Armenia: Support and protect human rights defenders

Armenian NGO PINK is being threatened and intimidated for its work on LGBT issues by sections of the public and by some political figures in Armenia. The Armenian authorities must stop this intimidation and hold those responsible to account. Human Rights House Network calls on the authorities to end their silence and inaction, and meet their obligations to protect, empower, and support human rights defenders.

In a joint letter to the Armenian President, Serzh Sargsyan, 37 NGOs from nine Human Rights Houses have detailed instances of threats and intimidation against PINK, and raised concerns about the silence and inaction by the authorities. Armenia must counter the immediate and specific threats to PINK, and work to end the wider, long-term threat to all human rights defenders in Armenia, and prevent a climate of impunity created by silence and inaction against those who threaten and intimidate human rights defenders. 

HRHN wrote a letter of concern to the Armenian authorities in September 2013, condemning ongoing smear campaigns against organisations working on gender issues, and urging the authorities to protect human rights defenders.  Read more via Human Rights House 

US: LGBT activists rally outside Dallas police HQ after another attack

Dozens of LGBT activists gathered outside Dallas Police headquarters last night to protest what they see as slow police response to the wave of crime in the Oak Lawn neighborhood, which has a prominent gay entertainment district. The protest follows another violent attack last week; the 12th in less than three months. 

Protesters carried signs that read “We Shall Rise Up” and “Justice Will Prevail.” Some waved gay pride flags, while others joined hands in silent grief for the dozen gay men who’ve been assaulted in Oak Lawn since September.

The latest victim, Geoffrey Hubbard, was beaten and robbed after leaving work. He rolled underneath a car for safety, until an off-duty officer found him. The next day, Dallas police stepped up patrols in the neighborhood. Though protesters, like Daniel Scott Cates, said the response came too late.

“It has taken two and half months of terror; it has taken blood literally running in the streets for DPD to make a visible, swift action as they did this last weekend. It’s absolutely unacceptable,” he said. Read more via KERA news 

Norway: No surgery mandate for sex change

Acting on a plan drafted by Norway's ministry of health and social affairs this past April, the 13-member Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board voted to discontinue the forced-sterilization rule for transgender men and women seeking to change their gender legally and open the doors for them to receive reproduction assistance including in vitro fertilization.

While the board voted unanimously to drop forced sterilization, a minority went against extending reproductive assistance on grounds that being pregnant is associated with motherhood and a person cannot insist on being a woman and getting pregnant and be a man at the same time.

The bill also drops psychiatric and medical evaluations for children between seven and 16 years of ago who - after consulting with their parents - decide to legally change their gender. Health and social affairs minister Bent Hoie said the proposal "is historic in that it will no longer be the health service but the individual who decides if he or she has changed sex." Read more via Courthouse News Service 

Egypt: Reporter who orchestrated Cairo 'gay' bathhouse raid gets six months in jail

An Egyptian reporter who orchestrated a raid on a ‘gay’ bathhouse has been sentenced to six months in jail. Mona Iraqi was also fined EGP10,000 ($1,277; €1,207) by a Cairo court on for defamation and spreading false news.

In December last year, Iraqi tipped off police to an alleged gay hammam – which she claimed was a ‘den of male sex’ – and filmed as 33 men were arrested and paraded naked out of the bathhouse. The footage was then broadcast on the Al Kahera Walnas channel and made international headlines.

Twenty-six men, including the bathhouse owner and four employees, were tried for debauchery but later cleared due to lack of evidence.  Read more via Gay Star News 

Costa Rican woman able to marry her lesbian partner could face prison

When Jazmin Elizondo Arias was born in 1991, someone made a mistake and noted on her birth certificate that she was male, and no one corrected the record officially due to the drawn out administration involved.

Nearly a quarter of a century later, thanks to the simple clerical error, Ms Elizondo was able to become one half of the first gay couple to marry legally in Costa Rica – at least briefly.

The publicity prompted an unusually quick response by Civil Registry officials, who reviewed Ms Elizondo’s records, reclassified her as a woman and annulled the marriage. They also opened criminal complaints against the women and Mr Castillo, the lawyer, for allegedly performing an “impossible marriage”. 

“It’s clear the Civil Registry moved out of hate, because they not only annulled the marriage but filed this criminal complaint,” Ms Florez-Estrada said.  Read more via the Independent 

China: Homosexuality called ‘a psychological disorder’

A Chinese lesbian took the government to court over textbooks describing homosexuality as a “psychological disorder”, a landmark case in a country where discrimination remains common. Qiu Bai, 21, a student at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, brought the action against the ministry of education, demanding that it give her details of how it approved materials and how they could be changed.

