It’s time for my annual rundown of the progress made in global LGBT rights and in particular in the fight for same-sex marriage recognition! As always, you can also follow along on this progress all year round by following my twitter feed @LGBTmarriage. New this year, if you like the work I do, you can also send me a tip via Venmo. I do this work on the side of my freelance journalism work and any little bit you can contribute helps me devote the time and resources needed to keep track of all this news from around the world.

The dominant global story this year continued to be the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery plans, which seems to be settling into a new normal. But as governments and courts got back to the business of governing, some significant progress on LGBT rights was seen in all corners of the world.

On the global scale, we saw the following major developments:

Equal Marriage law passed: Switzerland, Chile (both to come into effect in 2022); Mexican states of Baja California (codification), Guanajuato (by decree), Queretaro, Sinaloa, Sonora, Zacatecas
Sodomy decriminalized: Bhutan and Angola (both coming into effect)
Anti-LGBT discrimination banned: Botswana and Namibia (both by court decision), Angola (coming into effect); Chile (partial)
Hate crime laws passed: Mexican states of Sinaloa, Tlaxcala, and Zacatecas; Angola (coming into effect)
“Conversion therapy” banned: Canada, France, Chile; Mexican states Baja California Sur, Yucatán, Zacatecas, Colima and Tlaxcala; Austalian state of Victoria

Now, we’ll dive down into what’s going on country-by country:

THE AMERICAS

With same-sex marriage now legal in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Chile, as well as all French territories, Dutch municipalities, Greenland and Bermuda, more than 83% of the Western Hemisphere population lives in an equal marriage jurisdiction. This includes 72% of people living in Latin America. Truly, it is the non-equal marriage countries in this region that are the outliers now.

Many of the holdout countries are also subject to the 2018 ruling by the Interamerican Court of Human Rights that found that they are bound by the American Convention on Human Rights to legalize same-sex marriage, however, the court has no means of forcing the countries to abide by its decisions. Instead, local courts or politicians must implement it. This has already happened in Costa Rica, Ecuador, and now Chile. The remaining holdout states bound by the decision are: Barbados, Bolivia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Suriname.

NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA

CANADA: After several false starts, the federal government passed a law criminalizing all forms of conversion therapy, including on consenting adults, in December 2021. Additionally, Canada Blood Services concluded its lengthy study on the ban on blood donations from men who have sex with men, and announced it will recommend that Health Canada end the ban in 2022. If I’m not mistaken, this will complete the major legislative and regulatory demands of most LGBT rights advocates in Canada and globally. From here on, presumably Canadian activists move on to issues such as decriminalizing sex work and removing obscenity from the Criminal Code, codifying same-sex families and queer parenting into all provinces’ family laws, adapting assisted reproduction laws to better accommodate LGBT couples, and improving the inclusion of LGBT history in school curriculums.

UNITED STATES: The beginning of the Biden administration led the federal government to wipe out a number of anti-LGBT executive orders passed by Trump which blocked equal treatment of LGBT people and couples in federal law. At the same time, the Supreme Court has indicated that it plans to gut the right to privacy on its path to ending the right to abortion in the United States. Since that right undergirds many other rights enjoyed by LGBT Americans, many are worried that a long rollback of queer rights, including equal marriage, is possible.

Some states have tried to protect for this by codifying equal marriage into their laws. New Jersey’s state legislature did this at the tail end of the year. Virginia began the process of removing the ban on same-sex marriage from its constitution last year, but as Democrats lost control of the State House and Governor’s office, it’s unclear if the issue will be passed by the incoming legislature in order for it to be presented to voters in 2022. Virginia’s outgoing Democratic trifecta passed several other progressive pieces of pro-LGBT legislation in its two years, including abolishing the death penalty in 2021. Alabama’s commission to rewrite the state constitution to remove outdated or illegal parts did NOT recommend striking the ban on same-sex marriage. Thirty-four US states still have either a statute or a clause in the state constitution banning same-sex marriage, albeit that these are all rendered invalid since the 2015 Obergefell decision.

