Indonesia police fire tear gas at students protesting sex, graft laws

Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters outside Indonesia's parliament Tuesday as thousands demonstrated nationwide against a new criminal code that would, among other things, outlaw premarital sex and weaken the country's anti-graft agency.

Protesters covered their faces and scattered in all directions as chaos erupted in the center of the sprawling capital, Jakarta.

Police also fired teargas at rock-throwing protesters in Makassar on Sulawesi island, while demonstrators broke down a barrier outside the governor's office in Semarang on Java island.

"(We) forcibly dispersed student because they were carrying out anarchist acts, damaging government property and throwing stones at police," said Dicky Sondani, a South Sulawesi police spokesman.

The police action came after flag- and placard-waving demonstrators gathered across the Southeast Asian archipelago -- including in cultural capital Yogyakarta and holiday hotspot Bali -- for a second day in a row.

On Tuesday, lawmakers debated a wide-ranging legal overhaul including hundreds of new laws that would criminalize premarital sex, restrict sales of contraceptives, make it illegal to insult the president, and toughen the Muslim majority country's blasphemy laws.

A vote on the bill was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but President Joko Widodo last week called for a delay in passing the proposed changes after a public backlash.

The mooted changes could affect millions of Indonesians, including gay and heterosexual couples who might face jail for having sex outside wedlock, or having an affair.

Widodo's call for a delay came as the Australian embassy in Jakarta issued a fresh travel advisory, warning that the legislation could put unmarried foreign tourists in the crosshairs.

Millions of tourists visit Bali and other beach destinations in the Southeast Asian nation.

Widodo this week stood firm on plans to pass a separate bill that critics fear would dilute the investigative powers of the corruption-fighting agency -- known as the KPK -- including its ability to wire-tap suspects.

Updating Indonesia's criminal code, which dates back to the Dutch colonial era, has been debated for decades and appeared set to pass in 2018 before momentum fizzled out.

A renewed push this year, backed by conservative Islamic groups, was met with a wave of criticism over what many saw as a draconian law that invaded the bedrooms of a nation with some 260 million people -- the fourth most populous on Earth.

An online petition calling for the bill to be scrapped garnered half a million signatures, while hundreds of thousands took to social media to vent their frustration.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Gay couples to 'live more freely' with Thai civil unions

BANGKOK -- Luke Cassady-Dorion believed marriage was for "boring" straight people until he met the man he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. But Thailand, where they live, does not permit same-sex marriage.

So the couple wed in New York.

With Thailand set to pass a landmark law that would make it the first country in Asia to legally recognize same-sex couples as civil partners, they are hopeful the largely conservative Buddhist society is on the path to recognizing their love.

"The LGBT community in Thailand has been campaigning for equal rights for a long time, and this bill is a good and important first step," said Cassady-Dorion, who co-founded a YouTube channel with Tae, or Thapanont Phithakrattanayothin.

"When you normalize same-sex relations, it helps gay people to come out and live more freely, knowing that the government recognizes your rights," said Cassady-Dorion, who is also a yoga instructor.

Thailand has built a reputation as a place with a relaxed attitude towards gender and sexual diversity since homosexuality was decriminalized in 1956, and authorities actively promote the country as an LGBT+-friendly destination.

Yet LGBT+ people face discrimination and stigma in schools, the workplace and health facilities and are often rejected by their families, say activists.

Across Asia, conservative values and deep-rooted biases have hamstrung progress on gay rights. Taiwan voters last year rejected legalizing same-sex marriage in a referendum.

While India's top court scrapped a colonial-era ban on gay sex in 2018, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei outlaw sexual relations between men, and Indonesia has seen an increase in raids targeting LGBT+ people.

Thailand's civil partnership bill, which was approved by the Cabinet on Dec. 25, is therefore an outlier in the region, giving same-sex couples the right to register their unions, make joint medical decisions and own and inherit property.

"LGBT people in Thailand have been waiting for this for a very long time," said Vitaya Saeng-Aroon, a director at the Bangkok Rainbow Organisation.

"There are couples who have been together for 15 years, 20 years, with no recognition or legal protection; they can finally breathe more easily," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

FAMILY

But many gay people say it does not go far enough. It does not recognize marriage between same-sex partners, or give them the right to adopt or have children as a couple.

