Lily Wakefield

A judge in Taiwan has ruled in favour of a gay man who wants to adopt his husband’s non-biological child, in a historic step for LGBT+ rights. Currently Taiwan, which in 2019 became the very first country in Asia to legalise marriage equality, only allows same-sex couples to adopt when one partner is the biological parent of the child. But on 25 December, a family court in Kaohsiung city ruled that 38-year-old Wang Chen-wei’s child, who he previously adopted, could also be adopted by his 34-year-old husband Chen Chun-ju. However, the ruling only applies to their specific case, and has not legalised same-sex adoption […]

Israel will allow surrogacy for same-sex couples, single men and trans people from next week after a decade-long legal battle. Health minister Nitzan Horowitz announced on Tuesday (4 January) that new rules making surrogacy accessible to all families will come into effect on 11 January. Currently, surrogacy in Israel is only legal for heterosexual, married couples and single women who ask a surrogate to carry their biological child. Same-sex couples and single men must currently go abroad if they wish to access surrogacy, making the process even more complex and expensive. In July 2021, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled […]

Gabriel Boric has won the Chile election, seeing off far-right anti-LGBT+ rival José Antonio Kast. At just 35 years old, Gabriel Boric was elected Chile’s youngest-ever president on Sunday (19 December). His far-right rival, Kast, conceded with 97 per cent of the vote counted, Boric having gained a 12 point lead with 55.8 per cent of the tallied votes. The left-wing former student leader won the presidency after a fraught election which the LGBT+ community feared could turn the clock back on equality. Same-sex marriage was finally legalised in Chile this month, and while Boric is committed to improving reproductive […]

After four years of debate, New Zealand has unanimously passed a self-ID bill for trans people, voting “in favour of inclusivity and against discrimination”. The self-ID bill was introduced in 2018, and was finally passed by New Zealand’s parliament on Thursday (9 December) after its third reading. It will remove the requirement for medical intervention to change legal gender marker in favour of a “statutory declaration”. The changes will come into force in 18 months time, allowing for consultation with the LGBT+ community on how the process should work, how young people can access correct gender markers, and how to be inclusive of non-binary people […]

There has been an alarming surge in the number of homophobic and transphobic hate crimes recorded by UK police forces since the COVID-19 pandemic began. According to new figures, after lockdown restrictions were eased this summer, anti-LGBT+ hate crime numbers soared to the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic. Between January and August this year, at least 14,670 homophobic hate crimes were recorded in the UK. During the same period in 2020, there were 11,841, and the first six months of 2019 saw 10,817. The third national lockdown began in January, 2021, and from January to April there […]