Statement Feb 25, 2025

Statement on the Trump Administration’s Censorship of Matters Related to the LGBTQ+ Community

The International Committee on LGBTQ+ History Months (ICoHM), founded in November 2021, believes that every person has a human right to unrestricted access to a history that is whole and complete. We also believe that every person has a human right to see themselves reflected in the records and relics of the human family.

We reject, therefore, all attempts by all governments to limit, restrict, erase, and censor facts and information about the LGBTQ+ community. Specifically at this moment, we condemn the new federal administration in the United States for targeted erasure of LGBTQ+ history generally and transgender history specifically by means of Executive Orders 14151, 14168, 14187, 14201, and other actions. We further condemn the federal administration and the unelected in that administration for removing access to federal websites with information related to HIV education, gender, and LGBTQ+ history.

The eradication of books, knowledge, records, and groups never ends well, and the Trump administration’s actions embolden others around the world. We ask the federal administration in the United States to stop its search-and-destroy mission meant to annihilate the advances and gains of LGBTQ+ human rights, LGBTQ+ persons, and LGBTQ+ history over the past several decades.

We, the undersigned, call on the world’s governments to do what they can to challenge the invisibilizing of any citizen and to support access to all histories, including LGBTQ+ history.

Canada: Meryem Benslimane, Dr. Alessio Ponzio
Estonia: Keio Soomelt
Finland: Kaura Raudaskoski
France: Dr. John Samuel
Hungary: Viktória Sulyok, L. Balázs Szabó, Péter Hanzli
Israel: Dotan Brom
Italy: Dr. Chiara Beccalossi, Oscar-Silvi Bertolissi
Netherlands: Dewi Vrenegoor
New Zealand: Clare O’Leary
Northern Ireland: Mary Ellen Campbell, Joe Walsh
Romania: Andre Radulescu
Spain: Dr. Moisés Fernández Cano, Dr. Esteban López Medina, Mónica Morado Vázquez, Dra. Daniela Ferrández, Dr. Javier Fernández Galeano
Sweden: Sarah Guarino Werner, Bill Schiller
UK: Professor Emeritus Sue Sanders, Lynne Nicholls
USA: Rodney Wilson
Wales: Dr. Norena Shopland

The mission of the International Committee on LGBTQ+ History Months is to share knowledge; to support existing LGBTQ+ History Month projects; and to encourage new LGBTQ+ History Months around the world