Canadian province passes anti-trans laws, town bans Pride flags
Poland to bring forward hate speech legislation as its Supreme Court rules against same-sex couple adoption rights
Another long one today, but before we dive in, I just wanted to let you all know I’m on Bluesky now. I’m planning to engage less and less on Twitter, so please follow me there @robsalerno.
Canada: Alberta’s legislature passed three anti-LGBT bills yesterday, banning doctors from providing gender care, require parental notification and consent if a student is trans, and banning trans women from sports.
Up the road in Barrhaven, Alberta, residents voted to remove a rainbow crosswalk and ban Pride flags in a citizen-initiated referendum. It’s the second Alberta town to do that this year. The new “neutrality” law will also cause the removal of a disability pride crosswalk and flags for the region’s Indigenous people.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Emo, Ontario says he’ll refuse to pay a penalty ordered by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal for his refusal to issue a Pride proclamation. Under Ontario law (as in many jurisdictions), it’s up to the applicants – Borderlands Pride – to collect the fine, so it’ll likely end up in collections agencies and further court proceedings.
Mexico: Activists are crying foul because Tamaulipas state refuses to legislate on recognition of legal gender change or recognition of same-sex parents and adoption rights.
A Morelos state legislator says the state will take action to decriminalize abortion before a court-imposed deadline of Dec 15.
A state legislator in Baja California has introduced a bill to repeal the crime of HIV transmission, continuing a trend of reversing these discriminatory laws.
Chile: The government has launched a campaign to promote trans rights with youth.
Poland: The Supreme Court has ruled against allowing same-sex couples to adopt – even each other’s step-children – finding that the “best interest of the child” rule does not apply to same-sex couples. Prime Minister Tusk has finally approved LGBT-inclusive hate speech legislation, which will now go to Parliament for approval. This was part of the governing coalition agreement, so it ought to pass easily, but it’s unclear if the right-wing president will sign it.
Iceland: The center-left Social Democrats won snap elections, unseating the conservative coalition. An interesting consequence is that some of the parties likely to form a coalition have supported a referendum on joining the EU. Iceland would bolster weight of the bloc’s progressive members, especially as it seeks to add members from the Balkans and former Soviet Union.
Ireland: The country’s largest trade union, Forsa, has launched an LGBTQ+ network.
Turkey: The governor of Istanbul banned screenings of the new film Queer, leading to the cancellation of the film festival it was set to open.
Ghana: Politicians are stoking anti-LGBT sentiment ahead of presidential elections in January. The leading candidates have all vowed to sign the pending anti-LGBT bill that was passed by Parliament, although the Supreme Court is due to rule on its constitutionality Dec 18.
Thailand: The country is gearing up for its first same-sex marriages when they become legal in just under two months, on Jan 22. Bangkok will be hosting several events that day. Pattaya Mail doesn’t think same-sex marriage is likely to spread to Thailand’s southeast Asian neighbors, but there are active movements calling for it with varying degrees of support in Cambodia, Singapore, and Philippines – plus very active movements in Japan, Hong Kong/China, and South Korea.
South Korea: President Yoon basically tried to pull off a self-coup yesterday by declaring martial law, leading to Parliament to vote it down within hours after major demonstrations and protests in the capital. Yoon has long opposed LGBT rights and women’s rights, and campaigned against feminism. This incident may lead to his impeachment.
Nepal: The country’s first openly trans candidates ran for office in local byelections last week. Unfortunately, neither won.
Namibia: The country appears to have elected its first female president in disputed elections that kept the governing SWAPO in power. Equal Namibia doesn’t appear to have made a statement on the elections yet. It doesn’t appear that either openly gay candidate won.
Meanwhile, in the States
Michigan: Republican state Rep. Josh Schriver is calling to make same-sex marriage “illegal again,” just a month after state Republicans won back control of the state house. It’s unlikely they can do anything legislatively, but he’s calling on Trump’s Conservative SCOTUS to overturn the Obergefell ruling that made it legal.
This is yet more evidence that state Democrats fumbled with their trifecta for the past two years. While they wouldn’t have been able to put a state constitutional referendum on the ballot to remove the constitutional ban, they could have used the opportunity to update Michigan’s family law statutes to remove the statutory ban and recognize same-sex couples in state law, adding a little more insulation to LGBT rights.
At least one other issue appears to be moving. The sodomy law repeal bill was finally reported out of committee on Tuesday and recommended for second reading. It’ll still need to pass the house and Senate before Christmas. (Oddly, the sodomy law repeal bill still maintains the oral sex ban, which, again, heavy sigh…)
Meanwhile, the Senate civil rights committee advanced a bill to repeal the crime of adultery, and the house introduced a companion bill and sent it to committee, so it does appear they’re rushing to clean up that up.
Minnesota: The state supreme court heard a case from a trans weightlifter who wants to be allowed to compete in events.
North Carolina: The final machine count of ballots in the state supreme court election kept a Democrat in the lead by less than 800 votes, but that’s not the end. Her Republican opponent has demanded another hand recount, and is threatening to take the matter all the way to the state supreme court, which is dominated by Republicans.
State Republicans are using their gerrymandered supermajority to strip powers from the incoming Democrat administration before they lose the supermajority in January. Note: NC is so gerrymandered that Republicans only narrowly lost their supermajority in one house even though a majority of voters cast ballots for Democratic reps and a plurality did for the senate.