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Canada, European countries and Brazil, not U.S., issue statement backing LGBT rights

Published: 29 Jun. 2025, 12:54

People cheer for Sunkee Angel during the Pride Celebration at the San Francisco Civic Center on June 28. [AP/YONHAP]

The foreign ministries of Canada, Australia, Brazil and a host of European countries issued a statement on Saturday celebrating LGBT rights to coincide with Pride Day.

The United States, which has moved rapidly to dismantle civil rights protections since the election of President Donald Trump, was not among its signatories.

The statement, whose backers also include Spain, Belgium, Colombia, Ireland and other nations, said the countries "are speaking and acting as one to champion the rights of LGBTQI people," using the abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex people.

"At a time when hate speech and hate crimes are on the rise, and in view of efforts to strip LGBTQI people of their rights, we reject all forms of violence, criminalization, stigmatization or discrimination, which constitute human rights violations," the statement said.

It was not immediately clear why the United States was absent. Canadian, Australian, Brazilian, Irish and U.S. officials did not immediately return messages seeking comment on the Pride Day statement and Washington's absence from it.

The United States, once a champion of gay rights abroad, has reversed course under Trump, whose administration has rapidly dismantled longstanding civil rights protections for LGBT people and expelled transgender service members from the military.

People carry a giant EU flag as they take part in the Budapest Pride parade in Budapest downtown on June 28 as the capital's municipality organized this march by the LGBTQ community, celebrating freedom, in a move to circumvent a law that allows police to ban LGBTQ marches. [AFP/YONHAP]

Defenders of gay rights are concerned that the backsliding will embolden antigay movements elsewhere, especially in Africa, where it could worsen an already difficult situation for LGBT people.

Trump's right-wing allies have tapped in to anti-LGBT sentiment to shore up their political support.

In Hungary on Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters flouted a law passed in March by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government that allows for the ban of Pride marches. The demonstrators swarmed Budapest with rainbow-colored flags in one of the biggest shows of opposition to the Hungarian leader.

Reuters