France MPs back compensating victims of anti-gay law

France’s lower house has passed a bill which will provide recognition and compensation for people convicted of homosexuality between 1942 and 1982.

More: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68504715

Ex-British Airways manager held in Qatari jail for ‘being gay’ as family fear he’s being tortured

The family of former British Airways manager Manuel Guerrero are pleading for his release after they claim he is being tortured in jail in Qatar after a police sting operation on the gay dating app Grindr

More: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/ex-british-airways-manager-held-32234506

Czech lawmakers approve more rights for same-sex couples, just not marriage

More: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/czech-lawmakers-approve-more-rights-same-sex-couples-just-not-marriage-2024-02-28

Ghana passes law criminalising identifying as LGBTQ+

The Parliament of Ghana passed a bill Wednesday that makes it illegal to identify as LGBTQ+ in Ghana. The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 states that anyone who is found to be LGBTQ+ in the country could be imprisoned.

Ghana’s Parliament passed the bill by a unanimous vote following the completion of its third reading in parliament. Under this new law, anyone identifying as LGBTQ+ could face up to three year in prison, while anyone who forms or funds LGBTQ+ groups could face up to 5 years in prison.

The bill states that its intention is as follows:

The object of the Bill is to provide for proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values; proscribe LGBTQ+ and related activities; proscribe propaganda of, advocacy for or promotion of LGBTTQQIAAP+ and related activities; provide for the protection and support for children, persons who are victims or accused of LGBTTQQIAAP+ and related activities and other person; and related matters.

The bill was formed in response to Ghana’s first LGBTQ+ advocacy resource centre opening in Accra in January 2021. According to the bill, this event was “greeted with a plethora of criticism from a cross section of Ghanaians” and the centre was closed following public protests. At the time, the National House of Chiefs issues a statement regarding the centre, affirming that “nowhere does the Ghanaian culture subscribe to LGBTQI which is a taboo, inhuman and alien to our society.”

Member of Parliament Sam George, a strong supporter of the bill, spoke to reporters after the vote. He stated that their “cultural values are upheld and respected” by the bill. When asked whether there was opposition to the bill, George stated “We may have had one or two members express divisions, but that is their democratic right. We respect it but the overwhelming majority of both sides of the house have supported this bill.”

The bill will be forwarded to President Nana Akufo-Addo, who must assent the bill before it becomes law in Ghana.

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US Supreme Court declines to hear Missouri case excluding jurors based on religious beliefs

The US Supreme Court denied a petition to hear an appeal Tuesday concerning the exclusion of potential jurors based on the jurors’ religious beliefs in a Missouri sex discrimination case.

Jean Finney, a worker for Missouri’s Department of Corrections who is also lesbian, sued her employer alleging sexual discrimination and retaliation after Finney began dating the ex-wife of a male co-worker. Before trial, three prospective jurors were removed during the juror selection process after expressing their religious beliefs that homosexuality was a sin. In 2021 the jury found in her favor regarding the claims for sexual discrimination and a hostile work environment and awarded her $275,000 in damages. The Department of Corrections appealed the decision arguing that the exclusion of the three jurors amounted to a violation of the US Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause.

The appeals court affirmed the lower court decision and a writ of certiorari to have the case heard by the US Supreme Court was filed in August 2023. In the petition, the Department of Corrections argued that the jurors were excluded solely based on religious views without any demonstration of bias in direct violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Prospective jurors were asked if they went to a “religious organization growing up where it was taught that people who are homosexuals shouldn’t have the same rights as everyone else because it was a sin with what they did?” and if they were unable to “set aside their religious convictions” in fair treatment of the case. The petition further argued that the questions were improperly asked and that there was a split in authority on the issue of exclusion of jurors based on religious beliefs among the lower courts, a split that required the US Supreme Court to grant a hearing for the case.

