I love this promo pic from Theatre Forty-Two‘s production of my play Balls, opening tomorrow night in Sarnia, ON! Book your tickets here: http://buytickets.at/t42

 

I’m very proud to see that my first play, Balls, is getting a remount this month in Sarnia, ON from Theatre Forty-Two. Balls tells the story of two best friends learning what it takes to be men as they face testicular cancer. I was inspired to write it by a friend’s brave struggle with cancer. It’s such an honour to have it back on stage nine years after I last performed it.

Balls runs from Nov 23-Dec 1, directed by John Leverre and starring Darius Brooks and Josh Gibson. Partial proceeds go to Testicular Cancer Canada.

Book your tickets here: http://buytickets.at/t42

Being on Jeopardy! was something I’ve always wanted to do. Ever since I was in grade school, playing on my school’s trivia teams (in Canada they’re called “W5H,” as in who, what, where, when, why, how, or “Reach for the Top,” after an old CBC TV show), one of the ways I absorbed trivia and ordered information in my head was I would think about how this new fact I’d encountered would be phrased as a Jeopardy! question or category, in case I was ever on the show. It was also pretty useful for remembering things for tests and stuff.

I’d never actually thought I’d be on the show, but after living in LA for a while, one day I met viral sensation Louis Virtel (the Jeopardy! snapdragon) in a bar, and it occurred to me that, hey, this is something I could do since I live here. So, one January afternoon, I decided to look up how one becomes a contestant.

It turns out, they do an online test once a year and the test happened to be the next day. The quiz is 50 questions where you have ten seconds to type your response to each question. They don’t tell you how you do (though I’m pretty sure I got 46/50, based on the questions I remembered guessing on), just that you might hear from them sometime in the next 18 months.

Around April, I got an invitation to an in-person audition, which consisted of another 50-question test (on paper, in person, so they know you didn’t cheat), and then an on-camera mini-game, where I guess they wanted to test that you don’t freeze on camera (or blow up when your buzzer’s not working…) I was on my best behavior in the audition. I didn’t even complain when the producers accepted an incorrect answer from one of my mock competitors – *ahem*, “immigrate” is not an eight-letter word meaning to leave your country and move to another one! I think I got 45/50 on the in-person test, but again, they don’t tell you your score.

They tell you that if you passed you’ll be put in a contestant pool for 18 months, and if you didn’t pass, you won’t hear from them again. I later found out 80,000 people took the online test; of them, 8,000 passed; of them, 4,000 were offered auditions (I assume the ones who weren’t were people who were disqualified for other reasons or for geographic balance); and of those, only about 400 are offered spots on the show, there being about 200 regular shows per season and two new contestants per show. The odds of being selected for the show are therefore about 0.5%.

I got the call in June for a taping in July. Because I live in LA, I was called in as an alternate, meaning I only had a 50% chance of taping on my day, and if I didn’t get on, I would be called back very shortly and guaranteed a spot. They later explained that FCC rules require them to have an element of randomness in all aspects of the game, including contestant selection. In each game, the two new contestants are chosen at random from the contestants there that day. So, even though they only need ten contestants and a returning champion to film five episodes in a day, they actually call in eleven or twelve so that the players in the fifth game aren’t automatically determined by elimination after the other four games’ contestants are arranged. Alternates are used for the final game, and two players out of three or four are called.

I was actually hoping I wouldn’t be called on that day. At the time, I was working on a film set, and for the previous two weeks, I had been working fifteen-hour days and underslept with little time to study or prep. I didn’t even have clean, ironed clothes for the game! I told the producers when I arrived that if the other alternate wanted to play I was happy to let him and come back another day. They explained that they couldn’t do it. I was still banking on not playing because I was absolutely exhausted. During taping, I even nodded off in the middle of game four, despite having three cups of coffee, three cans of coke, and some weird Starbucks energy drink at lunch.

The first thing you do at the studio is record your “hometown howdie,” which is a mini-commercial they air for contestants in certain markets, and that you can share on social media. I’m in a different shirt because this one was moiré-ing, but they didn’t have time for me to go change it. Here’s mine:

Kyle Jones, the returning champion was a really nice guy. He’s the first person I met at the studio that day, in the parking lot waiting for producers to take us to set. I was just so excited he was a three-game winner already. Of course, at the time, I thought it was unlikely I was going to end up actually playing him, so it was a little easier to root for him! He is a fantastic player, and watching him romp his way through four games certainly did not put me in a confident mood when the producer came up to me after game four and announced that I was going to be playing next.

I honestly went into the game just hoping I didn’t come in third, and at least made it competitive. Me fighting with the buzzer in the first half of the Jeopardy round was also me saying to myself “C’mon Rob, you’re embarrassing yourself!”

What was happening was that I was buzzing too early, which locks you out for ¼ second. I got into a better rhythm during the commercial break when they retested the buzzers (they do this at every commercial break, not just when it appears one of the contestants is having a hissy fit) and one of the producers came over and told me to try waiting to see the lights at the side of the question board that indicate that the buzzers are open. Also, having Alex joke that my one correct answer put me in second place helped put me back at ease. I was really afraid I’d finish the game with zero dollars and never buzzing in!

Once you’re on the set, about 90% of the game is this timing. Most of the time, all three contestants know the answer (we all took the same placement test, after all), and there’s no real advantage to figuring it out first as long as you all know the answer by the end of the clue.

By the way, the first commercial break is also where they take your podium picture and your two-shot with Alex Trebek, who never, ever smiles. Honestly, I’ve met dozens of contestants on Facebook and he’s making the same face in all of our pics.

