Man who wears dress to work ok with same-sex blessings
Could a change in the tone from the Vatican impact gay rights around the world?
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The Pope has announced that he believes blessings for same-sex unions may be possible within the Catholic Church, as long as this is not confused with sacramental marriage.
Obviously, the Catholic Church doesn’t control any countries other than the Vatican, but this may go some way to promoting LGBT rights and recognition of same-sex couples in Catholic-majority countries. You may be surprised to learn that most Catholic-majority states already recognize same-sex marriage (seeing as they’re largely in Western Europe and Latin America), but other Catholic-majority/plurality countries include: Italy, Liechtenstein, Croatia, San Marino, Monaco, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Philippines, East Timor, Palau, Kiribati, Micronesia, Equatorial Guinea, Seychelles, Sao Tome & Principe, Burundi, Rwanda, Cabo Verde, Gabon, Angola, Bolivia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Peru, St Lucia, Dominica, Panama, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Aruba, Curacao, and Sint Maarten.
It would be fun to color in the Vatican as “performs same-sex unions” on the marriage map of Europe one day though.
The UK government wants to ban trans women from women’s wards in hospitals, because they’re grasping at straws think transphobia is the only thing the British public agrees with them on.
Court Actions
LGBT activists in Uganda have begun the process of filing a legal challenge to the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023, which took effect in May and establishes stricter penalties for sodomy and criminalizes LGBT advocacy and even renting a room to a gay or trans person.
The Namibian has a report on the pending court case that activists in Namibia say they will file if the bill to ban same-sex marriage recognition and its advocacy is signed into law.
Armenia has ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, making it the court’s first new member since 2019, and angering longtime ally Russia, whose president Putin is subject to a warrant from the court over the war in Ukraine. It hasn’t yet deposited the ratification documents yet, but when it does, total membership will be 124.
Lithuania has decided to ask the Constitutional Court for an opinion on the Istanbul Convention on domestic violence, kicking the ratification question into the long grass for a while.
Meanwhile, in the States
Nebraska issued and then revoked regulations for trans youth health care that seemed to indicate that trans youth would be subjected to at least 6 months of “non-affirming care” *(ie, conversion therapy) before they could access gender-affirming care.
Delaware passed a ban on gay and trans panic defenses, making it the 17th state to do so.
Michigan could be the 18th, after the House Committee on Criminal Justice also reported out a bill that would ban the gay and trans panic defense this morning (HB 4718). (Incidentally, Minnesota and Massachusetts, both with Democratic control, have not yet introduced bans on these defenses).
Tennessee has its first openly trans elected representative, now sitting on Nashville Metro Council.