It’s a sunny morning in Johannesburg and a cautiously optimistic yet tense Phillip Lühl is eating breakfast at a table in a relative’s home. “The waiting is the worst,” he says, barely lifting his eyes from his phone. His sleepy newborns coo from a nearby room.
Unfortunately, in this case what would usually be a time of excitement and celebration for new parents is politically fraught and painful for Phillip and Guillermo. This is because the couple live in Namibia, where their marriage is not legally recognised, and their three children’s citizenship is up in the air.
Namibian authorities have claimed that such a biological link is a prerequisite for citizenship by descent, even though there is no such written law in Namibia’s constitution or Children’s Act. Complicating matters further is the fact that Namibia has no laws surrounding surrogacy. While their three children do, in fact, have a genetic link to the couple, they refuse to take a DNA test on principle. “We reject the notion that this link makes only one of us the parent,” says Phillip.
Since Guillermo does not have permanent residency in Namibia, it was deemed necessary that he and Yona wait in Namibia while Phillip fetched the twins. “You don’t have to be a supporter of gay rights to understand that this is messed up,” Phillip reflects as the clock turns slowly towards 10.30am, the expected time of judgment. He says that this is why he and Guillermo chose to share their story, to take part in “the interviews and all this stuff”.
Carli Schickerling, who is representing four such couples in cases involving domicile, says that the last time a significant gay rights case was argued in Namibia was in 2000. In the case of the twins, she reflects that it was heartwarming to see the support on the streets. “There were even people who aren’t a part of the LGBTQ community there. There weren’t even any haters.”
Phillip is baffled by the verdict: “You mean that upholding human rights is not in the jurisdiction of the court? It doesn’t make sense.”
This is utterly disgusting. Listened to AldrinSampear break the story a few weeks ago and I was shocked that love is still a problem to many countries. The poor babies that poor family 😔
The best choice I've made this year was investing in cryptocurrency and forex trading and earning from home. With the help of KevinKatch2 I've been earning ZAR60,353.00k weekly I've never regretted this decision fellow RSA, 🙏🏻
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: mailandguardian - 🏆 2. / 92 Read more »
Source: mailandguardian - 🏆 2. / 92 Read more »
Source: TheCitizen_News - 🏆 6. / 75 Read more »
Lawyers dump Zuma ahead of Concourt appeal of personal costs orderAnother law firm has dumped former president Jacob Zuma ahead of his Constitutional Court appeal of the personal costs order granted against him by the North Gauteng High Court in December 2017. Probably bought off They will torment Zuma until he surrenders. Surrendering here means he must denounce RET, endorse ThumaMina and call for all his supporters to stand down. Could this be the real reason for all the firms withdrawing to represent JZ? Probably know the Pied Piper from Nkandla wont pay in his personal capacity & most were no win cases, so Pro Bono is a NO NO!
Source: IOL - 🏆 46. / 51 Read more »
Source: TheCitizen_News - 🏆 6. / 75 Read more »