Daryll Rowe became the first man in the country to be found guilty of intentionally setting out to spread the virus after meeting men on Grindr. Branded “grotesque” and a “sociopath” by his victims, the 27-year-old was convicted this month of 10 charges: five of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and five of attempting to do so, The Scotsman reports.
Rowe, wearing a gray suit and open-collared white shirt, showed no emotion as he was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 12 years at Brighton Crown Court this week The Scotsman article notes. Judge Christine Henson sentencing, referred to his crimes as a “determined hateful campaign of sly violence.”
“You are the first individual to be sentenced for Section 18 offenses in the context of infecting others with HIV,” she said, according to The Scotsman. “With the full knowledge of the risk you posed to others and the legal implications of engaging in risky sexual practices, you embarked on a deliberate campaign to infect other men with the HIV virus. Unfortunately for five of the men you met, your campaign was successful.”
One victim he thought he was going to die when he found out he had the virus, while another told of the “shattering effect” it had on him and his family, believing, “it was a life-long sentence, which would eventually kill me off” because of the stigma surrounding the disease.
The court heard a psychiatric report found Rowe’s crimes were carried out with a “significant degree of rage, control, sadism and violence,” The Scotsman reports.
Russia has violated LGBT+ people’s human rights by banning Pride events, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled on Tuesday (November 27).
The case was brought by Russian LGBT+ activist Nikolay Alexeyev and six others, who alleged that they have been systemically denied permissions to hold Pride events in cities across Russia. They listed 51 occasions on which permission for events were refused.
Authorities frequently cite the country’s 2013 gay ‘propaganda’ law, which bans “propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientations” in order to block the events, though the denials in the case dated from 2009 to 2014.
“The applicants suffered unjustified discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.”
European Court of Human Rights
Ruling against Russia, the court found that “the ban on holding LGBT public assemblies… did not correspond to a pressing social need and was thus not necessary in a democratic society.”
The November 27 ruling also found that “the applicants suffered unjustified discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, that that discrimination was incompatible with the standards of the Convention, and that they were denied an effective domestic remedy in respect of their complaints concerning a breach of their freedom of assembly.”
A view taken on August 1, 2010 shows the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. (JOHANNA LEGUERRE/AFP/Getty)
It added that the complainants “suffered unjustified discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation… incompatible with the standards of the Convention.”
The court ruled that the treatment violated Articles 11 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protect freedom of assembly and freedom from discrimination.
Although Russia is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, the international court has little power to enforce the ruling in Russia.
In June 2017, the court ruled that the law also “reinforced stigma and prejudice and encouraged homophobia.”
The judges concluded that the law breached European treaty rules on freedom of expression.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 27, 2018. (OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty)
“The very purpose of the laws and the way they were formulated and applied in the applicants’ case had been discriminatory and, overall, served no legitimate public interest,” the Strasbourg-based court said.
“Indeed, by adopting such laws, the authorities had reinforced stigma and prejudice and encouraged homophobia, which was incompatible with the values of a democratic society.”
LGBT+ people in Russia face human rights violations
It was alleged in September that Russian police are refusing to investigate extreme homophobic hate speech—because they claim gay people are not a valid social group.
Anna Plyusnina, who is a legal adviser at Yekaterinburg LGBT Resource Centre, alerted the police to extremist messages posted online advocating violent attacks on gay people.
However, anti-extremism police officers told her no action would be taken because the messages were “not addressed to any group of people on the grounds of ethnic, racial, religious, or social identity.”
Research carried out by independent Russian polling agency the Levada Center found that 83 percent of respondents consider it “always reprehensible” or “almost always reprehensible” for two adults to have gay sex.
This marks a drastic increase from 1998, when just 68 percent found it unacceptable, and 2008, when 76 percent found it unacceptable.
A Chinese erotic writer has reportedly been jailed for more than 10 years after including gay sex scenes in one of her novels.
