Italian court orders government to recognize same-sex parents

Greek court says no to gay blood

Italy: The Court of Cassation, Italy’s top court, handed down a ruling reversing a 2019 order by the government that disallowed birth certificates to register same-sex parents using the word “parent” rather than “mother” and “father.” The court found that this denied children the right to have their relationship to their parents legally recognized. The current government has been on a tear trying to stop same-sex couples from having children; this is their first big court loss.

Greece: A court has overturned the government’s decision to end the ban on gay blood donors, after a patient group complained that this did not follow scientific advice. Dozens of countries have ended their 1980s-era bans on gay blood donors after dozens of scientific studies showed that there was no real risk of harm anymore. Nevertheless, the government will have to produce more studies to re-unban gay blood.

This comes as a bit of a shock after the government announced it was moving to ban surrogacy for gay male couples – back-to-back blows against gay rights in a country that had recently made a lot of progress. There is some pushback – asserting that the surrogacy ban may violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

UK: The Supreme Court is set to rule next Wednesday on whether or not trans women count as “women” under the law. The case arises from Scotland, where the government allowed trans women to count toward a quota for women on local councils.

Meanwhile, in the States

House Republicans have introduced two bills that would require all schools to out LGBT kids to their parents, and that would bar discussion about trans people in all K-12 schools. Democrats should be able to block this in the senate.

Alabama: State Republicans have advanced an extreme “don’t say gay”/ “license to misgender” bill out of committee and on to a final vote in the state house; it’ll then need to go to the senate.

Maine: It appears that a proposed bill to add an equal rights amendment to the state constitution has been killed by legislators.

Montana: The state house voted down a bill that would have made it a felony to provide gender-affirming care to minors in the state. However, senate is close to giving final passage to a bill that would create a 4-year-window for a right to sue gender care providers after a patient receives treatment.

It’s been an up-and-down session for trans rights this year, with the legislature defeating bills that would ban drag shows and remove trans children from their parents, but with other extreme bills like a trans bathroom ban passing (which was later blocked by the courts).

Arkansas: The state house passed a bill that would expand a 2023 law that allows people who underwent gender-affirming surgeries to sue their doctors up to 15 years after they turn 18 – the bill proposes expanding that to include any gender-affirming care. It heads to the senate.

Florida: A trans student was arrested after she used the women’s bathroom in the state capitol building as part of a protest against the state’s trans bathroom ban.

Tennessee: Republicans are moving to dissolve the state’s independent human rights commission, and replace it with partisan staff under the attorney-general. Democrats point out that this would likely mean that Republican AGs won’t take action to protect the rights of women and minorities, given that they have repeatedly intervened against such claims. The bill could be passed next week.