Ireland: Poised to have better transgender identity law than most of the world

This month Ireland may go from not legally recognizing transgender people to having one of the best trans identity laws in the world. The nation made history when it became the first country in the world to approve gay marriage by a popular vote. Ireland may once again make history by allowing transgender people over the age of 18 to self-declare their gender on legal documents solely based on their self-determination, and without any medical intervention.

Minister of State Kevin Humphreys explained: As the marriage equality referendum has been passed there is no Constitutional barrier to a person in a marriage or civil partnership having their preferred gender legally recognised. Read More

Germany: Cabinet okays more rights for same-sex couples

Germany's cabinet on Wednesday approved a raft of draft measures to extend the rights of same-sex couples but faced criticism for allowing only civil unions, not full gay marriage.

Three days after Ireland voted "Yes" to gay marriage in a referendum, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert defended the moves that aim to ensure equal treatment for gay couples without granting them the right to legally wed.

"We will, in Germany, have to find our way," he told reporters. "Non-discrimination against civil partnerships is the clear goal of government policy.  Read More 

US: LGBT Envoy wants to get by with a little help from our friends

Newly appointed U.S. LGBT rights envoy Randy Berry doesn’t see his primary job as weighing in in countries where LGBT rights are most embattled. Instead, he’s targeting “the vast set of countries in the middle” on the question of embracing LGBT rights as a human rights concern.

Berry is beginning a 15-country swing through Latin America and Europe set to coincide with LGBT Pride Month. Though Berry is working on plans to head to Uganda in July, he is first visiting countries that have made rapid progress on LGBT rights over the past few years to get ideas on what strategies have been most effective.

“A great deal of leadership is coming out of several places in Latin America,” Berry said, adding that he hoped the trip would generate ideas on how to diffuse the attack often made by LGBT rights opponents that the U.S. is forcing acceptance of homosexuality on the rest of the world. Berry is kicking off his tenure by emphasizing his role as an international emissary, but he has also been charged by Secretary of State John Kerry with coordinating the U.S.’s response to anti-LGBT crackdowns when they occur. Read More 

European Parliament votes for LGBTI rights in EU Gender equality strategy

In a landmark vote, the European Parliament has demanded to include LGBTI rights in a future EU gender equality strategy. Though the right parties of the EU, the European People’s Party (EPP) and European Conservative and Reformists Party (ECR), of which the UK Conservative Party is a member, attempted to delete all LGBTI content, the strategy passed with the LGBTI content in tact.

Specifically on LGBT issues, the parliament has made several changes to its strategy, including: ensuring the full legal recognition of a person’s preferred gender, demanding an inclusive definition of families in labour and family law, and tackling LGBT prejudice in schools. The Parliament also reiterated its call to adopt a separate strategy on LGBT rights. Read More 

Kenya: MP makes a stink over Sh167m donated to Judiciary

Member of Parliament Irungu Kangata wants Chief Justice Willy Mutunga and Chief Registrar Anne Amadi to explain what Sh87 million from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and a further Sh80 million from the Ford Foundation was meant for. The two organizations, he said, have openly declared support for same sex rights.

The Sh167 million was allocated for “capacity building” for the Judicial Service Commission, with an extra Sh2 billion from the National Treasury set aside for the expansion of magistrates courts.

Mr Kangata also challenged the Judiciary to open up about a seminar organized by Ford Foundation and attended by a number of judges days before the High Court ruled that the Registrar of Societies should facilitate the registration of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender (LGBT) society.

“I want the Judiciary to come clean on this seminar and tell us the agenda… and who attended it. I am posing questions… so that (those of) us who are litigants in the appeal against the ruling can ask the said judges to disqualify themselves.” Read More 

Sri Lanka's foreign minister threatened with arrest after UN vote

Sri Linka's Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera should be arrested for voting in favor of gay rights at the UN, an MP has said.

Wimal Weerawansa, leader of the National Freedom Front, said the minister had violated the country's penal code by voting against a Russia resolution calling for the withdrawal of partner benefits to gay and lesbian UN employees. Read More 

Gambia: EU anger over expulsion of top diplomat

The European Union was 'astonished' when EU representative Agnes Guillaud was expelled from Gambia without explanation, said a spokeswoman. Guillaud had 72 hours to leave the country. The EU has been critical of The Gambia's human rights record, particularly regarding its laws penalising homosexuality. Last year the EU blocked nearly $15m in aid to Gambia. 

President Yahya Jammeh has governed the small west African nation with a firm hand since he came to power in a coup 20 years ago. He has crushed dissent and faces mounting international criticism over issues ranging from human rights to his stated belief that he can cure Aids. The president has also implemented tough measures against Gambia's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. He has called gay people "vermin" and has threatened to slit their throats.

The EU summoned the Gambian ambassador to seek an explanation for the expulsion, officials said. Read More 

Belize: The lonely fight against Belize’s anti-gay laws

In Belize — a small Anglophone Caribbean nation tucked into the eastern flank of Guatemala and Mexico — “batiman” (Creole for, literally, “butt man”) has long been the supreme slur against gay men, the worst possible insult to their personhood and dignity. But now another slur is beginning to take its place: “Orozco.”

Five years ago, Caleb Orozco’s lawyer walked into the Belize Supreme Court Registry and initiated the first challenge in Caribbean history to the criminalization of sodomy. Caleb Orozco v. the Attorney General of Belize focuses on Section 53, a statute in the criminal code that calls for a 10-year prison term for “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.” If Orozco won, his supporters hoped, it would establish a moral precedent across the Caribbean and even create a domino effect, pressuring other governments to decriminalize sodomy. But it took 3 years for the Supreme Court to hear the case; 2 years later, the nation still awaits a verdict.

Caleb Orzco is Belize’s most reviled homosexual and its most ostracized citizen, a man whom fundamentalists pray for and passers-by scorn. His weary face is on the evening news and in newspaper caricatures. His name is now a label, one used to remind other gays that they are sinners and public offenders.  Read More

Mozambique: New penal code decriminalising homosexuality set to take effect

A new penal code in Mozambique will soon come into effect under which same-sex intimacy is no longer illegal. The new criminal code is set to come into effect in June, and removes a clause which previously allowed “security measures” to be taken against people “who habitually engage in vices against nature.”

Although homosexuality was not specifically mentioned under the old penal code, it was sometimes interpreted that “vices against nature” referred to same-sex intimacy. The previous penal code had been in place, aside from some amendments, since Mozambique was a Portuguese colony, and was written in 1887. Although homosexuality will soon be legal in Mozambique, the law will still offer no protections for LGBT people against discrimination. Read More

Kazakhstan: Constitutional Council rejects “Gay Propaganda” bill

Kazakhstan has thrown out a Russian-style bill that would ban “propagandizing non-traditional sexual orientation” to minors. The bill passed Kazakhstan’s Senate in February but had not yet been signed into law by President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The council cited technical reasons in its decision to reject the bill. 

Though this prevents this bill from being signed into law, the council ruled that Kazakhstan’s government can enact laws that restrict citizens’ rights to access and distribute information as part of its responsibility to “defend marriage and family, motherhood, fatherhood and childhood.” 

The decision comes after a group of prominent athletes including Olympic diving gold medalist Greg Louganis, tennis great Martina Navratilova, and Olympic snowboarder Belle Brockhoff signed an open letter calling on the International Olympic Committee to uphold its non-discrimination principles. Kazakhstan and China are the two remaining nations bidding to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Almaty and Beijing respectively.  Read More