California passes lots of pro-LGBT bills
California’s state legislature has passed a slew of LGBT rights bills that is has sent to Governor Newsom for signature. They include bills that will: ban book bans from schools, require teachers to take LGBTQ sensitivity training, require courts to consider a parent’s acceptance of a child’s gender identity in custody hearings, seal records of gender changes made by minors, protect insurance coverage for gender affirming care, and create a fund to help gender-non-conforming people who have been incarcerated reenter society.
The assembly has also passed a bill that would repeal a five-year-old law that bars the use of state funds for travel to 26 states that have passed anti-LGBTQ laws. Lawmakers believe that the law has now created challenges for the state to deliver programs that involve these states. Instead, they propose to spend money advertising for LGBTQ acceptance in these states. It awaits a vote in the state senate.
Two gay couples in Kentucky are suing former county clerk Kim Davis for damages stemming from her refusal to issue marriage licenses to them way back in 2015, and jury selection has just begun. Personally, this feels like overkill. Just take the W!
Several Black queer lawmakers from DC and Maryland protested outside the embassy of Nigeria to condemn the arrest of more than 200 people at an alleged gay wedding last month.
CNN has a report on the deepening crackdown on LGBT people in Ghana, where violence against queer people has skyrocketed as Parliament prepares to give a final vote to a new law that would criminalize LGBT advocacy and require citizens to report on LGBT people and activities to the government.
Legislators in Latvia have hammered out a new governing coalition that will be formally sworn in on Friday. During negotiations, the Progressive Party that is now part of the government expressed hope that the new government would agree to pass a civil union law and ratify the Istanbul Convention on domestic violence. We’ll have to see if that’s part of the actual agreement.
LGBT activists in Mexico’s Chihuahua state are collecting signatures for a petition demanding the state congress finally take up a bill to ban conversion therapy. Again, a federal ban awaits a final vote in congress.