Australia passes major hate crime law
Crackdowns on queer people continue in Indonesia, Tunisia, and Gaza
Australia: Parliament has passed the government’s new hate crime legislation which is LGBTI inclusive and carries minimum sentences of between one and six years. The law supplements hate crime laws at the state level, not all of which include protections for LGBTI people.
Japan: The government has proposed an assisted reproduction law that specifically bars same-sex couples from assisted reproduction and bans surrogacy.
Meanwhile, the city of Ichikawa is offering tax incentives to same-sex couples on an equal basis as heterosexual couples.
Philippines: Quezon City is holding a commitment ceremony for LGBTQI+ couples – the ceremony will be entirely symbolic as the state does not recognize same-sex couples.
Indonesia: Police arrested 56 people at an alleged gay sex party in Jakarta, under the country’s “anti-pornography” laws. Gay sex isn’t illegal per se in most of the country, but police are increasingly using morality laws to target gays.
Gaza/Palestine: The New York Post reports that Hamas leadership tortured and executed its own members who had gay sex. While this is entirely believable, the report says its “unclear” what happened to the 94 recruits deemed “unacceptable” and The Post seems to just jump to the conclusion they were tortured and executed.
Tunisia: A crackdown on LGBT people has led to arrests of more than 80 people over the last couple of months.
Kenya: The Court of Appeal was set to hear a case challenging Kenya’s sodomy law on Wednesday, but the case has been postponed due to procedural issues. A new bench of judges will be called to hear the case at some future date. The case was originally filed in 2015.
Sri Lanka: LGBT activists are still hopeful that the new government will decriminalize gay sex, as it had expressed support for legalizing same-sex relationships before last year’s election, but no bill has yet been brought forward. These same groups are now struggling to continue operating, as they had previously received significant funding from USAID, which has been cut off by the Trump administration.
India: The government told Parliament it has taken steps to recognize the rights of same-sex couples per the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that shot down equal marriage. But queer couples still face gaps when it comes to succession and tax equality in particular.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka state government is introducing an LGBT-inclusive hate crime law.
Fiji: A director of the Fiji Rugby Union was sacked after she publicly complained about lesbians being on the national team and blamed them for the team underperforming.
Mexico: State legislators in Morelos will meet today to discuss decriminalizing abortion, as they were ordered to do last year by the Supreme Court. The Court has given them an extended deadline of the end of this month to pass the decriminalization bill.
The Supreme Court also struck down abortion laws in Chihuahua state last week; the state congress will now need to repeal or reform those laws in line with the ruling, but they’re unenforceable already.
The Nayarit congress also decriminalized abortion just over two weeks ago. So far, 23/32 states have decriminalized abortion up to at least 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Meanwhile, in the States
A federal judge has blocked Trump’s executive order to move trans women prisoners to men’s prisons and deny them gender care, saying that likely violates the 8th Amendment right to freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. However, at the same time, the Board of Prisons has handed down new policy forbidding trans women inmates from having any female clothing or personal items.
But Trump issued another executive order barring trans women from participating in sports in schools and colleges, with the threat of denying federal funds under Title IX. The order also bars trans women athletes from obtaining visas to participate in the 2028 LA Olympics and pressures the IOC to bar trans women athletes altogether. Oddly, the order is silent on trans male athletes. The NCAA has said it will comply with the order; Michigan says it won’t comply regarding high schools – yet.
The Department of Defense is ending Pride Month celebrations and all other affinity groups for staff withing the Department. Similar moves are being made across the federal bureaucracy.
USAID sent termination notices to all of its 10,000 employees overnight. This will have a grave impact on human rights and health work across the globe.
Colorado: The same-sex marriage codification bill has passed third reading in the senate and is now at committee stage in the house.
Hawaii: A nondiscrimination constitutional amendment is having a public hearing today.
Minnesota: Republicans and Democrats have come to a power sharing agreement in the state house, which will allow equal membership on all committees except the oversight committee, and which allows a Republican to hold the speakership for the entire two-year session, even once the tie in seats is restored. Seems like a shitty deal, to be honest. Governor Walz has also finally called a special election to fill the house vacancy for March 11.