July 2021

According to a survey conducted by the International Social Research Program (ISSP), Georgia is the most homophobic country in Europe. ”Recent developments in Georgia have once again revealed the scale of homophobia in the country.” reads an article published on oc-media.org.

The organization conducted the survey in 33 countries. 84% of respondents in Georgia believe that sexual intercourse between two adults of the same sex is always wrong.

According to the poll, Georgia is followed by Turkey, where 80% of the public say that same-sex sex is unacceptable. 69% of Russians say the same. In Hungary, where the EU is currently complaining about the adoption of homophobic legislation, about half of respondents, 45%, say such relationships are always wrong. Armenia and Azerbaijan did not participate in the study.

The data also vary by age and gender – young people are less homophobic than older people, and women are more likely to be homophobic than men, except for men and women aged 35-54, who are equally homophobic.

​​

Photo: Vakho Kareli

Tomorrow, July 30, in Kiev, Ukrainian LGBTQ + activists will gather in front of the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky, where a rave will be held amid the protests. ” The newly formed UkrainePride will hold its Rave Pride in front of the Presidential Administration building, ” the Kyiv Post reported. The event will be organized by electronic music artists.

While fighters for equality rights were happy to see Zelensky win the 2019 election, he came under fire for failing to articulate his position on LGBTQ + rights. He also refused to condemn the LGBTQ + legislation developed by his party, which responds to the anti-gay “propaganda” law in neighboring Russia.

This is not the first time that LGBTQ + activists have protested in a similar way – moving from dance floor to the residence or workplace of political leaders. In January 2017, activists raved near the home of former Vice President Mike Pence, who signed the anti-LGBTQ + “Religious Freedom” bill as governor of Indiana.

Organizers are also calling for an investigation into hate crimes on the LGBTQ + community, including a 2019 raid on a gay nightclub by police in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, where authorities reportedly forced club owners to lie on the frozen floor for hours amid homophobic shouts.

“Ukraine’s LGBTQ + community is still being attacked by far-right radicals, their attacks are going unpunished, making the country dangerous for its own citizens and less attractive to foreign visitors,” UkrainePride said in a statement posted on Instagram. “Government inaction unites us to use the only effective tool of democracy left for us – protest.”

Photo: Barcroft Media / Getty Images

Ultra-right, homophobic platform “Alt-Info” was recognized by the Communications Commission as an offender. In the statement published by the Commission we read:

” The Communications Commission has recognized Alt Info TV as a violator due to obscene programs. The case concerns the programs “Alt-Interview” and “Alt-Analytica” aired on July 5, 6, 7 and 12 in the “Alt Info” broadcast network. In these programs, obscene language was often used by both the presenters and the invited guests, and obscenity was repeated.

The Communications Commission has examined the legality of the broadcasts of the programs and considered that the programs broadcast by Alt Info contained statements that contradicted the ethical norms of the society, had no socio-political, cultural, educational and scientific value and could not be justified in any context. The vocabulary used in Alt Info programs violates human dignity and fundamental rights, thus violating Georgian legislation by the broadcaster. Due to the fact that obscene expressions were placed in the socio-political program, the rights of the audience for whom were violated. It is unacceptable and especially disturbing to watch and listen to obscene programs.

At the same time, according to the law, the placement of obscenities in public-political programs contradicts the rights of the adult and juvenile audiences of the broadcaster.

When discussing obscenity, the Communications Commission takes a uniform approach to broadcasters. In the practice process, the commission aims to set standards, not sanction them. The Communications Commission tries not to impose fines on broadcasters until the standard is established, but to detect violations if any. Fixing the violation is the most important step for the society and the media to properly grasp the principles of the law and enforce it. In accordance with the existing practice and uniform approach, the Communications Commission recognized “Alt Info” as a violator due to the violation of the law and released them from responsibility. “

Palmira Martínez Gallardo Valdés and Gabriela Flores Castro began the process of formally adopting their child — 5-year-old Ricardo — in February of this year and were granted approval by a judge in May. The adoption was finally certified July 13, when they received a birth certificate bearing the names of both mothers.

Ricardo was initially taken into the care of the state after being abandoned just two days after his birth in November 2015. He was then put in a program run by the country’s child welfare system, known as the System for Integral Family Development, where the two women came to volunteer soon after. There, they met Ricardo and bonded instantly. “Even when he was very small, we clicked,” Castro said.

Adoption by same-sex couples has been legal in Mexico since the country’s Supreme Court ruled in a landmark 2010 decision that the government could not withhold legal rights on the basis of LGBTQ+ identity, according to Human Rights Watch.