I really happened to luck out with the categories in the Double Jeopardy round. I wish I had said True Daily Double on the DD’s. But again, even though I knew the categories very well, I was so scared I’d just hand Kyle another victory by fumbling there.

If you don’t mind the plug, one of the reasons I did so well in “Countries Under 1 Million People” is because for the last few years I’ve been learning a lot about small countries by maintaining the @LGBTmarriage twitter feed, where I post news about same-sex marriage laws and LGBT rights around the world. For the record: Andorra has civil unions, San Marino is debating a civil union bill, Suriname and Djibouti have no recognition of LGBT couples, and Bhutan criminalizes gay sex.

Also, “It’s a Biblical Thing” is a tricky category, because the writers like to find really obscure stuff for Bible questions, but they were all fairly basic.

There were some clues that were just gifts. I was really happy to have a Marvel Comics question come up.

And this clue from “Lines from the TV Comedy” is literally my favorite joke from Friends and I think of it at least once weekly. It’s just such a perfect clever/dumb Chandler joke!

BTW, the reason I avoided the Senators category was because I didn’t realize that “115th Congress” was the current Congress until after taping. I still did pretty well, given I’ve only lived in this country two years! It was a lucky break that none of the Senators were terribly obscure. If you listen close, you can actually hear me climax a little bit after I said “Collins” to bring me over the top to a runaway. (It was already a runaway, but if Kyle got to it first, or if I’d guessed wrong, it would have been different).

Going into Final Jeopardy, my brain had basically shutdown. Trying to figure out my wager felt like doing sudoku right after sex. I literally did the math six times on scrap paper because I didn’t trust myself to not fuck up the wager and lose. The funny thing is, while the clue stumped all three of us, I had actually been looking at the Wikipedia page for “turquoise” just a few weeks previous, when I fell down a wiki-hole about gemstones. I think in my head I think of turquoise as green, not blue. Alex came over during the credits sequence to tell us that he thought the question was far too easy for Final Jeopardy and wanted the writers to change it and was disappointed in all of us for missing it. Oh well. I still went home the Champion.

Going back in for Monday’s taping was weird. I had five days off between my shows, and they were five days I walked around thinking of myself as the Jeopardy! Champion. Five days of imagining myself going on a multi-day streak, maybe even beating Ken Jennings’ record. Five days of earning and spending hundreds of thousands of imaginary dollars. Five days of planning a week’s worth of dumb podium bits I was gonna do during my contestant intro. You thought my dramatic turn was dumb? You should’ve seen what I had planned for Tuesday!

Incidentally, I didn’t do anything weird at the podium on the Friday show because the middle contestant’s intro is pre-taped so that the camera can use that time to swing from contestant three to the returning champ.

I arrived at the taping and met the week’s contestants. It’s weird being introduced as the Jeopardy! Champion because the other contestants suddenly look at you with this weird mixed expression that’s a cross between “I’m so amazed and impressed” and “I’m going to take you down!” I didn’t expect this because when I met Kyle the previous week I thought it was so unlikely we’d play each other. I barely got to know any of the week’s contestants, because I wasn’t recording a hometown howdy with them, and, being in the first game, I didn’t get to sit and watch a game with them or do lunch like I did with the last week’s contestants. I briefly met two other Canadian women and another gay dude. One of the Canadians has already had her shows air, and she pulled off two big wins!

The game was rough. The categories and clues were, I think, particularly obscure. I joked before the show that if there was a “shit that only I know” category it would be comic book trivia, so when the first round had a “Words from Comics” category I was pumped! Then it turned out they were all Depression-era comic strips. (I am happy that I got the “V For Vendetta” clue, so at least there was one comic book answer!).

“Company Car” – well, anyone who knows me knows I can only recognize cars by color and number of doors. I think I even put the buzzer down at one point here.

I hated the Galapagos video category because it ate up so much time in the game, which left us with $10,000 still on the board at the end of Double Jeopardy. I really wish the producers had let us know that if a sponsored category like that comes up, we have to get through it before the first round can end. Also, what you don’t know at home is that the video clues get played on a 36” screen that’s about 30 feet away from you. The images are not always super clear or easy to make out. I shouldn’t have guessed on that final clue (still my only wrong answer in a regular round of play!) – what happened there was that I could barely make out the photo (those plants are really small and distant in the video they used, and the screen is really far away). It looked like moss, and I was focusing so hard on the video I wasn’t listening to the clue. Whoops.

Basically, my buzzer game was Friday in reverse – I was really strong in the pre-commercial round (I answered 7/14 clues) but then only buzzed in 5 more times in the whole game. That of course made it much less likely that I’d find the Daily Doubles. I have to admit though, the fact that Nancy and Will beat me to the buzzer saved me a few times where they guessed the same wrong answer I would have, so, again, who knows? (If you look at the stats, Will and I have the same number of correct minus incorrect answers, 11; Nancy’s score was 10. Our relative performance overall wasn’t terrible, but they did better in the more important second round).

I have a few other regrets game-play wise. I suck at wordplay categories, but “alpinist” and “latinate” were on the tip of my tongue.

The Final Jeopardy category was insane. “British Monarchy.” Now, I had a list of things I wanted to study before the show, and the list of past British monarchs was literally the next thing on the list I didn’t get to. Like, I was memorizing the list of British PMs in the parking lot before the taping, and just decided to stop and go in. I figured I was done for, so I may as well wager everything. I wrote in the bet and hit the “enter” key and immediately realized what I should’ve done was bet zero. I called over a producer and asked if I could change it, since there were still several minutes before we got back from break. She said “sorry, you already hit enter. We can’t do anything.” (The producers had explained this very clearly before taping, I was just checking to see if it was really the case).

