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Out in the World: LGBTQ news

Slovak National Party announces plans to introduce law banning ‘LGBT propaganda’ in schools

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AUSTRALIA

CANBERRA, Australia – After a decision not to ask questions about LGBTQ status in the national census sparked widespread backlash, the Australian government has flipflopped and will ask a single question about “sexual preference” on the 2026 survey.

Australia’s governing Labor Party, which has been in power since 2022, had pledged to count LGBTIQ+ people in the national census in its 2023 party manifesto. 

But last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced that testing of the voluntary questions it was developing on sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersex status would not go forward, as the government had decided not to include.

That sparked criticism from prominent LGBTQ activists and rights organizations, as well as the country’s sex discrimination commissioner, and a Labor cabinet minister from Victoria state.

“Put simply — all LGBTIQA+ people deserve recognition. Equality means not leaving anyone behind, but if you don’t count us, we don’t count,” says Harriet Shing, Victoria’s minister for equality.

The government took another blow when six of its own MPs openly criticized the decision.

There were even calls to exclude the prime minister from the Sydney Mardi Gras festival over the census and a previous broken promise to close a legal loophole allowing religious schools to discriminate against LGBT teachers and students. 

“[Prime Minister Anthony] Albanese says he wants to promote social cohesion and prevent division, but by pushing LGBTIQA+ Australians back into the statistical closet he is doing exactly the opposite,” says Rodney Croome, a spokesperson for Just.Equal Australia.

“Our communities will continue to feel invisible and demeaned because the federal government hasn’t taken this opportunity to finally reflect the diversity of Australia and gather crucial information about the kinds of services people need,” Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown says.

On Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that the government was working with ABS to include a single question on sexuality in the census and distanced himself from the decision-making process behind the original announcement.

“We want to make sure that everyone is valued regardless of their gender, their race, their faith, their sexual orientation. We value every Australian and we’ll work with the ABS,” Albanese says.

But some activists not that a single question on sexuality will still leave certain segments of the LGBTIQ+ community uncounted. The survey won’t ask about transgender or intersex status.

“Trans and gender diverse people and those with innate variations of sex characteristics deserve to be recognised as much as anyone else,” Brown said in a statement.

ABS is continuing to develop the survey, so final phrasing of the question, as well as its ultimate inclusion, remains to be seen. The draft question has not been released.

This isn’t the first time counting the LGBTQIA community has been controversial in Australia. In 2021, ABS issued a “statement of regret” for failing to consult with or count the community in its 2021 census. That led to the initial strategy to count the community on the 2026 census.

Other countries have begun asking questions about sexual orientation and gender identity in their national censuses. Canada updated its questions on sex and gender to better count transgender people for the 2021 census. Scotland first included questions about sexuality and trans identity on its 2022 census, while New Zealand did so on its 2023 census.

GREECE

CHANIA, Greece – Opposition SYRIZA Party leader Stefanos Kasselakis had a ceremonial marriage to his partner Tyler McBeth in a ceremony on Friday.

Kasselakis and McBeth, who is American, were legally married last October in a small ceremony at Brooklyn City Hall in New York, shortly after being elected leader of the left-wing SYRIZA party. At the time, same-sex marriage was not legal in Greece. Kasselakis had lived in Miami until 2023, when he returned to Greece to run for the SYRIZA leadership. 

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had pledged to introduce same-sex marriage during his term in office, and finally introduced and passed the law this February. 

That allowed the planned celebration in Kasselakis’ hometown of Chania, on the island of Crete, to become a full-blown wedding celebration. 

The couple held their wedding at the Chania Botanical Gardens, following a four-day-long  celebration for guests who had travelled to the destination wedding, and a farewell party the following day.

Kasselakis has previously told the media that he and McBeth hope to have two children via surrogacy. But while gay couples are allowed to adopt in Greece, it is not currently legal for them to use surrogates to have children. 