A federal appeals court panel struck down a ruling extending US citizenship to nationals of American Samoa, but the decision is being appealed to full court. If American Samoans are granted citizenship, then presumably the 14^th amendment would apply to them, which would require the territory to finally allow same-sex marriage.

A legislator in Massachusetts has introduced a bill to repeal that state’s defunct law banning sodomy, but it has not made any progress in the state assembly. In total, 15 states maintain a defunct ban on sodomy in their criminal laws.

MEXICO: Four states completed the process of bring equal marriage into law in 2021: Sinaloa, Sonora, Queretaro, and Zacatecas states all passed equal marriage laws. Additionally the government of Guanajuato simply decided to stop enforcing its ban while the state congress continued debating a same-sex marriage bill — that debate looks set to continue in the new year as a matter of codifying equal marriage into law. Similarly, Baja California amended its state constitution and civil code to allow same-sex marriage, in accordance with actual practice since 2017 under its governor’s decree. And Yucatan finally passed an amendment to its state constitution removing the ban on same-sex marriage in September, after two previous failed attempts. Oddly, the vote to amend the state constitution didn’t also amend the civil code, so same-sex marriage isn’t allowed quite yet – legislators have a deadline of early March to bring the code into line with the state constitution.

That leaves only six other states where equal marriage isn’t yet law, but it appears there is movement to at least debate an equal marriage law in all of them, particularly after the left-wing MORENA party swept local elections in many of these states. Legislators are already talking about passing legislation in state of Mexico, Veracruz, Durango, and Guerrero leaving just Tabasco and Tamaulipas. There is also a push to codify same-sex marriage into law in Aguascalientes following the 2019 court order that legalized it, as well as in Chihuahua (legal since 2015) and Guanajuato. Three other states also have only achieved equal marriage through judicial/administrative decisions and have not updated their civil laws to reflect it: Nuevo Leon, Chiapas, and Jalisco. I think there’s a strong possibility that all states allow same-sex marriage by the end of 2022.

Note also that not all of these equal marriage laws permit same-sex couples to adopt, although the Supreme Court has been clear that this is also required. Proposals to allow “homoparental adoption” have been introduced in Baja California Sur and Oaxaca states.

Additionally, Baja California Sur, Yucatán, Zacatecas, Colima and Tlaxcala banned “conversion therapy” and Sinaloa, Tlaxcala and Zacatecas passed laws imposing stiffer penalties on hate crimes.

HONDURAS: The country elected its first female president, a woman who publicly supports same-sex marriage. But don’t expect it to actually pass into law. A majority of congress has been clear in its opposition.

EL SALVADOR: The President floated including legalizing abortion and same-sex marriage in a proposed constitutional reform that critics say was otherwise a move to consolidate power in his office. He quickly backtracked amid popular opposition – or was that his plan all along?

CARIBBEAN/ATLANTIC

BARBADOS: Nothing much has come yet of Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s pledge last year to introduce civil unions and/or put same-sex marriage to a national referendum. Nor has the government used its overwhelming majority in the local parliament to strike the sodomy law from the books. But as the country prepares to draft a modern constitution to reflect its new status as a republic, it has taken steps to prepare for the inclusion of text that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation (if not explicitly gender/transgender status).

UK Territories: Appeals to the differing same-sex marriage decisions made by courts in Bermuda and Cayman Islands were heard by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in February. The courts have not yet rendered a decision. Some have predicted that the court’s decision could have wide-ranging impact on the remaining UK territories that do not allow same-sex marriage (Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos, Anguilla, Montserrat) but bear in mind that the JCPC is not interpreting some joint constitution that applies to all islands, but each island’s individual constitutions. Additionally, a local judicial review of the Cayman Islands’ Governor’s decision last year to impose the civil partnership act is underway – opponents believe he overstepped his bounds in imposing the law that had been rejected by the local parliament; he says he was acting to uphold rule of law by passing a law required by the courts.

