(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. Read more...
(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. Read more...
(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”. Read more...
(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. Read more...
(EU) - The Mayors of Riga in Latvia and Tallinn in Estonia have declined to take part in a campaign affirming freedom of assembly and expression for LGBT people in Europe. The Europe branch of the International Gay and Lesbian Association wanted the leaders of those cities to join 19 others in Europe and declare their support for their initiative. The Mayors of Paris, Nicosia, Amsterdam, Winterthur, London, Stockholm, Cologne, Barcelona, Venice, Vienna, Bologna, Manchester, Copenhagen, Budapest, Ljubljana, Zürich, Berlin, Dublin and Luxembourg have all pledged their support.
Note: Read more on Pink News
(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.
Note: Read more on AFP
(USA) - Oklahoma House representative Sally Kern is under fire after an audio recording was leaked of her comparing gays to terrorists and telling fellow Republicans the "homosexual agenda is destroying this nation." The recording and accompanying YouTube video have sparked outrage from many, but Kern defends her words, telling the press: "What I'm saying, I believe in." The YouTube video posted this weekend by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund featured Kern speaking out against gays to a group of Republicans who had invited her to express her views about homosexuality. In the speech, given privately to a group of about 50 Republicans, Kern says homosexuality, "according to God's word, that is not the right kind of lifestyle. It has deadly consequences for those people involved in it." Although she claims she is "not Gay-bashing," Kern continues by saying Gays "have more suicides… there's more illness, their life spans are shorter… studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades."
Note: Read more on Gay Wired
(USA) - Some 50 activists, including members of the Radical Homosexual Agenda, picketed the Human Rights Campaign's annual Midtown Manhattan dinner Feb. 23, Gay City News reported. They were upset over HRC's support for a version of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act that omits protections for transgender people. The bill has passed the House of Representatives and awaits action in the Senate. The dinner also apparently was boycotted by every GLB elected official in New York City and many other prominent Democratic officials, GCN said. Many of the protesters carried pink signs in the shape of a hand flipping off HRC while others banged on drums. They chanted: "What do we want? Liberation. ***** that assimilation."
Note: Read more on Pride Source
(Russia) - Russian Gay group "LGBT Rights" reports that it organized a flash-mob on February 23 (the 'Army Day' celebrated in the Russian Federation.) The participants marched through the Arbat street, waving rainbow flags and shouting 'Woman is a soldier, too! Equality knows no borders!' along with patriotic slogans. The action was apparently an attempt to confront the 'ordinary Russians' with homosexuality and transport a positive message to the fellow citizens without provoking a hostile response. Read more...
(Israel) - The recent earthquake that was felt across Israel was the result of the "homosexual activity practiced in the country", Knesset Member Shlomo Benizri said Wednesday. During a special Knesset session on Israel's preparedness for the possibility of another earthquake hitting the region, the Shas member said "the Gemara refers to earthquakes as disasters, but you are searching only for the practical solutions how to prevent and repair. "But I no of another way to prevent earthquakes; the Gemara mentions a number of causes of earthquakes, one of which is homosexuality, which the Knesset legitimizes," Benizri said. Last month fellow Shas member Nissim Ze'ev stirred controversy when he referred to the local Gay movement as a "plague that could destroy Jewish Israel," adding that it should be treated "just as the Health Ministry dealt with the bird flu epidemic."
Note: Read more on Y-Net
(Senegal) - Police in Senegal fired tear gas to disperse anti-homosexual demonstrators outside Dakar's main mosque on Friday after the publication of photos from a Gay wedding in the mostly Muslim nation. "We want homosexuals to be wiped out in this country. We will continue to fight for Senegal to become a Muslim nation," said Cheikh Tidiane Ndiaye. Piles of rubbish were set ablaze in several blocks around the mosque and groups of youths shouting "We don't want homosexuals" barricaded roads. The protest was called after police released a group of men held for questioning following the publication of the photos. Local authorities had granted permission for the protest but later changed their minds and ordered police to break it up.
Note: Read more on Reuters
(Russia) - Organisers of Moscow Gay Pride have today sent the case that their human rights were breached when the Mayor of Moscow banned the Pride march last May to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. It is the second application to the Court from Gay Pride organisers in Moscow – a similar case following the 2006 ban is awaiting a hearing. Organisers of Pride claim that the Russian Federation, which signed the European Convention on Human Rights when it joined the Council of Europe following the demise of the Soviet Union, breached their rights enshrined in the European Convention. They are claiming compensation of 36 million roubles (£740,000, €1 million or $1.5 million).
Note: Read more on UK Gay News>
(UK) - Brian Paddick is enjoying running for Mayor of London. The Liberal Democrat candidate may be a distant third in opinion polls, but he has one distinct advantage in this race – lots of people know who he is. The 2008 Mayoral election is already the most exciting contest since the post was established at the turn of the century. Incumbent Ken Livingstone is facing a concerted (some would say co-ordinated) barrage of negative press on everything from cronyism to his alcohol intake.
Note: Pink News
(UK) - An advert for a Christian lobbying group has been criticised by the UK's advertising watchdog for showing a family with the slogan "Gay aim: abolish the family". The group claimed that "the campaigners who sought same-sex marriage did not do so simply to achieve the same domestic situation that was available to heterosexuals but also because they aimed to redefine and abolish the traditional family." CCTV referred to the 1971 Gay Liberation Front Manifesto documents which described the traditional family unit (husband, wife and children) as working against homosexuality, and which stated: "We must aim at the abolition of the family."
Note: Read more on In the News
(USA) - Hundreds of same-sex couples from throughout Oregon braved snowy mountain passes and rainy Portland streets to protest a court ordered delay in implementing the state's domestic partnership law. The law was to have gone into effect on New Year's Day, but on December 28 a federal judge placed on hold on the law (story) until a hearing is held on the constitutionality of the legislation. That hearing will take place on Friday. A conservative group went to court after the Oregon secretary of state's office ruled in October that it had failed to collect enough valid signatures on a referendum to block the law. The Alliance Defense Fund, which opposes the measure, argued that the state's review process was flawed, disenfranchising citizens who had signed petitions.
Note: Read more on 365Gay.com
(USA) - I cannot support any of the candidates thus far running for president because none of them supports me and my people in the ways we need to be supported. This is not just about Gay marriage, which has become a nonspecific red herring for non-specific maybes. (Why do you hate us so that you will not permit us to legally love?) Of course we want Gay marriage, but that is not all we want. We want safety. (We are the only people in America that it is socially and legally acceptable to hate and discriminate against.) We want no more taxation without representation. (When I die, our government gobbles such an unconscionable amount of my estate that my partner will no longer be able to afford the house we both have put so much of our money and energy into.)
Note: Read more on The New Republic
(Israel) - When thousands march and openly declare what society teaches us to hide, they convey a clear message to every Lesbian girl still in the closet and to every homosexual forced to marry a woman: You are not alone; you are part of a community that would support you and safeguard your rights. The demand to prevent the Gay pride parade from taking place in Jerusalem for “religious reasons” is cynical and hypocritical. Who’s next? Will the Ethiopian community be banned from protesting in Jerusalem because the Chief Rabbinate does not recognize them as kosher Jews? Will intermarried couples be banned from protesting in the capital because intermarriage contradicts Jewish law? Will Arab Israelis be banned from marching in Jerusalem to spare the feelings of racists? The Gay pride parade is our way to declare our right to exist and protest in favor of equal rights. Therefore, this year we will hold a Gay pride parade in Haifa as well. This is why the bill to ban the Gay pride parade must be resisted.
Note: Read more on YNetNews.com
(Israel) - Members of Hadash party's "Red-Pink Patrol" hung placards overnight Tuesday on the homes of Knesset members Eli Gabbay (National Union-NR) and Nissim Zeev (Shas) in protest of a proposal banning Gay pride parades in Jerusalem. "In this house lives an MK who is trying to outlaw the citizens' right to march and protest on the streets of Jerusalem," one of the posters read. "This anti-democratic bill is targeting not only the homosexual, lesbian, transgender and bisexual communities, but also human and civil rights in general."
The proposed amendment to Basic Law: Jerusalem, would enable the Jerusalem Municipal Council to ban Gay parades and rallies for considerations of disturbance to public order, offending the public's sensitivities or for religious considerations.
Note: Read more on Y Net News
(USA) - The impromptu debate, over light beers and dirty martinis, was at once mundane and remarkable. Provoked by a reporter, four middle-aged men at a Greenwich Village Gay bar made fiery pitches for the Democratic presidential front-runners. Two backed Senator Barack Obama, one argued for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the fourth made an emotional plea for the cause of John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina. What was notable about the exchange last week was what was not mentioned: the word 'Gay.'
Note: Read more on NY Times
(Australia) - Several hundred people have attended a rally in inner Sydney to express their concern about violent attacks on the Gay and Lesbian community. There have recently been a number of attacks along Oxford Street and other parts of Darlinghurst. Rally organiser Ben Veenkamp welcomed the support of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore and Councillor Shayne Mallard, but says more needs to be done. "We've heard all these proposition already over the last two years. What we need to see is results," he said.
Note: Read more on ABC
(USA) - Homosexuality was in the closet in King’s day so it’s hard to know for certain. There are, however, a few clues as to what his personal views might have been. Perhaps the most relevant is that his widow, Coretta Scott King, often said that he clearly was supportive of Gay rights. The most famous Gay person among King’s advisors was Bayard Rustin. He was a consummate organizer and the driving force behind the 1963 march on Washington. He was also openly Gay and had once been jailed on a ‘‘morals’’ charge, which meant that he had been accused of having a male lover. Against tremendous pressure, King stood by him to the very end.
Note: Read more on South of Boston
(Turkey) - A unique play in an Ankara theatre ended with a standing ovation this week as the little-known actors -- Transsexuals and Gays raising their voice against discrimination -- fought back their tears on stage. Their play, "Pink And Grey," put the spotlight on the plight of Transsexuals in mainly Muslim Turkey, in the latest initiative of a fledgling but increasingly vocal movement for rights by a community long ostracized and often harassed. Activists say police abuse declined in recent years as the Gay and Transgender movement became organised and Turkey's bid to join the European Union made human rights a priority issue. "Before, the police used violence -- now they only fine us," said Buse Kilickaya, the head of Pembe Hayat, or Pink Life, a newly-founded association that advocates transgender rights and sponsored "Pink and Grey."
Note: Read more on AFP
(UK) - Peter Tatchell is Britain hardest, smartest Gay rights warrior – the man we set on the homophobes when we’ve had enough. In his time, he has hijacked the Archbishop of Canterbury’s pulpit, performed a citizens’ arrest on homo-cidal Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, and – just this year – been beaten unconscious by the Russian police. It seems that for him, suffering anywhere is an issue. He is the human rights movement made flesh. So to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of his Gay rights campaigning, Attitude trudged down to the Tatch’s tiny council flat, which is buried on a concrete council estate in Lambeth. The sacrifices he has made to fight for us are immediately clear. His front door is marked with a ‘Warning: this property is guarded 24 hours a day by the police sign’ after a string of homophobic hate attacks and death threats. His windows are covered with steel bars.
Note: Read more on Johanhari.com
(USA) - Mike Huckabee was condemned by 'Truth Wins Out' for comments to BeliefNet that compared homosexuality to bestiality. Huckabee showed a lack of character, by pandering to the lowest common denominator in his quest to win the South Carolina primary, according to 'Truth Wins Out'. Read more...
(Iran) - Amnesty International has issued a highly critical report highlighting the despicable practice of execution by stoning carried out by the Iranian regime. The Islamic Republic of Iran has been in the headlines for its controversial nuclear weapons programme and state sponsorship of international terrorism. While the report focuses on the practice of stoning, Amnesty International has taken the Iranian regime to task for a wide range of human rights abuses including hanging people for being Gay and torturing children.
Note: Read more on News Blaze
(Russia) - The 13 Gay activists arrested in a Moscow polling station on December 2 during the Russian state Dumas election for “protest voting”, were acquitted today by a judge. The 13, including Moscow Gay Pride organisers Nikolai Alekseev, Nikolai Baev and Alexey Davydov, were among more that two dozen activists who went to vote in polling station 165, where the homophobic mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov votes, to protest against the whole electoral process and homophobic position of all political parties. Court observed that activists did not have any agitation materials with them, they did not demand anything from the authorities by using placards. Court concluded that there was no picketing held in the meaning of Russian law on public meetings which means that persons detained did not conduct an illegal public gathering.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News
(Gibraltar) - Equality Rights Group GGR has taken the issues of Gibraltar’s unequal age of consent and discriminatory sexual offences legislation to the Council of Ministers of the Council of Europe. This is the highest possible level of the European body responsible for overseeing Human Rights. GGR chairman Felix Alvarez said today that the question which has been tabled directs itself to the United Kingdom’s responsibility regarding the Gibraltar Government’s failure to respect human rights standards not only in regard of unequal age of consent but across criminal offences such as ‘buggery’ and ‘gross indecency’ which exclusively criminalise Gay men.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News
(USA) - Gay supporters of Barack Obama's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination began voter outreach in the Castro last weekend in an effort to drum up support in advance of the state's February 5 primary. Obama, who trails Senator Hillary Clinton in several recent statewide polls, nonetheless has been closing the gap, and is in a tight race with Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, where voters soon will cast ballots in the caucuses and primary, respectively. Obama came under heavy criticism from many in the LGBT community because McClurkin has proclaimed himself "cured" of homosexuality and now rails against it. In an essay that Obama wrote for members of the National Gay Newspaper Guild, he discussed the McClurkin episode and reiterated his support of the LGBT community.
Note: Read more opn BayAreaReporter
(UK) - Peter Tatchell celebrated his fortieth year of campaigning on 10th December, Human Rights Day. The Australian-born activist began campaigning for human rights, democracy and global justice in 1967, aged 15. Now, at 55, his eyes still have the vividness and energy of a teenager, and he has no intention to retire, because, he says, there is still much work to do. Speaking in his home in South London, surrounded by hundreds of documents on human rights issues, books and magazines about LGBT rights, and satirical posters of religious leaders, he talks about his long career and his many experiences.
Note: Read more on Pink News
(USA) - Perhaps, if the largest newspaper in Little Rock were called the Arkansas Republican-Gazette instead of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Mike "Huck-a-Bible" might have bothered to read the news. America was shocked to learn that the rising GOP political star was blissfully unaware of the National Intelligence Estimate that found Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003. This debacle was followed by news of an Associated Press questionnaire Huckabee completed in his failed 1992 U.S. Senate bid, where he called for the quarantine of AIDS patients and referred to homosexuality as "an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle" that could "pose a dangerous public health risk."
Note: Read more on Wayne Besen
(Brazil) - Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced last week that he will convene the first-ever national LGBT conference in South America's largest country. The conference, which will have the theme "Human Rights and Public Politics: The Way to Guarantee Citizenship to Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals," will take place next May 9-11 and include 18 private organizations and 16 government agencies. "There are countries with more advanced legislation and policies, but this will be the first time that a federal government convenes a complete conference," said Brazilian gay rights activist Julian Rodrigues.
Note: Read more on Gay News Watch
(Botswana) - Attorney Duma Boko, has slapped the Attorney General, Athaliah Molokomme with a notice of intention to sue the department of civil and national registration following its decision not to register the society of Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals (LEGABIBO). Through a letter two months ago, it was revealed that the registrar of societies dismissed an application seeking to register the organisation. The letter further revealed that the rejected application was made by the Botswana Network On Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) on behalf of LEGABIBO and filed with the registrar of societies on September 27 last year. LEGABIBO stated that the organisation's objective is 'to integrate a legal, ethical and human rights dimension into the sexual, reproductive and health rights without discrimination'.
Note: Read more on AllAfrica
(Australia) - Attorney-General Robert McClelland hopes to reach a consensus with the Liberal Opposition on removing discrimination against Gays and Lesbians from all commonwealth legislation. And he will meet his ACT counterpart, Simon Corbell, tomorrow to discuss the Gay civil union laws being promised by the ACT Government, and will ask the territory for co-operation in developing a national standard on civil partnerships. Mr McClelland said he wanted to reach a bipartisan position on removing all discrimination against Gays, after Liberal leader Brendan Nelson indicated he wished to change his party's position on the issue.
Note: Read more on Australian News
(USA) - The Philadelphia chapter of the Boy Scouts of America ignored today's deadline, set by City Solicitor Romulo L. Diaz Jr., to publicly renounce its membership ban against people who are Gay or atheists if the organization wishes to remain in its landmark headquarters on city-owned land. The scouts have been on notice for seven months that they will be evicted on May 31 if they do not drop the policies.
