UK heads to the polls - trans rights in the balance
Canadian queers take a stand against Conservatives
First, some housekeeping.
I’m actually pleased to report that I made an error on Monday – contrary to what I reported, the Minnesota legislature did indeed pass a ban on the “gay/trans panic defense” before it broke on Sunday. It was buried in an omnibus supplemental judiciary budget bill. It joins 17 states and DC in having banned the defense. A bill to ban it also remains before the senate in Michigan, though time is running out to pass it there.
This actually gives the Minnesota Democrats a pretty impressive record on LGBTQ rights during the two years of their razor-thin unified control, and a template for other states that Democrats are aiming for in November. They also modernized civil rights law to remove discrimination exceptions, repealed the sodomy law, and banned conversion therapy.
Also, I have a couple of stories up at the Los Angeles Blade. First, I reported that up in Canada, Pride Festivals are proactively disinviting conservative politicians who have introduced or proposed anti-trans policies.
And earlier in the week, I wrote up the “Out in the World” column, with news from New Zealand, Taiwan, Georgia, the UK, Liechtenstein and across Europe.
Now, the News
UK: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has finally called a general election for July 4 – apparently sensing the knives were already at his back. If polling is accurate, the election ought to wipe out the Tories, who’ve had a dismal record on LGBT rights, and install a Labour government. Labour leader Keir Starmer has promised to introduce a conversion therapy ban and update the gender recognition system, significantly helping trans people. Presumably, Labour would also allow Scotland to go ahead with gender recognition reform, which Tories vetoed last year (assuming Scotland still wants to go ahead with it, and that’s not a guarantee, given political turmoil there).
Mexico: The state of Guerrero passed a ban on conversion therapy, the 19th state to do so. A federal ban is already in place, so this is kind of an extra layer of protection. And the city of Papalotla, Tlaxcala (try saying that three times fast), introduced a protocol for dealing with anti-LGBT hate crimes, apparently the first municipality to do so (though the state has had a hate crime law since 2021).
Moldova: Deeping its relationship with the EU, which it hopes to join, the country signed a security and defense agreement with the bloc. Moldova ranked 24th on the ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map this year with 39%, ahead of ten EU members and 19 points higher than its score two years ago. Moldova plans to fully withdraw from the Russia-led Commonwealth of Independent States by the end of the year.
Similarly, this month, Armenia stopped making payments to the Russian version of NATO, the CSTO, deepening its rift with Russia and its drift toward the West.
Meanwhile, in the States…
Louisiana: The state legislature gave final passage to a bill requiring parental permission for students to use a preferred name and pronoun in school, but which also allows teachers to ignore parental choice if the teacher happens to be more bigoted than the parent. The legislature also passed a bill barring discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in all schools – including barring teachers from discussing their own sexual orientation or gender identity, which seems hilariously unworkable. Both bills are expected to be signed by the Republican governor.