Ghana's anti-LGBT bill "dead" - for now
Virginia advances equal marriage amendment
Ghana: The newly elected President Mahama says the anti-LGBT bill that parliament passed unanimously last year is “dead,” having failed to be signed before the end of parliament’s session. He also told the country’s Catholic bishops that the bill is unnecessary. Let’s chalk this up as a win – for now. Lawmakers will likely start work on a new bill shortly.
Ecuador: The Constitutional Court has ordered the ministry of education to create protocols to protect transgender students.
Jamaica: A national newspaper is calling on the government to amend its Sexual Offences Act to delete the buggery law and fix other anachronistic laws around rape.
Thailand: The ministry of health is bringing forward amendments to surrogacy law to bring them in line with legal same-sex marriage. Commercial surrogacy will still be banned, but foreign couples and surrogates will be allowed, as will export of gametes and embryos.
Malaysia: The state of Kelantan has agreed to amend its shariah-based criminal code, including deleting sections on sodomy, which the constitutional court ruled last year were unconstitutional as they are redundant with similar sections in federal law.
Myanmar: The military junta running the country has banned 7 LGBTQ books. “Amateurs,” say Florida Republicans.
Russia: A man was fined under the country’s LGBT propaganda laws for jokingly claiming online to be the founder of the “international LGBT movement,” which the Russian Supreme Court declared to be a terrorist/extremist organization last year.
Armenia: The country continues to drift out of Russia’s orbit. It just signed a strategic partnership with the United States, which is causing some observers to believe it will formally withdraw from the CSTO (Russia’s NATO) soon. And last week, the government approved a bill that would authorize it to begin applying to join the EU. That’s still a real longshot, given Armenia’s geographic isolation and economic dependency on Russia.
Ukraine: The head of the military’s LGBT+ association is calling on an MP to meet with queer soldiers after the MP denigrated LGBT people in a statement.
Meanwhile in the States
The Supreme Court announced it will take up a case seeking to strike down the Affordable Care Act requirement that preventive care like STD screenings, cancer screenings and PrEP is covered under insurance, on the ground that these promote homosexuality.
Two Congressional Democrats joined all Republicans to vote for a bill that would ban trans girls from school sports. The bill is unlikely to pass the Senate.
Virginia: The state house passed a trio of constitutional amendments that would delete the ban on same-sex marriage, establish a right to abortion, and restore voting rights to felons who’ve served their time. The amendments now have to pass the senate, then pass again next year after elections in the fall before being put on the ballot in 2026.
Minnesota: Advocates rallied in support of an equal rights amendment in the state constitution. The ERA failed last session when the senate couldn’t agree on it, and this year it has a steeper hill to climb as the state house is now evenly divided, meaning at least one Republican would have to support it this time.
Democrats are currently boycotting the house to deny Republicans a quorum to appoint a speaker while Democrats are shy one vote, due to one of their caucus being disqualified on residency concerns – the tie will presumably be restored after a special election on Jan 28, although Republicans are challenging the election date in court. Republicans went ahead with a speaker vote anyway, and that’s also being challenged in court. Prior to the disqualification, Democrats and Republicans had crafted a power-sharing agreement that Republicans no longer honor. The Senate is also tied until a Jan 28 special election – a Democrat died late last year.
It was such a cock-up not to get the ERA passed and put on the ballot last year. Not only would that have been a good goal in its own right, it likely would have motivated Democratic turnout that would have prevented this exact scenario from happening.
Idaho: Republicans are pushing a bill that would ban Pride flags from classrooms.