The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe will conduct a remote fact-finding mission on 2 and 3 November 2020 on the situation of LGBTI+ people in Poland
USA: Federal judge allows transgender discrimination claims against Georgia county to continue
Chief Judge Marc Treadwell of the US District Court for the Middle District of Georgia began her 37-page opinion by addressing the Sheriff’s Office’s Sovereign Immunity affirmative defense. She concluded that the Sheriff’s Office failed to show it was acting as “an arm of the state” and denied the motion to dismiss.
The judge also reviewed the Defendants’ motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). According to the court, Lange sufficiently plead her gender dysphoria as a disability under the act. However, the court ultimately granted the motion to dismiss the ADA claim “[b]ecause the [health insurance] Plan [was] equally available to all employees and Lange [] pleaded no facts suggesting otherwise.”
Finally, Judge Treadwell dismissed Lange’s Rehabilitation Act claim and her Federal Equal Protection claims against the Sheriff individually as well as the other county employees. Though the court dismissed those claims, it allowed Lange’s sex discrimination claims under Title VII to go forward, citing Bostock v. Clayton County. Lange’s ADA Title I and Federal Equal Protection claims against both the county and Sheriff’s Office were also allowed to continue.
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Nigeria high court drops case against 47 men accused of violating homosexuality law
Nigeria Federal High Court Justice Rilwan Aikawa has struck out a case against 47 men accused of violating Nigeria’s law against homosexual relationships, including gay marriage, due to “the lack of diligent prosecution.”
The men faced charges relating to public displays of affection with the same sex, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The men were arrested at the Lagos hotel in 2018. Police claim the men were being initiated into a gay club while the men claim they were attending a birthday party.
The court had adjourned the case on several occasions with the prosecution failing to present witnesses. The prosecution also failed to show up to Tuesday’s hearing.
Under Nigeria’s laws, when a case is struck out, it means that the accused can be arrested and arraigned again on the same charge. In contrast, when a case is dismissed, the accused cannot be arrested again on the same charge. Nonetheless, people were heard cheering after Justice Aikawa announced the verdict.
The post Nigeria high court drops case against 47 men accused of violating homosexuality law appeared first on JURIST – News – Legal News & Commentary.
The four-part documentary, titled EQUAL, will tell the story of the fight for LGBT+ rights in the lead up to the Stonewall riots in 1969.
Read: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/10/21/billy-porter-hbo-max-equal-documentary-stonewall-samira-wiley/
Russian cabinet strikes down abhorrent bill that would have erased trans people and banned same-sex marriage
EU: Freedom of movement for all families
European Union citizens have the right to move and live freely across the EU. But this does not apply to many same-sex couples and rainbow families.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, recently said she will push for recognition of rainbow families everywhere in the EU because “If you are a parent in one country, you are a parent in every country.”
Andreas, it’s time to dial up the pressure and tell the European Union to turn these words into action.
Sign now and demand that all families are treated equally everywhere in the European Union.
Spain: Because of concealed homosexuality: Spaniard has to compensate ex-wife
A judgment triggers outrage in Spain. A man has to pay 3,000 euros for not telling his ex about his homosexual relationships.
Spain’s Minister for Gender Equality Mónica Oltra demands that the law be examined Photo: Bernat Armangue / ap
MADRID taz | Does a man have to tell his wife that he had homosexual relationships before marriage? A judge in the Spanish Mediterranean city of Valencia says: Yes. She sentenced the lawyer Javier Vilalta to 3,000 euros in compensation – 1,000 euros per year of marriage – to his ex-wife. She also annulled her marriage, which was divorced in 2011. The convicted person, who stated in the trial to be bisexual, wants to appeal against “the terrible verdict”. He never cheated on his wife and he married her out of love. “My wife knows I was totally straight during the marriage,” added Vilalta.
This is not enough for the judge. She sees “the deliberate concealment” of his past life by the convicted “fraud”. According to a law from 1889, the marriage was therefore invalid, she declared, against the criteria of the defense lawyers and the prosecution. The marriage had been divorced by mutual consent in 2011. Both remained friends, said the convict. He even introduced a male partner to his ex in 2016.
In 2019 the woman finally went to court on the advice of her friends to have the marriage declared “null and void”. In the lawsuit, the woman alleged, among other things, that she experienced “major social rejection” after the divorce.
The Spanish Association of Lesbians, Gays, Transgender and Bisexuals (FELGTB) speaks of a “reactionary judgment”. The “moral trial” is a “worrying precedent”. The judgment is directed against the basic constitutional rights. “The verdict is an indication to society that anyone who has a sex life outside the norm can come to court and be convicted,” explains FELGTB spokeswoman Uge Sangil.
“Nobody should be forced to speak up about their sexual orientation,” complains the deputy head of government and minister for equality and inclusive politics of the Valencia region. Mónica Oltra, about the verdict. Oltra is demanding that the legislature review the 1889 law on which the judgment is based. After all, the concept of the “nullity” of a marriage comes from a time when divorce was impossible.
Cases such as Vilalta are almost non-existent in civil law. When marriages are declared “null”, this is done in Spain before church institutions. It is about couples who are so strictly religious that they do not want to get a civil divorce, as this makes another church wedding impossible.
Read: https://pledgetimes.com/because-of-concealed-homosexuality-spaniard-has-to-compensate-ex-wife/
Human Rights Law Review, Volume 20, Issue 3, September 2020, Pages 387–411, https://doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngaa020
Published: 02 September 2020
This article explores the definition of ‘sportswoman’ as put forward in the Caster Semenya case (2019) and the Dutee Chand case (2015) before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). It analyses the structural and discursive factors that made it possible for the CAS to endorse a definition that reduces sex and gender to a matter concerning testosterone. By relying on the concept of intersectionality and analytical sensibilities from Critical Legal Studies, the article shows that framing the cases as a matter of scientific dispute, instead of as concerning human rights, significantly influenced the CAS decisions. Moreover, structural elements of international sports law, such as the lack of knowledge of human rights among CAS arbitrators and a history of institutionalising gendered and racialised body norms through sporting regulations, further aided the affirmation of the ‘testosterone rules’.
Gay fathers are fleeing Russia with their children after authorities threatened to arrest them for ‘baby trafficking’
Read: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/10/16/russia-gay-single-men-ivf-arrest-baby-trafficking-flee/
Over fifty lawyers, academics and activists sent a public letter to Peru’s Constitutional Court, expressing “deep concern” as the court has delayed ruling on a marriage equality case for more than two years.
In June 2018, the court held a public hearing on Óscar Ugarteche’s case against the Registro Nacional de Identificación y Estado Civil (RENIEC). The plaintiff reported that RENIEC had rejected his request to recognise his marriage to a man, registered in Mexico – reportedly arguing that marriage was “between a man and a woman”. The Court was supposed to rule in 30 days, but a decision on the case has been pending since then.
Peru is bound by a 2018 decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which indicated that all couples must be guaranteed the same legal protections and rights – including the right to marriage.
“A favourable ruling could pave the way towards marriage equality, but still [the Court] hasn’t issued a decision,” Más Igualdad Peru wrote on social media. “The recognition of equal marriage in Peru is at stake!”
International and Comparative SOGIESC Law - Professor Andreas R Ziegler 