For many European gays, the Eurovision song festive contest can mark the unofficial start of the global pride season.
As usual, there were highlights and scandalous lights among competitive Eurovision nations in the 2025 edition of the contest in Basel, Switzerland, this month. But another country was on the lips of many queer setters this year: United States, with its avalanche of new anti-transmigrants and anti-immigrants that are causing some LGBTQ travelers to reconside their upcoming American itineraries.
Several European countries, including Denmark, Finland and Germany, have issued official precautions for LGBTQ travelers who visit the United States, particularly those with a “X” genre that appears in their passport. Meanwhile, for concerns for the safety of the participants, the main LGBTQ Rights Group in Canada, Egale Canada, retired from participation in Worldpride DC, and the African human rights coalition has requested a boycott of this edition of the international pride event, coordinated by Interpride and generally every two years.
“It doesn’t feel good at this time,” Karl Krause told NBC News in Eurovision in Basel, referring to travel to the United States Krause, who is German by birth, lives in Amsterdam with his Dutch partner, Daan Cochn, and together they are content creators focused on known trips to their followers as a couple of men. In 2021, Lonely Planet awarded their first prize to the Storyteller LGBTIQ LGBTIQ, a nod to his work for the LGBTQ community.
“As homosexual men who travel to the US. UU., Probably we are still the most privileged part of the community,” Krause said. “But we had some interesting conversations recently in Bilbao with a trans person who said: ‘I can’t literally I can’t travel to the USA. Uu., Because I have no idea how they would receive my diverse passport, if they would get detention or whatever. I have my little daughter, I will not risk any of this.”
Krause said that this was the time when he realized that although he and cool as homosexual men they still do not feel the complete effects of Trump administration policies, they were already having an impact on other travelers within the LGBTQ community.
“So how can we, in good way, promote this destiny?” asked. “How can I send a trans friend or a non -binary friend and try to inspire them to go to the United States when they are supposed to be the best time of their year, to spend in a country where they do not feel safe?”
Colejn added that he and Krause want to send their followers “somewhere where they are safe, where they feel welcome.”
“At this time, of course, many people will continue to be very, very welcome in most of the United States, many places remain the same, or maybe even trying to do better. But we just want to be careful with what we are supporting,” said Colejn.
John Tanzella, president and CEO of the International Travel Association LGBTQ+, or IGLTA, told NBC News that such concerns are common this year.
“We have heard that travelers feel uncertain about visiting the US., Especially trans and diverse gender people,” he said. “These decisions are often driven by concerns about security, border treatment and access to affirmative medical care. Some have canceled their trips. Many others still come, but they are being more selective about where they are going.”
Nicoló Manfredini, an Italian trans man who lives in Valencia, Spain, said that he could recently enter the US.
“I had originally planned to go to Worldpride, but not now,” he said.
Given the current environment in the United States, Manfredini added, he said he would only travel to the United States if he had to do it for work.
Even the people of various American gender are adjusting their travel plans due to the policies of the Trump administration, according to a study published earlier this month by the Williams Institute in the UCLA Law Faculty. Of the more than 300 transgender people, non -binary and other gender people surveyed, 70% said that they are less likely to go on vacation to the US states that consider less transfer.
Krause said that despite the fact that they generally attend at least one and sometimes several US pride events. Uu every year, this year will be different.
“We were actually planning to go to Washington, DC, for Worldpride, but this is out of the table for us … How safe we can be in Washington? Just say that it scares me a little,” he said, pointing out that the attack of January 6, 2021, the attack against the Capitol of the United States was particularly worrying. “I don’t know what is happening there now and who is coming, and I don’t feel safe with the idea that I’m going there and I’m walking and maybe there is a mafia. [coming] from any direction “.
Capital Pride Alliance, the organizers behind the Worldpride DC, which began earlier this month and continues until June 8, did not respond to the requests for NBC News comments, but the website of the event details the security protocols and includes a passport notice for transgender and non -binary travelers.
Sahand Miraminy, director of Capital Operations Pride Alliance, told the Washington Post this week that security measures in Worldpride DC will include a weapons projection at the entrance of the street festival on June 7 and 8, which will also be surrounded.
In addition to the support of the local and federal agency we have, we also hire private security and we have many forms of security and surveillance measures that we cannot share at all times with the public, “he said,” but certainly there are conversations that we are having with those agencies weekly. “
The NYC Pride organizers, possibly the most popular most popular pride events every year and held as most of the big cities during the pride month in June, are also intensifying security plans by 2025.
“The Pride of New York has hired a private company with a great experience in the management of LGBTQIA+ events to lead security on the site,” said spokesman Kevin Kilbride. “Given the size and visibility of our events, New York’s pride is monitored and secured by municipal agencies at all levels of government to protect our freedom of expression and guarantee a safe space for our community.”
