Bulgaria passes hate crime law
Israel Supreme Court may legalize same-sex couple adoption
Bulgaria’s National Assembly passed an LGBT-inclusive hate crimes law that stiffens penalties for hate-motivated attacks and vandalism and criminalizes incitement to hatred. This report from Yahoo is not quite correct in saying it’s the first legislation in favor of the LGBT community passed by the Assembly in 20 years – a bill to expand anti-discrimination laws to include trans people passed in 2015.
Bulgaria was one of only a handful of outliers among EU member states without an effective and comprehensive hate crime law – the others are Italy and Poland. Ireland has a hate crime law that only includes sexual orientation as a protected ground, but a bill to add gender identity is expected to finally debate a proposed bill in the fall.
The second-place finisher in Thailand’s recent parliamentary elections has formed a new coalition that excludes the first-place party, and it will attempt to secure government when Parliament votes this week. The new coalition has agreed to pursue many of the policies of the old coalition, including same-sex marriage, but will not try to amend the powers of the monarchy or military.
Israel’s Supreme Court looks set to give a final ruling allowing same-sex couples to adopt, over the objections of the current far-right, anti-LGBT Israeli government. Israeli couples have already had the ability to adopt as individuals or to adopt step-children, but the court seems to want to provide for full equality of same-sex parents. As a reminder, the far-right government recently passed legislation allowing it to overrule the courts.
Botswana’s Prime Minister has bowed to pressure from churches and deferred Parliament’s consideration of a bill that would have deleted the defunct sodomy laws from the state’s penal code, which its Supreme Court ruled were unconstitutional in a final decision in 2021. He says he wants Parliament to consider the constitutional issues around the bill first, which seems redundant given the courts have thoroughly vetted them.
Morocco’s Justice Minister expressed concern over the “growing influence of homosexuals,” which likely signals that hopes the country’s ongoing Penal Code reform would decriminalize gay sex are dead in the water.
Australia’s New South Wales state is considering adding very broad penalties for discrimination against religious people into its anti-discrimination law, in what some are criticizing as an attempt to go after LGBT people and anyone who criticizes religion. Under Australian law, religious people already have a ‘licence to discriminate’ against LGBT people in many contexts. Activists are hoping the government will scrap the bill, significantly reduce its scope, or also strike the religious right to discriminate if the bill does pass. This is also likely preceding a similar fight over a federal bill. Incidentally, we’re still waiting on the NSW government’s promised conversion therapy ban bill.