India
Deepika Singh vs Central Administrative Tribunal and Others - The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that same-sex couples and other non-traditional families, like unmarried partnerships and single parents, are entitled to legal protection and social benefits. The judgement assumes significance with activists demanding the recognition of LGBT marriages and civil unions and allowing live-in couples to adopt after the SC decriminalised Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which had criminalised sexual activities “against the order of nature”, including homosexuality.
While granting the relief of maternity leave to Singh regardless of the fact that she had availed childcare leave for the children of her husband from his earlier marriage, the Bench observed that the predominant understanding of the concept of a “family” both in the law and society—that it consists of a single, unchanging unit with a mother and a father (who remain constant over time) and their children.
UNITED STATES
V.L v E.L- The U.S. Supreme Court, without hearing oral argument, has unanimously reversed an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that denied parental rights to a lesbian adoptive mother who had split with her partner. The decision is a direct repudiation of an Alabama Supreme Court decision that refused to recognize a Georgia adoption.
TAIWAN
In May 2019, Taiwan’s lawmakers approved a same-sex marriage bill, making the self-ruled island the first place in Asia to do so. But the law, passed through a bill separate from Taiwan’s Civil Code, does not provide the same access to adoption, assisted reproduction, or transnational marriage rights as heterosexual couples. To secure full recognition for LGBTQ families, local rights groups and legislators are still advocating for legislative changes.
MEXICO
Mexico's Supreme Court upheld the law allowing married same-sex couples to adopt children in its second landmark gay rights decision this month. The court, threw out a challenge led by the federal government to the part of the law approving gay marriage, but only ruled on Monday -- after more than a week of deliberations -- on the legislation's more controversial adoption provisions. Mexico City, the first Latin American capital to extend to same-sex couples the same marriage and adoption rights as heterosexuals.
JAPAN
An Osaka court on Monday ruled that Japan's ban on same-sex marriage was not unconstitutional, dealing a blow to LGBTQ rights activists in the only Group of Seven nation that doesn't allow people of the same gender to marry.