State media reported that the writer, who uses the internet alias Tianyi, was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison by a court in Anhui province for “producing and selling pornographic materials” in her 2017 novel Occupation, which features gay sex scenes.
The author was identified with the surname Liu by state media.Tianyi’s book details an illicit affair between a teacher and a student.
According to a television station in Anhui, it allegedly included “graphic depictions of male homosexual sex scenes,” reports South China Morning Post.
Internet pornography in China has been illegal since 2002.
novelist’s jail sentence over gay sex scenes sparks outcry
Occupation is believed to have sold around 7,000 copies online.
“Those found guilty of rape get less than 10 years in jail. This writer gets 10 years.”
— Weibo user
Tianyi’s prison sentence has sparked protests on Chinese social media.
“10 years for a novel? That’s too much,” one user wrote on Weibo, reports BBC.
Another social media user noted how rapists are frequently jailed for less than 10 years in China.
“Those found guilty of rape get less than 10 years in jail. This writer gets 10 years,” the Weibo user said.
LGBT+ people have no discrimination protections in China. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
Gay sex was legalised in China in 1997.
However, LGBT+ people in the country have no discrimination protections and same-sex couples cannot adopt or marry.
China’s crackdown on LGBT+ content
The jailing of Tianyi comes amid reports of an increased crackdown on LGBT+ content by Chinese authorities over the past year.
In September, pop star Dua Lipa thanked fans for feeling “safe enough to show your pride” at her concert in Shanghai, China, after some gig-goers were reportedly removed by staff for waving rainbow flags.
Following her performance on September 12, attendees posted videos on social media, which appeared to show security guards forcibly booting out a number of fans.
In August, it was announced that Mr Gay World 2019 would no longer take place in China’s special administrative region Hong Kong.
This was reportedly because the events company was based in the People’s Republic of China and had been put under pressure by Chinese authorities.
And, in May, two LGBT activists were reportedly attacked by security guards in Beijing, China, for wearing Pride badges as part of a pro-LGBT gathering in the city.
A transgender woman who died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at a privately operated detention center was likely physically abused there, according an autopsy report released Monday, and died after several days of severe, untreated dehydration.
Roxsana Hernández Rodriguez, a 33-year-old transgender woman from Honduras, died on May 25, nine days after being transferred to a dedicated unit for transgender women at the Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico, which is operated under contract by CoreCivic, the second-largest private prison company in the United States.
“There she developed severe diarrhea and vomiting over the course of several days,” wrote forensic pathologist Kris Sperry, “and finally was emergently hospitalized, then transported to Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she remained critically ill until her death.”
The autopsy concluded that Hernández Rodriguez’s cause of death was most likely “severe complications of dehydration superimposed upon HIV infection,” which made her susceptible to the physiologic effects of untreated dehydration.
“According to observations of other detainees who were with Ms. Hernández Rodriguez, the diarrhea and vomiting episodes persisted over multiple days with no medical evaluation or treatment, until she was gravely ill,” Sperry wrote.
Sperry’s autopsy, the second conducted on Hernández Rodriguez’s body following her death, also found evidence of physical abuse, with “deep bruising” on her hands and abdomen, evidence of blunt-force trauma “indicative of blows, and/or kicks, and possible strikes with blunt object.” An accompanying diagram illustrated long, thin bruises along Hernández Rodriguez’s back and sides, as well as extensive hemorrhaging on Hernández Rodriguez’s right and left wrists, which Dr. Sperry found were “typical of handcuff injuries.”
Andrew Free, an attorney representing her family, told The Daily Beast that her treatment in ICE custody went far beyond neglectful.
“She journeyed thousands of miles fleeing persecution and torture at home only to be met with neglect and torture in this country’s for-profit human cages,” Free said.
A spokesperson for ICE did not respond to a list of questions regarding whether requests for medical care were denied at any point during Hernández Rodriguez’s detention, under whose authority that decision would have been made, or who at the Cibola facility had access to batons and handcuffs as well as access to Hernández Rodriguez.
