Thailand cabinet approves equal marriage bill
Marriage to be considered tomorrow in Czechia and Navajo Nation
Hey, before we dive into today’s news, I just wanted to let you know that I’m having a huge Black Friday sale right now on my original art celebrating gay male nudes. Everything is 50% off right now in my store. Check it out!
Thailand: The Prime Minister has announced that cabinet has approved the draft same-sex marriage law, and that it will be introduced in Parliament on December 12. Both the government and the leading opposition party supports it, so it will likely pass through the lower house easily, but may face opposition in the military-controlled Senate. We shall see.
Czechia: The Constitutional Committee of Parliament will meet tomorrow to discuss both the equal marriage bill and the bill to constitutionally ban same-sex marriage. As reported last month, the most likely scenario is that the constitutional ban is dropped, and the “all-but-the-word-marriage” equal civil partnerships bill is advanced instead.
Navajo Nation: The Navajo Nation Council will host a day-long working session tomorrow to discuss the same-sex marriage bill that is before it. Options may include passing the bill as is, amending it, rejecting it, or subjecting it to a referendum. The Navajo Nation is the largest Native American tribal jurisdiction in the USA.
Bhutan: Local LGBT activists are hoping to continue the momentum from decriminalization of gay sex in 2021 to get laws passed for legal gender recognition and same-sex marriage, though this remains a distant hope.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines: The weird rumor that the Samoa Agreement between the EU and dozens of Asian, African and Caribbean countries will require those countries to legalize same-sex marriage has leapt across the Atlantic and metastasized, leading the Prime Minister to plead with opponents to point to anywhere in the agreement where it says that. They can’t, because it doesn’t (400-page PDF).
The PM also took the opportunity to recall that the courts are still weighing a case on decriminalizing gay sex in the Caribbean archipelago, and that his government is still opposed to decriminalization. Still, reading between the lines, it seems evident he knows the sodomy law’s days are numbered.
Australia: The state of New South Wales is proposing to make it easier to prosecute people for incitement to hate-based violence.
Malta: The government is proposing to criminalize “virginity testing,” as a way of promoting women’s rights against a pseudoscientific practice.
Meanwhile, in the States…
Virginia: As expected, state Democrats plan to table a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to an abortion during the legislative term next year. It will have to pass both houses and this year, and again in 2025 before being put on the ballot in 2026.
Florida: A Republican lawmaker has filed a bill that would bar state employers, contractors, and non-profit agencies from offering diversity training or allowing employees to use their preferred pronouns. Aside from its obvious odiousness and unconstitutionality, the bill would effectively force LGBTQ advocacy groups in Florida to, uh, not discriminate against LGBTQ people.
Ohio: Republicans are advancing a slew of anti-trans and anti-LGBT bills in the end of their session.