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8 years ago @ Equality on Trial - BREAKING: Supreme Cour... · 1 reply · +6 points

Taiwan: Professor's death could see Taiwan become first Asian country to allow same-sex marriage

Campaigners believe a ‘breakthrough’ is near after draft bill tabled by ruling party to amend family law in favour of LGBT rights

.....It would be a hard-fought victory for Taiwan’s LGBT community, but also one tinged with sadness after the suspected suicide of Frenchman Jacques Picoux, on 16 October became a rallying call against the failure of the government to make progress on legalising same-sex marriage.

Picoux, 67, who taught French at the National Taiwan University, died after falling from the tenth floor of his Taipei apartment block. Friends believe he had taken his own life.

They blamed depression after the death last year by cancer of his Taiwanese partner of 35 years, Tseng Ching-chao.

Picoux had reportedly been crushed when his lack of legal status denied him the right to participate in crucial medical decisions in Tseng’s final moments. He later found himself with no legal claim over the property they shared.

.....A new draft bill tabled by the ruling Democratic Progressive party [DPP] on Monday to amend family law in favour of LGBT rights was a “breakthrough”, they said.

“We actually can see that there are about 66 legislators who will probably vote yes on marriage equality,” said Pride Watch activist, Cindy Su. “That’s a majority of 58.4%, the first time in Taiwanese history that we have more than half,” she said.

Recent polls also show a public majority in favour of same-sex marriage.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/28/pro...

8 years ago @ Equality on Trial - READ IT HERE: Plaintif... · 0 replies · +3 points

Northern Ireland: Christian Bakers in Northern Ireland Lose Appeal In ‘Gay Cake’ Ruling

Appeal court judges bakery's refusal to make cake as "direct discrimination"

A bakery in Northern Ireland has failed in its appeal to overturn a ruling that it had discriminated against a gay customer by refusing to bake a cake with a slogan in support of same-sex marriage.

Read more: http://time.com/4542276/christian-bakers-gay-cake...

8 years ago @ Equality on Trial - READ IT HERE: Plaintif... · 0 replies · +2 points

Very good article.

8 years ago @ Equality on Trial - READ IT HERE: Plaintif... · 1 reply · +6 points

Australia: Liberal senator breaks Coalition ranks to call for parliamentary vote on marriage equality

Dean Smith, who opposes the plebiscite, says if parliament tested the issue again it could pass same-sex marriage through a private members’ bill

The Liberal senator Dean Smith has said the parliament should consider a vote on a same-sex marriage bill this term, in contrast to conservative colleagues’ view that no vote should be held without a plebiscite.

Smith, who opposes the government’s proposed plebiscite, is the first Coalition MP to call for a parliamentary vote, which Malcolm Turnbull has not ruled out if the Senate blocks the plebiscite bill as is expected.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/o...

8 years ago @ Equality on Trial - READ IT HERE: Plaintif... · 0 replies · +8 points

Scotland Embraces Gay Politicians in a Profound Cultural Shift

.....Today, in addition to the leaders of three of the five major political parties in Scotland, four ministers in the Scottish government are openly gay, as is the secretary of state for Scotland in Britain’s Conservative government. The one elected representative of the right-wing U.K. Independence Party in Scotland is gay, too.

Of the 129 members of the Scottish Parliament, a legislative assembly with far-reaching autonomy from London, 10, or nearly 8 percent, identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual, by one tally the highest known proportion for a national legislature anywhere.

.....By contrast, the United States Congress, representing a population 60 times Scotland’s, has six elected House members and one senator who are openly gay, lesbian or bisexual.

.....One of the first things lawmakers did after the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 was to repeal legislation barring schools from “promoting homosexuality,” a law that had effectively muffled any discussion of L.G.B.T. issues in schools.

.....Since then, Scotland has legalized civil partnerships, gay adoption and, in 2014, same-sex marriage (known in Scotland as “equal marriage” because it allows for entirely gender-neutral ceremonies). Scottish hate-crime law, which explicitly includes prejudice against transgender and intersex people, is considered one of the most robust in the world. And now the government is considering changing its gender recognition law to accommodate those with a “nonbinary” identity, which is neither female nor male.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/23/world/europe/sc...

8 years ago @ Equality on Trial - Supreme Court takes no... · 0 replies · +6 points

USA: The defense bill’s anti-LGBT poison pill

.....Earlier this year, Rep. Steve Russell (R-Okla.) successfully offered, late at night and with very limited debate, an amendment that would require every federal agency to allow religiously affiliated contractors and grantees (including large institutions like hospitals and universities) to discriminate in hiring with taxpayer funds.