CUBA: The National Assembly passed a draft Family Code that recognizes diverse families without specifically referring to same-sex marriage. It’s unclear how this will work in practice for LGBT couples. The draft will got to a referendum that will follow a popular consultation campaign that runs from February to April 20, 2022.

Curacao: A court found that the ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, but left it up to the local legislature to amend the laws to allow it. Last year, a same-sex marriage bill was withdrawn due to lack of support.

HAITI: A new penal code enacted by decree by the former President takes effect in June 2022, unless blocked by Parliament. The new penal code includes protections against discrimination for LGBT Haitians. The country has been in an ongoing political crisis for several years now.

A coordinated campaign to bring court challenges to sodomy laws in the eight Caribbean countries that still have them on the books (Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Saint Lucia) did not deliver any significant news this year.

 

SOUTH AMERICA

CHILE: After years of opposition, outgoing Chilean President Pinera shocked observers by announcing his support for an equal marriage bill introduced by his predecessor four years earlier. The bill then moved quickly through Congress and became law in December, with an effect date in March 2022. The bill includes automatic parenting recognition, the right to adopt (including for couples in civil unions, which continue), and an end to automatic divorce for trans people (although marriages only continue with a spouse’s permission). The bill also extends to Chile’s disputed claim on Antarctica, which means that all countries claiming territory in Antarctica have legalized same-sex marriage. It also extends to Easter Island in Polynesia.

Chile’s presidential election became a showdown between a millennial socialist and a far-right populist who had a long career opposing LGBT rights, and in the end, the 35-year-old socialist Boric won. Looming ahead in Chile, a national convention plans to unveil a draft new constitution next year, which will be put to a referendum. Progressives make up the majority of the convention, and some predict the draft constitution will include explicit non-discrimination protections for LGBT people and an LGBT-inclusive definition of marriage.

Chile also passed a bunch of laws that banned “conversion therapy” as a psychological practice, and banned discrimination against LGBT people in immigration and education.

BOLIVIA: Although a court ordered the government to recognize “free unions” between same-sex couples in December 2020, actual enforcement has apparently been limited. A lesbian couple was denied registration of their free union in May 2021. The Minister of Justice announced in May that an equal marriage case was being heard at the Constitutional Court, but no further news has come.

VENEZUELA: There has been no movement on legalizing same-sex marriage, as called for by the country’s (disputed) President Maduro in 2020.

GUYANA: The National Assembly removed the defunct ban on cross dressing from its Summary Jurisdiction Offences Act, after it had been struck down by the Caribbean Court of Justice in 2018. The sodomy law remains on the books.

PERU: The country elected a new president who is fiercely opposed to LGBT rights, especially same-sex marriage.

 

EUROPE

EUROPEAN UNION: The European Court of Justice ruled that all member states must recognize the birth certificates issued in other states, an issue that had previously posed a problem for children of LGBT couples. In the case in question, Bulgaria had refused to recognize the birth certificate of a child of two women that was born in Spain. As one of the parents was a Bulgarian national, the child had the right to Bulgarian citizenship, but the country would not recognize the birth certificate and issue a passport. Of the EU’s 27 countries, 14 do not recognize same-sex marriage or allow joint couple adoption, 11 ban step-child adoption, and 6 do not offer any formal recognition of same-sex couples.

 

WESTERN EUROPE

SWITZERLAND: The big news this year was that equal marriage campaigners in Switzerland won the referendum that right-wing elements forced the government to hold over the same-sex marriage law it passed last year. The vote was held in September 2021 and was won by a margin of 64%-36%. The law will finally come into effect in July 2022 – nothing moves fast in Switzerland, where this law was first proposed in 2013. Switzerland also passed a simplified legal gender transition law that takes effect Jan 1, 2022.

