Cianán Russell, our Senior Policy Officer talked to Euronews about mental health diagnosis requirements for legal gender recognition in Europe: “Forced medical and psychiatric exams can be classified as torture or inhuman treatment”. In Europe, 33 countries require a mental health diagnosis before identity documents can be adapted. However the WHO removed transgender health issues from its list of mental illnesses in 2018. “It will take years for this new version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) to be implemented globally, with some countries, such as the USA, indicating that they have no short-term intention to implement the new system,” Russell said.
Read the news article from Euronews.
For the longer version of the article in German, visit this page.

The Centre for Equality and Liberty (CEL) of Kosovo and Centre for Social Group Development (CSGD) announced a historical decision taken by the Kosovo Court of Appeals on 2 August 2019 officially approving the request of a trans citizen to change their name and gender marker in their official documents. Both organisations expect that the Civil Status Offices and the Agency for Civil Registry of Kosovo will take the decision as a practice and positive example for future request of name and/or gender marker changes.

https://www.lgbti-era.org/news/kosovo-court-appeal-takes-historic-decision-legal-gender-recognition

OutRight Action International has published its ground-breaking report “Harmful Treatment. The Global Reach of So-Called Conversion Therapy” that analyses the character and extent of so-called conversion therapy globally. The study drew on data from survey results with almost 500 respondents from 80 countries, in-depth interviews with experts and survivors from more than a dozen countries, as well as a comprehensive literature review. According to the report, 22% of respondents to the survey had experienced “conversion therapy” directly. 33.5% of those sought it for themselves.

https://www.outrightinternational.org/reports/global-reach-so-called-conversion-therapy

by Paul Johnson: http://echrso.blogspot.com/2019/08/court-communicates-case-against.html

Today, HRC Foundation announced CNN as the exclusive broadcast partner for the organization’s LGBTQ-focused town hall for Democratic presidential candidates this fall. The evening will constitute the largest-ever audience for a Democratic presidential town hall devoted to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) issues and will mark the first time in history that a major cable news network will air a presidential event devoted to issues of importance to the LGBTQ community. The Human Rights Campaign is the world’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, representing more than 3 million members and supporters.

More: https://www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-announces-cnn-as-exclusive-broadcast-partner-of-historic-2020-president

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By Paul Johnson: http://echrso.blogspot.com/2019/08/romanian-prisoner-complains-under-echr.html

“Police believe that the Bishop is cleared of any wrongdoing because he was simply responding to a question and merely quoting the words of monk Porfyrios (who never uttered them by the way).

More: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/09/04/bishop-gay-men-specific-stink-did-not-commit-criminal-offence-police-say/

From Paul Johnson: http://echrso.blogspot.com/2019/09/court-communicates-case-against-georgia.html

More at: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/08/27/christian-filmmakers-lost-lawsuit-imaginary-gay-clients-decision-overturned/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PNnewsletter

• Nice’s match with Marseille suspended after fans display homophobic banners – Referee stops game for 10 minutes after banners and chants -Incident is latest in a series to have occurred in France

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/aug/28/nice-marseille-homophobic-banners-clement-turpin