Donald Trump early on Nov. 9, 2016, declared victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. My husband and I arrived in Jerusalem less than 48 hours later.

A Wider Bridge, a group that "advocates for justice, counters LGBTQphobia, and fights anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred," months earlier had invited us to participate in one of its missions to Israel. It was my first time in the country.

Our first meeting was at the Shalom Hartman Institute, which describes itself as a "leading center of Jewish thought and education" that seeks "to strengthen Jewish peoplehood, identity, and pluralism; to enhance the Jewish and democratic character of Israel; and to ensure that Judaism is a compelling [force] for good in the 21st century."

The staffer who greeted us welcomed us to Israel. He then pointed out that Benjamin Netanyahu had been prime minister for nearly a decade. [Netanyahu was Israel's prime minister from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. He became the country's prime minister for a third time on Dec. 29, 2022.]

"Now you will know what it will feel like," he said.

His comment was cold comfort to many of us who were still reeling over Trump's victory. It is also one that has repeatedly come to mind as I continue to process the results of the presidential election and what a second Trump presidency will mean for this country, for me as a Gay man, for the community that I cover, and especially for Transgender Americans and immigrants whom the first Trump administration disproportionately targeted.

The US is certainly not the only country in which voters in recent years have elected authoritarian figures who pose a threat to LGBTQ rights. Viktor Orbán has been Hungary's prime minister since 2010. Javier Milei has been Argentina's president since December 2023. Jair Bolsonaro was Brazil's president from 2019 to 2023.

Hungary, among other things, has enacted a so-called propaganda law and effectively banned same-sex couples from adopting children since Orbán took office. Milei's government in August closed Argentina's National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism. Bolsonaro, among other things, encouraged fathers to beat their sons if they came out as Gay and said people who are vaccinated against COVID-19 are at increased risk for AIDS.

Activists who protested [last year] against Netanyahu's proposed judicial system reforms say they would have adversely impacted LGBTQ Israelis. The prime minister postponed these efforts in March 2023 after a nationwide strike paralyzed the country, [but] Israeli lawmakers a few months later approved [one] after opposition lawmakers stormed out of the Knesset in protest. [It was lat-er struck down by the Supreme Court.]

[These are several] of the dozens of countries around the world in which LGBTQ rights have been under attack — and the US will certainly remain on this list once Trump takes office again on Jan. 20. It is certainly a frightening prospect for many in our community, but the activists in the afore-mentioned countries have not given up, and their American counterparts should not either.

"I'm not saying it's not easy, but the direction is so clear," András Léderer, the head of advocacy for the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, told me in April during an interview at a Budapest coffee shop. "They [the Hungarian government] can try to introduce setbacks. They can make life miser-able, temporarily, but, you know, you just can't go against the entire world in that sense."

Hamas [terrorists] on Oct. [7], 2023, killed Israel Defense Forces Maj. Sagi Golan in Be'eri, a kibbutz near the Israel-Gaza border, [during the attack that killed over 1,200 others]. His fiancé, Omer Ohana, with the support of Israeli advocacy groups, successfully lobbied Israeli lawmakers to amend the country's Bereaved Families Law to recognize LGBTQ widows and widowers of fallen servicemembers.

"It was a big effort, and a big success," Yael Sinai Biblash, the CEO of the Aguda, the Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel, told me [in October] after she attended Golan's memorial service in a Tel Aviv suburb.

Bru Pereira and Gui Mohallem, co-directors of VoteLGBT, a Brazilian organization established in 2014 with a mission to increase LGBTQ representation in politics, [said], in response to Trump's reelection, [that] they and others in Brazil are "witnessing how grassroots efforts, particularly from marginalized communities, are crucial in defending LGBTQ+ rights under right-wing governments."

Donald Tusk became Poland's prime minister last December after a group of coalition parties that he leads won a majority of seats in the Sejm, the lower house of the country's parliament. President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the conservative Law and Justice party who opposes LGBTQ rights, remains in office as part of the governing coalition. Deputy Justice Minister Krzysztof Śmiszek is openly Gay. His partner, former MP Robert Biedroń, [is] a member of the European Parliament.

Magda Dropek is an activist who ran for the Lesser Poland Regional Assembly in Kraków, Poland's second-largest city, in April. (Lesser Poland is among the provinces that had declared themselves "LGBT-free zones" ahead of the 2020 presidential election.) Dropek, like others, pointed out [that] Russian President Vladimir Putin and other politicians respond to "antagonized societies" with "populism and (sacrifice) human rights." Dropek, however, stressed [that] the new Polish government presents an opportunity.

"What happened in Poland a year ago is still an important story that brings hope to others," she said. "It's a huge responsibility, but also work, because this is the time to change mentalities and educate using democratic tools. Because we've been coping with everything else, grassroots support and organization for so many years, you know yourselves."

Trump leaves office on Jan. 20, 2029.

First published in the Washington Blade: https://www.washingtonblade.com/2024/11/12/activists-around-the-world-offer-potential-path-forward-for-american-counterparts