"We want to be a family with all the rights and privileges that any family has, but this bill does not give us that," said Areeya, a transgender woman who declined to give her full name for fear of criticism.

Areeya, who is Thai, and her partner Lee, who is American, have been together for 16 years, and they have each adopted a child as single persons.

"Marriage equality is what would be really meaningful but we don't know when - or even if - that will happen. We don't feel particularly compelled to register our union without any real benefits," she said as her younger son climbed on to her lap.

Campaigners also fear they will lose public support to push for full rights once the civil partnership bill is passed.

"People may say: 'You've got this, what more do you want?'" said Wannapong Yodmuang, an activist for marriage equality.

"We have campaigned for so long for equal rights, but this bill will mean we are still treated differently and given fewer rights. We are worried that people will stop fighting, and that we will lose momentum," she said.

The bill is "unlikely" to be passed before elections scheduled for March 24, and will await the new government, said Nareeluc Pairchaiyapoom, a senior official at the justice department.

Government officials have said granting marriage equality will take longer, as it requires changing people's attitudes and amending the country's Civil Code, which deals with the rights of private persons, including family law and inheritance law.

But two-thirds of Thais have no objection to same-sex unions, a survey by the United Nations Development Program found.

Thailand's marriage law can also be changed, said independent researcher Chawinroj Terapachalaphon.

"The marriage law now says "man and woman"; they just need to change it to "person". Everything else can stay the same - it is easily done, and it would ensure equal rights for everyone," he said.

"Everyone understands what marriage is, but few people understand a civil partnership, and none of the existing laws support it. What we need is a full marriage law that is clear and easy to implement, rather than something so complex."

PARTY

Others are ready to celebrate civil partnership.

"We will probably have a nice party when we register our union after the bill is passed, and some sort of a traditional ceremony as well. It's important that we celebrate it," said Ann Baker, who lives in Bangkok with her partner Suthida.

Baker, who is half English, had considered getting married in England, but wanted to have legal status in Thailand, where they both live.

"We are hopeful that we will get full marriage rights here soon, so we can start a family," Baker said.

For everyone looking to party, Cassady-Dorion and Tae - who address LGBT+ issues in Thailand on their YouTube channel Picnicly - have plenty of tips.

Their own wedding in 2014 was a "small ceremony" in Cassady-Dorion's mother's home in Niskayuna, New York, and involved the two of them cooking big batches of pad thai and green curry for the guests.

"Our wedding was the least gay thing I have ever done: it was very normal. But there really was something magical about the moment, and having our family and friends with us as we said our vows," said Cassady-Dorion.

"Marriage should be available to anyone who wants it, and we hope that Thailand will make marriage equality a reality. This bill should only be a step towards that."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Thousands march in Rome for gay rights

ROME - Thousands of people marched in Italian cities Saturday to demand legal recognition for gay couples and their children, days before lawmakers begin addressing the deeply divisive issue.

Italy is the only major Western European country not to have enacted civil union legislation allowing same-sex couples to have their relationships acknowledged and protected in law.

A bill, which the Senate will start examining on Thursday, is the first to get to parliament.

If approved, the draft legislation will enable same-sex couples to commit themselves to one another before a state official, to take each other's names and, in certain circumstances, adopt each other's children and inherit each other's residual pension rights.

"The first time I marched with these slogans, it was 10 years ago, and I was pregnant. I hope this time it works," said bank worker Costanza Tantillo, who joined the Rome protest with her partner and their two children, nine-year-old Beatrice and Ludovico, four.

Two women who marched nearby held up a sign that read: "Stella and Paola, we've been together for 30 years and you still don't acknowledge us."

Protests had been planned for 90 towns and cities across Italy, under the slogan "Wake up Italy! It's time to be civil."

Opponents of the bill, in contrast, are planning a show of strength at a demonstration scheduled for January 30 in Rome's Circus Maximus.

Hundreds of thousands are expected to attend the self-styled "Family Day," organised by mainly Catholic groups under the battle cry of "Defend our Children".

Angelo Bagnasco, the chair of the Italian conference of bishops, has denounced the whole debate as a "grave and irresponsible distraction from the real problems of the country".

In the world of politics, dividing lines cut across party loyalties. A minority faction within the ruling Democratic Party supports junior coalition partner the New Centre Right (NCD) in opposing a reform championed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Renzi, who has allowed his allies a free vote on the "issue of conscience", can however count on backing from most of the opposition Five Star movement, left-wing fringe parties and even sections of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia.

