Welcome back to yet another Monday! As always, Xtra’s prepared the top five biggest stories in LGBTQ2S+ news so you don’t have to, so sit back, relax and enjoy the scoop. We’ve got Florida mayors standing up to Ron DeSantis, Saudi Arabia potentially welcoming queer tourists, Turkey’s president attacking his opponent for being “pro-LGBT,” TikTok collecting data on users watching queer content and Seoul Pride turned away from its usual venue. Read on for more.
1. Seoul’s annual Pride celebration won’t take place at its usual venue
2. Eight Florida mayors have pledged support for the LGBTQ2S+ community
3. The Saudi Tourism Authority website has been amended to state that “everyone” is welcome to visit the country
4. Turkey’s president has attacked his opposition for being “pro-LGBT”
5. TikTok collected data on which users were watching queer content on the app.
1. Seoul’s annual Pride celebration won’t take place at its usual venue
The Seoul Metropolitan Government has denied the organizers of South Korea’s biggest Pride event a permit to hold the parade in their usual location. The government argued that the permit was refused due to a “scheduling clash” with a Christian youth concert scheduled to take place at the location instead.
The organizers, the Seoul Queer Culture Festival, had requested use of the Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall on July 1, as part of a 17-day festival starting on June 22, supporting the queer community in South Korea. According to the government, both the Seoul Queer Culture Festival and the Christian broadcasting company CTS Culture Foundation both requested use of the plaza, and the government gave CTS Culture preference.
Conservative mayor Oh Se-hoon, who leads the Seoul city government, reportedly made the decision based on a municipal bylaw that prioritizes events “designed for children and adolescents’ well-being.” The government also noted that neither CTS Culture Foundation nor the Seoul Queer Culture Festival agreed to change the date of their events.
Yang Sun-woo, who heads the Seoul Queer Culture Festival organizing committee, said the event won’t be thwarted by this type of setback.
“We were unfairly denied access to the public space where South Korea’s LGBTQ+ community has celebrated Pride every summer for years,” she said, noting that the decision was “discriminatory.”
2. Eight Florida mayors have pledged support for the LGBTQ2S+ community
Florida is one of many states that has seen a recent influx of policies targeting the queer community, with Governor Ron DeSantis recently expanding the “Don’t Say Gay” law banning classroom instruction about sexuality and gender identity. In response, eight Florida mayors have now pledged their support for the LGBTQ2S+ community, supporting the work of the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in advocating for LGBTQ2S+ students.
Mayors from Orlando, Miami Beach, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee, Gainesville, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa have joined in signing the “Rise Up for LGBTQ+ Youth” pledge. The pledge states that those who sign will advocate for safe learning environments where staff and students are free from all forms of systemic oppression, and also advocate for LGBTQ2S+-affirming books, resources and curriculums.
“Discrimination of any kind, particularly toward our LGBTQ2S+ children, has no place in any part of our society,” said openly gay Fort Lauderdale mayor Dean Trantalis. “Greater Fort Lauderdale boasts one of highest concentrations of same-sex households in the nation, and we welcome in an average of over 1.3 million LGBTQ+ visitors each year,” he concluded.
“I was elected to be mayor for every resident of Gainesville, and it is important to me that all our neighbours, particularly the youngest and most vulnerable, feel welcome and safe in our community,” Gainesville mayor Harvey Ward also noted. “I support the well-being and healthy development of every person in our community through the guarantee of basic human rights.”
On Thursday, a bill was passed in the Florida legislature that will let the state take trans minors from their families if they are found to be receiving gender-affirming care, the latest in a line of bills targeting trans minors in the state.
3. The Saudi Tourism Authority website has been amended to state that “everyone” is welcome to visit the country
Visit Saudi, Saudi Arabia’s tourism authority, has updated its Frequently Asked Questions to include information about what LGBTQ+ tourists can expect in the country. The question “Are LGBT visitors welcome to visit Saudi Arabia?” is answered: “Everyone is welcome to visit Saudi Arabia and visitors are not asked to disclose such personal details.”
Though the FAQ update seems to signal a shift in Saudi Arabia’s attitude toward the queer community, the reality of the legal situation in the country persists. As of right now, same-sex sexual activity in the country remains an offence punishable by the death penalty, and trans individuals can be persecuted under strict laws regarding “crossdressing.” There is documented evidence of these laws being regularly enforced.
Many are critical of Visit Saudi’s addition. The queer community is a lucrative market according to Darren Burn, who operates Travel Gay, an LGBTQ+ travel platform. He says that queer tourists tend to spend more money when travelling, and take trips more times a year. For many, it’s a worry that the Saudi government is prioritizing potential profit over the safety of queer visitors.
4. Turkey’s president has attacked his opposition for being “pro-LGBT”
Credit: Burak Kara/Getty Images
It’s just under a week until Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections, and polls are showing that Turkey’s current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, could be facing one of the closest elections in his almost 20 years of power.
On Sunday, Erdogan, who leads the AK Party, dismissed his opposition, namely the Republican People’s Party, for being “pro-LGBT.”
“AK Party and other parties in our alliance would never be pro-LGBT, because family is sacred to us,” Erdogan said at a rally in Istanbul on Sunday. “We will bury those pro-LGBT in the ballot box.”
Turkey’s elections will take place at the end of this week, on May 14.
5. TikTok collected data on which users were watching queer content on the app
Former TikTok employees have revealed that users who watch queer content have been tracked and cataloged by the app, potentially endangering users watching from countries where LGBTQ+ individuals are criminalized.
Between 2020 and 2021, employees from TikTok’s offices in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia highlighted stored data held on a “dashboard” concerning users consuming LGBTQ+ content, warning that if compromised, it could be used as blackmail.
Though TikTok told the Wall Street Journal that the data set was accessible only to authorized employees, one former employee said that workers in China had access to the data and would sometimes control viewer permissions.
TikTok also noted that, as of last year, the dashboard of data is no longer available.
Why you can trust Xtra