When the clue popped up, it took me a second to realize that the longest serving Prince of Wales would have been Queen Victoria’s son. I knew the kings alternated Edwards and Georges until Elizabeth II, but I didn’t know how many of them there were in between. I knew Edward VIII abdicated in the 30s. Eventually, I decided that there must’ve been four kings before Edward VIII, so it would have been two Edwards back, making the answer Edward VI. Given a few more seconds of thought, I would have realized four kings in 30 years is too many, and would’ve landed at the correct answer, Edward VII, but what are you gonna do? It’s an incredibly stressful moment!

Will and Nancy both played great. I’ll also be cheering for Kyle in the Tournament of Champions later this year, if only so I can brag that I’m the only one who’s beaten him. j/k, mostly.

The past two weeks have been amazing. I’ve loved all of your reactions to my posts on social media, and the messages I’ve been getting from friends and strangers. The other Jeopardy! players I met in the studio and on Facebook this week have all been great. This whole experience has given me stories I’ll be telling for the rest of my life – so friends, be prepared.

I guess the moral of this whole story is follow your dreams! Do all the crazy things you’ve always wanted to do but keep putting off! If it seems impossible, Google it and you might get your opportunity the very next day!

For now, I’ll leave you with this:

Are you excited for my appearance on Jeopardy! coming up Friday, September 21?

Then why don’t you try to answer this skill-testing question they tested me on before the game began?

Earlier this summer an absolute lifelong dream of mine came true when I got to compete on an episode of Jeopardy! I can’t say anything about how the show went, but you can check it out and root for me Friday, September 21 — consult local listings for showtimes and channels. In Los Angeles, it airs on ABC at 7pm. I’m not sure about Toronto.

It looks like Alex Trebek can’t quite believe he’s standing next to me either!

When I started this annual tradition of writing a blog post about annual progress on the fight for same-sex marriage around the world way back in the stone age of 2013, it wasn’t easy to find comprehensive information about the subject on the web. Now, thanks to some dedicated work of Wikipedia editors, and the exhaustive work of former journalist Rex Wockner, there’s much more information out there. So in this year’s update, I’m going to try instead to synthesize the facts, the developments over the past year, and what we can expect to happen in 2018.

Since this post can get very long, I’ve decided to break it up into different pages:

Same-sex marriage in Europe
Same-sex marriage in the Americas
Same-sex marriage in Asia, Africa, and Oceania

Overview:

2017 was a bit of a banner year for the movement. Several jurisdictions were added to the list of equal marriage countries: Finland, Germany, Malta, Australia. Judicial rulings for marriage equality came out in Taiwan and Austria. Three Mexican states, three UK Overseas Territories, and two UK dependencies also became equal marriage jurisdictions. We also had rulings and administrative decisions in favor of recognizing legal same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions in Armenia, Estonia, and Italy. By my count, this is the biggest single jump in the number of equal-marriage countries since 2013, when Brazil, France, New Zealand and Uruguay all legalized. Heading into 2018, more than 1.2 billion people live in equal marriage jurisdictions, and several more countries are either debating equal marriage laws in their legislatures or their Supreme Courts.

Populations of equal-marriage countries:

United States (including Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands)	327,847,797
Brazil	209,567,920
Mexico	128,632,004
Germany	80,716,000
United Kingdom (excluding Northern Ireland; including Isle of Man, Guernsey, Alderney, Bermuda, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Pitcairn Islands, Akrotiri & Dhekelia, and St. Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha)	62,969,237
France (including all territories)	66,842,000
South Africa	54,978,907
Colombia	48,654,392
Spain	46,064,604
Argentina	43,847,277
Canada	36,286,378
Australia	23,702,300
Netherlands (including Caribbean Netherlands)	17,000,059
Belgium	11,371,928
Portugal	10,304,434
Sweden	9,851,852
Austria	8,504,850
Denmark (including Greenland and Faroe Islands)	5,764,423
Finland	5,523,904
Norway	5,271,958
Ireland	4,713,993
New Zealand (excluding territories)	4,565,185
Uruguay	3,444,071
Luxembourg	576,243
Malta	446,547
Iceland	331,778
TOTAL	1,217,780,041

 

Populations of Countries with same-sex civil unions:

Italy	59,801,004
Taiwan	23,550,077
Chile	18,131,850
Ecuador	16,385,450
Greece	10,919,459
Czech Republic	10,548,058
Hungary	9,821,318
Switzerland	8,379,477
Croatia	4,225,001
Slovenia	2,069,362
Northern Ireland (UK)	1,864,000
Estonia	1,309,104
Cyprus (excluding Northern Cyprus)	1,176,598
Aruba	104,263
Jersey (UK)	100,080
Andorra	69,165
Liechtenstein	37,776
TOTAL CIVIL UNION	168,492,042

The total populations of the countries and territories with either same-sex marriage or civil unions is approximately 1,386,272,083.

Continue to:

Same-sex marriage in Europe
Same-sex marriage in the Americas
Same-sex marriage in Asia, Africa, and Oceania

Before 2017: Equal Marriage in Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Sweden; parts of the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Akrotiri & Dhekelia bases). Civil Unions in: Andorra, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Finland, Germany, Malta, Greece, and Cyprus.

Developments in 2017: Equal Marriage in Finland, Germany, Malta; UK territories Guernsey and Alderney; partial implementation of equal marriage ruling in Austria. Recognition of foreign marriages in Estonia and Armenia. Constitutional ban in Georgia.

Looking ahead: Italy, Czech Republic, Austria, UK (Jersey, Sark, Northern Ireland), Slovenia, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino, Romania, EU-wide

FINLAND: Finland’s parliament first passed an equal marriage law in 2014, but it didn’t take effect until March 2017. There was some drama that a new conservative government might derail it, but that didn’t happen, and Finland became the 22^nd equal marriage country on March 1, 2017.

