Colombia holds first same-sex marriages
Fernando Quimbayo and José Ticora were married Tuesday in Colombia’s first same-sex marriage. The country’s constitutional court unexpectedly ruled in April that preventing gay couples from marrying was unconstitutional.
Romania builds anti-gay coalition
Conservative groups in Romania have gathered three million signatures, more than ten percent of the population, on a petition to block same-sex marriage. Romania decriminalized homosexuality in 2000, and narrowly avoided a similar anti-marriage amendment in 2013.
Read more from Agence France-Presse.
Desmond Tutu’s daughter forced out of clergy for being gay
Mpho Tutu-Van Furth, the daughter of Nobel Peace Prize winning Archbishop Desmond Tutu, is being forced out of the South African Anglican Church because she is married to a woman. South Africa is the first African country to legalize same-sex marriage, but the church has yet to get on board. Desmond Tutu, as well as campaigning against apartheid, defended LGBT rights, and said he would “refuse to go to a homophobic heaven.”
Read more at the Washington Post.
Korean court dismisses marriage lawsuit
A Korean judge has ruled that two gay filmmakers cannot marry each other without the country’s legislature stepping in. The ruling says that the constitutional principle of equality does not apply to gay couples because they do not participate in “marriage, child delivery and upbringing” in the same way as straight couples.
Read more at the Korea Herald.
Eleven states sue Obama over trans rules
Eleven US states, including Texas and Oklahoma, are taking the White House to court over an executive order saying that trans students must be given access to the washrooms of their choice. The White House says trans students must be protected from discrimination, while the states say the order violates gender discrimination law.
Read more at the Washington Post.
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