In the United States and many other parts of the world, this is a worrisome time for LGBT activists, as the pace of civil rights victories has grown uneven and reports of anti-LGBT violence and persecution surface relentlessly.

In the past two months, there have been large-scale detentions of gay men in Nigeria and Bangladesh, and chilling accounts of roundups and torture of scores of gays in Chechnya. In Indonesia, a major police raid on a gay sauna was followed two days later by the public caning of two gay men.

Taiwan is now on track to become the first territory in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, due to a May 24 court ruling. Worldwide, gay and lesbian couples can marry in only 22 of the world's nearly 200 countries. No nation in Eastern Europe is among them, and there is only one in Africa: South Africa.

Collectively, recent developments have changed the way some lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists are viewing the annual Pride Month events coming up in June. It's usually a time of celebration, but this year InterPride, which helps organize Pride events worldwide, says people should participate "to tell the world that they will not be silent in the face of oppression."

"2017 is very different," said InterPride's president, Sue Doster. "After years of progress on many fronts, we now have fervent opponents of LGBTQ equality in control of every branch of the U.S. government." Read more via Chron