The SYRIZA party has been in disarray since Kasselakis won the party leadership, with several MPs abandoning the party to form the New Left Party, and the party recording its worst result in European Parliament elections in June. There have been several calls from party members to hold a second leadership contest to replace Kasselakis before the next election, scheduled for 2027.

SLOVAKIA

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – The far-right Slovak National Party (SNS), which is part of the current governing coalition, has announced plans to introduce a law banning “LGBT propaganda” in schools, mirroring similar bills introduced in Russia, Hungary, and Bulgaria, and a significant escalation of the government’s crackdown on LGBT expression.

While a draft of the bill has not yet been released, SNS leader Andrej Danko says he intends to introduce it this month. 

SNS has long been described as neo-fascist and deeply homophobic. 

Although SNS is part of a government coalition that has long expressed antipathy to LGBT people, the bill faces an uncertain ride through parliament. 

The current Education Minister Tomáš Drucker, who is part of the Hlas Party, says he will refuse to apply the proposed legislation in schools, noting that SNS is not in charge of the education portfolio.

“The educational content will be decided exclusively by experts and teachers during my tenure as a minister of education,” Drucker said at a press conference Wednesday, as reported by Politico. “I absolutely reject any politicization of education and impetuous interventionsin education.”

SNS has picked several fights with the queer community through the ministries it does control, particularly under culture minister Martina Šimkovičová, who has sacked the leaders of the National Gallery and National Theatre and shut down the public broadcaster over alleged political activism. 

In August, deputy environment minister Štefan Kuffa, also of SNS, got into an altercation at a theatre production of the Irish play Little Gem. Kuffa interrupted the show to denounce its sexual themes as being inappropriate for children. Police are now investigating complaints he harassed the theatre company and a complaint from the minister that security assaulted him in trying to get him to leave.

And SNS has also proposed a Russian-style “foreign agents” law, which would require organizations and media that receive funding from outside the country to register as “foreign agents.” These laws are meant to silence and intimidate opposition groups, civil society, and the media. A similar bill was recently passed in Georgia.

TAIWAN

TAIPEI, Taiwan – A Taiwanese-Chinese same-sex couple is challenging a law that effectively prevents them from getting married, even though Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage in 2019.

Righ and Ryan met in 2016 when Righ was visiting Kaohsiung on Taiwan, and they began a long-distance relationship. They hoped to marry one day, and they thought their dreams would come true when Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage. But they soon learned that an obstacle remained in their path.

Taiwanese law that requires cross-strait couples to marry in mainland China before they can return and settle in Taiwan. Since China does not allow same-sex marriage, queer couples are out of luck.

Taiwan says the policy on cross-strait couples is necessary for national security. Spouses from mainland China are vetted for possible security issues.

While Taiwanese citizens are allowed to live and work in mainland China, Ryan and Righ’s relationship would still lack legal recognition, and they would lack other freedoms that LGBTQ people have in Taiwan.

Ryan and Righ got married in the United States and have sued the Taiwanese government for recognition of their marriage so that Righ can stay in Taiwan.

Last month, a court ruled that the Immigration Department should begin the interview process to recognize their marriage, but the department has yet to schedule an interview. Activists believe the government is stalling, nervous about addressing a controversial issue.

But there are some signals that the policy could soon change.

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party told The Guardian that a new law could address this legal lacuna. 

“Taiwanese citizen’s freedom to marry shall be respected and protected by the law regardless [of] the nationality of their fiance. We believe the government will propose a draft of law balancing people’s right to marry and national security,” The DPP statement says.  

There are an estimated 100 cross-strait same-sex couples affected by the government’s policy.

Taiwan’s same-sex marriage law was originally even more restrictive. As originally passed, Taiwanese citizens could only marry a same-sex foreigner if the marriage would be recognized in the foreigner’s home country, but that restriction was repealed in 2023. Restrictions barring same-sex couples from adopting were also repealed in 2023.

