China: Homosexuality called ‘a psychological disorder’

A Chinese lesbian took the government to court over textbooks describing homosexuality as a “psychological disorder”, a landmark case in a country where discrimination remains common. Qiu Bai, 21, a student at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, brought the action against the ministry of education, demanding that it give her details of how it approved materials and how they could be changed.

Qiu's team showed AFP a manual, “Student Psychological Health”, published in 2015 by the prestigious Renmin University and distributed to students nationwide: “The most commonly encountered forms of sexual deviance are homosexuality and the sick addictions of transvestism, transsexuality, fetishism, sadism, voyeurism and exhibitionism,” it read. Other psychology textbooks had similar content.

Holding a large rainbow flag, she said she was “excited” by her “first opportunity to have a face-to-face dialogue with the ministry of education”. Supporters brandished signs outside the Fengtai district court in Beijing reading: “We want a fair judgement” and “Homosexuals must gain visibility”. Read more via AFP

UNAIDS to join Uganda's Anti Gay Law challenge as amicus curiae

The East African Court of Justice allowing UNAIDS to join the case challenging provisions of Uganda's nullified Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014 as violating the good governance and rule of law principles of the East African Treaty (Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) v Attorney General of Uganda, Reference No. 6 of 2014). 

This is the only application that has been allowed by the court in this case, as three others were rejected. This decision demonstrates the confidence many have in UNAIDS human rights works.

UNAIDS has been amicus curiae in several high-profile cases in different parts of the world. Read more

Kenya: Two men sue State for forced HIV testing and anal examination

The National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission have helped two men who were forced to undergo anal exams and testing to sue Chief Magistrate of Kwale Law Courts and DCIO, Msambweni Police Station, under whose direction the testing was done. The two men were tested at the Coast General Hospital, Mombasa, for " H.I.V., Hepatitis B and other blood works" without their consent, while undergoing police investigations.

"The forced blood testing and anal testing sought to establish whether the two male adults might have engaged in consensual adult carnal knowledge against the order of nature at the privacy of their residences in Ukunda."

According to the petition, the victims were allegedly arrested on suspicion of being gay and remanded by police at Msambweni for four days. They claimed police escorted them to the hospital where "they were forced to strip naked, lie facing upwards, lift legs into the air and cough while doctors inserted metallic objects up their rectum".

Gitari wants the court to declare that forced anal examination violates human dignity and has a "disparate impact on sexual minorities". He said the court should also declare forced medical exam a violation of the human and constitutional rights of the petitioners. Read more via the Star 

Mexico: Supreme Court overturns same-sex marriage ban

Mexico’s Supreme Court has struck down a law banning gay marriage in the state of Jalisco. Two gay couples challenged the state’s civil code after their were denied the right to marry after their applications to do so were rejected.

Nevertheless, the nation’s highest court has once again ruled that move discriminated against the LGBT community and is therefore unconstitutional. It added that state authorities could not “deny benefits to the claimants or set charges related to the regulation of marriage.”

However, same-sex marriage has not been specifically written into law, and same-sex couples may still require a judge’s approval before being wed. Read more via PinkNews 

Italy: Hundreds of married same-sex couples ‘stripped of legal recognition’ by court ruling

An Italian court has ordered cities to stop recognising the existing overseas marriages of same-sex couples. Italy has poor provisions for LGBT people party due to the strong influence of the Catholic Church, with no country-wide recognition of same-sex couples at present.

Over the past year a number of Mayors and city officials – including the Mayor of Rome – have officially recognised the weddings of gay and lesbian couples overseas, despite threats from the government not to do so.

However, they will now be compelled to stop doing so, and to strip existing same-sex spouses of their legal rights, after Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano took the issue to the Council of State, Italy’s highest administrative court. Read more via Pink News 

US: Intersex person sues State Department over passport denial

Lambda Legal filed a federal lawsuit against the State Department on behalf of an intersex person who was denied a passport because they do not identify as male or female. The lawsuit notes that Dana Alix Zzyym, the associate director of the U.S. affiliate of the Organization Intersex International, applied for a passport in September 2014 in order to travel to Mexico City this week for an international conference that will focus on intersex-specific issues.

Those applying for a passport for the first time must submit a copy of their birth certificate. The State Department stated it denied the application because it was “unable to fulfill your request to list your sex as ‘X,’ even though doctors at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed the gender listed on the birth certificate as “unknown.” The State Department said Zzyym could receive a passport with a male or female gender marker or withdraw the application.

“When I was a child, I had no say in what was done to me in order to make me ‘fit’ in some acceptable category,” said Zzyym in a press release that Lambda Legal released on Monday. “I continue to suffer the consequences of those decisions today. But, as an adult, I can take a stand. I am not male, I am not female, I am intersex, and I shouldn’t have to choose a gender marker for my official U.S. identity document that isn’t me.”  Read More via Washington Blade

Nepal: Third-Gender Passports May Be the Future of Trans Travel

The arrival of a transgender activist from Nepal in Taiwan for the 2015 International Lesbian and Gay Association’s Asia conference may seem unremarkable. But it was in fact quite special: The activist, Bhumika Shrestha, is the first Nepali citizen to travel abroad carrying a passport marked O for “other” instead of M  for “male” or F for “female.”

