Harris to be new Democratic nominee?
Haiti delays justice reforms, including LGBT rights laws
Well, the big news of the day is the President Biden has dropped out of the race for reelection, leaving VP Kamala Harris as the front-runner for the Democratic Party nomination. We’ll see how this does for polls going forward in due time.
Both Biden and Harris have been strong supporters of LGBTQ rights over their careers and they accomplished a fair deal for the community from the White House. Progressives ought to quickly unify and rally around both Harris as the nominee and Democratic candidates in the House and Senate in order to maintain and expand LGBTQ rights in the USA.
Around the World
By the time you read this, my Out in the World column ought to be up at the Los Angeles Blade here, with stories from the UK, Lithuania, South Korea, Japan, and Spain.
Haiti: Last month, Haiti’s transitional government once again delayed the implementation of the draft new Penal Code – the first in over 100 years. The new code criminalized for the first time anti-LGBT discrimination and hate crimes, and legalized abortion. There are conflicting reports whether the new code is delayed to June 2025, or if the President has delayed it until the eventual installation of a new parliament, expected after December 2025 elections.
There’s been much controversy over the Code in Haiti, fueled by Evangelical pastors in the diaspora – and probably not aided by poor access to the actual text itself. Those aligned against the code are mostly against LGBT rights and abortion, but they allege that it legalizes same-sex marriage, bestiality, pedophilia, etc to inflame the population. Of course, none of that is true. Here’s the draft code – unhelpfully in an unsearchable and untranslatable 200-page PDF. 76Crimes has some of the highlights.
Meanwhile, in the States…
New Hampshire: Republican Governor Sununu signed three anti-trans bills into law: one barring gender-confirming surgeries for minors, one barring trans students in grades 5-12 from playing in sports corresponding to their gender identity, and one giving parents an opt-out whenever sexual orientation or gender identity are discussed in schools.
New Hampshire is a top target for Democrats in November, and if Democrats win it, they’ll likely aim to undo these laws.