It’s a polarising year for LGBTQ+ lawmakers around the world. While some countries are finally legally recognising same-sex marriage, others have recriminalised homosexuality, making it difficult to gauge the extent of the LGBTQ+ movement’s current progress. As the year continues, we can expect to see further legal challenges to LGBTQ+ rights. What is the future of the LGBTQ+ movement in the face of this ever-changing political landscape?
In the UK, after local government elections saw Reform gain control of 10 councils, there is warranted public concern over the future of LGBTQ+ rights.
Essex Council has ordered the removal of Pride displays and events within local libraries, and in protest, London’s only reform council has banned the public use of flags.
Durham Council also withdrew funding for their Pride celebrations, only for the local community to come together to ensure the event could still go ahead, bigger and better than ever.
While this outcry of public support for the LGBTQ+ community is comforting, it’s difficult not to think about the changes a Reform government would make.
The outlook is similarly bleak in the USA, where a lawsuit was filed at the end of last year challenging the Marriage Equality Act, and there are various upcoming trials scheduled to discuss the validity of trans women participating in women’s sports.
In Australia, they have introduced a bill that bans surgeries on intersex minors until they are old enough to provide consent.
While in theory this provides agency to the child and prevents parents from making the decision on their behalf, this might also cause avoidable complications for the child when going through puberty.
In Japan, they have once again ruled against legalising same-sex marriages.
From North America to Oceania, the LGBTQ+ persons' right to exist is contested in every courtroom and far too many living rooms.
However, all hope is not lost, as there are also changes being made to provide greater freedoms for LGBTQ+ couples around the world.
In Poland, they are scheduled to introduce “cohabitation contracts” to enhance protections for same sex couples who are living together, and Zimbabwe is taking steps to legally recognise Intersex people.
In Mexico, they are undergoing penal code reform to legally recognise transfemicide as a crime, and although I’m not convinced that the right to be murdered was a high priority for trans individuals, this is significant because in a country with frequent disappearances like Mexico, it can help with identifications in missing persons cases.
From this, it’s possible to determine that countries are starting to roll back the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and we should be concerned about this because when governments target groups of society who are already marginalised, that is always only the beginning.
Otherwise, what group of individuals does it become acceptable to target next, and on what basis?
It’s clear that we need the LGBTQ+ movement now more than ever, and it needs your support too!
Written by Leah Marie Cox
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