The ugly myth about transgender people opponents of a Houston civil rights law used to win

Opponents of LGBTQ rights in Houston used a big, ugly myth to take down a law that would simply ban discrimination in certain settings. Opponents of the ordinance fell back on age-old, desperate tactics to try to combat the law, using what's widely known as the bathroom myth. You can see it in the advertisement by Texas Values Action, which shows a trans woman using the locker room that corresponds to her gender identity — and posing some sort of danger to other women in the facilities.

This is a tactic that has been used time and time again — not just against LGBTQ efforts, but against the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have established equal rights for women. The idea is that men will somehow take advantage of equal rights laws to disguise themselves as women and attack women in bathrooms.

HERO would not have protected people who commit crimes in bathrooms — they could still be prosecuted. And business owners would have been able to deny a customer they believe to be a man entrance to a women's bathroom. What business owners wouldn't have been able to do under HERO is deny trans people entrance to a bathroom in a way that's clearly discriminatory — by, for example, using a slur or insulting a person's gender identity. Read more via Vox

US: Houston fails to pass Houston Equal Rights Ordinance

Early voting numbers showed that Houston, Texas, failed to pass Proposition 1, also known as the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or HERO. Prop 1 would have prohibited discrimination in everything from employment to housing based on, among other things, someone's sexual orientation or gender identity, two classes of people not currently protected under federal anti-discrimination laws.

"We are disappointed with today's outcome, but our work to secure nondiscrimination protections for all hard-working Houstonians will continue," the ordinance's supporters said in a statement, according to the Houston Chronicle. "No one should have to live with the specter of discrimination hanging over them. Everyone should have the freedom to work hard, earn a decent living and provide for themselves and their families."

However, the legislation faced an ugly, conservative media-backed campaign aimed at convincing residents the bill was actually a measure that would make it easier for sexual predators to attack women in public bathrooms. Read more via Mic

Western Balkans and Turkey: New EU accession reports

The European Commission’s published its annual progress reports on accession states’ progress towards EU Membership. The reports include important and extensive information on the situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people in those 7 countries. 

The European Commissioner responsible for Enlargement, Johannes Hahn, presented the 2015 progress reports. In his speech the Commissioner emphasised that the reports have “a strong focus on fundamental rights, including freedom of expression and fighting discrimination, notably against the LGBTI community and Roma”. Read more via Intergroup on LGBT Rights 

Russia: New bill orders fines, arrest for public coming out as gay

State Duma lawmakers Ivan Nikitchuk and Nikolay Arefyev want to amend the Russian Administrative Code with a new article listing “public expression of non-traditional sexual relations” as a violation.

“I think that the problem is acute and urgent because it concerns the social diseases of our society and the moral upbringing of the younger generation. Unfortunately, the mechanism suggested in the 2013 law ‘On the protection of children against the information that harms their health and development’ has proved to be ineffective and this prompted us to develop new measures,” Nikitchuk said in comments with Izvestia daily.

The lawmaker also told reporters that he considered homosexuality to be a “grave danger for any normal person and for humanity as a whole” because it can affect children and grandchildren and prevent them from reproduction. “In a biological sense, failure to reproduce is the same as death and this makes homosexuality a deadly danger for humanity,” Nikitchuk said. Read more via RT

Ukraine finally passes anti-bias law, a prerequisite for visa-free travel to EU

Ukraine’s parliament passed amendments to the Labor Code that will end lingering Soviet-era workplace discrimination over sexual orientation, political and religious beliefs.

The law was the most controversial bill in parliament among a package of anti-corruption and other legislation the European Union requires in its visa liberalization action plan.

The voting process has been excruciating, requiring six rounds of voting and frantic consultations before it finally passed. In the last unsuccessful vote, 219 lawmakers voted in favor, seven votes short of the votes that are needed for a bill to pass. Parliament’s speaker Volodymyr Groysman announced:  “Dear deputies: Seven votes stand between us and a visa-free regime,” before calling a break.

Arguing in favor of the bill, Groysman said that “the individual and his rights are at the foundation of our society.” He ensured that the anti-discrimination measure had no bearing on the broader issue of gay rights. “God forbid same-sex marriages in our country,” he said.  Read more via Kyiv Post

Indonesia: Gay sex made punishable by public caning

Human rights activists have called for the immediate repeal of new laws passed in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province that make gay sex punishable by 100 lashes of the cane, calling it "an enormous step backwards". Aceh is the only part of the majority-Muslim nation that is allowed to implement Islamic sharia law and already carries out public canings for gambling, drinking alcohol and fraternising with the opposite sex outside of marriage.

The law explicitly outlaws anal sex between men and "the rubbing of body parts between women for stimulation", making homosexuality technically illegal for the first time in Aceh. The bylaw will also be the first in Aceh to be applied to non-Muslims, both Indonesians and foreigners.

Amnesty International, which has called for an end to caning in Aceh, asked that the bylaw be repealed immediately. "The criminalisation of individuals based on their sexual orientation is a huge blow for equality in Indonesia," the group's Asia-Pacific director Richard Bennett said.