At the time of her death, ICE stated that she was admitted to the hospital with “symptoms of pneumonia, dehydration and complications associated with HIV,” and that “comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment detainees arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay.”
In response to similar questions, CoreCivic director of public affair Amanda Gilchrist told The Daily Beast that “we take the health and well-being of those entrusted to our care very seriously,” and are “committed to providing a safe environment for transgender detainees.”
CoreCivic, a publicly traded company whose motto is “Better the Public Good,” operates more than 65 prisons and detention facilities in the United States.
Even before her detention in New Mexico, Hernández Rodriguez had walked an extremely difficult path on her way to the United States. In an interview with Buzzfeed News a month before her death, Hernández Rodriguez said she decided to flee Honduras after she was gang-raped by four members of the MS-13 gang, resulting in her being infected with HIV.
“Trans people in my neighborhood are killed and chopped into pieces, then dumped inside potato bags,” Hernández Rodriguez said at the time. “I didn’t want to come to Mexico—I wanted to stay in Honduras but I couldn’t… They kill trans people in Honduras. I’m scared of that.”
LGBT people in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are uniquely susceptible to violence and persecution, as well as during their travels in pursuit of asylum. The U.S. government has expressed skepticism about the veracity of these claims, as well as the number of LGBT people traveling in caravans headed for the border. In a telephone briefing with reporters last week, one senior DHS official told journalists that caravans pushed LGBT migrants “to the front of the caravan in an effort to gain sympathetic PR coverage.”
Hernández Rodriguez, known as “Roxy” to her friends, decided to travel more than 2,000 miles with 1,300 other migrants hoping to claim asylum in the United States, making a six-week journey across Mexico organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras.
After arriving at the U.S. border and asking for asylum at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego, she was taken into custody on May 9.
After being held for five days, she was transferred to the Cibola facility that houses a dedicated “pod” for transgender women, which ICE says is run by medical and detention staff trained in “best practices for the care of transgender individuals.” Less than three weeks after arriving in the U.S., she was
El Salvador’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security on Nov. 12 launched a campaign that will implement an internal communications protocol on how to improve the way it responds to the LGBTI community’s needs. This effort — #HagoLoJusto or “I’m Doing What’s Right” — is part of the implementation of the policy and seeks to raise awareness of discrimination against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity and to make the aforementioned LGBTI policy known to ministry personnel and their subordinates.“I’m Doing What’s Right” is an effort the ministry is undertaking with the support of the Salvadoran LGBT Federation and its Rights and Dignity Project, a campaign that hopes to eliminate anti-LGBTI stereotypes. Most of the campaign’s activities prioritize the creation of spaces to exchange ideas and to learn with different people, emphasizing LGBTI rights are an issue of access to human rights that should be guaranteed by the ministry and their personnel.
“The launch of the LGBTI Community Care Policy reaffirms the ministry’s commitment to ensure comprehensive care for this important sector of society,” said Eva Rodríguez, subdirector of the Rights and Dignity Project.
“This campaign demonstrates this policy is moving forward and represents a great opportunity for ministry personnel to be able to serve the LGBTI community without discrimination,” she added during a conference.
“Over the last three months we have trained more than 1,000 ministry employees,” said Tatiana Herrera of the Salvadoran LGBTI Federation. “We will continue fighting for love, peace and justice.”
The campaign plans to organize protests, breakfast meetings, film screenings, training workshops, theatre presentations, a photography contest, use social media networks and audiovisual pieces, among other things. Four members of the Salvadoran LGBTI Federation will play a key role in some of these activities.
“These policies are important because, for example, I don’t want to go to a place where they are treating me bad, but now there is a policy that backs me up and personnel will be trained,” Aldo Peña, a member of the Salvadoran LGBTI Federation, told the Washington Blade. “From the moment they see me and I present my document and my name does not correspond with my identity, they will say that it is a transgender person if they are trained.”
The “I’m Doing What’s Right” campaign’s goal is to make personnel more sensitive, and ensure employees of the ministry’s different institutions can learn about all of the aspects of the ministry’s LGBTI Community Care Policy.
