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Estonia’s marriage equality law takes effect

Statute is ‘a very important message from the government’

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The Estonian Parliament (Photo by Griash Bruev/Bigstock)

A law that extends marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples in Estonia took effect on Monday.

Lawmakers last July approved the marriage equality bill by a 55-34 vote margin. Estonia is the first Baltic country and the first former Soviet republic to allow same-sex couples to legally marry.

ā€œItā€™s an important moment that shows Estonia is a part of northern Europe,ā€ Baltic Pride Project Manager Keio Soomelt told the Guardian newspaper. ā€œFor the LGBT+ community, it is a very important message from the government that says, finally, we are as equal as other couples; that we are valuable and entitled to the same services and have the same options.ā€

The country’s civil partnership law has been in place since 2013.

The Guardian reported same-sex couples could begin to apply for marriage licenses on Monday. Authorities are expected to process the first applications by Feb. 2.

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Current, former PinkNews staffers accuse publisher, husband of sexual harassment

CEO Anthony James suspended from NHS job after allegations became public

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Thirty-three current and former employees of an LGBTQ news website in the U.K. have accused its publisher and husband of sexual harassment and misconduct.

The BBC on Tuesday reported ā€œseveralā€ former PinkNews staffers saw Chief Operating Officer Anthony James ā€œkissing and touching a junior colleague who they saw appeared too drunk to consentā€ outside of a London pub after a company event.

Jamesā€™s husband, Benjamin Cohen, founded PinkNews in 2005.

The BBC reported the current and former staffers with whom it spoke said ā€œa culture of heavy drinking led to instances whenā€ Cohen and James ā€œbehaved inappropriately towards younger male employees.ā€

Stephan Kyriacou, who worked at PinkNews from 2019-2021, told the BBC that Cohen slapped him on his butt at a Christmas party.

“I just shut down for a minute. I didnā€™t know what to say. I was in shock,ā€ Kyriacou told the BBC. ā€œI remember turning to my friends and saying, ‘What the hell just happened?'”

The BBC spoke with PinkNews staffers who said ā€œthey were shouted at and belittled by Mr. Cohen, and that there was a ā€˜toxicā€™ culture at the company. Others said they saw ā€œmisogynisticā€ behavior.

Neither Cohen, nor James spoke with the BBC. The Washington Blade has reached out to PinkNews for comment.

Media reports indicate Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS (National Health Service) Foundation suspended James, who is a doctor, from his job after the allegations against him and Cohen became public.

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Europe

African LGBTQ activists meet with Pope Francis

Pontiff met with Clare Byarugaba from Uganda and Ebenezer Peegah from Ghana

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Clare Byarugaba, left, with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Aug. 13, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Byarugaba's X account)

Pope Francis on Tuesday met with two LGBTQ activists from Africa at the Vatican.

Clare Byarugaba of Chapter Four Uganda posted to her X account a picture of her sitting next to Francis. A video that she shared shows Juan Carlos Cruz ā€” a gay Chilean man who is a survivor of clergy sex abuse and a member of a commission that advises Francis on protecting children from pedophile priests ā€” introducing her to the pontiff.

Cruz is also a member of the GLAAD board of directors.

Byarugaba, who also founded PFLAG Uganda, said she was ā€œhonored to meetā€ Francis. She added she briefed him on ā€œthe ruinous impact of Ugandaā€™s two in a decade anti-LGBTIQ rights laws,ā€ including the Anti-Homosexuality Act that President Yoweri Museveni signed in 2023, and ā€œthe gross human rights violations therein.ā€

ā€œHe reiterated discrimination is a sin and violence against LGBTIQ communities is unacceptable,ā€ said Byarugaba.

The Washington Blade has reached out to Byarugaba for additional comment.

Francis on Tuesday also met with Rightify Ghana Director Ebenezer Peegah.

“With LGBTQI+ criminalization rising in Africa, and Ghana’s anti-LGBTQI+ bill pending, we shared our experiences as queer individuals in Ghana and expressed gratitude to the pope for his progressive stance, especially his opposition to violence and discrimination,” said Rightify Ghana on X. “Pope Francis encouraged us to ‘keep fighting for your rights,’ and that’s exactly what we will do.”

