Landmark ruling for LGBT rights in Chile

Via the New York Times: In Chile, a judge who lost custody of her daughters in 2004 because she is a lesbian will now receive damages, after an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling. Karen Atala will get $50,000, and $12,000 to reimburse court costs. Not much comfort after being separated from your kids by the state for 6 years, but the ruling sets an important precedent in the region.

• [Alejandro Roth]

  Unfortunately, a representative of the Chilean Supreme Court came out and dismissed the ruling. “We must take into account the best interest of the girls and prevent their harm”, even though two lower courts had awarded custody to the mother, based on the favorable psychiatric reports.

• [Domingo]

  The original chilean Supreme Court ruling that was deemed discriminatory by the 
  Inter-American Court of Human Rights stated that the best interest of the girls was to live with their father, because:
  1- They could be socially discriminated by living with their mother. So the state, in order to shelter them from the evils of discrimination, must separate them from the mother.
  2- Their mother, by choosing to live with her partner, selfishly put her interests before those of the girls (one assumes, by dooming them to be discriminated), thus showing parental neglect.

  For real.

• [llazy8]

  Nobody ever asks if the kids are heterosexual.  They *must* be. 

• [AnthonyC]

  I had never heard of that Inter-American Court of Human Rights before. Is this ruling actually binding on the Chilean government/judicial system?