🇳🇦 Namibia: The high court in Windhoek finally delivered its long-awaited ruling decriminalizing sodomy, the latest victory for queer activists in the African country. This brings the total of criminalizing states down to 64, after another victory in Dominica earlier this year.
The court found the common-law crimes of sodomy and unnatural acts to be unconstitutional. We’ll have to await the written ruling to find out exactly how the court arrived at the ruling. I’ll have more as it develops. UNAIDS has already congratulated the country on the ruling.
The decision continues a trend toward decriminalization in sub-Saharan Africa, with Gabon, Mauritius, Angola, Lesotho, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Botswana, and Mozambique all decriminalizing since 2012. Now, 24 of Africa’s 54 countries do not criminalize homosexuality.
Last year, the Supreme Court of Namibia ordered the government to recognize foreign same-sex marriages for residency purposes, although that led parliament to pass an extreme anti-LGBT bill – which still awaits the president’s veto or signature – that prohibits same-sex marriage and some forms of LGBT advocacy and expression. But lower courts have also found that anti-LGBT discrimination is banned in the constitution.
So, what now? Well, there’s a good chance the government appeals, and the decision is taken to the Supreme Court, where they’re likely to lose again. There’s also the outstanding anti-LGBT bill. We can hope the president just vetos the bill, but there’s always the chance that this decision spurs him to sign it, and that parliament passes another bill to criminalize gay sex, and then these laws get taken to the courts again. We’ll have to see in the coming days and weeks. But for now, we can celebrate a victory.
🇵🇱 Poland: It looks like the civil union compromise is taking shape – the conservatives in the government coalition agree to support the bill if adoption and stepchild adoption rights are removed from it. It’s a shitty compromise, but if it passes, it likely provides a strong starting point for an eventual legal challenge for adoption rights. They’re looking to come to an agreement by Thursday.
An Ipsos poll was just released showing 2/3 of Poles support civil unions, and 40% support same-sex couples having the right to adopt (the story doesn’t say how many oppose it).
🇹🇠Thailand: Fresh off passing marriage equality, the Thai government is at work amending laws, forms and regulations to be gender-neutral to reflect the possibility of same-sex marriage. They’re also opening up surrogacy and IVF laws to accommodate same-sex couples, although only Thai nationals will be able to access legal surrogacy.
Meanwhile in the States….
🗽New York: Courts restored the state’s equal rights amendment to the November ballot on Tuesday. A lower court tossed the ballot question on procedural grounds in April, and Republicans are saying they will appeal the decision to the state’s highest court. The ERA lumps together anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people along with abortion rights.
Six other states have organizations pursuing ballot questions to protect the right to abortion, and their efforts should all be submitted in the next few weeks. Up to eleven states could be voting on abortion this November.
Michigan: Lawmakers rushed to pass a new bill banning necrophilia Tuesday. In the process, they disregarded a different bill that would have criminalized necrophilia while also removing the defunct law criminalizing gay sex.
In positive news, the senate approved its version of the bill banning the gay panic defense yesterday, sending it back to the house for concurrence with its amendments. Honestly, the two versions seem very similar, albeit that the senate version is less wordy.
Lawmakers only have about another month to pass bills before the session ends, and it doesn’t look like many more LGBT rights bills are going to make it through. Reminder that state Democrats squandered about four months of legislative time when they lost their majority in November and delayed special elections to April. Also still in the queue is a hate crime bill no one can agree on, and a repeal of the legislative and constitutional bans on same-sex marriage (which wasn’t going to pass, but still).
Colorado: The Club Q shooter pled guilty to federal hate charges and was sentenced to 55 life sentences Tuesday. He was already in prison on state charges.
Delaware: The state house passed a bill to repeal the death penalty from state law. The bill now goes to the senate for approval. Capital punishment has been banned in the state since a 2016 decision of the state supreme court.
Louisiana: The governor has signed a law requiring the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed in all schools. This is clearly against the First Amendment, and the ACLU has already announced it will sue. The same law also bans discussion of LGBT topics in schools, restricts students’ preferred pronoun use, and authorizes schools to hire chaplains.