Connect with us

World

Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Asia and Europe

11 same-sex couples applied to register marriages in South Korea

Published

on

(Los Angeles Blade graphic)

SOUTH KOREA

Eleven same-sex couples have applied to register their marriages in what the group are saying is the first step in a legal challenge for same-sex marriage rights in South Korea. 

The couples had their marriage applications rejected by the local district offices, so they filed objections with the local courts. The couples allege that the current law, which bans same-sex marriage, violates their constitutional rights to equality, and the pursuit of happiness.

Among the couples pursuing the cases is Kim Yong-min and So Sung-wook, who earlier this year won a case at the Supreme Court seeking to require the government to provide health benefits to same-sex partners. The National Health Insurance Service has, however, continued to deny claims by same-sex couples in defiance of the ruling, saying that there are no clear legal standards of what constitutes a same-sex couple.

South Korea does not have any legal framework for recognizing same-sex couples, and the country lacks national-level discrimination protections for LGBTQ people. Legislators have also tended to be hostile to queer rights, with the Seoul Queer Culture Festival facing repeated bans from the city government.

The courts have also taken an inconsistent view on LGBTQ rights. In 2022, the Supreme Court severely curtailed a law that banned soldiers from having same-sex intercourse, a ruling that was overturned the following year by the Constitutional Court, a co-equal top court of South Korea’s judicial system. 

CYPRUS

The Cypriot parliament began debate this week on a bill that would stiffen existing penalties for hate crimes, following a string of violent attacks on LGBTQ people on the island over the past year.

The bill would raise the maximum penalty for anti-LGBTQ hate crimes from three years to five years in prison and double the maximum fine to €10,000 ($10,924.35.)

The bill comes after more than 10 anti-gay attacks have been reported to police on the Mediterranean island of 1 million people this year alone. 

Last month, a gay man claimed he was assaulted by a security guard outside a Limassol nightclub. 

Last year, police issued arrest warrants for five students at Limassol’s Technical University of Cyprus, alleging they threw smoke bombs into an on-campus event hosted by Accept-LGBTI, the country’s leading queer advocacy group, then vandalized the room and assaulted a student attendee.

Separately, the government approved the drafting of the country’s first National Strategy for LGBTQ people.

The strategy will be drafted by the country’s human rights commissioner with representatives from the ministries of justice, education, interior, and health, as well as representatives from Accept-LGBTI and academia.

The goal of the strategy is to align Cyprus’s legislation with European Union directives, addressing discrimination, ensuring equality and security, and promoting an inclusive society for the LGBTQ community.

Currently, Cyprus lacks comprehensive anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people and does not have a straightforward process for transgender people to update their legal gender, both of which are increasingly norms expected of EU members. The state also does not allow same-sex marriage or adoption, although neighboring Greece legalized both earlier this year.

NETHERLANDS

The Dutch government’s statistics bureau released a report on National Coming Out Day that estimates that LGBTQ people make up approximately 18 percent of the country’s population, or approximately 2.7 million people.

The estimate is drawn from a study the bureau conducted last year on safety and criminality, which also asked its 182,000 participants about their gender identity and sexual orientation.

The study found that bisexual people make up by far the largest cohort of the country’s LGBTQ community, with 1.7 million people, or just over 11 percent of the population, with about 20 percent more bisexual women than men. Conversely, gay men make up about 1.8 percent of the population, while lesbians account for 0.7 percent of the population

Asexuals make up just under 2 percent of the population, while just over 1 percent identified as some other non-heterosexual orientation or said they didn’t yet know their sexual orientation.

About 1 percent of the population is estimated to be trans or nonbinary, just under 200,000 people. The study estimated the intersex population at about 45,000, or 0.3 percent of the population.

The study found that LGBTQ people tended to be younger and more likely to live in urban areas than the general population. It also found that the proportion of LGBTQ people born outside the Netherlands was slightly higher at 17 percent, compared to the general population, at 14 percent.

GERMANY

The German government has announced it plans to update adoption law to recognize co-maternity for lesbian couples and allow unmarried couples to adopt.

The government says the new law will recognize modern realities of adoption and procreation.

Married same-sex couples have had the right to jointly adopt since same-sex marriage became legal in Germany in 2017. However, current law still presents challenges for some couples. 

For example, when a lesbian couple conceives a child through assisted reproduction, the non-birthing parent is not automatically recognized as a parent, and must go through a legal process to adopt their own child.

The proposed law will address that issue, but it will not address male couples who conceive a child using a surrogate, as German law currently only recognizes single paternity.

The Federal Constitutional Court delivered a ruling earlier this year that opened the door to legal recognition of multi-parent families, although it gave legislators until June 2025 to figure out how that would work. The draft law, however, states that children will continue to have only two legal parents.