Note: Read more on philly.com
(Russia) - Nikolai Alekseev and 12 fellow Gays and Lesbians have been arrested this morning at 10am in Moscow while they attempted to vote at the "District Electoral Commission N° 165". They came to the place at 9.30 am. Yuri Luzhkov, mayor of Moscow who banned the last 2 gays prides, was planning to vote in the same place later in the day. Representatives of Gayrussia.ru reported that the police ‘suddenly broke into the place and took all the activists who were quietly voting.’ However, Lenta.ru reported that Nikolai Alekseev was arrested when he wrote ‘No to homophobes, no to Luzhkov’ on his ballot paper and started to demonstrate the bulletin to journalists. In Putin’s ‘guided democracy,’ spoiling the ballot papers is a silent form of protest by many: opposition leader Garry Kasparov has been reported writing ‘Another Russia’ over his ballot paper. Read more...
New rules passed by the city council in Vilnius will effectively outlaw gay marches and other events, according to Lithuanian gay rights advocates.
Amendments to the public order and cleanliness regulations mean that the police or a special commission will be able to ban any event where they think a riot might occur.
The Lithuanian Gay League is attempting to appeal this decision in court.
Note: Read more at Pink News
(Poland) - Gay activists in Poland have spoken of their dismay that the country's newly-elected government are to continue the policy of opposition to the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights. Before coming to power earlier this month Donald Tusk had signalled he would sign up to the charter, which broadly mirrors the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. Former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski of the Law and Justice party had claimed that Poland was "culturally different" from their EU partners, especially when it came to the rights of LGBT people and the use of the death penalty, and refused to sign up.
Note: Read more on Pink News
(Uganda) - East African Gay people came in peace to CHOGM to speak and were met by violent police officers. Ugandan and Kenyan Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) speakers scheduled to give their addresses at the CHOGM Speaker’s Corner in Uganda today left after facing violence from the police and waiting for seven hours to be given entrance to the People’s Space. The People’s Space was designed „to provide opportunities to share in the diversity and richness of the Commonwealth people” and was specifically designated as a space open to all people. It was intended to give people „renewed energy to facilitate social change with a clear sense of building the future together.” The discrimination and violence carried out by police at the People’s Space today is an affront to basic human rights in Uganda. Read more...
(Uganda) - People advocating for the rights of homosexuals and those against the practice are using the People's Space at Hotel Africana in Kampala to air out their views. Drama ensued on Thursday when the Catholic and Anglican clergymen, who were condemning Gays, sat next to pro-Gay people who were watching a film on homosexuality. The film, which attracted several youth, showcased the various countries which have embraced Gays, particularly Egypt. As homosexuals and lesbians gave testimonies on how they were attracted to each other in the movie, the clergy were addressing a press conference to express their disappointment at Commonwealth member-states that were advocating for Gay rights.
Note: Read more on New Vision
(Australia) - Prime Minister John Howard's Liberal government suffered a crushing defeat to the opposition Labor Party led by Kevin Rudd on Saturday. Howard's ouster ended 11 years leading Australia with most Australian's seeing him as "yesterday's man". The vote ends longstanding disagreements between Howard's Liberals and Australia's Gay community over recognizing same-sex relationships. How much more Gay friendly a Labor government will be has yet to be determined. Rudd is opposed to same-sex marriage, but on the campaign trail said that if Labor formed the next government it would implement most of the recommendations of the federal Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. The Greens, with its openly Gay leader Bob Brown, was the only party to support Gay marriage, but failed to win any seats in Parliament.
Note: Read more on 365Gay.com
(Uganda) - The Commonwealth People’s Forum has proposed that the rights of minorities, including Gays and Lesbians, be recognised. In the memorandum issued yesterday at the end of the five-day event held at Hotel Africana in Kampala, the members also advocated for the recognition of rights of persons with disabilities and refugees. Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda and many African countries. The chairman of the Peoples’ Forum, Warren Nyamugasira, handed the memorandum to Glenda Morean, the High Commissioner of Trinidad and Tobago to the UK, for submission to the Commonwealth summit (CHOGM). Queen Elizabeth II will open the meeting at the Serena Hotel today. The next CHOGM will take place at the Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago.
Note: Read more on New Vision
(USA) - HRC is giving Wal-Mart (WMT) a red "do not buy" rating in its new consumer guide, bestowing a lump of coal on the retail giant just in time for the holiday shopping season. Citing Wal-Mart's refusal to offer domestic partner benefits to its Gay and Lesbian workers, the HRC said Tuesday that the USA's biggest private employer has "more work to do in furthering equality." It advised Gays and their supporters to shop elsewhere. Wal-Mart rated a red 40 on a scale of 100, down from a yellow 65 in 2006. It was among 54 companies that scored 45 or lower in HRC's 2008 Corporate Equality index, which assigns ratings to 519 large companies. Also in the red: Toys R Us, RadioShack (RSH) and AutoZone (AZO).
Note: Read more on USA Today
(Poland) - This year’s traditional Equality March in Poznan took place on 17 November. The march started at Adam Mickiewicz Square in the center of Poznan. Right before the march the organizers received the Grizzly Award 2006 "for pioneering efforts for homo culture and solidarity in the face of exceptionally ferocious homophobia and for carrying out the successful festival in the face of threats and shadows of last year's violence". The award was handed over by Bill Schiller, the president of International Les Gay Cultural Network. Read more...
(Latvia) - A Latvian government minister and the owner of a widely-circulated newspaper have both praised the work of the New Generation Church and Watchmen on the Walls in the campaign against Gay men and women. They were both speaking at the Watchmen on the Walls conference which concluded today. Praising the conference was the Latvian government’s Minister of Transport and Communications, Einars Shlessers. “We now stand at the precipice,” Mr. Shlessers said tpld delegates. “We must decide what to do and what will determine our future and the future of our countries.” He went on to praise the New Generation Church, saying it was “very good” that the church was holding such a conference.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News
(US) - Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has urged the legislature to immediately approve "appropriate legislation" reinstating the state's hate crime protections for Gays after the Commonwealth Court in a split decision ruled the measure illegal on a technicality. In a 4-1 ruling the court said that the law, passed in 2002, was invalid because it had been tacked onto another nonrelated bill.
Note: Read more on 365Gay.com
(UK) - Mr Paddick, the former deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and Britain's most senior openly Gay copper, is undoubtedly the fittest of the three mayoral candidates. Mr Paddick became London's most famous policeman when he pioneered a softly-softly approach to cannabis on the streets of Brixton - people were prosecuted for dealing crack cocaine but not for smoking dope. Mr Paddick is in a long-term relationship now but he said that he struggled for years to come to terms with the idea of being Gay. He was married for five years in the 1980s. "I knew before I was married that I was Gay, but my wife didn't know," he said. "It was a genuine attempt by me to enter honestly into a marriage where I felt that I could overcome my sexuality. Life's a lot easier if you're straight."
Note: Read more on Telegraph
(Nicaragua) - Consensual Gay sex will no longer be a criminal offence in Nicaragua under a new civil code due to come into effect on March 2008. The surprise news was announced earlier this week by the Nicaraguan National Assembly, reports La Prensa. Under old legislation passed in 1992, "anyone who induces, promotes, propagandises or practices sexual intercourse between persons of the same sex commits the crime of sodomy and shall incur one to three years' imprisonment." Nicaragua's new code removes all reference to this, reflecting changing social mores in a country which Amnesty International targeted this year for contradicting numerous provisions in international human rights law.
Note: Read more on Pink News
(Latvia) - The Senate of the Supreme Court of Latvia has today upheld the April ruling of a lower court that the ban on Riga Gay Pride in 2006 by the city authorities was unlawful. On April 12 this year, the Regional Administrative Court ruled the ban unlawful, but Riga City Council appealed the decision. A spokesperson for Mozaika, the country’s LGBT group, said that it was fortunate that the City Council appealed the Administrative Court decision and went to the Supreme Court.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News
(UAR) - NYU's plans for a campus in the United Arab Emirates call for building a mini-NYU in the gulf state. On the self-contained campus, located in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, NYU public safety officers would enforce order, NYU professors would teach classes in English and degrees would be stamped with NYU's name. But students who step off campus would find one sharp difference between NYU in Abu Dhabi and NYU in New York: In Abu Dhabi, homosexual acts are illegal. Now, a month after administrators announced plans for the university's first full-fledged satellite campus, some students have raised questions about the partnership, saying it is at odds with NYU's support for rights for lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender students.
Note: Read more on nyunews.com
(UK) - Brian Paddick, the former deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, today pledged to bring about a "dramatic" effect on crime and disorder if elected as London mayor. Paddick, 49, was the highest-ranking openly Gay officer in the Metropolitan police before he retired in May. A London-born Oxford graduate who worked his way up through the ranks, he was a sergeant on the front line in the Brixton riots of 1981 and returned to the area when he became the Met's commander in Lambeth in 2000. His critics dubbed him "Commander Crackpot" after he ordered officers in Brixton not to arrest or charge people found in possession of cannabis - three years before the government downgraded the drug from class B to class C.
Note: Read more on Guardian
(UK) - Glasgow will host the 2014 Commonwealth Games - Scotland's largest city beat a bid from the Nigerian city of Abuja by 47 votes to 24 at a meeting of the Games voting nations in Sri Lanka. Gay activists in Nigeria had questioned whether that country should be allowed to host the Games because of its "systematic persecution of Lesbian and Gay Nigerians." In August a delegation led by Davis Mac-Iyalla, founder and leader of the Gay Christian group, Changing Attitude Nigeria, met with the chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) in London to put their case.
Note: Read more on Gay NZ
(Ireland) - Over 200 people turned up at a candlit vigil last night outside the Irish Dáil to protest at the lack of equality for same sex couples in this country. The event was organised by the LGBT section of the Labour Party, who re-introduced a Civil Unions Bill in the Dáil last week. The Labour Bill, which sought to introduce a form of civil partnership for same sex couples that provided equal rights and responsibilities to married couples, was voted down by 66 votes to 59 followiing an argument that it was unconstitutional. Instead the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Brian Lenehan set a deadline of March 31st for the heads of the Government’s own Bill to be introduced.
Note: Read more on GCN
(Russia) - An appeal by the organisers of this year’s Moscow Gay Pride was dismissed today. The Moscow City Court threw out the appeal, ruling that the decision of the lower Taganski district court that the ban by Moscow authorities on pickets as part of May’s Moscow Pride was lawful. Two pickets in support for tolerance and respect of the rights and freedoms of homosexual people in Russia were offered by the organisers of the Gay pride as an alternative to the march on the same day which was banned by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
Note: Read more on Gay Russia
(USA) - The United States House of Representatives, in a 235 -184 vote in the early evening of November 7, passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which provides federal protection barring workplace bias against Gays and Lesbians. The vote marked the first time that either house of Congress has approved a Gay rights measure, and came 32 years after the first Gay civil rights measure, more comprehensive than ENDA, was introduced by the late Bella Abzug, then a congresswoman from Manhattan's West Side. Despite the historic nature of Wednesday's vote, the victory is likely not to calm the deep divisions that emerged within the LGBT community in the preceding six weeks. Many will judge the win Pyrrhic, at best, perhaps even a setback in the longer term.
Note: Read more on GayCityNews
(Grenada) - Claims that Grenada is on the itinerary for all Gay cruises in December 2007 and early 2008 have caused major stir within the past week. Many have commented on the issue and it has sparked a number of debates across the country. While many have expressed concern and in some instances disgust at the idea that at least four all-Gay cruises are scheduled for Grenada, some believe what’s important is "not their sexual orientation but their behaviour while in the street." The Tourism Minister says her government and the laws of the land do not support Gay activities; and it is a matter of "where the line is drawn" since Gays cannot be stopped from entering the country. “As a government our policy is that we do not support it, but are we going to put a barrier that says in any port of entry that if somebody is Gay they should be debarred from coming to this country.. This is my question, what does the Grenadian community want of us.”
Note: Read more on CBN
(USA) - Breaking its month-long posture of nuanced neutrality, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) today endorsed the revised version of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act that provides protections for US Gays and Lesbians but does not include language barring bias based on gender identity and expression. The group's new position was announced in tandem with a number of leading civil rights and labor organizations outside of the LGBT community. In a mid-day interview with Gay City News, Joe Solmonese, HRC's executive director, said the group shifted its position in the wake of action Monday evening by the House Rules Committee to move the measure forward for a floor vote, now scheduled for Wednesday.
Note: Read more on Gay City News
(Thailand) - Gay activists have launched a protest against American International Assurance for unfair discrimination based on sexual preference. AIA executives said the company had no explicit policies against homosexual clients, but reserved the right to consider applications based on risk factors related to ''personal lifestyle''. Natee Teerarojjanapong, the president of the Gay Political Group of Thailand, said his application to purchase life insurance from AIA, the country's largest insurer, had been rejected solely because of his sexual orientation. He said this was a clear violation of Section 30 of the 2007 constitution, which outlaws discrimination on the basis of race, language, sex or health.
Note: Read more on Bangkokpost
(USA) - Not surprisingly, at the Oct. 28 gospel show, a fired-up McClurkin told a cheering audience, "I don't speak against the homosexual. I tell you that God delivered me from homosexuality." Afterward, Obama continued trying to distance himself from McClurkin's views. But the reality is that he gave McClurkin a stage, a microphone, an audience and national media attention. And Obama inadvertently ended up reinforcing two myths unfortunately believed by many religious African-Americans -- that Gays are white and being Gay is sinful. Rod McCullom, a popular black gay writer and longtime Obama fan, said the fiasco makes him wonder how hard Obama would push for gay equality as president. "He folded like a deck of cards. If he is going to fold on the campaign trail, why would we not think he'd fold in the Oval Office?"
Note: Read more on detnews.com
(USA) - The controversy over what Mother Jones magazine called Senator Barack Obama's "pander-to-black-hatred tour" featuring homophobic "ex-Gay" preacher-singer Donnie McClurkin continued this past week. An Obama gospel concert was held on Sunday, October 28, in Columbia, South Carolina as the final stage in what the presidential candidate billed as a "Forty Days of Faith and Family" tour of the Palmetto State. A September poll conducted by Winthrop University and ETV showed that 74 percent of South Carolina African Americans believe homosexuality is "unacceptable."
Note: Read more on Gay City News
(Uganda) - Members of Ugandan Parliament have asked the government to use the Chogm summit to speak out against homosexuality. In a separate interview, Kawempe South MP, Ssebuliba Mutumba said, "We call for seriousness on the part of the government to check homosexuality because it's illegal and a taboo." He said action was needed urgently because gays were increasingly becoming visible and this may lead to "a morally corrupted society."The Minister of Ethics and Integrity, Dr. James Nsaba Buturo, told Daily Monitor that a new law would be tabled soon. "As soon as Parliament resumes, we shall table a tough law. The government is doing everything possible to stamp out homosexuality."
Note: Read more on Monitor
(Lithuania) - Delegates of ILGA-Europe annual conference experience first-hand discrimination and resistance in Vilnius, but are united and determined to work together for Europe of equality and respect. Over the weekend, almost 200 delegates from all over Europe gathered in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius for the 11th ILGA-Europe’s Annual Conference. While the public event to display rainbow flag during the conference was banned by the Mayor of Vilnius and there was a demonstration against the conference, the delegates are determined to fight prejudice, discrimination and injustice. Read more...
(Uganda) - A Uganda chapter of International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) has been launched in Uganda following a successful meeting attended by over 100 gay men and women, transgender people, human rights activists and other supporters. “Never before has there been such a far reaching well organised and professional gay public debate in this country,” said Pastor Kiyimba Yususf Brown who is the country coordinator for IDAHO. Among the organisations which were represented were “Open Door Counselling Ministries, Spectrum-Uganda, Queer Youth Uganda, Ice Breakers, Uganda Youth Health, Breaking the Silence and MUSLA”. Among the participants who addressed the conference was East Africa ILGA representative, Sam Ganafa.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News
(USA) - Reps. Tim Walz (Minn.) and Ron Klein (Fla.), leaders of the class of freshman Democrats, carried a message to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday that their fellow first-term lawmakers did not want to vote on an amendment extending civil rights to Transgender employees. House Education and Labor panel Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), whose committee passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, said he told the freshman lawmakers at their Wednesday breakfast with Pelosi that the amendment did not have the votes to pass and would not be brought to the House floor. In addition, Miller told the freshmen he recognized that the amendment "exposed the first-term lawmakers to political attacks from conservatives and liberals alike", said two sources who attended the breakfast.
Note: Read more on The Hill
(USA) - In response to an uproar from Gay activists, Democrat Barack Obama's presidential campaign on Thursday added a Gay minister to the lineup for its weekend gospel tour. Gay activists had criticized Obama's "Embrace the Change" tour in South Carolina because the performers included homophobic gospel singer Donnie McClurkin. Obama's campaign invited Rev. Andy Sidden, a South Carolina pastor who is openly Gay, to appear on Sunday in Columbia.
