VIENNA, JUNE 24 – The Austrian Constitutional Court today ruled that discrimination against adult Austrian homosexual men compared to heterosexuals and lesbians regarding the minimum age of their partner is unconstitutional and gave legislators until February 2003 to amend the Criminal Code.
Currently, relationships between Austrian homosexual men over 19 and children under 18 are punishable, while for heterosexual adults and homosexual women, the minimum age of their partner must be at least 14. Today, the Constitutional Court suspended the validity of Article 209 of the Criminal Code, which discriminates against homosexual men based on the minimum age of their partner.
‘Austria remained the country with the strictest laws on homosexual relations between adult males and adolescents. In almost all European countries, the minimum age for homosexual or heterosexual relations is the same, although it varies from country to country. Thus, it ranges from 16 in Belgium, Finland, Great Britain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Portugal, to 15 in Denmark, France, Greece, and Sweden, 14 in Germany and Italy, and 12 in Spain.
In Ireland, however, the minimum age for traditional sexual intercourse is 15, but this rises to 17 if an adult wants to have anal intercourse with a teenage partner.
(HANDLE).
