Navajo Nation equal marriage bill advances
Non-discrimination law to be tested in US courts this year.
A bill to allow same-sex marriage in the Navajo Nation has advanced out of committee and should be heard by the full council. The Navajo Nation is the largest Native American tribal jurisdiction in the USA, and it spreads across Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Nationwide, there are hundreds of Native American jurisdictions, and it’s not entirely clear how many do not allow same-sex marriage. Native American governments are not impacted by either the US Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, or by the Respect for Marriage Act.
A lawsuit was filed against the US Veterans’ Administration, seeking to overturn the ban on coverage for IVF for women who are not in heterosexual marriage.
XtraMagazine.com has a rundown of some other major anti-discrimination cases winding their way through the US courts this year, in the wake of the Supreme Court carving a massive loophole through discrimination law in June.
While a long-promised ban on “conversion therapy” is still waiting on the UK government to introduce it, civil servants in Northern Ireland have responded to local councilors’ petitions for one by saying it can’t happen until the province once again has a functioning executive. That’s not strictly true, as Parliament could impose one from London if it chose, as it did for Northern Ireland’s same-sex marriage and abortion laws. Northern Ireland has lacked a functioning legislature and executive since May 2022.
Slovenia’s civil registry reports that 345 same-sex couples had their civil unions converted into marriages ahead of the July 31 deadline imposed by the country’s same-sex marriage law, which was passed earlier this year.