USA: Virginia Senate approves bill to prevent surrogates from being forced to abort multiples

https://www.jurist.org/news/2020/02/virginia-senate-approves-bill-to-prevent-surrogates-from-being-forced-to-abort-multiples/

USA: Deborah Batts, America’s first openly gay federal judge, dies aged 72

Tanzania denies health services to and cracks down on LGBT individuals: HRW report

https://www.jurist.org/news/2020/02/tanzania-denies-health-services-to-and-cracks-down-on-lgbt-individuals-hrw-report/

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on Monday documenting how Tanzania’s health policies deny adequate services to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and other people who are at risk of contracting HIV. The report details the escalating attacks against LGBT individuals and how the anti-LGBT crackdown has disabled many of the community organizations that serve them.

The report further details many of the discriminatory health policies in place, including a “ban on distribution of lubricant and the prohibition on HIV and public health outreach and operation of drop-in centers by community-based organizations serving LGBT people and key populations.” The closure of drop-in centers has led to lower levels of HIV awareness and testing in communities that are at high risk of contracting HIV.

In addition to the inadequate health services, “police continue to conduct arbitrary arrests based on sexual orientation or gender identity. In some cases, police enlist health care providers to carry out forced anal examinations in attempts to find proof of homosexual conduct.”

HRW recommends that Tanzania end arrests based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, and to take a “rights-respecting, evidence-based approach to HIV prevention and treatment.”

The post Tanzania denies health services to and cracks down on LGBT individuals: HRW report appeared first on JURIST – News – Legal News & Commentary.

Last Thursday the Belgian Gender Law (Law of 10 May 2007) was changed by the Parliament (this law offers protection against discrimination with regard to the so called ‘gender’ criteria).

According to the recent amendment the  law will also protect against discrimination on the following grounds : breastfeeding, adoption, medically assisted reproduction … and sex-characteristics.

(transsexuality, gender identity and gender expression were already protected by the Gender Law).

This means that the Belgian Gender Law now offers explicit protection against discrimination for intersexual persons. The incorporation in the Gender Law is interesting since this law – contrary to the general antidiscrimination law – does not permit justification of direct discrimination.

Click to access 55K0165012.pdf

USA: South Dakota House approves bill banning gender change treatment for children

The South Dakota House approved a bill Wednesday that would ban doctors from treating transgender children through the usage of certain gender affirming treatment.

Practicing physicians who engage in treatment for young patients, such as puberty blockers, gender confirmation surgery or hormone therapy, could be charged with a misdemeanor if the child were below the age of 16.

The bill, numbered HB 1057, would still allow for surgery on intersex children for “corrective” purposes: “Section 26-10-37 does not apply to the good faith medical decision of a parent or 6 guardian of a minor born with a medically-verifiable genetic disorder of sex development.” These “genetic disorders,” include “External biological sex characteristics that are ambiguous.”

In addition to HB 1057, the South Dakota Legislature has also approved Senate Bill 93, which would allow parents to refuse gender affirming treatments for their children.

The post South Dakota House approves bill banning bender change treatment for children appeared first on JURIST – News – Legal News & Commentary.

‘Call It Hate’ project findings published with video and blogs

The EU-funded consortium project ‘Call it Hate’ has ended as of December 2019. The project team shared a series of videos from the closing conference and two blog posts on the International Network for Hate Studies website. The author Dr Piotr Godzisz discusses the research results in his first blog post “Understanding Attitudes toward LGBT People as Victims of Crimes” and he introduces the context effect in attitude surveys in his second blog post “Context effect in the study on the perceptions of violence against LGBT people”. The context effect was used to analyse the gender dimension of respondents’ attitudes towards the victims of anti-LGBT violence.
Read the research book published by ‘Call it Hate’.

Job vacancies at IGLYO

The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer & Intersex (LGBTQI) Youth and Student Organisation (IGLYO) has two job vacancies: You can apply for the Policy & Research Officer position until 17 February and for the Senior Finance Officer position until 16 February. Both posts are full-time.
Read more and apply for Policy & Research Officer.
Read more and apply for Senior Finance Officer.

Legal victory for trans community in Kosovo

After a two-year court battle in Kosovo and a legal decision in the Basic Court of Pristina affirming his human rights, Blert Morina was finally able to change his name and gender marker in identity documents on 20 January. This is a landmark decision for Blert, transgender persons, and the whole LGBT community in Kosovo as it was the second such case in which Kosovo’s courts have ruled in favour of a trans person’s gender recognition.
Read more on a news article.

Social Welfare Center in Zagreb, Croatia has rejected a foster care application submitted by a gay couple, who are life partners in Croatia, although this is in contradiction with the Croatian Administrative Court’s binding ruling of 19 December 2019

On 28 January, the Social Welfare Center in Zagreb, Croatia has rejected a foster care application submitted by a gay couple, who are life partners in Croatia, although this is in contradiction with the Croatian Administrative Court’s binding ruling of 19 December 2019. The December judgment, the result of a two-year court proceeding, states that life partners should be considered on equal footing as other types of families. Not only this is a clear case of discrimination based on sexual orientation in violation of the European Convention of Human Rights, but a blatant disregard of the rule of law, which is one of the priorities of Croatian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Read more.

Council of Europe: Parliamentary Assembly adopted a resolution on the protection of freedom of religion or belief in the workplace without laying the groundwork for legalisation of homophobic, transphobic, interphobic, or anti-SRHR discrimination

On 29 January, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution on the protection of freedom of religion or belief in the workplace. Beforehand, a coalition of ILGA-Europe, IPPF European Network, European Humanist Federation, European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights, and Center for Reproductive Rights successfully lobbied, along with numerous allied Parliamentarians from across the region, to block dangerous language on “reasonable accommodation” from being adopted within the resolution text by the Council of Europe. As a result a resolution supporting protection of freedom of religion and belief in the workplace, with continued reflection of anti-discrimination law was adopted – one that protects human rights without laying the groundwork for legalisation of homophobic, transphobic, interphobic, or anti-SRHR discrimination.

More information about the resolution and voting results.