MALTA: Malta’s left-leaning government had in recent years pushed the tiny country to the forefront of the LGBT rights movement, but despite passing civil unions in 2014, it withheld marriage equality until this past summer. The government had endeavored to fight an election on the issue, but the opposition refused to play along and declared itself in support of equal marriage too. It was one of the first bills passed by the new government in July, with near unanimous support in Parliament (66-1). On Sept 1, Malta became the 23^rd equal marriage country.
For the trivia buffs, Malta is the smallest country by area, but not the smallest country by population to pass equal marriage — that is Iceland.

GERMANY: Years of campaigning in Germany ran aground on the personal objection of long-serving chancellor Angela Merkel. So when she suddenly announced she might have a change of heart ahead of scheduled elections, the opposition pounced. Germany quickly passed an equal marriage law in July, and on Oct 1, it became the 24^th equal marriage country.
Germany’s equal marriage law means 14/28 EU members, representing 66% of the EU population, recognize equal marriage (the ratios may change if Brexit actually goes forward).

UK: It looked for a long time this year like Northern Ireland might finally pass an equal marriage law, when following a snap election, Sinn Fein announced it would not join a power-sharing government unless the other major party, the Democratic Unionists, cast aside their unpopular opposition and allow an equal marriage law to pass. Alas, the DUP has seen fit to instead leave Northern Ireland without a government rather than allow equal marriage to pass. Normally, the London government would step in an govern directly from Westminster, but as the UK Conservatives are in a loose coalition with the DUP in parliament, and their agenda is so stuffed with Brexit negotiations and the need to play along with the Irish Republic, it’s unclear how the province will get out of its current dilemma. UK Labour has proposed a referendum on same-sex marriage if direct rule is imposed, to break the logjam. (I don’t mind referenda, in this case.) [UPDATE Jan. 3, 2018: Also, a court case that started in 2014 was finally resolved, with the province’s court finding against the plaintiffs seeking equality. This is what happens when you don’t have a constitutional bill of rights. The plaintiffs have appealed to the UK Supreme Court.]

The UK Crown Dependency of Guernsey (pop. 63,000) also passed a same-sex marriage law, as did its own dependency Alderney (pop. 2,000). The other part of the bailiwick, Sark (pop. 600), does not currently have equal marriage on its agenda, however a member of the government has said the government does intend to introduce such a law.  Same-sex couples can adopt in both Alderney and Sark because adoptions in the bailiwick are processed in Guernsey. The other dependency, Jersey (pop. 100,000) has been working on an overhaul of its marriage legislation for years and a final vote was delayed until Jan. 30, 2018.

Other UK territories that passed equal marriage laws in 2017 are Bermuda, Falkland Islands, and Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha. You can read more about those territories in the sections on the Americas and Africa. As of now, 8/14 overseas territories allow same-sex marriage.

DENMARK: The Faroe Islands (pop. 49,000) – a country within the Kingdom of Denmark – finally brought its equal marriage law into effect after a year of delay in part at the hands of the Danish parliament. The Faroes were the last part of the Kingdom, and the last Nordic/Scandinavian country to pass equal marriage. Also, Denmark became the first country in the world to officially declassify transgender status as a mental illness.

AUSTRIA: On Dec. 5, the Constitutional Court found that marriage is a fundamental right that must be granted to homosexuals. This is a first for a court in Europe, where equal marriage has always been granted legislatively. The ruling took effect immediately for the five petitioning couples, so some same-sex marriage may already take place in Austria. However, the court gave the government until Jan. 1 2019 to craft a law that would have general effect; after that date, the court’s ruling will strike down the same-sex marriage ban even if the government doesn’t act. The newly elected government includes a far-right, anti-gay party, so don’t expect the government to rush to act here. Still, because the ruling took immediate effect for at least some couples and its implementation date is ironclad, I count Austria as an already equal-marriage jurisdiction. Others disagree. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s either the 25^th or 26^th equal marriage country (Australia’s law took effect a few days later).

SPAIN/CATALONIA: The last quarter of 2017 saw Spain wracked with a constitutional crisis following a vote for independence in its Catalonia province. While actual secession looks unlikely right now, if it does secede, it would automatically become a new equal marriage country – and the first one to have it since its creation.

ROMANIA and the EUROPEAN UNION: Plans for a referendum to constitutionally ban same-sex marriage have met repeated delays, although the government still apparently plans to hold it at some point in 2018. A civil partnership bill also floated around Parliament a bit in 2017, but hasn’t gone far. Meanwhile, a court case calling for recognition of foreign same-sex marriages was referred to the European Court of Justice, which is a sort of supreme court of the EU. Unlike the European Court of Human Rights (which has ruled against same-sex marriage repeatedly), the ECJ rulings are binding.

Essentially, the case before the ECJ contends that the ban on same-sex marriage restricts on the EU’s fundamental freedoms – the freedom to move within the EU – by turning same-sex families into legal strangers when they leave certain jurisdictions. I honestly don’t see how the court can disagree here. But they’ve got some options: they can require civil unions that are equal to marriage, which would be very complicated and still unequal, but would probably have the least resistance from certain opposing states (especially those that have constitutional bans); they could require states to recognize foreign marriages only (which is probably the most likely solution but could similarly create legal uncertainties, such as residency tests, and how to deal with divorces and adoptions); they could require states to allow same-sex marriages (which would be the biggest reach for the court, and would nullify provisions of several member states’ constitutions); and I suppose they could limit their ruling to Romania specifically.  An EU-wide ruling could affect 14 states that do not currently have complete equality: UK (Northern Ireland*, as well as its overseas territories, assuming this ruling occurs before Brexit), Italy*, Slovenia*, Croatia*, Hungary*, Czechia*, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece*, Cyprus*, Poland, Estonia*, Latvia, and Lithuania. (*=has a civil union law). It could also impact several applicant/candidate EU countries (assuming that such a ruling doesn’t halt their desire to join): Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina (Turkey’s progress has basically been suspended given the country’s slide into authoritarianism).

