Beams of light > Guiding lights > Support groups
User Rating: 5 / 5
CHANGSHA, China — The two young men met through an online chat group. They began seeing each other every day. Long walks in the park. Movies and barhopping. Dinner with grandparents.
On their first anniversary, in June,2015 the men, Sun Wenlin and Hu Mingliang, tried to register to marry at a local civil affairs bureau in this southern provincial capital. An employee refused, saying Chinese law did not permit same-sex marriage. The couple did the unthinkable — they sued the civil affairs bureau. In January, 2016 a district court accepted their case, the first time a Chinese court had agreed to hear a lawsuit on same-sex marriage.
User Rating: 5 / 5
Beth McGarrity forced a smile as she rejoined a group of moms around the dining room table in a spacious home in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. A few months earlier, in the summer of 2000, she and her husband, Russ, had moved to England from Cincinnati with their two young children for Russ' promotion with Procter & Gamble. Now, they mingled at a barbecue with the families of other expat employees and their friends.
Outside, 2-year-old Alyson* tumbled after a soccer ball with the boys in the tree-shaded backyard as Russ and the other dads looked on. Upstairs, 5-year-old Russie* laughed with a group of girls as they sorted through pink dresses and layers of chiffon. Twice, Beth had gone up the big staircase. "Russie, do you want to go outside and play some football?" she'd asked. "No," he had said, looking puzzled the first time; upset the second. "I'm having fun here."
User Rating: 5 / 5
Owens, whose tough reputation saw him chosen to referee the 2015 World Cup final, said accepting himself was the biggest challenge of his career.
"I didn't want to be gay," Owens, who came out in 2007. "I actually went to the doctor at one stage to see if I could be chemically castrated in any way, if it would get rid of me being gay. "Looking back at that it was a horrific thing that one would have to do but that's what I was going through at the time.
User Rating: 5 / 5
Mexico's Supreme Court ruled on August 11, 2015, that a 2013 law in the southeastern state of Campeche that forbids same-sex couples from adopting children is unconstitutional and struck it down. The challenge to the ban was filed by the state's human rights commission. Supreme Court Judge Margarita Luna announced her intention to present the motion on a federal level in early July. Gay marriages and adoption laws are largely legal in the country's heartland, though several far-flung states witness more opposition.
The state law was struck down in a 9-1 ruling. Presiding Judge Luis Maria Aguila said the decision was made keeping in mind the protection of adopted children.