“With the launch of this campaign that is going to allow us to reach every one of the ministry’s employees, I am ordering the application of all components of the ministry’s LGBTI Community Care Policy,” said Justice and Public Security Minister Mauricio Ramírez Landaverde.
Protections in the new North American trade pact for LGBTQ people are roiling conservative lawmakers in the House, who are urging President Donald Trump to rescind them.
They are displeased that the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement contains requirements that workers be protected from discrimination on the basis of sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity.
“A trade agreement is no place for the adoption of social policy,” reads the letter, which carries the names of 40 lawmakers and was sent Friday.“It is especially inappropriate and insulting to our sovereignty to needlessly submit to social policies which the United States Congress has so far explicitly refused to accept.”
It’s one more landmine in the path of Trump’s biggest trade achievement. Already, labor groups have expressed some concern that mechanisms to enforce new worker protections aren’t sufficiently strong and hinted that the incoming Democratic House might seek changes.
Now the conservatives, including House Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows and Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), are hoping to revise the deal before it gets signed. Another signatory is Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.), a Ways and Means Committee member who is leaving Congress at the end of the year.
One congressman who led the effort on the letter said the issue could be a “deal-killer” for him supporting the pact.
“This is language that is going to cause a lot of people to reconsider their support of the trade agreement, and to the point that it may endanger the passage of the trade agreement unless something is done,” Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) told POLITICO in an interview.
Adjusting the deal is a tall order.
The countries are expected to sign the agreement on Nov. 30 at a G20 summit in Argentina, the day before the current Mexican administration leaves office. The easiest way for the administration to address the conservatives’ concerns is to persuade Canada and Mexico to change the language before the agreement is signed. If those countries balk and the administration is concerned about having enough Republican votes to win approval, it could attempt to negate the language through the implementing bill. But that would be highly unusual and give many Democrats another reason to vote against the legislation.
Tweaks can be made through so-called side letters. But this particular demand is certain to leave Canada especially cold.
Lamborn said his understanding is that the administration could seek to alter the language without opening the deal back up. But “if it’s bad enough — and in my opinion it’s bad enough — they should consider taking it out,” he said. “At this point I’m a ‘no’ vote and I would encourage others to be a no vote unless something is done. And things could be done within the agreement.”
The LGBT provisions were a Canadian priority — part of the so-called progressive trade agenda championed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and described as a “big win” by his government. And the Trudeau government already is less than enthusiastic about entering the agreement while steel tariffs remain in place. Canada’s ambassador to Washington joked in a recent interview with POLITICO that the country might sign the pact with a “bag over its head.”
It’s unclear whether the LGBT clauses even have real teeth. Both Canada and the U.S. agree it wouldn’t require a new law.
But it’s unprecedented language in a U.S. trade agreement.
USMCA’s Chapter 23 on labor requires countries to implement policies that protect workers against employment discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity. Another provision in the same chapter requires countries to promote workplace equality with respect to gender identity and sexual orientation.
The conservatives say this would undo other administration policies.
The letter argues that USMCA contradicts other administration work on sexual orientation and gender identity, and would also make it impossible to end a pair of executive actions from the Obama administration forbidding workplace discrimination.
It accuses the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative of working against administration policies.
In reality, the federal government is somewhat divided about whether employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, a question that turns on how judges interpret the word “sex” (one of the law’s protected classes, along with race, religion, and national origin).
Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department said that “sex” included sexual orientation and gender identity, and that discrimination on those bases was therefore illegal. After President Donald Trump was elected and Jeff Sessions became attorney general, the department reverted to the position that the 1964 law did not bar discrimination against LGBT individuals. In addition, the Justice and Education departments, in a two-page guidance letter to schools, scrapped an Obama directive aimed at protecting the rights of transgender students.
But the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which continues to retain a Democratic majority, still adheres to the Obama policy that the Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Federal appeals courts are split on the question, and the Supreme Court has never taken up the matter.
