The Southeast Asian country will become the third Asian nation, after Taiwan and Nepal, to legalize same-sex marriage. A new amendment to its Civil and Commercial Code will change the words “men and women” and “husband and wife” to “individuals” and “marriage partners.” The next step will be an amendment to the country’s pension fund law to recognize same-sex couples.
Nepal has just become the first South Asian country to recognize a same-sex marriage after it formally recognized the marriage of Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey who wed in 1997.
The Vatican, which leads the Catholic Church, has said that transgender people and people in same-sex relationships can be baptized and serve as witnesses at weddings, and trans people can also be godparents as well.
Over 176,000 people attended Taiwan’s 21st annual Pride march in the capital city of Taipei, making it the world’s largest Asian LGBTQ+ Pride event in history. The event celebrated two recent LGBTQ+ rights victories in the country: the legalization of gay adoption and the recognition of Taiwanese same-sex spouses who were married in foreign countries.
In its decision, the court said that the requirement forces trans people to make the “cruel choice between accepting the sterilization surgery that causes intense bodily invasion and giving up important legal benefits of being treated according to their gender identity.”
Hong Kong’s Court of Appeals ruled in favor of two same-sex couples in separate cases involving their rights to own and rent public housing. While same-sex marriage is not legal in the city, the rulings follow other decisions that have firmly established same-sex couples’ rights to equal treatment under the law.
In 2016, Antigua and Barbuda, the archipelago nation that owns Redonda, launched an eradication campaign that cleared the island of rats. After that, they simply waited.
Butler has served as a senior strategist in VP Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign, has worked as the director for public policy and campaigns at Airbnb, served as president of the California chapter of the Service Employees International Union, and served on the University of California Board of Regents.
The panic defense is a legal defense strategy used to justify violent crimes against LGBTQ+ people due to a perpetrator “panicking” over discovering their victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The state Senate voted unanimously to ban this harmful legal strategy.
The city’s Common Council unanimously approved a bill to emphasize existing anti-discrimination laws and protect access to gender-affirming care.
It also said the city would not work with out-of-state law enforcement officials looking to punish those who traveled to New York to receive legal healthcare.