Note: Read more on PagePneQ
(USA) - Senator Barack Obama has enrolled a trio of notorious anti-Gay bigots to campaign for him in the South - and when a blogosphere firestorm erupted over the move, Obama compounded his betrayal of the Gay community by refusing to dump the homohaters. This past weekend, the Illinois Democratic senator's presidential campaign announced a three-day, gospel music campaign tour through South Carolina it billed as "Embrace the Courage" featuring four singers - Reverend Donnie McClurkin, Mary Mary (a sister act duo), and Reverend Hezekiah Walker, all prominent in the gospel world. McClurkin, an evangelical minister and a Grammy Award-winner, has told the Washington Post that he's in "a war" against what he calls "the curse of homosexuality." Moreover, McClurkin is the poster boy for the African-American "ex-Gay" movement. He claims that he became homosexual after having been molested by relatives when he was eight and 13, but was "cured" by religion.
Note: Read more on Gay City News
(USA) - The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club and the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance - Washington’s two most influential local Gay political groups - broke ranks with many of their fellow GLBT groups in states throughout the country by declining to ask Congress to vote against an employment non-discrimination bill that does not include protection for transgender persons. Leaders of more than 300 US Gay rights organizations have signed a statement asking Congress not to support any version of ENDA that doesn’t include trans protections. Officials with some of the groups, including Jon Hoadley, executive director of the National Stonewall Democrats, said they have yet to decide whether to specifically ask members of Congress to vote against a non-trans inclusive ENDA if it reaches the House floor next week, as expected.
Note: Read more on Washington Blade
(Poland) - Poland's incoming pro-business government will adopt the EU charter of fundamental rights, which Warsaw's ousted conservatives bitterly opposed during reform treaty talks, a top party official said Sunday. "It will be a modernising government, and very actively involved in the EU. So it will change Poland's stance on the treaty and thus will adhere to the charter of fundamental rights," Jacek Saryusz-Wolski told AFP. Previously, Poland rejected parts of the charter arguing that deeply Catholic "Poland's point of view culturally is different from the majority of other European countries," notably in its stance on Gay rights.
Note: Read more on EU Business
(USA) - Truth Wins Out called on the democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama to immediately distance his campaign from "ex-Gay" preacher and gospel singer Donnie McClurkin. Obama is scheduled to tour South Carolina with the controversial singer, even though McClurkin's mean-spirited rhetoric runs counter to the senator's conciliatory efforts, says TWO. Read more...
(Singapore) - Singapore politicians engaged in a heated debate on homosexuality Monday as the city state's Parliament considered a sweeping revision of the penal code that fails to remove homosexual sodomy as a criminal offense. Siew Kum Hong introduced a petition signed by 2,341 people calling for repeal of the law, that dates back to British colonial times. The names were gathered online in just three days the lawmaker told Parliament. "In times past and in other countries, public morality has been used to justify slavery, discrimination against racial and religious minorities and discrimination against women," Siew said. "Let us not perpetuate or repeat the mistakes of others in the past." But the government showed no sign it was ready to do away with the law.
Note: Read more on 365Gay.com
(Israel) - The constitution currently being drafted by a Knesset committee is not likely to safeguard the rights of homosexuals and other minority groups, the Chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee MK Menachem Ben-Sasson told the Israel Bar Association. Ben-Sasson's surprising comments were made in response to a query by the association's chairman, Amos Van-Amden, who is Gay. Ben-Sasson confirmed that in order to reach a political compromise which would allow the ratification of a constitution, it would in fact have to come at the expense of minority rights, such as those of the Gay community.
Note: Read more on Haaretz
(Gibraltar) - Gibraltar's Gay and human rights organisation Equality Rights Group GGR stated today: "Following last week's announcement by Michael Cashman MEP, the Gibraltar Government's recent statement following Downing Street's agreement to intervene on the age of consent issue in Gibraltar is a sad case of psychological denial and desperate face-saving." It was reacting to a press statement by the Rock's Government repudiating a report published by the group last week regarding announcements that Gordon Brown had determined to take action on the age of consent in Gibraltar (16 for heterosexuals and 18 for Gay men). Read more...
(Poland) - After weeks of campaigning that have seen the Kaczynskis' Law and Justice party (PiS) in the lead, the latest polls suggest that the their rivals in the Civic Platform will win the elections today. If the polls are right, the party of Donald Tusk, enjoying an impressive resurgence in recent days, will oust Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leaving Lech, his identical twin, to continue as President in cohabitation with a hostile government. Most young Poles are expected to back the Civic Platform.
Note: Read more on Guardian
(Chile) - Gay rights leader Rolando Jimenez refused Thursday to rule out legal action against the Santiago police force in connection with allegations, first disclosed last week, that two Gay Carabineros police officers were forced from their jobs because of their sexual orientation. Jimenez told The Santiago Times that the Gay right group he leads, MOVILH, has already spoken with police officials about reinstating Rivas and Salgado, and that more talks are on the horizon. Still, he would not discount a possible lawsuit. Jimenez’s statements come one day after two the gay police officers - Victor Rivas and Armando Salgado - testified to the Chamber of Deputies’ Human Rights Commission about the alleged case of discrimination.
Note: Read more on www.tcgnews.com
(USA) - Regardless of whether or not Congress, in the days ahead, passes an Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that protects all LGBT people, there are lessons to be drawn from the controversy that has been roiling our community for weeks now. Let's briefly recall the facts. Late this summer, the Human Rights Campaign cut a backroom deal with the Democratic House leadership to strip from the original ENDA bill introduced in April any protection of the transgendered or of those who present their gender identity differently from the heterosexual norm. Disgust and revulsion at this betrayal of the most vulnerable among us swiftly became widespread - and within days, a broad coalition of national, state, and local LGBT organizations, called ENDA United, had sprung up to oppose the version of ENDA that failed to protect gender identity and expression and the transgendered.
Note: Read more on Gay City News
(Turkey) - An attempt by the Governor's Office of Istanbul to close down Lambda Istanbul, an LGBT group, has raised questions about human rights in Turkey. A department responsible for non-governmental organisations alleges that the group violates Turkish laws on morality. The Governor had asked in early 2007 that the group be shut down. In July local prosecutors rejected the complaint but the Governor's Office then took the case to a higher court which heard the case in July 2007 and ordered a second hearing on 18 October.
Note: Read more on Pink News
(Turkey) - An attempt by the Governor's Office of Istanbul to close down Lambda Istanbul, an LGBT group, has raised questions about human rights in Turkey. A department responsible for non-governmental organisations alleges that the group violates Turkish laws on morality. The Governor had asked in early 2007 that the group be shut down. In July local prosecutors rejected the complaint but the Governor's Office then took the case to a higher court which heard the case in July 2007 and ordered a second hearing which begins tomorrow.
Note: Read more on Pink News
(Canada) - Former Parti Quebecois leader Andre Boisclair will announce his departure from politics on Monday, according to Quebec media reports. A career politician, first getting elected at age 23, Boisclair had been a cabinet minister in the PQ governments of Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry. The openly Gay Boisclair raised questions about his judgment and maturity when he appeared in a parody of "Brokeback Mountain" featuring actors wearing the masks of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President George Bush. Many hardline sovereigntists saw him as being too soft on the Qubeck sovereignty agenda.
Note: Read more on CTV
(USA) - At a late afternoon meeting on October 12 in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, representatives of the Democratic leadership informed key LGBT advocates that it planned to move forward with a vote on a revised version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) covering sexual orientation but not gender identity and expression. But in what was intended as a concession to leading LGBT organizations who have waged an uphill struggle for more than two weeks to salvage the fully inclusive version of the bill introduced earlier this year, Pelosi pledged to allow a floor vote on that original formulation once advocates indicate they have the votes to secure passage. It is not at all certain that Pelosi's bargain will be widely accepted.
Note: Read more on Gay City News
(Taiwan) - Thousands from Taiwan's Gay and Lesbian community marched through the streets of Taipei Saturday demanding more rights for homosexuals. The parade took a carnival-like mood with marchers waving rainbow flags, colourful balloons and signs. "We have to make our voices and demands heard so that the government will do more to promote Gay rights," said Way Chao, a 22-year-old serviceman from southern Kaohsiung. In a symbol of unity, participants will raise coloured placards to form a giant rainbow flag later Saturday in a bustling business district in Taipei, organisers said.
Note: Read more on AFP
(Latvia) - Never let it be said that the movers and shakers in the Council of Europe (CoE) lack guts. This week, Andreas Gross, rapporteur of the Judicial and Human Rights Committee of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), was in Latvia and invited the Latvian Parliamentary Social Affairs and Human Rights Committee to lunch. Well, not quite all of the committee. Excluded was chairperson Janis Smits, whose homophobic outbursts are legendary. Parliamentarian Smits closely allies himself with Alexey Ledyaev who heads the worldwide New Generation Church, a particularly homophobic so-called “Christian” church with its world headquarters in Riga.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News
(Russia) - When Russian gay activist Nikolai Alexeyev looks back on the last few years, he can be brutally honest. “If I knew in 2005, (that) it would have taken so long, I don’t know if I would have started,” he said last week. Alexeyev spoke Oct. 3 about the frustrating struggle GLBTs have been waging for equality in Russia at a talk sponsored by the Gay Liberation Movement at Berger Cultural Center in Edgewater. When homosexuality was decriminalized in 1993, according to Alexeyev, the Russian Gay community was not quite ready for what would come next. “To reach decriminalization was the final goal. No one was thinking about anything else,” he added.
Note: Read more on Chicago Free Press
(Russia) - Moscow City Court has today dismissed the appeal of Moscow Gay Pride organisers Nikolai Alekseev and Nikolai Baev against the decision of Tverskoi district court which considered their claim against Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov’s statement earlier this year that Gay parades are “satanic gatherings”. In January, the Moscow Mayor said during his speech at the opening of the XV Christmas readings in Kremlin that “last year there was unprecedented pressure on Moscow in order to conduct a Gay parade here, which can only be called a satanic gathering. We did not allow this parade and will not allow in the future”. Moscow’s Tverskoi district court judge Natalya Makarova who considered the case in first instance on April 20 said in her decision that Moscow Mayor did not use the names of Nikolai Alekseev and Nikolai Baev in his speech and did not characterise their actions.
Note: Read more on Gay Russia
(Iran) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, when asked if there were gay people in his country, Ahmadinejad said, through an interpreter: "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country. We don't have that in our country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have it." Ahmadinejad's media adviser, Mohammad Kalhor, told Reuters that Ahmadinejad was simply misunderstood by Western media. "What Ahmadinejad said was not a political answer," Kalhor told Reuters. "He said that, compared to American society, we don't have many homosexuals." Kalhor told Reuters that Ahmadinejad did not intend to imply that there are no homosexuals in Iran. Rather, he said, the president wanted to say that homosexuality is not as common as it is in the West because of cultural and religious differences. Homosexuality is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic.
Note: Read more on FOX News
Today is World Day against Death Penalty. This is also the first European Day against Death Penalty as proclaimed by the Council of Europe on 27 September 2007. The Council of Europe is the only region of the world de facto free from the death penalty as all its members have either abolished the death penalty or instituted a moratorium on executions. Belarus (outside the CoE) is the only country that still has the death penalty actively on its books. The death penalty is still carried out in other regions of the world and in seven countries the death penalty is applied for Gay people for the crimes of love. Read more...
(USA) - Donna Rose, a post-op Transsexual woman, has resigned from the Board of Human Rights Council in protest to the HRC's position on ENDA, the proposed US anti-discrimination law. In what appears a disgusting political horse trade, the bill has been recently modified in a way excluding Transgenders, with whole consent of the "leading" Gay US politicians. Donna Rose is a US-wide recognized speaker, educator, and advocate on transgender and transsexual issues. On HRC, she served as the co-Chair for Diversity, and on the HRC Business Council. The GRD publishes her entire statement below. Read more...
(Taiwan) - Election candidates should do more than speak up for Gay rights so that they can secure votes from members of the Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities, representatives from these communities in Taiwan said. "Taiwan's society has become more aware of Gay rights, and many election candidates want to woo votes from this group. However, they have to back their words with action rather than just offering lip service," said the president of the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association. An annual Gay, Bisexual and Transgender parade has been scheduled for next Saturday in downtown Taipei to showcase the "rainbow power" of these communities, whose members are often discriminated against, parade organizers said yesterday.
Note: Read more on Taipei Times
(USA) - Looking back, Jeffrey Montgomery says he used to be a "mind your own business" kind of Gay guy. But that was before his boyfriend, Michael, was fatally shot outside a Gay bar in Detroit. The murder was horrifying. But what fundamentally changed Montgomery's way of thinking was the attitude of the cops. The police just didn't care. They had no intention of investigating what, to them, was just another Gay homicide, he says. Shocked and appalled, Montgomery began transforming himself into a "mind our own business" kind of Gay guy.
Note: Read more on Detroit News
(Kenya) - These deviants have no business pretending that they do not know about the existence of a miraculous intelligence responsible for life and orderliness on earth and in the universe. "Order" or the "purpose" of creation have the same meaning. If these deviants can reproduce but merely defy this responsibility just to be different, then their place, in my view, is not Kenya, or even Africa. They belong where godlessness has been legalised to the extent that gays and lesbians are allowed to convert themselves into husbands and wives of the same sex.
Note: The author is a commissioner with the Electoral Commission of Kenya. Read more of his ranting on AllAfrica
(USA) - House Democratic leaders are strongly considering dropping anti-discrimination protections for Transgenders from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, after an internal Democratic head count on Wednesday found that the bill would likely be defeated if it included the Trans provision, multiple sources familiar with the bill said. The current version of the bill calls for banning employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, terms that are defined in the measure to include Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgenders. As of late Wednesday, it appeared likely that the Trans provision would be removed, setting up a potentially divisive fight within Gay activist circles over whether or not to support an ENDA bill that excludes Trans people.
Note: Read more on Washington Blade
(Russia) - The six gay activists who were arrested when they demonstrated against the ban in Russia on gays donating blood have been fined by a Moscow court. They were charged under Article 20.2 of the Code on Administrative Offences for staging an unauthorised public event outside Ministry of Health and Social Development in Moscow on September 14. Alexey Davydov, co-ordinator of the LGBT Right movement and organiser of the demonstration, was fined 1,000 roubles (about £20 or $40) by the Tverskoi district court judge Nalalya Dyatlova. The other five were each fined 500 roubles. The six activists have vowed, if necessary, to take the matter to the European Court.
Note: Read more on GayRussia.Ru, see picture gallery
(Iran) - Upon monitoring the Iranian press reaction to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech and comments at the Monday forum hosted by Columbia University, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) discovered an odd disparity. The English version of the President’s official website (www.president.ir) provides a full and complete transcript of his speech and the Question & Answer segment where he claimed that homosexuality does not exist in Iran. However, the Persian-language transcript has excised both the question about treatment of lesbians and gay men in Iran and President Ahmadinejad’s soon to be legendary response. Read more...
(Uganda) - At first I thought my ears had a problem, but when she repeated the utterance, I wondered what our radio stations were up to allowing such utterances live on air. For the really slow, Victor Mukasa is currently the loudest Gay rights activist in Uganda, her utterances on Capital FM culminated into Gaetano Kaggwa being suspended by the media council for allowing fowl language on air-and NOT for hosting a Gay activist. (By the way Pastor Ssempa had made similar utterances the previous week on WBS).
Note: Read more on The Monitor
(UK) - The Green Party has again called for the rapid introduction of specific legislation for homophobic and transphobic hate crime following the murder two weeks ago of Tony Hoare. The 49-years old man was found unconscious in Charlton Park, South East London on September 11 and died in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, that evening. Mr. Hoare, who headed the Stormbreak consultancy which specialises in LGBT research, had recently published a report Homophobic Crime in London which claimed there was wide underreporting of homophobic crime in London.
Note: Read more on UK Gay News
(Hungary) - Hungary's liberal junior coalition party the Alliance of Free Democrats on Thursday said it had submitted an amendment to the law on family rights that would legalize same sex marriage. "We trust that the governing coalition ... will uniformly support this proposal," Peter Gusztos, the deputy leader of the Liberals' parliamentary caucus, said. The party wishes to change the text of the law book to read that marriage is allowed between "two adult persons" instead of an "adult man and woman." Gusztos said it was a paradoxical situation that all parties had signed an anti-discrimination law in the previous parliamentary cycle while discrimination still existed in many areas.
Note: Read more on www.eux.tv
(Russia) - Seven protesters have been detained in Moscow for holding a demonstration against a law which prohibits Gay men from giving blood. The leader of Moscow's Gay Pride movement, Nikolai Alexeyev, believes that the law is discriminatory. The same law also prevents prostitutes and drug addicts from giving blood. Mr Alexeyev says its unfair to compare gay men to drug users and sex workers, pointing out that there is no law preventing gay women from giving blood. Ten protesters picketed outside the Russian Health Ministry. Seven were arrested and held in a nearby police department.
