It appears that the Czech Republic is potentially on the brink of making some major changes in terms of LGBT rights in 2016.

Inspired by recent polls that showed that 49 percent of the Czech population supports same-sex marriage, the Friends of Prague Pride have launched a marriage equality campaign, #CzechMarriageEquality.

The campaign follows a groundbreaking regional court ruling – as noted in last week's Bay Area Reporter – that superseded the Czech government's policy and allows two gay men to have their names on their adopted sons' birth certificates and to have dual citizenship.

To understand what is happening in the Czech LGBT movement, the B.A.R. spoke with Czech gay activist Czeslaw Walek and gay attorney Petr Kalla.

As previously reported, Kalla successfully argued on behalf of San Francisco gay dads Jindra Vackar and Franck Marchis, who won the adoption case in November. He is currently awaiting rulings on two cases dealing with gay couples' surrogacy at the highest court of the Czech Republic and two cases at the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic. The cases at the constitutional court are also focused on the adoption ban in the Law on Registered Partnership and a second-parent adoption for a straight couple that could have an impact on same-sex adoption in the future, he wrote in an email interview.

Kalla, 39, is expecting a decision early this year. If the courts decide in his favor that will open the door for major change for an estimated 950 children of LGBT parents who currently are unprotected by the law, Kalla and Walek said.

Activists are focused on adoption rights in the legislature, where conservatives continue to block a bill to allow for second-parent adoption. Kalla and PROUD, a Czech LGBT organization, drafted the bill.

"Certainly the adoptions or the second-parent adoption are what we are talking about the loudest because you have quite a number of kids that are living in this legal limbo," said Walek, a 40-year old gay man who is the chair of Prague Pride, Eastern Europe's largest Pride event. "So, this is actually the most pressing."

"I, personally, would like to fight for same-sex marriage in the Czech Republic, but I have seen little chance for such a fight in the last years," wrote Kalla. "Therefore, I think that it was at least necessary to fight for LGBT family rights."

Kalla has observed that since the passage of civil unions in the Czech Republic, people's attitudes about same-sex relationships have changed toward acceptance and support in the Catholic country.

"Each small step can help us to get further," he added.

"I hope that the changes in LGBT family rights can enhance the legal situation of the existing families at least," Kalla wrote. "I feel like a benefit for the whole LGBT community when the rainbow families will be recognized by law instead of surviving in gray area."

Walek agreed.

"My personal opinion is that it would be much wiser to open everything to make marriage equality in our country. First of all because this is the right thing to do, but second of all it would also be the example for other Eastern European countries," he said.

Walek is currently working as a Fulbright scholar learning how to get Czech and transnational companies in the Eastern European country more involved in LGBT rights and working on a global platform at Out and Equal Workplace Advocates in San Francisco. He will return to the Czech Republic next month.

Walek believes the Czech Republic is poised to lead the way for former Soviet bloc countries in LGBT rights, starting with family laws and marriage equality and then workplace issues.

Due to joining the European Union in 2004, the Czech Republic has an anti-discrimination law that protects LGBT people. Civil unions were won in 2006, Walek said.

"In this sense the rights of LGBT people in the Czech Republic are more advanced than in other Eastern European countries," said Walek but "legally there are lots of loopholes that we need to work on."

"I think that the Czech Republic is the one that has the biggest potential to actually enact the legislation that would determine marriage equality," said Walek, noting that sodomy was decriminalized in 1961 and homosexuality was decriminalized in 1990, when the country was known as Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.

Slovakia warded off an attempt to strengthen its ban on same-sex marriage last February.

However, in spite of the nearly 50 percent favoring same-sex marriage, Czechs and politicians haven't been active in a marriage equality campaign.

When it comes to same-sex marriage and protecting LGBT families the challenge is apathy among Czech citizens and its government, as well as a small core of conservatives that block progress, said the gay activists.

That was until last month when Friends of Prague Pride announced the launch of an official movement for same-sex marriage.

"The problem is there's not an active campaign going on for marriage equality, but once it [is] started I think that the Czech Republic has a big potential to actually go for it and enact the legislation," Walek said.

Kalla agreed, noting the movement is in its infancy and needs support from the community in the way of manpower and funding.

"There was almost no discussion on same-sex marriage in the LGBT community in the Czech Republic," wrote Kalla, who pointed out that the general public – and even the LGBT community – doesn't understand the differences between civil union and marriage.

Walek, who is married to his Dutch husband, Willem van der Bas, 44, believes that winning marriage will solve many legal issues around family, estate planning, inheritance, and more for LGBT couples, including his own relationship. The couple's marriage isn't legally recognized in the Czech Republic.

Pemberton files appeal in homicide conviction

U.S. Marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton, who was convicted for the homicide of transgender Filipina Jennifer Laude last month, filed an appeal January 6.

As backup, Pemberton's American attorney, Rowena Garcia-Flores, also filed a separate motion to reduce her client's sentence if an acquittal isn't granted. She's taking the position that Pemberton didn't kill Laude.

Pemberton, 21, wasn't charged with murder because the court didn't determine that there were elements of murder, such as treachery and abuse of superior strength. Additionally, the court determined that there were two mitigating circumstances, passion and obfuscation, and intoxication.

Pemberton was sentenced to six to 12 years in jail December 1. In August, he admitted to strangling Laude after discovering she was transgender and leaving her in the bathroom of the Celzone Lodge in Olongapo City. He maintains that she was still alive when he left the hotel.

Pemberton was also ordered to pay Laude's family nearly $98,000 in civil damages

He is currently being held in a jail in the Philippines' military headquarters in Manila, reported Agence France-Presse.

Garcia-Flores told AFP that she's prepared to take the case to the Supreme Court of the Philippines if necessary.

Activists and Laude's family, who were already not satisfied with the outcome of the trial, are concerned.

"If we allow Pemberton's conviction to be reversed or reduce his sentence, this will send a wrong message to U.S. soldiers: That they can commit crimes and get away with it," activist Renato Reyes told ABC News.

Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at 00+1-415-221-3541, Skype: heather.cassell, or oitwnews@gmail.com.