“The hassle of stepchild adoptions for two-mother families must be brought to an end. After all, children from rainbow families have a right to two parents from birth, and regardless of their gender,” says Patrick Dörr, a board member of the Queer Diversity Association, Germany’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, in a statement to German newspaper DW.

The proposal would also allow more flexibility in adoptions, by allowing unmarried couples to jointly adopt. Under current law, if a couple is unmarried, only one person will be legally recognized as the adopted child’s parent.

The draft bill is now out for consultations with Germany’s state governments.

HONG KONG

Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal heard a case seeking to establish that same-sex couples can inherit property from each other last week, the latest same-sex couples’ rights case to reach the city’s top court. 

Last month, the Court of Final Appeal heard a case challenging the city government’s unequal treatment of same-sex couples seeking access to social housing. Both cases come after a 2023 ruling that found the government must give legal recognition to same-sex couples by a 2025 deadline.

The inheritance case was filed in 2019 by Edgar Ng, after he learned that his husband Henry Li could not inherit his government-subsidized apartment without a will. Ng passed away in December 2020, and Li has continued the case.

The government’s attorney told the court that the city does not recognize Ng and Li’s overseas marriage, and that they differ from a heterosexual married couple because heterosexual couples have a legal responsibility to financially support each other. The government’s position is that the court should not address inheritance rights until the government creates a framework for registering same-sex couples, as that could give rise to inconsistencies in the law.

Li’s attorneys, meanwhile, contested the suggestion that the inheritance issue could be settled with a written will, arguing that most people in Hong Kong die without a written will, and that written wills can be contested, unlike a legal marriage.

The court reserved its judgment for a later date.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, was returned to China in 1997, with the understanding that it would continue to operate as an autonomous unit for 50 years.

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

United Nations

Elise Stefanik nominated to become next UN ambassador

N.Y. Republican voted for Respect for Marriage Act in 2022

Published

on

U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) speaks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 16, 2024. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

President-elect Donald Trump on Monday announced he will nominate U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to become the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

“Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement that announced the nomination.

Stefanik, 40, has represented New York’s 21st Congressional District since 2015. She has chaired the House Republican Conference since 2021.

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 President Joe Biden signed.

Stefanik, among other things, has also been outspoken against anti-Semitism on college campuses. She would succeed U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield if the U.S. Senate confirms her.

Continue Reading

World

Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Asia, Europe, and the Middle East

Spanish government wants constitution to protect marriage equality, abortion rights

Published

on

(Los Angeles Blade graphic)

JAPAN

A coalition of 19 prefectures and more than 150 municipalities has created a Partnership System Municipal Cooperation Network, in which all member governments agree to recognize each other’s same-sex partnership registries. The new system should help same-sex couples ensure their partnerships remain valid if they move or maintain multiple residences.

Because same-sex marriage is not currently legal in Japan, 30 of Japan’s 47 prefectures and more than 400 municipalities have established “partnership oath systems,” in which same-sex couple can register their relationships to help them access local services that are restricted to couples, such as housing, insurance, and medical decision-making. However, these registries are not legally binding and confer no direct rights on the couples. 

Prior to the establishment of the PSMCN, couples who had registered in one municipality or prefecture could face difficulty having their relationship recognized in a different location. About one quarter of Japan lives in a place that does not recognize same-sex couples of any kind. 

Meanwhile, several cases seeking to establish a right to same-sex marriage continue to wind their way through the courts. 

Five out of six lower courts that heard equal marriage cases have issued rulings that the ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, as have both upper courts that have heard cases. This week, the Osaka High Court is set to hear an appeal of the lower court’s decision that the ban is constitutional. The Fukuoka High Court will hear an equal marriage case in December. All of these cases will likely eventually be heard by the Supreme Court. 

Most of the leading figures in Japan’s long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party have been deeply conservative on sexuality issues, which has stalled hope for progress on same-sex marriage at the legislative level. But last month’s snap elections returned a minority parliament in which a bare majority of legislatures have expressed support for same-sex marriage.

SPAIN

The governing Socialist Party announced it wants to amend the constitution to protect same-sex marriage and abortion rights, amid the rise of far right parties that have stated their goal of rolling back LGBTQ rights in Spain and across Europe.

The proposal is laid out in the party’s plan for the current national congress which was distributed to its provincial counterparts for debate this month. The document aims to include “the social achievements of the last decade” into the constitution, an effort which the document itself acknowledges may be “impossible,” but which the party wants to achieve.

Among other proposals are protections for social housing and setting a floor for the minimum wage at 60 percent of the average wage.