ANDORRA: A comic showdown has been happening in Andorra every three weeks since March 2021, where the Parliament has been delaying debate on an equal marriage bill, calling for more consultations. I’m not entirely clear what exactly is going on here, as news is difficult to come by out of the Pyrenees nation. What I’ve gathered is that the proposed bill offers same-sex couples a “casamente” while the term “matrimoni” is reserved for heterosexual couples, although both versions will be treated equally under the law. Confusingly, both words translate from Catalan to English as “marriage.” I think the distinction is akin to wedding/marriage. Anyway, the opposition appears to be trying to force the government to erase the distinction, not torpedo the bill altogether, although I could have that wrong.

LIECHTENSTEIN: After the Swiss referendum, the neighboring microstate had a discussion in their parliament about same-sex marriage that led to a commitment to reform after broad social debate. Elections in February reportedly brought in a large majority of legislators who support equal marriage, but the royal family has made vague statements in opposition, which may be why they’re being cautious. For what it’s worth, the Prince himself doesn’t seem to be commenting, though his retired father has expressed personal opposition. He previously was most vehemently opposed to same-sex couple adoption, but the Constitutional Court has already overruled him there, granting same-sex couples in civil partnerships the right to step-child adoption in June 2021. The Court left the issue of joint adoption to the legislature for now. Still, it seems like legislators are loath to pass a law that the Prince will veto, and I suspect the “broad social debate” is meant to force him to clearly state his position or convince him of its popularity more than anything.

SAN MARINO: Completing our tour of the microstates, legislation came into effect rendering civil unions to be functionally equal to marriages in all aspects, except for certain parts of family law (ie, joint adoption).

ITALY: After years of debate, a broad anti-discrimination and hate crime bill passed the lower house of Parliament only to be killed in the Senate. Though the bill was broadly popular, right-wing populists had campaigned hard against it, and a centrist party led by former PM Rezni joined them to kill it in a move that critics asserted was a political power move.

FRANCE: The National Assembly passed a broad bioethics reform law that gave access to assisted reproduction to single women and lesbians, as well as a comprehensive ban on “conversion therapy” practices.

UK: The UK spent much of the year going back-and-forth on a proposal to ban conversion therapy, but it did not pass after Conservatives torpedoed their own bill. UK territories in the Caribbean/Atlantic Bermuda and Cayman Islands both had cases heard at the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council dealing with equal marriage (see the section on the Americas).

GERMANY: The German government ended a ban on transgender soldiers serving in the military and instituted a compensation scheme for people who had been persecuted under the country’s anti-gay laws that remained on the books until 1969.

A newly elected progressive-led coalition has also made big promises to the LGBT community in its coalition agreement: transgender self-identification, ban on intersex surgeries, total ban on conversion therapy, ending the blood donation deferral from GBT men, covering gender-affirming surgeries in health care, compensating trans victims of legal discrimination, and enshrining a ban on anti-LGBT discrimination in the constitution.

GREECE: The government ended the ban on blood donation from GBT men. As of 2021, the main opposition parties in Parliament all support same-sex marriage.

 

EASTERN EUROPE

CROATIA: The Constitutional Court affirmed in June that same-sex couples in registered partnerships have the right to adopt, putting Croatia quite ahead of its neighboring countries.  

MONTENEGRO: The Life Partnership Act passed last year came into effect.

NORTH MACEDONIA: The government passed a law allowing trans people to update the gender markers on their identification.

SERBIA: Although a civil partnership bill had been in the works for years, President Vucic abruptly announced that he would veto it if it came to his desk. So it’s dead for now.

KOSOVO: Work continued on developing a new Civil Code, which last year the Ministry of Justice had pledged would introduce same-sex civil unions, continued, although momentum appears to have stalled in Parliament. It appears the local LGBT community is not pleased with being relegated to second-class status implied by continued block on marriage.

BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA: A proposal to offer civil partnerships in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has not advanced since 2018.

