Greek PM: Equal Marriage bill passed by Easter
Plus France has a new openly gay Prime Minister
France: France has a new openly gay Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal. Other countries that have had gay prime ministers and presidents: Andorra, Belgium, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, San Marino, Serbia.
Greece: PM Mitsotakis has finally revealed his plans for a same-sex marriage bill. The bill will be introduced in mid-February, following brief public consultations (so, around Valentine’s day?). The bill will include adoption, but not a right to surrogacy, although so far the PM has been unclear about access to IVF for female couples (as women already have this right in Greece). Nevertheless, no one will be criminalized for conducting surrogacy overseas, and children born in such a manner will still be recognized. Birth certificates will still say “mother” and “father” on them, rather than “parent 1” and “parent 2” as has drawn ire from certain quarters (and honestly, why would anyone choose “parent 1 or 2” as the hill to die on for this issue).
The PM wants the bill to pass before Easter, to attempt to get ahead of opposition from the Greek Orthodox Church, which has come out hard against it. One report suggests as many as 40 government MPs could vote against the bill – the government has an 8-seat majority, but can probably count on around 70-80 votes from the opposition parties to get the bill passed.
The opposition SYRIZA party has submitted its own same-sex marriage bill, which does include surrogacy rights.
Czechia: A Parliamentary Committee considered a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage today, ending up with a vote of 4 in favor, 5 against, and 2 abstentions. Although the ban didn’t pass, the fact that there wasn’t a majority to reject it due to the abstentions means that the proposal survives for now and may be reconsidered.
Late last year, a compromise had supposedly emerged that would see this proposal canned while pro-equality supporters gave up marriage in favor of enhanced civil unions.
Lithuania: The Speaker of Parliament reiterates that the civil union law is not dead, but still lacks the necessary 71 votes to get it through final reading and a possible veto by the President.
British Virgin Islands: The UK Territory’s government has been caught up in controversy for the last two years regarding a report by the UK government on the territory’s lack of good governance standards (things like criminal procedure, whistleblower protection, public official integrity controls, etc), and its UK-appointed governor is seeking additional powers to act over the heads of the elected council, which is causing some MPs to sound the alarm that the governor may force same-sex marriage on the territory. The Premier is once again opining about an independence referendum (or some kind of free association with the UK or possibly the US, he’s not really clear). The Premier has also been floating a same-sex marriage referendum for about two years now, too.
I’m not really sure what the Governor is going on about – he already has the power to act over the heads of the elected officials (usually with the approval of the UK government). The local MPs are incorrect that the Governor of the Cayman Islands previously forced same-sex marriage on that territory – he only imposed civil unions on the territory, in order to comply with the domestic court order and the European Convention on Human Rights. BVI (and other UK territories) are in breach of the ECHR by not having civil unions. If BVI seceded from the UK, then it would probably no longer by bound by the ECHR.
Set Your Calendars
Japan: A bunch of court dates have been set for appeals in the various same-sex marriage cases winding their way through the courts. In all likelihood, this litigation will all end up at the Supreme Court before it’s resolved, but here are the dates:
Feb 14: An equal marriage case will be heard in the Osaka High Court.
Feb 19: An equal marriage case will be heard in the Fukuoka High Court.
Feb 29: An equal marriage case will be heard in the Nagoya High Court in Aichi.
March 14: Two same-sex marriage rulings are expected – A final judgement from the Tokyo District Court, and a first High Court decision from the Sapporo High Court.
April 26: A first trial is expected to conclude in the Tokyo High Court
Meanwhile, in the States
The Biden Administration has rescinded a Trump-era policy, never actually put into practice, that would have allowed health providers to refuse service based on religious beliefs.
Indiana: State Republicans have introduced two bills that seek to end all recognition of trans people or of “gender,” and ban gay marriage.