Case No. 111-97-TC

"Case No. 111-97-TC" (1997) is a case decided by the Constitutional Tribunal of Ecuador on November 25, 1997 that resulted in a landmark decision regarding sodomy laws. The newly created Constitutional Tribunal overturned as unconstitutional the first section of Article 516 of the Penal Code which criminalized sexual activities between persons of the same sex. The case was the first step towards increasing recognition of gay rights in Ecuador. The following year, Ecuador became the first country in the Americas (and only the third in the world after South Africa and Fiji) to include sexual orientation as a protected category in its Constitution. Nevertheless, the decision handed down by the Constitutional Tribunal was not wholeheartedly received by gay rights activists, who criticized it due to its use of homophobic language qualifying homosexuality as an "abnormal conduct" which should be medically treated rather than penally sanctioned. The Constitutional Tribunal was accused of being traditional-minded for stating that "it is clear that even though [homosexuality] should not be a judicially punishable conduct, the protection of the family and of minors requires that it not be a socially exalted conduct". [cite journal |last=Salgado |first=Judith |title=Análisis de la interpretación de inconstitucionalidad de la penalización de la homosexualidad en el Ecuador |journal=Aportes Andinos |issue=11 |language=Spanish |publisher=Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar |location=Quito |date=October 2004 |url=http://www.uasb.edu.ec/padh/revista11/articulos/judith%20salgado.htm |accessdate=2008-03-26] "Case No. 111-97-TC" was also criticized by social conservatives opposed to the decriminalization of homosexuality altogether. [cite journal |author=Ab. José Roberto López M. |title=La tipificación del homosexualismo como delito no viola las garantías constitucionales de los homosexuales. Pero su despenalización lesiona los derechos constitucionales de la sociedad. |journal=Revista Jurídica |volume=1 |issue=13 |pages=175–188 |language=Spanish |publisher=Facultad de Jurisprudencia y Ciencias Sociales y Políticas |location=Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil |date=1999 |url=http://www.revistajuridicaonline.com/images/stories/revistas/1999/13-tomo-1/13_la_tipificacion_del_homosexualismo.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-03-25]

ee also

*"National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality and Another v. Minister of Justice and Others" (1998), a similar case decided by the South African Constitutional Court.
*"Lawrence v. Texas" (2003), a similar case decided by the United States Supreme Court.

References

External links

* [http://www.tribunalconstitucional.gov.ec/admcon/adm_cont.nsf/0/0A3FBBC2F20AD5560525713100603C5A Full text of the case]