SWITZERLAND: An equal marriage bill was to be ready for debate in 2017, but Parliament gave the committee preparing it until 2019 to finalize its work. With the developments in Germany and Austria, it’s possible that the Swiss might speed up their work. Also, on Jan. 1, 2018, a new law comes into effect allowing couples in registered partnerships to adopt their stepchildren (joint adoption/non-relative adoption is still not allowed). Still, don’t expect neighboring Liechtenstein to act; the principality’s Catholic ruler has said in the past he would veto any laws for same-sex marriage or couple adoption.

ESTONIA: The current government has continued to obstruct regulations to bring into effect Estonia’s registered partnership law first passed in 2014, and even unsuccessfully attempted to repeal the law in 2017. Courts this year continued to uphold a ruling from last December requiring the government to recognize marriages performed overseas.

ARMENIA: In a surprise announcement, the interior ministry decided in July 2017 that it would recognize foreign same-sex marriages. Armenia is a very conservative, Russian-aligned country that has not been notable for its LGBT activism, and indeed, its constitution bans same-sex marriage in the country (sodomy was only decriminalized in 2003). It is not known if any same-sex couples have attempted to have a foreign marriage registered in Armenia for any purpose, or what benefits or entitlements come with it. Same-sex couples may not adopt. There is no anti-discrimination legislation, and gays are barred from military service. The recognition does not extend to Artsakh, the breakaway region of Azerbaijan formerly known as Nagorno-Karabach, which is basically an Armenian client state.

LITHUANIA: A cohabitation bill that would give very limited rights to same-sex couples (and other pairs of cohabitants) was debated.

ITALY: The country spent most of 2017 recovering from the political crisis its former PM Matteo Renzi walked it into with a disastrous constitutional reform campaign last year. Renzi immediately resigned, but then decided to run for the leadership of his party again, and since he won, he will be on the ballot in general election called for March 4. Renzi expressed support for same-sex marriage in the leadership campaign, but anything can happen in an Italian election so who knows what to expect in May. Polls suggest it could once again be ungovernable. In other news, various courts granted recognition of overseas marriages and step-child adoption in individual cases. These appear to set precedents, but still require court decisions in individual cases, not unlike the situation in Mexico.

SAN MARINO: The government continued to discuss civil unions, but no action was taken.

MONACO: The executive agreed to parliament’s proposal for civil unions based on France’s PACS, but will not table a bill until April 2018, after general elections. Given that the proposal had unanimous support in Monaco’s parliament, it should pass no matter who wins. Monaco is another jurisdiction where a strongly Catholic prince will not likely allow same-sex marriage.

SERBIA: An openly lesbian woman was elected/appointed Prime Minister in 2017, and she marched in the often dangerous Belgrade Pride this year. She has mentioned support for the idea of civil unions in Serbia, but no legislation has been brought forward yet. Ireland also elected its first openly gay PM Leo Varadkar.

CZECHIA: Elections in October yielded a president who has expressed support for same-sex marriage, and a majority in parliament that is in favor. No bill has been introduced yet, but with support over 50% for the past few years, LGBT activists there are hopeful. The previous government had also introduced a step-child adoption bill, but did not advance it before elections. Expect both issues to surface in 2018.

CYPRUS: Hopes for a resolution to t he 40-year-old division of Cyprus were dashed when the two sides abruptly ended reunification talks in January. There is hope that talks could recommence after both sides hold elections in January. Turkey and Greece, the proxy powers in the dispute, seemed to be making amends recently, although the former’s slide into autocracy (not to mention its crackdowns on LGBT issues) has put it at odds with its EU neighbors. The division is relevant because if the country reunites, it’s possible the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, upon ceasing to exist, will become subject to Cyprus’ civil partnership law. It would also be subject to EU law, which would make it affected by the expected ECJ ruling on marriage discussed above.

SLOVENIA: After becoming the first Slavic country to pass a same-sex marriage law in 2015, only to have the law rejected in a citizens’ referendum that year, 2018 may see the issue return to the spotlight. Elections are due before July, and the issue could come up again. The law around referendums has been changed since the 2015 debacle, specifically to limit the ability of citizens to pass laws that limit human rights. We’ll see if the legislators elected in 2018 have the stones to push the issue again (and an ECJ ruling might help).

MACEDONIA: The country’s rapprochement with Greece (after a 20-year-long dispute over its name) following the election of a Western-leaning government, holds promise that the country will be invited to begin EU accession talks soon, which could eventually positively impact LGBT rights in the region.

GEORGIA: The country passed a new constitution that specifically bans same-sex marriage. It was already banned in statute.

CRACKDOWNS ON LGBT PEOPLE: We saw government crackdowns on LGBT people in Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and most dramatically, in the Russian autonomous province of Chechnya. Reports also suggest the situation is not good for LGBT people in the breakaway Donbass territories of Ukraine. Russia, of course, continues to be a source of anti-LGBT hostility generally, and it will be interesting to see what happens during the World Cup due to be held there in 2018.

