RUSSIA

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into a law a bill banning adoption of Russian children into countries where gender transition is legal, citing the supposed danger that adopted children might be given gender care. The Russian parliament had passed the law earlier in the week. 

The adoption ban applies to at least 15 countries in Europe, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand. American citizens have already been banned from adopting Russian children since 2012.

The new adoption ban is an escalation of a previous law passed in 2014 that banned adoption by same-sex couples or by single people in countries where same-sex marriage is legal. 

The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, who also co-authored the bill, defended the bill’s aims in a telegram post this summer.

“It is extremely important to eliminate possible dangers in the form of gender reassignment that adopted children may face in these countries,” Volodin wrote.

The bill is part of an escalating crackdown on LGBTQ people in Russia. 

In 2022, Russia extended a law banning distribution of “LGBTQ propaganda” to minors so that it now bans all information about LGBTQ people or issues to anyone. Last year, Russia banned all gender transition procedures and the supreme court declared the “international LGBTQ+ movement” to be an extremist organization.

The crackdown has led many LGBTQ organizations and businesses to close or go underground amid threats and raids by authorities.

PERU

The congressional justice committee voted 12-9 with four abstentions to advance a bill to legalize civil unions for both same-sex and opposite sex couples, which would for the first time give same-sex couples legal rights in the South American nation. The bill now heads to the full congress for approval.

Efforts to gain legal recognition for same-sex unions in Peru had been stalled for more than a decade, as lawmakers had generally been hostile to the idea. In that time, most Latin American countries have legalized same-sex marriage or civil unions, including all of Peru’s neighbors, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia, and Chile. Peru is the largest country in Latin America that does not recognize same-sex unions.

The civil union bill may be an effort to forestall a rival bill seeking to legalize same-sex marriage proposed by lesbian lawmaker Susel Paredes. 

“My fight is for full equality of rights, for our partners, our children, and our families. I am convinced that it is necessary to achieve equal marriage, and it is for this institution that I will continue to fight,” Paredes wrote on her X account.

But other LGBTQ activists think the bill would still be a major advancement for queer Peruvians.

“Civil union is not ideal, but it is a step in the right direction to achieve equal rights for all Peruvians,” former congressman Carlos Bruce wrote on his X account. Bruce married his partner in Madrid in August, and currently serves as the mayor of the Surco neighborhood of Lima.

The bill gives couples in a civil union many of the rights afforded to married couples, including property rights, alimony, medical decisions, conjugal visits, inheritance rights, death benefits, tax rights, and pensions. However, it does not allow couples the right to adopt or to be recognized as parents of each other’s children. Couples in civil unions will not be recognized as families.

SPAIN

Four men were convicted over the weekend for a homophobic murder that sparked nationwide protests in 2021.

Samuel Luiz was a 24-year-old nursing assistant who was assaulted by a group of people outside a nightclub in A Coruña in Galicia on July 3, 2021. He later died in the hospital of his injuries.

After five days of deliberations, a jury found Diego Montaña, Alejandro Freire, and Kaio Amaral guilty of aggravated murder, and Alejandro Míguez of being an accomplice. The prosecution has asked for sentences of between 22 and 27 years.

The initial investigation had uncovered that up to 12 people were involved in the beating of Luiz. The attack took place over more than 15 minutes and covered more than an eighth of a mile as Luiz attempted to escape. Two Senegalese hawkers attempted to intervene to halt the attack and were attacked themselves. Witnesses said they heard the attackers accuse Luiz of being gay and used homophobic slurs during and after the attack. 

The barbaric murder sparked demonstrations across Spain and made headlines around the world.

In Spain, many pundits and activists drew a link between the murder and the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric of the far-right Vox Party, which is part of the government in several Spanish regions.

AZERBAIJAN

The U.N. COP29 Climate Change Conference ended without a planned update to the Gender and Climate Change Work Program after concerted opposition from the Vatican, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, and Egypt, who feared that references to “gender” might be interpreted to include trans people and queer women.

The UN Climate Change Conference first adopted its Gender Work Program in Lima, Peru, in 2014, acknowledging that the impacts of climate change are borne disproportionately by women and girls, due to their frequently more precarious economic and social positions relative to men.

The Lima Program is due to expire this year, and in talks to renew it, a coalition of European, African, and Latin American countries had wanted COP29 to add a line recognizing that the impact of climate change on women can vary depending on their “gender, sex, age, and race.” 

But the group of countries opposed to the new language argue that it legitimizes transgender people and may be code for promoting sexual expression and homosexuality.

Without unanimous support for a new program, the Lima Program would expire with no replacement.

Ultimately, the gender opponents got their way, and the new language was stripped from the COP29 communique. The countries participating agreed to extend the Lima Program unamended for another decade, while also developing a new gender action plan for adoption at COP30, scheduled to be held next November in Belem, Brazil. 

UNITED KINGDOM

The U.S.-based training group SAGECare, which provides LGBTQ aging cultural competency training for health care workers, is teaming up with the UK’s LGBT Foundation to bring enhanced training for care facilities in the UK. 

In a press release announcing the partnership, LGBT Foundation CEO Paul Martin says SAGECare will help fill a gap in elder care for LGBTQ Britons while also enhancing care businesses’ ability to compete for LGBTQ market.

“LGBTQ+ health and wellbeing are at the heart of everything we do,” Martin says. “We look forward to using our combined expertise to build a more equitable society.”

SAGE has advocated for LGBTQ elders in the U.S. since 1978, and according to its website, it has trained more than 270,000 workers in LGBTQ cultural competency.