by Christopher Cappiello

Israel says yes to gay adoption

Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ruled on Feb. 10 that under the country’s adoption laws, same-sex couples may adopt children. The new ruling provides for the adoption of the biological child of one partner by the other partner, as well as the adoption of children who are not the biological offspring of either partner.

Mazuz emphasized that his announcement was only clarifying recent legal rulings, the Israeli news service Ynet reports. He also reiterated that each adoption request should be considered with the “benefit of the adoptee” in mind. “Each instance will be examined in its own right,” he told Ynet.

In 2000, Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled in favor of a lesbian trying to register as an adoptive mother to her partner’s biological son. In a 2005 case, the court made a similar ruling in a case involving a gay male couple and their biological children. The court also recently ruled that Israel should recognize adoptions by same-sex couples that have been certified in other countries.

In December 2007, Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog advocated for reversing the state agency’s policy of not accepting applications from same-sex couples.

While the court rulings in Israel have applied to adoption cases involving biological children, the attorney general expanded the scope of his ruling to include all potential adoption scenarios.

“There is no legal reason to prevent a same-sex couple, or either one of them, from adopting a child who is not the biological offspring of one of the partners, according to the same criteria applied to a single person who wants to adopt a child and conditional—as is customary—on considerations of the best interests of the child,” Mazuz said in a statement, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Egypt ‘tortures’ HIV-positive prisoners

Human Rights Watch, the New York-based international civil rights watchdog, has denounced Egyptian law enforcement for arresting HIV-positive men and subjecting them to inhumane prison conditions and unfair trials, The Associated Press reports.

“Egypt threatens not just its international reputation, but its own population if it responds to the HIV/AIDS epidemic with prison terms instead of prevention and care,” said Scott Long, the head of HRW’s gay rights division.

HRW’s Feb. 5 announcement came after reports that, in October 2007, a group of gay men were arrested following a Cairo street scuffle, given involuntary HIV tests and subjected to invasive forensic examinations to determine their sexual practices.

“These men have been subjected to anal examination without their consent, which amounts to torture,” Gasser Abdel-Razek, HRW’s acting director of regional relations in the Middle East, told BBC News. “Egypt should release the men unconditionally and put a system in place that does not deal with HIV-positive individuals as criminals, but as patients who require medical care and attention.”

Some of the men who tested positive for HIV were reportedly handcuffed to hospital beds while in custody. One of the men said that the prosecutor told him, “People like you should be burnt alive. You do not deserve to live.”

In January, four of the men arrested in October were convicted of “habitual practice of debauchery” and sentenced to a year in prison. They pleaded not guilty and their lawyers told HRW that no evidence was presented at trial.

Both the AP and BBC report that Egyptian officials had no immediate comment.

The Egyptian legal code does not specifically criminalize homosexuality, but gay men are frequently arrested and prosecuted under laws covering prostitution and “debauchery.”

Swedish lesbian wins puppy discrimination case

A Stockholm appeals court has ruled that it is discrimination to refuse to sell a puppy to a prospective owner because of that person’s sexuality, Agence France-Presse reports.

Smila Bergstroem, of the Stockholm suburb of Värmdö, brought the case after her purchase of a new puppy was suddenly cancelled by kennel owner Anette Sjoeholm. Bergstroem reportedly told Sjoeholm that she and her partner love animals and would have plenty of time to care for a new pet because they were both students.

When Sjoeholm learned that Bergstroem’s partner was another woman, she refused the sale. At the time, she allegedly made it clear that she didn’t trust homosexuals. She reportedly said she had read that transvestites were involved in animal pornography.

The Swedish court ruled that the kennel owner must pay Bergstroem approximately $3,000 in damages for discrimination and harassment, AFP reports.

Reports did not clarify if Bergstroem ever got her puppy.