Most observers expect Renzi will get the bill adopted in the end.

- 'Historic day' -

According to Italian media, there were at least 7,000 demonstrators in Turin, 5,000 in Milan, thousands in Rome and Bologna, a thousand in Bari in the south, and hundreds in Naples and Venice among others.

"It is a historic day for this country, an immense protest that was fed by the desire and enthusiasm of a lot of people who hold the belief in equality close to their hearts," said Gabriele Piazzoni, the national secretary of Italy's biggest gay rights group, Arcigay.

In what many saw as papal intervention in the debate, Pope Francis on Friday ruled out any form of union except Catholic marriage.

"What he said didn't surprise me, all he did was to repeat the church's anthropological viewpoint," said Andrea Rubera, a gay man who married a fellow homosexual in Canada.

They came to the demonstration with their three young children.

"But he chose to say this on the eve of the day when we took to the streets to defend the rights of our children to have a little security."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Slovenians reject same-sex marriage law in low-turnout referendum

LJUBLJANA - More than 60 percent of Slovenians voted against extending marriage to same-sex couples in a referendum Sunday marked by low turnout, according to near-complete results from the electoral commission.

The outcome marked a setback for activists who had hoped to see the largely Catholic nation become Europe's first ex-communist country to give same-sex couples the right to marry and adopt.

With more than 99 percent of ballots counted by 10 pm (2100 GMT), 63.42 percent of voters said 'no' to approving the legislation, which already passed in parliament earlier this year.

More than 1.7 million people were registered to vote on an issue that has stoked heated debate in the former Yugoslav republic, but turnout was low at just 35.65 percent.

For the outcome to be legally valid, opponents of the law needed to muster the support of at least 20 percent of registered voters -- the equivalent of at least 342,000 votes. They ended up garnering 389,115, the commission said.

In March, parliament approved legislation redefining marriage as a "union of two" instead of a "union of a man and a woman", granting same-sex couples the same rights as their opposite-sex counterparts, including the right to adopt children.

But opponents immediately launched a campaign to reverse the changes, meaning the legislation never came into force and no same-sex couples were able to tie the knot.

A group called "Children Are At Stake" managed to gather the 40,000 signatures necessary to force a referendum.

Even Pope Francis waded in, urging Slovenians to defend traditional family values.

He said last week he encouraged "everyone, especially those with public responsibility, to support the family, a structural reference point for the life of society".

Same-sex marriage has already been legalised in 18 countries, including 13 in Europe. Ireland last May became the first to approve gay marriage through a referendum.

"I voted yes. Love is love, regardless of everything," said a 24-year-old woman called Ida in the southwestern port city of Koper.

- 'Marriage yes, adoption no' -

The issue had proved divisive among Slovenians, especially concerning adoption.

On the wall of a church centre near one polling station, someone had scrawled: "Would you take a homosexual donor's blood to save your child?"

Another pensioner said while gay couples should be given equality as far as marriage was concerned, that should not include the right to adopt children.

"They are people like us, they should be given all rights, but not (the right to adopt) children," said 76-year-old Ema.

"It has to end with a 'no'," she said.

Slovenian voters already rejected gay marriage once before, in a 2012 plebiscite.

Sunday's renewed rejection means the civil code will revert to limiting marriage to strictly between male and female couples, and parliament may not propose any new measures seeking to introduce same-sex marriages for the next 12 months.

Existing legislation which allows registered civil partnerships but not adoption will remain in force.

Slovenia has long been ahead of its peers, joining the EU in 2004 -- nine years before neighbouring Croatia -- and the eurozone in 2007 as its first ex-communist member, but its society retains a strong traditionalist streak.

Both Slovenia's president and prime minister had backed the 'yes' camp in the referendum.

Violeta Tomic, a lawmaker from the leftist United Left party that had first proposed the same-sex law, vowed to keep up the fight despite Sunday's setback.

"We'll go on, we won't give up... Human rights were not a gift, they had to be fought for."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Birth certificates latest battleground in Florida's gay marriage fight

MIAMI - Eight months after Florida's gay marriage ban ended, the state is not allowing hospitals to list both same-sex parents on their babies' birth certificates, according to a federal lawsuit recently filed by three gay couples.

