Hello everyone and welcome back to another more positive installment on Good Gay News. The world is beaming with good news for the LGBTQ+ community, and the news comes from two different continents: Asia and Europe. In Asia, the Indian Supreme Court decided to block legalizing gay marriage despite many in the country supporting it, and in the United Kingdom, conversion therapy did not make it onto the King’s speech even though it was promised for years. I want to move on to the good news coming from Asia, specifically from Taiwan and Japan.
On October 28, Taiwan hosted East Asia’s largest pride parade in Taipei. 180,000 people were in the streets of Taipei as part of their 21st annual pride parade. Taiwan had been selected to host a World Pride Event in 2025 but had to back out due to politics. They are also one of the most progressive countries in Asia to date. They had local and international people attend the pride parade and many were Drag Queens and other queer performers. The organizer for the event was the Taiwan Rainbow Civic Action Association (TRCAA) and when asked about what the theme was for this year they said, “recognizing the diversity of every person, and respecting and accepting different gender identities.” The previous year it had 120,000 people come and attend and had drag performances, coloring stations, and rainbow markets. Attendance for this year went past their expectations. The celebration last year came after Taiwan made it legal for same-sex couples to adopt children. Japan is slowly following in Taiwan’s footsteps by being another accepting country in Asia. In Japan, transgender people had to go through surgery to sterilize themselves and change their gender officially before the government would recognize it. This is terrible as no one should be forced to go through surgeries in general to be recognized as who they are, and Gen Suzuki 2021 filed a request to the Shizuoka Family Court to have his gender legally changed without having to get the surgery. Suzuki said, “It is wrong for the state to force an unwanted surgery.” On October 13th, the court decided to allow Suzuki to change his gender without undergoing surgery. In the decision, a judge had written that forcing the procedures, “has the serious and irreversible result of loss of reproductive function.” The judge also added to their statement, “I cannot help but question whether being forced to undergo such treatment lacks necessity or rationality, considering the level of social chaos it may cause and [sick] from a medical perspective.” This isn’t the only case regarding the issue and The Japanese Supreme Court is currently considering a case that could determine that forcing people to get these surgeries is unconstitutional on a national level. I am sitting here praying that The Japanese Supreme Court does consider the case and rules that it is unconstitutional on a national level, so others do not have to forcibly go through these procedures.
Moving onto Europe there is some more good news coming from Poland and it’s allowing the LGBTQ+ Community to finally breathe a little. In Poland, the leading conservative party (The Law and Justice Party) lost its legislative power in their most recent elections on October 15. This party had eight years of control before losing it on that Sunday. The Law and Justice Party is set to gain more seats however, it will still be the minority when compared to the Civic Coalition, Third Way, and the Left which are set to gain in total 248 seats. More Polish citizens turned out to vote this compared to previous years which contributed to them losing their power and lead over the other parties. This isn’t a complete win as other parties are not huge fans of LGBTQ+ rights, but the biggest opposing party to those rights no longer have the lead gives many in Poland some new hope. While The Law and Justice Party had control, they had passed a total of 56 anti-LGBTQ+ resolutions and passed many against abortions in the country as well. From 2020-2023 Poland was named one of the most anti-LGBTQ+ countries in Europe. Many LGBTQ+ activists in Poland see their loss as a win and the “end of a nightmare” for the community. Now, we just need the Republicans here to lose their majority on a state and federal level, and maybe the LGBTQ+ community in West Virginia and the United States could breathe.
This concludes this week’s installment of Good Gay News. I hope that hearing some positive things from these notoriously hateful states makes you smile. Please remember you are loved, cherished, and appreciated by many people. Ignore the negative things people say about you and the community; know things will improve.
