Remembering Lynn Oddy

It is with great sadness that we have to report that Lynn Oddy has passed away. She was a member of Out In The City for more than ten years.

Lynn was a huge part of LGBT+ life in Manchester over many years, attending and helping to run social and support groups for trans communities meeting around Canal Street in the early 2000s. More recently she was a regular attendee at LGBT+ older people’s groups including Pride in Ageing events.

Lynn dedicated a lot of her time to help others – November 2025 marked 10 years of volunteering for LGBT Foundation. More recently she made an incredible contribution to the Russell Road Extra Care Scheme project, as a member of the Community Steering Group representing trans voices. She was recognised for her outstanding contribution to this project with a ‘Behind the Scenes Hero’ Award at the LGBT Foundation Volunteer Awards in June 2025.

White House Halts World AIDS Day Recognition Amid HIV Funding Cuts

World AIDS Day, first marked in 1988, has long served as an annual reminder of the ongoing effort to end an epidemic that has killed more than 44.1 million people worldwide and continues to disproportionately impact gay men and black men and women. Yet the Trump-Vance administration declined to acknowledge the day this year, severing a symbolic but consistent tradition upheld by every president since Ronald Reagan.

The move comes despite the scale of the epidemic today. Approximately 1.2 million people in the US are living with HIV and about 158,250 people do not know their status.

In the UK around 113,500 people are living with HIV and about 5,000 do not know their status.

Globally, the World Health Organisation reports 40.8 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2024.

Presidents of both parties have historically used World AIDS Day to highlight progress, remember lives lost, and recommit to reducing disparities in prevention and treatment. Past administrations have also commemorated the day through displays of the AIDS Memorial Quilt — first created in 1987 and later spread across the National Mall and White House lawn. Today, the quilt includes the names of more than 94,000 people lost to AIDS on more than 47,000 panels.

This year’s silence from the White House follows several sweeping foreign aid rollbacks instituted by President Donald Trump after his 2024 inauguration. Cuts have created significant funding gaps for non-governmental organisations around the world — many of which work directly to prevent HIV transmission and expand access to lifesaving treatment.

HIV/AIDS Activists Block Intersection Near White House

Upwards of 100 HIV/AIDS activists on Monday blocked an intersection near the White House and demanded the Trump-Vance administration fully fund HIV programmes.

For the first time since the global observance began, the US government did not commemorate World AIDS Day on 1 December.

Court grants big victory for same-sex marriage rights in European Union

The European Court of Justice has issued a ruling that all nations in the European Union (EU) must recognise lawful same-sex marriages that were performed in other EU countries. Previously, a country could refuse to recognise a marriage if it had taken place in another country and did not align with its own laws.

The court declared that EU citizens have a right to “a normal family life” regardless of borders. “When they create a family life in a host member state,” they said, “in particular by virtue of marriage, they must have the certainty to be able to pursue that family life upon returning to their member state of origin.”

Citizens of the European Union have the right to freedom of movement between the different nations within the union. The court suggested that this right, as well as the right to “respect for private and family life,” would be breached if one country could refuse to acknowledge a lawful marriage from another country.

The court added in a press release, “Member States are therefore required to recognise, for the purpose of the exercise of the rights conferred by EU law, the marital status lawfully acquired in another Member State.”

The case was brought to the Luxembourg-based court on behalf of a Polish couple who had been married in Berlin, Germany, where same-sex marriage is recognised. When, years later, they returned to their home country, they submitted their marriage certificate, which was in German, to the Polish government to be transcribed and recognised in the Polish civil register.

The Polish government denied their request, as the country does not recognise same-sex marriages. With this new ruling, they will no longer be able to refuse legally.

The decision does not require that same-sex marriage be legalised by all EU nations, only that the marriages conducted in other EU countries be recognised, regardless of the citizenship of the people involved.

LGBT+ rights have taken some big hits in Poland in recent years. The far-right Law and Justice Party held power from 2015 to 2023 and enacted a range of anti-LGBT+ policies during that time. It was only in April of this year that the last “LGBT-free” zone created by the party was finally repealed.

Poland is currently led by a coalition government. The prime minister, Donald Tusk, campaigned on introducing same-sex civil unions and has pushed for such legislation to be passed. However, Poland’s president, Karol Nawrocki of the Law and Justice Party, has said that he would veto any legislation that would legalise same-sex marriage.

Sixteen EU countries – Ireland, Portugal, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Slovenia, Malta, Greece, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia – have extended full marriage rights to same-sex couples. Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia are the EU countries with no legal recognition of same-sex couples.

Out On The Radio

This new monthly radio show – Out On The Radio – aimed at older members of the LGBT+ communities went live on Tuesday, 2 December.

Don’t worry if you missed it, as it has been uploaded to Mixcloud here so you can listen at your leisure.

Next month’s show is on Tuesday, 6 January 2026 from 2.00pm to 3.00pm on ALL FM 96.9.