Mostly a few slow news weeks.
– The Fourth Circuit has ruled that Title IX bans discrimination in school dress codes.
This is an open thread. We’ll post any breaking news.
Welcome to Equality on Trial!
Got suggestions? Questions? Notice bugs? Email us here.
Want to submit a guest piece for publication on Equality On Trial? Submit your piece with your byline, title and any appropriate links (and HTML if possible) to: equalityontrial [at] couragecampaign [dot] org.
Get even more LGBT equality courtroom news on Facebook and Twitter!
Sign-up for updates from the Courage Campaign Institute on LGBT courtroom news, including breaking-news alerts.
9 Comments
1.
VIRick | August 10, 2021 at 10:04 pm
North Carolina: Charlotte Finally Has an LGBTQ Non-Discrimination Ordinance
In a unanimous vote on Monday, 9 August 2021, the Charlotte NC City Council has passed an ordinance to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity after years of delays and billions of dollars. In 2016, when the city tried to pass an inclusive non-discrimination ordinance, Republican state legislators reacted with a series of anti-LGBTQ laws, including the infamous HB 2 that prohibited North Carolina cities from passing non-discrimination ordinances and banned transgender women from public restrooms.
That move sparked immediate nationwide condemnation. Sporting events were moved out of state, concert and conference contracts were canceled, and companies across the Fortune 500 abandoned business expansion plans and castigated lawmakers. Overall, the state lost about $3.7 billion in lost revenue and business activity. While the legislative move was intended to demonize the transgender community, it ended up galvanizing the fight for transgender rights, as Americans took notice of the issues facing the community.
Charlotte’s new LGBTQ non-discrimination ordinance applies to all employers, private or public, and also includes public accommodation protections. It covers sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, and natural hairstyles as protected classes. The new ordinance does not regulate bathrooms. Most of the ordinance will go into effect later this year, but enforcement won’t begin until 1 January 2022. https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/08/years-delay-b….
2.
VIRick | August 10, 2021 at 10:06 pm
Chile: House of Deputies to Begin Debate on Marriage Equality
Per Juan Enrigue Pi and Matías Walker Prieto (Diputado de Coquimbo):
El jueves, 19 de agosto 2021, se inicia discusión de matrimonio igualitario en la Comisión de Constitución de la Cámara de Diputados.
https://twitter.com/matiaswalkerp
https://twitter.com/juanenriquepi
On Thursday, 19 August 2021, discussion on marriage equality will be initiated in the Constitution Committee of the House of Deputies.
3.
ianbirmingham | August 10, 2021 at 10:25 pm
Batman's sidekick Robin comes out as bisexual after accepting date with a man he swooped in to save in DC's latest Urban Legends comic book
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9881247/…
4.
VIRick | August 11, 2021 at 12:58 pm
Guyana Officially Decriminalizes Cross-Dressing
On Tuesday, 10 August 2021, Guyana officially decriminalized cross-dressing. Local media reports indicate lawmakers in the South American country approved a bill to remove cross-dressing from the colonial-era Summary Jurisdiction (Offenses) Act. Guyanese Attorney-General Anil Nandlall, who is also the country’s legal affairs minister, supported the measure.
In 2009, Guyanese authorities arrested four transgender women and charged them with cross-dressing under the 1893 Summary Jurisdiction (Offenses) Act. In 2018, the Caribbean Court of Justice, Guyana's highest court, unanimously struck down the law, rendering it void and inoperable.
Guyana’s LGBTQ rights movement in recent years has become more visible, even though consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized there, the sole nation in the entire continental Americas to be so obstinately retrograde. In 2018, the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD), a Guyanese LGBTQ rights group, held the country’s first-ever Pride parade, while activists continue to lobby Guyanese lawmakers to decriminalize homosexuality.
https://www.washingtonblade.com/2021/08/10/guyana…
https://newsroom.gy/2021/08/10/cross-dressing-for…
5.
VIRick | August 11, 2021 at 11:08 pm
Virginia: Loudoun County School Board Approves Transgender Rights Policy
On Wednesday, 11 August 2021, the Loudoun County School Board voted 7-2 in favor of implementing a state-mandated policy that will protect the rights of transgender students.
This vote caps off months of protests over the Virginia Department of Education mandate, and came one day after an hours-long hearing on whether to implement said directive, and thus allow students to use their preferred name and pronouns. The mandate, among other things, also permits students to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity.
Earlier, a previous chaotic school board meeting on 22 June that drew hundreds of people who either supported or opposed the policy, left one person injured and another in police custody.
https://www.washingtonblade.com/2021/08/11/loudou…
6.
VIRick | August 13, 2021 at 2:15 pm
Taiwan-Macau Gay Couple Marry in Taiwan, a New First
Per LGBT Marriage News:
On Friday, 13 August 2021, a Taiwanese-Macanese gay couple successfully registered their marriage in Taipei after winning a landmark legal case. Taiwanese citizens in Taiwan can marry foreigners of the same sex, for example, but only if their partners are from countries where marriage equality is also upheld as legal.
Ting Tse-yen and his partner, Leong Chin-fai from Macau, a jurisdiction which does not recognize same-sex marriage, challenged that restriction in court earlier this year, and in May 2021 won their case, allowing them to officially register their marriage. But that ruling only applies to them, and other same-sex couples in the same situation wanting to marry in Taiwan will have to launch the same legal fight.
Together with their lawyer, the couple have co-founded a group to help more than 100 other Taiwanese whose partners are from countries where same-sex marriage is not legal, including from China, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
"Marriage is a basic human right and it's unimaginable that there is discriminatory treatment because one's partner comes from a certain country," the couple's lawyer Victoria Hsu said. Hsu's advocacy group, the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights, has appealed to the top government watchdog, Control Yuan, to look into the issue.
Since legalization in 2019, nearly 6,000 same-sex couples have married in Taiwan.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210813-ta…
7.
ianbirmingham | August 14, 2021 at 3:04 pm
Hundreds March In Bosnian Capital In Support Of LGBT Rights
No violence was reported at the August 14 event in Sarajevo, largely due to the heavy police presence that sealed off the area to prevent clashes with counterprotesters.
The march was only the third such event ever in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is impoverished, ethnically divided, and largely conservative.
https://www.rferl.org/a/bossnia-lgbt-march/314105…
8.
ianbirmingham | August 15, 2021 at 6:41 am
James Hormel, first openly gay U.S. ambassador, dies at 88
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/15/james-ho…
9.
Randolph_Finder | August 15, 2021 at 2:56 pm
Probably difficult in DC. Dupont Circle and Capitol Hill are really too far apart to be made into a single district. And the long time gay member on the DC council was actually defeated by someone to his *left*.