Georgian President vetoes anti-LGBT bill, but don't celebrate yet
Canada's Conservatives unleash their worst anti-trans talking point
🇬🇪 Georgia: Georgia’s President has vetoed the extreme anti-LGBT bill that was passed by parliament last month in a vote that was boycotted by the opposition. Don’t celebrate yet, though. The ruling party likely has the power to override the veto and will likely do so this week.
More opposition to Georgia’s anti-LGBT bill from press freedom advocates who note that the bill restricts the freedom of journalists to report on LGBT issues and people.
Again, this bill is likely red meat for the ruling party’s base ahead of elections on Oct 26. The election appears set to be a referendum on the direction of the country – anti-democratic and pro-Russia under the current regime, or pro-EU under the various opposition parties. Polling suggests the current regime will lose its parliamentary majority under the new proportional system set to be introduced, but it remains to be seen if the opposition will hold together after the results are in, how strong they’ll be, and how committed to democracy and human rights the disparate groups will be (some particularly oppose LGBT rights).
🇦🇱 🇪🇺 Albania: Speaking of the EU, Albania got a bit of a bump in its membership aspirations, as the EU agreed to decouple its accession negotiations from progress with neighboring North Macedonia, whose accession process has stalled for years over disputes with Greece and now Bulgaria. Albania will hold a meeting on its progress later this month. Meanwhile, North Macedonia is complaining that the conditions Bulgaria has imposed on starting negotiations are unacceptable – they want specific rights for the Bulgarian minority in North Macedonia, which is complicated.
The most likely next state to join the EU is Montenegro, which is aiming to complete negotiations by the end of 2026 and join in 2028.
🇺🇬 Uganda: Activists are protesting the World Bank’s plan to resume funding operations in Uganda, which had been suspended last year in protest to the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act.
🇲🇽 Mexico: Guanajuato state congress has assigned the chair of the justice commission to the opposition MORENA party, which has buoyed some hopes that the commission will finally advance bills to codify same-sex marriage and abortion rights in the state, which had been blocked by the PAN majority on the commission. Of course, these bills would still need to pass the plenary, where the conservative PAN still holds a majority.
The new MORENA president of the Chiapas state congress sounds even more optimistic that his state will finally codify same-sex marriage and abortion, too.
🇨🇦 Canada: On the Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day meant to reflect on the horrific abuse suffered by Canada’s First Nations people at the hands of the government, conservative politicians across the country used the opportunity to compare trans-inclusive education policies to the horrors of Canada’s residential schools, where First Nations children were abducted from their families, and frequently ended up beaten, raped, starved, and killed in the name of eliminating their culture and language. Keep it classy, conservatives.
And Canada’s worst Premier – Alberta’s Danielle Smith, though we truly have a cornucopia of terribles running the provinces right now – says she wants to “depoliticize” her awful anti-trans legislation, which she’s going to bring forward this month. The bill bans medical treatment for trans youth, bans trans women from professional sports, requires parental notification and approval for a trans kid to be trans, and requires parental permission for LGBT topics to be discussed in a classroom.
Meanwhile, in the States
⛰️ Colorado: The state was ordered to pay legal fees to the bigot who won her imaginary case challenging the state’s discrimination laws to the Supreme Court.
🐊 Florida: The state is now banning most sex ed topics from classrooms, including all discussion of LGBT issues. Oddly, the state’s sex ed curriculum also forbids teachers from discussing “consent,” “abuse,” “domestic violence,” and “fluids.”
⚜️ Louisiana: The Republican governor has asked the board of regents that runs the state’s universities to help him draft “policies on free expression” that prohibit “protests and demonstrations that infringe upon the constitutional rights of others to engage in or listen to expressive activity by creating a substantial and material disruption to the functioning of the institution or to someone’s expressive activity.”
He does not seem to appreciate the irony.