Spain has seen its far-right Vox Party grow rapidly over the last decade winning seats in parliament and local and regional councils. In regional governments where Vox has formed coalition governments with the more mainstream conservative People’s Party, it has already rolled back LGBTQ rights progress. 

In the Madrid region, where PP and Vox govern together, they rolled back laws banning anti-LGBTQ discrimination and so-called conversion therapy, and ending recognition of transgender people, though the law was later stopped by the Constitutional Court.

It’s unlikely that the PSOE will be able to amend the constitution as that would require a three-fifths majority of both houses of parliament to pass, and PSOE only holds a minority of seats in both houses.

UNITED KINGDOM

The Conservative Party has elected as its new leader Kemi Badenoch, a legislator with a long history of espousing anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ viewpoints. Badenoch also makes history as the first Black woman to lead a major political party in the UK.

Badenoch was first elected to parliament in 2017 and previously served as the Minister for Women and Equalities in the Rishi Sunak government. She was confirmed as Conservative Party leader on Nov. 2, following an election among party members in which she won 56.5 percent of the vote. 

In office, she frequently railed against trans rights and met with the anti-trans group LGB Alliance. She called for the abolition of gender-neutral toilets and was caught on a leaked recording referring to trans women as “men.” 

This year, she supported her party’s platform of amending the Equalities Act to ensure that the ban on “sex” discrimination only applied to biological sex, thus allowing discrimination against trans people. 

She successfully killed a planned ban on conversion therapy by pushing the government to study it further and consider not banning conversion therapy aimed at trans people. 

She also used her office to push the Financial Conduct Authority to remove trans-inclusive workplace policies, and railed against “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives that she claimed “divide, rather than unify.”

In 2019, she abstained on the bill that extended same-sex marriage rights to Northern Ireland — then the only part of the UK where it wasn’t yet legal.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The World Surf League has named Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates as a stop of its 2025 Championship Tour and Longboard Tour, drawing protests from surfers and surf organizations over the potential for harm to LGBTQ athletes who attend a competition in a country where homosexuality is illegal. 

The World Surf League is the governing body for professional surfers, and it sanctions competitions and events around the world. The 2025 Tour features 12 stops, including events in Brazil, Fiji, Tahiti, South Africa, El Salvador, Australia, and the U.S. 

It’s the second stop, at Surf Abu Dhabi, UAE from Feb. 14-16 that’s raised eyebrows among surf athletes and fans.

Homosexuality and cross-dressing are illegal under both the Federal Crime and Punishment Law of UAE and the Abu Dhabi Penal Code, with a minimum sentence of six months and up to 14 years in prison.

Yvette Curtis, who runs the UK-based inclusive surf club Wave Wahines, has started a petition on Change.org calling on the World Surf League to drop the Abu Dhabi dates from the tour.

“The WSL have chosen to support a government that criminalizes LGBTQIA+ people and discriminates against women, and in doing so are choosing to place their athletes, support teams, and spectators at risk,” the petition states.

“By removing Abu Dhabi from its event calendar, the World Surf League would make a powerful statement: Human rights and the safety of its athletes and employees are paramount. Ignoring this issue would tacitly endorse discriminatory practices and betray the inclusive values at the heart of Olympic sports. Only through decisive action can we ensure that everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, has an equal opportunity to compete in professional surfing.”

Curtis says the issue is personal to her, as the mother of a trans surfer.

“As a mother of three, the safety of my children is my utmost priority. My eldest child, who has bravely embraced their true self, is transgender. They also have a passion for surfing, but existing regulations in certain regions rob them of this joy and access to the waves. Abu Dhabi, named as a stop in World Surf League’s event calendar, presents a stark reality. My child, due to their identity, would be breaking laws by merely existing in such an environment,” she says. 

The petition, which has already drawn more than 1,600 signatures, has been endorsed by surf clubs all over the world, 

The controversy around the Abu Dhabi tour stop mirrors similar controversy over hosting the 2022 World Cup in Doha, Qatar, and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, both countries with dismal records on LGBTQ rights.  

Continue Reading

World

Trump election sparks concern among activists around the world

Brazilian organization: Grassroots advocacy crucial to defending LGBTQ rights

Published

on

A poster in Santiago, Chile, in 2017 mocked then-President Donald Trump. Activists around the world with whom the Washington Blade has spoken this week expressed concern over a second Trump administration and its impact on LGBTQ rights around the world. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

LGBTQ activists and advocacy groups around the world have expressed concern over President-elect Donald Trump’s election.

“I worry that Trump’s win means no protection for global LGBTQ+ human rights,” Sexual Minorities Uganda Executive Director Frank Mugisha told the Washington Blade.

