A gay Namibian-Mexican couple won a part of their case at Namibia’s Supreme Court on Monday after the ruling that the government had discriminated against their residency application because one of the couple is foreign-born.
The court ordered the Home Affairs ministry to review Guillermo Delgado’s request for residency. He is in a couple with Phillip Lühl, a Namibian. In Namibia, same-sex marriages are not recognized, and same-sex relationships are considered illegal, but the law is not enforced in the southwestern African country. If a foreigner is married to a Namibian, permanent residency is automatically granted to foreigners. “It was a partial victory…We will have to see what the way forward is,” said the couple’s lawyer, Uno Katjipuka-Sibolile, referring to the Supreme Court ruling. She is not happy with the verdict, she told The Namibian newspaper.