Qiu's team showed AFP a manual, “Student Psychological Health”, published in 2015 by the prestigious Renmin University and distributed to students nationwide: “The most commonly encountered forms of sexual deviance are homosexuality and the sick addictions of transvestism, transsexuality, fetishism, sadism, voyeurism and exhibitionism,” it read. Other psychology textbooks had similar content.

Holding a large rainbow flag, she said she was “excited” by her “first opportunity to have a face-to-face dialogue with the ministry of education”. Supporters brandished signs outside the Fengtai district court in Beijing reading: “We want a fair judgement” and “Homosexuals must gain visibility”. Read more via AFP

UNAIDS to join Uganda's Anti Gay Law challenge as amicus curiae

The East African Court of Justice allowing UNAIDS to join the case challenging provisions of Uganda's nullified Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014 as violating the good governance and rule of law principles of the East African Treaty (Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) v Attorney General of Uganda, Reference No. 6 of 2014). 

This is the only application that has been allowed by the court in this case, as three others were rejected. This decision demonstrates the confidence many have in UNAIDS human rights works.

UNAIDS has been amicus curiae in several high-profile cases in different parts of the world. Read more

Kenya: Two men sue State for forced HIV testing and anal examination

The National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission have helped two men who were forced to undergo anal exams and testing to sue Chief Magistrate of Kwale Law Courts and DCIO, Msambweni Police Station, under whose direction the testing was done. The two men were tested at the Coast General Hospital, Mombasa, for " H.I.V., Hepatitis B and other blood works" without their consent, while undergoing police investigations.

"The forced blood testing and anal testing sought to establish whether the two male adults might have engaged in consensual adult carnal knowledge against the order of nature at the privacy of their residences in Ukunda."

According to the petition, the victims were allegedly arrested on suspicion of being gay and remanded by police at Msambweni for four days. They claimed police escorted them to the hospital where "they were forced to strip naked, lie facing upwards, lift legs into the air and cough while doctors inserted metallic objects up their rectum".

Gitari wants the court to declare that forced anal examination violates human dignity and has a "disparate impact on sexual minorities". He said the court should also declare forced medical exam a violation of the human and constitutional rights of the petitioners. Read more via the Star 

Mexico: Supreme Court overturns same-sex marriage ban

Mexico’s Supreme Court has struck down a law banning gay marriage in the state of Jalisco. Two gay couples challenged the state’s civil code after their were denied the right to marry after their applications to do so were rejected.

Nevertheless, the nation’s highest court has once again ruled that move discriminated against the LGBT community and is therefore unconstitutional. It added that state authorities could not “deny benefits to the claimants or set charges related to the regulation of marriage.”

However, same-sex marriage has not been specifically written into law, and same-sex couples may still require a judge’s approval before being wed. Read more via PinkNews 

Slovenia to put gay marriage to popular vote

Slovenians are going to hold a referendum on 20 December to decide whether to implement gay marriage legislation in the central European country. In March, gay marriage bill was passed but opponents backed by the Catholic Church have forced a referendum in an attempt to repeal the law.

The Slovenian constitutional court gave the green light for the referendum. Under Slovenian law, if a group can gather 40,000 signatures on a petition within a month, they can seek a referendum on new legislation.  If more than a third of the electorate take part and deliver a majority vote against the law, it will be scrapped.  Read more via West Info 

Cyprus: House passes historic civil partnerships bill

Activists broke out in applause in the House on Thursday as the plenary gave the nod to a much-anticipated bill on civil cohabitation regulating the rights and obligations couples wishing to enter into a union other than a ‘traditional’ marriage.

Despite carrying the full force of traditional unions between two persons, regulating such issues like inheritance, adoptions are forbidden for couples entering into a civil cohabitation. The prohibition – which some argued is discriminatory – applies to heterosexual as well as same-sex couples.

“This bill is not about homosexuality, rather we are voting for freedom and equality… it is about allowing an alternative union,” said DIKO MP Nicholas Papadopoulos, who was in favour. Dissenting DISY MP Andreas Themistocleous objected that the bill effectively creates a new type of marriage, which would end up changing the fabric of family life in Cyprus.

Initially named cohabitation agreement, the law was renamed to civil cohabitation to reflect the fact that it is not an agreement whose terms were decided by the partners, but a state of affairs regulated by law. Read more via Cyprus Mail