Gay rights in Cyprus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

LGBT rights

Around the world · By country

History · Groups · Activists

Same-sex relationships

Opposition · Persecution

Violence

Cyprus is still a deeply socially conservative nation when it comes to homosexuality, as LGBT people are seen as engaging in immoral and lewd conduct. However, ever since Cyprus sought membership in the European Union it has had to update its human rights legislation, including its laws regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.

Contents 1 Criminal code 2 Civil rights 3 AIDS-HIV issues 4 Family law 5 LGBT nightlife 6 Opinion 7 References

[edit] Criminal code

Gay male sexual conduct has been a crime since 1889 when Cyprus was a British colony, and thus like the British law against buggery it was technically silent about female homosexuality or lesbianism.

In 1993 a Cypriot man named Alecos Modinos, President of the Cypriot Gay Liberation Movement won his court case under the European Convention on Human Rights that ruled that Cyprus laws prohibited homosexuality violated his right to have a private life. However, Cyprus legislators refused to liberalize their own law, and it was not until Cyprus stood to lose its prospective membership to the European Union that in 1998 Cyprus lawmakers decriminalized homosexual relations between consenting adults in private, but set the age of consent for homosexual conduct at eighteen, while the age of consent for heterosexual conduct was at sixteen. Aside from the unequal age of consent, the new criminal amendments also included discrimination against homosexuals in terms of freedom of speech, expression, assembly and the press. The law also addressed both male and female homosexuality for the first time.

In 2000 these provisions were liberalized, but the unequal age of consent remained until 2002 when a new universal age of consent was established at seventeen^[1]. Sexual conduct that occurs in public or with a minor is subject to a prison term of five years and in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus homosexuality in still technically illegal [1]. However, the Cyprus military still bars homosexuals from serving under the grounds that homosexuality is a mental illness, and gay sexual conduct can be a crime under military law^[2].

[edit] Civil rights

Since 2004, Cyprus has implemented an anti-discrimination law that explicitly forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment.^[3] The law was designed to comply with the European Union's Employment Framework Directive of 2000.

In the 1990s some tourists suspected of homosexuality or being infected with HIV were been refused entry or quickly deported.

In 1988 Cypriot Gay Liberation Movement (Apeleftherotiko Kinima Omofilofilon Kiprou) was created. As the only LGBT rights organization the nation it was successful in helping to repealing the civilian criminal prohibitions on homosexuality.

Public opinion on LGBT human rights remains a deeply controversial subject. The Cyprus Orthodox Church is a powerful social and political institution and Archbisop Chrysostomos has frequently stated that homosexuality is immoral and ought to have been kept illegal. Another Orthodox Cyprus priest named Pancratios Meraklis supported the repeal effort, and publicly stated that he was infected with AIDS, although denied that he was a homosexual.

In 1996 a criminal trial against Meraklis for sodomy, caused serious rioting that stopped the trial, and Meraklis had been named as a possible bishop, but had been blocked by Chrysostomos who believes that Meraklis is a homosexual and that AIDS can be spread through casual conduct^[4], comments which irked public health experts and the more liberal Cyprus citizens.

In 2003 a twenty-eight year old Cyprus man was barred from getting a driver's license because he was "psychologically unstable." The man had been discharged from the military for homosexuality, which the military classifies as a mental illness^[5].

[edit] AIDS-HIV issues

The pandemic came to Cyprus in 1986, and since then has had a few hundred of people living with AIDS-HIV. The government regularly tests pregnant women, drug users, National Guard troops and blood donors^[6]. In a 2001 report to the United Nations, the government broadly mentioned various efforts it has undertaken to fight the disease^[7].

In 2004 the Ministry of Health published a report on the AIDS-HIV pandemic in Cyprus.

[edit] Family law

Cyprus only recognizes a marriage between a man and a woman. The nation does not recognize same-sex marriages, civil unions or domestic partnerships.

[edit] LGBT nightlife

The "gay scene" in Cyprus grows year by year. Gay bars are found in all 5 cities, including "Difference" in Paphos, the known "Alaloum" in Limassol, the newly refurnished gay club "Secrets" in Larnaca and a new gay club in Nicosia known as Bianco. "Secrets" has an online page at http://www.secretsfreedomclub.com. For more information on gay nightlife in Cyprus and gay life in Cyprus generally, the webpage Gay Cyprus Online offers more information.

[edit] Opinion

A recent survey (2006) showed that 75% of Cypriots disapprove of homosexuality, and many still think that it can be 'cured' [2].

[edit] References