In case you missed it, I wrote about the queer winners at this year’s Tony Awards for the Los Angeles Blade.
The Big News
Thailand: The senate gave final approval to the same-sex marriage and adoption bill today. It’s now off to the king for royal assent, which is basically a formality. The vote was 130-4 with 18 abstaining. Thailand is now the 39th country to legalize same-sex marriage (although the law will come into effect before Liechtenstein’s law will, so feel free to squabble about the order).
Thailand is the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, and only the third after Taiwan and Nepal. It’s also notably the first in the region to do so without being ordered to by a constitutional court.
Home to 69 million people, it’s also the largest country to legalize same-sex marriage since Germany did so in 2017.
Congrats Thailand! Go get married!
And in the rest of the world
Ghana: The human rights organization Rightify Ghana reports that five cases are currently before the courts challenging the nation’s anti-gay laws. Four separate cases – two at the Supreme Court, and two at the High Court – are challenging the recently passed anti-LGBTQ law that criminalizes LGBT advocacy and organization. These four cases are ongoing, and it seems that proceedings will continue over the summer.
A fifth case is challenging the constitutionality of the underlying sodomy (“unnatural carnal knowledge”) law before the Supreme Court, which has announced that it will release final judgement on July 27.
Poland: Coalition partners continue to spar over the civil union bill, with the Left appearing ready to cut adoption rights from the bill in order to get it to pass. Meanwhile, LGBTQ activists have broken off talks with PM Tusk’s government over stalled action on the bill and another proposed hate speech law.
Meanwhile, in the States
Federal judges have blocked the Biden administration’s direction that schools must apply Title IX’s ban on sex discrimination to include a ban on anti-LGBTQ discrimination from going into effect in several states.
The affected states in yesterday’s ruling are Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. A ruling last week blocked the rule in four other states: Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi and Montana.
This is distinct from another ruling last week that blocked anti-discrimination guidance from going into effect in twenty other states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
The difference is the guidance is considered basically informal advice on how to follow the law, while the rule is the administration’s actual interpretation of the law. The rule will stand in the other states not affected by the rulings, which are temporary until the court hears the full challenge to the law (or, Trump is reelected and rescinds the rule).
Wonderful news about Thailand!