Marriage equality coming to Czechia, Liechtenstein
And a look at other major LGBT rights legislation pending around the globe
As legislatures around the world begin to return to session after the summer break, I took a look at the status of some major LGBT rights legislation I’ve been tracking. Here we go:
Supporters of a proposed civil union law in Lithuania say that the upcoming fall session is the last opportunity for the bill to pass its final reading, but note that the bill lacks strong support in Parliament. The bill narrowly passed second reading on a 60-52-3 vote in May. I’m not sure if “last chance” is just some added drama here – the next Lithuanian elections aren’t scheduled until fall 2024, so you’d expect there’d still be a spring session next year, although perhaps the calculus is that supporters want to get this out of the way long before an election campaign is considered.
The Czechia legislative program for the fall will feature a high-stakes final vote in the senate on the Istanbul Convention on domestic violence. The Convention has become a lightning rod for anti-LGBT opposition across Europe, as critics accuse it of promoting “gender ideology” and same-sex marriage through its use of the term “gender” rather than “sex.” The Convention passed through the lower house in the spring, but it getting a rougher ride in the Senate, where two committees have already rejected it. Czechia is one of just six EU members that haven’t ratified it – the others are Latvia (whose government would also like to pass it this fall), Lithuania, Slovakia, as well as Hungary and Bulgaria, whose Parliaments have both rejected it.
Czechia also has an equal marriage bill returning to Parliament at some point this fall. 66 major corporations released an open letter to Prime Minister Fiala today calling on his government to support the bill.
Speaking of marriage equality, the Prime Minister of Liechtenstein says the same-sex marriage bill should be coming “very soon,” as the public consultation process is still ongoing. How bloody long can it take to consult the population? You could just about fit the whole country into Fenway Park.
Also on the legislative agenda, Sri Lanka has a private member’s bill to decriminalize homosexuality before its Parliament. This report from a Christian news outlet wrongly says that Parliament passed the bill to the President for signature last month; according to the Parliament’s web site, it’s still at first reading. That said, the bill has the support of the government and has been greenlit by the Supreme Court, so I would expect some movement this season.
Earlier this summer, the government of Sweden announced that it’s looking into ending its blood donation ban for men who have sex with men. It has asked the National Board of Health and Welfare for recommendations on new regulations.
I dug around to find out what’s going on with Austria’s proposed conversion therapy ban. After Parliament unanimously passed a resolution calling for a ban last year, the government’s proposal has ran aground over its desire to exclude conversion therapy practiced on trans people from the ban. It’s the same stupid roadblock that’s holding up the long-promised bill in the UK. Conversion therapy bans are also proposed/pending in Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, Norway, and Finland, but no updates to report yet.
Meanwhile, a lawyer says that the recent legal victory for recognition of same-sex couples in Hong Kong is unlikely to be repeated in Macau, China’s other special administrative region, due to the differences in the two territory’s legal systems. Hong Kong has a common law system inherited from the British colonial administration, while Macau’s system is based on a civil code inherited from the Portuguese.