World
Out in the World: LGBTQ news from Asia, Europe, and Canada
Japanese prime minister backs marriage equality without legislative commitment
JAPAN
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told parliament that he believed legalizing same-sex marriage would make the country happier, although he has no plan to bring forward legislation to make that happen.
The remarks, which were echoed days later by Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki, have buoyed the spirits of equal marriage campaigners in the country, despite the government’s lack of commitment to progress on the issue.
“Compared to other prime ministers, there is a big difference in Ishiba’s tone, his direction and his outlook and we are clearly getting to the stage for Japan to take the next step in the right direction,” marriage equality activist Alexander Dmitrenko told This Week in Asia.
Equal marriage advocates have been waging a long battle through both the courts and the political process to win same-sex marriage rights.
Earlier this month, a third appellate court ruled that the ban on same-sex marriage violates the Japanese constitution, finding for the first time that the ban violates the constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness. Five out of six lower courts that have heard cases seeking equal marriage have also ruled for equality.
Elections in October yielded a parliament that has a majority in favor of equal marriage, but is still dominated by the largely conservative Liberal Democratic Party, which has formed a minority government.
While Ishiba says he will not bring forward same-sex marriage legislation and is instead following the progress of cases through the courts for now, it is possible that other parties may try to force the issue by introducing their own bills.
“The Fukuoka court has clearly said that the Diet must legally permit same-sex marriages in the same way that marriages between people of opposite sexes are recognized,” Takeharu Kato, one of the lawyers in the equal marriage case that was heard in Sapporo.
“We intend to continue to put strong pressure on the government to realize these changes because we are confident that we are nearly there.”
PHILIPPINES
Government workers in the Philippines now have the right to dress according to their gender identity, under a new official dress code issued by the Civil Service Commission issued this month.
The Philippines’ civil service is known for its strict dress code for government workers. Workers are required to wear specific locally inspired outfits on Mondays and have been required to wear gender-conforming smart casual office attire on other workdays.
Under the revised dress code, workers are freer to dress according to their gender identity, and female workers are freer to wear either skirts or pants. The new code also relaxes standards relating to tattoos, facial piercings, and hairstyles, as long as they don’t interfere with the employee’s work or with safety standards.
Gender-inclusive dress codes have become a much-debated topic in the Philippines in recent years, particularly in schools and universities, where uniforms and dress codes are often strongly enforced. A growing number of institutions have adopted gender-neutral dress codes and uniforms, while the national government says it is studying creating a standard for gender-inclusive dress codes to promote equality.
In another positive development for LGBTQ Filipinos, Globe Telecom, one of the country’s largest mobile providers, has announced it will provide spousal benefits to same-sex partners of its employees.
Same-sex couples have no legal recognition in the Philippines. A civil union bill has been proposed several times in Congress, but has never advanced.
LITHUANIA
Lithuania’s constitutional court struck down an “LGBT Propaganda” law this week, in a ruling that ought to bring relief to queer activists, publishers, and media outlets.
The “Law on the Protection of Minors,” which was passed in 2009, banned the promotion of sexual relations or non-traditional conceptions of marriage or family, and drew sharp criticism from queer and civil liberties groups across Europe. It has been used in attempts to ban Vilnius Pride and led broadcasters to restrict advertisements for queer events and causes.
In one landmark case, government censors used the law to restrict distribution of books of children’s stories due to its depiction of two same-sex couples. That decision was eventually appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which found last year that the law violated the European Convention’s guarantee of free expression.
Following the ruling, the previous government tried to repeal the law, but after its bill was voted down by parliament, the government filed this legal challenge to the constitutional court.
“Finally, we are normalizing the portrayal and life of our community, and I believe that LGBT youth will live a freer life,” Vladimiras Simonko, head of the Lithuanian Gay League, told LRT.
The court ruled that the law’s anti-LGBTQ sections were unconstitutional restrictions on free expression, and were also too vague, as they did not define what kinds of information disparage family values.
The court also found that the implications of the law also unfairly narrow the definition of family found in the constitution.
Same-sex couples are not legally recognized in Lithuania. A bill to recognize civil unions was introduced by the previous government but awaits a final vote before it can be brought into law. The current government has not made passing the bill a priority.
CANADA
The province of New Brunswick has finally repealed regulations that required schools to notify parents and receive their consent if a student wishes to use a different name or pronoun in class, following a change in government in October.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which had brought a legal challenge against the original policy, hailed the changes.