Continue to:

Same-sex marriage in the Americas in 2018
Same-sex marriage in Asia, Africa, and Oceania in 2018

Before 2017: Equal Marriage in Canada, US (and territories Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands), Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and nine states and the capital district of Mexico; plus Greenland (Denmark), Caribbean Netherlands, and French overseas territories (St Pierre and Miquelon, Martinique, Saint Martin, Saint Barthelemy, Guadeloupe, French Guyana); limited recognition in Netherlands countries (Saint Martin, Curacao, Aruba); Civil Unions in: Chile, Costa Rica, Aruba (Netherlands).

Developments in 2017: Equal Marriage in UK territories Bermuda, Falkland Islands; three Mexican states (Baja California, Puebla, Chiapas), four US Native nations.

Looking ahead: Chile, Panama, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, other UK territories.

Trouble spots: Haiti, Bermuda, Curacao.

MEXICO: The state-by-state progress continued slowly in 2017. The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation struck down marriage laws passed in Chiapas and Puebla states, requiring same-sex marriage in those states, and the government of Baja California stopped enforcing its same-sex marriage ban. But without legislative changes in the latter two states, some couples have continued to experience difficulties. Tlaxcala state passed a civil union law, but it is still subject to the Supreme Court jurisprudence that call for the issuing of injunctions to allow full same-sex marriages. Other state congresses continued to obstruct marriage bills. Many state congresses are up for election on July 1, so we’ll see how they play out. Public opinion and reporting in Mexico seems to be turning in favor of equality.

 

UK TERRITORIES: First the great news: The Falkland Islands (pop. 3,000) passed their equal marriage/adoption law this year. Now the complicated news: Bermuda’s Supreme Court struck down the ban on same-sex marriage in May, and the government decided not to appeal. But then there was a change in government, and the new government passed a bill that overturned the ruling, re-banned same-sex marriage, and instead created “all-but-the-name-marriage” domestic partnerships to replace them (note same-sex couple adoption was already allowed in the territory under an earlier court ruling, and has been preserved). But that’s not the end of the story, yet. As of press time, the Governor has not granted assent to the new law, and reports suggest he’s seeking permission from the UK Government to veto it. We’ll see how this plays out in the new year.

 

Following the court ruling in Bermuda, activists in Cayman Islands sought to file a test case for marriage, but no case has yet been filed. There were no known developments in the other UK territories in the Caribbean: Montserrat, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos, UK Virgin Islands, nor for the uninhabited South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. If the government does shut down the Bermuda marriage repeal, and does impose marriage equality on Northern Ireland somehow, it’s possible that the FCO could impose it on these other territories, too.

CHILE: Outgoing president Michele Bachelet took her time introducing a promised equal marriage bill to Congress, and when it finally came in August, Congress was slow to act on it. The Senate began debating it in December. Elections in November/December returned a congress with a majority in favor of bill, but a President who campaigned against it. It’s possible Congress could pass the bill in the lame duck session before new president Pinera takes office in March. Or, Pinera could soften his opposition once in office. Pinera also campaigned against allowing same-sex couples to adopt, and that issue could also be before congress. Should it pass, it would also extend to Chile’s Antarctic territory and Easter Island.

PANAMA and VENEZUELA: Supreme Courts in both countries are expected to rule shortly on same-sex marriage. In Panama, a negative opinion was leaked to the media, but it was not made official even after the court supposedly voted on it. So it sounds like a positive decision should be coming, but no news has come out whatsoever. In Venezuela, the court is expected to issue a decision in 2018.

[UPDATE Jan. 3, 2018: A reader informs me that the Venezuela Constitutional Court actually has two equal marriage cases before it, as well as separate cases dealing with gender identity recognition, same-sex couple adoption/family registration, and the right of LGBT people to serve in the military. The main local LGBT rights group feels optimistic about all five cases, but Venezuela is a basic dictatorship, and you never know what the government’s response will be. That said, in 2017 President Maduro signaled support for same-sex marriage being discussed in an ongoing constitutional convention.]

COSTA RICA: There was no news on a Supreme Court case filed in Costa Rica last year. Another couple filed a case seeking recognition of their out-of-state marriage. Same-sex marriage has become a live issue in the general election coming in Feb. 2018.

PERU: It was an up-and-down year. Early in the year, the President took advantage of legislative gridlock to pass a sweeping anti-discrimination and hate crime law by decree, which is apparently something you can do in Peru. Unfortunately, the Congress then got its shit together and the anti-gay majority party struck down the new laws. In January, an administrative court ruled that foreign same-sex marriages must be recognized for pension purposes. The government has appealed. That inspired queer members of congress to hold back support for a civil union bill they’d tabled last year, and instead file a same-sex marriage bill. Both have stalled. We’ll see what comes of the bills and the court case in 2018, but I’m more optimistic about the courts.

ECUADOR: This was one of the first countries in Latin America to pass a civil union law in 2008, but it also has a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Activists have begun talking about a push to change that.

PARAGUAY: A presidential candidate grabbed headlines by declaring himself in support of same-sex marriage, though the country maintains a constitutional ban on it. Clarifications were later issued, but we’ll see if/how this plays out in the elections this April.

JAMAICA and TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: Activists filed cases to strike down the countries’ criminal bans on sodomy. No news yet on when the cases will be heard. [UPDATE Jan. 2: A reader has informed me that the Trinidad & Tobago case will be heard Jan. 30, 2018; of course, a ruling could still take years to be issued. For comparison’s sake, a similar case in Belize took more than three years for a ruling to be issued striking the nation’s sodomy laws last year.]

HAITI: While same-sex marriage is already illegal, the Haitian Senate passed a sweeping bill to ban advocacy for same-sex marriage and LGBT rights. It has not been taken up in the lower house as yet. I’m not sure how such a bill would stand up to the country’s constitutional rights, but it certainly wouldn’t satisfy global democratic norms. Keep an eye out in 2018.

