Ugandans face summons over LGBT torture charges
A Ugandan town councilman and a Ugandan prisons officer have been summoned to face criminal charges of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment connected to the arrest of 20 men at an LGBT homeless shelter in March and their imprisonment for 50 days.
From the African Human Rights Media Network: https://76crimes.com/2020/08/19/ugandans-face-summons-over-lgbt-torture-charges/
Lesbian couples should no longer have to adopt their own children in Germany
Da die Schweizer gerne deutsches Recht kopieren, kommt dieser Vorschlag vielleicht gerade zur rechten Zeit: Lesbische Paare sollen in Deutschland eigene Kinder nicht mehr adoptieren müssen Zwar habe auch das Bundesamt für Justiz und angesehene Schweizer Juristen sich so verlauten lassen, aber Politiker und Presse interessiert das wenig. https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/sorgerecht-kinder-lesbische-paare-1.5005245 ustizministerin Lambrecht plant eine Reform des […]
Da die Schweizer gerne deutsches Recht kopieren, kommt dieser Vorschlag vielleicht gerade zur rechten Zeit: Lesbische Paare sollen in Deutschland eigene Kinder nicht mehr adoptieren müssen — LGBTI Recht in der Schweiz – Droit LGBTI en Suisse
Justizministerin Lambrecht plant eine Reform des Sorgerechts für lesbische Paare. Der Entwurf greift an mancher Stelle allerdings zu kurz – und macht es vor allem den Vätern schwer (https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/sorgerecht-kinder-lesbische-paare-1.5005245).
Neue Paragrafen sind oftmals sperrig, aber diese Vorschrift kommt schlank daher: “Mutter eines Kindes ist die Frau, die es geboren hat”, heißt es seit jeher im Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuch. Nun aber bekommt Paragraf 1591 einen zweiten Absatz: “Mutter eines Kindes ist neben der Mutter nach Absatz 1 auch die Frau, die zum Zeitpunkt der Geburt mit der Mutter nach Absatz eins verheiratet ist oder die die Mutterschaft anerkannt hat.” Mehr braucht es nicht, um einen grundstürzenden Wandel in Worte zu fassen.
Nach der Zulassung der Stiefkindadoption im Jahr 2013 und der Ehe für alle 2017 folgt also der nächste Schritt. Kinder können fortan zwei Mütter haben, und zwar ohne Adoption. Das gilt für Ehen wie auch für unverheiratete lesbische Paare. So sieht es ein Gesetzentwurf des Bundesjustizministeriums vor, der nun in der Regierung abgestimmt wird; er liegt der Süddeutschen Zeitung vor. Danach sollen beide Frauen Mutter heißen, wie das etwa in den Niederlanden (“moeder”) oder in Finnland (“äiti”) der Fall ist. Der Entwurf verzichtet auf den holprigen Begriff “Mit-Mutterschaft”, wie man ihn in Belgien (“meemoeder”), Dänemark und Norwegen (“medmor”) kennt – übrigens alles Länder, in denen die gemeinsame Elternschaft lesbischer Paare, die Deutschland nun etwas verspätet einführt, bereits Gesetz ist. Ein Adoptionsverfahren durchlaufen zu müssen, auch wenn es ein Wunschkind sei, “das wird von lesbischen Paaren zu Recht als diskriminierend empfunden”, sagt Bundesjustizministerin Christine Lambrecht, “eine Mutter sollte ihr Kind nicht adoptieren müssen.”
Dass Kinder lesbischer Paare fortan zwei rechtliche Elternteile haben, und zwar, wie bei heterosexuellen Paaren, von Beginn an, dient dem Entwurf zufolge vor allem ihrer Sicherheit. Denn damit sind Ansprüche verbunden, vor allem auf Unterhalt. Zugleich schreibt der Entwurf fest, dass es nur zwei Elternteile geben kann. Der männliche Erzeuger, etwa ein Samenspender, den nach der Geburt plötzlich Vatergefühle überkommen, kann sich nicht als dritter Elternteil hineindrängen. Außerdem sieht die Reform keine Co-Vater-Regelung für homosexuelle Männer vor, die bei der Familiengründung oft auf die problematische und in Deutschland verbotene Leihmutterschaft angewiesen sind.
Weniger beherzt ist der zweite Teil der Reform ausgefallen. Zwar soll unverheirateten Paaren der Weg zum gemeinsamen Sorgerecht für ihre Kinder erleichtert werden, also die Entscheidung über Schule, Namen oder Wohnort. Eine gemeinsame Erklärung ist nicht mehr nötig, fortan soll die Anerkennung der Vaterschaft genügen, für die freilich die Zustimmung der Mutter nötig ist. Wird um die Vaterschaft dagegen vor Gericht gestritten – das dann per DNA-Test die Verhältnisse klärt -, bekommt der gerichtlich festgestellte Vater das Sorgerecht aber nicht automatisch. Dann bleibt es bei der gemeinsamen Erklärung. Gegen die Mutter geht also nichts: Ihre Vetoposition soll Konflikten über Kinder entgegenwirken, die durch Samenspender oder in One-Night-Stands gezeugt wurden. Damit bleibt der Entwurf hinter den Regeln vieler anderer Länder zurück, in denen die Eltern automatisch das Sorgerecht bekommen. Das hatte auch eine vom Ministerium eingesetzte Arbeitsgruppe vorgeschlagen.