This is a groundbreaking and long-overdue achievement for global travel because it demonstrates that self-identification can and should be the sole factor in obtaining gendered documents.

Nepal’s legal recognition of a third category began with a 2007 Supreme Court case in which the judge ordered the government to create a legal category for people who identify as neither male nor female. Crucially, the judgment dictated that the ability to get documents bearing a third gender should be based on “self-feeling.” That is to say: no tests, expert opinions, or other potentially humiliating adjudication should play a role in the process.

But that concept had at the time only recently been enshrined in the Yogyakarta Principles, the first international guidelines on sexual orientation, gender identity, and human rights standards. And carrying out the court decision proved knottier than the court’s declaration. Read More via the Advocate

France: Recognizes first 'gender neutral' person

A court in central France has officially registered a person as being "gender neutral" rather than either male or female. A 64-year-old born in the town of Tours can now claim to be the only person in France who is neither legally male or female.
 
"During adolescence, I understood that I wasn't a boy," the 64-year-old intersex person told French newspaper. "I never had a beard, my muscles never really developed, but at the same time, it was impossible for me to think I'd ever become a woman."
 
The magistrate noted that the person's birth certificate, which had the person labelled as male, had been nothing more than a "work of fiction". The magistrate stressed that the ruling didn't mean the court had recognized the existence of "some kind of third gender", but rather "acknowledged the impossibility of linking this person to one particular gender". Read More via the Local 

Italy: 'Improper' use of transgender photo by Italian political party

A student from Bristol is taking legal action after a picture of her friend was "misrepresented" by an Italian political party campaigning against transgender education in schools. Rose Morelli, 17, said it was "hugely distressing" to see the photo of Alex Elliot on the leaflet by the right-wing Fratelli d'Italia.

She is now taking legal action after her lawyer said Alex's image had been "misrepresented" and may have breached copyright issues.

Italian law does not currently legislate against crimes motivated by the sexual orientation or gender identity of the victims. On its website, the Trentino branch of the Italian gay rights group, Arcigay, described Fratelli d'Italia's use of Ms Morelli's photo as "an insult".

In a message on Twitter, Fratelli d'Italia said the use of the photo had been "improper". However, the party maintained that "it is right to campaign against gender teaching in school".  Read More via the BBC 

India: Court gives police protection to us transgender man

An Indian court has given police protection to a transgender man from the US. Shivy, 18, who prefers to be identified by his first name, is an Indian citizen but has been living in the US since the age of three. He has alleged that his parents tricked him into coming to India on holiday and then took away his passport and green card. He says that they then tried to forcibly marry him off to a man.

The Delhi High Court termed the alleged harassment as nothing short of "bigotry" and said that India was a land of tolerance. Transgender activists and the support group Nazariya arranged legal counsel and shelter for Shivy in Delhi after he ran away from Agra earlier this month.

Shivy has alleged in his petition that his father and some unknown men posing as police officers came to the residence of the activists who helped him, adding that he fears for their, and his own, safety. He has asked the Delhi High Court to help him get his passport and green card back so that he can return to the United States where he is pursuing a neurobiology course at the University of California.  Read More via the BBC 

US: Oregon Court of Appeals upholds civil rights decision

In a ruling based on a landmark civil rights law, the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld a $400,000 damages award against a North Portland bar that turned away a group of transgender patrons.

Bar owner Chris Penner had challenged a Bureau of Labor and Industries finding that he had illegally discriminated against Rose City T-Club members when he asked them to not come back to his establishment because he didn't want it known as a "tranny bar" or "gay bar."

The appellate court upheld the labor bureau's 2013 findings that Penner had denied the group equal accommodations on account of their sexual orientation in violation of the Oregon Equality Act of 2007. The court also dismissed Penner's argument that his free speech rights had been violated. Read More via Oregon Live 

UK: Court rules same-sex couples are not entitled to £3.3bn pension boost

A landmark court ruling on whether a gay man can legally inherit his partner's full retirement fund has been rejected in a major setback for gay rights. The Court of Appeal ruled that the man is legally entitled to pass only £500 of his final salary pension on to his partner when he dies, instead of £41,000, the amount he would legally be allowed leave to a wife. 

Lawyers describe the case as the most important concerning sexual discrimination in pensions since the 1990s. It relates to a legal loophole that leaves hundreds of thousands of gay and lesbian couples who are married and in civil partnerships worse off in retirement than everyone else.

John Walker, the man who lost the case, said: “It is utterly reprehensible that my employer - Innospec - a large, successful company with a pension fund surplus – is unwilling to follow the example of the vast majority of major British companies in giving homosexual partners exactly the same spousal benefits as heterosexuals.  Read More via Telegraph