The death of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96 leaves the United Kingdom facing an uncertain future
La Queen isabel II died at 96 years at his residence Balmoral, ending a reign that lasted more than 70 years. The news was confirmed a few days after he met with the new prime minister Liz Truss and asked him to form a government: the fifteenth prime minister during his throne. Throughout her reign, life was radically transformed for people LGTBIQ + in the United Kingdom. When he ascended the throne in 1952 after the death of his father, King George VI, homosexuality was still illegal.
While the Queen Isabel generally avoided commenting publicly on the rights LGTBIQ +, she, as her office requires, has given royal assent (which is a formality in which the reigning monarch approves changes to the law) to many laws that have changed the trajectory of queer life in Britain.
What has changed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II?
One of the first major pieces of legislation LGTBIQ + to which the Queen isabel II gave his royal approval was the Sex Offenses Act of 1967. That landmark law marked the first major crack in the UK's criminalization of same-sex sexual activity: decriminalized gay sex privately among men over 21 in England and Wales.
La Law of Sexual Offenses was far from being the maximum freedom that people LGTBIQ + they longed for at the time. Gay and bisexual men continued to be convicted for years of having sex in public, while the age of consent, which was five years higher than that of straight people, wreaked havoc on gay lives.
Significant milestones in the advancement of rights for people LGTBIQ +
In 1980 and 1982, respectively, homosexuality was partially decriminalized in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The Human Rights Act, which received royal assent in 1998 meant that the European Convention on Human Rights enshrined in British law for the first time. This law has been used in several cases to defend the rights LGTBIQ + in the United Kingdom; for example, it has helped grant tenure rights to same-sex couples.
In 2002, the Adoption and Childhood Law, which allows same-sex couples to adopt children for the first time. Two years later, it legalized civil unions in England and Wales, and the first unions took place on December 5, 2005.
Another radical law that came into effect at about the same time was the Gender Recognition Law (GRA): Received royal approval the year before, on July 1, 2004, and put in place a process that allowed trans people to legally change their gender for the first time.
Same-sex marriage in 2014
In 2010, the Law of Equality, which prohibited discrimination against people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in a number of key areas. Two years later, the Liberties Protection Law meant that gay people could apply to have previous convictions expunged for "gross indecency«.
One of the great historical achievements for equality LGTBIQ + It was produced in 2014When same-sex marriage was legalized in England and Wales through marriage law (same-sex couples).
Stagnation
Since then, the rights LGTBIQ + have started to stagnate United Kingdom. Conversion therapy remains legal, despite promises by the current government to ban the practice, and reform of the Gender Recognition Law (GRA) has largely ground to a halt. the new prime minister Liz Truss will try to block the reforms of Scotland in terms of rights for people tranny and is known for her unfriendly statements with the collective.
Still, throughout Queen Elizabeth's nearly 70-year reign, rights LGTBIQ + have been radically transformed in the UK. Few monarchs have overseen as many social changes as Queen Elizabeth II made over her time on the throne, and it seems increasingly likely that no future monarch will ever see similar progress in a single reign.
