Amsterdam and Berlin become LGBTQ capitals in 2026

 

From July 25 to August 8, Amsterdam will host WorldPride 2026, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors from every continent. The Dutch capital could hardly be a more fitting host. 

The Netherlands has long been recognized as one of the world’s most progressive and inclusive societies, becoming the first country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2001. Hosting WorldPride is not only a celebration of that history—it is a powerful reminder that freedom, equality, and acceptance remain values worth protecting.

This year’s WorldPride theme, “Unity,” could not be more relevant. When the world seems increasingly divided by war, political polarization, nationalism, and fear, celebrating WorldPride has become about far more than LGBTQ rights. It has evolved into one of the world’s most visible expressions of tolerance, openness, and the belief that people from different cultures, identities, and backgrounds can live together peacefully.

Amsterdam is not standing alone. Only a few hundred kilometers away, Berlin is preparing for one of Europe’s largest Christopher Street Day (CSD) celebrations. 

The German capital has long symbolized freedom, resilience, and reconciliation. Once divided by a wall representing ideological conflict, Berlin today represents exactly the opposite—a city where diversity is celebrated and differences are embraced.

This year’s Pride celebrations create a remarkable connection between the two European cities. Happy Pride!!!

A human rainbow flag in Canary Islands by Spencer Tunick

 

Spencer Tunick stripped the Spanish city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria bare beneath a gigantic rainbow flag made of human skin.

Hundreds of naked people, painted in eleven different colors, occupied the plaza, following the American photographer's instructions, until they formed a gigantic rainbow flag made of human bodies.

For a few minutes, the artwork transformed one of the most emblematic spaces in the capital of Canary Islands into a symbol of diversity, freedom, and the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.

Far from presenting nudity as a provocation, Tunick once again used the human body as artistic material. The volunteers became the canvas for a work conceived to represent the plurality of sexual identities and orientations through eleven different shades.

The artwork also opened the Culture & Business Pride 2026 program, which will bring together conferences, cultural activities, and performances focused on defending human rights and diversity.

Watch the making of below:

LGBTQ culture becomes a national threat in Indonesia

 

Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto has designated the spread of LGBTQ culture as a nonmilitary threat under Indonesia’s 2025–2029 National Defense Policy.

The regulation defines nonmilitary threats as organized, non-armed activities that could endanger national sovereignty, territorial integrity and security. 

It classifies the spread of LGBTQ culture as a socio-cultural threat that could contribute to the erosion of nationalism.

The category is grouped alongside terrorism, separatism, online gambling, the spread of prohibited ideologies, human trafficking, piracy, large-scale theft of natural resources and narcotics trafficking. 

The regulation also states that LGBTQ-related issues will be addressed using approaches applied to extraordinary crimes.

The presidential regulation provides new legitimation to enact legislation that penalises and discriminates against LGBTQ individuals merely because of their identities.

So far, LGBTQ identities are not criminalised in most of Indonesia, but same-sex relations are illegal under Shariah Laws and in Aceh, the westernmost province of the country. 

Unlike the rest of Indonesia, Aceh province follows strict Islamic laws, which make sexual activity outside marriage and same-sex relations illegal. The state's Sharia criminal code went into effect in September 2015. 

From now, it will be worst for LGBTQ people in the whole country.

Corporal punishment will continue in Indonesia for being gay

Tip Toe, how two neighbours become enemies due prejudice and toxic social media

 

Tip Toe is a 2026 British television miniseries written by Russell T Davies and starring Alan Cumming and David Morrissey.

Neighbors Leo, a Canal Street gay bar owner, and Clive, an electrician with a wife and two sons, find their lives unraveling as social tensions rise. A simple request for a spare key spirals into deadly hostility, paranoia, and the dangerous radicalization in their Manchester suburb.

The show explores the effects of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric on social media, leading the neighbours to gradually become deadly enemies. As events unfurl involving Clive's son George and online conspiracy theories, the series reaches a deadly conclusion.

Tip Toe takes a far grimmer approach, proposing that not only is life still hard for queer people in the UK, but things are moving backwards, and that the hatred is reaching a deadly breaking point.

While this series is a fiction, and one that makes its arguments with sledgehammer grace, it is sadly not absurd, or abstract. Hate crimes and anti-LGBTQ violence are on the rise.

Watch the trailer below:

Ranking all 48 World Cup countries on LGBTQ rights

 

Some of the 48 World Cup countries are very gay-friendly, with robust laws and protections, while some are in-between. And nearly a third are downright hostile, with LGBTQ protections nonexistent and punishment for same-sex behavior a prison sentence or worse.

