Kenya: Pervasive homophobic violence in coastal region

Mobs in Kenya’s coastal region have repeatedly attacked people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, says a new report. In at least six incidents between 2008 and 2015, mobs in the coastal counties of Mombasa, Kwale, and Kilifi have attacked or threatened LGBT people or health workers serving the LGBT community, without sufficient response from authorities.

The 70-page report, “The Issue is Violence: Attacks on LGBT People on Kenya’s Coast,” is based on research conducted in 2014 and 2015 by Human Rights Watch and PEMA Kenya, a community organization in Mombasa that provides support to gender and sexual minorities on human rights, health, HIV/AIDS, and economic well-being. 

Unchecked violence on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity not only constitutes a serious human rights abuse, it also jeopardizes Kenya’s efforts to address an HIV epidemic that is highly concentrated among vulnerable populations. In three of the mob attacks, violence or threats from residents and local religious leaders caused health providers serving MSM to temporarily or permanently close their doors or shut down workshops.  Read More via Human Rights Watch 

France: Recognizes first 'gender neutral' person

A court in central France has officially registered a person as being "gender neutral" rather than either male or female. A 64-year-old born in the town of Tours can now claim to be the only person in France who is neither legally male or female.
 
"During adolescence, I understood that I wasn't a boy," the 64-year-old intersex person told French newspaper. "I never had a beard, my muscles never really developed, but at the same time, it was impossible for me to think I'd ever become a woman."
 
The magistrate noted that the person's birth certificate, which had the person labelled as male, had been nothing more than a "work of fiction". The magistrate stressed that the ruling didn't mean the court had recognized the existence of "some kind of third gender", but rather "acknowledged the impossibility of linking this person to one particular gender". Read More via the Local 

Italy: 'Improper' use of transgender photo by Italian political party

A student from Bristol is taking legal action after a picture of her friend was "misrepresented" by an Italian political party campaigning against transgender education in schools. Rose Morelli, 17, said it was "hugely distressing" to see the photo of Alex Elliot on the leaflet by the right-wing Fratelli d'Italia.

She is now taking legal action after her lawyer said Alex's image had been "misrepresented" and may have breached copyright issues.

Italian law does not currently legislate against crimes motivated by the sexual orientation or gender identity of the victims. On its website, the Trentino branch of the Italian gay rights group, Arcigay, described Fratelli d'Italia's use of Ms Morelli's photo as "an insult".

In a message on Twitter, Fratelli d'Italia said the use of the photo had been "improper". However, the party maintained that "it is right to campaign against gender teaching in school".  Read More via the BBC 

India: Court gives police protection to us transgender man

An Indian court has given police protection to a transgender man from the US. Shivy, 18, who prefers to be identified by his first name, is an Indian citizen but has been living in the US since the age of three. He has alleged that his parents tricked him into coming to India on holiday and then took away his passport and green card. He says that they then tried to forcibly marry him off to a man.

The Delhi High Court termed the alleged harassment as nothing short of "bigotry" and said that India was a land of tolerance. Transgender activists and the support group Nazariya arranged legal counsel and shelter for Shivy in Delhi after he ran away from Agra earlier this month.

Shivy has alleged in his petition that his father and some unknown men posing as police officers came to the residence of the activists who helped him, adding that he fears for their, and his own, safety. He has asked the Delhi High Court to help him get his passport and green card back so that he can return to the United States where he is pursuing a neurobiology course at the University of California.  Read More via the BBC 

US: Oregon Court of Appeals upholds civil rights decision

In a ruling based on a landmark civil rights law, the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld a $400,000 damages award against a North Portland bar that turned away a group of transgender patrons.

Bar owner Chris Penner had challenged a Bureau of Labor and Industries finding that he had illegally discriminated against Rose City T-Club members when he asked them to not come back to his establishment because he didn't want it known as a "tranny bar" or "gay bar."

The appellate court upheld the labor bureau's 2013 findings that Penner had denied the group equal accommodations on account of their sexual orientation in violation of the Oregon Equality Act of 2007. The court also dismissed Penner's argument that his free speech rights had been violated. Read More via Oregon Live 

UK: Court rules same-sex couples are not entitled to £3.3bn pension boost

A landmark court ruling on whether a gay man can legally inherit his partner's full retirement fund has been rejected in a major setback for gay rights. The Court of Appeal ruled that the man is legally entitled to pass only £500 of his final salary pension on to his partner when he dies, instead of £41,000, the amount he would legally be allowed leave to a wife. 

Lawyers describe the case as the most important concerning sexual discrimination in pensions since the 1990s. It relates to a legal loophole that leaves hundreds of thousands of gay and lesbian couples who are married and in civil partnerships worse off in retirement than everyone else.

