Over the course of just four days, January 8 through 11, 2018, major courts on three continents have issued rulings that will affect the rights of tens of millions of LGBT people. On January 8, the Supreme Court of India ordered reconsideration of the 2014 decision that had restored the country’s law against gay sex, in an Order that quoted extensively from prior rulings critical of the 2014 decision. On January 9, the Inter-American … <Read More>
Ruling on appeals by three gay people from Africa seeking asylum in the Netherlands, the European Court of Justice held that it was a violation of European human rights law for officials attempting to determine whether the applicants are gay to base their questioning solely on stereotypes about homosexuals, to carry out detailed questioning as to the sexual practices of the applicants, to require applicants to submit to “tests” to establish their homosexuality or to … <Read More>
Responding to a request from a French court for an interpretation of European law, the 5th Chamber of the European Court of Justice ruled today, December 12, that an employee of a French bank who requested leave and a marriage bonus under the employer’s policy on the occasion of his entering into a pact civil (the French equivalent of a civil union) with his same-sex partner in 2007 had suffered direct discrimination on the basis … <Read More>
European courts issued three significant decisions affecting the rights of LGBT people in Europe on November 7, 2013. In Minister for Immigration and Asylum v. X, Y & Z (Joined Cases C-199/12 to C-201/12), the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, which is the highest court on questions of European Union law, ruled favorably on the right of lesbian and gay people to seek asylum in Europe based on fear of persecution of gay people … <Read More>