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Africa

Report: Anti-LGBTQ discrimination has cost East African countries billions

Open for Business highlights Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda

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(Bigstock photo)

The economies of four East African countries are losing more than $5 billion a year because of discrimination against LGBTQ people.

The 80-page report that Open for Business, a coalition of leading global organizations that champion LGBTQ inclusion, released in late March focuses on Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. It attributes the losses to anti-homosexuality laws, and predicts more economic costs if lawmakers implement other harsh anti-LGBTQ measures.

The report notes Uganda is losing $2.4 billion, or 5.2 percent of its GDP, annually because of the Anti-Homosexuality Act that took effect in 2023. Open for Business last October revealed the country had already lost $1.6 billion in foreign direct investment, donor aid, trade, tourism, public health and productivity after President Yoweri Museveni signed the law.

Kenya is losing $1.5 billion, or 1.38 percent of its GDP.

The report warns that enacting the pending Family Protection Bill would cost the country an additional $6.3 billion, or 5.8 percent of its GDP, annually. Opposition MP Peter Kaluma, who has introduced the measure, in January claimed the Biden-Harris administration had blocked it and vowed to have fellow MPs pass it after U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Kaluma is a strong supporter of Trump and the Republican Party’s opposition to LGBTQ rights and other far-right conservative ideologies.

Tanzania is losing $1.1 billion, or 1.33 percent of its GDP, because of anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Rwanda is losing $45 million, or .32 percent of its GDP.

Homosexuality is not illegal in Rwanda unlike the other three countries, but consensual same-sex sexual relationships remain taboo. Queer Rwandans also face stigma, discrimination, social exclusion, and arbitrary detention.

“A series of private member bills in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania have threatened to pull the region back in terms of progress and human rights for LGBTQ+ people, and damage both the ease of doing business and their international reputation,” states the Open for Business CEO Dominic Arnall.

Arnall notes his organization’s extensive engagement with businesses across East Africa over the last five years has always linked harmful anti-LGBTQ laws to impacts on a country’s investment prospects.

“The finding lays bare an uncomfortable truth: That laws that harm the LGBTQ+ community are standing in the way of prosperity and growth for all citizens in the region,” he said.  

The report calls for LGBTQ inclusion as part of the region’s broader economic development agenda.

The Open for Business report notes anti-gay violence and discrimination in Tanzania has been on the rise since the late-President John Magufuli came to power in 2015. The country’s punitive anti-homosexuality law with a 30-year prison sentence for consensual same-sex sexual relations was already in place, but queer Tanzanians were generally not systematically targeted.

“Reporting of neighbors or community members for suspected homosexuality is frequent and law enforcement officers have been known to pose as members of the LGBTQ+ community to entrap and blackmail LGBTQ+ individuals,” states the report.  

It also notes the Tanzanian government’s crackdown on websites and social media accounts that promote LGBTQ rights and threatening the arrests of administrators who allow such content. The report concludes this suppression has caused queer people to live in fear and isolation.

Religious organizations, particularly Christian churches in Tanzania, also champion anti-LGBTQ rhetoric by encouraging their followers against tolerating homosexuality and transgender people. Politicians, meanwhile, use anti-LGBTQ narratives to gain support during campaigns.

While Rwanda stands out as the only East African country in which homosexuality is not criminalized and has foreign donors implementing programs that target the queer community, discussing LGBTQ rights in public is rare and same-sex relationships are not legally recognized. The Open for Business report notes this situation creates legal ambiguity and a fragile social environment for queer Rwandans.

“Several LGBTQ+ rights organizations have emerged in recent years, mostly in Kigali, although they do not always identify themselves as LGBTQ+ associations and are rarely formally registered, making it difficult for them to receive funding,” reads the report.

The Rwandan government has rejected calls to criminalize homosexuality, which it considers a “private matter.” It has also been adamant against efforts to protect queer people for fear of domestic opposition and a desire not to politicize the issue like in neighboring countries.

