In his 2005 book, ‘Memory and Identity’, #Pope John Paul II attacked advances on #gay rights including same-sex marriage writing: “It is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if this [same-sex marriage] is not perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against all mankind"
Thankfully, the conclave did not elect a monster like this man today
[footnote: John Paul was made a saint in 2014]
Hörenswerter Podcast darüber, wie es ist queer an rechten Orten zu sein. Erschreckend wie es da zugeht!
#lauteshirn #queer #willkommenImClub #lbtqi #lgbtq #lgbt #podcast
Als queere Person dort leben, wo rechte Parteien und Rechtsextreme besonders stark sind: Wie ist das, wie geht's Queers vor Ort und was tun sie gegen den Rechtsruck? Wie sieht queerer Widerstand aus und warum bleiben sie trotzdem, selbst wenn die Bedrohungslage immer krasser wird? Um das herauszufinden, hat Sophia Ocean Hale in Döbeln/Sachsen besucht. Ocean ist selbst nichtbinär und engagiert sich vor Ort für die LGBTIQA*-Community.
Öppna forum för precis allting öppnar bara upp för att dra på sig kulturkrigandet. Steam är verkligen ett lysande exempel.
Spelutvecklare som vill vara nära sina spelare och så råkar de släppa ett litet indiespel med #lbtqi och det drar på sig vart enda jävla papegoja (troll som bara upprepar vad andra redan sagt) för att försöka döda spelet genom plåga forumet där människor kanske vill dela med sig av sina upplevelser eller genom att recensionsbomba spelet.
And then there's #Russia...
30 years of #LGBTQ+ history in Russia: from #decriminalisation in 1993 to ‘#extremist’ status in 2023
Published: January 10, 2024
"In 2023, the “LGBTQ+ movement” in Russia was labelled as “extremist”. This marked the culmination of a troubling 30-year cycle from the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993, via the introduction of the “gay propaganda law” in 2013 through years of political and public discrimination against sexual minorities.
"The progression in the mistreatment of LGBTQ+ people in Russia has coincided with the progression of Putin’s regime, which has become more autocratic. The Russian supreme court’s recent judgment that the international LGBTQ+ community is an “extremist” movement represents a hybrid recriminalisation of homosexuality 30 years after the ban was removed.
"From now, on identifying as LGBTQ+ is hazardous in Russia as it can be interpreted as “participating in an extremist organisation”, which is a criminal offence. Essentially, we are back to the situation before 1993.
Before #Putin
Even back in 1993, the decriminalisation of homosexuality by Boris #Yeltsin’s government appears to have been something of a box-ticking exercise, required for joining the Council of Europe. The bill that decriminalised consensual sex between men was adopted without any public debate as part of a package of legislation.
"There was no official explanation of why it was being adopted, let alone why #homosexuality had been criminalised in the first place. Even Russia’s prison officers were not aware of the reform as there was no follow-up order to release inmates convicted of “sodomy”.
"While the change of law represented a step forward, there was no real attempt to bring the Russian public along with it. This meant that in most parts of Russia it failed to indicate any real social shift in attitudes. This lack of open dialogue allowed entrenched #homophobia to persist and social #stigma to endure.
"This absence of meaningful change resulted in rising prejudice that thrived in political discourse. The early 2000s saw an alarming surge in negative portrayals and hate speech against the LGBTQ+ community. And these emanated from the highest levels of government.
Homophobia under Putin
"In 2000s, different legal initiatives targeting LGBTQ+ people emerged, framed under the guise of “protecting morals”.
"In his 2017 study, Russian Homophobia from Stalin to Sochi, historian of Russia Dan Healey tracks the discourse surrounding this demonisation of sexual and gender minority movements with derogatory comments and baseless accusations against LGBTQ+ people. They have been variously branded as “seducers of children” and accused of “spreading HIV infection, moral vices, and the destruction of the nation”.
"Proposals to reinstate #Stalin’s 1934 ban on homosexuality were introduced in 2003, 2004 and 2006, reflecting a growing anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment at government level. While the bills were unsuccessful, they marked a disturbing shift as anti-gay rhetoric penetrated the government and set the stage for more restrictive measures in the years that followed.
"At first, some Russian regions (13 out of 83) adopted legislation that restricted LGBTQ+-related expressions in public between 2006 and 2013. This initiative was considered successful and in 2013 Putin’s government brought in the federal gay propaganda law. This turned out to be a watershed in the mistreatment of LGBTQ+ people.
"This law was ostensibly aimed at protecting minors from information that could “entice them into a homosexual lifestyle” (my translation of the language of the 2013 bill). In 2014 the constitutional court claimed that the ban was needed to protect the rights of minors and that it was proportionate, since it does not prohibit gay-related information completely.
"In reality the law worked as a blanket ban, restricting any neutral to positive expressions related to homosexuality. The cases when people were fined for “gay propaganda” varied greatly – from screening LGBTQ+-themed movies to wearing clothes with rainbow print, from providing psychological help to discussing homosexuality in public.
"The “protection of minors” was mere window dressing. The chairman of the constitutional court himself stated that “the legal meaning of this ban is not so much to solve the problem of promoting homosexuality among minors – but to outline an understanding of the deviating nature of this type of behavior”.
"In 2022 this false pretense was abandoned when the ban was extended to the “gay propaganda” among all citizens, not just minors. It also introduced bans on the “propaganda of pedophilia” and the “promotion of gender reassignment”, making it illegal for people to change their legal gender."
