Tag Archives: LGBTQ rights

Reuters reports: Uganda’s parliament on Tuesday passed a law that criminalises identifying as LGBTQ, handing authorities broad powers to target Ugandans who already face legal discrimination and mob violence. More than 30 African countries, including Uganda, already ban same-sex relations. The new law appears to be the first to outlaw merely identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ), …

Lansing’s NBC affiliate reports: People within Michigan’s LGBTQ community will now be better protected against discrimination. Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act which expands basic protections for the LGBTQ community. It prohibits discrimination at places such as schools, offices, and housing, based on a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity. Read the full article. Whitmer just …

The Hill reports: The New Mexico legislature has passed legislation to modernize the state’s anti-discrimination law by adding explicit protections for LGBTQ people. The bill, officially titled the Human Rights Modernization Act, now heads to the governor’s desk for final approval. The proposed law, which New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) is expected to sign, establishes a broader slate …

Anchorage’s NRP affiliate reports: An Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica investigation published last week revealed the attorney general directed the Alaska Commission for Human Rights to void equal protections for LGBTQ Alaskans in areas like housing and financing. On Wednesday, the state’s first-ever out, queer lawmakers sponsored a bill in the Alaska House to enshrine anti-discrimination protections in law. For …

The Hill reports: The White House on Friday condemned what it called “shameful, hateful and dangerous” attacks on the LGBTQ community, and transgender people in particular, pointing to comments from a speaker at a major conservative conference last week and a barrage of bills introduced in GOP-led state legislatures. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spoke at Friday’s briefing about the rhetoric …

Human Rights Watch reports: A bill introduced in Uganda’s Parliament criminalizing same-sex conduct and sexual and gender identity, if adopted, would violate multiple fundamental rights, Human Rights Watch said today. Among others, such a law would violate the rights to freedom of expression and association privacy, equality, and nondiscrimination. On March 9, 2023, Asuman Basalirwa, a member of parliament, introduced …

“Hey, look over there! A classic distraction technique, distracting us away from the real issues that they were voted into office to focus on: jobs, healthcare, keeping our children safe from harm at their own school. “But we know that bullies are incompetent at solving real issues. They look for easy targets so they can give the impression of being …

The Hill reports: Lawmakers in Michigan have passed a bill to expand civil rights protections to the LGBTQ community, with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) expected to sign the measure into law when it reaches her desk. The vote in the Democratic-led state House on Wednesday, which passed the bill with a 64-45 margin, would codify protections from discrimination based on …

Reuters reports: Canada has expunged historic indecency and anti-abortion laws targeting women and the LGBTQ community, the government said on Tuesday, in a criminal justice system reform that will allow people convicted under such offences to clear their records. The repealed laws had targeted women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) individuals’ access to abortion as well as …

The Des Moines Register reports: Iowans by the hundreds rallied Sunday at the center of Iowa government to protest legislation targeting the rights of LGBTQ citizens. Nearly a thousand parents, students, educators, faith leaders, community organizers and elected officials attended the Sunday Rally to Resist on the West steps of the Iowa State Capitol. “Iowans have had enough. We understand …

The Japan Times reports: Japan’s leading opposition party submitted to parliament on Monday a bill to legally recognize same-sex marriage in an effort to spur debate on the issue. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan’s bill proposes amending wording in the country’s Civil Code that has been written on the premise that marriage is a union between partners of different …

Michigan Bridge reports: LGBTQ people would be explicitly protected by Michigan’s anti-discrimination law under legislation passed in the Michigan Senate on Wednesday. In what supporters called a historic moment, Senate Bill 4 — which would expand the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity — passed the Senate by a 23-15 vote …

The Des Moines Register reports: Students at 14 Iowa public school districts and one university are planning to walk out of class Wednesday to protest bills introduced in the Iowa Legislature that they say discriminate against the rights of LGBTQ+ people. Student organizers are particularly concerned about bills that would require educators to notify parents and guardians if a student …

The Associated Press reports: West Virginia’s GOP supermajority House of Delegates passed a bill Monday that would create a test for courts to apply when people challenge government regulations they believe interfere with their constitutional right to religious freedom. The bill passed after several Democrats expressed concern that the proposal could be used as a tool to discriminate against LGBTQ …

The Associated Press reports: Tony Earl, a Democrat who served one term as Wisconsin’s governor in the 1980s and later bemoaned the increasing partisanship in politics, has died. He was 86. Earl, a champion of gay rights and a staunch environmentalist, died on Thursday “peacefully surrounded by family,” his daughter Julia Earl texted The Associated Press. Earl had been hospitalized …

Gallup Polling reports: After showing perceptible increases in 2020 and 2021, U.S. adults’ identification as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual held steady in 2022, at 7.2%. The current percentage is double what it was when Gallup first measured LGBT identification a decade ago. The data are based on aggregated polling data from 2022 Gallup telephone surveys, …

The Texas Tribune reports: Monday’s announcement had brief descriptions of the priority bills (many of which have not been filed yet) and more directly addressed controversial legislation that the most socially conservative members in the Republican Party have called for, including bills that seek to impose restrictions on transgender Texans. Patrick also included legislation to ban what he deems “obscene” …

Reuters reports: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Saturday fired an aide who said he wouldn’t want to live next to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender couples and warned that people would flee Japan if same-sex marriage was permitted. In remarks reported by local media, Masayoshi Arai, an economy and trade official who joined Kishida’s staff as a secretary in …

The Washington Post reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inaugurated the most right-wing government in Israel’s history on Thursday, launching a divisive chapter of national politics that pits newly influential ultrareligious, ultranationalist leaders against an opposition that warns democracy is in peril. They are already pursuing plans to restrict the rights of minorities, alter the system of governmental checks and balances, …

Reuters reports: Four gay couples have asked India’s Supreme Court to recognise same-sex marriages, setting the stage for a legal face-off with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government which has in the past refused to legalise such marriages. The pleas have already triggered a debate on prime-time TV news and generated editorials in newspapers whether the time has come for the …