Note: Read more on Russia Today
(USA) - Kramer had set a tone for his appearance at the convention, and he continued with it two days later when he attracted a capacity crowd to an auditorium in the hotel. The tone was one of dismay with the Gay rights movement today. The activist — who once roared but now almost whispers into the microphone — accused LGBT people of being “passive” and “apathetic” today. Freedom cannot be won without a fight, he warned. “If you want the freedom, [then] you have to find a way,” Kramer said. “Just don’t be so passive. We are capable of so much more.” He lashed out at society in general and the education system for failing to teach the history of Gay and Lesbian people to students. Kramer called on people to get angry and resume “in their face” activism like he and others employed in the 1980s when Gay men were dying daily from AIDS.
Note: Read more on Dallas Voice
(USA) - Closeted Gay congressional staffers can rest easier. Their worst living nightmare, vigilante outer and activist blogger Michael Rogers, has called a truce of sorts: he says he'll stop targeting Capitol Hill aides and will instead limit his campaign solely to publicly elected officials and candidates. "Enough readers expressed concerns that I have decided to now focus on elected officials, those running for office and to high level political appointees in the administration," Rogers tells the Sleuth. Rogers had been either naming or threatening to out scores of Gay staffers who he deemed to be hypocritical because they either pushed anti-Gay rights agendas or worked for members of Congress with anti-Gay rights voting records.
Note: Read more on Washington Post
(Lithuania) - A new law currently before the Lithuanian parliament could be amended to ban the "promotion" of Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual relationships to children. The Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effects of Public Information Bill will be debated by MPs later this autumn and its supporters argue that the "propagation" amendment does not contradict anti-discrimination laws. In February a poll of members of the Lithuanian parliament revealed that over half of them agree that "homosexuality is a perversion." The survey reflected a deeply ingrained homophobia in Lithuanian society. A poll last December found that only 17% of Lithuanians support equal marriage legislation for Gay couples.
Note: Read more on Pink News
(Uganda) - When a tabloid newspaper in Uganda published a hate-filled exposé last Sunday listing 40 men it accused of being Gay, it was only the latest chapter in a campaign of terror that was unleashed last August. The newspaper’s list includes doctors, businessmen, clerics, broadcasters, lawyers, bankers, actors, musicians, and non-profit group staffers. Many Gay activists went into hiding when the country's Deputy Attorney General last month called for mass arrests of homosexuals -- but the country's LGBT coalition, SMUG (Sexual Minorities Uganda) is fighting back.
Note: Read more on DIRELAND
(Nepal) - CPN (United-Marxist) could choose their candidates for Constituent Assembly (CA) poll from among sexual minorities. Sunil Maharjan, central committee member of the party said his party has been discussing the issues of Gays and Transgenders during party meetings being held to finalize the party manifesto for constituent assembly poll. "Though we have not yet reached formal conclusion, there has been a level of understanding that the party will nominate sexual minorities as candidates for the poll if such willing people come forward," he said. He was speaking at a program entitled, "Toward more inclusive and just society" organized by Blue Diamond Society (BDS).
Note: Read more on Kantipur Online
(USA) - A group of San Diego Gays, Lesbians and Transgender people joined some 300 Latino protesters Aug. 25 in spoiling a downtown ceremony to unveil a privately funded statue of former mayor, assemblyman, governor and U.S. senator Pete Wilson. The protesters banged on drums, shouted through bullhorns and chanted, "Tear down the statue, tear down the hate" and "Pete Wilson's gotta go: Racist, sexist, homophobe." Some local Gays have unpleasant memories of Wilson, a Republican, because as mayor of San Diego from 1971 to 1983 he refused to meet with them to discuss routine police bar raids in which patrons were arrested on "lewd conduct" charges for kissing or dancing with each other.
Note: Read more on WOCKNER
(Iraq) - I think we can now safely predict that Iraq's descent into clericalism and barbarism has doomed the great city of Baghdad to the history books. It will never again be what it was, which is why now's as good a time as any to check out the place. "I'd never been there before, so when I flew to Kurdistan in the north where a friend of mine with American Voices was giving a concert, I decided to go," says my friend and colleague, NYC-based travel writer Michael Luongo. "And with gay men being attacked across Iraq [by Shiite militias], I wanted to go there to interview people directly."
Note: Read more on Hour.ca
(Israel) - The ultra-Orthodox parties' success in preventing any attempt to legalize civil marriage shows that their ability to force through discriminatory legislation is not diminishing. Neither is their capacity to bar progressive lawmaking. The cabinet's intention to ratify the current Inheritance Law - which acknowledges only couples made of "a man and a woman" and refuses to recognize the existence of same-sex partners - is wrongful. Ratifying the law would run contrary to the recommendations of a public commission of experts headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Jacob Turkel. It would also be ignoring previous court rulings on Gay rights. The Knesset must not assist the cabinet in realizing this intention.
Note: Read more on Haaretz
(Russia) - Moscow's Tverskoy court has decided that Moscow authorities were right to decline to grant a permit for a Gay pride event on May 27. Event organizer Nikolai Alekseyev told Interfax on that the court rejected a protest submitted by organizers. Alekseyev said improper actions by the judge led plaintiffs to challenge the judge during the hearings but the challenge was rejected. Alekseyev said that the Tverskoy court decision would be appealed with a cassation instance and with the European Court of Human Rights. Read more...
(Canada) - With a provincial election rapidly approaching, Trans activists are working to raise the profile of their issues with both the Gay community and Ontario's political parties. "We're going to do what we need to do to put it on the political agenda," says Susan Gapka of the Trans Health Lobby Group. The lobby group - along with such allies as Egale Canada and the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Ontario - wants to have sex reassignment surgery (SRS) relisted under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). Ontario stopped paying for SRS in 1998 under the Mike Harris Conservative government.
Note: Read more on Xtra.ca
The Republican Party is in quite a rush to keelhaul Senator Larry Craig for his run-in with the vice squad in an airport men’s room. Some of the senator’s peers simply demanded that he resign. No similar leadership chorus for judgment has been heard about any number of other scandalous revelations on the party’s plate. But Republican presidential campaigners are urging Mr. Craig to resign fast as a swift boat. Underlying the hurry to disown the senator, of course, is the party’s brutal agenda of trumpeting the gay-marriage issue. To the extent Senator Craig, a stalwart in the family values caucus, might morph into a blatant hypocrite before the voters’ eyes, he reflects on the party’s record in demonizing homosexuality. The rush to cast him out betrays the party’s intolerance, which is on display for the public in all of its ugliness.
Note: Read more on NY Times
(USA) - An large congregation of people listened to Congressman Jerrold Nadler (Democrats) speaking at a forum co-hosted by Immigration Equality and Human Rights Campaign last night. The Congressman joined panelists from Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, the Asian American Justice Center, and Gay Men's Health Crisis to talk about immigration issues important to the LGBT and HIV-positive communities. More than 200 people gathered in an auditorium at New York's LGBT Community Center to discuss the Uniting American Families Act. The pending federal legislation would grant Gays and Lesbians in the US the right to sponsor their foreign-national partners for residency permission. Read more...
(Uganda) - Following an interview with the Gay rights activist Juliet Victor Mukasa, the Capital Radio presenter Gaetano Kaggwa and programme controller George Manyali were suspended by Uganda’s Broadcasting Council for “allowing foul language” in their morning show. The council accused the two radio hosts of failure to prevent their guest from using “vulgar” language on their show. According to the council, the woman used language that “breached broadcasting ethics,” citing the use of “four-letter words” and mentioning “female genitalia” during the talk. Additionally to the one-week suspension, the broadcasting council ordered Mr Kaggwa and Mr Manyali to prove their qualification to present the programme. Read more...
(Chile) - Thirteen Gay rights groups met last Sunday to create the Chilean Federation for Sexual Diversity (Fedisech). Founding members include groups advocating women's rights, worker's rights, ethnic minority rights, and student’s rights, representing 11 of Chile's 15 regions. The Federation aims to "eradicate sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination from Chile" and to "strengthen the bonds among human rights groups and the rest of society." The Federation also called for the government to include sexual minority data in the next population census. Read more...
(USA) - In last year's elections, an US gay-rights group saw the potential for New Hampshire Democrats to win control of the State House. The group, the Human Rights Campaign, proceeded to spend almost $150,000 on New Hampshire state races, much of which went to the Senate Democratic Caucus. The group also provided physical help: An employee traveled to the state to assist with get-out-the-vote efforts and phone-banks. "What we knew in each of those states was that a change in the Legislature meant a change in the issues that our community cares so deeply about," said the group's president, Joe Solmonese, referring to New Hampshire, Iowa and Oregon, the three states the group focused on. Read more...
(Poland) - A list of homophobic politicians drawn up by gaylife.pl, has caused a debate on validity of some claims. The list includes many of Poland’s conservative, rightwing politicians, but also a couple of leftist politicians. “There’s a parliamentary election coming. We want to enable the gay community to make a conscious choice and this is the reason for creating a list with the names of the people who have hindered us from achieving our goals”, said Marek Ryszard, initiator of the idea. The list includes names of the politicians who are known enemies of the Gay people. Among them are Roman Giertych and Wojciech Wierzejski from the League of Polish Families (LPR), but also Anita Błochowiak and Wojciech Olejniczak from the leftwing Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). The portal users are asked to help to decide who will be eventually included on the list. Read more...
(USA) - Mayor Jim Naugle and several religious leaders held a news conference Tuesday to draw attention to what they described as "the moral and health risks of gay sex". Naugle is at the center of a political war between gays and religious conservatives that started earlier this summer when he said public bathrooms in Fort Lauderdale are plagued by gay men cruising for sex and said he uses the term "homosexual'' because "most of them aren't gay. They're unhappy.'' Though Fort Lauderdale is considered one of the most gay friendly tourist destinations in the country, it has become ground zero for a bitter fight about the morality of homosexuality itself.
Note: Read full article on Sun Sentinel
(USA) - Many Gay New Yorkers think positively of Giuliani's two terms as mayor, when he spoke openly about anti-Gay violence and campaigned for a statewide hate crimes law early in his administration. He drafted and signed the most sweeping municipal domestic partnership law in the country in 1998 and declared, "I believe New York is setting the pace for the rest of the country." He appointed openly Gay officials to high-level positions. However, New York's Gay activists charge that Giuliani has backpedaled in his support over the past few months, especially on the issue of civil unions.
Note: Read full article on Washington Post
(USA) - The Democratic presidential candidates have begun to aggressively court Gay and Lesbian voters, with unprecedented outreach to match a major shift in policy positions among the major 2008 hopefuls. The party's enthusiasm for expanding Gay rights marks a break with the last presidential election cycle, when Democrats and Gay activists were largely playing defense on issues like equal marriage while trying to avoid being boxed in by Republicans. Though only Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and former Ohio Sen. Mike Gravel favor gay marriage, all the Democrats say they support civil unions that would give same-sex couples most of the rights and benefits available to heterosexual couples.
Note: Read full article on ANC News
Despite many beatings in pursuit of equal rights, Peter Tatchell has always abhorred violence. Last year, New Statesman magazine named him as one of the "heroes of our time", and The Independent included him among 50 men and women who had made the world a better place. So it is a shock to hear this lifelong advocate of non-violent protest say, in carefully chosen words, that he believes the problem of Mugabe may now have only one solution: assassination. "The prospects for democratic, peaceful change seem to be closed, in the same way as in Nazi-occupied Europe," he says. "In all normal circumstances, I'm against violence. All violence. But in the extreme situation of a dictatorship where tens of thousands, if not millions, of lives are at stake, there may be a moral and ethical case for the people of Zimbabwe to kill Mugabe."
Note: Read full article on Independent
(Uganda) - In a landmark case, Uganda’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) people assembled at the High Court of Uganda two months ago to reinforce their right to privacy, dignity, and property. There were no charges against them, they had done nothing wrong. It was the government who had to answer for illegal behaviour of its agents by discriminating against homosexual and transgender people. Read more...
(Poland) - Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski on Monday fired four cabinet minister from his coalition government including Education Minister Roman Giertych, the man behind a bill to make it a criminal offence to "promote homosexual propaganda" in schools. The four fired ministers were from smaller parties within Kaczynski's conservative coalition government. The move leaves the government without a majority in Parliament and clears the way for an early election expected this fall. Kaczynski's government has come under increasing criticism from the European Union for its treatment of gays and lesbians. The anti-gay schools bill had the support of the prime minister but is unlikely to come to a vote before an election.
Note: Read full article on 365Gay.com
(Japan) - Some 3,000 people took pride in being GLBT to the streets of Tokyo today and led the annual Pride Parade. Numerous floats decorated in rainbow-coloured balloons and flags blasted music from speakers while participants wearing pink boas or G-strings danced and waved to the onlookers. Although the number of participants to the Tokyo Pride Parade has been increasing every year, many still choose to remain anonymous in Japan and others refrain from marching in the parade for fear of being recognized as being gay or lesbian, according to the Pride Parade committee. Because people of the sexual minority community still experience difficulties coming out to their coworkers and families, the sixth annual event called for visibility of gays and lesbians in society and promoted their presence in the mainstream society.
Note: Read full article on earthtimes.org
(Estonia) - This year’s Gay Pride parade in Estonian’s capital Tallin passed peacefully on Saturday in the streets of the Old City. An estimated number of 300 participants demonstrated their resolve to fight for their civil rights by cheering and clapping. Thousands of locals and tourists attended the demonstration as spectators. For safety reasons, the parade route protected by private security and extra police officers. Some counter-demonstrants were present as well, but no serious incidents were reported. The anti-Gay protesters crowd consisted at first of members of the Russian Orthodox minority, chanting "No Pride" as they followed the demonstration. Later, some Estonian skinheads joined them. Read more...
(Russia) - A handful of activists made headlines around the world this past spring when they were viciously beaten by Russian fascists at a Gay rights protest in central Moscow. Riot police on the scene offered no protection. The activists claimed a partial victory, arguing that media coverage allowed the whole world to witness the plight of Gays in Russia. Others express skepticism over an approach that pushes them into the public eye. Firm resistance is needed, said Alexey Davidov, 30, a leader of the march. Gays who disagree "don't realize, if things keep going the way they're going, how many dead bodies there will be all around Russia 50 years from now."
Note: Read full article on Washington Post
(Italy) - Hundreds of Italians protested in the northern Italian city of Treviso on Saturday after the city's deputy mayor called for the "ethnic cleansing" of homosexuals from the area. The protesters gathered outside city hall to demand Giancarlo Gentilini's resignation, some wearing pink triangles like the ones homosexual men had to wear in Nazi concentration camps. A member of the right-wing Northern League party, Gentilini said on Wednesday he was so fed up with gays having sex in a car park that he was going to order police to carry out "ethnic cleansing" of homosexuals. "I will immediately give orders to my forces so that they can carry out an ethnic cleansing of f," Gentilini told a local television station. "The f must go to other (cities) where they are welcome. Here in Treviso there is no chance for faggots or the like."
Note: Read full article on Reuters and watch the video.
(USA) - In New York, a vigil for LGBT rights took place Friday afternoon at the United Nations’ Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza. Similar events were organized one week earlier in Caracas, Cologne, Mexico City, San Diego, San Francisco, Stockholm, Vancouver, Warsaw and Washington. Brendan Fay, one of the NY organizers, said: “We refuse to be silent in the face of torture, discrimination and executions in Iran, of beatings on the streets of Moscow, of Lithuanian authorities preventing the rainbow flag from being carried on the streets of Vilnius. We refuse to be silent when many LGBT and HIV positive refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants arrive on the shores of the U.S. only to encounter discrimination and closed doors.”
Note: Read full article on NY Blade
(USA) - After his appearance in the HRC/Logo Presidential Forum, Democratic Presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama spoke to supporters and members of the media and blogosphere on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality, saying that he was “thrilled to participate today” in the forum. The teleconference was organized for Obama supporters who had gathered together to watch his appearance in the HRC/Logo Presidential Forum. Members of the media and blogosphere, including InterstateQ.com, were invited to listen in. Bishop V. Gene Robinson hosted the approximately fifteen minute call.
Note: Read full article on InterstateQ
(Russia) - About two dozens of Gays and Lesbians marched in Omsk while the city celebrated the Day of the City, according to Gayrussia.Ru. In what seems to become a tradition, on past Sunday local Gay and Lesbian activists staged their “Rainbow march” within the framework of the general festivities. This year, the rainbow walk on the streets of Omsk was organized by a group of young activists with the support of the LGBT association "Favorit". The tiny but colourful parade went along the route from the Pushkin Library to the Leningrad Square without excesses, which is in contrast to the violent disruption of the Moscow Pride this year. Read more...
(USA-Florida) State Rep. Bob Allen, a longtime foe of LGBT rights in Florida, has a bizarre excuse for being charged with offering a black male cop $20 for a blowjob in a park toilet... he was scared of all the blacks in the park!
