13 June 2019 - NPWJ News Digest on LGBTI rights

Articles

Ecuador's highest court backs same-sex marriage
Aljazeera, 13 Jun 2019

Ecuador's highest court has approved same-sex marriage in a landmark ruling in the small and traditionally Catholic country. The Constitutional Court said on Wednesday that same-sex marriage had been approved in a five-to-four vote of its nine judges in a closed-door hearing. 

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Iran's Foreign Minister Defends Execution of Gays
The Advocate, 12 Jun 2019

Iran's foreign minister has defended the nation's practice of executing gay people, for which the country is receiving condemnation from U.S. and German officials. Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Sarif made the remark at a joint press conference Monday with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Tehran, German site DW reports.

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Transgender ex-Army officer awarded MBE by Prince William
BBC News, 12 Jun 2019

A transgender former Army officer has been made an MBE by the Duke of Cambridge at Buckingham Palace. Capt Hannah Graf, from Cardiff, rose to become the highest ranking transgender woman in the British army. After collecting the honour for services to the LGBTQ community in the military, she celebrated the Army's embrace of transgender people. Capt Graf called US President Donald Trump's move to ban certain transgender people from the military "archaic". 

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Botswana scraps gay sex laws in big victory for LGBTQ rights in Africa
CNN, 11 Jun 2019

Botswana's High Court has overturned a colonial-era law criminalizing consensual same-sex relations in a landmark victory for Africa's LGBTQ movements. The court in the southern African country unanimously ruled on Tuesday that the legislation was discriminatory, unconstitutional and against the public interest. "A democratic society is one that embraces tolerance, diversity and open-mindedness," Justice Michael Leburu said, noting that discriminatory law not only serves as a detriment to LGBTQ people, but holds back all of society. 

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Birmingham anti-LGBT protesters banned from school by injunction
The Guardian, 11 Jun 2019

Protests against the teaching of LGBT equality at a Birmingham school have been halted temporarily following a high court injunction. Birmingham city council secured the injunction to protect Anderton Park primary school. The temporary order, which came into force immediately, bans protesters from an exclusion zone in the streets surrounding the school in the Moseley area of Birmingham. 

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