“We will discuss with our legal counsel and affected community groups, but expect that these changes will resolve legal issues in our constitutional challenge,” CCLA Director of Equality Programs Harini Sivalingam told CBC.
The controversial regulation, known as Policy 713, was brought forward by the province’s previous Progressive Conservative Party government under former Premier Blaine Higgs. The regulation, which was introduced with limited consultation, led several of Higgs’ Cabinet ministers to resign in protest, and led the charge for provincial conservatives to campaign on anti-trans policies across Canada.
That strategy tended not to work for conservatives. In October, Higgs’s government was voted out in favor of the New Brunswick Liberals under Susan Holt, who had pledged to rescind the policy and ensure schools are welcoming for all LGBTQ students.
Similarly, Manitoba’s PC government was voted out in May after pledging to introduce a similar policy, and the British Columbia Conservatives lost their bid to replace the province’s NDP government in elections in October.
Still, Saskatchewan’s conservative government won reelection in October after introducing a similar policy earlier in the year, and Alberta’s conservative government just passed some of the most sweeping anti-transgender legislation Canada has seen in quite some time, including bans on classroom discussion of LGBTQ issues and participation in gender-appropriate sports.
Alberta’s anti-trans laws have already been challenged in court, but Saskatchewan’s government used a constitutional provision to prevent any legal challenges to its anti-trans laws for five years after an initial loss in court.
But conservative governments in Ontario and Quebec, which had initially announced plans to introduce parent notification and consent rules for trans students, have yet to bring forward such policies or regulations.
Hungary
New Hungarian prime minister takes office
Péter Magyar’s party defeated anti-LGBTQ Viktor Orbán last month
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar took office on Saturday.
Magyar’s center-right Tisza party on April 12 defeated then-Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz-KDNP coalition. Vice President JD Vance less than a week before the election traveled to Budapest, the Hungarian capital, and urged Hungarians to support Orbán.
Orbán had been in office since 2010. He and his government faced widespread criticism over its anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
The European Commission in 2022 sued Hungary, which is a member of the EU, over the country’s anti-LGBTQ propaganda law. The European Union’s top court, the EU Court of Justice, on April 21 struck down the statute.
The EU while Orbán was office withheld upwards of €35 billion ($41.26) in funds to Hungary in response to concerns over corruption, rule of law, and other issues.
Hungarian lawmakers in March 2025 passed a bill that banned Pride events and allowed authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify those who participate in them. MPs later amended the Hungarian constitution to ban public LGBTQ events.
Upwards of 100,000 people last June defied the ban and marched in Budapest’s annual Pride parade.
“Congratulations to [Péter Magyar] on becoming prime minister of Hungary,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on X.
“This Europe Day, our hearts are in Budapest,” she added. “The hope and promise of renewal is a powerful signal in these challenging times.”
“We have important work ahead of us,” noted von der Leyen. “For Hungary and for Europe, we are moving forward together.”
The Vatican
New Vatican report acknowledges LGBTQ Catholics feel isolated in the church
Document contains testimonies of two gay married men
A report the Vatican released on Tuesday acknowledges LGBTQ Catholics have felt isolated within the church.
The report, which the Vatican’s General Secretariat of the Synod’s Study Group 9 released, includes testimony from two married gay Catholics from the U.S. and Portugal.
“Regarding the resistances — limiting ourselves to those emerging from the lived experiences shared with us — we wish to highlight the following: the solitude, anguish, and stigma that accompany persons with same-sex attractions and their families, not only in society but also within the church; this is often linked to the temptation to hide in a ‘double life,'” reads the report. “Within this problematic outlook lie the positions expressed in the pressure to undergo reparative therapies or, even more gravely, in the simplistic advice to enter the sacrament of marriage.”
“At the root of both the emerging openings and the persisting resistances, it seems possible to identify a difficulty in coordinating pastoral practice and the doctrinal approach. Other testimonies received by our study group from believers with same-sex attractions further confirm how arduous it is for individuals and Christian communities to reconcile “doctrinal firmness” with “pastoral welcome,'” it adds.
The report appears to criticize so-called conversion therapy. It also states “every person, first and foremost, is singular, irreducible, irreplaceable, and original” and “this is the meaning of the Biblical-theological theme of the human being, male and female, created in the image and likeness of God.”