Note: Read full story at 365gay.com
(Canada) - A Truro woman is so incensed by her mayor’s stand on homosexuality that she has organized a rally in Truro today in support of gay pride. "I don’t like to see anyone so marginalized and discriminated against," Sharon Farrell said in an interview Sunday night about her rally in Victoria Park. "It’s solidarity with the gay community. To let our mayor know that not all of Truro agrees with his decision." Last week, Truro town council voted 6-1 not to fly the gay rights rainbow flag to honour the community’s inaugural gay pride celebration. In explaining the decision, Mayor Bill Mills told The Chronicle Herald that, as a practising Christian, he personally doesn’t condone homosexuality or support same-sex marriage.
Note: Read full article on The Chronicle Herald
(San Francisco, USA) - Over the course of one hour, more than twenty LGBT activists staged a solidarity vigil and speak out today at the Flood Building on Market Street, where the consulates of Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama are located. Hundreds of shoppers walking by and people entering the Flood Building took our supply of 500 leaflets explaining the problems gay citizens face in those countries. We held a beautiful fabric banner, made by George Duvoisin, using a diverse array of materials and colors, symbolic of the global LGBT community. Each letter was a separate design with its own block, spelling out S-O-L-I-D-A-R-I-T-Y.
Note: Read full article on Petrelis Files
(Amsterdam, Netherlands) - Gays, lesbians, bisexuals and a large contingent of heterosexuals put on their brightest plumage Saturday, and a rainbow fleet sailed through Amsterdam's historic canals, as the city celebrated its annual Gay Pride festival. The flotilla and party afterward is one of the biggest of the year in Amsterdam, and one in which the city upholds its reputation as one of Europe's gayest capitals. DJs pump music from ships packed with dancing partygoers, vying for who can put on the best show or provide the most outrageous theme. News reports estimated a record-breaking 375,000 to 500,000 people lined the canals to watch the boats pass, basking in the first warm weekend since summer started.
Note: Read full article on International Herald Tribune
(Singapore) - Authorities in Singapore on Friday banned a gay rights forum at which a retired Canadian law professor was to speak, the second time in a week the city-state has forbidden an event that touches on gay issues. The forum was to feature Douglas Sanders, a professor emeritus in law. But because the Aug. 7 forum, titled "Sexual Orientation in International Law: The Case of Asia," was deemed contrary to public interest, police canceled the event's license Friday and immigration authorities rejected Sander's visa application, Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry said. "Our laws are an expression and reflection of the values of our society; the discourse over a domestic issue such as the laws that govern homosexuality in Singapore must be reserved for Singaporeans ... foreigners should refrain from interfering," the statement said.
Note: Read full article on Guardian
(Italy) - Several hundred Gay rights advocates Thursday inaugurated a "Gay Street" in Rome and then headed to the nearby Colosseum for a rally in support of a Gay couple arrested for what police deemed an indecent public kiss. Italy's leading Gay rights group Arcigay "officially" dubbed Via San Giovani in Laterno Rome's new "Gay Street," saying it wanted to give the Eternal City a "point of reference for the Gay and Lesbian community." About 100 mainly Gay couples protested the arrest outside the Colosseum last Sunday. Thursday's rally had the support of several members of Prime Minister Romano Prodi's centre-left government, including Equal Opportunity Minister Barbara Pollastrini, Youth and Sports Minister Giovanna Melandri and Social Solidarity Minister Paolo Ferrero.
Note: Read full article on AFP
(Philadelphia, USA) - A study by Equality Forum, an international gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) civil rights organization, suggests that gay and lesbian voters voted as a block in the recent mayoral primary election in Philadelphia and that gay and lesbian voters were markedly more likely to support their candidate than their neighbors. The study found that gays voted by about two to every one vote for Michael Nutter, the winning candidate, in the citywide vote. Read more...
TALLINN, July 30 (RIA Novosti) - Estonian police said Monday they have authorized a gay parade in the center of Tallinn August 11 following initial opposition to the event based on security concerns. Police suggested in mid-July that organizers reroute the march away from the city center, saying six participants in the 500-strong Tallinn Pride parade were seriously injured when attacked by Estonian nationalists last year. This year the issue was resolved when organizers agreed to hire security guards to ensure the marchers' safety in line with police recommendations.
Note: Read full article on en.rian.ru
(Canada) - Montreal's Gay Pride parade Sunday afternoon was one of the biggest the city has staged, attracting about 50,000 spectators, organizers say. The sun shone bright for spectators who lined the sidewalks of Sainte Catherine Street, as many as 15 deep on some blocks, to watch the pageantry pass under a canopy of rainbow flags. Parade organizers say they're thrilled to have drawn such a huge crowd despite having had little time to organize the event. Organizers with Celebrations LGBTA Montreal 2007 (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and All) had just seven weeks to plan the parade after Divers/Cité pulled out of it early in the summer, to focus on an arts and culture festival.
Note: Read full article on Yahoo News
(Japan) - The first openly gay candidate in Japanese national politics failed to win a seat in upper house elections on Monday, but vowed to continue her fight for minority rights. Kanako Otsuji, 32, backed by the main opposition Democratic Party, had campaigned in front of rainbow-coloured flags, with loudspeakers declaring to passers-by she was a lesbian. "I hope to continue until I see the day that we look back and say, 'This is a historic day in the history of sexual minorities,'" Otsuji told supporters. "We will remember this day because it is the day we grew stronger." She appeared to be holding back tears at her election headquarters in the heart of Tokyo's gay community early on Monday morning. Supporters wept as she walked around thanking them in her cramped headquarters after they had waited until dawn for the final results.
Note: Read full article on Reuters
(France) - Act Up-Paris and Pink Panthers issued a call to the activists of the human rights, the rights of LGBT people and activists against the death penalty to join street protests in Paris today. The gathering shall be a reaction to the recent hangings in Iran and protest the immanent eviction of an Iranian gay in France. The two organizations invite to join the gathering which will be held Saturday July 28 at 11:00 a.m. on the Square of the Human Rights in Paris (place of Trocadéro, Trocadéro subway). Per same hour, in Strabourg, TaPaGeS invites to hold a similar action in front of the Palate of the human rights.
Note: Read the machine translation of the article posted on Spartakus
As you perhaps yawn your way through a Pride parade this year — muttering "been there, done that" (and I'm guilty of this) — at least stop and think for a moment about how utterly amazing our parade would be to gays and lesbians from Albania, Nigeria or China. Saudi Arabia, Egypt or India. Or even Moscow. Not to mention North Korea, which claims to have zero AIDS cases, or Iran, which hangs homosexuals. For most gay people on the planet the simple act of thousands of people hitting the streets to celebrate queerness would Completely Blow Their Minds.
Note: Read full article on www.xtra.ca
(Uganda) - Two years ago, a government official broke into a home, seized property and detained one of the occupants without a warrant. The case seems clear, but will the plaintiff's homosexuality affect the verdict? The ruling, due next month in Uganda's Constitutional court, could set a precedent for sub-Saharan Africa's reportedly conservative masses. Two Ugandan lesbians are suing the government for trespassing, theft of property, illegal arrest, and inhuman and degrading treatment. The case has been in court since December 2006 and a verdict is expected when the court session resumes in August.
Note: Read full article on www.monitor.co.ug
(Budapest, Hungary) - "I am Gabor Szetey. A faithful Hungarian-European. Citizen, public official, member of the government. And gay." Of all the arenas in which a senior government politician could come out, Szetey's choice -- two days before a Gay Pride march earlier this month in post-communist eastern Europe -- was one of the most defiant. Hungary's Secretary of State for Human Resources risked hostility because he wanted to highlight persistent intolerance, not just of gay people, but also of other minorities, in eastern Europe. After decades under communist rule when homosexuality was banned or simply out of sight, most east Europeans still find it hard to accept.
Note: Read full article on Reuters
(Tiflis, Georgia) - An event promoting tolerance and cultural dialogue in Georgia has been cancelled, after rumours spread that it was in fact a Gay parade. The highly influential head of the Georgian Orthodox church spoke out against the event. Organisers told the BBC they feared that the participants could have been attacked if it went ahead. Gays have come under attack in former Soviet republics, with the Orthodox Church one of their main foes. The head of the Georgian Orthodox church had also warned that any rally involving sexual minorities would cause widespread offence and "possibly lead to physical confrontation". Although homosexuality is legal, it is widely regarded as immoral. Gay rights activists in Georgia say Gays are often the targets for abuse and physical violence.
Note: Read full article on BBC
(Ankara, Turkey) - In the 1980s and 1990s, Turkish police routinely raided gay bars, detained transvestites and banned homosexual conferences and festivals. In May, in a sign of how the state has loosened up, gay activists held forums on several university campuses to discuss their rights and the discrimination they still face. Gays in Turkey say they lack legal protections and face social stigma in a Muslim nation with a secular tradition of government that has implemented broad reforms in its bid to join the European Union - but remains heavily influenced by conservative and religious values. For the most part, they face less pressure than in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries where Islamic codes are enforced with more rigor. But Turkey's homosexuals are jostling for more rights in a crowded field.
Note: Read full article on Baltimore Sun
(Tallin, Estland) - Organisers of next month’s Tallinn Pride have hit back at local police who have said that a Gay Pride march would threaten the constitutional rights of other citizens. The Tallinn police were quoted earlier in the week by InterFax, the Russian news agency, as saying that the Pride parade should not be held as the streets were narrow. “We do take comments from police very seriously and have every intention to do whatever we are asked to do to secure the constitutional rights of other citizens,” said Lisette Kampus, spokesperson of Tallinn Pride.
Note: Read full article on UK Gay News
(USA) - Human Rights Campaign just sent a note that after “enthusiastic community response” they’ve changed course and decided to invite Mike Gravel to their forthcoming Logo-sponsored gay debate. We’re sure it had absolutely nothing to Gravel ripping them a new one yesterday. Here’s what HRC has to say for themselves: "The Human Rights Campaign Foundation and Logo…today made additional announcements about the presidential candidate forum on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues to take place in Los Angeles on August 9. After enthusiastic community response, former Senator Mike Gravel has been invited to participate."
Note: Read full article on Queerty
(Istanbul, Turkey) Lambda Istanbul has been ordered to appear before a judge next week to face charges it is violating Turkish law by stating it represents gays, lesbians, and transsexuals. The group was notified this week by the public prosecutor that the governor of Istanbul had requested the charges be laid under the Turkish Civil Code. The law states that associations against law and morality cannot be established. If found guilty Lambda could be closed and its officers fined.
Note: Read full article on 365Gay.com, see also Kaos GL News
(Iran) - The Iranian government has confirmed that in the coming weeks more than 20 men will be executed on moral violations of rape, sodomy and assault and battery. Police arrested over 1000 men in May in poor neighbourhoods of Tehran and other cities as part of a moral 'crackdown' on indecent behaviour. Those arrested will face trial and possible death at a later date. Judiciary spokesperson Alireza Jamshidi told The Guardian that the death penalty will be applied on the grounds of "rape, insulting religious sanctities and laws, and homosexuality." It is unclear if any of the men have been accused of consensual same-sex acts.
Note: Read full article on Pink News
(USA) - Yesterday the Human Rights Campaign announced that it will not invite me to the first-ever presidential debate on gay issues because I didn't raise enough money. Fighting for a hated minority is a pretty dumb way to get elected president. And obviously it hasn't helped with my fundraising. So why wasn't I invited to the gay rights forum? According to a HRC spokesperson, I didn't raise enough money and therefore my candidacy did not meet their standard of "viability." Ironically I think the real reason why HRC didn't invite me is that I'm too vocal in my advocacy of gay rights. None of the top tier candidates would have been comfortable facing an opponent who consistently points out their refusal to embrace true equality for gays and lesbians. HRC simply bowed to the star factor. It's just a shame that this travesty was perpetrated in the name of the LGBT community.
Note: Read full article on www.huffingtonpost.com
(Budapest, Hungary) - The 10th annual Budapest Gay Pride March this past Saturday, July 7, was violently attacked by hundreds of counter-demonstrators armed with Molotov cocktails, bottles, eggs, and nylon-stocking coshes filled with sand. Some 2,000 LGBT participants marched with several colorful floats from statue-filled Heroes’ Square to a dance club at the foot of one of the bridges crossing the Danube, where an after-party had been planned, and along more than a mile of that route they were pelted by the anti-gay gangs. A number of Pride marchers were injured, several required hospitalization, and a truck caught fire from one of the Molotov cocktails.
Note: Read full article on DIRELAND
(India) - The 145-year-old Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) declares homosexuality illegal, and same sex couples are far from being accepted as ‘normal’ in India. But things might just change. And soon. Active lobbying for repealing the “anachronistic and absurd” clause from the IPC is brewing a new storm in the legal and political circuits. In what represents the new thought wave, sixty five per cent participants of an open poll on PHAT Chicks feel homosexuality should be legalized in India.
Note: Read full article on India Times
(Chisinau, Moldova) - GenderDoc-M, the gay and lesbian NGO in Moldova, has joined forces with other organisations for form an Antidiscrimination Consortium to protect the human rights of minorities. At present, the Consortium is working to protect the rights of ethnic minorities, youth, people with disabilities, the LGBT community and women. The project aims to set minimum standards for anti discrimination law which should be adopted by Government. In addition, The Consortium is organising training for those in the coalition as well as for journalists who will highlight the subject in local and national mass media. Read more...
(Washington, USA) - The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Inc., today released the first comprehensive analysis of the top 19 candidates for the 2008 presidency on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues. Democrats discussed in this report include Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama. Republicans include Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney. The report, The 2008 Presidential Candidates’ Positions on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues, and its accompanying chart are based on an analysis of the voting records and public statements of the candidates in eight key LGBT issue areas. Read more...
(London, UK) - Neither rain nor the discovery of two car bombs could deter tens of thousands of people from lining the streets Saturday for Gay Pride. The march left Baker Street and made its way through the West End to Trafalgar Square where gays and lesbians and their friends partied and enjoyed music for the remainder of the day. Police met Friday night with Pride organizers with both sides agreeing there was no need to cancel or alter the celebration. Police said they were strengthening patrols in the city, however, to reassure the public. London Mayor Ken Livingstone was joined by members of Parliament from the Labor and New Democrats took part in the pride festivities.
Note: Read full article on 365gay.com, Pictures on UK Gay News
Allow, if you will, a few dissenting notes from gay orthodoxy. If a writer only wrote things you agreed with, what good is he? And why read him? Better just talk to yourself in the mirror. "Politically correct" originated as an orthodoxy-enforcing Communist Party term in the 1930s. The gay left seems terminally afflicted with "mission drift." As if there were not enough work to do to attain gay equality, they want to include other issues as part of our agenda such as environmentalism, global warming, free trade limitations, illegal immigration, government health care, support for unions, etc. To some gays, those issues are more important than gay freedom and equality. Well, fine, there are plenty of organizations working on those issues. Go join those. But don't try to claim that those are gay issues just because they might affect some gays. I may even be on the other side—and I'm gay too.
Note: Read full article on Independent Gay Forum
(Montreal, Canada) - What is Pride without a parade? That's the question queer Montrealers asked themselves after learning in May that organizers Divers/Cité cancelled the annual street party. But Montreal's gay community refused to do without the parade, and thanks to a new fired-up community organization, Montreal will have a Pride parade this year. The parade that wasn't supposed to happen is being thrown together at a breakneck pace by a coalition of community leaders, businesses, and activists represented by a seven person team called Célébrations LGBTA Montreal.
Note: Read full article on www.xtra.ca
(Berlin, Germany) - The German MEP Lissy Gröner (SPD-PSE) was awarded the “Zivilcouragepreis” (a prize for moral courage against homophobia and discrimination) today in Berlin for her gay-lesbian and feminist commitment. “This award is a fantastic recognition of the European efforts to fight discrimination and I want to thank all the organisers and the thousands and thousands of participants of this gay pride event in Berlin”, said Ms. Gröner, a vice president of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on gay and lesbian rights, at the award ceremony in Berlin - part of the German capital’s Christopher Street Day.
Note: Read full article on UK Gay News
(Jerusalem, Israel) - Thursday, members of the gay and lesbian community pledged to hold the same parade in the capital next year as well. "This is a great victory for the community," said chairman of the Open House Noa Satat. "We wanted to march at the heart of Jerusalem, and I'm very glad we did it… the community members' turnout and the fact that the parade went through quietly and without any casualties is very impressive and encouraging."
Note: Read full article on www.ynetnews.com
(Jerusalem, Israel) - Under heavy police guard, gay activists marched in a Gay Pride parade in downtown Jerusalem on Thursday. Police said 2,500 took part. Marchers carried posters of Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama and signs bearing messages like "Out of the closet and into the street." "I am demanding my civil rights, including the right to get married and have children," said marcher Guy Frishman, 27. "I want to have rights like every other person." Ultra-Orthodox Jews have rioted repeatedly over the past week, burning tires, assaulting policemen and damaging police cars.