Earlier this year Trump issued orders to ban transgender troops who require surgery or significant medical treatment from serving in the military except in select cases — following through on a pledge under review by the Pentagon that is being fought out in the courts.
“It is deeply troubling,” the letter says, that the U.S. Trade Representative has approved language that contradicts LGBT policies in the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services. USTR did not respond to a request for comment.
The letter is otherwise supportive of Trump’s trade efforts. It begins with praise: “We applaud your hard work to negotiate a new trilateral free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. Balancing the competing interests of three different countries is a monumental challenge.”
Conference founders Anna and Yulia had been raising money for this year’s event via crowdfunding. (Supplied)
LGBT+ activists in Russia involved in organising a conference about same-sex families were attacked for the second year in a row.
The fifth annual LGBTQIAPP+ Family Conference was due to take place on November 9-11, despite funding issues that forced organisers to raise money via crowdfunding to guarantee safety at the venue.
Conference organisers managed to secure a location for the event for free, but on the afternoon of November 9 the venue managers informed the organisers the conference had to be cancelled because they had received threats that made it difficult to guarantee participants’ safety.The LGBT+ activists cleared the space and headed to a nearby shop. As they came out of the shop, they were attacked by an unidentified assailant.
Attack on LGBT+ activists similar to that of the previous year
Nadeshda Aronchik, fundraiser and co-organiser of the conference, tells PinkNews that one person ran towards the volunteers and sprayed them with an “acid substance.” The substance hit two people in the eyes, but also affected other people in the group who were also sprayed.
The two LGBT+ activists that were injured received hospital treatment and are currently recuperating well, Aronchik says. They are being kept under constant monitoring as the substance may lead to longterm consequences.
The event founders at the opening of the 4th family conference last year. (Supplied)
While the substance is yet to be identified by police, Aronchik is sure it was not pepper-spray, as it has been reported elsewhere.
“They were sprayed with the same acid substance as me and my colleagues last year,” she says.
Last year, a group of four men attacked conference guests, organisers and volunteers with an unknown substance, forcing the conference’s third day to be cancelled.
A case into the assault—which was considered to be homophobic, a virtually unprecedented step in Russia—was only opened in August, but the attackers were apprehended and are awaiting trial.
“They won’t win because we don’t give up. We know we are in the right here, so we won’t stop fighting.”
— Nadeshda Aronchik
Aronchik believes the person responsible for this year’s attack is related to the far-right group who orchestrated the one last year. Her suspicion is reinforced by messages the conference organisers received after the November 9 attack.
“After the attack, the organisers received threats through calls and SMS saying they should ‘die’ and ‘burn in hell’ and saying, ‘How did you like our present? Last year was only the beginning,’” Aronchik says, adding that they reported the threats to the police.
Authorities’ attitudes to LGBT+ activists were ‘as friendly as Russian police can be’
Aronchik describes the police’s attitude to the LGBT+ activists as “ambiguous.”
“They were as friendly as Russian police can be,” she says. She accompanied the LGBT+ activists targeted in the attack to the police, as she had experience doing so from the previous experience.
Aronchik recalls: “The policeman was semi-friendly—he had some homophobic and misogynistic statements but not as homophobic as I’ve experienced before, so it was kind of fine.
“He asked what happened and every time he mentioned something homophobic I told him he was out of line and should mind his job rather than commenting on what the guys are saying. So all in all I’d say, for the Russian police, it was OK.”
Rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the attack in a statement on Tuesday.
“It is totally unacceptable for activists to face threats and attacks simply for holding a conference,” said Graeme Reid, HRW director of the LGBT rights program. “The Russian authorities need to do more to ensure that these threats and attacks stop.”
Conference organisers are not giving up
The LGBTQIAPP+ Family Conference aims to bring together activists, psychologists, therapists, educators and health professionals who would not otherwise have the possibility to receive information as to how to best support the LGBT+ community.
Nadeshda Aronchik, a conference organiser who was targeted in a similar attack last year, headed to the police station with the LGBT+ activists to report the incident.
