In March 2021, the state Senate of Alabama voted to criminalize the treatment of transgender youth with puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or surgery. Sponsored by Republican Senator Shay Shelnutt, the measure, dubbed the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, got approved by a 23-4 majority vote in the Senate. The state House of Representatives has already approved a companion bill.
On March 26th, Arkansas’s Governor, Asa Hutchinson (R), enacted Senate Bill 289 (Medical Ethics and Diversity Act,” into law.This legislation will allow doctors and medical professionals to refuse treatment that conflicts with their religious or moral beliefs. Opponents say this legislation will give providers an easy path to deny LGBTQ patients the medical treatment they need.
On March 14th, the Vatican office that manages doctrine announced that the Catholic Church is not authorized to bless same-sex unions.
A former priest in Argentina, Andrés Gioeni, formally disavowed his Catholicism after the Vatican’s decree. In recent years, Gioeni became an LGBTQ activist lobbying for a more open Catholic Church. He has blessed same-sex unions in Argentina, where Pope Francis was born and initially became part of the Catholic Church.
On February 25th, the US House passed the Equality Act. The passing of this landmark act for LGBTQ rights (with a 224-206 vote) deters discrimination pertaining to sexual orientation and gender identity in many circumstances and in several settings, including employment, housing, education, public accommodations, and merchantry.
As it sought dismissal of the petitions to recognize same-sex marriages within existing laws, the Centre told the Delhi High Court (HC) that marriage in India depends on “age-old customs, rituals, practices, cultural ethos and societal values.” In the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 377 that covers homosexuality, the Supreme Court only decriminalized “a particular human behavior,” but it did not legitimize the human conduct in question.
On February 25th, a gay Malaysian man won a breakthrough court battle against Salengor’s Islamic ban on sex “against the order of nature,” drawing the LGBTQ community one step closer to wider acceptance of gay rights in a predominantly Muslim country.
West Virginia Legislature introduced a controversial bill on February 10th, 2021, to remove essential teachings from public schools.
House Bill 2157 proposes eliminating any teachings of sexuality and forbids displays meant to promote understanding among all students related to such instructions in public schools. Although it doesn’t specify any particular group or sexuality in written form, it is widely known as an attempt to ban any mention of the LGBTQ+ community.
Roy was an American citizen of Bangladeshi provenance and a critic of religious extremism. He was publicly assaulted by machete-wielding assassins who butchered him to death as he and his wife were leaving a Dhaka book fair in February 2015. His wife, Rafida Ahmed, suffered head injuries and lost a finger.
