Member-only story
Latvia races to be last in LGBT equality among the Baltics
The Latvian parliament or Saeima voted 47 to 25 to move ahead with a proposal by the right-of-center National Alliance (NA) amending the Latvian Constitution to exclude same-sex couples from the definition of a family as protected by Latvia’s basic law.
The vote merely sent the proposal to a string of parliamentary committees and to become a constitutional amendment, it must be presented, debated and voted in three plenary session readings and passed with a two-thirds majority of the 100-member Saeima
The proposal by the NA, a member of the five party coalition under Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš, came in apparent response to a ruling by Latvia’s Constitutional Court last November allowing one partner in a same-sex couple to receive a “paternal” benefit paid to males when their partner gives birth to a child.
Lawyer wins “paternal” leave as same-sex partner to child’s mother
Evita Goša, a lawyer, successfully brought her case before Latvia’s highest court in a landmark ruling that said the Latvian Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection under the law and protection of families also applied to same sex partnerships with children. She shares raising two children with her female partner
