I diritti delle persone LGBT nella giurisprudenza della Corte di Strasburgo

Moving towards the perspective of an analysis which seeks to trace the level of protection of LGBT minorities rights, it is fundamental to take into account the evolution of the ECHR’s case-law on this matter. The ECHR’s interpretation of Convention rights offers a very wide range of clues and it appears to be increasingly bound to the emerging jurisprudence of constitutional rights as well. Along with its contribuition in the direction of a dynamic interpretation of some constitutional rights, it has to be considered the relevant impact of ECHR’s judgements in internal law, whose effects are becoming progressively more pervading. The article aims at offering an insight of the ECHR’s jurisprudence on LGBT minorities rights protection both from a family rights’ point of view, meaning the issues relating to the legal recognition of LGBT minorities’ right to marry, to found a family and to adopt a child; both from the outlook of the invidual rights’ protection against speeches, which result in a discrimination based on sexual orientation as well as in a violatation of LGBT minorities’ human dignity. After a brief introduction, the article analyses the development of ECHR’s case law on the right to marry, set out in Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights, in order to examine to what extend the ECHR has recognized the right to marry to transexuals and same-sez couples (par. 1.1.). Then, it goes on by exploring how the ECHR has finally held that the relationships between transexuals and same sex couples fall under the notion of “family life”, within the meaning of Article 8 of the Convention (par. 1.2). It further addresses the controversial issues arising from the balance among the protection of the family in the traditional sense, the Convention rights of sexual minorities and the child’s best interest, throughout an investigation of the ECHR’s jurisprudence on adoption by a single or same-sex couples (par. 2). Lastly, the article investigates the compatibility with the Convention’s provisions of homophobic speeches and attitudes, starting from an in-depth analysis of Vejdeland and Others v. Sweden, as the first ECHR’s judgment on hate speech against homosexual minorities (par. 3).