Sat, 01 Oct 2011 15:28:42 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/ feed en https://www.gayrepublic.org/images/logo.gif https://www.gayrepublic.org/ info@gayrepublic.org https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2463&lead=1 (Nigeria) - The Nigerian parliament is once again dealing with a Bill prohibiting same sex marriage. This is the third attempt to pass such piece of legislation in Nigeria. We asked Davis Mac-Iyalla to provide us some more informations. Sat, 01 Oct 2011 15:28:42 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2462&lead=1 (Serbia) - The Serbian LGBT pride march Parada Ponosa, due to take place on Sunday in the capital, was banned today by the National Security Council. The Council announced it would forbid the pride march, as well as three far-right counter-protests that were planned tomorrow and Sunday. Sat, 01 Oct 2011 15:25:28 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2461&lead=1 (Russia) Gay and Lesbian Film Festival “Bok o Bok” which was supposed to take place in Saint Petersburg from today and last until Sunday finally did not open after Fire Department Inspectors closed the place due to problems with fire security. In a phone interview to Project GayRussia.Ru, Organiser of the festival Irina Sergeeva said that the clubs “The Place” and “Sochi” where the screenings of the films were supposed to take place, were closed due to fire security reasons. Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:56:40 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2460&lead=1 (USA) - As part of Bibi's outreach to our communities, Bibi|SF will be hosting talks on various issues affecting queer South West Asian, North Africans (aka Middle-Easterners). Its first engagement is with Arsham Parsi of the IRanian Queer Organization on Thursday, June 26 at the SF LGBT Center. Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:05:26 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2459&lead=1 (USA) - Gay human rights activists in San Francisco staged a speak out at the Russian consulate on May 16, in conjunction with IDAHO events around the planet. Before showing up at the consulate, the group sent emails to the staff explaining their reason for coming -- to press the government to grant parade permits to Moscow's Gay pride event. Thu, 22 May 2008 16:45:40 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2458&lead=1 (London) - Speaking at the London IDAHO event on 16 May, hosted by Amnesty International and the Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association, Peter Tatchell of the LGBT human rights group OutRage! challenged the UK asylum policy. Mon, 19 May 2008 20:25:07 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2457&lead=1 (EU) - Tomorrow the members of the European Parliament will debate and vote on a resolution “Progress made in equal opportunities and non-discrimination in the EU”. The resolution is based on a report produced by Elisabeth Lynne, MEP, and adopted by the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs on 17 April 2008. The draft resolution clearly urges the European Commission to stay committed to the Commission’s work plan for 2008 and to come out with a proposal for one ‘horizontal’ anti-discrimination directive covering all grounds of discrimination, including sexual orientation. Mon, 19 May 2008 20:13:08 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2456&lead=1 (Moldova) - On Sunday, participants in the 7th Moldovan Pride were precluded from marching peacefully in support of anti-discrimination legislation and tolerance in the centre of Chisinau. Police did not guarantee the right to freedom of assembly. Large aggressive coordinated groups, including extremist religious groups, members of the neo-fascist movement “New Right”, and legionnaires blocked the bus with participants, forced the door, violently hit the windows, and attempted to remove the engine, while shouting “lets get them out and beat them up”. Tue, 13 May 2008 19:40:50 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2455&lead=1 (EU) - ILGA-Europe and TransGender Europe published the first comprehensive report on the experiences of health care by Transgender people in European Union. This report is a result of the largest and most comprehensive data collection on transgender people's lived experienced to date. Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:34:37 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2454&lead=1 Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:36:25 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2453&lead=1 (EU) - Within the next couple of months, the fate of an EU directive protecting against discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, sexual orientation and religion/belief in all areas of life will be decided by the European Commission and the European Council. At the moment, there are signs that this directive will not include sexual orientation, age and religion/belief. ILGA-Europe is calling on everyone to join its campaign to ensure that a comprehensive new EU anti-discrimination directive which protects against discrimination on all grounds and in all areas of life is proposed and adopted. Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:32:54 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2452&lead=1 (UK) - The bus bearing the Olympic torch was today ambushed outside Selfridges department store in Oxford Street, London, by Gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of OutRage! Mr Tatchell ran in front of the bus carrying the Olympic flame. He held up a placard which read: "Free Tibet, Free Hu Jia." He shouted the same words as he ran along in front of the bus. The police wrestled Mr Tatchell to the ground, which delayed the bus briefly while he was removed to pavement. After questioning, he was later released without charge. Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:08:05 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2451&lead=1 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:06:09 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2450&lead=1 (Poland) - Gay Americans Brendan Fay and Tom Moulton found a media frenzy when they arrived at Warsaw airport yesterday for a three-day visit. The couple, who were married in Canada, hit the international headlines when their wedding image was used in Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s televised prime-time address to scare the Polish people against supporting the Lisbon Treaty, arrived to Warsaw for a three-day visit. The trip is sponsored by TVN Television. Their first day in Poland was an opportunity to meet with Polish Gay rights leaders Tomasz Szypula and Greg Czarnecki from the Campaign Against Homophobia (Kampania Przeciw Homofobii – KPH) as well as other members of the LGBT community. Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:06:27 +0200 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2449&lead=1 (USA) - As the head of the LGBT desk at the Human Rights Watch (HRW), Scott Long bears critical responsibilities for investigating human rights abuses and advocating greater freedoms for our community worldwide. That is estimable work, by any measure. One occupational hazard, however, of taking on a highly specialized charge on matters of such delicacy involving repressive and dangerous regimes is undoubtedly a compounding sense of proprietorship, a fatigued feeling that others "shouldn't mess with my turf, they should stay out of my bailiwick." On matters related to anti-Gay repression in Iran, dating back almost three years, Long seems to have fallen into that trap, indeed to have fallen quite far. Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:07:42 +0100 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2448&lead=1 (Croatia) - Josip Situm, 25, was detained by police for carrying the homemade bombs. He was charged soon after with planning to hurl the cocktails at the crowd. Although he denied the charges, insisting he decided after he arrived at the parade not to throw the bombs, Situm admitted that he disapproves of homosexuality because he is Roman Catholic. On 28 February, Situm became the first person in Croatia found guilty of a hate crime. He was convicted of endangering lives and property at the Pride parade and sentenced to 14 months in prison and psychiatric treatment. Situm’s conviction was a major victory for Croatia’s LGBT community, for whom street violence is nothing new. Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:57:19 +0100 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2447&lead=1 (UK) - The British Government is currently failing Gay refugees, Peter Tatchell told a rally in Whitehall, outside the Prime Minister’s official residence 10 Downing Street. Over 120 protesters braved hail and rain on Saturday to demand that Gay Iranian asylum seeker, Mehdi Kazemi, be granted refuge in the UK. They also urged asylum for the Iranian Lesbian refugee, Pegah Emambakhsh, and an estimated 12 other Gay Iranians who are at risk of deportation back to Tehran. There were calls for a “fundamental reform” of the way the Home Office treats LGBTI asylum applicants. “The British government had ordered Mr Kazemi to be deported back to Iran,” said protest speaker Peter Tatchell, spokesperson for the LGBTI human rights group OutRage!. Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:04:51 +0100 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2446&lead=1 Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:53:51 +0100 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2445&lead=1 (UK) - The British Government is coming under pressure from members of both houses of Parliament, mainly Liberal Democrats, to “come clean” about policies on who are deported to Iran – especially Gay men and women. At lunchtime at Prime Minister’s Question in the House of Commons, Greg Mulholland, the Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West, raised the matter, complaining about refugees being deported to Iran. Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:15:19 +0100 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2444&lead=1 (Poland) - A Gay man from the United States on Tuesday voiced outrage against Poland's President Lech Kaczynski for publicly using a video of his marriage to bash the EU's proposed charter of rights. Kaczynski used a prime-time televised address Monday to argue the EU's proposed Charter of Fundamental Rights, linked to the bloc's crucial reforming Lisbon Treaty, could allow homosexual marriage in Poland, a devoutly Catholic country. A video of the couple's marriage in Toronto, Canada was broadcast nationwide to illustrate Kaczynski's presidential address. Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:49:57 +0100 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2443&lead=1 (Germany) - A fluffy yellow bedspread is severely tucked around the hospital-style bed, there's a wheelchair-accessible shower and a token pot plant. At first glance, the Asta Nielsen Haus in Berlin looks like the average old people's home. But this is a pioneering facility - the first in Europe to cater exclusively for Gays and Lesbians. The idea of a Gay-only project for elderly people was first mooted at a "Gay and Grey" congress in Cologne in 1995. It reflects fears among Germany's first openly Gay generation about what will happen when they are too frail to care for themselves. "At the moment, most Gay and Lesbian residents keep themselves hidden. Imagine one Gay person in a home of 100 people. It can be lonely and isolating," says Christian Hamm, who is on the board of the organisation behind the care-home plan. Hamm and his associates are now drawing up plans for an assisted-care retirement centre for Gay people in another Berlin district. Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:00:00 +0100 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2442&lead=1 (UK) - The British government announced Thursday that it was ending efforts to deport Mehdi Kazemi, a 19-year-old Iranian who has been studying in Britain – a move that should be applauded by human rights activists everywhere. Had he been forced to return to Iran, Kazemi would almost certainly have been executed there. Roger Roberts, one of eight members of the House of Lords who petitioned British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to allow Kazemi to stay in Britain, declared: “There is no doubt that he will be persecuted and possibly face state-sanctioned murder if he is forced to return.” Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:31:44 +0100 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2440&lead=1 (USA) - A traveling exhibit from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum uses photographs, documents, and artwork to chronicle the Nazis' arrests and persecution of tens of thousands of Gay men from 1933 to 1945. The exhibit, on display through the end of the month at the University of Rhode Island, gives voice to what its curator describes as "one of the lesser-known stories of the Nazi era." The exhibit begins just before the Nazis rose to power, when an estimated 1.2 million Gay men lived in Germany and a Gay culture flourished in nightclubs and cafes. But after Adolf Hitler took power, the Nazis began closing Gay clubs, and in 1934 the Gestapo asked local police departments to compile lists of men believed to be Gay. A law known as Paragraph 175 that had previously prohibited "unnatural indecency" between men was reworked to dramatically expand the range of illegal behaviors. By 1938, even a perceived wayward glance or touch could be interpreted as criminal by the courts. Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:05:51 +0100 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2441&lead=1 (Canada) - The Canadian Refugee Board needs to establish clearer guidelines on sexual orientation to help adjudicators avoid stereotyping Gay and Lesbian refugees who have little proof they are Gay, say legal experts. Last week MP Thomas Mulcair exploded at hecklers in the Commons and later shed tears at a news conference after Immigration Minister Diane Finley refused to allow Canada's latest Gay refugee claimant Kulenthiran Amirthalingam stay in the country on compassionate grounds. He later told the Montreal Gazette that he had seen a disturbing video depicting the kind of brutal punishment Gay men receive in Malaysia, including strapping a naked man until raw flesh was exposed. Amirthalingam, who is now back in Malaysia where he spent time in jail for being Gay, was declared not credible by the one-adjudicator panel. He joined a growing list of refugee claimants who have been rejected because they can't prove they are Gay. Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:00:00 +0100 https://www.gayrepublic.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2439&lead=1 (UK) - George Galloway MP is accused of mouthing "the propaganda of the Iranian dictatorship" after he claimed on the Channel 5 TV talk show The Wright Stuff this morning that the boyfriend of Gay asylum seeker Mehdi Kazemi was executed for sex crimes (see full transcript below). The criticism comes from the Gay human rights group, OutRage!. Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:53:30 +0100