Ecuador Recognizes LGBT Relationships

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has announced that LGBT citizens will be able to register their relationships with the federal government.

"The LGBT community have the constitutional right to register on their union," Correa said during his weekly report. Previously, the Ecuadoran Civil Registry did not recognize these unions because they had no legal status according to law, however Correa said that from now on this right has to be respected and if denied, the authorities will take action on the matter. However, Correa said that although he supports these unions, he don't support gay marriage, which according to him corresponds to the union between a man and a woman. But he said he is committed to guarantee the rights of all Ecuadorans. Correa, a Catholic leftist, has expressed his opposition to same-sex marriage and adoption of children by gay couples in previous occasions. The Ecuadoran Constitution grants equal rights to "cohabitation partnerships" regardless if they are civil or Catholic marriages, so the LGBT community gains more legal recognition with this legislation.

Same-sex marriage and adoption by gay couples or individuals remains banned in the national constitution.

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ECUADOR: President Apologizes On National TV For Homophobic Remarks

Hours after Ecuador President Rafael Correa won a third term on Sunday, he used a portion of his nationally televised victory speech to apologize for anti-gay remarks he'd made several months earlier. Andres Duque has a translation on Blabbeando:

A few months ago I used a number of inappropriate words that were offensive to LGBT groups and for which I apologized in writing - and I stated I would apologize again after winning [the election] to make sure they knew I wasn't doing it simply for political gain.

Once again I'd like to express my apologies to those LGBT groups for some words that might have escaped me. Each one of us was born and grew up with stereotypes and stigmas and we have to fight against this type of - let's call it deformed - social upbringing, etcetera. But our commitment is to defend everyone's dignity and equality. We are diverse but never unequal.

And I was reminded of this by the leader of a GLBT group who I greatly admire a couple of days ago. You need a lot of courage to lead these type of movements. Let's offer them all our support and - on a personal basis - I offer my full respect and the effort and commitment to eliminate all types of discrimination in this country.

RELATED: Ecuador legalized civil unions in 2009 and allows gays to served openly in the military. In 1998 it became the first nation in the Western Hemisphere to alter its federal constitution to ban most forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation. (Canada followed shortly after.) However same-sex marriage and gay adoption are both banned by Ecuador's constitution. 

Assange: End US Witch-Hunt Against Me

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange spoke today from his refuge inside the Ecuador embassy in London.

Assange stood in the doorway of a small balcony to address dozens of supporters and many more reporters and police officers outside. He thanked the supporters, and the government of Ecuador, which has granted him political asylum and refuge in its embassy. He made no mention of the sexual assault allegations against him in Sweden, for which Britain has agreed to extradite him to face prosecutors' questions. That decision two months ago prompted him to flee into the embassy. But Assange indicated that he believes his legal problems are related to his work as the founder of WikiLeaks, a website which has published thousands of secret U.S. government documents.

And he used the spotlight of media attention to make a series of demands. “The United States must renounce its witch-hunt against WikiLeaks," he said. "The United States must dissolve its FBI investigation. The United States must vow that it will not seek to prosecute our staff or our supporters.” He described the WikiLeaks staff as journalists who are “shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful.” He also called for the release of U.S. Army soldier Bradley Manning, who is charged with leaking secret documents to WikiLeaks.

The United States has not yet filed any charges against Assange.

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Ecuador President Vows To Fight Homophobia

In the wake of the Brooklyn murder of Ecuadorean immigrant Jose Sucuzhanay, Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa has vowed to fight against homophobia and xenophobia. Andres Duque at Blabbeando provides a translation of Correa's statement:

The Ecuadorean immigrant José Sucuzhañay, of 31 years of age, was "vilely assassinated for xenophobic reasons, for homophobia; They mistook him for a homosexual and was with his brother" as they walked in Brooklyn, New York, said Correa. "We will fight together ... to forever uproot these aberrations of certain maladjusted [individuals], uproot them from the face of the earth, from humanity: Xenophobia, homophobia and all kinds of discrimination, all kinds of violence," he said.

Duque notes that while one of Jose's brothers had denied that anti-gay slurs were used against his brother, another brother echoed Correa's statement at Jose's funeral in Ecuador.

"My heart is broken and so is that of all my family," his brother German said during a funeral Mass in the cathedral of the southern town of Cuenca. Sucuzhanay's coffin was scattered with roses and covered with the Ecuadorean flag. "The brutal killing of my brother Osvaldo is the result of xenophobia, of homophobia and racism that our compatriots are experiencing in these times," he said, calling on Ecuador's government to demand that U.S. authorities solve the crime.

There was some initial concern that the family was backing away from the homophobic aspect of the crime, but every speaker at the vigil I attended clearly stressed that Sucuzhanay's murder had been an anti-gay hate crime. However many early press reports did not mention the anti-gay slurs used by the attackers.

Ecuador Gets Gay Friendlier

"Let's be clear that the profoundly humanistic position of this government is to respect the intrinsic dignity of everyone, of every human being, independently of their creed, race, sexual preference. We will give certain guarantees to stable gay couples but matrimony will continue being reserved for a man, a woman and the family. Every person has dignity, that's to say, one must respect a person independently of their sexual preference. Be careful not to deny employment to someone because of their sexual preference. That is discrimination, that is unconstitutional." - Ecuador President Rafael Correa.

(Via - Rex Wockner)