Tag Archives: Family & Partnership Rights

Sexual + Gender Minorities

China News | LGBT

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Gay couple sues for right to marry in China
  • Sun Wenlin and Hu Mingliang have sued a civil affairs bureau for rejecting their attempt to register for marriage.
  • The case, the first challenge to China’s ban on same-sex marriage, was set to take place last month, although postponements and China’s notoriously opaque media climate have impeded word of the case’s outcome.
  • Following the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1997 and its official depathologization in 2001, a small but increasingly visible LGBT community has begun to emerge in China’s urban areas, despite attempts to crackdown on media visibility.

Read more:
“Couple’s Lawsuit Is First Test for Same-Sex Marriage in China” (The New York Times)
“In China, gays say life has changed much for the better” (The Christian Science Monitor)
“In a first, Chinese gay man sues for right to marry” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Gilles Sabrie/The New York Times)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Colombia News | LGBT

Colombian high court legalizes adoption for same-sex couples
  • Colombia’s constitutional court ruled 6-2 in favor of opening adoption up to same-sex couples, drawing on both constitutional and international law as justification.
  • The Court struck down the prohibition against adoption by same-sex couples by affirming the rights of children to a family, arguing that parental gender and sexual diversity has no negative impact on a child.
  • The country joins regional neighbors Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay in allowing same-sex couples to adopt.

Read more:
“Corte Constitucional da vía libre a adopción gay en Colombia” (El Tiempo, in Spanish)
“Colombia joins growing group of countries that allow adoption by same sex couples” (Fusion)
“Colombia Rules in Favor of Same-Sex Adoption” (teleSUR English)

(Image Credit: El Tiempo)

Religion + Belief

Turkey News | Atheists

Turkish group lobbies for equal treatment and protection for atheists
  • The Turkish Atheism Association has created a petition calling for the end of automatic registration of Turkish newborns as Muslim, the removal of religion from Turkey’s ID cards, and the inclusion of the association in official meetings with non-Muslim groups.
  • Although a 2010 poll found only 1% of Turkish people identify as atheist, the group hopes the 5,000 signatures it hopes to attain will bring attention to their marginalization in Turkey’s nominally secular society.
  • The association was founded in 2014 in Istanbul, but a court blocked access to its website in March on the grounds of “provoking the people.”

Read more:
“Turkish Atheism Association starts petition calling for ‘equal treatment’” (Middle East Eye)
“Turkey’s Atheism Association starts petition for ‘equal treatment’ before law and in society” (Hurriyet News Daily)
“Atheists raising their voice in Turkey amid polarized reactions” (Hurriyet News Daily)

(Image Credit: via Hurriyet News Daily)

Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

China News | Uyghur Muslims

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Uyghurs face ban on Muslim names for children as China celebrates Xinjiang’s 60th anniversary
  • The Tokhola (Tuohula) Village Communist Party in Xinjiang’s Hoten prefecture reportedly announced the ban on 22 popular Muslim names for Uyghur children.
  • Children whose names are on the list must have their parents officially change their name or else risk exclusion from public schooling.
  • The announcement comes as China celebrates the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region following the 1949 annexation of East Turkestan, which has prompted severe criticism from Uyghur leaders.

Read more:
“Chinese Authorities Ban Muslim Names Among Uyghurs in Hoten” (Radio Free Asia)
Statement by the World Uyghur Congress

(Image Credit: Sina Webo via Radio Free Asia)