NETHERLANDS TERRITORIES: A couple politicians in Curacao grabbed headlines calling for a referendum on same-sex marriage. It’s not clear there’s even a movement calling for it or if such a bill would stand up to the Netherlands constitution. Either way, it hasn’t gone anywhere, but we should keep an eye out.

USA: The courts continued to be the main battlefield for marriage equality, long after we thought the fight was over in June 2015. The Supreme Court heard a case calling for ‘religious freedom’ exceptions to discrimination laws, while Texas courts dealt with a state law that bans same-sex couples from receiving spousal benefits. Neither has come to a final ruling yet. Meanwhile, a handful of US Native Nations passed same-sex marriage laws, including the Osage, Prairie Island, Ho-Chunk Native Nation of Wisconsin, and the Ak-Chin.

CANADA: Just gonna take a moment to highlight how Canada led the way on a number of LGBT rights files in 2017. You can read my take on it here.

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Same-sex marriage in Europe in 2018
Same-sex marriage in Asia, Africa, and Oceania in 2018

AFRICA:

Before 2017: Equal Marriage in South Africa, French overseas territories (Reunion, Mayotte), Spanish exclaves Cueta and Melilla;

Developments in 2017: Equal Marriage UK territory Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. Homosexuality criminalized in Chad.

Looking ahead: Namibia, Angola, The Gambia, Zimbabwe

Trouble spots: Uganda, Burundi, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Egypt

 

UK territory Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha: The three islands all achieved equal marriage this year in different steps. Ascension Island (pop. 800) passed a bill in 2016, but it was brought into effect on Jan. 1 2017 when it looked like Saint Helena wasn’t going to legalize same-sex marriage. Tristan da Cunha (pop. 300) followed in August 2017. The main island Saint Helena (pop, 4,500) saw a lawsuit brought to its Supreme Court to legalize same-sex marriage, but a newly elected government passed a same-sex marriage bill in December 2017 before the court ruled. Same-sex couples can now marry and adopt throughout the territory.

NAMIBIA: A court case was brought to force the government to recognize a same-sex couple who were married in South Africa and their adopted son in December 2017. In 2016, the government had reiterated its opposition to same-sex marriage, and to repealing its vague colonial anti-sodomy law, though the country’s human rights ombudsman called for the law to be repealed and an anti-discrimination ordinance added to the constitution.

ANGOLA: A long-delayed overhaul of the 19^th-century colonial penal code was delayed further in 2017. Though it would eliminate the vague laws banning sodomy, it also would forbid abortion in all circumstances. That provision led to some large protests in the country. A newly elected government (led by the same party) has pledged to have the bill passed in 2018. Southern Africa has been a relative hotspot of the decriminalization movement this decade, with victories in Lesotho, Seychelles, and fellow former Portuguese colonies Sao Tome & Principe and Mozambique, along with discussions in Malawi and Botswana.

The GAMBIA and ZIMBABWE: Both these countries deposed their incredibly anti-gay leaders after widespread protests and military intervention. The new leader of The Gambia, Adama Barrow has seemed less vocally intolerant of gays than his predecessor, but while he has undone some of the old guy’s more troublesome anti-democratic and anti-human rights actions (returning to the International Criminal Court, and applying to return to the Commonwealth), he hasn’t undone any of the country’s anti-gay laws. It’s early days in Zimbabwe’s post-Mugabe era, but there’s no news yet on LGBT rights there either. It will be interesting to watch if any developments follow, but given the widespread public antipathy in these countries, don’t hold your breath.

GHANA: The President has face wide criticism in the last few weeks after suggesting that an LGBT rights movement and decriminalization in Ghana were inevitable.

MAURITIUS: The government declined the UN Human Rights Committee’s suggestion that it decriminalize sodomy in its universal periodic review.

CHAD: Although I reported on Chad passing a bill criminalizing sodomy as a misdemeanor in 2016, it apparently did not pass into law until 2017. The new penal code includes jail terms and fines as punishment.

Crackdowns on LGBT people. continued or worsened in Egypt, Nigeria, Uganda, and Burundi in 2017.

 

ASIA, OCEANIA, and the rest

Before 2017: Equal Marriage in New Zealand, French overseas territories (French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, New Caledonia), UK overseas territories (Pitcairn Islands and British Indian Ocean Territory), parts of Antarctica (see below), US territories (Guam and Northern Mariana Islands Territory); limited recognition in American Samoa, Israel; civil union in Chilean territory (Easter Island); limited civil partnerships in some Japanese cities, some Taiwanese cities.

Developments in 2017: Equal Marriage in Australia. Court ruling in Taiwan.

Looking ahead: Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong/China, India, Nepal, The Philippines, New Caledonia, Sri Lanka, Cook Islands.

Trouble spots: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the usual places in Central Asia and the Arab world

 

AUSTRALIA: Fifteen years of campaigning finally paid off in Australia following the successful postal plebiscite and a near-unanimous vote in Parliament for marriage equality. I won’t go much further with this as so much digital ink has already been spilled, but Australia became the 24^th equal marriage country on Dec. 9, 2017. With the last of the large anglo-settler countries passing equal marriage, I wonder if English-language media will lose interest in the equal marriage battles going on in the rest of the world. Still, Australia’s Northern Territory is the only part of the country where same-sex couples do not have the option of entering a registered partnership other than marriage and cannot adopt children. A bill to change that has been proposed.

Australia is the sixth Commonwealth country (out of 52 — 53 when The Gambia rejoins later this year) to pass equal marriage, after Canada, South Africa, the UK, New Zealand and Malta.

