SCOTUS to hear challenge to conversion therapy bans

Bigots using fear to push radical anti-LGBT laws in Georgia, Turkiye, and Nigeria

UK: Protestors denounced anti-LGBT laws across the Commonwealth of Nations at a Commonwealth Day ceremony at Westminster Abbey. Other protesters also denounced the monarchy generally with a 50-foot dinosaur puppet they called “Chuck the Rex.”

Georgia: Some bizarre news from the breakaway republic of Abkhazia, where the opposition is being accused of promoting “LGBT propaganda” for not putting out a message celebrating International Women’s Day (March 8), even though they apparently did.

Turkiye: A civil servants union has launched an official petition seeking a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. This report from the Daily Sabah takes an obviously anti-LGBT perspective.

Israel: Reports are emerging of people in Haifa luring gay men into violent attacks using Grindr.

Greenland: The country went to the polls yesterday amid rising tensions between Denmark, which governs the country, and Donald Trump, who seeks to annex it. The most votes were won by an opposition party that favors a gradual shift to independence – as opposed to a rapid referendum favored by the second-place party – and the party is now seeking coalition partners. All major parties support Greenland’s eventual independence, although they differ on the timescale, as the country is still dependent on support from Copenhagen.

If Greenland does become independent, it will automatically become the latest same-sex marriage country, and will arrive on the global stage as a state with one of the strongest records on LGBT legal rights.

Liberia: Catholic bishops appear to be alleging that a proposed Public Health bill includes a right to same-sex marriage as a scare tactic because they don’t like that it liberalizes abortion law. I can’t find any evidence that the law mentions marriage, but if anyone can find me the bill’s text, I’m happy to read it.

Nigeria: Homophobes are trying to drum up support for a Ghana-style anti-LGBT bill using HIV paranoia. Several laws already criminalize gay sex, same-sex marriage, and advocacy.

Zimbabwe: A lawyer discusses the country’s civil partnership law, which specifically excludes same-sex couples.

Hong Kong: A lawyer gives a good update on the state of same-sex couples’ legal rights in the territory, as the September deadline imposed by the Court of Final Appeal for the government to legislate for civil partnerships looms.

Taiwan: The opposition KMT is planning to push for a referendum on maintaining the death penalty, which the Constitutional Court limited somewhat in a ruling last year. Under the ruling, the death penalty is only allowed for the most serious crimes, and it has been prohibited for use on people who are mentally challenged.

Japan: The director of the statistics bureau told parliament today that same-sex couples who indicate that they are spouses on this year’s census will be recorded as “other relatives” – a category used for uncles or cousins, but the data may be able to be corrected in the future.

Meanwhile, in the States

A US House committee was brought to an abrupt halt after a Democrat challenged the Republican chair for deliberately misgendering Delaware Democrat Sarah McBride. Rather than explain himself, the chair simply adjourned the meeting.

Colorado: SCOTUS will hear a challenge to the state’s ban on conversion therapy, which will have impact on conversion therapy bans in more than twenty states and a hundred municipalities nationwide. Most federal circuit courts have upheld conversion therapy bans, but the sixth circuit has blocked them in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. SCOTUS previously declined to take up a similar challenge to Washington’s ban.

Meanwhile, a bill to codify same-sex marriage into state law is set for debate in the state house today.

Massachusetts: A bill to repeal the state’s long-defunct sodomy law (as well as a ‘walking while trans’ law) is back before the General Assembly and is in the hands of the joint committee on the judiciary. This is likely the only state that will consider repealing a sodomy law this cycle.

Washington: State senate Democrats passed a bill that seeks to expand the categories of prohibited discrimination in public schools to include immigration status, neurodivergence, and homelessness, as well as separating out sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression as distinct categories. It now heads to the state house.

Wisconsin: State Republicans have introduced a bill to limit students’ rights to change their name and gender on school records.

Minnesota: Democrats restored a tied state house after winning a special election last night. But over in Iowa, Republicans very narrowly maintained their state house supermajority by winning a special election.