After hours of debate, the Chile’s Civil Union bill was approved by 86 votes to 23, with two abstentions, in the Chamber of Deputies yesterday. The Senate passed the bill last year. The new law will recognise the civil unions of couples living under the same roof, whether the couple is heterosexual or same-sex, and provides them with certain legal rights. Read More
Switzerland: Village backs priest over lesbian couple blessing
A catholic priest in a traditional Swiss village under fire for blessing a lesbian couple has defended his actions and rejected calls from the church hierarchy for his resignation. But the priest has received support from his congregation and residents of the village, who started a petition in his defence.
“We stand behind priest Bucheli,” Peter Vorwerk, vice-president of the parish council is quoted as saying. Christianity is based on charity so it is difficult to understand why the church should deny someone the blessing of God, he said. Read More
Slovakia: Referendum to bar same-sex couples from marrying and adopting fails
A proposal to deny same-sex couples the right to marry and adopt failed in Slovakia on Saturday because turnout did not reach the 50% threshold required to become law under the country’s voting rules.
Though it didn't pass by default, the vote reflects a growing backlash in Eastern Europe against LGBT rights. Slovakia is one of four Eastern European countries to pass laws denying legal recognition to same-sex couples since 2012, the same time that a growing number of countries in Western Europe have adopted full marriage equality. Read More
Eight in ten Vietnam gays see positive change toward them
Nearly 80% of LGBTI Vietnamese say society had changed positively toward them over the last five years, according to a new survey. The most voted changes were confidence to be themselves, government recognition and LGBTI activities. Read More
Vietnam: The 71-year-old mother who fights for gay rights
All heads turned when Thi took the stage to speak about her youngest son's struggle with being gay and to promote support for gays and lesbians. The conference, organized by by Ho Chi Minh City-based activist group ICS, gathered supporters for and families of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) people.
A farmer, Thi said she could only learn about the community from her son because she did not know how to access the Internet to study and there was no LGBT support group in her hometown. Read More
Australia: 17 year old given power over his parents for gender dysphoria
A 17-year-old transgender boy has become the first child in Australia to have been given the right to make decisions on special medical procedures without parental consent.
The Family Court found that the boy, known as Isaac, was competent and gave him the power to override his parent's wishes to prevent him from using puberty suppressants, testosterone replacement therapy and undergoing any surgery related to his gender. The case potentially paves the way for other children seeking treatment without the support of one or both of their parents to ask the courts to declare them competent enough to make the decision themselves. Read More
US: Archbishop’s 'morality clauses’ chill rights of teachers
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone's new anti-gay "purity test" for Catholic high school teachers will be added to the faculty handbooks, and outlines the church's teaching that using contraception is a sin and that sex outside of marriage, whether it is in the form of adultery, masturbation, pornography or gay sex, is "gravely evil."
Cordileone is insisting that administrators, faculty, and other staff “must refrain from public support of any cause or issue that is explicitly or implicitly contrary to that which the Catholic Church holds to be true, both those truths known from revelation and those from natural law” — not just in the classroom, but in their off-duty hours as well.
The archdiocese has proposed contract language that describes faculty & staff as “ministers engaged in this religious mission regardless of individual job description or subject matter.” As 'ministers' are exempt from anti-discrimination law, teachers will have no recourse if they're dismissed. Read More
Kenya Catholic bishops issue Lent message attacking homosexuality
The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) have begun their Lenten season with an attack on homosexuality and sex work.
In their annual Lenten Campaign message titled ‘Build our Family and Nation with Dignity’ the bishops take issue with some of the social issues plaguing the family including homosexuality, drug abuse, redundant parents, incest and prostitution. Read More
What Have the New Catholic Cardinals Said About LGBT People?
With contradictory statements from Pope Francis regarding equality for LGBT Catholics, The Advocate investigated the 20 new cardinals, only 4 of whom have made statements on LGBT issues. While Archbishop John Atcherley Dew of Wellington, New Zealand has voiced support for acceptance, the others paint a less pleasant picture. Read More
Church of England evangelical activist, comes out as a lesbian
One of the Church of England’s leading evangelical campaigners announced that she is a lesbian and said she decided to be open after trying various ministries to cast out her sexual orientation.
“God is a God of surprises,” said Jayne Ozanne, as she took up her new job as director of Accepting Evangelicals, a network of Christians who believe the time has come to move toward the acceptance of loving same-sex partnerships and a positive Christian ethic for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual people. Read More
Buddhist leader Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche speaks on Homosexuality
Speaking to a Bhutanese audience Rinpoche stated: "your sexual orientation has nothing to do with understanding or not understanding the truth. You could be gay, you could be lesbian, you could be straight, we never know which one will get enlightened first."
He concluded his speech: "Time is changing, and we should be really tolerant, I mean tolerant is even I mean… You should not be tolerating this, actually. You should be respecting it. Tolerance is not a good thing. If you are tolerating this, it means that you think it’s something wrong that you will tolerate. But you have to go beyond that. You have to actually respect this one." Watch his statements here.
Russia: This Shadowy Group Is Targeting Teachers Who Support LGBT Rights
A shadowy group identifying itself as the “public ombudsman for children’s rights” turned up at a school in St. Petersburg in what it called a “raid” to demand the dismissal of a teacher supportive of LGBT rights, local media outlets reported.
The group said it showed the school director photos from Maksim Ivantsov’s wall on the Russian social network VKontakte as proof of the teacher’s “propaganda” of “LGBT values.” Ivantsov has spoken out publicly against anti-LGBT discrimination.
Ivantsov is only the latest in a growing list of teachers who have been targeted using the anti-LGBT propaganda law. Read More