Japanese prefecture to recognize LGBT families
Saskatchewan to crackdown on trans students
The governor of Japan’s Aichi prefecture (population 7 million) has announced it will introduce a “familyship” registry that will allow same-sex partners and common-law couples to register not only their relationships, but their children as well. It will be the 15th of 47 prefectures to introduce a partnership registry when the system is in place by April 2024. Meanwhile, a new survey shows more than 75% support for same-sex marriage nationwide
In the wake of last year’s landmark decision by Parliament to decriminalize homosexuality, LGBT activists in Singapore are now pushing for broader family recognition rights. Last year, as part of the decriminalization bargain, Parliament passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Human Rights Watch has called on the government of Iraq to reject a bill that would explicitly criminalize gay sex, “promotion” of homosexuality, and “imitating women” with penalties up to capital punishment. Right now, gay people are frequently targeted under the country’s more vague “morality” laws.
The government of Tasmania state in Australia is reexamining its hate crime laws with a view to imposing stiffer penalties and expanding the protected categories to include LGBT people. It’s also considering a bill that would ban Nazi hate symbols.
Saskatchewan is the latest Canadian province to announce that it would require parental permission for trans students to change their name and/or pronoun used in schools. The new policy has caused alarm for LGBT groups and unions, and the province’s independent Youth Advocate says she is investigating. This follows a similar move in New Brunswick earlier this year, which led to a mini cabinet rebellion and almost cost that province’s premier his job.
Waterloo city council in Iowa voted to repeal its recently passed ban on conversion therapy, insofar as it applies to “gender,” in response to a threatened lawsuit. Currently, only Davenport and Linn County in Iowa have conversion therapy bans in place.
A federal judge has ordered a public farmers’ market in East Lansing, Michigan to allow a bigoted fruit grower to sell his goods there. The bigot was disinvited from the market in 2017 after he posted on Facebook that while he allows his farm to be rented for weddings, he would not host same-sex weddings. The city is reportedly looking at its appeal options, but the court found this violated his religious freedom. While this person sounds unpleasant, I think the court probably made the right call here – it doesn’t appear like farmer’s market has anything to do with his homophobic beliefs.
A legislator in Puerto Rico has introduced a bill to ban “obscene content” from view of minors, in an effort to ban drag performances. This story is paywalled, but I’ll try to keep an eye on what’s happening here.