This year’s conference could not go ahead as planned. “We managed to provide video seminars on Saturday [November 10] and tried to provide workshops on Sunday. But unfortunately the address got out again and we received direct threats regarding further attacks. Thus we decided to cancel the afternoon sessions for the security of our participants and volunteers,” Aronchik says.
“It was devastating that the work of six months just vanished,” she continued. “But I decided not to give up und we are already planning to make one day of the conference take place in December.”
Aronchik says she and the other conference organisers have vowed to continue doing their work in spite of the threats. “They won’t win because we don’t give up. We know we are in the right here, so we won’t stop fighting,” she says.
The organisers’ biggest issue at the moment is funding, as they can’t afford to rent a venue and they also need to provide security. “We are currently looking for donors or any other help in Moscow and outside,” Aronchik says,
Doctors provide medical care to participants of a transgender rights march after an attack by far-right groups activists in Kiev on November 18, 2018. (Sergei Supinski /AFP/Getty)
Far-right militants attacked a rally in support of trans rights held in Ukraine on Sunday (November 18).
Led by the non-governmental organisation Insight, trans rights campaigners gathered in Ukraine capital’s Kiyv to demand an end to transphobia ahead of Transgender Day of Remembrance, observed on November 20.
According to American journalist Christopher Miller, who reported about the rally on Twitter, a group of religious and far-right militants confronted the LGBT+ activists early in the afternoon at a park in the city, forcing them to change the location of the rally.
Holding banners, rainbow and transgender flags, a group of around 40 LGBT+ campaigners relocated in front of the University metro station, to continue their legally-sanctioned rally.
But counter-protesters attacked them with smoke bombs, shouting homophobic slurs.
A woman talks to a policeman as police disperse participants of the march of transgender people to prevent from attack of far-right groups activists in Kiev on November 18, 2018. (Sergei Supinski /AFP/Getty)
“Things got heated. Police made no attempts to move radicals and instead shoved LGBT activists into metro. As they did, they swore and used hateful slurs to describe them” Miller wrote, describing the events on Twitter.
Far-right Violence at trans rights rally part of growing trend
Among those injured were two women who had to receive medical treatment in the underground station after being pepper-sprayed, AFP reported.
“Today’s events have demonstrated that the level of far-right radical aggression and violence is increasing in Ukraine,” the NGO Insight wrote in a statement on Facebook after the trans rights rally, decrying the authorities’ failure of guaranteeing their safety and support for human rights.
LGBT+ campaigners in Ukraine have previously held various demonstrations, including gay pride celebrations. But as the arrest of 56 far-right protesters seeking to disrupt the annual Kiyv pride earlier this year suggests, homophobia remains widespread.
Activists of far-right groups hold placards and flags as they protest against the transgender rights march in Kiev on November 18, 2018. (Sergei Supinski /AFP/Getty)
Ahead of the trans rights rally, Amnesty International Ukraine denounced “a wave of threats” from radical groups directed at participants and organisers of LGBT+ events.
“We hope that law enforcement will fulfil its duty at the highest level and protect the right of citizens to peaceful gatherings,” the Amnesty International statement read.
Canadian journalist Michael Colborne, who was also covering the trans rights march, was punched in the face. “This country has a huge far-right problem. Stop downplaying it,” he wrote in one of his tweets.
Colborne also criticised the authorities for how they handled the far-right militants confronting the LGBT+ campaigners’ peaceful demonstration.
“A pretty poor job, considering this ain’t my first rodeo covering LGBT/far-right in this city. You’ve let a mob of far-right kids boss around a group of less than 100 #трансмарш2018 #transmarchukraine marchers & push them somewhere else. Terrible job, guys. Terrible.”
Activists of far-right groups hold placards and flags as they protest against the transgender rights march in Kiev on November 18, 2018. (Sergei Supinski /AFP/Getty)
Canadian ambassador to Ukraine Roman Waschuk posted a tweet in solidarity with the Canadian journalist.
