USA: Arkansas House approves bill banning transgender athletes from women’s sports

The Arkansas House of Representatives on Monday approved a bill that prevents transgender women from competing in women’s sports at all levels of education.

Titled the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” the legislation applies to “a public elementary school or secondary school; an open enrollment public charter school; and a public two-year or four-year institution of higher education.” For the purposes of the act, “School” also applies to include “any private educational institution whose interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, or club athletic teams or sports compete against a public school.”

The bill requires any team or sport sponsored by a school to be expressly designated by biological sex as follows: male, men’s, or boys; female, women’s, or girls. “An interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, or club athletic team or sport that is expressly designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex.”

The legislation also gives students a private cause of action for injunctive relief, damages, or any other relief available against any school which allows a transgender athlete to participate in female sports. A similar remedy is available to any school that suffers direct or indirect harm due to the participation of a transgender athlete in a female designated sport.

Having passed the Arkansas Senate earlier this month, the bill will now go to Governor Asa Hutchinson for approval. Hutchinson has not stated whether he supports the bill. South Dakota, Utah, Mississippi and Tennessee state legislatures have advanced similar bills this year.

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From the Margins: Global Perspectives on LGBTQ+ Experiences, Virtual Symposium and Workshop, April 8 and 9 2021

Maynooth University Department of Law, in association with the MU Sexualities and Genders Network, is organising a virtual Symposium and Workshop entitled “From the Margins: Global Perspectives on LGBTQ+ Experiences”. This takes place on April 8 and 9 2021. 

The Thursday symposium features presentations from international speakers, both academic and activist, on experiences of being LGBTQ+ in different parts of the globe. The Friday workshop focusses on the politics of voice and listening, with a particular emphasis on non-binary gender identities. Both events take place on Zoom.
Attendance at the events is free, but those wishing to attend are asked to register. Further details on registration are available here: 

• https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/sexgen/events/margins-global-perspectives-lgbtq-experiences 
• https://www.eventbrite.com/e/from-the-margins-global-perspectives-on-lgbtq-experiences-thursday-tickets-144283685387 (registration for Thursday 8 April)
• https://www.eventbrite.com/e/from-the-margins-workshop-on-non-binary-and-genderqueer-identities-friday-tickets-144291235971 (registration for Friday 9 April)

These events are very kindly sponsored and supported by the Maynooth University Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, and Interculturalism (EDI) Project Fund.

USA: Kansas advances ‘hateful’ transphobic sports ban ‘rooted in bigotry’

Read: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/03/18/kansas-trans-sports-ban-senate-bill-house/

EU Parliament Resolution Declares EU as LGBTIQ Freedom Zone

Read: https://www.asil.org/ILIB/eu-parliament-resolution-declares-eu-lgbtiq-freedom-zone

Japan court finds government’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage unconstitutional

The Sapporo District Court found Wednesday that the government’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage is unconstitutional because it violates the right to equality.

As a member of the Group of Seven, an intergovernmental organization including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US, Japan was the only country that did not recognize same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples were not afforded the same rights as heterosexual couples. Some municipalities, such as Tokyo’s Shibuya ward, only began recognizing same-sex partnerships in 2015. In 2017, Osaka become the first city in the country to recognize same-sex couples as foster parents. However, Japan did not recognize same-sex marriage.

In February 2019, 13 same-sex couples filed lawsuits across four districts in Japan, alleging that the country’s denial of same-sex marriage violates the constitution. The couples sought 1 million yen in damages each for psychological damage allegedly caused by the government’s negligence in not amending the law. This was the first major challenge to same-sex marriage’s constitutionality. In July 2019, major opposition groups, including the Constitutional Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party, submitted a bill to recognize same-sex marriages.

On Wednesday, the court found that the government was violating Article 14 of the Constitution by discriminatorily failing to implement legal measures to offer any marital benefits to same-sex couples. The denial of same-sex marriage violated the right to equality. However, the court declined to award psychological damages.

This was a historic verdict in Japan, as it is considered to be a major symbolic victory for the LGBTQ community.

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Parution d’un ouvrage de Thierry Delessert sur l’histoire des homosexualités en Suisse Link: https://www.seismoverlag.ch/en/daten/sortons-du-ghetto/

Parution d’un ouvrage de Thierry Delessert sur l’histoire des homosexualités en Suisse — LGBTI Recht in der Schweiz – Droit LGBTI en Suisse – by Professor Andreas R Ziegler

USA: South Dakota Senate passes bill to block transgender women from girls’ sports

The South Dakota state Senate on Monday approved a bill that prevents transgender women from competing in women’s sports at the high school and college level.

Titled “an act to promote continued fairness in women’s sports,” the legislation applies to public schools and any “institution of higher education under the control of the Board of Regents or the South Dakota Board of Technical Education.” Under the new bill, any qualifying school must designate athletic activities as male, female, or coeducational. Any team or sport in the female category will be available only to students who “are female, based on their biological sex.”

The bill mandates that each student who wishes to participate in a school sport submits a statement including their age and “biological sex, as ascertained at or before birth in accordance with the student’s genetics and reproductive biology.” If a school has “reasonable cause” to think that a student’s statement of their biological sex is false, it may “remove the student from, and prohibit further participation in, any sport or on any athletic team for the duration of the school year.”

The legislation also includes provisions to prohibit the investigation of school employees who enforce the bill and gives students a claim for relief if they are harmed by violation of the bill or face retaliation for reporting a possible violation of the bill.

Having passed the South Dakota state House in February, the bill will now go to Governor Kristi Noem for approval. Noem stated that she is “excited to sign this bill very soon” in the pursuit of “defending women’s sports.” Utah, Mississippi and Tennessee state legislatures have advanced similar bills this year.

The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota called the legislation “an attack on transgender women and girls that will cause them serious emotional and physical harm” and said it undermines policies that are already in place to include transgender athletes.

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“Gender critical” beliefs and the ECHR

Posted: 08 Jun 2020 01:14 PM PDT (c) Paul Johnson – http://echrso.blogspot.com/

European Human Rights Law Review has published my article “Gender Critical Beliefs and the European Convention on Human Rights”.

The article critically explores the extent to which “gender critical” beliefs – which, principally, are that sex is biologically immutable and that it is impossible for a human being to change sex – should qualify for protection under the Convention.

In the article, I argue that a recent judgment of an Employment Tribunal in the UK, which held that gender critical beliefs do not qualify for protection under British equality law, was appropriate because it reflects the settled jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of the rights and freedoms of transgender people.

I also argue that this approach is consistent with the right to express gender critical beliefs, as the High Court of England and Wales has held, under Article 10 of the Convention.

The article is published in EHRLR (2020) issue 2, and will soon be available on Westlaw. If anyone wants to read it and cannot access it online, please email me and I will happily send you a copy.

USA: Trans inmate forced to share a cell with a convicted rapist and murderer. He raped her that same night, court told

Read: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/03/03/trans-inmate-prison-convicted-rapist-sexually-assaulted-michigan/