The 9-2 verdict came in response to a challenge by the Mexico attorney general’s office to the 2009 legalization of same-sex unions in Mexico City, which was the first jurisdiction in all of Latin America to recognize full marriage equality. In the case, the attorney general’s office argued that the state was failing to protect the best interest of the child or uphold the concept of family by allowing same-sex couples to adopt.

The Supreme Court disagreed, citing a 2008 judgment from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in which the court ruled same-sex couples should have the same right to adopt that heterosexual couples and single people do. The ECHR also found that it was in a child’s best interest to have a loving family, regardless of sexual orientation.

In 2015, the Supreme Court reaffirmed its decision in striking down a law in the Yucatán Peninsula’s state of Campeche that barred same-sex couples from adopting.

Marriage equality is permitted in 20 of Mexico’s 32 states, including Jalisco, where it has been legal since 2016. Valdés and Castro decided to marry soon after same-sex unions were legalized and have been married for five years now.

While it’s been over a decade since marriage equality was first legalized in Mexico City, LGBTQ+ activist and consultant Enrique Torre Molina noted that queer and transgender people in Mexico still face legal and social obstacles. “That is why it is so important to have LGBT+ families, like the one formed by Palmira and Gabriela, willing to share their story with the media,” he tells them. in an email. “It is especially valuable when this happens in conservative states like Jalisco.”

Source: them.us

Chile’s Senate passed a bill on Wednesday legalizing same-sex unions, bringing the country closer to marriage equality than ever before.

The landmark legislation will extend the rights already given to heterosexual married couples — including adoption — to same-sex couples, according to the Buenos Aires Times. The bill will now be sent to the lower house of the National Congress of Chile, known as the Chamber of Deputies, for final approval. If approved with no amendments, it will then be approved by the president.

Movilh, a Chilean LGBTQ+ rights organization that has been advocating for marriage equality for years, called the bill’s passage a “triumph of justice and equality.” “The end of discrimination against same-sex couples… is near,” the group said in a Wednesday tweet.

“We are thankful to everyone who has worked on this project, who have put the focus on and accelerated human rights,” Movilh spokeswoman Daniela Andrade added in a video posted on Facebook. “Today, we can say that in Chile, marriage equality is advancing toward a new future, in which you, me, and everyone can form a family protected by the state, with the human rights we deserve — as people, and as citizens of this country.”

But Andrade also chided the Senate for taking so long to address the bill in comments to the Chilean news site Quirihue Noticias. She said she did not want to celebrate lawmakers for simply doing their jobs. “This bill waited four long years in the Senate,” she added. “It’s too late for them to be approving a right that has had the backing of the majority of Chileans for years. We hope the Chamber of Deputies will take a different path, and quickly make marriage equality into law.”

Chile previously legalized same-sex civil unions in 2015, but the marriage equality bill has been in the works since 2017, when it was first sent to the legislature by former President Michelle Bachelet.

The bill’s introduction followed a June 2016 settlement between Movilh and the Chilean government over the country’s denial of full marriage equality to same-sex couples. In 2012, Movilh filed a lawsuit with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), on behalf of several queer couples who wished to get married. The IACHR is the official court of the Organization of American States (OAS), a political and judicial forum made up of 35 independent states of the Americas.

The bill subsequently stalled for several years under the conservative administration of Bachelet’s successor, Sebastián Piñera, whose coalition did not support it.

Movilh criticized Piñera last year for neglecting the bill, according to the LGBTQ+ newspaper Washington Blade. The group drew attention to the fact that under a 2018 IACHR ruling, Chile is required to guarantee same-sex partnets the same rights as heterosexual couples — along with all other countries that have adopted the American Convention on Human Rights.

LGBTQ+ advocates and conservatives alike were, thus, surprised earlier this month when Piñera announced that he wanted the bill to be passed with “urgency” in his state of the union address, according to the BBC.

“I think the time for equal marriage has come,” he said. “I think we should deepen the value of freedom, including the freedom to love and to form a family with a loved one.”

The endorsement may have something to do with the fact that Piñera’s popularity has plummeted in the wake of a recent economic downturn and protests against economic inequality and police abuse. A whopping three quarters of Chileans disapprove of the president’s management of the country, as Reuters reported in April.

Marriage equality is currently legal in six Latin American and Caribbean U.N. member countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Uruguay, according to a 2020 report from the global LGBTQ+ advocacy group ILGA. Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, also urged his country’s National Assembly to take up the issue last year, following comments from Pope Francis supporting civil unions.

