Hungary parliament passes bill defining families, curtailing rights of gay citizens

The Hungarian National Assembly, the country’s parliament, passed a bill amending the Hungarian Fundamental Law on Tuesday, which stipulates that a mother is a woman and a father is a man.

The bill, which is “intended to strengthen the protection of Hungarian families” and protect children, protects individuals’ rights to self-identify “according to their sex at birth.” The bill states that children will have upbringings based on the values of Hungary’s “constitutional identity and Christian culture.”

Section L, paragraph one of the amended Fundamental Law states: “Hungary protects the institution of marriage as the association between a man and a woman and the family as the basis for the survival of the nation. The foundation of the family is marriage and the parent-child relationship. The mother is a woman, the father is a man.”

The amendment also defined public money as “the revenues, expenditures and claims of the state.” This definition of public money was adopted for transparency, although critics claim that the amendment will loosen independent bodies’ oversight of government spending.

The amendment, which is the ninth amendment to Hungary’s constitution, was originally submitted on November 10. On Tuesday, 134 Members of Parliament voted for the bill, and five voted against it.

While the amendment goes into effect following its promulgation, the rules related to it only go into effect on July 1, 2023.

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The dangerous and oppressive countries where same-sex love is still a crime, mapped

Being gay, lesbian or bisexual is still a crime in 69 United Nations member states, a new report has revealed.

Read: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/12/16/ilga-world-report-gay-bisexual-crime-illegal-united-nations-map-death-penalty/

Sex change in civil registers to become easier in Switzerland

Transgender and intersex people will be able to change their name and sex more easily in the official civil register following moves by the Swiss parliament. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives eliminated its last difference with the Senate to make this possible. In future, transgender and intersex people will be able to change their name and sex in the civil register without bureaucratic complications. There will no longer be any medical examinations or other prerequisites. Every year, about 40 children are born with indeterminate sex at birth. However, the law currently requires that they must be registered within three days with their sex and first name, which can only be changed later through an administrative or judicial procedure. At the same time, there are several hundred transgender people in Switzerland. Between 100 and 200 people have undergone or are considering an operation to change their sex. The last point of contention between the two houses of…

Read: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/sex-change-to-become-easier-in-switzerland-/46228520

USA: Supreme Court declines to take up challenge to same-sex parents on birth certificate

The US Supreme Court refused to hear a case Monday that sought to reverse a lower court ruling allowing same-sex couples to be listed as birth parents on a child’s birth certificate. The case, Box v. Hendersen, was appealed from the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

The Seventh Circuit had ruled that Indiana must presume the same-sex spouse of a biological parent is the other parent of a child unless proved otherwise, based on the existing presumption in state law that the husband of a biological mother is the parent of a child unless proved otherwise.

Indiana appealed the Seventh Circuit’s ruling, alleging that only a biological parent has legal rights and obligations to a child at birth:

Now, however, the Seventh Circuit is requiring Indiana, which merely presumes the biological paternity of a birth mother’s husband in the absence of contrary evidence, also to allocate, at birth, parental rights, reflected on the child’s birth certificate, to the birth-mother’s wife. Doing so, however, is in tension with the traditional, constitutionally protected understanding that, at birth, only a baby’s biological parents have legal rights and obligations toward the child. To protect these rights, Indiana lists a child’s biological parents, and no one else, on the child’s birth certificate unless the child is legally adopted. This case, then, is about whether Indiana may, to advance its unquestionably legitimate policy of safeguarding the rights and obligations of biological parents in the context of completing birth certificates, presume a birth-mother’s husband to be the biological father of the child, without also presuming the “parentage” of a birth-mother’s wife. States need guidance with respect to the permissible constitutional parameters of laws allocating paternal and maternal presumptions at birth, and the Court’s decision in Pavan has proven insufficient in that regard. There, the Court had before it only the most basic, binary allocation of parental rights at birth, and a state law that plainly discriminated between opposite-sex and same-sex couples. Even so, three Justices of this Court would have ordered plenary review rather than summary reversal. Indiana’s law is in even greater need of plenary review, for it functions differently and ultimately treats same-sex and opposite-sex couples the same in terms of the rights of spouses of birth mothers who are not biologically related to the child.

The refusal to hear the case means that the Seventh Circuit’s ruling will stand.

