Australian MP to introduce comprehensive LGBT equality bill
New Hampshire bans gay/trans panic defences
Openly gay independent member of the New South Wales state parliament in Australia Alex Greenwich has announced he will introduce a private member’s bill to deliver comprehensive LGBT Equality on Thursday. The bill would ban conversion therapy, remove the surgical requirement to update gender markers on state ID, fully decriminalize sex work, eliminate loopholes allowing anti-LGBT discrimination in private schools, and make it a domestic violence offence to threaten to out a same-sex partner. The NSW government has said it will consider the legislation, though it has previously committed to passing at least some of these initiatives on its own.
Windy City Times has a report on the lengthy history of the “gay/trans panic” defense in US law. Currently, only sixteen states ban the use of the defense in criminal trials – the most recent is New Hampshire, where Republican governor Chris Sununu signed a bill into law this month. Bills to ban it are also under consideration or proposed in Massachusetts, Michigan, and Minnesota, where Democrats control the legislatures.
A journalist and LGBT activist was arbitrarily arrested upon returning to her home country Equatorial Guinea after she delivered a report on LGBT rights to the European Union in Madrid. She has since been released. Equatorial Guinea is one of those kleptocrat dictatorships that may as well be an absolute monarchy, where despite having oil production that earns it the highest GDP per capita in Africa, basically all the wealth is controlled by the family that has ruled the country since independence in 1968 (the current president having served since 1979). So, they don’t take kindly to journalists and human rights activism, and the state consistently ranks among the worst of the worst human rights offenders in international rankings (although homosexuality is not illegal in the country).
Four people – two men and two women – were arrested in Uganda for alleged homosexual acts in a massage parlor. Uganda is in the midst of a major crackdown on LGBT people.
The Journal has a long report on growing anti-LGBT and especially anti-trans rhetoric in Ireland, much of which has been imported from the UK, where anti-trans rhetoric has already grown quite toxic under the Conservative governments of the past decade or so.
Thailand has finally elected a Prime Minister, after the second-place finisher in the May elections cut a deal with military-backed parties to earn their votes in Parliament. While new PM Srettha Thavisin had previously backed LGBT rights including same-sex marriage, it’s unclear whether he will be able to get much passed with a government that includes the conservative military establishment. It also remains to be seen how the Thai electorate will respond to having their top choice – and calls for government reform – effectively shut out by the establishment.
I skipped over reports that a far-right, anti-LGBT politician took the most number of votes in Argentina’s presidential primary last week, but take those reports with a grain of salt. This was only the party primary, and it doesn’t look like Javier Milei has the votes to win the October/November vote and runoff at this time.