Efforts to expand the European Union — which would bring some additional protections for LGBT individuals and families under EU law — into the Balkan region stalled a bit this year, with no real progress made on Serbia and Montenegro’s applications, and the applications for Albania and North Macedonia frozen for most of the year due to an objection by Bulgaria to the latter. The new Bulgarian government elected in December waived its objection and has proposed an (unlikely) program to speed those country’s membership talks by the end of 2022.

CZECHIA: Parliament advanced different bills that would make same-sex marriage legal or ban it in the constitution in the last months of its session, but neither passed. A new government coalition elected in October differs sharply on the issue, so it’s not expected to advance despite broad public support. Parliament also blocked a bill that would allow same-sex couples to foster children, and another bill that would have recognized children adopted by same-sex couples in other countries. One legislator has pledged to propose a comprehensive adoption reform law in the new year.

HUNGARY: While proto-fascist prime minister Orban continued his campaign against the country’s LGBT community with a harsh gag law, his political opponents have united ahead of next April’s elections and polls show a very tight race. The opposition’s presidential candidate is a progressive who supports same-sex marriage and has vowed to repeal all of Orban’s anti-LGBT laws. While this is encouraging, I would caution that even if his coalition wins, they will include some far-right elements that have been historically hostile to LGBT people, albeit that they seem to be recanting those views now.

ESTONIA: A planned referendum on continuing to ban same-sex marriage was killed in Parliament after left-wing politicians staged a filibuster just long enough for the government to fall in a corruption scandal. The bill was finally killed by a majority vote of the parliament. A new governing coalition that took office in January has pledged to finally pass the enabling legislation for the Registered Partnership Act that was originally passed in 2016. The coalition agreement pledges not to support same-sex marriage.

The Supreme Court ruled that LGBT couples must be treated the same as heterosexual couples for purposes of immigration and residency, including if they are unmarried. Separately, the government announced that because it no longer requires trans people to divorce before changing their legal gender, there are already a number of recognized same-sex marriages in the country.

LATVIA: Parliament debated but ultimately rejected extending hate crime provisions in law to protect people from attacks based on sexual orientation.

LITHUANIA: A draft civil partnership bill was rejected 65-63 in parliament in May. Its sponsor, an openly gay MP, had pledged to reintroduce the bill before the end of 2021, but it doesn’t seem he has yet. Presumably he’s trying to build a bigger base of support. In September, the president said he opposed adoption rights for same-sex couples.

RUSSIA: The European Court of Human Rights ruled that it was a violation of human rights for Russia not to offer any legal recognition of same-sex couples. Russia ignored the ruling.

 

ASIA

EAST ASIA

JAPAN: The District Court of Sapporo found that the constitution does not ban same-sex marriage, and in fact that banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. It left it up to the legislature to resolve the issue. Opposition parties largely support same-sex marriage, but Japan is basically a one-party democracy. The governing party also held a leadership race this year, but the candidate who supported same-sex marriage lost. Although the issue enjoys wide popular support, the political establishment appears to be behind the public on it.

The government had proposed passing a very milquetoast bill that would have encouraged greater understanding of LGBT people (but not actually banned discrimination or hate crimes) in the run up to the Tokyo Olympics, but ultimately it couldn’t even muster up enough interest to pass it..

In the meantime, the push to have local governments pass partnership registries that give limited rights to same-sex couples found some success.  As of press time, 135 municipalities (out of 1719) and 5 prefectures (out of 47) have passed such registries. Four more prefectures, including the largest, Tokyo, have announced plans to introduce them next year, and 19 more municipalities have registries coming into force next year as well.

TAIWAN: The government is in the process of amending its marriage laws to allow binational couples, where one party is from a non-equal-marriage country, to get married in Taiwan, following a March 2021 court ruling that found this restriction in contravention of the Constitutional Court’s original order for same-sex marriage in 2017.

