A programming note…
I started this newsletter almost a year ago as a place to share news about the struggle for LGBT rights around the world away from Twitter, and since then I’ve regularly pumped out between 3-5 of these per week. I love doing it, but it’s a lot of work, and I’m overdue for a vacation. I’ll be overseas for the next two weeks, and then travelling in North America for the following two weeks. I probably will not be putting out this newsletter regularly for at least the first half of my vacation.
But I won’t be completely gone! I’ll still be writing the weekly Out in the World page of updates from Europe and Asia over at the Los Angeles Blade – it’ll go up Sunday or Monday each week. And I’ll be back here in early May.
And I’m taking off with one *hefty* newsletter.
And now, the news…
🇨🇿 Czechia: The senate committee on the family examined the same-sex partnership law today, and the full senate is expected to debate the bill tomorrow. The senate can either pass it or “not deal with it,” in which case, the bill is sent to the president for signature, or it can amend or reject the bill, in which case it will be sent back to the lower house, which can pass it with an absolute majority of votes.
🇱🇮 Liechtenstein: Second (and probably final) reading debate on the same-sex marriage bill has been scheduled for the next sitting of Parliament, May 15-17.
🇱🇺 Luxembourg: The government’s review of its progress on its LGBTQ rights plan shows mixed results. Spots activists have said need work are trans rights, recognizing non-binary genders, and banning conversion therapy.
🇭🇷 Croatia: Several LGBT organizations have criticized Zagreb Pride after it published a guide to today’s election that outed ten politicians without their explicit consent.
Croatia has quietly advanced quite a bit on LGBT rights, although same-sex marriage is likely a long way off, as a citizen-initiated referendum created a constitutional ban in 2013.
🇬🇧 UK: The latest JK Rowling drama is that she threatened to sue Rivkah Brown, who accused her of Holocaust denial because she called the well-documented fact that the Nazis persecuted trans people and destroyed research on sex and gender a “fever dream.” Under the UK’s very punitive libel laws, Rowling was able to credibly threaten to sue Brown, even though the statement was 100% true. Brown deleted her tweet and tweeted an apology, which has ironically drawn more attention to the fact that Rowling denies the horrors that Nazis inflicted on trans and queer people. Rowling really is a horrible person, isn’t she?
🇮🇳 India: The government has formed a six-person committee to examine issues facing the LGBTQ+ community and make recommendations on how to reduce discrimination and ensure security. The government had been ordered to do this by the Supreme Court when it ruled against requiring the government to legalize same-sex marriage. What the committee actually does is up in the air – not least because the country is in the middle of a month-long election campaign right now.
🇺🇬 Uganda: LGBT activists are appealing the Constitutional Court’s ruling that upheld most of the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act.
🇺🇬 Namibia: A government legislator told an Independence Day commemoration that the country’s struggle for freedom from South Africa wasn’t meant to empower its LGBT citizens.
The Supreme Court is due to issue a ruling on the country’s sodomy law one month from today, May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia. It’s widely expected to strike down the law, in line with several recent court decisions in southern Africa.
🇳🇿 New Zealand: An anti-LGBT zealot was ordered to pay a fine of NZ$16,000 (approx. US$9,400) after he pled guilty to vandalizing a rainbow crosswalk in Auckland.
🇨🇱 Chile: Lawmakers have introduced a bill to allow people in a civil union to adopt – currently, the law only allows married couples (straight or gay) to adopt.
Meanwhile in the States…
👏 Ohio: A state court has blocked the law banning trans youth gender care and a ban on trans girls in sports, on the ground the bill violates the state’s one-subject-per-bill rule.
👏 West Virginia: The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down the state’s trans student sports ban, ruling that trans students are protected by Title IX and the law violates the US Constitution. The fourth circuit ruling also applies to Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
👏 Maine: The legislature passed a bill to join the National Interstate Popular Vote Compact. It’ll come into effect when states representing 270 electoral votes join, and those states will commit to giving their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the popular vote. Current total with Maine is 209.
👏 Michigan: Democrats regained their state house majority by winning two special elections last night, so they can hopefully get quickly back to work passing a hate crime law and repealing the sodomy law. Dems are also working on a bill to join the Popular Vote Compact (adding 15 votes) and other voting rights laws.
On Thursday, the senate judiciary committee will hold a hearing on a bill to ban the “gay panic” defense. It’s already cleared the house.
👏 Colorado: A bill to amend state hate crime law to make “gender identity” a separate protected category instead of including it in sexual orientation has advanced out of house committee. It now awaits a final vote in the house.
🤷♂️ Florida: Republican governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that walks back his own party’s book banning law, limiting the number of challenges that anyone can file.
😡 Louisiana: The state house passed two bills that would ban discussion of LGBT topics in K-12 public school classrooms, require students to get parental permission to change their name/pronoun, and ban disciplining students for calling another student by a dead name/pronoun. They now head to the senate.
The house also passed a bill requiring all classrooms to display the ten commandments, which is a flagrant violation of the separation of church and state. It’s in a senate committee.
😡 Idaho: The US Supreme Court has partially lifted a stay on the state’s youth gender care ban, pending the outcome of challenges to the ban in lower courts.
😡 Washington: Republican governor candidate Dave Reichert went on an unhinged rant about how trans people don’t exist and marriage should be limited to heterosexual couples at a party event earlier this year. I mean, he wasn’t going to win anyway, but still.
See you all soon!