Francis during a Jan. 24, 2023, interview with the Associated Press said homosexuality is not a crime and laws that criminalize it are ā€œunjust.ā€ Francis a few days later reiterated these comments during a press conference on board his plane after it left South Sudan, a country that borders Uganda.

Consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in South Sudan.

ā€œThe criminalization of homosexuality is a problem that cannot be ignored,ā€ Francis told reporters. ā€œCriminalizing people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice.ā€

Ugandaā€™s Anti-Homosexuality Act, among other things, contains a death penalty provision for ā€œaggravated homosexuality.ā€

The U.S. after Museveni signed the law imposed visa restrictions on Ugandan officials and removed the country from a program that allows sub-Saharan African countries to trade duty-free with the U.S. The World Bank Group also announced the suspension of new loans to Uganda.

The Ugandan Constitutional Court on April 3 refused to ā€œnullify the Anti-Homosexuality Act in its totality.ā€

More than a dozen activists appealed the ruling to the countryā€™s Court of Appeal. They filed a second appeal with the Supreme Court on July 11.

Angola, Botswana, Mauritius, and Seychelles are among the countries that have decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations over the last decade.

The Namibian government last month appealed a ruling that struck down the countryā€™s apartheid-era sodomy laws.

Burkina Fasoā€™s military government on July 10 announced it plans to recriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations in the nation. The Ghanaian Supreme Court on July 24 upheld the country’s colonial-era sodomy law.

Ghanaian lawmakers on Feb. 28Ā approvedĀ theĀ Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill that would, among other things, criminalize allyship. President Nana Akufo-Addo has said he will not sign the bill until the Supreme Court rules on whether it is constitutional or not.Ā 

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Anti-LGBTQ UK Cabinet minister fired

Advocacy groups frequently criticized Suella Braverman

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Then-British Home Secretary Suella Braverman speaks at the American Enterprise Institute in D.C. on Sept. 26, 2023. (C-SPAN screenshot)

Suella Braverman, the controversial British Home Secretary who was fired by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a phone call Monday, fired back publicly Tuesday releasing a scathing three page resignation letter accusing Sunak of “not having a plan” and failing to deliver promises made to the British people on among other items, hot button immigration and crime prevention issues.

Braverman took office in October 2022 as home secretary while Sunak formed a new government after former British Prime Minister Liz Truss stepped down on her 50th day in office amid a government crisis, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history.

The former home secretary was known for her far-right conservative views and in the past year had made a series of public comments in speeches and in the press that derided LGBTQ people, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. Her remarks disparaging transgender British females oft times echoes similar sentiments stated publicly by the prime minister. 

This past June at a Conservative Party conference, the prime minster was caught on a video clearly mocking trans females. 

The prime minster makes reference to an opposition leader, although that person is not clearly identified. Sunak then took aim at Edward Jonathan Davey, a British politician who has served as leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2020.

ā€œOver the same period of time, you might have noticed Ed Davey has been very busy,ā€ Sunak says. ā€œLike me, you can probably see that he was trying to convince everybody that women clearly had penises. Youā€™ll all know that Iā€™m a big fan of everybody studying maths to 18, but it turns out that we need to focus on biology.ā€

A recent YouGov UK international online research data and analytics technology group poll conducted earlier this month found that 49 percent of British voters wanted Braverman sacked. 

PinkNewsUK reported calls for Sunak to fire Braverman have gotten louder over the course of last week, after she hit out at peaceful pro-Palestine protesters labeling their marches in London as “hate marches” and she also accused the Metropolitan Police of bias, which officers have said sparked far-right attacks on members of the force.

On issues over LGBTQ Britons, the former home secretary in October said that trans women should not be treated in female hospital wards. In an interview with Sky News, she said: ā€œTrans women have no place in womenā€™s wards or, indeed, any safe space relating to biological women.”

ā€œThe health secretaryā€™s [Steve Barclay] absolutely right to clarify and make it clear that biological men should not have treatment in the same wards and in the same safe spaces as biological women,” she said. “This is about protecting womenā€™s dignity, safety and privacy and thatā€™s why Iā€™m incredibly supportive.ā€

In September, in her speech to the American Enterprise Institute, a right wing think-tank in D.C., Braverman on the subject of political asylum remarked: ā€œWhere individuals are being persecuted, it is right that we offer sanctuary. But we will not be able to sustain an asylum system if, in effect, simply being gay or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin, is sufficient to qualify for protection.ā€ 

In an interview with PinkNewsUK after her speech in D.C., Sebastian Rocca, the founder and chief executive of LGBTQ asylum charity Micro Rainbow, believes Braverman is trying to scapegoat migrants.

