Back in April this year the American Civil Liberties Union data reported that at least 417 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the United States since the start of the year — a new record.. That’s already more than twice the number of such bills introduced all of last year.
On the other hand, these pernicious attempts to turn the clock back on equal rights for the lgbtq+ community in the US, are balanced by other countries around the globe that are now finally celebrating progress that heralds good news. Only this month the Latvian parliament has voted to allow same-sex couples to establish civil unions in a historic first for the Baltic nation. The country seceded from the USSR in 1991. but the appointment of Edgars Rinkēvičs – both Latvia and Europe’s first out-gay head of state – in July this year helped expedite this move.
Earlier this year Slovenia became the first post-Communist country to legalize same-sex marriage, meanwhile, Bulgaria (also post-Communist) and still hold socially conservative attitudes when it comes to such matters as homosexuality and transgender people but in 2023 it adopted a Law that provides for heavier penalties for crimes committed on the basis of the victim’s sexual orientation.
Also, the good news is that countries that were once part of the worldwide British Empire have been making the most progress. When they were granted independence, they inherited a series of draconian conservative laws including ones that banned homosexuality that the Brits had installed. Countries such as Kenya where the Supreme Court ruled that, even if homosexual intercourse is prohibited by the law, the constitutionally protected right to freedom of expression and of assembly extends to LGBT advocacy groups.
Cyprus
‘ Parliament passed a bill criminalizing conversion therapy; in Hong Kong the Courts ruled that the government’s lack of recognition of same-sex partnerships violates the right to privacy; in Mauritius the Supreme Court. ruled that Section 250 of the country’s Criminal Code, which criminalized gay sex, was unconstitutional.
Elsewhere in 2013 South Korea recognized the legal status of same-sex couples; The Supreme Court of Nepal issued a ruling asking the government to recognize same-sex marriage in the country; and Andorra approved same-sex marriage too; then The Supreme Court of Nepal ordered the government to register same-sex marriage; Finland passed a law allowing trans people to change their legal gender; the Senate of Spain passed a similar law too; the tiny Cook Islands decriminalized homosexuality; Taiwan passed a bill granting full adoption rights to same-sex couples; Liechtenstein passed a law granting same-sex couples the right to adopt,
At the negative end of equality the current UK Government. used section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 to block the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill from receiving royal assent, effectively vetoing it. Had the bill become law, it would have made it easier for trans-Scottish citizens to change their legal gender.
But in Uganda, the former British Colony that went on to be governed by the unhinged dictator Idi Amin their level of hatred for homosexuality outweighs even that of the middle + south of the US. Their Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which prescribes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuals” and imprisonment for up to 20 years for “promoters of homosexuality
Review : Roger Walker-Dack
Editor in Chief: Queerguru
Member of G.A.L.E.C.A. (Gay & Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association) and NLGJA The Association of LGBT
Journalists. and The Online Film Critics Society. Ex Contributing Editor The Gay Uk & Contributor Edge Media
Former CEO and Menswear Designer of Roger Dack Ltd in the UK
one of the hardest-working journalists in the business' Michael Goff of Towleroad