Colombia: Historical decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights published a landmark decision ruling that the Colombian State is accountable for denying Ángel Alberto Duque, a HIV positive gay man, the enjoyment of his right to equality and nondiscrimination when he was denied the pension of his long time partner.
 
This is the first time that the IACHR rules on issues related to same-sex couples and the second, after Atala Riffo and daughters vs. Chile, on LGBTI rights. The potential impact of this decision on regional jurisprudence and on the international human rights system is enormous.
 
In 2002, the private pension fund –Colfondos- denied to Mr. Duque the pension of his deceased partner of 10 years, Jhon Óscar Jiménez. A judge ratified the decision arguing that the petitioner was in a same-sex relationship and that the “family had to be protected.”

The Court orders the Colombian State to start paying the pension within three months and retroactively for 13 years plus a US10000 dollar for immaterial injuries.  Read more via El Espectador 

Kenya: Case to decriminalize gay sex filed in Kenya's High Court

A gay rights campaigner filed a case in Kenya's High Court calling for the decriminalization of gay sex, which is punishable by 14 years in jail in the conservative east African nation.

Eric Gitari, who heads the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, asked the court to strike out sections of the Penal Code criminalizing gay sex because, he says, they violate constitutional rights to equality, dignity and privacy.

The law makes "carnal knowledge... against the order of nature" a crime attracting a 14 year sentence while "gross indecency with another male" is punishable by five years in jail.  

 Read more via Reuters

China: Court refuses to allow gay marriage in landmark case

A Chinese judge has rejected a gay couple’s attempt to secure the right to marry in the country’s first same-sex marriage case. Sun Wenlin had sued the civil affairs bureau in the city of Changsha for the right to marry his 37-year-old partner Hu Mingliang, a security guard. In January a court in Changsha agreed to hear their case, which activists said was the first of its kind in China. 

The judge in Changsha announced he was dismissing the case shortly after the three-hour trial hearing had ended.  Shi Fulong, the lawyer representing the couple, claimed the court had provided insufficient grounds for dismissing the case but said gay marriage was destined to become a reality in China in the not-so-distant future: “If the law is unable to provide people with equality and justice, it means the law needs to be changed,” he said. 

Earlier hundreds of LGBT campaigners had gathered outside the court to show their support for the couple’s case. Read more via the Guardian

Morocco: Homosexual couple in Morocco tortured... then imprisoned for defending themselves

A video showing a homosexual couple being tortured has provoked widespread condemnation throughout Morocco, where attacks against homosexuals are on the rise. But perhaps the most shocking part is the way in which the authorities reacted.

A Moroccan court on Monday released two men convicted of homosexuality, which normally carries a jail sentence in the kingdom, in a case that stirred emotions throughout the country. The court also jailed two men convicted of attacking the couple, while outside two topless Femen activists from France were detained and deported after protesting for Rabat to decriminalise homosexuality. Residents of the town of Beni Mellal in central Morocco, meanwhile, gathered to demand the release of the jailed attackers.

A first victim was sentenced to four months in jail for "acts against nature", but an appeal hearing decided Monday to release him on time served. The other victim was handed a four-month suspended sentence for "sexual deviancy".

For the attack on the couple, one defendant was handed a six-month prison sentence and another received four months for forced entry, resorting to violence and carrying weapons. Two others were acquitted and a fifth was to be tried later in a minors' court. Rights organisations have demanded that Morocco decriminalise homosexuality, which is punishable by up to three years in jail.  Read more via Morocco News

Italy: Court of Appeal orders full recognition of two second-parent adoptions

The Court of Appeal of the Italian city of Naples today ordered full recognition of two second-parent adoption orders by the Court of Lille (France) in favour of a French-Italian family residing in the Province of Avellino. One of the mothers, Giuseppina La Delfa, is the founder and former president of Famiglie Arcobaleno, the Italian rainbow family association, and a NELFA board member.