Neu sind zudem erweiterte Ansprüche zur Klärung der genetischen Abstammung. Bisher können nur Vater, Mutter und Kind einen Gentest verlangen. Wer sich dagegen für den leiblichen Vater hält, dem bleibt nur der brachiale Weg, die Vaterschaft des anderen Mannes anzufechten. Der Entwurf räumt nun auch dem mutmaßlichen Vater eine vereinfachte Möglichkeit ein, allein die genetische Verwandtschaft klären zu lassen, ohne gleich mit einer Klage die fremde Familie zu sprengen. Dasselbe gilt übrigens auch für die “mutmaßliche Mutter”: In Zeiten der Eizellenspende ist nicht immer gewiss, wer die genetische Mutter ist.© SZ vom 21.08.2020/bix
USA: Federal judge blocks Trump administration rule allowing healthcare providers to discriminate against transgender individuals
A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York has blocked a new rule by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that would allow healthcare providers to discriminate against transgender individuals. The ruling was issued on Monday, one day before the rule was set to take effect.
In 2015, HHS proposed a new set of rules that defined discrimination “on the basis of sex” in Title IX to include discrimination “on the basis of pregnancy, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy, or recovery therefrom, childbirth or related medical conditions, sex stereotyping, or gender identity.” These rules took effect on July 18, 2016.
In 2019, HHS proposed a new set of rules that repealed the 2016 definition of discrimination “on the basis of sex,” determining that “[t]he plain meaning of ‘sex’ under Title IX encompasses neither sexual orientation nor gender identity.” The new rules were to take effect on Tuesday.
On June 26, two transgender women filed suit, both of whom experienced discrimination because of their transgender status. They asked for the court to stay the rules’ effective date and to preliminarily enjoin HHS from enforcing them.
On Monday, Judge Frederic Block concluded that the rules were contrary to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia. In the Bostock opinion, the Supreme Court held that “it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.” The district court also found that the HHS acted arbitrarily and capriciously.
The plaintiffs established that they were likely to suffer irreparable harm because monetary damages “could hardly compensate plaintiffs for the detrimental effect of discrimination on their health and, perhaps, their lives.” When balancing equities and public interest, Block reached a similar conclusion.
The judge also found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits. HHS acted because of a “fundamental disagreement” with the 2016 rules, and its position was “effectively rejected” by the Supreme Court through the Bostock ruling. The HHS had an opportunity to reevaluate its proposed rule after the case was decided. Because of this, the court found that it was likely that the plaintiffs will succeed on their claim.
Block granted a stay and a preliminary injunction to preclude the rules from becoming operative.
The post Federal judge blocks Trump administration rule allowing healthcare providers to discriminate against transgender individuals appeared first on JURIST – News – Legal News & Commentary.
USA: Judge finally blocks Donald Trump from rolling back transgender healthcare protections at the 11th hour
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Donald Trump administration’s plans to roll back existing healthcare protections for trans patients
USA: Federal judge temporarily blocks Idaho law targeting transgender athletes
Chief Judge David Nye of the US District Court District of Idaho on Monday temporarily blocked the first state law passed to ban transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Idaho in April on behalf of Lindsay Hecox and three other students who are challenging the constitutionality of HB 500, which excludes transgender athletes from competing in school sports and places requirements on schools to “verify the student’s biological sex” in the event any athlete’s gender is “disputed.” The new law was one of a pair of transgender restrictions recently passed in Idaho. The other, HB 509, sought to prohibit transgender individuals from changing their biological sex on their birth certificates. Both laws are currently facing legal challenges and have been blocked by preliminary injunctions.
Nye granted the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and, after recognizing the decision to be controversial among many citizens in Idaho, stated “the Constitution must always prevail.”
Additionally, in considering whether Hecox is likely to prevail, a critical component of the legal standard for issuing an injunction, Nye considered the recent Supreme Court decision in Bostock, which held that “it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being … transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.”
In June, 60 prominent civil rights organizations and LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations called for the complete ban of all NCAA sponsored sporting events in Idaho in response to Idaho’s “dangerous anti-transgender legislation” because the law is contrary to the NCAA inclusion policies for transgender student-athletes.
The post Federal judge temporarily blocks Idaho law targeting transgender athletes appeared first on JURIST – News – Legal News & Commentary.
