In India, a same-sex couple approached the Delhi High Court seeking legal recognition of their marriage under the Foreign Marriage Act, India.com reported. The petitioners, an Indian citizen and an overseas citizen, are two gay men who got married in Washington, D.C., in 2017. The petitioners claimed that they had approached the Indian consulate at New York to register their marriage under the Foreign Marriage Act of 1969 on March 5, 2020, but the consulate refused the application for registration on grounds of their sexual orientation.
In Japan, a local politician of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has come under fire for claiming last month that his north Tokyo municipality would "cease to exist" if the rights of sexual minorities are protected by law, Kyodo News reported. "This is impossible, but if all Japanese women were lesbian or all Japanese men were gay, then do you think the next generation of people will be born?," Masateru Shiraishi, 78, asked Sept. 25 at an assembly session of Tokyo's Adachi Ward, in comments that appeared to blame sexual minorities for Japan's falling number of births. Shiraishi told Kyodo News he did not intend to discriminate against sexual minorities, and that he was speaking hypothetically.
Also in Japan, Pride House Tokyo Legacy has opened its first community hub for LGBTQ people as part of its project to create an inclusive space and raise awareness of discrimination before the Olympics and Paralympics, InsideTheGames.biz noted. Having been a part of the Olympic Games since Vancouver 2010, Pride House continues to provide information centers to educate the public about sexual diversity and offer refuge for those suffering harassment or discrimination. Japan is still one of the most LGBTQ progressive nations in Asia, with homosexuality legal since 1880—although same-sex marriage is not legal.
Authors Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and Margaret Atwood joined with other U.S. and Canadian writers and editors to support transgender and non-binary people in the face of British author J.K. Rowling's continual attacks on the community, LGBTQ Nation noted. "We are writers, editors, journalists, agents, and professionals in multiple forms of publishing," they wrote in a statement. "We believe in the power of words. We want to do our part to help shape the curve of history toward justice and fairness." The statement ended with "We say: non-binary people are non-binary, trans women are women, trans men are men, trans rights are human rights." More than 50 British media figures signed an open letter defending Rowling in the face of criticism over her war on transgender people, spurring the response.
LGBTQ+ Nigerians have a chance to be a part of an upcoming Naija LGBT Virtual Job Fair—a first for the country, 76Crimes.com noted. The event—scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 28—is being organized by the Bisi Alimi Foundation, a diaspora LGBTIQ+ organization working to accelerate social acceptance of LGBTIQ+ people in Nigeria. According to the organization, the aim of the event is to "connect businesses [throughout the country] with the Nigerian LGBT community."
Government leaders in Canada and New Zealand announced their intentions to ban conversion therapy in their respective countries, Out.com reported. A bill to outlaw the controversial practice was reintroduced in Canada while New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised to outlaw the practice if she and her party win enough seats in the upcoming election. "I am committing Labour to ban conversion therapy in New Zealand," Ardern told Gay Express Magazine. "This is a prime example of where an element of our system allows for quite damaging activity, which in modern NZ should just not be happening."
A transgender woman was sworn in as deputy prime minister in Belgium's new government—becoming the most senior trans politician in Europe, Openly News reported. Petra De Sutter, a gynecologist and Green party Member of the European Parliament, became one of seven deputy prime ministers in Belgium's coalition government, ending a 16-month deadlock after an inconclusive election.
To "celebrate" Russian president Vladimir Putin's 68th birthday, members of the protest punk-rock outfit Pussy Riot hoisted rainbow Pride flags outside five government buildings in Moscow in protest of the Russian government's continued denial of LGBTQ rights, Billboard.com noted. Later, the band posted multiple tweets saying that four of the collective's members—including members Sasha Sofeev, Maria Alyokhina and Veronica Nikulshina—had been arrested following their protest. The group also posted a list of demands alongside photos of the flags online, which included demands like "investigate the killings and kidnappings of gay, lesbian, transgender and queer people in Chechnya," "legalize same-sex partnerships," and "stop harassment of activists and organizations who help the LGBTQ community."
The owners of the second-tallest building in Ukraine took a stand against a rising tide of homophobia in the region, according to Out.com . The colors of the Pride flag were projected onto the exterior of the 35-story Gulliver Mall in the capital city of Kyiv each evening on Oct. 5-11. The projection was scheduled to coincide with Ukraine's celebration of Pride Month as well as International Coming Out Day on Oct. 11.
The 2019 Eurovision champion, Duncan Laurence, revealed on social media he is engaged to songwriter boyfriend Jordan Garfield, Out.com noted. He made the revelation on his Instagram story with a simple photo of an engagement ring on his finger. Laurence won the international singing/songwriting contest last year with his song "Arcade." The Dutch singer and U.S. songwriter have been an item since the beginning of the year according to reports in the Dutch media, but the pair only confirmed in May they were in a relationship.
Stonewall UK deputy chair Simon Blake plans to sue Laurence Fox after the actor called him a pedophile during a bizarre Twitter rant about supermarket chain Sainsbury's, PinkNews reported. Fox took to Twitter to fire off a furious series of tweets reacting to Sainsbury's celebrating Black History Month. Comments flooded in accusing the actor of "racism," and Simon Blake, the gay CEO of Mental Health First Aid England and deputy chair of Stonewall UK, replied to Fox's tweet: "What a mess. What a racist t**t." Fox responded by posting, "Pretty rich coming from a paedophile [the British spelling of pedophile]."
Schitt's Creek star Dan Levy tweeted about a 2019 promo from Comedy Central India—that cut out a same-sex kiss from a scene within the show's fifth season, Instinct Magazine noted. When Levy called out the TV station on social media, he noted that the Comedy Central sub-station censored the gay male kiss but kept the other two kisses, which involve a man and a woman and a same-sex female couple. Levy's comments led to several others tweeting to Comedy Central India asking that Schitt's Creek not be censored. Comedy Central India had yet to comment on the situation and promo.