More than 36 at this point... Add Thailand, Namibia, Japan and Poland to the list!
Current State of #MarriageEquality
There are currently 36 countries where #SameSex marriage is legal: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Uruguay.
These countries have legalized marriage equality through both legislation and court decisions.
Countries that Legalized Marriage Equality in 2024
Greece: On February 15, Greece's Parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage, becoming the first Christian Orthodox majority country to do so. The same vote also legalized same-sex adoptions.
Estonia: On June 20, 2023, Estonia's parliament voted in favor of marriage equality, becoming the first post-Soviet Union country to legalize same-sex marriage. The law went into effect January 1, 2024.
Countries that Legalized Marriage Equality in 2022
Cuba: On September 25, 2022, in a national referendum, Cubans approved a Family Code that included provisions allowing same-sex couples to marry.
Andorra: On July 21, 2022, the unicameral legislature of Andorra, the General Council, voted unanimously to amend the country's civil union law to include marriage equality for same-sex couples.
Slovenia: On July 8th, 2022, the Constitutional Court of Slovenia ruled that the ban on same-sex marriages violated the constitution of Slovenia and gave the Slovenian parliament 6 months to pass legislation accordingly, which it did on October 4. The ruling took effect immediately after the court decision.
Countries that Legalized Marriage Equality in 2021
Chile: On December 9, 2021, the president of Chile signed into law a marriage equality bill that passed in the Senate on December 7 and the lower house on Nov. 23. Same sex civil unions had been legal since 2015. Slovenia: On July 8th, 2022, a ruling from the constitutional court of Slovenia decided that the ban on same-sex marriages violated the constitution of Slovenia.
Switzerland: On December 16, 2020, the Swiss Parliament overwhelmingly passed legislation extending marriage to same-sex couples. A public referendum held in September 2021 overwhelmingly confirmed support for marriage equality by 64%.
Countries that Legalized Marriage Equality in 2020
Costa Rica: The Supreme Court of Costa Rica ruled in November 2018 in support of the historic January 2018 advisory opinion of the InterAmerican Court of #HumanRights that marriage equality was consistent with Costa Rica's obligations under the American Convention on Human Rights. The Supreme Court set May 26, 2020 as the deadline for the National Assembly to enact such legislation, but it did not meet that deadline, and marriage equality came into effect on that date.
Countries that Legalized Marriage Equality in 2019
Austria: The Constitutional Court of Austria ruled on December 4, 2017 that denial of marriage equality was discriminatory, legalizing same-sex marriage. Marriage equality took effect January 1, 2019.
Taiwan: The Taiwan Constitutional Court ruled in 2017 that marriage could not be restricted to opposite-sex couples and gave parliament two years to enact legislation legalizing same-sex marriage. Parliament passed legislation to legalize same-sex marriage which went into effect May 24, 2019, making Taiwan the first country to enact marriage equality in Asia.
Ecuador: Legalized after Ecuador’s Constitutional Court found on June 12, 2019 that its ban was unconstitutional, marriage equality took effect in Ecuador on July 8, 2019.
https://www.hrc.org/resources/marriage-equality-around-the-world
As of March 2023: [Infographic] #SameSex Laws in #Africa
From 2022: Progress and Setbacks on #LGBT Rights in #Africa — An Overview of the Last Year
by Graeme Reid
June 22, 2022
"Of the 69 countries that criminalize #SameSex relations, 33 are in Africa. In most cases, these laws are remnants of colonial rule, and the vague wording of these prohibitions, such as 'carnal knowledge against the order of natur'” resonate with the decorum of that era. Although the examples are few, there has been some progress over the last year on the protection of #LGBTQRights in Africa."
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/22/progress-and-setbacks-lgbt-rights-africa-overview-last-year
When it comes to the rights of sexual and gender minorities in Africa, the past year has been a mixed bag. Of the 69 countries that criminalise same-sex relations, 33 are in Africa. Although the examples are few, there has been some progress.
After years of legal discrimination, #Poland's #SameSex couples await civil union law
March 6, 20245:31 AM ET
by Rob Schmitz
WARSAW, Poland — "In an apartment on the outskirts of Warsaw, 5-year-old Olek fills his home with the twangs of a ukulele while his 2-year-old sister, Jagienka, sings along in a strong, off-key yowl.
"Their mothers, Ola and Karolina, smile at the cacophony: the sounds of a happy family. But here in Poland, this family is not protected under law.
"'Starting a family like ours, we knew what kinds of obstacles we'd be facing, and we always had hope,' says Karolina. 'I remember when we voted last October, we told each other, 'We are about to change the world.'
"Karolina and Ola — who withhold their surnames to protect their children — are in a same-sex partnership, and Ola is the biological mother of Olek and Jagienka. The two have been partners for 11 years.
"Now that Poland has a new, liberal government, Karolina and Ola are hoping it paves the way for legal status for civil unions. Prime Minister Donald Tusk promised he'd do so within his government's first 100 days in power, and a bill that would legalize civil unions is expected to be debated in the Polish Parliament sometime in March.
"'We're not hung up on having a pretty wedding and white wedding dresses,' Karolina says. 'We want equal rights — the same rights that married couples have. We want to have a legal family under Polish law. That's our dream.'"
Read more:
https://www.npr.org/2024/03/06/1234777108/poland-lgbtq-rights-same-sex-civil-unions
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