In the first week of 2021, Tokyo, Japan, announced it would introduce a same-sex partnership program that includes adoption for couples for 2022 per Tokyo Governor, Yuriko Koike. In the same week, South Dakota introduced an anti-trans bathroom law along with other states that targeted trans people, according to NBC News.
Around the same time, the Canadian parliament passed a law that bans conversion therapy in Canada for minors and adults. Conversion therapy has been banned in many U.S. states and is proven to not be an effective form of therapy.
Early on in December of 2021, Chile legalized gay marriage. Chile joins Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay as the fifth of the handful of countries in Latin America to allow gay couples the right to marry.
The increase in protective legislation for LGBTQ+ individuals worldwide is nothing new but these laws are special in their proximity to each other. This recent sweep seems to be indicative of a growing international popularity of LGBTQ+ rights.
According to a Pew Research Center survey from 2019, acceptance of homosexuality has risen in many countries since 2002. Even in very conservative countries, like India and Kenya, there has been significant improvements in the amount of people who accept homosexuality. Another report from the same year noted that, in the U.S., 61% of respondents to a survey favored same-sex marriage as compared to only 31% in 2004.
In developed countries, LGBTQ+ rights and acceptability are steadily on the rise, potentially due to activism, organization and the ability to pass progressive legislation. It seems that even though many underdeveloped countries lack these democratic abilities as compared to their counterparts, they may be inspired by these countries to take action, hence the small yet steady increase.
This increase is also benefiting the trans community. In June of 2021, Pew Research Center found that a majority of 56% of all U.S. adults believe that gender is determined by sex assigned at birth but these numbers are mostly from older U.S. adults. The majority of adults under 30, 56%, believe that gender can be different from sex. When it comes to using gender-neutral pronouns, the survey found that a majority of 50% of all U.S. adults who participated are comfortable using gender-neutral pronouns.
Across the board, the data shows that younger generations have greater acceptability of LGBTQ+ individuals across the spectrum, even internationally. This recent sweep of laws from around the world is not a one-time phenomenon but rather a forecast of the times to come. There are plenty of anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the world, but protective legislation seems to become more popular as the years go on.
