News
Swiss voters narrowly reject anti-marriage proposal
Tax equity initiative failed by a 51-49 percent margin
LGBT rights advocates rally in support of marriage rights for same-sex couples in 2014 in Bern, Switzerland. Swiss voters on Feb. 28, 2016, narrowly rejected a proposal that would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman in the country’s constitution. (Photo courtesy of Maria von Känel/Swiss Rainbow Families Association)
Election officials indicate the initiative failed by a 51-49 percent margin.
The Christian Democratic People’s Party of Switzerland proposed the initiative — titled “For the Couple and the Family — No to the Marriage Penalty” — in 2012 as a way to address tax “inequality” among married couples. The initiative also sought to amend the Swiss Federal Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.
“Marriage is the sustainable and regulated union between a man and a woman,” reads the proposed amendment, according to ILGA-Europe. “From a fiscal point of view, marriage constitutes an economic community. It cannot be discriminated against other ways of living, in particular in terms of tax and social insurance.”
“This initiative was anti-LGBTI sentiment masquerading as tax reform,” said Joyce Hamilton, co-chair of ILGA-Europe’s Executive Board, in a statement on Sunday. “The Swiss public saw through the proposal and said they didn’t want to be part of it.”
Swiss LGBT rights advocates also welcomed the vote’s outcome.
Pink Cross posted a picture to its Twitter page with the caption “Yes! A no!”
The Bern-based advocacy group was among the coalition of more than LGBT organizations that urged Swiss voters to oppose the initiative.
“We are very happy that we won this vote,” Pink Cross Secretary General Bastian Baumann told the Washington Blade.
Maria von Känel of the Swiss Rainbow Families Association described Sunday’s vote as “a successful fight against a significant setback.”
“We succeeded in mobilizing a large section of the general public in preventing the enshrinement in the Swiss constitution of the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman,” she told the Blade.
Yeah! Gewonnen! #heiratsstrafe #abst16 pic.twitter.com/OaXkezy7yt
— PINK CROSS (@pinkcross_ch) February 28, 2016
Switzerland has legally recognized same-sex relationships under its Partnership Act since 2007.
The country’s highest court later ruled that gays and lesbians in long-term relationships were entitled to receive the same death benefits from their partner’s pensions that heterosexuals do.
Members of the Legal Affairs Committee of the National Council, which is the lower house of the Swiss Federal Assembly, in February 2015 overwhelmingly recommended that the country extend marriage rights to same-sex couples. The Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of States, which is the upper house of the Swiss Federal Assembly, last September approved the proposal by a 7-5 vote margin.
The Swiss Federal Assembly later this year is expected to debate the issue.
Von Känel told the Blade on Sunday that 70 percent of Swiss people support marriage rights for same-sex couples.
“The result of the vote strengthens our resolve to continue our struggle for marriage equality, a parliamentary initiative on which topic is currently being discussed,” she said, referring to Sunday’s vote.
Baumann made a similar point.
“So now we approaching more conservative MP’s and try to convince them for marriage equality,” he told the Blade. “In other hand we try to show the diversity of love and couples in Switzerland with our campaign.”
The Council of States on March 8 is scheduled to vote on a bill that would extend second-parent adoption rights to LGBT couples.
“We are hopeful and cautiously optimistic that the bill will pass,” von Känel told the Blade.
District of Columbia
Mayor Bowser signs bill requiring insurers to cover PrEP
‘This is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS’
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on March 20 signed a bill approved by the D.C. Council that requires health insurance companies to cover the costs of HIV prevention or PrEP drugs for D.C. residents at risk for HIV infection.
Like all legislation approved by the Council and signed by the mayor, the bill, called the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act, was sent to Capitol Hill for a required 30-day congressional review period before it takes effect as D.C. law.
Gay D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) last year introduced the bill.
Insurance coverage for PrEP drugs has been provided through coverage standards included in the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. But AIDS advocacy organizations have called on states and D.C. to pass their own legislation requiring insurance coverage of PrEP as a safeguard in case federal policies are weakened or removed by the Trump administration, which has already reduced federal funding for HIV/AIDS-related programs.
Like legislation passed by other states, the PrEP D.C. Amendment Act requires insurers to cover all PrEP drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Studies have shown that PrEP drugs, which can be taken as pills or by injection just twice a year, are highly effective in preventing HIV infection.
“I think this is a win for our community,” Parker said after the D.C. Council voted unanimously to approve the bill on its first vote on the measure in February. “And this is a win in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
Vice President JD Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, will visit Hungary next week.
An announcement the White House released on Thursday said the Vances will be in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, from April 7-8.
JD Vance “will hold bilateral meetings with” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The announcement further indicates the vice president “will also deliver remarks on the rich partnership between the United States and Hungary.”
The Vances will travel to Hungary less than a week before the country’s parliamentary elections take place on April 12.
Orbán, who has been in office since 2010, and his Fidesz-KDNP coalition government have faced widespread criticism over its anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
The Associated Press notes polls indicate Orbán is trailing Péter Magyar and his center-right Tisza party.
President Donald Trump removed Attorney General Pam Bondi from her post Thursday, following growing criticism over how she and the Department of Justice handled a range of issues, including matters related to sex offender and Trump ally Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump announced Bondi’s removal on Truth Social, where he also said Todd Blanche will serve as acting head of the Justice Department.
“Pam Bondi is a great American patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my attorney general over the past year,” Trump wrote on the platform. “Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown on crime across our country, with murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900.”
Trump was seen as recently as Wednesday with the now-former attorney general at a Supreme Court hearing on citizenship.
The decision contrasts with Trump’s previous public praise of Bondi, the 87th U.S. attorney general and former 37th attorney general of Florida, who served in that role from 2011-2019 before joining the Trump-Vance administration. He has frequently lauded her loyalty and said he speaks with her often. Bondi was also one of president’s defense lawyers during his first impeachment trial.
Privately, however, Trump had grown frustrated that Bondi was not “moving quickly enough” to prosecute critics and political adversaries he wanted to face criminal charges, according to multiple sources. The New York Times reported that her inability to charge former FBI Director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James with any crimes is a large factor in the president’s choice to fire her from the government’s primary law enforcement agency.
The move comes as Trump has sought to minimize public turmoil within his administration, avoiding the perception of a revolving-door Cabinet that defined his first term.
Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York who unsuccessfully ran for governor, has emerged as a leading contender to lead the Justice Department. He has been one of Trump’s most reliable allies.
“He’s our secret weapon,” Trump said of Zeldin in February during a White House event promoting the coal industry, adding, “He’s getting those approvals done in record-setting time.”
Bondi has also growing faced scrutiny from Congress.
The House Oversight Committee recently subpoenaed her to testify about the department’s handling of certain files, where she declined to answer key questions during a contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing in February.
The Tampa native has a long history of opposing LGBTQ rights through her roles in government. As Florida attorney general, she fought against the legalization of same-sex marriage, arguing it would cause “serious public harm,” pushing forward a legal battle that cost taxpayers nearly half a million dollars. She also asked the Florida Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that found the state’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.
More recently, Bondi established a “Title IX Special Investigations Team” within the Justice Department focused on restricting transgender women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports teams and accessing facilities aligned with their gender identity. She also told Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to turn over the medical records of anyone under 19 who received gender-affirming care.
Her removal follows Trump’s decision last month to oust another controversial female Cabinet figure, Kristi Noem.
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