Mugisha added Trump “won’t or step in to support us” when “we are under attack with extreme anti-gay legislations.” (The Biden-Harris administration last year 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. after President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act.)

Esteban Paulón, a long-time LGBTQ activist in Argentina who won a seat in the country’s Congress in 2022, echoed this concern and Mugisha.

“My first reaction (to Trump’s election) is concern over how it is going to impact (LGBTQ) rights in the international sphere,” Paulón told the Blade.

Biden in 2021 signed a memo that committed the U.S. to promoting LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad as part of his administration’s overall foreign policy. The White House in the same year named Jessica Stern, who was previously the executive director of Outright International, as the next special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad.

Then-State Department spokesperson Ned Price during a 2021 interview with the Blade noted the decriminalization of consensual same-sex sexual relations was one of the Biden-Harris administration’s priorities in its efforts to promote LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad. Stern in 2022 told the Blade that support of marriage equality in countries where activists say such a thing is possible through legislation or the judicial process is “among a wider set of priorities.”

Trump during his first administration tapped then-U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell to lead an initiative that encouraged countries to decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. Activists with whom the Blade has previously spoken questioned whether this effort had any tangible results.

Axios on Thursday reported Grenell is Trump’s top candidate to succeed Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Bru Pereira and Gui Mohallem are co-directors of VoteLGBT, a Brazilian organization established in 2014 with a mission to increase LGBTQ representation their country’s politics.

Pereira and Mohallem in a statement they sent to the Blade on Wednesday said the U.S. election outcomes, “especially as they reflect a divided political landscape, underscore an international trend we are observing — a growing divide between progressive movements and the resurgence of conservative, often authoritarian, political forces.”

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was in office from 2018-2022. He faced sharp criticism because of his rhetoric against LGBTQ Brazilians, women, people of African and Indigenous descent and other groups. Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters on Jan. 8, 2023, stormed the Brazilian Congress, presidential palace, and Supreme Court.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office a week earlier.

Pereira and Mohallem in their statement said they are “witnessing how grassroots efforts, particularly from marginalized communities, are crucial in defending LGBTQ+ rights under right-wing governments.”

“For us, advancing and protecting LGBTQ+ rights in such a context involves fostering local leadership, as well as strengthening community resilience and alliances,” they said. “It’s about creating spaces where voices traditionally sidelined — especially those of trans, Black, and Indigenous LGBTQ+ individuals — can lead democratic change. Here, we see our role not just in advocacy but in shaping an intersectional approach to political transformation, one that insists on the inclusion and visibility of diverse identities.”

“Ultimately, we believe that the democratic health of any nation depends on its most vulnerable communities being empowered to speak up and lead,” added Pereira and Mohallem. “We’re committed to supporting this journey, even in times of political setbacks, through community solidarity and international collaboration.”

Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice Executive Director Joy Chia in an email to supporters on Wednesday largely echoed Pereira and Mohallem.

“As a funder of LGBTQI+ communities in all regions of the world, the Astraea Foundation is keenly aware of the far-reaching impacts that this election will have and has already had,” wrote Chia. “I also recognize that political repression is not new to LGBTQI+ activists and our communities. This isn’t our first time working in hostility and chaos, and we are ready to resist.”

“The Astraea Foundation will continue to work alongside grantees to build power and create sustainable change so that our communities can thrive. We will continue to push liberation forward, support our grantee partners, and hold true to our intersectional feminist values at every turn,” added Chia. “The work we do every day is vital, and this difficult moment only strengthens our resolve to keep the fight moving forward.”

Outright International Executive Director Maria Sjödin in an email to their group’s supporters said the U.S. election results “have raised deep concerns for many of us who care about fundamental human rights, freedoms, and democratic norms for LGBTIQ people and everyone else around the world.”

“As Outright International unites with you, our global community, we know that this outcome impacts not only the U.S. but also the global momentum toward justice and equality. Nationalism, authoritarianism, white supremacy, xenophobia, anti-queer, and anti-transness have been on stark display throughout the election campaign,” they wrote. “Such narratives risk eroding years of progress and scapegoat marginalized communities. Resulting policies could deny gender recognition, defund LGBTIQ-supportive programs internationally, and be a threat to international cooperation and multilateralism.” 

Sjödin added “moments like this also reveal the strength of our global solidarity.”

“The spirit of connection that fuels our shared movements is needed now more than ever,” they said. “From Argentina to Poland, Uganda to Ukraine, LGBTIQ communities are rising to this challenge. Together, we can and must resist discriminatory forces and protect and continue to advance the progress made. This isn’t just about policies — it’s about our lives and those of our global community.”

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Advertisement

Sign Up for Weekly E-Blast

Follow Us @washblade

Advertisement

Popular