Mauritius bans anti-gay discrimination

Lawmakers need to clear up outdated laws around the world

Mexico: The Senate passed a bill to replace references to “husband and wife” in the Federal Civil Code with “spouses,” in order to bring the code into alignment with the reality of same-sex marriage being legal. The bill heads to the Chamber of Deputies.

Mauritius: Yesterday’s announcement that the Supreme Court decriminalized sodomy has even more good news – the Court’s decision also affirms that the constitutional ban on “sex” discrimination includes a ban on “sexual orientation” discrimination, in line with findings from several other courts around the world (including SCOTUS, but also recently Barbados and Antigua & Barbuda). This is an important fact that seems to have gone overlooked by all of the very few outlets that have reported on this development, presumably because reporters haven’t bothered to read the very well argued judgement, which honestly isn’t even that long.

Mauritian law already included a broad prohibition on sexual orientation discrimination in employment, housing, and goods and services, but this extends it to the government’s actions as well. The Court did not pronounce on the issue of “gender identity” discrimination, but it seems likely that it would also be unconstitutional, since the court already accepts that “sex” meant “gender.”

It also needs to be said, these legal developments are really pushing back against what seems to be the prevailing narrative about it all being darkness and doom for queer Africans. Over the last decade, Angola, Mozambique, Lesotho, Botswana, Seychelles, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe. The only states left in southern Africa that criminalize gay sex are Eswatini, Malawi, Comoros, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and we’re even seeing movements to bring change to those states.

Australia: The New South Wales state government plans to bring in legislation to ban conversion therapy by the end of the year, after facing backlash once religious groups boasted that they had gotten the newly elected Premier to back off his pledge to introduce the law. It would be the fourth of Australia’s states and territories to pass a ban.

Bermuda: The European Court of Human Rights has allowed the Bermuda Human Rights Commission to intercede in the ongoing case seeking a judgment that last year’s UK Privy Council decision to overturn marriage equality in the territory violated the European Convention on Human Rights. The ECHR has never previously found a right to same-sex marriage, so this case could be a watershed for the continent, or it could turn on some kind of process decision that limits it to Bermuda.

Tuvalu: Just a little update/clarification to yesterday’s note that the South Pacific nation just banned “sex” discrimination in its constitution. Tuvalu is not party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, so it is likely not as clearly bound by previous international jurisprudence that “sex” includes “sexual orientation” in discrimination law. Doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying. (And lesbian sex is not illegal in Tuvalu, so there’s likely no path to file a challenge under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women).

Meanwhile, in the States:

Massachusetts: Activists are hoping the state legislature will finally update family laws so that same-sex couples do not have to adopt their own children – this could also benefit the thirty percent of Mass children would are born to unmarried parents. This is actually a huge problem in many countries, where family law has not been adapted to recognize the realities of same-sex parenting, but particularly in federal states like the US where families routinely cross state lines and find themselves subject to competing jurisdictions’ laws. There is a bill, but it hasn’t gotten a hearing yet.

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