The new fight for Equal Marriage in Mexico

Greek PM says same-sex marriage within 4 years

I have a story up on XtraMagazine.com about how it’s still illegal in 1/3 of Mexico’s states for people living with HIV to get married, and one couple’s successful fight to get the law repealed in the state of Puebla. Courts and the National Human Rights Commission are working to get these laws repealed in the nine states that have them on the books, but progress has been slow.

A court in Hong Kong ruled that two women who conceived a child through reciprocal IVF should both be recognized as parents on the child’s birth certificate. This comes just after the HK Court of Final Appeal ordered the territorial government to come up with an alternative to marriage for same-sex couples.

The Prime Minister of Greece confirmed that same-sex marriage is “in the government’s plan in this four-year period.” Well. Ok, then.

Shortly after ratifying a treaty to fully abolish the death penalty, Armenia is set to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court – the first new member state in four years. The ratification will put it at odds with traditional ally Russia, whose President Putin is subject to an ICC warrant, which Armenia will be required to execute if he enters their territory. Armenia says it needs to ratify the statute due to war crimes being committed against it by Azerbaijan (not a member). The only other European states not members of the ICC are Azerbaijan, Belarus, Monaco, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the Vatican. Ukraine has submitted to ICC jurisdiction and is obliged to ratify the statute under its EU Association Agreement. (For fairness’ sake, I should mention that the United States is not a member of the ICC either).

CORRECTION: Last week, I shared news that a lesbian couple in Italy will have a case heard at the final court in October, seeking to have both parents listed on the birth certificate of their child who was born through surrogacy. In fact, the child was born through IVF, and one of the women is his biological mother as listed on his birth certificate. Surrogacy is illegal in Italy, and it is newly illegal for Italians to go overseas to engage a surrogate, which is a whole separate issue.