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Goodbye 2022, hello 2023!

As we bid goodbye to 2022, we’d like to take a quick look back at some of the LGBTQ community highlights from the year 2022. Check them out below:

On Conversion Therapy

January 7Canada’s ban on conversion therapy goes into effect.

February 14 – Israel’s Health Ministry bans conversion therapy by medical professionals. Israel’s openly gay health minister Nitzan Horowitz said conversion therapy “kills the soul.”

February 15 – In New Zealand, Parliament passes a law banning conversion therapy on anyone under the age of 18 years or lacking decision-making capacity.  Making anyone go through conversion therapy, regardless of their age, and cause them serious harm is also an offense. The ban comes with a sentence of up to three years imprisonment.

September 2 – India’s National Medical Commission declared reparative or conversion therapy as misconduct.

On Marriage Equality

March 10 – Chile’s first gay couple—Javier Silva and Jaime Nazar—weds in Santiago on Thursday, March 10, 2022, as their country’s Equal Marriage law takes effect.

July 1 – In Switzerland, same-sex marriage comes into effect. They’re the 30th country in the world to adopt same-sex marriage.

July 21 – Andorra passes a law allowing same-sex marriages, the law will come into effect starting on 17 February 2023.

October 4Slovenia legalizes same-sex marriage and adoption.

December 13 – United States President Joe Biden signed into law the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA; H.R. 8404), a landmark United States federal legislation passed by the 117th United States Congress protecting same-sex and interracial marriages.

On Decriminalizing LGBTQ People

July 6 – Gay sex is no longer illegal in Antigua and Barbuda after the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court ruled that a law in the said country that criminalizes same-sex acts is unconstitutional.

November 29 – Being gay, not to mention consensual sex between men are now both legal in Singapore after their Parliament repealed the ban in a 97-3 vote.

All that being said, we wish you all good health, and may the New Year bring you happiness, peace, prosperity, and love. Let’s all look back at 2022 with grateful hearts and move forward to 2023 with purposeful strides.

Happy New Year, guys! Cheers!

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