Barbados moves to strike buggery law from the books

EU lawmakers lambaste Hungary PM; another same-sex couple case reaches Hong Kong's top court

Hungary: The EU Commission President and MEPs lashed out at Hungarian PM Victor Orban after he gave a speech to the EU Parliament Thursday. They criticized everything from his cozy ties with dictators, to democratic backsliding, corruption, and the country’s crackdown on LGBT rights.

Poland: One chunk of the ruling coalition is calling for the government to ignore the string of European Court of Human Rights rulings requiring Poland to recognize same-sex civil unions, saying society is not ready for this.

Nevertheless, the government is still saying it plans to bring its civil union legislation to parliament soon. Eventually. Really. But there’s now a push for the left-most party to leave the coalition over the delays.

Lithuania: A small group of LGBT activists protested in front of Parliament this week calling for civil unions to be legalized, ahead of first-round elections on Sunday. It still seems rather unclear if the various parties want to pass the bill, with politicians saying it could be passed in the lame-duck session, there’s no hope for that happening, and that there might be better odds with the new parliament.

Canada: A report has found that SOGI-inclusive education in British Columbia has actually reduced discrimination and bullying against heterosexual children too. The report comes as the province heads to the polls Oct 19, with the SOGI program a major issue the BC Conservatives are hoping to shut down if elected.

Barbados: The government has introduced amendments to the Sexual Offenses Act meant to update laws around rape and sex offenses involving children. The amendment also formally strikes out the buggery and gross indecency laws that were struck down by the courts in December 2022 (which is partly why the new sections dealing with protection of minors became necessary, as some existing laws were scrapped with that ruling). Nevertheless, the opposition is crying foul that by making marital rape laws explicitly gender-neutral, the bill is somehow legalizing or legitimizing same-sex marriage. Heavy sigh.

But it is nice to see a respond positively to a decriminalization ruling. The bill passed through the lower house this week, and is now in the senate.

Mexico: LGBT and Women’s advocates are worried about proposed reforms to the judiciary, including direct election of supreme court judges. The proposals have already passed through the senate.

A state legislator in Guanajuato has introduced a bill to codify same-sex marriage in the state. Since she heads the justice commission, and the current governor is the person who issued the executive decree legalizing it in the state, there’s a good chance this bill actually advances, despite the state’s conservative PAN majority.

A bill has been introduced to ban conversion therapy in Aguascalientes; it would supplement the federal ban passed earlier this year.

Colombia: A judge who refused to marry two women in 2020 has had his disqualification overturned on due process concerns.

Nepal: Another same-sex couple got married – the seventh nationwide since it became legal last year. This couple is another first, as they are binational; one husband is American. I hope this will help end the edit war on Wikipedia over whether or not same-sex marriage is legal in Nepal.

Hong Kong: Yet another Court of Final Appeal hearing on the rights of same-sex couples. This time, the government is fighting a lower court ruling that same-sex couples can indeed inherit from each other. This one seems particularly vindictive and unlikely to succeed, as the CFA has already ordered the government to begin recognizing same-sex couples in law (they have another year to sort that out).

Meanwhile, in the States

New Jersey: The gay Republican running for the state’s open seat suffered a medical episode during a debate this week, which he blamed on not eating enough during the day. We hope he’s alright and that he suffers an ignominious defeat in November.