Moldova holds off Russian influence op

Latin American fascist thinks he's Superman

My “Out in the World” column is up at the Los Angeles Blade with reports on Japan’s same-sex marriage ruling, a coming wave of anti-trans laws in Canada’s prairies, Germany’s new trans self-determination law, and a conversion therapy ban in Switzerland.

Moldova: It appears that voters have given pro-Western President Maia Sandu a second term, despite reports of massive Russian interference and vote buying in this weekend’s election. This should help cement the country’s alignment toward the EU for the next several years (notably, Moldova is scheduled to formally exit the Russian-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States, a pseudo-successor to the USSR). Sandu’s government also presided over an expansion of anti-discrimination and hate speech law protecting LGBT people.

Cameroon: Disturbing video has emerged of two men being beaten and murdered by a mob who believed they had caught them in a sex act. Apparently, the men were at first arrested by police, but were released, possibly after bribing the officers (common in Cameroon). The mob then found the men and murdered them.

This is part of a worrying uptick in violence – both of the mob sort and the state-sanctioned variety – in Cameroon.

Argentina: Buenos Aires Pride drew thousands marching in protest against far-right president Javier Milei’s anti-LGBT policies. Meanwhile, Milei is tweeting that he thinks he inspired DC Comics’ new look for Superman.

Today in Baffling Punditry

For some reason, The Washington Blade has published 2000 words of nonsense from a Trump-supporting trans person accusing progressive LGBT people of throwing conservative LGBTs under the bus. Despite its turgid prose (seriously, was this thing even copy edited?) and absurd length, the column contains no examples of progressives throwing conservative queers under the bus, nor does it reckon with the fact that conservative movements like Trumps are actually threatening all LGBT people (including those unicorn conservative queers). I mean, there’s even a brief section suggesting we should honor queer members of the Islamic State – or at least the high-ranking ones who evaded torture and murder by ISIS.

Lord knows why this was published – and on the eve of the election, no less.

Speaking of which – tomorrow is election day in the United States. I’ve spent months talking about what’s at stake in this election, and if you’re a US citizen, I hope you have already voted or will vote Democrat straight up and down the ticket. Needless to say, a Trump presidency would be a disaster for LGBT rights in America, but also across the world, as he would embolden dictators and dismantle America’s global human rights advocacy.

We’ll hopefully have most results tomorrow night. I’ll have a wrap-up Wednesday morning with the important results we have for President, Congress, state legislatures, ballot questions, and state courts, and what they mean for LGBT rights – at least insofar as they’re known by late Tuesday.