Hong Kong: A court case was filed seeking recognition of a same-sex marriage after a man was refused recognition when his spouse died.

THAILAND: No actual progress was made on the government’s civil partnership bill or a competing same-sex marriage bill. In the meantime, the Constitutional Court issued a strongly criticized ruling that found not only was same-sex marriage not required by law, but that marriage also had to be restricted to heterosexual couples as gays can’t reproduce.

PHILLIPINES: Debate over same-sex marriage and an anti-discrimination law looks to carry on through next year’s general elections.

SOUTH KOREA: The government proposed reforms to family law to recognize single-parent families and unmarried parents but did not include same-sex partner recognition.

 

SOUTH ASIA

INDIA: The Delhi High Court is in the middle of a hearing on several related same-sex marriage cases, seeking recognition under several of India’s separate marriage laws. It should rule at some time in 2022. I would put money on the ruling being in favor.

BHUTAN: The Penal Code reform bill that removed sodomy as a crime received Royal Assent after passing through Parliament in 2020.

 

MIDDLE EAST & CENTRAL ASIA

ISRAEL: Israel’s multi-year political standoff finally came to an end, with a left-right coalition taking power. Some parts of the coalition support same-sex marriage but a big chunk doesn’t, and it’s a very fragile coalition, so don’t expect much progress.

UZBEKISTAN: A movement to strike the sodomy law from the Criminal Code failed to bear fruit, and in fact seemed to generate a strong backlash against the country’s LGBT community.

AFGHANISTAN: The fall of the government to the Taliban has certainly worsened the situation on the ground for the country’s LGBT people.

KAZAKHSTAN: Abolished the death penalty.

NORTH CYPRUS: Tensions continued across the island after last year’s election of a pro-independence/pro-Turkey hardliner in the North. It is unlikely that reunification, and application of generally LGBT-positive EU law to the North that would come with it, is likely any time soon.

 

AFRICA

NAMIBIA: Multiple same-sex marriage cases were heard in the courts this year. Three cases seeking recognition of foreign same-sex marriages were joined and heard, and a judgement is expected January 20, 2022.

A case seeking recognition of children born to two male parents via surrogacy was initially denied by the courts, although the government relented and issued travel documents to the infants anyway – surrogacy and same-sex marriage are both not recognized in current law. A different case later ordered the government to recognize the citizenship of their other child and went further by finding that discrimination based on sexual orientation is banned under the constitution.

Additionally, the ministry of justice announced plans to remove the common law crime of sodomy from Namibian law by the end of the year, but this hasn’t happened yet. A burgeoning LGBT rights movement has also drawn a lot of attention to all of these cases this year, so I would expect some significant progress here in 2022.

BOTSWANA: The Court of Appeal made a final decision upholding the 2019 decision that decriminalized sodomy and found that discrimination based on sexual orientation is banned under the constitution.

MAURITIUS: A case challenging the country’s sodomy law continued through the courts. It will continue into 2022.

ANGOLA: The new Criminal Code that passed in 2019 took effect in February. It decriminalized sodomy, banned anti-LGBT hate crimes and anti-LGBT discrimination.

UGANDA: Parliament passed a bill that would further criminalize LGBT people and their associates, but it was vetoed by President Museveni after intense pressure from local activists and international rights groups.

GHANA and SENEGAL: Both countries had legislators propose even stricter anti-LGBT laws than the ones on the books. Senegal’s Parliament voted its anti-LGBT bill down in the last days of December, but we’ll see how Ghana’s progresses in 2022.

SIERRA LEONNE: Abolished the death penalty.

MOROCCO: A growing social movement is seeking to strike all sections relating to consensual sex from the Penal Code, including sections prohibiting sodomy. A new, somewhat progressive government was swept into office in September and has pledged to revise the Penal Code but has not made any specific pledges related to the sex provisions (including a ban on extramarital sex).

