The LGBTQ+ community has progress to celebrate in 2022, writes Lee Suckling. Photo / 123rf
OPINION:
Twelve months ago, before the Taliban entered Kabul, a Taliban judge declared homosexuals should be sentenced to death (either stoned or crushed by a toppled wall).
Cameroon has seen an upsurge in LGBTQ+ violence, with the actual victims being arrested by police rather than the perpetrators.
In the US, more than 230 anti-transgender bills have been introduced in state legislations, in a nationwide (and highly coordinated) campaign.
And a University of York study – the first of its kind – recently found queer people are still 1.34 times more likely to be bullied in the modern workplace.
This year hasn't felt like a great one for positive queer news, and social media activism would have you believe all queer rights are being eroded once again after a decade of significant progress.
Yet there have been queer successes, many of them. They just don't generally make the headlines.
At home in New Zealand, we passed a ban on gay conversion therapy in February, for anyone under the age of 18 or who "lacks decision making ability".
A ban that causes serious harm on a gay person of any age is also in place, but those over the age of 18 who diligently consent are still able to go to conversion therapy if they choose.
Canada announced a full ban a month before us, where anyone who looks to subject someone of any age, consenting or not, to so-called conversion therapy could face up to five years in prison. Israel also banned medical professionals from conducting such therapies.
For decades across many countries (including our own), bans and restrictions on gay men donating blood have been in place. Men who have sex with men (called MSM in the medical community) have been unfairly subjected to outdated AIDS-era discrimination and been unable to donate blood, but a few countries have changed that this year.
In Greece, France, Ireland, Lithuania, and Austria, total bans (or deferral periods from when a person last had intercourse) have been eliminated.
In New Zealand, according to NZBlood, if you are a male who has had oral or anal sex with another man, with or without a condom, you must wait three months since your last sexual contact before donating. This is despite a critical shortage of A+ blood.
All the news out of the USA around transgender discrimination would have you believe it's a horrible place to be trans right now, which is true – trans people are systematically under attack in many states.
However, non-binary people were granted the ability to have their gender marked as "X" in United States passports, signalling a tiny win. Moreover, Iceland allowed for non-binary parenthood recognition, meaning one doesn't have to be labelled "mother" or "father" but instead just "parent".
In Kuwait, a long-abided law that forbids people from "imitating the opposite sex" has been struck down. What's more, after no significant progress in trans rights globally in 2021, trans activists and their allies achieved 23 positive developments in 2022. For example, self-determined gender recognition has been granted in Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, and Switzerland. Denmark has made the most legal changes. The Nordic nation passed new laws to explicitly protect trans people from discrimination in healthcare services, the education system, hate crimes, and hate speech.
It's been almost 10 years since there was an international campaign for same-sex marriage, which resulted in equal rights being granted to couples in New Zealand, the USA, UK, and many others.
Better late than never, this year a few new countries have jumped on board the liberal bandwagon. They include Chile (March), Switzerland and Andorra (July), and Cuba (September, when it also legalised same-sex adoptions).
In Slovenia in July, the statutory ban on same-sex marriage was ruled as unconstitutional, and while same-sex couples cannot yet get married, the country's parliament has been given six months to remedy the situation.
The takeaway? It's easy to think the world is in a dire state right now. But slowly and surely, queer people continue to fight for their rights. At least some governments around the world are respecting them.
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