.....Now, according to press reports, the Russell Amendment is one of just a handful of issues that is preventing a final agreement on the defense bill.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/religious-...

8 years ago @ Equality on Trial - Supreme Court takes no... · 14 replies · +8 points

USA: The most important gay rights case since marriage equality was won

Americans enjoy a fundamental right to marry, regardless of whether they are straight, bisexual, or gay. Yet, in more than half of the states, “a person can be married on Saturday and then fired on Monday for just that act,” as one federal court explained in a recent opinion.

There is no federal law that explicitly protects workers from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Moreover, while there are very strong arguments that existing protections against gender discrimination are broad enough to protect sexual minorities in the workplace, the courts have largely rejected these arguments. As a result, if you live in one of the 28 states that does not forbid discrimination against gay and bisexual workers, you can be fired because of the person you love.

A federal appeals court appears poised to change that, however, at least in the three states overseen by that court. And should the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit hold, in a case known as Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College, that current law already protects workers who are attracted to members of the same sex, the case would likely be on the fast track to the Supreme Court.

Hively, or a similar case, could transform the nation’s LGBT rights landscape no less than the Court’s marriage equality decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. And there are strong signs that the Seventh Circuit is prepared to rule in favor of workplace equality.

Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/the-most-important-gay-...

8 years ago @ Equality on Trial - Supreme Court sets tra... · 0 replies · +6 points

California Blocks Travel to North Carolina Over Anti-LGBT Law

California has banned non-essential, state-funded travel to North Carolina.

.....Along with banning travel to North Carolina, it also bans travel to any state that allows discrimination against the LGBT community. The California bill could also restrict travel by college sports teams to North Carolina, as the decision applies to the California State University System and University of California.

This would be a huge blow to the state after the NCAA, NBA, and ACC all pulled upcoming games from the embattled state. The Southern Conference — which includes colleges like Samford University, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Mercer University, and The Citadel — is expected to follow suit.

Read more: http://www.advocate.com/politics/2016/9/28/califo...

8 years ago @ Equality on Trial - Equality news round-up... · 1 reply · +3 points

North Carolina: Another U.S. college conference rebuffs North Carolina over LGBT law

The Atlantic Coast Conference on Wednesday said it would move 10 college sports championships from North Carolina, lengthening the list of prominent groups taking a stand this year against a state law that restricts rights for gay and transgender people.

Two days ago, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced it would relocate seven championship sporting events from North Carolina for the 2016-17 season in protest of the law known as House Bill 2 or H.B. 2.

.....The ACC's decision will affect championships in soccer, football, swimming and diving, basketball, tennis, golf and baseball that were to be held at neutral sites across North Carolina.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lgbt-north-...

8 years ago @ Equality on Trial - Open thread · 0 replies · +4 points

USA: The Most Detailed Map of Gay Marriage in America

.....By linking the tax returns of same-sex couples who filed jointly in 2014 with their Social Security records, researchers are able to give us the most accurate picture of same-sex marriages to date. And their estimate is this: In 2014 there were 183,355 same-sex marriages in America, roughly a third of 1 percent of all marriages.

.....Pretax household income of same-sex married couples is higher than that of heterosexual married couples. Most of that is driven by the average earnings of male same-sex couples: $176,000. On average, they make $52,000 more than married lesbian couples and $63,000 more than married straight couples.

.....The tax data shows same-sex married couples clustering along the coasts, and in urban pockets across the United States. These are regions that also tend to have higher wages. In fact, heterosexual couples actually earn more than same-sex female ones when you compare married couples who live in the same three-digit ZIP code region.

.....There is one group whose incomes are far above the rest: same-sex married men with children. Their income is roughly $275,000, more than double the pretax income for heterosexual couples and same-sex married female couples with children. This is a select group of people for whom the cost of children is particularly high. Using a surrogate can cost $250,000, and adoptions can cost upward of $30,000.

The data also reveals another, more subtle geographical difference in male vs. female same-sex married couples. The top 20 cities for male same-sex married couples are more likely to include dense city centers like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, while the top 20 cities for female same-sex married couples tend to include smaller and medium-size cities like Springfield, Mass.; Madison, Wis.; and Burlington, Vt.

Read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/upshot/the-most...

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