While the court declined to hear the case, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a statement respecting the denial of certiorari that the lower court’s reasoning was concerning. He further criticized the questioning of Finney’s counsel and expressed a willingness to hear a case on the issue with better facts in the future:

I agree that the Court of Appeals’ reasoning raises a very serious and important question that we should address in an appropriate case. The judiciary…must respect people’s fundamental rights, and among these are the right to the free exercise of religion and the right to the equal protection of the laws. When a court…finds that a person is ineligible to serve on a jury because of his or her religious beliefs, that decision implicates fundamental rights.

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Local Italian Court in Bolzano refers question regarding the non-recognition of third gender to Constitutional Court

Here’s the decision in Italian:

https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2024/02/14/24C00015/s1

Zimbabwe to ban LBGTQ+ higher education scholarships

Zimbabwean Vice President Constantino Chiwenga warned young people in the country on Thursday that the government will block all higher education scholarships from LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations.

In his statement, Chimwenga denounced LGBTQ+ organizations’ scholarships as “unlawful” and a move by “foreign interests” to recruit less privileged students into “lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual activities.” He went on to say that:

Our schools and institutions of higher learning will not entertain applicants, let alone enroll persons associated with such alien, anti-life, un-African and unchristian values which are being promoted and cultivated by, as well as practised in decadent societies with whom we share no moral or cultural affinities. Zimbabwe is a sovereign, African State with definite laws and values which typify it, cutting it apart from other mores.

Chiwenga advised young Zimbabweans who qualify for enrollment in higher education to approach government departments tasked to give grants and scholarship for support especially those with deserving cases, going on to say, “[t]hey should never be tempted to trade or sell their souls for such abominable and devilish offers.”

Zimbabwe has passed laws criminalizing homosexuality. Under the Criminal Law Act, section 73 prohibits sexual relations between males. According to Amnesty International, Zimbabwe is one of 33 countries in Africa where homosexuality is criminalized, with Mauritania, Sudan, Northern Nigeria and Southern Somalia including the death penalty as punishment for homosexual acts.

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Saint Vincent and the Grenadines top court upholds gay sex ban

Saint Vincent and the Grenadine’s High Court upheld laws criminalizing gay sex on Friday, met with sadness and criticism from LGBTQ+ activists. The ruling was delivered by Justice Esco Henry, who found that the laws are “reasonably required” to protect public health and morality, particularly the country’s HIV rates.

In light of the country’s “limited resources,” Henry found that the provisions were “most likely the least drastic means to achieve” the goal of reducing HIV rates as much as possible. She also found that they do not infringe on the Constitution. Henry continued, “[T]o my mind, the thought of a public health crisis occasioned by an unstemmed deluge of new HIV cases, is a real and serious concern which reasonably justifies a public health response of the kind embedded in the challenged provisions.”

The ruling upheld sections 146 of the Criminal Code 1988, which prohibits anal intercourse with a sentence of up to 10 years. The ruling also upheld section 148 of the same code, criminalizing public or private same-sex indecent practices. The sections were challenged in a 2019 High Court case seeking constitutional redress of the colonial-era laws, brought by Javin Kevin Vinc Johnson and Sean Macleish. Both claimed they were forced to leave the country as they openly identified as gay. The challenge was unsuccessful, and their claims were rejected. The men were ordered to pay EC$7,500 (about £2,200) to the attorney general. 

A July 2023 Human Rights Watch report found that violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in the country, although rarely prosecuted, encouraged a culture of intolerance towards queer people. It also noted that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a signatory of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibits LGBTQ+ discrimination, meaning the country’s continued commitment to these laws is contrary to its international obligations.

Five other English-speaking Caribbean nations also criminalize gay sex: Lucia; Dominica; Jamaica; Guyana and Grenada. Other Caribbean nations have recently repealed similar laws: Antigua and Barbuda (2022); Saint Kitts and Nevis (2022); Barbados (2022) and Trinidad and Tobago (2018).

There has been much international concern regarding the treatment LGBTQ+ people in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as in other Caribbean countries.

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