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Interesting articles on sexual orientation in Africa 2020

The latest volume of the African Human Rights Yearbook/Annuaire africain des droits de l’homme (Vol. 4, 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Ernest Yaw Ako, Domesticating the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Ghana: threat or promise to sexual minority rights?
• Ousmanou Nwatchok & Abdoulaye Sylla, La question homosexuelle en Afrique: entre droit, politique et éthique

Bolivia recognizes same-sex union following long legal battle

The national civil registry of Bolivia recognized for the first time on Friday a same-sex civil union after a two-year legal battle between the applicants, a gay couple, and the administrative authorities.

The case stemmed from an application by David Aruquipa and Guido Montaño, who had applied to register their relationship as a “free union” under the Code of Families of Bolivia in 2018. However, their application was rejected by the national civil registry in September 2019, citing lack of availability of administrative procedures for same-sex unions, a decision which was later challenged by the couple.

In a July resolution, the Second Constitutional Chamber struck down the decision of the registry as discriminatory. The Constitutional Chamber observed that the Constitution required all laws and administrative procedures to be consistent with the principles of equality and non-discrimination, including on grounds of sexual orientation.

It held that the decision of the registry was violative of the due process rights of the couple as well as of Bolivia’s international human rights and legal obligations, ordering the registry to recognize the union before August 10. The registry had, however, refused to comply with the judicial order until its Friday decision.

The post Bolivia recognizes same-sex union following long legal battle appeared first on JURIST – News – Legal News & Commentary.

New Chinese Civil Code: Marriage still defined as union between opposite sexes

Despite seeing concerns about and criticisms of such changes from various regions across the country, the Civil Code was passed with 2,879 legislators voting in favor, two voting against, and five abstaining on the last day of the NPC meetings. These voting numbers are similar to the more scrutinized decision on Hong Kong national security legislation, on which 2,878 voted in favor, one voted against, and six abstained. The new civil code will be in place starting from 2021, making it harder for couples to file a divorce or make choices in their marriages.

Meanwhile, long-hoped-for reforms on same-sex marriage were not discussed in the annual legislative meetings, despite having a significant amount of support. The new civil code will continue to use the definition from 1950, which sees marriage as a legal covenant between one man and one woman.

Read: https://thediplomat.com/2020/06/with-new-divorce-rule-china-further-pushes-family-values/

Enquête 2020 du Panel Suisse LGBTIQ + : Les personnes LGBTIQ+ continuent d’être victimes de discrimination malgré les évolutions politiques En Suisse, les membres des minorités sexuelles(1) et de genre(2) sont toujours victimes de discrimination structurelle, d’exclusion sociale et de violence physique. C’est ce que démontrent deux psychologues des Universités de Lausanne et de Zurich […]

Enquête 2020 du Panel Suisse LGBTIQ + : Les personnes LGBTIQ+ continuent d’être victimes de discrimination malgré les évolutions politiques — LGBTI Recht in der Schweiz – Droit LGBTI en Suisse – by Professor Andreas R Ziegler

Great news from Bolivia! Finally, for the first time ever, the union of a same-sex couple will be legally recognized in the country! 🎉

David and Guido – the lovely couple in question 💕 – had been fighting a court battle for over 2 years to register their union.

With the help of activists, local groups and over 36,000 All Out members who signed the petition (incluiding you!), their love will be finally recognized by the law!

To celebrate, we’re sending David and Guido a giant greeting card – signed by thousands of All Out members from all over the world.

Click here to sign their card. David and Guido will be very happy to see your name there, Andreas. 💌

Activists from the Comunidad de Derechos Humanos Bolivia – the group that created the petition in the All Out platform – are going to surprise David and Guido with the card this coming Friday, when they make their union official.

Sign the card and show some love to David and Guido on their special day.

Thanks for going All Out for Bolivia,
Andrés, All Out campaigner in Latin America

Greece – First Greek judgment on the recognition of a non-binary person

For the first time in Greece judgment No. 153/2020 of the Justice of the Peace
of Kallithea has completely upheld the petition of a non-binary person for the recognition of their gender identity and the change of their surname.

Read: https://www.equalitylaw.eu/downloads/5311-greece-first-greek-judgment-on-the-recognition-of-a-non-binary-person-108-kb

See also: https://equal-eyes.org/database/2020/9/20/greece-non-binary-recognition-of-gender-identity-by-the-magistrates-court-of-kallithea