USA: Trump-Appointed Judge Rules Photographer Can Reject Gay Couples Despite Ban on LGBT Discrimination
How you can help persecuted Russian LGBT+ activist, Yulia Tsvetkova
This is Yulia Tsvetkova from Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Russia’s Far East. Yulia is a feminist, an LGBT+ activist, an artist, and a founder of a theatre studio for teenagers.
“I am a scary woman,” she says.
Wondering why? Read on and judge for yourself.
Yulia began 2019 having achieved a lot and with big plans in store. To mark the first day of that year, and to take stock of the past 12 months, she posted this online:
“2018 became a year of a major shift for me. It happens sometimes that important things arrive all at once. This year, I opened my own theatre, a community centre and an online feminist group. Towards the end of the year, I launched a project that I had dreamed about for many years – sex-ed for teenagers. If somebody had told me a year ago that it would have turned out like this, I’d have laughed wholeheartedly…
Many of these things would not have happened without the examples of the amazing people who came into my life and showed me that dreaming about a better world is both possible and necessary, and that we all are able to change what’s around us.”
Fast-forward to the first day of 2020 – and Yulia celebrated New Year under house arrest, with a tracking bracelet on her ankle.
What happened in-between?
During 2019, Yulia carried on with her freshly-launched activist and theatre initiatives. She hosted events at the LGBT-friendly community centre. She contributed lots of content to her online awareness-raising projects: Vagina Monologues on destigmatising women’s bodies; Komsomolka on feminism; and Dandelion field on sex-ed for teenagers. Together with the young members of her theatre group, Merak, she had a youth theatre festival in the making with four plays to present that coming March.
Then, just two months into 2019, anonymous complaints, threats, and calls from the police began creeping into Yulia’s life. She was forced to cancel the theatre festival, due to pressure from the local authorities. Visits to the police station for questioning quickly became a routine and constant part of her days.
On one of her visits to the police, she learned that her drawings promoting body positivity were deemed “pornography” by law enforcement agents. Concerns were raised about her “A woman is not a doll” series, in which schematic depictions of women are accompanied by affirmations like: “Living women have body fat, and that’s normal;” “Living women get wrinkles and grey hairs, and that’s normal;” and “Living women have muscles, and that’s normal”. A couple of teenagers from Yulia’s theatre group and some followers of her online communities were called in for questioning too.
The “Vagina Monologues” online community that Yulia led drew the attention of the police as well. It community featured abstract depictions of female sexual organs and educational drawings of women’s bodies.
Invitations from the local police for ‘informal questioning’ stopped later in the fall of 2019.
But Yulia’s story was about to take a darker turn.
Informal questioning soon gave way to formal interrogations. On 20 November 2019, Yulia Tsvetkova was arrested and put under investigation for “distribution of pornography”.
Yulia was under house arrest for almost four months, from 23 November 2019 until 16 March 2020.
She went through dozens of interrogations and was ordered to undergo a psychiatric examination.
She was fined for “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” twice: in December 2019 and in July 2020. In both cases “propaganda” was found in her online content: first in the feminist and LGBT+ communities that she ran, then – in a drawing featuring LGBT+ families and a slogan “Family is where love is. Support LGBT+ families!”
Currently Yulia is appealing these two decisions and a third charge of “propaganda” based on an online post with illustrations in support of LGBT+ families in Russia.
She continues to regularly receive death threats, and her formal complaints to the police are met with complete indifference and inaction.
She is still under gag order and cannot leave her town while she awaits her trial in the “pornography” case, which might result in up to six years in prison.
Yet, Yulia will not give up her fight, and here’s how you can help her.
Today, Yulia needs as many eyes as possible on her case and as many messengers as possible for her story. Your attention and your action matter.
Tags: RussiaLGBTI youthYulia Tsvetkova
How you can help persecuted Russian LGBT+activist, Yulia Tsvetkova
More information here: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030437633 A preliminary version can be read for free here: https://serval.unil.ch/en/notice/serval:BIB_8FDB5B3C0490
Happy to have published a book chapter entitled “The European Union as a Protector and Promoter of Equality: Discrimination on Grounds of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity” (ed. #ThomasGiegerich) — Andreas R. Ziegler
Human Rights Watch urged Tunisia to end the use of anal testing, used as “proof” to prosecute same-sex relations
Human Rights Watch on Wednesday called on Tunisia to release two men jailed for sodomy and to end the “cruel, inhuman and degrading” use of anal testing.
The two men, both aged 26, were jailed in June for homosexual intercourse, but their two-year sentence was later halved on appeal. The two men denied all charges, but their refusal to undergo an anal test was used as “proof” to infer guilt.
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/8/5/tunisia-should-end-gay-proof-anal-tests-hrw
USA: Trans student forced to use wrong school bathroom wins landmark case guaranteeing others won’t share his ‘humiliation’
International and Comparative SOGIESC Law - Professor Andreas R Ziegler 