Sat 10 Apr 2010 In: International News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Gays in the Philippines are celebrating a Philippines Supreme Court ruling which says that has allowed gay political group Ang Ladlad to register to contest election to be held in a month's time. The decision overturn's the Philippines' electoral commision's ruling disqualifying Ang Ladlad’s petition to run in the party-list polls. The Court said Comelec erred in applying religious belief against gays and lesbians in implementing the law on qualification of party-list groups. "We won! We won! Philippine Supreme Court says YES to Ang Ladlad partylist," the party said in a one-line statement sent to supporters on Facebook and Twitter. "Long live LGBTs!." In banning the party from the election a Comelec commissioner who is also a lay church minister cited the Koran and the Bible that he says explicitly condemn homosexuality. But the Supreme Courrt noted that "the LGBT sector has been historically disadvantages and discriminated against because of negative public perception, and has even alleged acts of violence perpetrated against the LGBT community by reason of their sexual orientation and gender identity." In a unanimous vote the Court maintained that moral disapproval “is not a sufficient governmental interest to justify exclusion of homosexuals from participation in the party list system.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 10th April 2010 - 12:41pm