Anti-LGBTQ bills and new laws are spreading around the world, including in several African nations and the former Soviet republic of Belarus. The proposed or approved legislation in these various countries seek to criminalize same-sex relationships and gender identity, ban promoting LGBTQ rights, and censor media outlets. Prominent Ugandan LGBTQ activists Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, and Jacqueline Kasha Nabagesara on April 16 filed an appeal against the East African country’s court decision upholding most of the new anti-LGBTQ law. According to the Washington Blade, 22 other queer and transgender activists joined in the appeal.