European court rules Moldova violated gays’ rights

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI – The European Court of Human Rights says Moldovan authorities violated gay activists’ rights when they rejected a queer group’s application to hold a peaceful protest outside the Eastern European country’s parliament.

GenderDoc-M appealed to the European court after the Chisinau Municipal Council and the mayor’s office rejected the group’s application, a denial that was upheld by the country’s Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Justice,” Gay Star News reports.

ILGA-Europe’s Evelyne Paradis said of the European court’s ruling, “We hope that today’s judgment is a signal to Moldovan authorities that the discrimination against LGBT people is unacceptable and illegal.”

Moldovan authorities argued that rejecting the group’s protest application was justified because most Moldovan people do not approve of gay relationships, the report noted. But the court ruled that if the diffference in treatment was “based solely on the applicant’s sexual orientation, this would amount to discrimination under the [European Convention on Human Rights].”