Euro court: Gays must
have equal adoption rights
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled Jan. 22 that gay people cannot be excluded from access to the adoption process based on their sexual orientation.
In a 10-7 decision in the case E.B. v. France, the court found that France's refusal to let a lesbian apply to adopt violated articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which cover protection from discrimination and respect for private and family life.
The court awarded E.B. $14,600 in damages and $21,200 in costs and expenses.
E.B., a nursery-school teacher, has been with her female partner, who is a psychologist, since 1990. E.B.'s application for approval as a possible adoptive parent was rejected by local officials in Jura département in 1998 and 1999, and the rejection eventually was upheld by France's highest administrative court, the Conseil d'État, in 2002. Officials cited, in part, the absence of a 'paternal referent' in E.B.'s home.
The Euro court determined that amounted to anti-gay discrimination.
'This is a significant change in the court's approach towards and interpretation of the rights of LGBT people under the European Convention on Human Rights,' said Patricia Prendiville, executive director of the European Region of the International Lesbian and Gay Association. 'Today the court firmly established a principle that administrative officials cannot discriminate against an individual on the basis of her/his sexual orientation in the process of applying to adopt a child.'
Rulings by the European Court of Human Rights apply in the 47 countries that are members of the Council of Europe: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, 'The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,' Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.
A member state's refusal to implement a European Court of Human Rights decision could result in expulsion from the Council of Europe.
Dutch artist receives
death threats over
gay Muslim photos
Dutch artist Sooreh Hera, an Iranian exile, has received death threats and gone into hiding after a museum in The Hague planned to display her photos of gay men wearing masks of the prophet Muhammad.
'They said to me, 'We're going to burn you naked or put a bullet in your mouth,'' Hera, 34, told London's The Times.
'They condemn homosexuality but in countries like Iran or Saudi Arabia it is common for married men to maintain relations with other men,' she said.
The municipal museum later decided not to mount the photos because, said director Wim van Krimpen, 'certain people in our society might perceive it as offensive.'
Hera accused van Krimpen of 'censorship' and caving in to 'pressure from Islamists,' and withdrew the rest of her pictures from the exhibition.
A museum in Gouda then said it will put up the photos. The director of that institution has received death threats and is under police protection, The Times said.
ILGA to meet
in Quebec City
The 24th World Conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association will take place in Quebec City, Canada, May 14 to 18.
ILGA is a 30-year-old federation of more than 600 GLBT organizations and associated members, such as city governments, from 90 countries.
It has played a key role over the years in developments such as Amnesty International's decision to adopt persecuted homosexuals as prisoners of conscience and the World Health Organization's decision to remove homosexuality from its list of illnesses.
Gay nursing home
opens in Berlin
The first gay nursing home in Europe opened in Berlin this month.
The state-of-the-art facility will house 28 patients, who will be allowed to bring their own furniture and sundries.
The man behind the home, activist and architect Christian Hamm, told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur news agency that gay people often feel ostracized in ordinary nursing homes.
'When you are old, the last thing that you want to do is to have to hide,' he said.
The home is the first piece of a planned complex that will include apartments, a cafe, function rooms, a gym and a health-care center with doctors and therapists, DPA said.
Swedes support full
same-sex marriage
Seventy-one percent of Swedes favor moving beyond the nation's 14-year-old registered-partnership law and granting gay couples access to full marriage, a new poll has found.
The Sifo poll questioned 1,000 people in mid-January, asking, 'Do you think homosexual couples should be able to legally wed and get married or do you think they should not be able to get married?'
Parliament is expected to legalize same-sex marriage by early 2009, making Sweden the seventh nation to do so.
All political parties support the move except for the Christian Democrats. The party holds only 6.6 percent of seats in Parliament but, in a complicating factor, is a member of the governing coalition.
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has nonetheless been 'very clear that there will be a government proposal,' said Jon Voss, editor of Sweden's leading gay newspaper, QX.
'And the opposition will do whatever they can to take the law to Parliament, and by that create a split between the governing parties,' Voss said.
Wrongly arrested BBC
host awarded damages
The host of the British Broadcasting Corporation program One Man and His Dog has received a $4,000 payout and an apology from the Gloucestershire Police after he was wrongly arrested for making a joke that referred to blacks and lesbians.
Robin Page was taken into custody on suspicion of inciting racial hatred several months after a 2002 speech at a pro-hunting rally in which he said, 'If you are a black, vegetarian, Muslim, asylum-seeking, one-legged lesbian lorry driver, I want the same rights as you.'
He was held in jail for 40 minutes until he agreed to be interviewed without a lawyer present, then was released without charge.
Page said the police accused him of committing a hate crime and that documents he later obtained using the Freedom of Information Act show his name is on a homophobic-incidents register.
'I believe I have scored a significant victory over the ludicrous and sinister, politically correct 'hate crime' culture that is currently doing so much to prevent free speech in this country,' Page said in a Jan. 15 statement.
'How can you be included on a homophobic-incident record for using the word 'lesbian' once in a speech? It is just incredible. Political correctness is the new McCarthyism.'
One Man And His Dog went off the air in 1999 after a 23-year run.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
