Why does today's article start with an alien corpse?
Plus queer parents to get more rights in these countries
Mexico’s Congress spent a big chunk of Tuesday hearing about a mummified “alien” from a known con artist. This doesn’t really have anything to do with LGBT stuff, but it is what the Congress was doing instead of holding a final vote on the conversion therapy ban bill.
Reports suggest the UK government is now dropping its plans to introduce a conversion therapy ban, amid its inability to agree to including gender identity. Earlier this week, Scotland announced it was planning to delay its own conversion therapy bill, and Northern Ireland still doesn’t have a functioning legislature to introduce one in the province, so… way to go, UK.
Meanwhile, the government of the UK Crown Dependency Jersey has announced new legislation will be coming in by the end of the year to recognize same-sex parents equally to opposite-sex parents.
Your regular reminder that Italy is currently governed by far-right fascist bigots: France24 has a report on what the government’s new policies that stripped same-sex parents of their legal relationship to their children are doing to actual families across Italy. Italy’s highest court will hear a case on the right of a child born by surrogacy to have both his lesbian parents listed on his birth certificate on Oct 6. Meanwhile, a lower court in Padua is hearing a case where the state prosecutor is seeking to amend 33 existing birth certificates to remove the non-biological same-sex parent.
A federal court in Argentina ruled that same-sex couples have the right to access fertility treatments covered under medical plans.
The bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the Navajo Nation (a sovereign Native American Tribal Jurisdiction that straddles Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah; the largest in the US) is slowly advancing through committees. It went through the Law and Order Committee without a vote on Aug 28 (the recommendation was “do not pass” after no one was willing to second it), and passed the Budget and Finance Committee 2-1 on Sept 11. I believe it goes through one more committee before a final vote in the Navajo Nation Council, which will presumably come during the fall session from Oct 16-20.
A transgender woman in American Samoa was awarded $125,000 after suffering discrimination in her employment with the territorial government. In a consent decree, the government agrees to train its employees on sex discrimination, which includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity since a 2020 US Supreme Court ruling.
Latvia’s new government coalition was sworn in today, and it includes the left-leaning Progressive Party (along with two centre-right parties). No clear word on its government program yet, but the analyst quoted in this story says they may intend to legislate for same-sex marriage (or more likely, civil unions). Latvian same-sex couples have been able to register their civil unions since a court ruling last year, but with no legislation to indicate what their rights are.