The website Equaldex is a valuable resource for a country-by-country look at the state of LGBTQ equality.

It uses a 100-point scale to rank countries on the laws surrounding whether homosexuality is legal, and laws on same-sex marriage, censorship, changing gender, gender-affirming care, employment and housing discrimination, adoption, serving in the military and conversion therapy. It also parses public opinion on LGBTQ issues.

Using the site’s 100-point scale, World Cup countries Norway, Uruguay, Spain and New Zealand all rank in the top six in the world. Iceland (1st) and Denmark (5th) did not qualify.

At the opposite end, Iran (ranked 191) and Senegal (192) are among the seven least LGBTQ-accepting countries in the world. Overall, there isn’t much difference in countries ranked 10-20 points from each other.

Check the website here.

Equaldex map

Senegal amends constitution to ban same-sex marriage

 

The National Assembly of Senegal has amended the country’s constitution to define marriage exclusively as the union between a man and a woman, thus banning same-sex marriage.

Same-sex sexual activity has been prohibited in Senegal since 1965, five years after the country gained independence from France. Both men and women are affected by the law, which describes the activity as unnatural acts.

In March this year, Senegal’s National Assembly passed a bill that will double the maximum penalty for same-sex relations, making them punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Same-sex marriage has never been legal in Senegal, but the constitution’s wording around the matter has previously been vague. Now, Senegal amends constitution to ban same-sex marriage after all 129 members of the assembly vote in favour and zero against.

Spain approves a law to punish conversion therapies with prison

 

The Spanish Parliament approved the reform of the Criminal Code that will allow prison sentences for so-called conversion therapies, practices aimed at changing or suppressing a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

The initiative, promoted by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), has been passed with 178 votes in favor, 32 against—those of far right party Vox—and 137 abstentions from the conservative party Popular Party (PP).

The reform provides for prison sentences of between 6 months and 2 years, as well as financial penalties, for those who apply, carry out, or promote methods, techniques, or procedures intended to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, even when there is consent from the victim or their legal representative.

Until now, these practices were already banned in Spain and were classified as a very serious administrative offence under the 2023 Trans Law. Fines could reach up to €150,000, but they were not included as a criminal offence in the Criminal Code.

With this reform in Spain, the aim is to strengthen the protection of LGBTQ+ rights and improve the ability to respond to practices that many organisations and experts consider particularly harmful and discriminatory.

Madrid hosts every year the biggest pride in Europe

Türkiye blocks LGBTQ+ cruise ship from docking

 

Türkiye has blocked an LGBTQ+ cruise ship chartered by a US travel company from docking at two Turkish ports, saying the voyage was incompatible with the country’s “moral values” and forcing organizers to change the Mediterranean itinerary.

The governor’s office said the ship would not be allowed to stop at the Aegean port of Kuşadası because it had been leased by groups “known for behaviors incompatible with the fabric of our society and our moral values.” 

The governor’s office said “there is absolutely no possibility” that the group would be permitted to visit the province “for an event of this nature.”

Atlantis Events, a US company that specializes in vacations for LGBTQ+ travelers, said Turkish officials had canceled both of the ship’s planned stops in Turkiye, which forced the company to revise the itinerary. Instead of visiting Kuşadası and İstanbul, the ship will now call at Cairo and the Greek island of Crete.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has banned Pride marches in İstanbul since 2015, citing security and public order concerns. Rights groups say restrictions on LGBTQ+ events and organizations have expanded in recent years, while Erdoğan has repeatedly described LGBTQ+ rights as incompatible with traditional family values.

Turkish government drafts new anti-LGBTQ+ laws

US Supreme Court rules against trans women participating in female sports

 

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states can ban transgender women from competing in female school and college sports.

The court considered cases from students in two different states who had challenged bans on participation. The two states, Idaho and West Virginia, enacted laws that required public school and college sports teams to compete in accordance with their sex recorded at birth.

One of the two challenges said the ban violates equal rights protections in the US Constitution. The other said it contradicts civil rights laws.

More than two dozen states have enacted bans since Idaho did so in 2020. Donald Trump celebrated the decision in a social media post as a "BIG WIN". Last year, Trump signed an executive order that aimed to ban transgender women from competing on female sports teams in schools and colleges.

Under those state bans, a transgender woman - a biological male who identifies as a woman - is not permitted to compete in female sports at schools and colleges.

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