The UK supreme court’s recent gender ruling made me think of the sublime sculptures – created from trash – by this artist who escaped persecution in Uganda. They stand for unity over division

In 2022, two wooden sculptures stood on the riverbanks of Brooklyn. Configured as bodies with multiple heads, the monumental works – part of a larger group titled Agali Awamu, which translates as “Togetherness” – towered over those who interacted with them. They appeared as an antidote to the silver, white or green reflective buildings that stood behind them: hand-carved and human-like, with mouths that appeared to be singing or whistling, and eyes barely open, perhaps to signify a joyous introspection. While one was made up of two bodies conjoined at the hip, the other had billowing hair and carried faces on its back and belly, which seemed to be singing in harmony. The sculptures looked peaceful, and protective of each other and of those who walked past them.

From far away these figures, created by the Ugandan-born, New York-based artist Leilah Babirye, looked regal. They stood tall, adorned with glistening belts and jewellery. But up close, you noticed that their ornaments were made up of rusty chains, old wire, used bolts and bicycle parts – objects once discarded, deemed as meaningless, but whose beauty had been noticed by the artist. She reused them for a celebratory monument of power and protection.

Celebrities including Pedro Pascal are wearing the design as they embrace its message in support of trans women

When the designer Conner Ives took his bow after his London fashion week show this February, he wore a T-shirt that proclaimed “Protect the Dolls”. Two months later, the design – and its message supporting trans women, who are affectionately called “dolls” in the LGBTQ+ community – has become ever more popular.

The singer Troye Sivan wore it to perform at Coachella, and the actor Pedro Pascal wore it for the London premiere of the film Thunderbolts, just days after the supreme court ruled that when the Equality Act referred to women, it only meant biological sex and did not include transgender women.

The actor has long been an activist for LGBTQ+ rights and has a transgender sister who often accompanies him on the red carpet

The actor Pedro Pascal has attacked author JK Rowling on X, calling her a “heinous loser”.

Pascal responded to a comment reporting the words of activist Tariq Ra’ouf in an Instagram video, in which he urged people to boycott Rowling’s work.

Complaints about the book focus on cartoon sex scenes, one of which has been described by critics as ‘pornographic’ and ‘paedophilic’

• Election 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaign
• Get our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcast

Gender Queer, a graphic novel on gender identity, has been reapproved for sale in Australia following a conservative campaign against the book forcing the Classification Review Board to reconsider its initial decision.

The federal court last year ordered the board to reassess its decision to give the Maia Kobabe memoir an unrestricted M classification, after rightwing activist Bernard Gaynor challenged the ruling.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

The Canadian singer-songwriter is releasing an album about his transition. Trump’s ‘dehumanizing’ new passport rules mean he won’t perform it for US fans

Bells Larsen knew that releasing a low-fi, folksy album about his transition as the Trump administration relentlessly attacked LGBTQ+ people would give it an inherently political edge. But the Canadian singer-songwriter did not expect to be caught in a bureaucratic nightmare while attempting to tour the US – and ultimately have to cancel that tour due to the gender marker in his passport.

On 12 April, Larsen announced on Instagram that he was pulling out of concerts to promote the album in eight cities this spring: “To put it super plainly, because I’m trans (and have an M on my passport), I can’t tour in the States,” he wrote.

Christian and Muslim parents in Maryland are seeking to pull elementary school children from certain classes

The US supreme court appeared inclined to rule in favor of Christian and Muslim parents in Maryland seeking to keep their elementary school children out of certain classes when storybooks with LGBTQ+ characters are read in the latest case involving the intersection of religion and LGBTQ+ rights.

The nine justices heard arguments on Tuesday in an appeal by parents with children in public schools in Montgomery county, located just outside Washington, after lower courts declined to order the local school district to let children opt out when these books are read. The plaintiffs – including Muslim, Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox parents – contend that the school board’s policy of prohibiting opt-outs violates the US constitution’s first amendment protections for free exercise of religion. Donald Trump’s administration backed them in the case.

As drag queens find a place in the mainstream spotlight, their counterparts are taking back the underground scene with theatrical performances that celebrate a marginalised community

• Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email

It’s just past 11pm on a warm Wednesday night at Sircuit bar in Smith Street Collingwood, in Melbourne’s inner north. The venue is filling up with an assorted crowd of predominantly punky and boyish-looking people of all genders. There’s no shortage of fauxhawks, baseball caps and mullets in the room.

Holi Dae Knight, introducing the drag king show tonight called SlayBoy, has just taken to the stage in a green sequined dress, hot pink hair and a full moustache and bushy beard performing Cher’s Believe. It’s the last night of a three week season of SlayBoy and the crowd is here to see drag kings. The first performers are Justin Sider and Johnny Cocksville doing a version of Right Said Fred’s I’m Too Sexy – they strut wildly on stage simulating raunchiness but it’s all in good fun.

Internal mission statements from Harmeet Dhillon pivots division’s priorities away from marginalized groups’ rights

The justice department’s civil rights division is shifting its focus away from its longstanding work protecting the rights of marginalized groups and will instead pivot towards Donald Trump’s priorities including hunting for noncitizen voters and protecting white people from discrimination, according to new internal mission statements seen by the Guardian.

The new priorities were sent to several sections of the civil rights division this week by Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump ally who was confirmed a little more than two weeks ago to lead the division. Several of them give only glancing mention to the statutes and kinds of discrimination that have long been the focus of the division, which dates back to the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Several of the mission statements point to Trump’s executive orders as priorities for the section.

Elected leaders from across Europe should join us on the streets. It is critical to democracy – in Hungary, and the EU as a whole

Hungary’s parliament has given Viktor Orbán the tools to do what he has long threatened: ban Pride, silence dissent and strip political critics of their citizenship. A constitutional amendment passed on 14 April allows the government to label LGBTQ+ gatherings a threat to children and to revoke the citizenship of dual nationals deemed a risk to “national sovereignty”.

This is a purge disguised as law – another step in Orbán’s dismantling of democracy, where the constitution is degraded to a propaganda instrument. He calls it a “spring clean-up” to root out “bugs”, targeting LGBTQ+ people, journalists, critics, civil society and now, dual nationals. As one myself, I could be among the targets.

Katalin Cseh is a member of the Hungarian national assembly for the Momentum Movement and a former MEP

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Visiting delegation find ‘hostile atmosphere’ for LGBTQ+ people and say country heading in ‘wrong direction’

A delegation of EU lawmakers visiting Hungary has called on Europe’s top court to suspend a new law banning Budapest Pride, as they criticised a “very hostile atmosphere” for LGBTQ+ people in the country and urged a return to “real democracy”.

Tineke Strik, a Dutch Green politician who led a cross-party group of MEPs to investigate democratic standards in Hungary, said developments were going “rapidly in the wrong direction”.