TUNISIA: A court challenge of the country’s sodomy law was filed in December. Parliament has been suspended on order of the President until December 2022, and the President has rejected calls to decriminalize homosexuality, so a legislative solution is unlikely to arrive in 2022. Tunisia has also been condemned for subjected suspected homosexuals to force anal examinations.

 

OCEANIA

Easter Island: Same-sex marriage will become legal here in March 2022, as it’s part of Chile.

American Samoa: See the section on the US in the Americas. US Courts found that American Samoans are not citizens and therefore not entitled to the protections of the 14^th Amendment, which would require same-sex marriage. Appeals are ongoing and will likely reach the Supreme Court.

NEW ZEALAND: The government introduced a bill to ban “conversion therapy” in May. It’s currently in committee.

Cook Islands: Parliament kept postponing debate on its new Crimes Bill, which would potentially delete the provisions criminalizing sodomy or also criminalize lesbian sex. It was under review by the Crown Law office in New Zealand which returned a final draft in November, but Parliament deferred debate on it again. Unfortunately, the Cook Islands News paywalled itself this year, so I have no further context to provide.

Niue: Although the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) has reported that this New Zealand territory had sodomy decriminalized by an act of the New Zealand Parliament in 2007, Wikipedia sleuths discovered this year that the law was never actually ratified by the local Parliament. So the sodomy law from the Niue Act 1966 is still in force. I’ve asked ILGA for comment about this, but haven’t received any updates if they’ve been able to confirm the status of the law. Hopefully, they will sort this out in their next global update.

AUSTRALIA: The federal government has been wrapped up in its bizarre plan to create a religious exception to anti-discrimination laws, which looks like it’s a dead letter now, do to internal opposition within the governing coalition. Australia also reduced the blood donation deferral period for GBT men from 12 to 3 months. Victoria state banned “conversion therapy” (only 2 of Australia’s 8 jurisdictions have banned it). Western Australia is still discussing legalizing altruistic surrogacy (it’s the only state where that’s banned).

Bougainville: Papua New Guinea agreed to grant this island independence by 2027. Assuming it inherits Papua New Guinea’s Penal Code, it will come into being as yet another state that criminalizes sodomy.

New Caledonia: Conversely, New Caledonia’s third independence referendum (from France) failed amid a massive boycott from the native population who protested that the COVID-19 pandemic made a referendum unfair. It will not be born as a new equal marriage country any time soon. 

 

LOOKING AHEAD

Looking ahead to 2022, there are a number of states to keep an eye on. Legislators are already planning debate on the issue in Andorra and Liechtenstein, and 2022 could be the year that the final holdout states in Mexico finish legalizing same-sex marriage.

Cuba will have a referendum on a proposed Family Code that would legalize same-sex marriage. Final court decisions are expected on same-sex marriage cases in India and Namibia. Separate cases will be heard by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (UK) for Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, which may also set precedents that impact other holdout UK territories. And the issue of American Samoa’s citizenship status within the United States may come to a head, and by extension, extend equal marriage to that territory. There may also be decisions coming from the high courts in Bolivia and Panama.

We’ll likely see more same-sex partnership registries adopted by municipalities and prefectures in Japan, but I strongly doubt the national definition of marriage will be up for debate this year. Ditto for Thailand, where I think the civil partnership law is the more likely option for legislators to pass – if anything, given how they’ve been dragging their feet on the issue for years.

Beyond that, it’ll be worth following elections in Hungary and Philippines, to see how advocates for same-sex marriage and broader LGBT rights perform. In Hungary in particular, it seems like the moment may have come for a big changeover in the debate. We should also watch how the ongoing political turmoil in Haiti unravels, if only to follow if the new Penal Code which bans anti-LGBT discrimination comes into effect.

If you want to keep up-to-date on the latest in the global fight for equal marriage and LGBT rights, follow my Twitter feed @LGBTmarriage. And, if you liked this article and appreciate the work I do, please consider sending me a tip via Venmo.