The IACHR ruling applies to all countries that have signed the American Convention on Human Rights, but some have yet to comply. Honduras is even trying to make it harder to legalize same-sex unions: In January, its congress voted to increase the number of votes required to overturn the country’s equal marriage ban.

Source: them.us

John Herbst, the former US ambassador to Ukraine and director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, said in an interview with “Netgazeti” that the attack on Tbilisi Pride was a crime and that Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili had reacted by denying responsibility.

Herbst also notes that “peaceful protest is a critically important right in a democracy.” 30 years after independence, the Prime Minister must understand this and act accordingly. “The attackers must be held accountable before the law, and the prime minister must take care of that.”

According to John Herbst, Georgia’s greatest strength on the path to EU and NATO membership was a democratic and open society. Such development of events that goes against this does not help Georgia’s candidacy.

Homophobic and violent posters are still displayed in the streets of Tbilisi. On the first day after putting up the posters, the City Hall identified only 2 offenders and fined them.

“No to National Movement, no to violence” – such posters can still be found on the streets of Tbilisi. City Hall began removing the posters, but apparently failed to do so, but a group of several people stormed the entire city overnight with hateful and homophobic calls. According to the Tbilisi City Hall, only two people that were identified by the Supervision Service were fined. The fine was 1000 GEL.

According to the opposition, the Georgian dream is behind this idea, because both human and financial resources are spent, which ordinary citizens have less of. They say that sowing hatred in the society before the elections is a proved way of the Georgian Dream.

Khatia Dekanoidze, National Movement: “numerous banners were posted in just one night on every bus stop in Tbilisi, which Tbilisi Mayor Kaladze is proud of holding, and of course he knew very well that these banners would have been posted that night. They want to fill people with disgust, but they won’t be allowed anymore.”

Sergo Chikhladze, Strategy Aghmashenebeli: “This is a tactic chosen by the Georgian Dream: the language of violence, the sowing of hatred, the violent tactics that they had during the 2018 and 2020 elections. Can anyone imagine that 10,000 posters were hung all over the city and no one noticed? Neither the police nor the Supervision Service? This is a direct order of the Georgian Dream.”

Lasha Damenia, European Georgia: “Georgian Dream does not betray its habit and continues its campaign of using hate language on these elections. They have clearly crossed the boundary, beyond which there’s darkness and pro-Putin forces.”

Badri Japaridze, Lelo for Georgia: “When we see this types of posters that preach hatred, it directly points to people that, as it turns out, you should hate, for their different views. However, preaching hatred against people because of their views is totally unacceptable and reprehensible.”

Homophobic posters were unfurled Friday night depicting civil activists, critical media managers and owners. City Hall still fails to clean up the city from homophobia and hatred.

Argentina made history on Thursday by becoming the first country in South America to offer gender-neutral passports for its trans and nonbinary residents.

On Wednesday, Argentinian President Alberto Fernández said that all citizens will now be able to choose between three gender markers on passports and National Identity Documents (DNIs). The latter are issued at the time of an individual’s birth, and ID cards must be updated every 15 years.

Fernández, who took office in 2019, said the policy change is for every Argentinian who “does not feel understood under the male/female binary.” “We have the need to open our heads to realize there are other ways to love and be loved, and there are other identities apart from the identity of a man or a woman, and they should be respected,” he said in comments cited by the progressive news outlet Democracy Now. “And they’ve always existed, only that in other times they were hidden.”

The change will mark a first for South America, where no other country has permitted “X” markers on national passports. Globally, several nations have rolled out similar options, including Australia, Bangladesh, Denmark, Nepal, and New Zealand.

Argentina has a long history of blazing a trail for transgender rights in the region. In 2012, the country of 44 million passed its Gender Rights Law, which paved the way for trans people to legally correct their gender without a doctor’s note. The legislation also guaranteed the right to free gender-affirming care, including hormones and surgery, under Argentina’s public health system.

In the nine years since that groundbreaking legislation was passed, Argentina has continued pushing toward trans equality. Buenos Aires is home to the world’s first high school created for transgender youth, Mocha Celis, and as of last year, the country was considering legislation to mandate the use of gender-neutral language in its national parliament.

Argentina has also moved toward guaranteeing employment for trans people, who still face high rates of poverty and discrimination. Its largest bank, the state-owned Banco de la Nación, announced a 5% trans hiring quota last year, and the country is pushing a law to set aside 1% of all public sector jobs for trans people.

Source: them.us