Thursday, April 30, 2015

LGBT Kenyans gain the right to organize, and churches promise to fight

From Crux (and Kenya)-

In a move that has stirred the anger of Kenya’s anti-gay Christian groups and sparked celebration by pro-gay clergy, the nation’s High Court has ruled that gay rights activists have the right to formally register their own groups and welfare organizations.

A three-judge panel issued the ruling Friday in response to a 2013 petition by the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. The organization had unsuccessfully tried — five times — to register under the nation’s Non-Governmental Organizations Co-ordination Act since 2012, but had been rejected on grounds that Kenya’s penal code criminalized gay and lesbian associations.

This time, things were different, with the court ruling that refusing to register the organization was an infringement of the constitutional rights of association for LGBT people. The judges said registration was not about the moral and religious views of Kenyans, since the constitution does not set a limit of rights.


More here-

http://www.cruxnow.com/life/2015/04/29/lgbt-kenyans-gain-the-right-to-organize-and-churches-promise-to-fight/

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