Death Penalty abolition on the table in African & US states
Trump admin finds new targets for anti-LGBT ire in the arts, housing, and homeland security
Namibia: A legal consultant calls for parliament to amend the law it passed last year restricting marriage to heterosexual couples to make it compliant with the constitution. She also notes that the law (which has several other sections impacting free speech and association) isn’t yet in force, as the Home Minister has to actually declare it so.
Poland: The government swears it’s going to get its civil union bill passed sometime this term, which is a far cry from the first-hundred-days promise they made over a year ago. The amended draft is going back to the ministries for additional comments as the government tries to convince its coalition members to play along, and possibly to buy time until after the presidential election in May, hoping they get their own guy in so they can avoid a veto.
Nigeria: Parliament’s deputy speaker says lawmakers may be open to repealing the death penalty. The country has an official moratorium on the death penalty, for now – but certain Muslim-majority northern states do have a legal death penalty for gay sex.
Malawi: The Minister of Justice says the country is committed to abolishing the death penalty, having already completed public consultations and learned the process that neighboring Zambia went through to enact it in 2023.
Meanwhile in the States
Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development has scrapped an Obama-era rule that required shelters to accommodate clients’ gender identity.
DOGE is bragging on its social media about having taken down a page about LGBTQ+ community safety from the Department of Homeland Security web site.
Trump announced on social media that he was firing the board of the Kennedy Center – a national performing arts center in Washington, DC – and appointing himself as chair. In his post, he cited the Center’s hosting of drag performances as the reason it got his ire. Presume that other arts institutions like the National Endowment for the Arts and the Smithsonian Institution will soon be in his crosshairs.
Iowa: A federal court heard a challenge to the state’s law banning LGBT content and any sexual content in school library books.
Connecticut: The legislature held a public hearing on a proposed nondiscrimination constitutional amendment on Friday.
Hawaii: A similar nondiscrimination amendment advanced out of senate committee on Friday.
Indiana: A bill to end the state’s death penalty has bipartisan support – but will it come to a vote? (Probably not).
Ohio: A bipartisan bill to abolish the death penalty is taking a novel strategy of tying it to banning state funding for abortions and assisted suicide.