“Criminal and hateful actions by far-right radicals deserve an effective and dissuasive policing response. [The Ukrainian national police] have shown they can do it at past LGBT events; they need to reassert commitment to media protection and human rights for all,” Waschuk wrote.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada Andriy Shevchenko also expressed consternation at news of Colborne’s assult.
“As a Ukrainian diplomat and a journalist, I am upset and disappointed by the attack on Michael Colborne. It is not the Kyiv we love and cherish. The perpetrators should be quickly brought to justice!”
The Republic of San Marino just passed civil union laws for same-sex couples.
Nestled within Italy, San Marino is the world’s smallest republic and has a population of just over 33,000 people.
The Grand and General Council governs the people of San Marino and yesterday (15 November) it began to discuss the proposed Regulation of Civil Unions.
It was the second reading, after the Commission for Constitutional and Institutional Affairs approved the draft on 27 September.
Milan pride 2011. | Photo: Federico Moroni / Flickr
There are 14 articles in the law, but most notably one that states: ‘A civil union is a contract stipulated by two legal adults of the same-sex or of opposite sex in order to organize their life together as a couple.’
The law passed today (16 November) with 40 votes in favor, four votes against and four abstaining.
There is currently no date planned for the law to come into effect.
Marco Tonti from Arcigay told Gay Star News: ‘It is a historic step forward for San Marino since homosexuality had been criminalized until 2004.’
He then added: ‘There are still many civil rights missing from the appeal, such as the voluntary termination of pregnancy.’
Last year, San Marino scored fairly low on a list of 49 European countries ranked on rights for LGBTI people.
It came in at number 44, with only 12% of LGBTI rights.
In fact, San Marino only six years ago struck down a medieval law that forbade same-sex couples to live together.
The small independent country wouldn’t give visa rights to gay men and women living together as a couple.
The removal of the medieval law was an historic step forwards.
Michele Pazzini, secretary of the LGBT-San Marino association said at the time: ‘This is a little step towards the full recognition of same-sex couples.’
Many Italians want to live in San Marino because of the very low taxation of the republic.
The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruled against a law in Guyana banning men and women from going into public places ‘dressed in clothing of the opposite sex for an “improper purpose”‘.
In their ruling, the CCJ deemed the law unconstitutional.
The law, part of the Section 153(1)(xlvii) of the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act, was enacted in 1893. Guyana, a country located in the north of South America, developed the law as part of their post-emancipation vagrancy laws.
In February 2009, authorities arrested four transgender individuals: Quincy McEwan, Seon Clarke, Joseph Fraser, and Seyon Persaud. Per the report from the CCJ, they were all ‘convicted and punished for cross-dressing in public’.
They all pleaded guilty to the charges.
During their hearing in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on 9 February 2009, the Magistrate reportedly told them ‘they must go to church and give their lives to Jesus Christ and advised them that they were confused about their sexuality’.
Initially, the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) challenged the law in Guyana. Both the High Court and the Court of Appeal denied these challenges.
More than nine years later, the CCJ ultimately struck down the law.
The Honourable President Mr. Justice Saunders and Justices Wit, Anderson, Rajnauth-Lee and Barrow made up the CCJ’s panel ruling on the law.
In their decision, they found the law hailed ‘from a different time and no longer served any legitimate purpose in Guyana’.
Saunders stated: ‘Law and society are dynamic, not static. A Constitution must be read as a whole. Courts should be astute to avoid hindrances that would deter them from interpreting the Constitution in a manner faithful to its essence and its underlying spirit.
‘If one part of the Constitution appears to run up against an individual fundamental right, then, in interpreting the Constitution as a whole, courts should place a premium on affording the citizen his/her enjoyment of the fundamental right, unless there is some overriding public interest.’
Guyana’s Constitution also prohibits discrimination.
The CCJ found the law resulted in trans people being ‘treated unfavourably by criminalising their gender expression and gender identity’.
GSN reached out to SASOD and the Guyana Equality Forum for comment.
