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Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Europe, Australia, and Canada

Italian lawmakers have passed a bill to ban overseas surrogacy

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(Los Angeles Blade graphic)

ITALY

The Italian Senate gave final passage to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s bill to ban criminalize the use of surrogacy overseas, in what LGBTQ activists are saying is a direct attack on same-sex parents.

Surrogacy is already illegal in Italy. The new law cracks down on parents who travel out of the country to obtain surrogacy services where it is legal, like the U.S. or Canada. Under the new law, such parents could be subject to fines of up to €1 million (approximately $1.1 million) or imprisonment for up to two years.

While the vast majority of Italians who engage in overseas surrogacy are heterosexual couples, activists fear the law will be used specifically to target male same-sex couples, who cannot simply pretend not to have used a surrogate.

That would fit with a pattern of attacking same-sex parents since Meloni took office in 2022. Last year, her government issued an order directing municipalities to delete non-biological same-sex parents from birth certificates that had already been issued to children. That decision was condemned by the European Parliament and other world leaders.

Protesters demonstrated in front of the Italian Senate during the debate, carrying signs that read “We are families, not crimes.”

Meloni has long argued for banning surrogacy as a women’s rights issue, claiming that surrogacy commodifies women’s bodies. 

She called the law “a common-sense rule against the commodification of the female body and children. Human life has no price and is not a commodity,” in a post on X.

“The alleged defense of women, the vaunted interest in children, are just fig leaves behind which the homophobic obsession of this majority is hidden,” says Laura Boldrini, an opposition lawmaker.

In many places where surrogacy is legal, it is only legal for altruistic, rather than commercial reasons. Surrogates can be reimbursed for legitimate expenses but cannot be otherwise compensated. That’s how surrogacy works in Canada and Australia.

The Polish Sejm in Warsaw (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

POLAND

The Polish government introduced its long-awaiting civil union legislation last week, revealing that the government has dropped plans to allow couples in civil unions to adopt children in a compromise meant to get the bills through parliament.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk had pledged to introduce same-sex civil unions within his first 100 days of taking office last year, but that pledge faced numerous roadblocks as the outgoing government initially refused to cede power, and then more conservative parts of his three-party coalition balked at expanding LGBTQ rights.

The bills would allow same-sex and opposite-sex couples to register their partnerships, giving partners rights to inheritance and medical decision-making. 

But couples in civil unions would not be allowed to jointly adopt, nor would one partner be allowed to adopt the other’s biological children.

That was a key demand of the junior coalition partner, the Poland Peasants’ Party (PSL). The bills are unlikely to gain any support from the opposition Law and Justice Party or Confederation Party, both of which strongly oppose LGBTQ rights.

The bills may still face opposition from President Andrzej Duda, an ally of Law and Justice who has opposed LGBTQ rights in the past. He has not publicly commented on the bills. 

Duda’s term expires next year, and all parties are attempting to position themselves in the election for his replacement, expected in May 2025.

CANADA

Provincial elections in British Columbia remained too close to call a day after polls closed on Oct 19, with the incumbent New Democratic Party leading or elected in 46 seats, while the rival BC Conservatives, who had campaigned on scrapping an anti-bullying program that promoted awareness of LGBTQ people in schools, were leading or elected in 45 seats. The BC Greens were elected in two seats. 

Elections BC says it could be a week before results are finalized, due to a number of very close races and the number of mail-in and out-of-district ballots yet to be counted. 

If the BC Conservatives lose, it would be the second loss of a provincial election in 2024 for a conservative party that had run on a platform of restricting sex education, discussion of LGBTQ issues, and inclusion of trans kids in schools, after the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives were booted from office in June. 

Two more Canadian provinces are heading to the polls in the next week, and in both races, incumbent conservative parties are defending newly introduced policies that require schools to out trans students to their parents and require parental consent if a child wishes to use a different name or pronoun in school. 

In New Brunswick, voters head to the polls today, and the incumbent Progressive Conservatives are facing a strong challenge from the New Brunswick Liberals. Liberal leader Susan Holt has promised to scrap the parental-notification policy and put safeguards in place for LGBTQ students if elected.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has promised to double-down on anti-transgender policies if re-elected Oct 28. This week, he said his first order of business would be passing a policy restricting school change rooms based on sex assigned at birth. 

Saskatchewan NDP leader Carla Beck slammed the proposal.

“People see this for what it is,” Beck told a press conference. “It’s the ugliest gutter politics. I think people are tired of it.”

Canadian conservatives have been turning hard against trans people over the past couple of years, reflecting similar culture war divisions in the U.S. and the UK, despite a general consensus on equal rights for trans people that had developed over the previous decade. In fact, Scott Moe was a Cabinet minister in the Saskatchewan Party government that passed that province’s ban on gender identity discrimination. 

Meanwhile, in neighboring Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith has proposed a package of legislation that would require parental notification and opt-in for any discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms, as well as severely restricting access to gender care for trans youth. The bills are expected to be debated in the upcoming fall session of the legislature.

AUSTRALIA

The New South Wales state legislature passed a bill meant to promote LGBTQ equality on Thursday, but only after it had been watered down in order to gain support from the governing Labor Party. 

Independent lawmaker Alex Greenwich had originally proposed a comprehensive bill that would have addressed multiple areas of law that discriminate against queer people. 

A key provision would have repealed a loophole in state anti-discrimination law that allows religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ students and teachers. That provision was dropped. 

Greenwich’s original bill also would have established an affirmative right to gender-affirming care and would have decriminalized sex work. Both provisions were also dropped. 

Greenwich says his bill faced concerted opposition from religious organizations and he removed the provisions in order to get the bulk of the bill’s reforms passed.

“It’s heartbreaking that I’m in a position where I’m having to remove a reform that I have fought for my entire political career,” Greenwich told ABC News Australia. “There has been a concerted campaign, particularly by some religious organizations, and I’m not wanting to hold up some urgent reforms while we’re still working this through.”

The parts of the bill that have been salvaged are still important reforms for LGBTQ rights.

The bill will update domestic violence laws to apply to same-sex couples and recognize parenting rights for children born through surrogacy overseas. It will also allow trans people to update their legal gender on birth certificates without undergoing surgery — an important reform that is already the norm in the rest of Australia. Nonbinary or non-specified will also be options.

The bill also repeals offenses related to living off the earnings of a sex worker, makes it a criminal offense to threaten to out a person, and adds hate crime protections for trans people. 

This year, New South Wales’s Labor government earned plaudits from LGBTQ activists for passing a bill banning conversion therapy, and issuing a historic apology to people persecuted under old anti-LGBTQ laws. 

Earlier this year, Australia’s governing Labor Party dropped its promised reform to federal anti-discrimination laws to repeal a loophole allowing anti-LGBTQ discrimination in schools, following backlash from religious groups.

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Elise Stefanik nominated to become next UN ambassador

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

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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.

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

Spanish government wants constitution to protect marriage equality, abortion rights

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(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.  

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Trump election sparks concern among activists around the world

Brazilian organization: Grassroots advocacy crucial to defending LGBTQ rights

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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.”

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