Note: Read full article on www.beliefnet.com
(Tel Aviv, Israel) - About 400 police officers from Tel Aviv held drills Wednesday in preparation for the gay pride parade in Jerusalem. The officers will assist Jerusalem police Thursday in securing the controversial event, which some fear may spark violence between participants and protesters, Ynetnews reported Wednesday. The Tel Aviv officers practiced drills with clubs and shields Wednesday to prepare for the possibility of violence and rioting. Meanwhile, haredim - members of the most theologically conservative wing of Orthodox Judaism - held violent demonstrations against the parade Tuesday, even though rabbis from the United Torah Judaism pleaded with the faithful not to demonstrate.
Note: Read full article on United Press
(Jerusalem, Israel) - Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox residents thought they were dreaming Monday morning, when they encountered an unlikely sight on the city's public notice board – a "pashkevil" endorsing the gay pride parade, scheduled to take place in the capital on Thursday. The flyer, signed by "Citizens for an equal, sane Israel" called upon all citizens of Jerusalem to take part in the parade, caused an outraged among the ultra-Orthodox community.
Note: Read full article on www.ynetnget="_blank"ews.com
(Italy) - Tens of thousands Saturday staged the Gay Pride parade in Rome, urging the Italian government to fast-track plans to grant homosexual couples legal status and override Vatican objections. The raucous and colourful crowd, which included transvestites and lawmakers, marched under a baking sun from Rome's Saint Paul's Gate to the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, the official ecclesiastical seat of the Pope as Bishop of Rome, where anti-gay protestors had staged a giant rally last month. The marchers held up banners screaming: "For a more European Italy," "Rights for All," and "Equality, Dignity and Secularism," as they called upon Prime Minister Romano Prodi to speed up plans to recognise gay unions.
Note: Read full article on www.france24.com
(USA) - Violence at Gay Pride parades in Russia, Romania and Poland has some U.S. activists questioning the role both domestic and international gay rights groups should play in responding to similar incidents abroad in the future. Moscow Pride organizer Nikolai Alekseev said he thinks IGLHRC will have no effect on Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov’s decision to ban parades there. He said IGLHRC turned down invitations to observe the last two parades because it did not meet its fundraising goals. “Send us a House representative. Send us a senator,” Alekseev said. “By sending officials you will make a difference. This will prevent the authorities from allowing the police and the fascists to beat us. But it’s not a press release that will change anything, especially when the event has passed.”
Note: Read full article on Washington Blade
(Gloucester, USA) - A local group is starting its first public campaign to convince local legislators to stop a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage from coming to a statewide vote. Cape Ann Equality, a local offshoot of the state Mass Equality organization that advocates in favor of keeping gay marriage legal, has gathered hundreds of signatures. The local group ran a full-page ad in yesterday's Times in advance of Thursday's Constitutional Convention, where the House and Senate will take up the proposed amendment that defines marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman. The group, which garnered more than 240 signatures, has an active membership of between 20 and 30, said Astrid afKlinteberg, a former city councilor who signed the statement to legislators. The activists have been meeting since January.
Note: Read full article on www.gloucestertimes.com
(India) - Indian law makes same-sex love a crime, which is punishable by 10 years or even life imprisonment. ''It's crazy that society today affords you everything but the right to be yourself. Being gay and demanding equal rights is not about asking for the moon, it's really about the right to be happy,'' said a gay man. ''The gay-lesbian movement has to challenge patriarchy. It has to do a lot of challenges. I call it the cutting edge of new social systems. Because gay men and women are going to evolve new social patterns. Why can't five different generations of men live under one roof?'' said Kavi, a gay rghts activist. In 1860, the British government had declared same sex love to be unnatural but now 60 years after Independence, are we still living in the shadow of that mindset and is it now time to set love free?
Note: Read full article on www.ndtv.com
(USA) - Proponents say participation is surging in the controversial, often religious-based therapy that many call the "ex-gay movement." Exodus International, an anti-Gay Orlando-based group, says it is the world's largest Christian referral and information network dealing with homosexuality. All the major medical and mental health organizations see such therapy as potentially harmful and recommend against it. The gay and lesbian community denounces it as self-hatred. And even the most thorough studies say just a fraction of the people who enter such treatment truly change their orientation. Activists reject the ex-gay movement. "The therapy is so destructive," said Sue Laurie, outreach coordinator for Reconciling Ministries Network, " ... I just don't know how you can ground a ministry in self-hatred."
Note: Read full article on Chicago Tribune
(Sao Paulo) - Hundreds of thousands of gay, lesbian and transvestites have taken part in a vast Gay Pride parade in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo. Organisers said the number of people taking part exceeded last year's record of 2.5 million marchers. The parade is said to be the largest of its kind in the world. Costumes, floats and music are dominating, but activists say they also have a serious message, calling for a world without discrimination. According to activists, between 1980 and 2006 some 2,680 gay people were murdered in Brazil, the majority thought to have been killed because of their sexuality. Gay Pride is taking place just days after around one million Evangelical Christians held their annual demonstration in Sao Paulo, during which one minister addressing the crowd linked homosexuality with Satanism.
Note: Read full article on BBC
(Moscow, Russia) – The main organiser of Moscow Gay Pride was today found guilty of disobeying police officers while breaching traffic rules on May 27 as he and other activists, including European parliamentarians tried to deliver a petition to Moscow City Hall signed by around 50 Members of the European Parliament. Nikolai Alekseev was fined 1,000 roubles (£20, €29, $39), the same as co-organiser and leader of the “Russian Radicals” movement Nikolai Khramov when he was found guilty yesterday in the same court. After the hearing, Mr. Alekseev vowed that he would not pay the fine and would be launching an appeal to the Moscow Tverskoy District Court.
Note: Read full article on UK Gay News
(Israel) - The ultra-Orthodox rabbinical court, Haredi Badatz, placed a "curse" Sunday on the participants in the upcoming Gay Pride parade scheduled to take place next week in Jerusalem. The court also cursed the police officers who will be maintaining order during the parade. Badatz rabbis plastered warning posters on Jerusalem city walls saying "All those involved in the matter, those of impure souls and those helping them and guarding them, they will feel in their souls a curse, a bad spirit will come over them and haunt them, they will never be cleansed of their sins, from the judgment of God, in their bodies, their souls and their finances."
Note: Read full article on Haaretz
(Bucharest, Romania) - Romanian riot police detained dozens of militant protesters on Saturday as hundreds tried to violently break up a gay rights march in the capital, Bucharest. Around 500 gay activists marched through the city to demonstrate against discrimination in this essentially conservative country and to call for the legalisation of same-sex marriages. Police fired tear gas to hold the protesters at bay after hundreds threw stones and attempted to break through protective cordons manned by 700 officers. Gays are viewed with hostility by much of the public as many people in the country of 22 million largely accept the powerful Orthodox church's view of homosexuality as a sin and a disease.
Note: Read full article on Reuters
(Moscow, Russia) – One of the three organisers of Moscow Pride has escaped a jail sentence and was fined when found guilty this afternoon in a Moscow court which threw-out evidence, given at a previous hearing by a number of MPs from Europe, as “frivolous”. Nikolai Khramov was charged under the Code on Administrative Offences (h. Art. 19.3 – disobedience of legitimate demands of the police). He was fined 1,000 roubles (£20, €29, $39) by the Tver District Magistrates Court. The maximum sentence is 15 days imprisonment. The same judge will hear the cases against the other two Pride organizers, Mr. Alekseev at 9am (Moscow time) and Sergei Konstantinov, an activist with the “free radicals”) at 4.30pm. Similar verdicts are expected.
Note: Read full article on UK Gay News
(Tel Aviv, Israel) - Some 15,000 people arrived at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Friday to participate in the annual gay pride parade. Several dozen right-wing activists, including Baruch Marzel, greeted the marchers at Rabin Square with chants of “anti-Semites” and “you are bringing disaster upon us” and called for the parade’s cancellation. About 500 police officers and volunteers were positioned along the parade’s route to keep order. On Wednesday the Knesset approved in a first reading two bills aimed at preventing the gay pride parade from taking place in Jerusalem, or in any other place in the country.
Note: Read full article on www.ynetnews.com
(Boston, USA) - This weekend, on the eve of what could be a historic and final vote on gay marriage in Massachusetts, Governor Deval Patrick will become the first sitting governor in state history to march in Boston’s gay pride parade, according to organizers. Patrick appeared Thursday night at an event -- sponsored by MassEquality, a gay marriage advocacy group -- featuring prominent lawyers who oppose the amendment. The governor once again defended gay marriage as a matter of basic equality, but he also made a pragmatic argument in favor of defeating the gay marriage ban.
Note: Read full article on Boston.com
(Riga, Latvia) – Mozaīka, the Latvian alliance of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals (LGBT) and their friends, is very pleased about the “March for Equality” which took place in Vērmaņdārzs Park in Rīga on June 3, 2007, as part of their “Friendship Days 2007” festival. “We are very pleased that this year the march took place in a completely different political climate than the one which prevailed in 2005 and 2006,” the group said in a statement today. Read more...
(Lansing, USA) - The City of Kalamazoo no longer will offer health insurance benefits to the partners of gay workers, becoming Michigan's first public employer to take away existing benefits in the wake of a 2004 ban against gay marriage. Kalamazoo City Manager Kenneth Collard confirmed Monday that the city will eliminate domestic partner benefits for four non-unionized employees effective June 30. He cited a May 23 order from the Michigan Supreme Court. The high court agreed to hear an appeal of a state Court of Appeals decision blocking same-sex benefits, but it also let the earlier decision take immediate effect.
Note: Read full article on www.detnews.com
(Jerusalem, Israel) - The Knesset gave approval in principal Wednesday to two bills that would bar LGBT pride parades throughout Israel. One bill would would amend laws governing Jerusalem to permit the city from banning any parade or rally the council believed would disturb public order or offend religious sensitivities. The other would ban all gay marches throughout Israel. Members of the Knesset voted two-to-one to advance the two bills. They now must go to committee and then receive a final vote in the full Knesset.
Note: Read full article on 365Gay.com
On Sunday 27 May, in Moscow, I witnessed the latest assault on human rights in Russia. A tiny, peaceful Gay Pride march, which threatened no one, was banned on the diktat of Moscow's mayor, Yuri Luzhkov. At the same time, President Putin effectively banned Gay Pride organisers from holding a rally in a park near the Kremlin, having ignored their request for permission. Russian law guarantees the right to protest.
Note: Read full article on New Statesman
(Riga, Latvia) - Around 1,200 people marched around the Vermanes Gardens at lunchtime as Riga staged, after two previous attempts, its Gay Pride. But it was not like most Prides around the world. Today was more of a walk around the park with tight security. The main thing, as everyone agreed, was that it happened and it was peaceful. Gay men and women from across Europe — not to mention dozens of Tinky Winkys - journeyed to the Latvian capital in solidarity with their embattled ‘brothers and sisters’. “We just had to come here,” said one German visitor. “The Latvian gays have had terrible experiences at the last two Prides, so this is my way of telling them that they are not forgotten."
Note: Read full article on UK Gay News
(Riga, Latvia) - The effect of last year’s abandoned Riga Gay Pride, when participants attending private indoor events had animal excrement thrown over them from No Pride protestors, has had a positive effect for all of Latvian society, Anhelita Kamenska of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights said this afternoon. She said that the negative world-wide publicity for Latvia, combined with a court case, had resulted in all demonstrations now being permitted. “Latvian people now have the right of assembly - and the police will now protect demonstrations,” Ms. Kamenska said. She said that the decision by a local court to back the ban on last year’s Pride Parade was overturned on appeal by the regional court.
Note: Read full article on UK Gay News
(Riga, Latvia) - Sexual rights activists from across Europe gathered in Latvia on Saturday, a day before a gay pride parade that is expected to face angry protests from conservative groups. Last year, an informal meeting of gay rights advocates in the Baltic country drew a crowd of irate demonstrators, some of whom threw eggs and excrement at the meeting's participants. Outraged by scenes of unrest last year, lawmakers and gay-rights advocates from across Europe have promised to attend the event Sunday, which will be Riga's second gay pride parade after the inaugural march in 2005. Swedish Migration Minister Tobias Billstrom was also set to take part.
Note: Read full article on International Herald Tribune
(Israel) - A number of friends plan to set up a party for gay people that would contend for Knesset seats in the next general election. The party will be called Magi, a Hebrew acronym for Gay Party in Israel, the Tel Aviv magazine reported Thursday. Gay groups stepped up their campaign for more civil rights when their plans to hold a gay pride parade in Jerusalem were cancelled by the police for fear of confrontations with the city's strictly religious residents. Journalist and director Hagai Eyad will be appointed the party's secretary-general.
Note: Read full article on www.ynetnews.com
It is Gay Pride season in Europe, with marches in Poland and Russia. In Latvia, the capital, Riga, is hosting four days of lectures, classical concerts, parties and film screenings, but the big draw will be the final parade through the Vermane Garden on June 3. Organisers are hoping for a turnout of around 400, maybe more if the weather is as sunny as last year. It's hard to know. What they can expect with some certainty is that neofascist and ultra-religious counterdemonstrators will outnumber their marchers by at least two to one. The police presence will be greater still. As one activist put it, "It'll be less of a Pride parade than a human rights fight."
Note: Read full article on Guardian
(Riga, Latvia) - Foreign guests, please don’t come to Latvia for Riga Friendship Days and Gay Pride. That is the message from the ‘No Pride’ group, who have not headed their own plea. They say on their website: “Foreign Guests please don’t come. It’s our problem. Not yours!” However, foreign guests appear to be welcome to be in town for the four-day ‘festival’, which has opened today (May 31), if they support the No Pride viewpoint. Scott Lively, the American author of The Pink Swastika, is reported to be already in Riga. Read more...
(Riga, Latvia) - Gay activists in Latvia, pelted with excrement and eggs last year when trying to meet, said on Wednesday they hoped a Gay Pride march this year would be peaceful. Latvia, like many other countries in eastern Europe, has a generally conservative and often hostile attitude to homosexuality. Several days of events are planned by gays in the capital Riga, culminating in a parade on June 3. "I think things will be different this year because police are being very cooperative and they understand that they need to protect us," said Linda Freimane, a board member of gay rights organisation Mozaika.
Note: Read full article on Javno
Watching the gay rights activists get beaten boiled my blood. In essence, an estimated one hundred violent anti-gay punks were intimidating an entire population of gay Russians with the message: Stay in the closet or face violence. I'm traditionally for peaceful protests, but we can't forget that Stonewall included fighting back. A part of me thinks we should show up next year in larger numbers with the idea that we are going to finally put our overpriced gym memberships to good use. Of course, my retributive thoughts are tempered with the realization that after Stonewall, the rebelling drag queens were not iced with polonium-210, like former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.
Note: Read full article on WayneBesen.com
If we were brave enough, we would go to make the point in Russia and across eastern Europe; places with no recent history of personal liberty, which are learning respect for lives different from their own. What we can certainly do is to maintain our own visibility; to take the trouble to phone in when a Ronni Ancona or a Catherine Tate is permitted a publicly funded display of bigotry. And, above all, to do what we wouldn't be permitted to do if we lived in Russia; on Gay Pride day this year, on 30 June, to take to the streets and march.
Note: Read full article on Independent
(Lissabon, Portugal) – The Portuguese gay and lesbian group Panteras Rosa (Pink Panthers) today hit out against the Russian authorities after the weekend’s violence in Moscow during Gay Pride. And the group were also scathing about the silence of both the European Union and the Portugese Prime Minister José Sócrates who was in Moscow for talks at the Kremlin yesterday with President Putin. “The 27th of May was a day of shame for the Russian authorities. But it was also a day of shame for José Sócrates and for the EU – and we will not forget it,” the Pinks Panthers said in a statement today.
Note: Read full article on UK Gay News
I was invited to Moscow by the organisers of Gay Pride. The plan was to mark the 14th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Russia, and call for the right to hold a gay pride parade. The activists had been attacked at a similar protest last year, and they felt it was very important to have international observers to witness how the Moscow authorities treated them. Their hope was that our presence would encourage the Moscow police to be less aggressive.
Note: Read full article on Guardian
(Jerusalem, Israel) – A ministerial committee approved a bill to ban the gay pride parade. The Ministers Committee for Legislation voted on Sunday in favour of a bill that would give Jerusalem city council power to ban next month’s gay pride parade. The draft legislation is to go before the Knesset on Wednesday. Religious parties and Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann are pushing for this legislation. Under the new law it would be more difficult for gay groups to hold their annual gay pride parade in Jerusalem. Four ministers voted in favour of a Knesset vote on the bill while three opposed the move.
Note: Read full article on Asia News
(Moscow, Russia) – Nikolai Alekseev and two colleagues from Moscow Gay Pride are spending tonight in police custody at they await a court appearance later this morning. The three has been moved to another police station, friends are reporting. Volker Beck, the Green Party member of the German Bundestag who himself was arrested briefly yesterday afternoon, spent all last calling his contacts in both Germany and Russia trying to get legal assistance to the “Moscow Gay Pride Three” who are to appear in court at 11am Moscow time. Read more...