John Walker, the man who lost the case, said: “It is utterly reprehensible that my employer - Innospec - a large, successful company with a pension fund surplus – is unwilling to follow the example of the vast majority of major British companies in giving homosexual partners exactly the same spousal benefits as heterosexuals.  Read More via Telegraph 

Malaysia: Back to square one for transgenders as Federal Court overturns landmark ruling on Shariah law

The Federal Court has overturned the Court of Appeal’s landmark decision declaring an anti-crossdressing Shariah law unconstitutional and void. The five-man bench set aside the judgments made by the High Court and Court of Appeal and the High Court, citing improper procedures used to commence the lawsuit that they said rendered the lower courts’ rulings invalid.

The Court explained that the applicants should have started their legal challenge directly at the Federal Court as the matter involved the Federal Constitution.

The apex court’s decision today will set a precedent on other cases where state Islamic authorities are arguing that fundamental constitutional rights guaranteed to all Malaysians cannot be applied to determine the validity of Islamic laws. Read More via The Malay Mail 

Isle of Man leader draws line under 'dark days' and aims to legalise gay marriage

Allan Bell, leader of the self-governing island, says he has been in a relationship for 21 years. Until homosexuality was decriminalised in 1992, two men caught having sex with each other in the Isle of Man faced life in prison. 23 years on, the island is hoping to follow Ireland, the UK, the US and others by bringing in equal marriage.

The chief minister, Allan Bell, said a public consultation would be launched this month on the introduction of laws to enable same-sex couples to be married. Bell said: “The message the Isle of Man has to send out in 2015 is that we are a tolerant, inclusive, open society. We abhor discrimination of any description and are outward looking and engaged with the outside world.”

It is an open secret on the island that Bell has been in a relationship with another man for 21 years: “People know that I’m gay. I’ve never made a secret of it, but no one has ever asked me.” Read More via the Guardian

UK: Parliament to hear case for introducing a legal ‘third gender’

The government’s new Parliamentary Women’s and Equalities Committee is to hear evidence from a one-sided panel on the possibility of introducing a “third gender” into the British legal system. Choosing to have no gender on a passport is already allowed in Australia and New Zealand, and Ireland passed a new law at the end of July to allow the transgendered to be recognized as their “true gender.”

According to The Gender Recognition Act of 2004, trans people can legally swap between the two legally recognised genders in the UK. However, so-called “gender non-conforming,” “non-gendered” and “gender neutral” people are a specific category of the transgendered.

Rather than wanting to merely transition from one gender to another they often prefer to invent a gender all of their own; such as “pangender,” “gender fluid,” “transmasculine” or “queer gender.”  Read More via Breitbart

Poland: Shock as Gender Recognition Act falls

Poland’s Gender Accordance Act will not come into force, following the unexpected failure of a parliamentary committee to prepare a report required in advance of the planned vote. This means that Poland will not have a legal gender recognition process defined in legislation. ILGA-Europe send our sympathy the trans community in Poland, the committed activists and LGBTI organisations who had guided this historic law through the lengthy legislative procedure to this point. 

“This Act was not just about codifying an unwritten procedure. It was an opportunity for Poland’s parliamentarians to reaffirm their commitment to equality. The law had been supported by both houses of parliament only weeks ago. But now, those same elected representatives have backtracked on the chance to give trans people in Poland greater dignity. To have their hopes thwarted at the final legislative hurdle is incredibly frustrating.” commented ILGA-Europe Executive Director Evelyne Paradis.

The Gender Accordance Act aimed to give trans people in Poland greater clarity and protection. The uncodified legal gender recognition process requires people to endure stressful court proceedings and lengthy waiting times for any decision. Read More via ILGA 

US: White House still not ready to back Equality Act

When asked a pointed question from Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson, press secretary Josh Earnest said he was "not prepared to say" that the president endorses the Equality Act, which would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include LGBT people in protection from discrimination in things such as employment, housing, credit, and public accommodations, among other areas.

That's odd because the vice president told the Human Rights Campaign in a keynote speech this weekend that's he's personally fully behind it. "We must pass federal non-discrimination legislation, and we must pass it now," Biden said, before outlining his own strategy for building national support.

Earnest said President Obama does support the idea underlying the bill, which was introduced in July with record Democratic support.   Read More via the Advocate 

Russia: Putin talks gay rights on 60 minutes

In an interview with US '60 Minutes,'  Putin says he supports equal rights. "The problem of sexual minorities in Russia had been deliberately exaggerated from the outside for political reasons, I believe, without any good basis," he said.

In the U.S., Putin points out, some states still have laws on the books against same-sex relations. (This is partly true; all such laws were invalidated in 2003 by the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas.)

In Russia, Putin adds, "We have no persecution at all. People of non-traditional sexual orientation work, they live in peace, they get promoted, they get state awards for their achievements in science and arts or other areas. I personally have awarded them medals."

Putin also defends Russia's controversial gay "propaganda" law: "I don't see anything un-democratic in this legal act." Read More and watch a clip via CBS