Let the Courts Decide

US: ACLU responds to lawsuit attacking transgender student athletes

“Today’s complaint filed in Connecticut targeting the inclusion of transgender girls in girls’ athletics and specifically naming Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood is a dangerous distortion of both law and science in the service of excluding trans youth from public life.”

South Africa: Christian privilege | Court takes Beloftebos discrimination case

The owners of Beloftebos claim that they have a right to discriminate against same sex couples because their religious beliefs require them to do so. They are mistaken. This is why.

India: Gay couple files plea in Kerala HC for registration of marriage under Special Marriage Act

The petition was filed jointly by Nikesh Usha Pushkaran and Sonu MS who exchanged rings with support of both of their families at the popular Guruvayurappan temple in July 2018. However, their wedding hasn't been legalised yet.

India: Supreme Court notice to Centre on plea against transgender act

The plea filed by advocate and trans activist Swati Bidhan Baruah challenged the validity of the Transgender Persons (Protections of Rights) Act, 2019, arguing that it treats the trans community with suspicion and reinforces prejudices against them.

US: What a Landmark LGBTQ Case Reveals About Two Clashing Visions of America

This is not an essay about lynching. But the curious landmark case of Lawrence v. Texas made me think about it all the same. And not just because it was inflamed by two different kinds of panic over a specific fear in the unpoliced white imagination, what writer Greg Tate once called “the black sex machine gone berserk.”

South Africa: Rejected same-sex couple take Beloftebos to the Equality Court

Sasha-Lee Heekes and Megan Watling, the engaged same-sex couple turned away by the Beloftebos wedding venue, are going to the courts to fight for their right to equality and dignity.

Chechnya: Young Russian Tries to Sue Over Violent Lesbian ‘Exorcism’ in Chechnya

A young woman from Russia’s conservative republic of Chechnya is seeking criminal charges against her parents, one of their acquaintances and a psychiatric clinic for allegedly torturing her based on her sexual orientation, a Russian LGBT support group said Tuesday.

US: Supreme Court will review religious health care exemptions

In a move that LGBT legal activists see as “deeply worrisome,” the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday (January 17) said it will review two appeals in which the Trump administration is seeking to make it much easier for employers to exclude health insurance coverage for some medical procedures by saying such procedures violate their religious beliefs or moral conscience.