South Korea
South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled in a victory for same-sex couples last week, upholding a lower court ruling that said they should have equal access to national health insurance benefits.
The ruling is a landmark as it is the first time that same-sex couples have been given legal recognition in an East Asian country.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the National Health Insurance System’s refusal to provide spousal benefits to same-sex couples constitutes unconstitutional discrimination. This decision is final.
The lawsuit was filed by same-sex couple Seo Sung-wook and Kim Young-min in 2021 after the National Health Insurance cancelled Seo’s registration as Kim’s dependent and imposed new insurance fees. Seo and Kim had been dating since 2017 and had a wedding ceremony in 2019.
The NHIS allows married or common-law opposite-sex couples to register as dependents for employer-sponsored insurance but had no policy to allow same-sex couples.
The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of the NHI scheme in 2022, but the Seoul High Court overturned the decision the following year, ruling in the couple’s favor that the denial of the NHI scheme was discriminatory.
“When I heard the verdict, I was so moved that I couldn’t stop crying,” Seo told reporters outside the court. “It took me four years to get this dependent status. Now I need to fight harder for the legalization of same-sex marriage.”
Advocacy group All Korea Marriage said in a statement that the decision was just a first step.
“This decision gives hope to other same-sex couples living in Korean society and marks a major milestone towards marriage equality and equal civil rights for LGBTQ people. However, same-sex couples whose marriages are not legally recognized continue to face various forms of discrimination,” the statement said.
“Long and arduous litigation, as in this case, that same-sex couples have to endure to obtain spousal rights should no longer be necessary. Essentially, we will continue to promote the broader marriage equality movement so that we can eliminate all systemic discrimination that prevents same-sex couples from legally marrying and enjoying full spousal rights, and so that LGBTQ people in Korea can enjoy equal civil rights.”
Several bills to allow same-sex marriage and civil unions and ban discrimination against LGBTQ people have been introduced by opposition lawmakers in the South Korean National Assembly over the years, but none have progressed.
Seo Sung-wook and his partner Kim Young-min. (Photo courtesy of marriageforall.kr)
Lithuania
A final attempt to pass a long-stalled civil union bill before the end of the current parliamentary session ended in disappointment on July 18 when the government withdrew the bill from the agenda before the final day of the session began.
The civil union bill has long been a bone of contention within the fragile governing coalition, which includes the conservative Homeland Alliance as its largest party and the more progressive Liberal Party, which had made the bill a priority.
The bill passed two readings in parliament with the support of the left-wing opposition parties, but after opposition parties withdrew their support for the bill (in part to prevent the government from winning) and parts of the Homeland Coalition opposed it, the coalition government was unable to secure enough votes to pass the bill.
Over the past month, the Liberal Party has tried to force its opponents in the Homeland Union to support the bill by threatening to block the appointment of Lithuania’s European Commissioner if the Liberal Party does not support the bill.
In the final days of the parliamentary session before Parliament is dissolved for the October elections, the two parties appear to have reached an agreement that will see the civil union bill put on the agenda for a final vote on the last day of the session.
But the opposition Social Democrats refused to cooperate, choosing again to deny the government a victory on this issue despite having campaigned in support of civil unions in the past. Without their votes, the bill was doomed to failure.
Rather than allow the bill to fail, the government has withdrawn it from the agenda, which will allow it to be reintroduced in the new parliament in October and avoid having to start the process all over again.
Despite the bill being withdrawn, anti-LGBTQ protesters gathered outside parliament and burned rainbow flags, with Vilnius police saying they were investigating the charges as incitement to hatred.
Two parliamentary elections are due to be held on October 13th and 27th, with the Social Democrats currently holding a large lead in opinion polls.
Lithuania is one of five European Union countries that do not recognise same-sex marriage – the other four are Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Poland, which has proposed a civil union bill that its government hopes to pass in the autumn.
England
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s newly elected Labour government included a ban on conversion therapy in the King’s Speech opening Parliament on 17 July, signalling that the legislation would be a priority for the session.
The King’s Speech is a tradition in British politics in which the King reads a speech prepared by the Government outlining the priorities for the next Parliamentary session, which usually lasts around a year.
During the election campaign, Starmer pledged to support a transgender-inclusive ban on abusive conversion therapy, an issue that has become a political lightning rod in Britain over the past decade as a wave of anti-trans hysteria engulfed many in the media and among politicians.
The previous Conservative government promised to ban conversion therapy six years ago but failed to introduce legislation after it floated the idea of allowing conversion therapy on transgender young people.
In a statement, British LGBTQ advocacy group Stonewall applauded the effort to ban conversion therapy.
“We welcome the new government’s commitment to ban religious conversion practices. Our communities are at risk as long as these abusive practices remain legal,” the statement said. “The government must urgently promulgate comprehensive legislation to ban these abhorrent practices permanently.”
However, the new government’s approach to transgender issues has not been entirely commendable.
Two weeks ago, New Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced that the government would defend and extend the Conservative-introduced ban on puberty-blocking drugs for transgender young people, a move that has been condemned by transgender activists and legal experts.
Japan
Transgender women are challenging the country’s laws on same-sex marriage and gender recognition, suing for the right to change their legal gender without divorcing their wives.
The woman, whose identity has not been released, is in her 50s and has been married for many years to her wife, who is in her 40s, but neither of them want a divorce. Although she has legally changed her name to a woman, her identity documents still list her as “male,” forcing her into awkward conversations disclosing her transgender identity every time she needs to present official documentation.
Since 2003, transgender people have been able to change their legal gender in Japan, but only if they are unmarried, meaning married transgender people who want to change their gender essentially have to divorce their partners.
In 2010, Japan’s Supreme Court upheld the requirement that transgender people must be unmarried to update their legal gender, saying the situation was “reasonable” and did not violate the constitution.
But the women’s lawyers believe the legal situation has changed.
Since 2021, several district courts across Japan have ruled that bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional. Although same-sex marriage has not yet been legalized, these cases will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court were to follow the lower court rulings and find bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, it should also find divorce requirements for transgender people unconstitutional.
One of the women’s lawyers, Yoko Mizutani, said the case could also contribute to the legalization of same-sex marriage.
“Many people involved are content with the idea that unless same-sex marriage is recognized, the law’s requirement that people must be unmarried will remain unchanged. If this petition is approved, it could lead to a resolution to the same-sex marriage issue.”
Spain
The Constitutional Court has provisionally blocked an anti-LGBTQ law passed by the Community of Madrid government that strips LGBTQ people of many legal protections, citing constitutional, discrimination and jurisdictional issues.
Last year, the local government, led by the right-wing People’s Party and supported by the far-right Vox party, passed bills that would strip transgender young people of legal recognition, deny legal gender change without a medical diagnosis, tolerate anti-LGBTQ discrimination, and authorize conversion therapy.
Despite these legal protections being stripped away at the local level, national law still gives LGBTQ people all of these rights and protections.
The central government, currently led by the left-wing People’s Socialist Party, filed an injunction against the law, claiming it was unconstitutional, and the Constitutional Court accepted the request.