The National Catholic Reporter notes “a group of theologians, including bishops, priests, a sister and a layperson” the Vatican commissioned “to study ‘controversial’ issues that Pope Francis’s Synod on Synodality raised wrote the report.
Francis in 2023 launched the multi-year synod to examine on ways to reform the church.
The Argentine-born pontiff died in April 2025. Pope Leo XIV, who was born in Chicago, succeeded him.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday met with Leo at the Vatican. The meeting took place against the backdrop of increased tensions between the U.S. and the Holy See over the Iran war.
LGBTQ Catholic groups largely welcome report
LGBTQ Catholic groups welcomed the report; even though it will not change church teachings on homosexuality, marriage, and gender identity.
“It was a really bold choice to make LGBTQ issues — or homosexuality — one of the case studies,” Brian Flanagan, a senior fellow at New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based LGBTQ Catholic organization, told the Washington Blade on Wednesday during a telephone interview.
Flanagan is also the John Cardinal Cody Chair of Catholic Theology at Loyola University in Chicago.
“They (the study group) could have punted and said something easier,” he said. “Instead, they’re putting what was frankly one of the hottest issues leading up to and after the Synod and addressing it more head on.”
New Ways Ministry Executive Director Francis DeBernardo in a statement described the report as a “breath of refreshing air, the first acknowledgment that LGBTQ+ issues were taken seriously by the three-year global consultation of all levels of the church.”
“By establishing mechanisms and recommendations to continue dialoguing with LGBTQ+ people, the report is a significant step forward in the church’s process to become a more welcoming place for its LGBTQ+ members,” he said.
Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, an LGBTQ Catholic organization, in her own statement said the report “demonstrates a welcome humility and openness to learning from the People of God about people’s lives and faith journeys.”
“It is clear that the study group members understand that the doctrines of the church undermine the deep relationship with God that many LGBTQ+ people have, or try to have, and that this needs to be corrected,” she said. “Church officials have decades of testimony from people who have found their sexual orientation or gender identity to be a blessing and a gift, and their relationships to be sacred. To see this reality reflected and respected in this document is a long-awaited positive step.”
Duddy-Burke added the report largely ignores “the experiences of transgender and nonbinary people.” She further notes it “provides few concrete recommendations and proposes no doctrinal changes.”
“Rather, it calls for dialogue, encounter, and communal theological reflection to shape how the Catholic Church moves forward in addressing doctrine and pastoral practice,” said Duddy-Burke. “The paradigm shift repeatedly called for in this report is a significant and very welcome change. Experience, especially of those most impacted, must be key to developing dogma.”
Ukraine
Ukrainian MPs advance new Civil Code without protections for same-sex couples
Advocacy groups say proposal would ‘contradict European standards’
Ukrainian lawmakers have advanced a proposed new Civil Code that does not contain legal protections for same-sex couples.
The Kyiv Independent reported the proposal passed on its first reading on April 28 by a 254-2 vote margin.
The newspaper notes more than two dozen advocacy groups in a statement said some of the proposed Civil Code’s provisions “contradict European standards” and “violate Ukraine’s commitments under its EU accession process.”
“The most worrying provisions are those that make it impossible for a court to recognize the existence of a family relationship between people of the same sex,” the statement reads. “This overturns the already established case law on this issue, and closes the only legal avenue that allows partners to somehow protect their rights in individual cases.”
“Moreover, the draft completely ignores the obligations that Ukraine should have already fulfilled as part of its accession to the EU, as it lacks provisions that would allow people of the same sex to register their relationships,” it adds.
“The provisions also stipulate that all marriages concluded by people who have changed their gender automatically become invalid,” the statement further notes. “This is not just stagnation in the field of human rights or lack of progress on the path to European integration, but an actual setback in the legal sphere.”
Olena Shevchenko, chair of Insight, a Ukrainian LGBTQ advocacy group, in an April 28 Facebook post said the new Civil Code “is a step back on upholding the rights of women and the LGBT+ community in Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian constitution defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2022 publicly backed civil partnerships for same-sex couples.
The Ukrainian Supreme Court on Feb. 25 recognized Zoryan Kis and Tymur Levchuk — a gay couple who has lived together since 2013 and married in the U.S. in 2021 — as a family. Ukraine the day before marked four years since Russia began its war against the country.
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