Kenya, like Rwanda, has for a long time been considered more receptive of queer people, “as long as LGBTQ members are not ‘too loud.’”

Anyone convicted under Kenya’s colonial-era sodomy law could face up to 14 years in prison. Efforts to enact a harsh anti-homosexuality law and anti-LGBTQ protests that religious leaders, politicians, and activists have organized have increased homophobia in the country.

“LGBTQ individuals report significant difficulties in securing formal employment, which pushes many of them into more precarious livelihoods in the informal sector,” states the report.

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Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago recriminalizes homosexuality

Court of Appeal on March 25 overturned 2018 ruling

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(Bigstock photo)

An appeals court in Trinidad and Tobago has recriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations in the country.

Jason Jones, an LGBTQ activist from Trinidad and Tobago who currently lives in the U.K., in 2017 challenged Sections 13 and 16 of the country’s Sexual Offenses Act. High Court Justice Devindra Rampersad the following year found them unconstitutional.

The country’s government appealed Rampersad’s ruling.

Court of Appeal Justices Nolan Bereaux and Charmaine Pemberton overturned it on March 25. The Daily Express newspaper reported Justice Vasheist Kokaram dissented.

“As an LGBTQ+ citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, this regressive judgement has ripped up my contract as a citizen of T&T and again makes me an unapprehended criminal in the eyes of the law,” said Jones in a statement he posted to social media. “The TT Court of Appeal has effectively put a target on the back of LGBTQIA+ people and made us lower class citizens in our own country.”

Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, and Dominica are among the countries that have decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations in recent years.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2021 issued a decision that said Jamaica must repeal its colonial-era sodomy law. The Jamaican Supreme Court in 2023 ruled against a gay man who challenged it.

A judge on St. Vincent and the Grenadines’s top court last year dismissed two cases that challenged the country’s sodomy laws.

Jones in his statement said he “will be exercising my right of appeal and taking this matter to the” Privy Council, an appellate court for British territories that can also consider cases from Commonwealth countries.

King Charles III is not Trinidad and Tobago’s head of the state, but the country remains part of the Commonwealth.

“I hope justice will be done and these heinous discriminatory laws, a legacy of British colonialism, will be removed by the British courts,” said Jones.

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United Nations

Trump pulls Elise Stefanik’s UN ambassador nomination

Republicans have slim majority in US House of Representatives

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U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) speaks at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

President Donald Trump on Thursday withdrew U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.)’s nomination to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

The Associated Press noted Trump in a Truth Social post said it was “essential to maintain every Republican seat in Congress.”

Republicans currently have a narrow 218-213 majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Special elections to fill the seats that National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) vacated when they joined the Trump-Vance administration and resigned respectively will take place on April 1 in Florida.

“Elise Stefanik is truly a great leader and a devoted patriot,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) in a statement. “Today’s selfless decision shows America what those of us who work with her already know. She is deeply devoted to her country and fully committed to see President Trump’s agenda succeed in Congress.”

“It is well known Republicans have a razor-thin House majority, and Elise’s agreement to withdraw her nomination will allow us to keep one of the toughest, most resolute members of our conference in place to help drive forward President Trump’s America First policies,” he added. “There is no doubt she would have served with distinction as our ambassador to the United Nations, but we are grateful for her willingness to sacrifice that position and remain in Congress to help us save the country.”

Stefanik, 40, has represented New York’s 21st Congressional District since 2015. She later became chair of the House Republican Conference.

Stefanik in 2019 voted for the Equality Act, but she opposed it in 2021. Stefanik in 2022 is among the dozens of Republicans who voted for the Respect for Marriage Act that then-President Joe Biden signed.

Stefanik, among other things, has also been outspoken against antisemitism on college campuses.

Trump has not said who he will nominate to become U.N. ambassador. Johnson in his statement said he will “invite her to return to the leadership table” of the House Republican Conference “immediately.”

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