(Moscow, Russia) - Arrests and violent attacks marred today’s attempted Moscow Gay Pride march. Fifteen to 20 marchers were arrested. The organiser of Moscow Pride, Nikolai Alekseev, is being detained overnight at Moscow’s Tverskoi district police station, together with two prominent members of Russia’s Radical and Free Radical parties, Nikolai Khramov and Sergei Konstantinov. British gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was one of several Gay Pride marchers who were beaten today by gangs of neo-Nazis, nationalist extremists and Russian Orthodox fundamentalists, with the apparent collusion of sections of the Moscow police and the Russian OMON riot squad. Read more...
(Israel) - A half-year has passed, and traditional elements in Jerusalem are gearing up for another fight against yet another homosexual parade in the holy city. Religious, traditional and conservative elements in Jerusalem say they will not accept another attempt at a homosexual parade in the holy city. This, just a few days after the police announced its approval-in-principle of the parade - scheduled for next month. Six months ago, a loud controversy raged against the holding of a World Pride event in the capital. Some leaders of that anti-parade campaign now say they will not tire, and plan to fight the upcoming parade with full force.
Note: Read full article on Israel National News
(Moscow, Russia) – From inside the Tverskoya police station, where he is being detained, Nikolai Alekseev – one of the Moscow Gay Pride organisers and its spokesperson – has issued a statement asking for international support and for the immediate release of all the gays activists currently being held. There is confusion as to exactly how many are being held. But Scott Long of Human Rights Watch, who is in Moscow, has confirmed that there are 15 being held at Tverskoya and is checking reports that others are being held elsewhere in the city. Read more...
(Moscow, Russia) - More than 20 people were detained by police in Moscow near the building of the Moscow City Hall, where gay activists performed an action in support of gay rights. Nikolai Alekseyev, one of the organizers of the demo, is among the detainees, along with Marco Capatto, a European Parliament deputy from Italy, and Volker Beck, member of the German Bundestag.
Note: UPDATE: Video of the assault on Peter Tatchell Read more...
(New Delhi, India) - Hundreds of India's closet gays and lesbians came out to celebrate their sexuality with the launch of a 10-day festival in New Delhi, hoping to build on a campaign against the country's strict anti-gay law. The 'Nigah QueerFest '07' kicked off late on Friday with a film screening, a lot of bonhomie and laughter--a rarity for most Indian gays who are often scorned and persecuted for even holding hands in public. Homosexuality is a crime in India and can result in a jail term of at least 10 years.
Note: Read full article on www.expressindia.com
(Russia) - A planned protest by members of Moscow's gay community this Sunday has provoked a deep split among Russian homosexuals: whether to battle on the streets for greater rights or remain in the shadows. "We are simply asking to be considered citizens like any others," said Nikolai Alexeyev, the organiser of the planned March of Tolerance, which has been banned by city authorities. Alexeyev, virtually the sole public face of Russia's gay rights movement, is as controversial a figure for many Russian gays as he is for the authorities who ban his events. "Society is not ready for this kind of demonstration," said Alexander Khodorkovsky, administrator of Russia's largest gay dating site, QGuys.ru.
Note: Read full article on www.france24.com
(Moscow, Russia) - Russian gay activists vowed Saturday to hold a demonstration in Moscow despite a ban by the city authorities, a year after a similar attempt led to arrests by police, attacks by right-wing nationalists and verbal abuse by pensioners. The Sunday demonstration is to mark the 14th anniversary of Russia's decriminalization of homosexuality. But despite the decriminalization, intolerance of homosexuaity remains high in Russia; it is denounced by the dominant Russian Orthodox Church and President Vladimir Putin in his annoual news conference implied that gays were undermining the country by not procreating.
Note: Read full atory on International Herald Tribune
(Moscow, Russia) - When Italian transgendered politician Vladimir Luxuria met Nikolai Alekseev at the Turin Pride last June, she accepted the invitation of the Russian gay movement to attend the 2nd Moscow Pride. Eleven months later Vladimir Luxuria arrived at Moscow’s Sheremetievo airport. And despite she incidentally came without visa, the Russian foreign affairs ministry granted her a visa at the airport. Vladimir Luxuria is ready to join Russian LGBT activists and supporters to march in Moscow on Sunday. Read more...
(Moscow, Russia) – International solidarity can help give a psychological and practical boost to local LGBT activists, Peter Tatchell said shortly after arriving in Moscow for the city’s second Gay Pride. “It also offers a degree of protection against State repression,” he said. “Mayor Luzhkov is already less vocal against gay pride than he was this time last year. “Perhaps that’s because he knows the world is watching and there are high profile international observers attending the pride conference and march,” the London-based human rights activist and founder of Outrage! suggested. Read more...
(Warsaw, Poland) - Thousands of people marched Saturday in the capital's annual gay-rights parade, days after the education minister called for a ban on the "propagation of homosexuality" in Poland's schools. About 5,000 demonstrators marched from parliament through downtown, amid a heavy police presence, led by a truck festooned with red, blue, green and purple balloons and blasting strains of loud music. Some marchers carried placards reading "Stop homophobia," while others toted rainbow flags, a symbol of the gay community. The Equality Parade comes as an increasingly vocal gay rights movement faces off against conservative leaders who have openly denounced homosexuality.
Note: Read full article on CNN
(St. Petersburg, Russia) - City Hall has refused to give permission for a gay pride parade to be held on Nevsky Prospekt in downtown St. Petersburg on May 26, citing the tight schedule of already confirmed events in the city center that day. Alexandra Polyanskaya, a spokesman of the St. Petersburg parade’s organizing committee, said it is planning to reapply for permission to hold the parade on another day. “Misconceptions about sexual minorities are widespread here,” Polyanskaya said.
Note: Read full article on St. Petersburg Times
(Canada) - Growing up in Iran was not easy for Arsham Parsi. Early in his childhood, he recognized that he was "different." When he realized during his teenage years that he was attracted to other men, his life became even more complicated. Gay and lesbian groups are marking International Day against Homophobia today, celebrating the day 17 years ago that the World Health Organization (WHO) removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. But they still face discrimination and harassment in many countries -- including Iran, where a strict official interpretation of Islam threatens homosexuals with the death penalty.
Note: Read full article on Radio Free Europe
(Warsaw, Poland) - Poland's education minister on Wednesday called for a ban on the "propagation of homosexuality" in the country's schools. Amendments to the education law would require school directors to scrap or ban any activities that promote "homosexuality, pornography or other phenomena violating moral norms," said Education Minister Roman Giertych. He unveiled his proposal at the education ministry less than a month after the European Parliament passed a resolution sharply criticizing senior Polish officials for declarations "inciting discrimination and hatred based on sexual orientation."
Note: Read full article on International Herald Tribune
Today is the International Day Against Homophobia - IDAHO - which is being observed in countries all over the world - except in the U.S. What is IDAHO all about, why has it been endorsed by the European Parliament and by the government of the United Kingdom -- and why aren't U.S. activists using this day to educate and agitate in support of those who live in the 85 countries (according to a detailed new ILGA report) that criminalize homosexuality?
Note: Read full article on DIRELAND
(Mowscow, Russia) - Few gay organizations belonging to the scanty so called LGBTnet published yesterday a statement against the deputy of State Duma Alexey Mitrofanov from Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) who recently supported the idea of the gay pride march in Moscow. This statement signed also by some leftist groups condemns any cooperation with Mr. Mitrofanov and blames Moscow gay pride organizers for this. The statement says Mr. Mitrofanov doesn’t care about gay march and intends only to “have a permission for visits to Europe”. Mr. Mitrofanov is called also “nationalist” in the statement. In fact Mitrofanov’s opponents dislike not his political believes but rather his support of Moscow gay march – a unique attitude among Russian politicians and deputies.
Note: Read full article on GayRussia.Ru
(Moscow, Russia) - Russian gay rights activists vowed on Tuesday to ignore an imminent ban by Moscow city authorities on a gay pride parade later this month. Police arrived shortly before the start of a news conference saying they wanted to stay and listen, parade organiser Nikolai Alexeyev said. The meeting was also disrupted by a homophobic tirade by a journalist who compared homosexuals to paedophiles and a second who quoted the Bible and said Russia shouldn't imitate Western values.
Note: Read full article on Gay Russia
(Moscow, Russia) - Moscow authorities have banned a proposed gay pride parade that activists hoped to hold on May 27. Parade organizers said Tuesday they would rally regardless. Moscow authorities said they had recently received a great number of letters from Muscovites, asking to ban the proposed gay pride parade in the Russian capital. Nikolay Kulikov, who is in charge of security issues at the Moscow city government, said the proposed parade violates the “rights and liberties” of non-gay citizens. Parliamentary deputy Alexey Mitrofanov attended a news conference of the Moscow Pride Parade on Tuesday to supports the organizers. He told the meeting that blocking the gay pride parade would set a dangerous precedent for bans on demonstration by other minorities and opposition groups that authorities dislike.
Note: Read full article on Kommersant
(St. Petersburg, Russia) - Russian homosexuals rights activists said Monday some 2,000 people are expected to take part in a gay pride parade in St. Petersburg later this month despite authorities' opposition to events celebrating gay culture. Organizers of the parade said they had notified municipal authorities of their intention to stage a march along the city's main thoroughfare, Nevsky Prospekt, May 26. Officials at City Hall, however, said they had not yet received any notification. Last May, gay parades in St. Petersburg and Moscow took place despite authorities' refusal to give the go-ahead, but many of its participants were detained by police and attacked by neo-Nazi groups.
Note: Read full article on RIA Novosti
(Moscow, Russia) – Organisers of Moscow Gay Pride have this morning submitted the official documents in relation to the Pride march scheduled for Sunday May 27. And yesterday the Russian State Duma deputy Alexey Mitrofanov, who last week sensationally said that the Gay Pride march should be permitted, will be attending a press conference tomorrow where Moscow Pride organisers will reveal the plans for the event to speak in support of the event. Official notification of the proposed march in the city centre was delivered this morning to the office of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. Read more...
(Canada) - Bill C-22 - an act to raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16 - passed third reading in the House Of Commons on Friday, despite criticism from opposition MPs that the bill is discriminatory because it does not remove the age of consent for anal sex, which is set at 18. The House passed Bill C-22 with unanimous consent "on division," which means that while all parties supported the bill, there were a number of individual MPs who raised objections.
Note: Read full article on www.xtra.ca
(Moscow, Russia) – A Russian State Duma deputy representing Liberal Democratic party and deputy head of the Duma Committee on constitutional legislation, Alexey Mitrofanov, said this morning that the Moscow authorities should allow the Moscow Gay Pride parade planned for the end of May. The banning, he said, will lead to very negative consequences for Russia as a country. Read more...
(London, UK) – The gay rights lobby group Stonewall, held a Parliamentary reception yesterday to thank dozens of politicians from all the major political parties who were involved in securing new ‘goods and services’ protections for gay people which came into force at the end of last month. More than 50 MPs and peers attended the event, held in the Jubilee Room of Westminster Hall and sponsored by Lloyds TSB. Read more...
(USA) - Mitchell Gold is an openly gay, Jewish furniture magnate who is larger than life in small town America. With his penchant for challenging the status quo, it is no surprise that the organization founded by Gold, Faith In America - which is led by Rev. Jimmy Creech - has launched a controversial and ambitious venture to take on anti-gay prejudice. The "Call to Courage" campaign is a five-city experiment that will "educate the public on the parallels between historical precedents of religion-based bigotry and today's struggle for full and equal rights for gay people."
Note: Read full article on www.waynebesen.com
(Juneau, USA) - The Alaska House on Monday failed to pass a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow voters the chance to deny court-ordered benefits for same-sex partners of public employees. The resolution would allow a constitutional amendment to be placed on the statewide election ballot that, if passed, could overturn an Alaska Supreme Court order that required health and retirement benefits be offered to the partners of gay state employees.
Note: Read full article on Alaska Journal
(Zimbabwe) - Mugabe's people, who have a lock on foreign currency in Zimbabwe, are buying up every business in Bulawayo. Everything is geared towards the advancement of Mugabe and his party elite. These people have no moral values. They are totally opposed to morality. The amount of suffering they have created: half of our children are out of school. These people have no conscience. What goes, what is allowed, is what suits Mugabe and what suits his aims of retaining power. They're really depraved. They are totally corrupt, ruthless, cruel. The only things that matters is the regime's staying in power. They wouldn't mind if half all Zimbabweans die.
Note: Read full article on Time
(Switzerland) - A Swiss right-wing political party has agreed to either change or remove advertising posters which call gay couples infertile. The Swiss People’s Party (UDC) is campaigning against a proposal to extend tax benefits to same-sex partners. The party's general secretary added to the controversy by telling Leman Bleu TV that gay people contribute nothing to society because they do not have children. A referendum will be held on 20th May on the proposal to allow same-sex couples to be exempt from inheritance tax if when one of them dies.
Note: Read full article on Pink News
(Johannesburg, South Africa) - The first regional conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association in Africa will take place in Johannesburg this weekend. This gathering of a large number of activists dealing with the advancement of LGBT issues on the continent hopes to make further progress. 60 human rights and LGBTI activists from all corners of the African continent will gather to discuss ways to challenge state homophobia, lesbophobia and transphobia in Africa.
Note: Read full article on Pink News
(South Africa) - The international campaign for equal rights for homosexuals and other sexual minorities took a step forward on 14 November 2006 when South Africa became the first country in Africa, and the fifth in the world, to legalize same-sex marriage. But it is not a trend. Conservative religious and political leaders in many countries still strongly oppose equal rights for homosexuals, including same-sex marriage. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour noted in August 2006 that worldwide, more than 80 countries criminalize consensual sexual relations between persons of the same sex - including seven in which the punishment can be death.
Note: Read full article on www.andnetwork.com
(Chisinau, Moldova) Organisers of the Moldova ‘Gay Pride’ – Rainbow over the Dniester – have claimed a victory over the Chisinau city authorities. Last weekend’s LGBT Pride – the sixth in the Moldovan capital – was staged despite a ban on public events by city officials even after a ruling by the Moldova Supreme Court that a similar ban imposed last year was illegal. But not everything went smoothly. When participants arrived at the Monument to the Victims of Repression, they were met by the police who prevented the laying of flowers. Read more...
(Turkey) - Gays in Turkey say they lack legal protections and face social stigma in a Muslim nation with a secular tradition of government that has implemented broad reforms in its bid to join the European Union - but remains heavily influenced by conservative and religious values. For the most part, they face less pressure than in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries where Islamic codes are enforced with more rigor. Yet, for many, being homosexual is an exercise in deception.
Note: Read full article on International Herald Tribune
(UK) - The Equality Act, coming 16 months after civil partnerships made the headlines, could later be judged as equally significant, at least in its symbolism. It is not a piece of legislation welcomed by all and it was bitterly opposed by parts of the Catholic Church. But it marks the last of a series of major legal reforms which have transformed the treatment of homosexuality by the state.
Note: Read full article on BBC
(UK) - The human rights campaigner answers your questions, such as 'Should we invade Zimbabwe?' and 'Is it immoral for people to stay in the closet?
Note: Read the interview on Independent
A decade ago, following his threat to out gay bishops and MPs, Tatchell was a hate figure for the right-wing press. Then, thanks to his attempts to "arrest" Robert Mugabe, in London in 1999 and Brussels in 2001, he suddenly became a hero. But what no one, in the media anyway, can quite bring themselves to do is take him seriously. Just as the New Statesman, which ought to be on his side, could not bear to print his vision of a world of peace and harmony, so the announcement last week that he was to be the Green party's candidate in Oxford East at the next election attracted waggish derision.
Note: Read full article on Guardian
(London, UK) - As the European Parliament debated the question of homophobia in the EU and, in particular Poland, despite attempts to get the subject off the agenda, UK Green MEP Jean Lambert spoke out against the prominent Polish politicians and ministers making public anti-homosexual statements and even promoting anti-homosexual legislation. Ms. Lambert, who is a member of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights, said yesterday she was proud to vote for the resolution against Homophobia but regretted the antagonistic approach taken by some of her colleagues towards this important motion. Read more...
(Dallas, USA) - Carrollton Mayor Becky Miller wanted to support gays and lesbians in her city, so she rode in a Mustang in Dallas' annual gay pride parade last fall. But that has generated criticism from some Carrollton residents, who submitted a petition this month that opposes city officials' involvement in the parade. "Petitioners are concerned that the parade doesn't "fit with the values of our community," said Paul Kramer, who circulated the petition. About 75 people signed it.
Note: Read full article on www.dallasnews.com
(Tallahassee, Florida) Legislation that would require Florida school boards to establish anti-bullying programs has been declared dead in the Senate. The House on Tuesday passed the bill, named for Jeffery Johnston, a 15 year old who committed suicide in 2005 after he was repeatedly bullied and taunted online. The vote was nearly unanimous. But in the Senate a parallel bill stalled in the Education Pre-Kindergarten-12 Appropriations Committee which adjourned without considering the measure. Committee chair Sen. Stephen Wise (R) said the issue is closed, and accused supporters of bullying him.
