The article cites the worries of human rights commissioner Nils Muižnieks that in parts of Europe, “legislative measures restricting the freedom of expression and association of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons represent a worrying step backwards to a bygone era when homosexuals were treated like criminals.”
The case concerns a male-to-female transsexual’s complaint that full official recognition of her new gender was conditional on her marriage to a woman being turned into a civil partnership.
The Tuesday 19 March event will feature expert contributions on the emergence of laws across Europe which ban so-called “homosexual propaganda.” Organisers of banned gay pride marches in St Petersburg and Belgrade are scheduled to attend.
The case concerns the complaint by two women who live in a stable homosexual relationship about the Austrian courts’ refusal to grant one of the partners the right to adopt the son of the other partner without severing the mother’s legal ties with the child (second-parent adoption).
The protest (Vallianatos and Others v. Greece – no. 29381/09) concerns the legislation on “civil unions” that entered into force in Greece in November 2008. The applicants allege that these unions, comprising a “contract between two individuals of full age and of different sexes”, are discriminatory.