The mayors of Santo Stefano del Sole and of Serino (both in the Campania region, of which Naples is the capital), acting in their capacity as civil status registrars, refused to update the birth certificates of the couple’s children. The reason for denying recognition relates to their sexual orientation, the parents being two mothers and the adoption depending on their married status. The Italian administrations objected that recognising the effects of those adoptions would be tantamount to recognising the women’s marriage. Yet the Court of Appeal of Naples already adjudicated the case on marriage recognition last year, holding that Italy is bound to recognise the French marriage.  Read more via Nelfa 

US: Yes, Puerto Rico’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional

A federal appeals court stated unambiguously that Puerto Rico’s ban on same-sex couples’ marriages is unconstitutional, throwing a federal judge off a case after the judge had ruled in March that the ban was still in effect: “The district court’s ruling errs in so many respects that it is hard to know where to begin,” the unsigned opinion from the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals stated in harshly criticizing U.S. District Court Judge Juan Pérez-Giménez’ actions in the case.

Pérez-Giménez had ruled in favor of the ban in October 2014, but the 1st Circuit sent the case back to the trial court after the Supreme Court’s June 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges striking down marriage bans nationwide. The appeals court ordered Pérez-Giménez to “further consider” the matter “in light of Obergefell,” adding that the appeals court judges “agree with the parties … that the ban is unconstitutional.”

Nonetheless, in March, Pérez-Giménez upheld the ban for a second time, ruling that the Supreme Court’s ruling does not apply to a territory like Puerto Rico. The appeals court disagreed strongly, stating, “In ruling that the ban is not unconstitutional because the applicable constitutional right does not apply in Puerto Rico, the district court both misconstrued that right and directly contradicted our mandate.”  Read more via Buzzfeed 

Colombia: high court rules in favor of same-sex marriage

Colombia’s highest court has given the green light to gay marriage in the conservative, mostly Catholic country. The magistrates of the constitutional court voted six to three against a proposed ruling that said marriage applied only to unions between men and women and that it was up to the congress and not the court to decide on same-sex marriage.

Magistrate Alberto Rojas, who voted against the proposed ruling and will now write up the majority decision making gay marriage legal, said: “All human beings ... have the fundamental right to be married with no discrimination.” 

 Read more via the Guardian

Canada: Transgender man beaten to get $15k compensation from nightclub

A transgender man who was physically assaulted and humiliated by a bouncer at a nightclub in Ontario is awarded $15,000 in compensation. The altercation took place two years ago, when the victim, Caesar Lewis, was with his friends at Mississauga’s Sugar Daddy’s Night Club.

Lewis, who is in his mid-twenties, described to the court that he was in the men’s washroom when a bouncer of the nightclub came banging on his cubicle, demanding him to leave or he would be thrown out. However, before Lewis was ready, the bouncer forced open the door and dragged him out with his pants still at his knees.

Lewis’s friend, who is also a transgender male, said it was their right to use the men’s washroom, but the bouncer yelled back: ‘You freaks need to get your fucking faggot asses out of this club.'  Read more via Gay Star News 

Saudi Arabia: Authorities seek death penalty for coming out

A published report indicates that people who come out online in Saudi Arabia could face the death penalty. Oraz, a Saudi newspaper, reported that prosecutors in the city of Jiddah have proposed the penalty in response to dozens of cases they have prosecuted over the last six months. These include 35 people who received prison sentences for sodomy.

A gay Saudi man, who operates a Twitter account that publishes LGBT-specific news and other information from Saudi Arabia, said the proposal has caused fear among LGBT people in the country. Social media users in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere have begun to use the hashtag “You will not terrorize me. I’m gay” on Twitter to express their opposition to the proposed penalty.

Saudi Arabia is among the countries in which consensual same-sex sexual activity remains punishable by death.  Read more via WashingtonBlade

Germany: Landlord must pay fine after refusing to rent to gay couple

A man has been slapped with a steep fine by a Cologne court after he refused to rent a villa to a same-sex couple. The landlord must pay €1,700 in compensation to the couple, a regional court said.

The man regularly rented out his personal villa to newly-weds to earn a bit more cash, but when he learned that the couple in question were gay, he refused to sign a contract with them.

The court charged the man with discrimination, stating that his refusal to rent to them was illegal and violated German law concerning equal treatment, calling it "discrimination based on sexual orientation". Read more via the Local