Elections in Canada, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Japan, and Georgia have repercussions for LGBT rights
Massive anti-LGBT demonstration in South Korea
South Korea: Hundreds of thousands of Christians gathered in Seoul to protest against rights for LGBT people, particularly a Supreme Court ruling that ordered the National Health Service to provide benefits for same-sex couples.
China: The government has slapped a performance ban on a popular trans tv host.
Elections Round Up
Bulgaria: The seventh election in 3 years delivers another inconclusive result, with the largest party only taking 26% of the vote. The center-right GERB will need to form a coalition with at least two parties to govern. While none of the parties are particularly LGBT-friendly, the top two parties at least opposed the law banning LGBT content in education that was passed this year, and they also generally maintain a pro-western approach. A far-right party came third and doesn’t hold any prospects of governing.
Lithuania: The Social Democrats took the largest share of seats in the second-round parliamentary election, and they’ve said they want to form a coalition government with the Union for Democracy and Green Farmers parties. The result is probably not great news for LGBT rights. Both the prospective junior coalition partners voted against the civil union bill that is still before parliament. If the Social Democrats do still want to pass the bill they previously blocked for political reasons, they’ll have to rely on votes from the outgoing Homeland Union and Liberals – but that will likely cause friction in the coalition.
Japan: Snap elections saw the governing Liberal Democrats lose their parliamentary majority, in the strongest showing for the opposition in ages. It’s unlikely the opposition will be able to oust the Liberal Democrats, as they’re ideologically incoherent. But they may be able to put pressure on the government to enact more reforms on LGBT rights. The Constitutional Democrats, which support same-sex marriage, are the second-largest party in parliament, with 148/463 seats.
Anglo Nippon is reporting that there appears to be a small majority in the new Parliament that supports same-sex marriage.
Georgia: The governing Georgian Dream party claimed victory in disputed elections that the opposition says were fraudulent. The EU has called for investigations into election irregularities, while Georgia’s President is openly calling for protests in the streets and the opposition have said they will boycott Parliament.
Canada: Reminder that Saskatchewan goes to the polls today, and its anti-trans, corruption-filled incumbent government looks like it may finally lose.
British Columbia’s final counting from last week’s election is expected to finish today, and it looks like trends may actually flip one or two ridings from Conservative to NDP, giving the NDP an actual majority mandate.
And Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservative government called snap elections for Nov 26. The NSPC’s don’t appear to be in danger of losing the election, and they haven’t been copying the anti-LGBT policies of Canada’s other conservative policies. They seem to actually be genuinely working on a policy of LGBT inclusion in schools.
Meanwhile, in the States
Nothing to report today. Go out and vote blue.