In a significant development, The Philippines, a conservative Catholic country which does not recognize same-sex marriage or even allow divorce, has seen a partial victory for same-sex couples thanks to its Supreme Court. It ruled that they may co-own property, but only if they live together and both contributed to its purchase. The ruling came in the case of a lesbian couple who split up, with one of them wanting to sell the house. The court’s opinion suggests there may be further victories ahead, since it noted a “glaring yet unjustified difference in the treatment of heterosexual couples vis-à-vis their homosexual counterparts” and said the Congress “must be involved to quest for solutions.”
Also significant is the ruling of an appellate court in Bosnia-Herzegovina that a politician’s call for expelling LGBTQ people from the country can be prosecuted as “hate speech.” This is the first time that a court in that country has ruled in defense of LGBTQ rights.
In another country not known for generosity toward its LGBTQ citizens, an appellate court has overturned the Kenya Film Classification Board’s censorship of the 2018 film Rafiki, screened at Cannes and other international festivals, but banned in the country of its origin for “promoting homosexuality” because it depicted a lesbian love story.
