LGBTQ news and entertainment
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Shortly after midnight, two women in Velden, Austria, exchanged wedding vows becoming the first same-sex couple to officially marry in the country.
After being engaged for four years, Daniela Paier and Nicole Kopaunik and Daniela Paier were wed early Tuesday morning as same-sex marriage became legal in Austria.
Austria’s constitutional court ruled in 2017 that the country’s ban on same-sex marriage was discriminatory after years of challenges from LGBTQ rights groups.
Although same-sex couples have been allowed to enter into civil partnerships since 2010, marriage was still out of bounds.
The country’s governing parties, the People’s Party and the Freedom Party, opposed marriage equality, but honored the court’s ruling.
A September 2018 poll for Österreich found that 74% of Austrians supported same-sex marriage and 26% were against.
As of today there is marriage equality in Austria and registered partnerships are open for heterosexual couples as well.
🏳️🌈🇦🇹#Austria #MarriageEquality #SupremeCourt pic.twitter.com/wHJ3eNwFzA— Stefan Schulreich (@SSchulreich) January 1, 2019
The start of 2019 also marks the first day of the freedom to marry in #Austria – which today became the 26th country where same-sex couples can marry, following a landmark court ruling affirming marriage equality in 2017! 🇦🇹 pic.twitter.com/Fs95wjvkFS— Freedom to Marry (@freedomtomarry) January 1, 2019
As of today, same sex marriage is legal in Austria! 🇦🇹🏳️🌈💍
Congratulations to the couple who were the first to get married – a great way to ring in #HappyNewYear2019. Here’s to many more. https://t.co/S64maZNXV7 pic.twitter.com/VSj5Jn88LU— Pride in London (@PrideInLondon) January 1, 2019
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A gay 18-year-old Afghan refugee has been denied asylum in Austria because officials determined he wasn’t ‘gay’ enough to be gay.
Scared for his safety in Afghanistan, the young man originally applied for asylum based on the fact that he’s part of the persecuted Hazara minority in his home country. He later appealed citing his sexual orientation, which in his home country is illegal due to Sharia Law and can be prosecuted resulting in a possible death penalty. He told advocates that he was initially afraid to come out.
But the immigration officials wrote in their report, “The way you walk, act and dress does not show even in the slightest that you could be homosexual.”
Also, the official noted that the young man had been involved in fights at the refugee center where he was being temporarily housed. The official decided that his “potential for aggression” undermined the Afghan’s claims since that “wouldn’t be expected from a homosexual.”
Additionally, the young man’s preference to spend time alone caused the official to wonder, “Aren’t homosexuals rather social?”
When asked at what age he realized he was gay, the Afghan told the case worker he came to that determination at the age of 12. But again, he was rebuffed by the official who said that was “rather early” since “there is no public sexual stimulation through fashion and advertisement” in Afghanistan.
Even when the teenager admitted to kissing men, the official decided it wasn’t true since the young man would have been beaten for such behavior.
Ultimately, the Austrian government rejected the 18-year-old’s application for asylum.
According to reports, the Afghan says he will appeal.
After seven years of affording same-sex couples “registered partnerships,” Austria’s Constitutional Court has ruled that by 2019 full marriage equality must be available to same-sex couples.
Via Deutsche Welle:
Same-sex couples in Austria have been able to enter only into “registered partnerships” since 2010, with nearly the same rights of married couples. But the court ruled that “the distinction between marriage and registered partnership … cannot be upheld in this day and age without discriminating against same-sex couples.”
“The resulting discriminatory effect is seen in the fact that through the different title of the family status, people living in same-sex partnerships have to disclose their sexual orientation even in situations in which it is not, and must not be, relevant and … are highly likely to be discriminated against,” the court said in its ruling.
It said that restrictions on same-sex marriage would be lifted at the end of 2018 unless the government did so itself earlier. The ruling will remove the words “two people of different sex” from the law on marriage. It will keep civil partnerships as an option and will open them up to straight couples.
Just days before Vienna Pride, the National Assembly of Austria has voted down a resolution to give gay and lesbian couples ‘the human right of marriage.’
The resolution garnered only 26 votes in support, while 110 members voted against.
From Gay Star News:
On Tuesday, in light of the opening of Vienna’s Pride Village, the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), coalition partner to the conservative Austrian People’s Party, demanded equality for all – now their representatives voted against marriage equality.
‘The SPÖ’s deepest conviction are equal marriage rights for homosexual people,’ said party whip Andreas Schieder during a discussion about the resolution.
‘We demand full equality. Right now, such a resolution – even supported by the SPÖ – wouldn’t get a majority.
‘Which is why we will continue to work on convincing conservative forces that these are life realities and discrimination cannot have a place.’