Note: Read full article on 365gay.com
(Oxford, UK) - Peter Tatchell, the internationally recognised human rights campaigner and founder of the gay human rights group Outrage!, has today been chosen as the Green Party’s general election candidate for Oxford East. He faced stiff competition from Matt Morton, a local environmental activist, and the vote was put to the local party. Peter Tatchell won 63 per cent of the vote. Oxfordshire Green Party is one of the most successful in the country with Green councillors elected to all levels of local Government – county, city and parish.
Note: Read full article UK Gay News
(Krakow, Poland) - The March for Tolerance in the Polish city of Krakow was attended by some 2,000 participants on Saturday, April 21. The gay rights demonstration was cofronted by 300 homophobic mobsters participating in a counter-event organnized by the right-wing All-Polish Youth, organization connected to Polish Education Minister Roman Giertych. The radical homophobes attempted to blocade a part of the parade route and repeatedly assaulted gay marchers. The police prevented excessive violence and arrested several homophobic thugs. The march was part of the 4th Krakow Festival of Gay and Lesbian Culture. Read more...
(New York City) - Last Thursday, the gay-rights group 'Radical Homosexual Agenda' and free-speech advocates 'Assemble for Rights NYC' went ahead with a street demonstration, even though they'd been denied a city permit. Organizers expected a few arrests would come at the the Parade Without a Permit but no one was ready for the heavy-handed police response.
Note: Details are at Gothamist (a blog) and Bike Blog.
Pictures of the police attack are here, and a download link for video (.mov, 89 MB) is here.
(Moscow) - A Russian court on Friday threw out a lawsuit by two gay rights activists against Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov for publicly branding Gay Pride parades a 'satanic act.' "The court has not found reasons to rule in favor of the suit," a spokesman for Moscow's Tverskoi district court said.
Note: The rest of the story is on MSNBC
The Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization (PGLO), now called the Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO), is a non-profit organization working for the rights of sexual minorities in Iran. In the following interview, Arsham Parsi, one of the founders and the secretary-general of the organization, describes the formation and activities of IRQO and the existing challenges surrounding sexuality issues in Iran. He also shares his own experiences fighting for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Iran. Read more...
(Port Harcourt, Nigeria) – According to a report by Human Rights Watch, the voting on April 14 in key Nigerian states including Rivers and Anambra was marred by fraud, intimidation and violence. Nigeria’s nationwide elections, conducted on April 14 and April 21, mark the country’s first handover of power from one civilian head of state to another. Read more...
(Chişinău, Moldova) - News came from Brussels on Friday afternoon that the Chisinau city authorities had, for the third year running, banned a Gay Pride public event. Making this news more incredible is the fact that the ban on this year’s Pride comes just months after the Moldovan Supreme Court ruled that last year’s ban by the city authorities was illegal. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the reason the Chisinau city authorities banned the public parts of Gay Pride were possible public disorder - and the promotion of sex which was contrary to Christian values in Moldova.
Note: Read full article on UK Gay News
I’ve been thinking about how the uproar over Don Imus’s racist remarks underscores the appalling ineffectiveness of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, something quite a few listeners to my radio program have pointed out as well. GLAAD’s sole purpose these days seems to be to help Hollywood and media figures get through their various homophobic p.r. meltdowns while cooing with praise at the slightest bit of good they do. That is no more evident than in the GLAAD Media Awards, star-studded, lavish events that now take place in four cities – New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami – over a period of almost two months and attended by more than 5000 people at a cost of several hundred dollars each for a dinner among the stars.
Note: Read full article on The Gist
(Oxford, UK) - Gay human rights activist Peter Tatchell is hoping to be picked as the Green Party parliamentary candidate to contest the Oxford East constituency. Mr Tatchell, who stood as a Labour candidate in London more than 20 years ago, is up against local resident and campaigner Matt Morton for the seat, currently held by Labour MP Andrew Smith. Green Party members are currently being asked to vote for one of the men and spoke at a party meeting in Oxford Town Hall on Thursday.
Note: Read full article on Oxford Mail
(Moscow, Russia) - On Friday it was announced that last Wednesday 11 April organizer of Moscow Gay Pride Nikolai Alekseev received official police confirmation that the administrative case against him for participation in the public actions on 27 May last year was closed. Last year, Nikolai Alekseev was detained by Moscow police on the entrance to Alexandrovski Garden next to Kremlin wall where he tried to put flowers to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Several hours later the organizer of the pride was released.
Note: Read full article on www.gayrussia.ru
(Manila, Phillipines) - "PHANTOM candidates" will paint the town pink today to mark Friday the 13th and denounce the Commission on Elections’ decision to declare the party-list group of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders a nuisance, one of its leaders said yesterday. About 150 members of the Ang Ladlad group will gather in front of the Comelec offices in Manila to slam Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr., who has called them phantoms, according to gay-rights champion Danton Remoto. "We will rally in front of Comelec to show we are not the phantom but the opera. We encourage people to join us in a show of the pink vote," he said.
Note: Read full article on Manila Standard
(USA) - Two men from the gay rights activist group Soulforce were arrested for criminal trespassing during a demonstration today at the campus of Patrick Henry College, a private Christian school in Purcellville. Soulforce members-there were 26 on the bus-and some local supporters gathered outside the school, at times signing and at other times standing silently. Lucas said they had hoped some students from the school would exit campus and have a conversation. By midday, that hadn't happened.
Note: Read full article on www.leesburg2day.com
(USA) - Democrat John Edwards is touting prominent gay supporters who have signed on to his presidential campaign, including a former adviser to President Clinton. But Edwards has competition for the gay community's support - Barack Obama's campaign has also said he is opposed to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," as has Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign.
Note: Read full article on Southern Voice
(Turkey) - Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement in Turkey accelerated by the 1990s. Today, it has reached to a level that gay and lesbian university students can apply for an official student club. Transsexuals and transvestites feel the oppression much more than gays, lesbians and bisexuals LAMBDAIstanbul activists said, since they are more visible. The oppression from police forces is overwhelming.
Note: Read full article on Turkish Daily News
(UK) - In a big poll by the British newspaper The Observer, embattled Prime Minister Tony Blair is pulling poor grades on most issues, save one. Most respondents find that the lot of GLBT people has improved since Blair took office. Even so, most also find that Britain is a 'less liberal' place than it used to be.
Note: The details are in The Observer
(Indiana) - School officials are in talks with the lawyers of a Naperville teen who sued the district over the ban on an anti-gay T-shirt that she wanted to wear in protest of the Day of Silence. The lawsuit is still proceding, but both parties hope to come to an agreement before they go to court.
Note: The details are in the Daily Herald
See previous story: Lawsuit: Our School Stifles Anti-gay Speech!
(USA) - TIME magazine has discovered the political sappers' operation that is made possible by Tim Gill's pile of money, and they're happy to describe it in terms designed to make the Religious Right think Gill is after the same thing that the Christianists are: total world domination! Wuh-ha ha-HA!
Note: The story is in TIME magazine though... you saw it first on GRD: They Won't Know What Hit Them
(UK) - A leading British advocacy organization has one explanation for why most employers don't handle employees' transgender transitions very well: the employers have never given the issue a moment's thought. The Gender Trust is trying to change all that, just ahead of new regulations that will require government agencies to tackle TG discrimination in the workplace.
Note: Get the full story at Pink News
(USA) - The first generation of people to be open about their sexuality-- the Baby Boomers-- are edging toward retirement age, and with its approach comes an unprecedented set of concerns. How are gay people likely to be treated in a system of retirement homes that are often run by religious organizations, and nearly entirely operated by str8 people? In short: What happens to an activist when he's too weak to speak up?
Note: The story is in the Baltimore Sun
(Ottawa) - Susan Comstock is Catholic and a member of PSAC, the labor union for public service employees. She was upset that her union supports marriage rights for GLBT folks, so she went to court, trying to get her dues redirected to her church. Susan lost, both in before the Human Rights Commission and in Federal court. But she says her fight isn't over.
Note: The rest of the story is at Canada.com
(Quebec) - After a disappointing showing in recent provincial elections, the Parti Quebecois finger-pointing has started, and oh-so predictably some candidates are saying the vote was all about PQ leader Andre Boisclair's homosexuality. "We have to ask ourselves whether Quebecers, generally, are ready to live with homosexuality," said losing PQ hopeful Rachel Gagnon.
Note: The rest of the story is in the National Post
(Columbus) - The 2004 fight over a gay marriage ban for Ohio was about as vicious as they come. And even though the good guys lost, the wrangling isn't over. The gay allies are calling for an investigation of anti-gay group Citizens for Community Values, claiming that CCV may have lied on political paperwork meant to track fundraising.
Note: The story is in the Cincinatti Enquirer
(New York City) - According to a press release issued by his attorney, Jeevan Padiyar has filed a lawsuit against Yeshiva University's Einstein School of Medicine. Padiyar says he was dismissed from his job as a researcher in 2006 because he's gay. He wants $100 million in damages. Yeshiva University has faced similar lawsuits in the past: some are pending, some were settled without admission of wrongdoing. The University is not commenting on this latest suit.
Note: More info is on the PR Newswire
(Alabama) - A decade ago, the city council of Birmingham, Alabama passed 'The Birmingham Pledge,' a plea for everyone everywhere to try to rid his heart of racism. Now the suggestion of a new version of the Pledge-- one that recognizes gay rights-- is not met with much enthusiasm.
Note: The story is in the Birmingham News
(USA) - A Clearwater, Florida man is trying to end alimony payments to the person who used to be his wife. No surprises there. But the story is in the details: the former wife is now a man. The ex-husband asserts that the transgender transistion gets him off the alimony hook, but legal experts say the judge is unlikely to agree.
Note: The rest of the info is at local10.com
(Boston) - When [then Mass. Governor, now Presidential candidate Mitt] Romney huddled with dozens of gay activists for an endorsement meeting in 2002, at the restaurant attached to the gay bar, some of his appeals were similar to those he had made on abortion. ...As with the abortion-rights activists, Romney promised the Log Cabin Republicans he would push against social conservatives on such issues as domestic partnerships for gays. ...And, as with the NARAL meeting, some activists left the room thinking that Romney was closer to their position on key issues than he now says he was.
Note: Read the whole story in the LA Times
(Columbus, OH) - A federal judge on Friday upheld significant portions of a state law that limits when and where people may protest at funerals, a law aimed at a small fundamentalist Kansas church whose members picket burials of U.S. troops killed in combat, arguing that the deaths are God's punishment for homosexuals. The 2006 law prohibits protesters from being within 300 feet of a cemetery, funeral home, church or synagogue either one hour before or after a burial service.
Note: More info in the Times Recorder
This time, 'Dr.' Paul Cameron and his wandering troupe of hack 'scientists' at FRC are hawking a pseudo-scientific confection that they're calling 'Early Gay Death Syndrome.' But according to Richard Rothstein, the only thing that's actually dead is Cameron's conscience. Read more...
From the Gay Republic Daily Editorial desk: Gay people might be forgiven for being a trifle confused about where Presidential aspirant Mitt Romney stands on gay rights. Pick a period in time, and Romney has spoken in favor of every side of the issue, good, bad and indifferent. Running for the Senate in Massachusetts, he once claimed nothing less than that he was a better friend to GLBTs than Teddy Kennedy; then a year ago, he spearheaded the effort for a state Constitutional amendment to stop us from marrying there. This guy is slippery, isn't he? Well, not so slippery anymore, despite joining some slimy company. Read more...
A moral hierarchy has shaped public policy on discrimination. Legislation against racism is much tougher than legislation against homophobia. Racial slurs provoke far stronger public condemnation than sexist ones. Some liberals and left-wingers mute their condemnation of intolerance when it emanates from non-white people; whereas they would strenuously denounce similar prejudice if it was being vented by whites against blacks or by Christians against Muslims. They argue that we have to "understand" bigots from racial and religious minorities; yet few of them ever urge the same "understanding" of white working class bigots. Read more...
After the Presidential hopeful made a shambles of his response to General Pace's assertions that 'gays are immoral,' Barak Obama has called in the gays. His campaign has announced it's forming a 'gay advisory panel.' The official story is that such a panel was planned from the outset of the campaign, but apparently--- for some reason-- there's now a new air of urgency. Read more...
The bigots still have a loud voice and they're not being shouted down. On December 21 2005 I was legally bound to the man I love - as is my legal right and my human right. I wanted to shout about it, but I still felt nervous of the public's reaction. I was, therefore, delighted and relieved on leaving the register office in Windsor to find the crowd outside cheering and supporting our union. I had feared that abusive, banner-waving bigots would try to spoil the occasion. I felt so proud that day to be British. Read more...
Peers have backed the government over gay equality laws at the centre of a row with the Catholic Church. They voted against an amendment to throw out the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations, brought by Tory peer Baroness O'Cathain. She argued that they were "seriously flawed" and would lead to litigation, but was defeated by 168 votes to 122.
Note: More details at BBCNews.com
See also: Last-Minute Challenge To Gay Rights Regs
(Santa Fe, NM) - Residents at what has been billed as a premier destination for retired gays and lesbians are wondering aloud whether RainbowVision is trying to shed its gay image. ...Last week, the rainbow flag -- a symbol of the gay community -- that flew above the community on Rodeo Road was taken down. ..."Finally we thought there was a place where we could come and we wouldn't have to apologize about being gay,'' said one resident who did not want to be identified. ``Now it's like RainbowVision is going back into the closet.'' Read more...
(Rome) - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi's top government spokesman said on Wednesday he would not resign after being photographed talking to a transsexual prostitute, calling the incident a moment of "stupid curiosity". ...The scandal broke as Prodi faced pressure over his views on family values after issuing a bill to give legal rights to unmarried and gay couples, which is fiercely opposed by conservatives and the Roman Catholic Church.
Note: Read the full story in The Daily Mail
See also: Italy's government split by gay rights divide
Gay conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan had this to say in response to Larry Kramer's recent interview: "...I think his description of straight hatred for gays is far too excessive. I'm increasingly impressed by how many straight people - and straight men - are now sticking up for us. But I profoundly agree with his analysis of how gay people enable straight prejudice. Too many of us have internalized the sense that we are not worth every bit as much as straight people. The fundamental reason why we do not have our equality is not straight hate. It is gay self-hate."
Note: Agree or disagree, you can read the rest at The Daily Dish
See also: Q&A: Larry Kramer on ACT UP, HRC and Everything Else
In a recent interview with gay journalist Rex Wockner, uber-activist Larry Kramer had plenty to say about the refounding of ACT UP, what's wrong with HRC and, where hate comes from. He also takes on gay people who insist that everything is America's just peachy.
Note: Read the full interview at Rex Wockner's blog
DEAR STRAIGHT PEOPLE, Why do you hate gay people so much? Gays are hated. Prove me wrong. Your top general just called us immoral. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is in charge of an estimated 65,000 gay and lesbian troops, some fighting for our country in Iraq. A right-wing political commentator, Ann Coulter, gets away with calling a straight presidential candidate a faggot. Even Garrison Keillor, of all people, is making really tacky jokes about gay parents in his column. This, I guess, does not qualify as hate except that it is so distasteful and dumb, often a first step on the way to hate. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama tried to duck the questions that Pace's bigotry raised, confirming what gay people know: that there is not one candidate running for public office anywhere who dares to come right out, unequivocally, and say decent, supportive things about us. Read more...
(USA) - Steven Stanton - a confirmed transsexual and the city manager of Largo, Florida - was recently put on administrative leave, pending being fired by the City Commission. Around the same time, Julie Nemecek, an assistant dean and associate professor at Spring Arbor University in Michigan, was fired, allegedly because she, too, was in the process of transitioning from male to female. Do either of these transsexuals have legal recourse against their employers? While there may be some recourse for those within the range of the Sixth Circuit's jurisdiction, the overwhelmingly majority of transsexual employees still face hard times in the current legal regime.
Note: Read full article on FindLaw.com
(UK) - A solitary British Baroness is making one final effort to block implementation of new government rules meant to stop anti-gay discrimination. According to the Telegraph newspaper, Baroness O'Cathain has introduced a resolution in the House of Lords that condemns the proposed rules, taking up the cause of Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and other religious leaders who say that the law is a threat to those sects' adoption services. Read more...
(San Francisco, USA) - The Senate primary race between openly gay San Francisco Democrats Carole Migden and Mark Leno took a contentious turn last week when a longtime Migden associate labeled Leno the "King of Kiddie Porn."
Note: Read full article on www.capitolweekly.net
The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, held recently, is an event that helps define Sydney. It brings an estimated $46 million into the economy each year, along with a substantial number of international and domestic tourists. This year, there were a record 8,000 parade participants and an estimated 300,000 spectators. It was a well organised and thoroughly policed event, even considering the crowds and road closures. Read more...
