Maine Gov. Janet Mills has signed a new law that makes the state a sanctuary state for transgender people, abortion providers, and patients. The new law provides “protections to persons who seek, health care practitioners who provide and those who assist health care practitioners in providing gender-affirming health care services and reproductive health care services” that are legal in Maine.
Maine becomes trans sanctuary state Read more
The High Court of Dominica, an island nation in the Caribbean, has overturned a colonial-era law banning same-sex relations between consenting adults after a gay man filed a lawsuit claiming the ban was unconstitutional. The ruling stated that the constitution guarantees that a person shall not be hindered in the enjoyment of his right to assemble and freely associate with other persons and that this “must necessarily include the freedom to enter into and maintain intimate relationships without undue intrusion by the State.”
Dominica’s High Court ends the country’s ban on being gay in historic ruling Read more
The U.N. Human Rights Council has issued its first-ever resolution supporting the rights of intersex people. An estimated 1.7% of infants are born intersex — many are forced to undergo irreversible surgeries to “correct” their anatomy and are subject to stigma and discrimination. The resolution directs the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report on the challenges intersex people face and the best ways to ensure intersex people’s “highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.”
U.N. makes history with first-ever resolution supporting intersex rights Read more
Aichi – which is home to Japan’s fourth largest city Nagoya – will become the country’s first prefecture to recognize non-heterosexual and common-law couples and their children as families under a “family ship” oath system that will come into effect on April 1. Those who take the oath will have the right to public housing provided by the prefecture and will have the right to give consent when a loved one needs surgery at a hospital managed by the prefecture.
Judges overseeing a high-profile human rights trial in Argentina have convicted 11 former officials of crimes against humanity, in the South American nation’s first case to focus on the former military dictatorship’s overlooked practice of committing sexual violence against transgender women.
Japan’s march toward marriage equality took a giant leap when a high court ruled the country’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. Civil code rules limiting marriage to couples of the opposite sex, the high court in Sapporo ruled, are “unconstitutional” and “discriminatory.” Existing law, the justices wrote, should be revised or rewritten to include other types of unions in addition to those between a man and a woman.
Japanese high court rules same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional Read more
The resolution was approved by the organization’s Council of Representatives by a 153–9 vote, with one abstention, and represents a major refutation by the largest psychological association in the world of many of the anti-trans talking points that have been used to bolster efforts to ban gender-affirming care in states across the U.S.
Greece has become the first Christian Orthodox-majority country to legalize same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples will now also be legally allowed to adopt children after the 176-76 vote in parliament. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis proclaimed “People who have been invisible will finally be made visible around us, and with them, many children will finally find their rightful place.”
Greece legalizes same-sex marriage Read more
Ninety-four percent of transgender people said that they were either a little or a lot more satisfied with their lives since they transitioned, the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS) by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) found. The study, which is the latest edition of the influential survey of transgender people, involved 92,329 transgender and nonbinary respondents answering questions about various aspects of their lives from October 19 to December 5, 2022.
A new law in Maryland requires Medicaid to cover “medically necessary” gender-affirming care for residents — including care well beyond hormones or surgery. The law went into effect on January 1. It requires coverage for “gender-affirming treatment in a nondiscriminatory manner.” Gender-affirming care is considered safe and essential to the well-being of trans people by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and other major U.S. and world health organizations.