The province of Aceh, in Indonesia's west, has been slowly implementing sharia law since gaining a degree of autonomy from Jakarta in 2001 in a deal struck to quell a decades-long separatist movement in the province. Read More via Australian Broadcast Co.

Isle of Man leader draws line under 'dark days' and aims to legalise gay marriage

Allan Bell, leader of the self-governing island, says he has been in a relationship for 21 years. Until homosexuality was decriminalised in 1992, two men caught having sex with each other in the Isle of Man faced life in prison. 23 years on, the island is hoping to follow Ireland, the UK, the US and others by bringing in equal marriage.

The chief minister, Allan Bell, said a public consultation would be launched this month on the introduction of laws to enable same-sex couples to be married. Bell said: “The message the Isle of Man has to send out in 2015 is that we are a tolerant, inclusive, open society. We abhor discrimination of any description and are outward looking and engaged with the outside world.”

It is an open secret on the island that Bell has been in a relationship with another man for 21 years: “People know that I’m gay. I’ve never made a secret of it, but no one has ever asked me.” Read More via the Guardian

UK: Parliament to hear case for introducing a legal ‘third gender’

The government’s new Parliamentary Women’s and Equalities Committee is to hear evidence from a one-sided panel on the possibility of introducing a “third gender” into the British legal system. Choosing to have no gender on a passport is already allowed in Australia and New Zealand, and Ireland passed a new law at the end of July to allow the transgendered to be recognized as their “true gender.”

According to The Gender Recognition Act of 2004, trans people can legally swap between the two legally recognised genders in the UK. However, so-called “gender non-conforming,” “non-gendered” and “gender neutral” people are a specific category of the transgendered.

Rather than wanting to merely transition from one gender to another they often prefer to invent a gender all of their own; such as “pangender,” “gender fluid,” “transmasculine” or “queer gender.”  Read More via Breitbart

Poland: Shock as Gender Recognition Act falls

Poland’s Gender Accordance Act will not come into force, following the unexpected failure of a parliamentary committee to prepare a report required in advance of the planned vote. This means that Poland will not have a legal gender recognition process defined in legislation. ILGA-Europe send our sympathy the trans community in Poland, the committed activists and LGBTI organisations who had guided this historic law through the lengthy legislative procedure to this point. 

“This Act was not just about codifying an unwritten procedure. It was an opportunity for Poland’s parliamentarians to reaffirm their commitment to equality. The law had been supported by both houses of parliament only weeks ago. But now, those same elected representatives have backtracked on the chance to give trans people in Poland greater dignity. To have their hopes thwarted at the final legislative hurdle is incredibly frustrating.” commented ILGA-Europe Executive Director Evelyne Paradis.

The Gender Accordance Act aimed to give trans people in Poland greater clarity and protection. The uncodified legal gender recognition process requires people to endure stressful court proceedings and lengthy waiting times for any decision. Read More via ILGA 

US: White House still not ready to back Equality Act

When asked a pointed question from Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson, press secretary Josh Earnest said he was "not prepared to say" that the president endorses the Equality Act, which would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include LGBT people in protection from discrimination in things such as employment, housing, credit, and public accommodations, among other areas.

That's odd because the vice president told the Human Rights Campaign in a keynote speech this weekend that's he's personally fully behind it. "We must pass federal non-discrimination legislation, and we must pass it now," Biden said, before outlining his own strategy for building national support.

Earnest said President Obama does support the idea underlying the bill, which was introduced in July with record Democratic support.   Read More via the Advocate 

Russia: Putin talks gay rights on 60 minutes

In an interview with US '60 Minutes,'  Putin says he supports equal rights. "The problem of sexual minorities in Russia had been deliberately exaggerated from the outside for political reasons, I believe, without any good basis," he said.

In the U.S., Putin points out, some states still have laws on the books against same-sex relations. (This is partly true; all such laws were invalidated in 2003 by the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas.)

In Russia, Putin adds, "We have no persecution at all. People of non-traditional sexual orientation work, they live in peace, they get promoted, they get state awards for their achievements in science and arts or other areas. I personally have awarded them medals."

Putin also defends Russia's controversial gay "propaganda" law: "I don't see anything un-democratic in this legal act." Read More and watch a clip via CBS 

Taiwan: Presidential hopeful would treat LGBT child with ’empathy, tolerance and respect’

Candidate James Soong Chu-yu said that if he had an LGBT child he would treat them with nothing but “empathy, tolerance and respect.” The chairman of the People First Party – who is currently second in the polls – was asked what he would do if he had a gay or trans child in a Facebook question and answer session with voters.

In the latest polls, Soong is second with 17% of the vote, behind the Democratic Progressive Party’s Tsai Ing-wen, who has also spoken out for LGBT rights.

Last year, an online poll revealed that 68% of the Taiwanese population supported same-sex marriage. Taiwan’s LGBT community have been campaigning for same-sex unions for years.
In July, thousands of supporters flooded the streets of Taipei in a bid to urge the government to change the country’s stance on gay marriage. Protesters waved rainbow flags, lit candles and shouted “gay votes are still votes”. Read More via PinkNews