Ireland passes hate crime law
Elections in Lithuania, Japan, Bulgaria, and Georgia could determine future of LGBT rights
Ireland: Parliament gave final passage to the government’s hate crime bill, which introduces stiffer penalties for hate-motivated crimes against LGBT people. Unfortunately, the government removed sections related to incitement to violence and hatred (ie, hate speech) from the bill to get it passed. Existing law already bans hate speech based on sexual orientation; this would have added gender identity as a protected category.
Poland: The government’s civil union bill received some unexpected, uh, well, I guess “support” is too strong a word, but it looks like the local Catholic cardinal is not opposed to it since it doesn’t invoke a religious ritual. The government is still trying to build a majority to support the bill from its coalition, and it has received more than 1200 comments on the bill in just under a week.
Ivory Coast: The New York Times has a report on growing violence against LGBT people, and a fear that anti-LGBT laws could soon be imported from neighboring countries, even though homosexuality has never been criminalized here.
Elections Elections
This weekend is a busy time for elections, with national votes up in Japan, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Georgia on Sunday.
Japan: Marriage For All Japan has launched an app that tells you every candidate’s position on same-sex marriage when you scan the candidate’s campaign posters. Japan heads to snap elections on Sunday, and polls indicate there could be an upset, with the governing party losing its majority. That could put smaller parties’ calls for LGBTQ equality into play.
Meanwhile, two of Tokyo’s wards announced that they will begin registering same-sex partnerships as de facto marriages, joining a growing trend. These do not have legal force in Japanese law, however.
Georgia: Watch out for the anti-LGBT/pro-Russia Georgia Dream party, which is trying to hold onto its parliamentary majority. The big question will be if the opposition can remain united post-election to undo the worst anti-democratic and anti-LGBT laws that GD passed this year.
Lithuania: Second-round parliamentary elections may end up deciding the shape of the new government and if there’s any chance for the civil union bill to finally pass.
Bulgaria: The seventh election in three years, they’re hoping this time they can break the parliamentary deadlock, but it doesn’t seem likely.
Canada: And on Monday, Saskatchewan goes to the polls, and it looks like the incumbent conservative anti-trans government could lose.
Meanwhile, in the States
California: A poll shows that prop 8 repeal ballot initiative – which repeals the defunct state ban on same-sex marriage – is likely to pass by a wide margin.
Yahoo (of all things) has a list of states where LGBTQ issues are on the ballot in November.
Texas: The city of Odessa has passed an ordinance banning trans people from using the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity.
Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Gay News has a voting guide for elections in PA, NJ, and DE. It basically just says vote Democrat, duh.
Ohio: The Greenville School Board rejected adding anti-discrimination provisions for LGBT students, putting some federal funding at risk.