Mexico: Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriages in all 31 states

Mexico's Supreme Court has decided in favor of marriage equality, stating "procreation" was not a purpose for marriage. Therefore, limiting marriages to heterosexual couples amounted to discrimination against other couples seeking marriage.

The court’s decision legalizes same-sex marriage in all of the 31 states of Mexico – which is over 80% Catholic – adding the country to the growing list of Latin American nations that permit it. Since current civil codes will remain temporarily, same-sex couples wishing to marry can obtain injunctions against laws holding up traditional marriage.

The Mexican Catholic bishops’ conference has disagreed with the court’s decision, stating that the family is founded on the marriage between a man and a woman who can procreate and, therefore, guarantee “the survival of society.”  Read More 

UK: Same-sex marriage bid goes to court in Northern Ireland

The first two gay couples to enter into civil partnerships in the UK will this week mount a High Court challenge to Northern Ireland's same-sex marriage ban, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal.

Grainne Close and Shannon Sickles will be joined by Chris and Henry Flanagan-Kane to seek a judicial review of the ban. Both couples cemented their relationships in civil partnerships a decade ago in Belfast City Hall. But while Northern Ireland was the first place in the UK to recognise civil partnerships, it is now the only part of the UK and Ireland that has not legalised same-sex marriage.  Read More 

Austria: Votes against gay marriage

The National Assembly of Austria has taken a strong stance against equal marriage. Two days before Vienna Pride, the Assembly voted against a proposed resolution to grant lesbian and gay couples ‘the human right of equal marriage’. Out of 136 representatives, only 26 voted for and 110 against the proposal in a roll-call vote; the Green party, who proposed the resolution, was the only party to fully support marriage equality. Read More

Italy: 100,000 attend Milan Pride in support of marriage equality

On Saturday 100,000 people took part in Milan Pride: walking through the city in support of gay rights in Italy. Dario Davanzo, who manages the event, told La Repubblica: ‘This is the first Milan Pride where we can see such a powerful synergy going on between city and government.’

Participants waved fliers which read: 'Sì’ (‘yes’) in support of the fight for marriage equality in Italy. The streets were said to be ‘dense’ with rainbow flags. The mayor of Milan Giuliano Pisapia marched in the procession and participated by handing out the fliers. He said: ‘We [will] defeat prejudice: and we say "yes" to love and the marriage.' Read More 

Italy: Over 300,000 rally in Rome against gay marriage

People travelled from all over Italy and Europe yesterday to protest against the proposed legalisation of gay marriage, and the teaching of ‘gender theories’ in schools. Gathering in the San Giovanni Square in Rome, with estimates of participants running from 300,000 to a million people, the protest put the ‘anti-Austerity’ protests held in London on the same day to shame, for sheer volume of people and absence of criminal behaviour.

Attendees held aloft banners reading “The family will save the world” and “Let’s defend our children”, as Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi tries to push a civil union bill through parliament. The call for Italy to keep pace with its western European neighbours on the issue has grown stronger since Ireland voted overwhelmingly in favour of gay marriage last month.

Massimo Gandolfini, spokesman for the “Defend our children!” committee said: “We are asking for families based on marriage be respected, and stressing the central role parents play. We forcefully reject the attempt to sneak into the curriculum projects which aim to destroy children’s sexual identities”.  Read More

US: Supreme Court ruling makes same-sex marriage a right nationwide

In a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote on Friday that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.

“No longer may this liberty be denied,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in the historic decision. “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were.”

Marriage is a “keystone of our social order,” Justice Kennedy said, adding that the plaintiffs in the case were seeking “equal dignity in the eyes of the law.”

The decision, which was the culmination of decades of litigation and activism, set off jubilation and tearful embraces across the country, the first same-sex marriages in several states, and resistance — or at least stalling — in others. It came against the backdrop of fast-moving changes in public opinion, with polls indicating that most Americans now approve of the unions.

The court’s four more liberal justices joined Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion. Each member of the court’s conservative wing filed a separate dissent, in tones ranging from resigned dismay to bitter scorn.

In dissent, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the Constitution had nothing to say on the subject of same-sex marriage.

