Top 10 International News Stories of 2023
29.12.2023 - 01:07
/ thegavoice.com
War, continued anti-LGBTQ crackdowns and the decriminalization of consensual same-sex sexual relations are among the issues that made headlines around the world over the past year. Here are the top international stories of 2023.
#10 Mauritius and the Cook Islands decriminalize homosexuality
The Mauritius Supreme Court on Oct. 4 issued a ruling that decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations in the country.
Abdool Ridwan Firaas (Ryan) Ah Seek, a gay man and prominent LGBTQ activist, in 2019 filed a lawsuit that sought to strike down the colonial-era penal code. The court issued its ruling roughly two months after Mauritius hosted the Pan Africa ILGA Conference.
Lawmakers in the Cook Islands in April voted to repeal a provision of a 1969 law that criminalized homosexuality in the country.
#9 British Prime Minister Sunak fires anti-LGBTQ Home Secretary
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Nov. 13 fired Suella Braverman, his government’s controversial home secretary who was a vocal opponent of LGBTQ rights.
Braverman, among other things, opposed transgender rights.
“Trans women have no place in women’s wards or, indeed, any safe space relating to biological women,” she told Sky News a few weeks before Sunak fired her.
Braverman in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute in September said the country “will not be able to sustain an asylum system if, in effect, simply being gay or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin, is sufficient to qualify for protection.”
#8 Edgars Rinkēvičs becomes Latvia’s first openly gay president
Edgars Rinkēvičs on July 8 became Latvia’s first openly gay president.
Rinkēvičs had been the country’s foreign minister since 2011. He is the first openly gay