Last week the first same-sex couple to be married in Florida, Cathy Pareto and Karla Arguello, discovered the hospital would only include the birth mother's name on the birth certificate for their twins.

They have sued, saying the Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics violates the U.S. Constitution by issuing "a certificate that falsely indicates that the child has only one parent."

Florida's ban on same-sex marriage ended on Jan. 6 after it was struck down by a judge. Then, in June the U.S. Supreme Court issued a nationwide ruling that state marriage bans are unconstitutional.

The Florida Department of Health, which handles birth certificates, responded on Thursday with a legal motion seeking clarification from a judge on whether the Supreme Court's ruling "may be read to require issuance of birth certificates to married same-sex parents."

It said current Florida law regarding birth certificates is "gender specific," referring to a mother and her husband. It added the Supreme Court ruling referred only "to the issue of same-sex marriage, not vital statistics records."

Shannon Minter, legal director of the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) that is representing the plaintiffs, said most states quickly changed birth certificate rules to reflect the Supreme Court ruling, although Texas, Utah and Arkansas only did so after lawsuits were filed.

Since the ruling, legal fights over gay marriage have erupted across the country. On Thursday, the Colorado Court of Appeals said a baker cannot cite religious beliefs in refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

The Florida plaintiffs made repeated requests to Florida officials "but enough is enough," added Minter, saying they would have preferred not to go to court.

Not having an accurate birth certificate denies children with same-sex parents normal birth rights and also prevents parents from taking care of their children's everyday needs like obtaining government benefits, said Equality Florida, which represents lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Floridians, and is also a plaintiff in the case.

Pareto and Arguello were married in January 2015.

"The state's refusal to recognize that they have two parents and to list both of us on the birth certificates is demeaning and hurtful," Pareto said in a statement. (Reporting by David Adams; Editing by Lisa Lambert)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Church of England proposes 'blessings' for gay marriage

LONDON - Church of England clergy would be able to "bless" same-sex relationships under long-awaited proposals unveiled on Thursday as the church adopts a more open - but disputed - approach to homosexuality.

Although gay couples would still not be able to legally marry in a church, the proposed change would officially sanction clergy to let gay and lesbian couples mark and celebrate same-sex marriages and civil partnerships in a church service.

Critics swiftly condemned the "blessing" proposal as contrary to the church's teaching on sexual conduct.

The proposal was among 18 recommendations put forward by a working group set up two years ago amid growing tension over the church's approach to gay worshippers and clergy but could take up to two years of discussions before becoming policy.

Acknowledging the issue was divisive, group chairman Joseph Pilling said the church needed to reflect rapid changes in society as senior clergy express fears of a looming crisis, with falling attendance rates and failure to attract young people.

This year, parliament introduced new laws to allow gay marriages from 2014 after legalising civil partnerships in 2005 and the church dropped its ban on gay clergy in civil partnerships becoming bishops.

"You can make a church a cold place for gay and lesbian people ... or you can make it a more warm and accepting place," Pilling told a news conference.

"No member of the clergy, or parish, would be required to offer such services and it could not extend to solemnising same sex marriages without major changes to the law."

RELAXED ATTITUDE

Pilling said the group also suggested that the Church of England, mother church of the world's 80 million Anglicans, should address the issue of same-sex relationships with the wider Anglican community and other churches.

Critics said the proposed "blessing" ran counter to church teaching, which says couples can only have sex within marriage and that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

The one dissenting voice on the seven-strong committee, the Bishop of Birkenhead Keith Sinclair, said he did not believe the report offered a consistent or coherent response to questions of the church's response to sexuality.

Andrea Williams, founder of Christian Concern, which backs traditional marriage, and also a member of the Church of England governing body, the General Synod, said the proposed "blessing" would sow division and acrimony within the Church of England.

"The majority of Christians throughout the world and throughout history are committed to orthodox biblical teaching on marriage and sexuality," she said in a statement.

The spiritual head of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, earlier this year reiterated his opposition to gay marriage, but also acknowledged there had been a "revolution" in attitudes towards homosexuality and that the church's stand could be seen as out-of-step with public opinion.

A national survey on sexual attitudes released this week showed that most Britons have a far more relaxed attitude towards same-sex relationships than in previous decades.

In 1990, fewer than one in four men aged 16 to 44 were tolerant of same-sex relationships but that figure was now nearly half and in women, the number jumped to 66 percent from 28 percent in 1990-91.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com