a message. America has seen so much anti-LGBQ plus legislature. You know, you see it from the country, you see it from the state, you see it from your school, and almost feels like it's attacking you directly. Now to China, where same-sex sexual activity is legal,

but LGBTQ-plus people don't enjoy the same rights as their straight compatriots. Same-sex marriage is illegal, and gay couples are not allowed to adopt. Chinese authorities have also stepped up censorship and cracked down on portrayals of what they call sissy men. But a thriving shame. Shanghai subculture has found an outlet despite government distaste, vogueing. Casey Hall went to their third anniversary ball. So most people would horribly be familiar with the dance style of vogue from Madonna's song Vogue,

the kind of angular hand and arm motions, which is vogue. But when you see people vogueing in real life, it is phenomenally physical and difficult. In China, it is still very new. It does have its own kind of flavor. For our story, we followed the main bogeing house, the main bogeing family in Shanghai, the house of Kawakubo. Boging families tend to take their names from famous fashion designers. So Kawakubo, they take their name from Ray Kawakubo,

who is the designer of the Japanese avant-card label Comde Garcent. And I believe they were the first family in Shanghai, and they are still the most high-profile Vogueing family in Shanghai. So, he's not just a party. But many people are here to know how much. So 28-year-old Tanora Kawakubo was telling us about the reason that people come to these ballroom events, these Vogue events in Shanghai, it's not just about having fun. Many people come because they need an escape.

And they might be escaping, for example, their family that don't understand their lifestyle. There are also places where people can. be free to express themselves in a way that they can't in other parts of their lives. I'm Casey Hall in Shanghai, China. And now to Cyprus, where members of the LGBTQ plus communities came together in celebration in the no man's land that splits the island in two. Michelle Cambas was there at the pride, which called for peace. Members of the LGBTQ communities started two separate marches from the Greek and Turkish

separate opposing sides, meeting halfway in no man's land controlled by the United Nations. One activist, Armand Dolmachi of queer Cyprus, told me, organizers of the event were sending a clear message they wanted peace. Peace talks in Cyprus have been at a standstill since they collapsed in 2017. And as you already know, the Cyprus is divided and it's the last capital divide in the Europe, so we are actually sending a message that we want the United Island, as well as it's an interoperable. communal pride. Another protester, Alexander Osef Stathiel, of queer collective Cyprus. As you can see, through the turnout, there's more queer interested in peaceful than anyone else. We are getting more and more integrated as a community across the divide. We are part of the process.

And if nobody else is solving this, we're going to solve it. This is Michelle Cambus reporting from the UN-controlled buffer zone in Nicosia, Cyprus. That's it for this special edition of. Reuters World News. We'll be back on Monday with our daily weekday news show, bringing you everything you need to know about your world in 10 minutes. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, don't forget to subscribe on your favourite podcast player or download the Reuters app.