ā€œThe comments made by the home secretary are deeply disturbing,ā€ he said. ā€œLGBTQI people often face death, imprisonment and violence. When they come to the UK to seek safety, they have to go through an asylum system that is re-traumatizing and dehumanizing. In addition, the standard of proof is very high.ā€

ā€œThe system, as it is, is incredibly difficult. These comments seek to scapegoats migrants and LGBTQI people for political gain once again,ā€ he added.

A new dynamic in attitude towards the UK’s LGBTQ community?

In addition to sacking Braverman, the prime minster radically overhauled his team in the Cabinet reshuffle including adding former Prime Minister David Cameron as the new British foreign secretary.

James Cleverly, whose job Cameron took over, was named as home secretary. His positions on most LGBTQ issues is in line with the Tory Party generally, howeverĀ PinkNewsUK notedĀ that while Cleverly has never voted on same-sex marriage, he expressed his support for equality in a blog post first published in 2005 titledĀ ā€œI like marriage.ā€

ā€œGay ā€˜marriageā€™ takes nothing away from heterosexual marriage and while there will be some civil partnerships which are done for the wrong reasons the same can be said of straight marriage. Best of luck I say,ā€ he wrote.

He has also expressed support for LGBTQ inclusive education and for LGBTQ people in the military, but he did face some criticism when he said gay football fans would have to be ā€œrespectfulā€ when traveling to Qatar for the World Cup.

Overall the British LGBTQ publication reported, is that the new home secretary is ā€œan obvious step up from Braverman.ā€

Cameronā€™s record on LGBTQ rights, especially while serving as prime minister, PinkNewsUK reported has been favorable. He voted in favor of civil partnerships in 2004 and in favor of the Equality Act in 2007, and later voted in favor of same-sex marriage.

Former Health Secretary Steve Barclayā€™s departure is a relief for some LGBTQ Brits, especially in light of his recent campaign against trans people in the British healthcare system. 

In a speech at the Conservative Party conference in October, Barclay spoke out about his plans to introduce ā€œsex-specificā€ language throughout the health service when referring to treatments and advice for menopause and some types of cancer. In the same speech, he announced plans to ban trans people from single-sex wards.

However Barclayā€™s replacement has had a troubling record on transgender healthcare issues. In 2018, Atkins, who was then minister for women, wasĀ criticizedĀ when she called for ā€œcautionā€ before treating young trans people in an interview with the Telegraph.

ā€œThe treatments are so serious and life-changing. Iā€™m a little cautious of the use of those treatments because of the potential for the rest of their lives,ā€ she said.

The prime minster is also facing renewed calls and anger over the omission of announcing a ban on conversion therapy in the Kingā€™s Speech. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has been urging Sunak to uphold a pledge to enact a ban on the discredited practice.

The BBC reported that earlier this year the EHRC wrote to the government to urge them to include the legislation in the speech, which sets out the governmentā€™s priorities for the coming years.

A spokesperson for EHRC told the BBC: ā€œWe have long supported proposals to end these practices. Conversion practices, aimed at changing someoneā€™s sexual orientation or personal understanding of their own gender, can be incredibly harmful to people with the protected characteristics of sexual orientation and gender reassignment.

We will continue to stand ready to provide expert advice and hope the government will uphold its commitment to ban harmful conversion practices.ā€

Its lack of inclusion in the Kingā€™s Speech is thought to be over disagreements within the Conservative Party the BBC noted regarding what form a ban should take, and concerns over how it could impact freedom of expression around issues such as gender identity, as well as any potential impact on religious freedoms.

Robbie de Santos, director of external affairs at Stonewall UK, told the BBC: ā€œ[The government] has given the green light for the abuse against LGBTQ+ people to continue unchecked. Rather than getting mired in a cynical cultural war, it should be making decisions based on what the evidence and expertise said.ā€

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