Read more via New York Times

Read the full US Supreme Court decision here

Pope’s Encyclical Rejects Abortion And ‘Gender Theory’

Pope Francis has released his encyclical “Laudato Si” (“be praised”) which has a particular focus on global warming and ecological issues he believes are threatening mankind. Media coverage of the encyclical has almost exclusively focused on the pope’s urging for a solution to global warming.

But the 184-page encyclical covers far more than environmental issues. In his letter, Francis also reaffirms the Catholic Church’s stance against abortion and contraceptives, its rejection of “gender theory,” its plea for the wise use of technology and the value of human work. Read more

UNAIDS: Using new media for the health and well-being

UNAIDS, in collaboration with the Global Forum on MSM & HIV, the USAID funded LINKAGES programme and Health Policy Project, hosted health and media experts, including representatives of private dating platforms, programme implementers, researchers, and advocates for a meeting on using new media and communication technologies to affect the health of gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM). 

Participants consulted to develop a framework to engage the private and public sectors in using new media technologies for HIV prevention.

Geng Le, Chief Executive Director of Chinese app 'Blued,' said: “Undeniably, gay social networking applications can be a great tool. Blued, as a gay dating application with social responsibility, is keen to make our platform available for HIV interventions. We just need to learn how to work more effectively and innovatively.” 

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World Health Organization: Sexual health, human rights and the law

This report demonstrates the relationship between sexual health, human rights and the law. Drawing from a review of public health evidence and extensive research into human rights law at international, regional and national levels, the report shows how states in different parts of the world can and do support sexual health through legal and other mechanisms that are consistent with human rights standards and their own human rights obligations.

The report notes there has been a rapid increase in the documentation and understanding of the nature of discrimination and inequality related to sexuality and sexual health. This includes information about the marginalization, stigmatization and abuse of those perceived as having socially unacceptable sexual practices or characteristics and the toll that discrimination takes on people’s health. Read More

UN: 'Brutal, grotesque' violence overshadows progress on LGBT equality

Progress towards giving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people legal equality has been overshadowed by "brutal" and "grotesque" homophobic and transphobic violence which often goes unreported and unpunished, according to the United Nations. 

Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands injured in recent years, in violence that included knife attacks, anal rape and genital mutilation, as well as stoning and dismemberment, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in the report. Yet the lack of effective systems for recording and reporting hate crimes against LGBT people masks the true extent of such violence.

"While some progress has been made since the first study in 2011, the overall picture remains one of continuing, pervasive, violent abuse, harassment and discrimination affecting LGBT and intersex persons in all regions," Hussein said. The report called for the implementation of anti-LGBT hate crimes laws, decriminalisation of consensual same-sex activity, legal protection for same-sex couples and their children and a ban on so-called "conversion therapies," which are intended to "cure" homosexual attraction. Read More

Access the full report here

Turkey: Transgender people fight for recognition and representation

Transgender people from more conservative Muslim countries such as Syria and Iraq are moving to a flourishing LGBT community in Istanbul, Turkey’s most cosmopolitan and liberal city, to live. Yet LGBT people still struggle to fit into mainstream Turkish society. Transgender people are often assaulted in the street, even killed by their own family members. LGBT have trouble finding jobs. Most enter into the sex trade, lacking any other employment opportunities. 

This year Deva Ozenen, a transgender woman, is running for parliament for the first time, one of only four openly LGBT candidates seeking national office. 

The transgender community in Turkey, Sechil says, hopes that if it is represented in parliament it might have a better chance of gaining quicker approval for gender reassignment surgeries. It’s possible to get the operation in the country, but as the law stands now, Turkish citizens can legally undergo gender reassignment operations only if preceded by sterilization. Read More

Ireland: Poised to have better transgender identity law than most of the world

This month Ireland may go from not legally recognizing transgender people to having one of the best trans identity laws in the world. The nation made history when it became the first country in the world to approve gay marriage by a popular vote. Ireland may once again make history by allowing transgender people over the age of 18 to self-declare their gender on legal documents solely based on their self-determination, and without any medical intervention.

Minister of State Kevin Humphreys explained: As the marriage equality referendum has been passed there is no Constitutional barrier to a person in a marriage or civil partnership having their preferred gender legally recognised. Read More