In December 2014, the White House announced Gambia’s eligibility for trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was suspended. This decision came about due to the Gambian leaders’ enactment of anti-gay policies. Though this strategic action was an important first step, more severe measures must be taken to counter attack the ongoing
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As of January 1, 2015 adoption by couples in Denmark does no longer require marriage. This is a general revision of the Adoption Act. It is of particular interest to rainbow families who become pregnant by means of home insemination, i.e. not under the responsibility of a health person. In that case, if the same-sex
President Barack Obama has unveiled a new budget proposal, which includes changes to social security which would mean all couples, gay or straight, would be eligible for spousal benefits. The proposed $4 trillion budget would mean even gay couples who live outside of the 36 states which allow same-sex marriage would be allowed to receive
Over a thousand people have attended a protest against a planned ‘conscience clause’ bill, that would permit anti-gay discrimination. DUP minister Paul Givan has tabled a bill in the Northern Ireland Assembly that would effectively exempt people with ‘strongly held’ religious convictions from equality laws– allowing them to discriminate against gay people. LGBT group The Rainbow Project
Poland’s first openly transgender lawmaker reportedly plans to run for President. Anna Grodzka was elected as a Member of Parliament in Poland in 2011, in what is usually a notoriously conservative country. According to Newsweek Poland, the politician confirmed her plans to run for President later this year for the Polish Green party. She said: “Yes, I’ll
On the 30th January, 2015, the National LGBT* Rights Organization LGL promoted a joint initiative together with the Embassy of Sweden in Vilnius as far as preparations for this year’s celebration of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) in Lithuania are concerned. The meeting was hosted in the Swedish Residence and more than
On January 29th, 2015 the national LGBT* rights association LGL received a decision by the Senior Investigator from the Vilnius Country Police Headquarters refusing to start a pre-trial investigation into the previous warning from the Lithuanian MP Algirdas Vaclovas Patackas about LGL facing a “massacre [as] in Paris”. The Senior Investigator concluded that “the Member
Washington (January 29, 2015) – In the wake of President Obama’s commitment in the State of the Union to defend the human rights of the LGBT community, today Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) introduced bicameral legislation to affirm that LGBT human rights are a foreign policy priority for the U.S.
EuroPride is one of Europe’s main LGBT events and this year it ill be hosted by Riga, Latvia, coinciding with the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. This EuroPride marks a historic occasion as the first EuroPride to be held in a post-Soviet country on the EU’s Eastern border with Russia. This
Mayor hopes the capital’s example will lead to full marriage equality. Rome yesterday (January 28) recognized gay civil unions by approving the establishment of a civil union register for same-sex couples. The city council voted in an amendment saying that gay marriages contracted abroad are to be automatically transcribed into the newly created register. Mayor
Bill gives civil partners nearly all the rights of married couples. Lawmakers in socially conservative Chile have given final approval to gay civil unions after more than four years of legislative wrangling. The senate yesterday (January) passed the Civil Union Accord bill by a 25 to 6 vote margin with three abstentions, a week after the lower
On January 28, 2015 the District Court of Klaipėda City passed an order to dismiss a formal complaint about hateful online comments regarding a same-sex kiss picture by two students, filed by the national LGBT* rights organization LGL. As stated in the court order, a person who posts a same-sex kiss photo in a public