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26 Nov 2015 - NPWJ News Digest on on LGBTI rights
Articles
LGBT Groups Call for Justice as Chicago Cop Charged With Murder
by Advocate, 25 Nov 2015
LGBT groups are reacting to the release of video showing a white Chicago police officer shooting to death a young black man, making calls for further investigation and a renewed effort for racial justice. Laquan McDonald, 17, was shot 13 months ago by Officer Jason Van Dyke on a city street. Van Dyke was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder, and shortly after he appeared in court, Chicago officials released dashcam video of the confrontation between McDonald and Van Dyke. Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times. National LGBTQ Task Force deputy executive director Russell Roybal Wednesday issued a statement calling for a federal investigation into McDonald’s killing as well as an attack on Black Lives Matter activists in Minneapolis in which five people were wounded.
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Vietnam law change introduces transgender rights
by The Guardian, 24 Nov 2015
Vietnam passed a law on Tuesday enshrining rights for transgender people in a move advocacy groups say paves the way for gender reassignment surgery in the authoritarian communist nation. People who want the operation, which is illegal, tend to have it done in nearby Thailand. The new legislation will allow those who have undergone reassignment to register under their new gender. The law will come into effect early in 2017 after 282 of 366 lawmakers voted in favour. “Individuals who undergo transgender change will have the right to register” under their new gender with “personal rights in accordance with their new sex”, reported the state-controlled VnExpress website, citing a national assembly report. The law is an attempt to “meet the demands of a part of society … in accordance with international practice, without countering the nation’s traditions”, said the report from the Vietnamese parliament. The country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community welcomed the move, saying it offered essential new rights. Homosexuality remains taboo but not illegal in Vietnam, and a series of gradual advances have seen the nation move towards more progressive views in its approach to sexuality.
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HIV crisis worsened by anti-gay laws in Commonwealth countries, report warns
by Indipendent, 21 Nov 2015
The persecution of millions of people in Commonwealth countries where homosexuality is a criminal offence is worsening the Aids crisis, warns a major report produced for David Cameron. In what the report describes as a “British colonial legacy”, 40 out of 53 Commonwealth countries criminalise same-sex relationships. The Prime Minister should demand that the countries scrap anti-gay laws and end the persecution and punishment of millions of people, according to campaigners. The Human Dignity Trust and the Commonwealth Lawyers’ Association briefing was prepared ahead of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Malta next weekend. The prevention of HIV among gay men in countries where homosexuality is illegal is “difficult to address due to ‘double stigmatisation’ ”.
Portugal Allows Same-Sex Adoption, Artificial Insemination
by abc news, 20 Nov 2015
Portugal's Parliament has approved laws allowing same-sex couples to legally adopt children and permitting lesbians to obtain medically assisted fertilization. Parliament in 2013 approved a law allowing gay married couples to adopt their partners' children but rejected legislation granting gay couples the same adoption rights as heterosexuals. Parliament also removed hospital charges for voluntary abortions through the 10th week of pregnancy and waived mandatory counselling before the procedure is carried out.