LGBTQ+ rights group urges WorldPride boycott, calling US government a ‘fascist regime’

An international LGBTQ+ rights group has urged other organisations to boycott WorldPride in the US, saying the country is now operated by a “fascist regime.”

The African Human Rights Coalition (AHRC) issued a press release earlier this week warning LGBTQ+ organisations and urging people to resist the Trump administration through a boycott of WorldPride.

The event, which is hosted in different cities each year, is set to take place in Washington DC between 17 May and 8 June and will feature a “vibrant and innovative slate of events and cultural programmes”.

But the AHRC says the event’s location could present “distinct dangers” to foreign LGBTQ+ visitors, in the wake of Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office.

It went on to claim that the US is being governed by “an antagonistic fascist regime,” urging WorldPride and its parent organisation, InterPride, to “revisit” its decision on who hosts the event this year.

“Although probably impossible to hold elsewhere at such late notice, WorldPride must consider withdrawing the event from the USA, and come out with a strong statement condemning the US for the dangerous environment it presents to LGBTQI+ people entering the country,” a spokesperson said.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has imposed homophobic and transphobic policies and issued anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders.

The AHRC believes this means the US is “no longer a free democratic country” and accused Trump and vice-president JD Vance of spreading “white supremacist, anti-women, racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic and antisemitic policies”.

The spokesperson urged organisations and the community at large to refrain from spending money with any US-based businesses, including WorldPride, and asked LGBTQ+ people, especially trans and non-binary members of the community, not to visit the US, claiming: “You are more likely than not to have a mark on your back.

“African Human Rights Coalition calls on WorldPride to come out and make the strongest of condemnation and solidarity statements, to cite all the antagonism that this current United States presents to its LGBTQI+ citizens.”

What is fascism?

The word fascism has a broad meaning and can be difficult to pinpoint both historically and politically, in no small part because of its historical significance.

Fascist parties and individuals have varied greatly across history and region but they tend to share characteristics such as nationalism, authoritarianism, an emphasis on militaristic dominance and a disdain for liberalism and left-wing beliefs.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines fascism as a “political ideology and mass movement that dominated many parts of central, southern and eastern Europe between 1919 and 1945 [that emphasises a belief in a] “natural social hierarchy”, ruled by an elite demographic that can be nefariously defined.

The Holocaust Encyclopedia, meanwhile, calls it a “far-right political philosophy or theory of government” that emerged in the 20th century but is still present today and has an “ultra-nationalist, authoritarian political philosophy [that] combines elements of nationalism, militarism, economic self-sufficiency and totalitarianism, [and] opposes communism, socialism, pluralism, individual rights and equality, and democratic government”.

White supremacy movements and fascism, or authoritarianism more broadly, often share a historical link.

Fascist ideologies, groups and political parties that view white people as the elite in their given society often disagree on a concrete definition of whiteness. However, fascist parties in Japan believe in the superiority of the “Yamato race,” who are of Asian descent.

People of Italian or Irish descent often weren’t considered white in the early 20th century, especially in the US and Western European regions.

Others have argued that fascism is not an ideology but rather a series of actions that an ideologically nationalistic person might undertake.

In an article in The New Yorker magazine last year, under the headline “What does it mean that Donald Trump is a fascist?”, Timothy Snyder wrote that fascism was a “phenomenon, not a person”.

He went on to say: “Just as Trump was always a presence, so is the movement he has created. It is not just a matter of the actual fascists in his movement, who are scarcely hiding, nor of his own friendly references to Hitler or his use of Hitlerian language. He bears responsibility for what comes next, as do his allies and supporters.”

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