Australia’s same-sex marriage bill applies to its external territories, which are not autonomous: Christmas Island (pop. 2,000), Norfolk Island (pop. 2,000), Cocos (Keeling) Islands (pop. 600), and the uninhabited Coral Sea Islands, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, and Australian Antarctic Territory.

ANTARCTICA: In a strictly academic sense, marriage equality is almost complete in Antarctica, since all of the claiming countries except Chile have passed a same-sex marriage law that applies to their Antarctic claims. However, the claims are not generally recognized internationally, except by each other (and even then, not completely – Argentina, Chile, and the UK claims all overlap). A quarter of Antarctica is not claimed by any country. Many countries have research bases in other countries claimed areas, and in practice, it is the base country’s laws that apply. Australia, France, Norway, New Zealand, UK, and Argentina are all equal marriage countries, and their law applies within their claim areas. Should Chile’s equal marriage bill pass, same-sex couples will have theoretical marriage rights throughout the claimed territory of Antarctica.

TAIWAN: In May, the Judicial Yuan ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, and gave the Legislative Yuan two years to pass a law to allow it. The government has been stalling, and given local elections coming in 2018, some predict they won’t pass a bill until 2019. Same-sex marriage becomes legal regardless on May 24, 2019. Several couples have filed suits hoping to get married in advance of that date, but the courts have repeatedly shot them down. In the meantime, all but four of Taiwan’s 22 counties, representing 94% of the population, have passed civil partnership registries. (By the way, unlike Austria’s court ruling, no one is getting married yet, and there appears to be a chance the legislative change may get gummed up, so I’m not counting it yet).

HONG KONG: The government appealed a court ruling finding that a binational married lesbian couple had to be recognized for immigration purposes, while the territory continued to discuss equal marriage in the wake of the Taiwan ruling. Discussions also appeared in mainland CHINA but no actual progress.

NEW CALEDONIA: This French territory is scheduled to hold an independence referendum in November 2018. If it passes, and independence is achieved (likely after another couple of years of transition), it would become a new equal marriage country from birth (the first, unless Catalonia beats it). A successful referendum could spark similar independence drives in Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia territories.

Speaking of new states, the Bougainville Autonomous Region of Papua New Guinea is meant to hold an independence referendum in June 2019. If successful, it could be a new criminalizing state, unfortunately. Similarly, there is a bourgeoning independence movement in Papua/West Papua in Indonesia, but it doesn’t appear to have the momentum of either other regional movement.

EASTER ISLAND: This Polynesian territory is part of Chile, and would gain equal marriage if Chile’s law passes.

JAPAN: As the country continued to debate expanding LGBT rights ahead of hosting the 2020 Olympics, Sapporo became the largest city to establish a same-sex partner registry.

PHILLIPINES: A civil unions bill and a sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination bill were introduced in the Congress this year, but have not advanced far in debate. In December, President Duterte once again declared himself in favor of same-sex marriage (flipping back to a previous position he’d flopped from), but LGBT activists and legislators don’t believe there is enough support for that in Congress. The civil union bill passing would be a first for an Asian country.

COOK ISLANDS: A revision of the territory’s Crimes Bill, which would strike the sodomy law, has been in consultations since the summer. It is expected to pass in 2018. The Cook Islands is a sovereign country within the Realm of New Zealand. The South Pacific has been a specific focus of UN action on decriminalization recently, with decriminalization passing in Palau, Nauru, and Fiji this decade. Still to go: Solomon Islands, Samoa, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Tonga, and Papua New Guinea.

INDIA: India’s Supreme Court gave very strong indications that it would re-overturn the country’s sodomy law in a related decision that established constitutional privacy rights India’s people. The court also discussed that homosexuals should also be free from discrimination. In an underreported note, the Court also decided that marriage and family life ought to be subject to privacy, so it’s possible the decision could have even broader impact on marriage/family rights for same-sex couples.

SRI LANKA: The government told the UN Human Rights Council that it plans to decriminalize sodomy, but has not revealed any further details.

NEPAL: More discussion about same-sex marriage, now ten years after the Nepali Supreme Court ruled in favor of it. No action yet.

SOUTH KOREA: An anti-LGBT conservative was elected to the presidency, and marriage equality became an issue in vetting supreme court nominees. A more immediate issue was the crackdown on gays in the military – South Korea’s military code has a criminal prohibition on gay sex. Because military service is compulsory, it’s worth debating whether the country should be listed among the criminalizing states. The government has not announced plans to change the law. It’s worth wondering if South Korea’s middling record on LGBT rights may be brought into focus when it hosts the Winter Olympics in February.

Crackdowns on LGBT people continued or worsened in Indonesia, Tajikistan and Turkey, while continuing in the usual hotspots in the region. The Islamic State was finally defeated, technically reducing the number of criminalizing states by one.

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Same-sex marriage in the Americas in 2018
Same-sex marriage in Europe in 2018

 

Last year, I made my first short film, PALAU, and I’m so happy to finally share it with all of you. PALAU is about two friends who reconnect after ten years apart. When they meet Leo surprises John with a one-way ticket to Micronesia and an enticing — or maybe ridiculous — offer.

If you like what you see, head over to my YouTube channel, give the film a “like” and subscribe — I’ll be adding new short films and sketch comedy regularly. You can also find other shorts I’ve appeared in or written on my channel.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped make this litt movie, including director Warren Wagner, my costars Scott Garland and Kat Letwin, Sound Recorder S Michael Ejbick, Makeup Artist Mishka Prefontaine, and AD Christiana Herbert.

Read more about PALAU’s cast and crew here.