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Minister of equality jeered at London’s gay pride
Gay Pride organisers came on stage and appealed to the crowd to stop jeering and listen to what she had to say. But their appeal had limited effect as the crowd which packed Trafalgar Square expressed their anger at the Government’s approach to gay men and women who seek refuge in the UK after feeling from danger. “At several points during her speech, a bewildered Ms Harman appeared to waiver and had to struggle to be heard,” said gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who was at the side of the stage – he was also one of the speakers. “Hundreds of people in the crowd expressed their anger at the way the Labour government is locking up gay asylum seekers, refusing them refugee status and ordering them to be sent back to violently homophobic countries like Algeria, Uganda, Iran, Nigeria, Iraq and Belarus,” he said. “Those who are returned are at risk of arrest, imprisonment torture, rape and even murder. “I tried to explain the crowd’s anger to Ms Harman as she left the stage,” he continued. “But several Gay Pride stewards violently shoved me out of the way and threatened to have me arrested. It was needless and unjustified aggression. “As I was being dragged away by the stewards, Ms Harman shouted for me to contact her. She said: ‘Peter, give me a call and we can discuss your concerns’. “I will take up her offer. I plan to present the government with a six-point plan to end the homophobic bias of the asylum system,” said Mr Tatchell. And in another incident in Trafalgar Square, a transgender was threatened with arrest by official Gay Pride stewards. Roz Caveney, a long-time human rights campaigner, journalist and transsexual woman, wanted to use the toilet. “Official stewards who were running the toilets at Trafalgar Square announced that I, and any other transgender or transsexual woman, had to use the disabled toilets and was not allowed to use the regular women's toilets,” she wrote on the Transgender At Pride website. “I pointed out to the stewards that I transitioned and had surgery before they were born; I was more polite than a polite thing. No dice…” Earlier, Mr. Tatchell marched in the Pride Parade holding a poster placard ridiculing the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It featured a doctored photo of Amhadinejad wearing blue eye shadow, red lipstick, a gold earring and pink nail varnish. He met the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and urged him to confound his gay critics and show practical support for London's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. Mr Tatchell marched in the parade with actor Sir Ian McKellen and Davis Mac-Iyalla, a leader of the Nigerian gay rights movement. “Mr Mac-Iyalla was recently forced to flee Nigeria after threats and attempts to kill him, following homophobic denunciations by the Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria, Rev Peter Akinola. Akinola is a leading figure in the conservative splinter group, Gafcon, which opposes women bishops and gay priests, and which supports punitive legal discrimination against lesbian and gay people,” said Mr Tatchell. “Davis arrived in Britain seeking sanctuary but was incarcerated in an asylum detention centre. “The government treated him like a common criminal. “It took a frantic lobbying campaign to pressure the Home Office to release Davis. He was only set free from Oakington detention centre at 5pm on Friday, the eve of the Pride London parade. “Although it is good that he was released, the Home Office should have never incarcerated him in the first place,” added Mr Tatchell. Speaking from the main stage in Trafalgar Square, Mr Tatchell condemned “President Amadinejad’s violent homophobia” and “the Labour government’s policy of deporting lesbian and gay asylum claimants back to Iran”. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith MP last month refused requests for a moratorium on the return of gay asylum seekers to Iran, claiming “the evidence does not show a real risk of discovery of, or adverse action against, gay and lesbian people who are discreet about their sexual orientation”. “This is complete nonsense and deeply insulting,” said Mr Tatchell. “It is like saying that Jews in Nazi Germany were safe if they hid their Jewishness.”
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23 June 2008- London, England- Gay Catholics from all over the country will be parading behind a 'Proudly Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgendered & Proudly Catholic' banner in the impending Pride London Parade. In excess of 500,000 people are expected at the event in two weeks time, whose theme is 'Fairytales, Myths and Legends'. The two week Pride festival, of which the parade is a part, uses theatre, music, debate, art and entertainment to raise awareness of discrimination and the issues and difficulties affecting the lives of LGBT people around the world. Gay Catholics have decided to choose the parade event to proclaim the banner's message to other LGBT communities, as well as the rest of the Church. Many will also be wearing 'Nobody knows I'm Catholic' t-shirts. Catholic groups will also be providing information, advice and pastoral contact at a Trafalgar Square stall, shared between the RC Caucus of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, Catholics for AIDS Prevention & Support, and the Soho Masses Pastoral Council. The Soho Masses Pastoral Council is also holding to Mass on Sunday, 6 July at the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory, Warwick Street, near Piccadilly Circus, to which all are welcome.
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19 June 2008- Moscow, Russia – Tverskoi District Court of Moscow this afternoon dismissed the complaint by Moscow Pride organisers against the ban of one of the Gay Pride marches for tolerance and respect for the rights and freedoms of homosexual people in Russia planned for May 1 this year. The march was scheduled to take place from the Moscow Central Post Office to Lubyanka Square. During court hearing, Nikolai Alekseev, principle the organiser of Moscow Pride, said that the Russian legislation does not give the authorities the right to ban any public event if it does not contradict the Constitution. According to the law, he told the court, authorities are obliged to offer an alternative place or time for the conduct of such an event if it is not possible to stage it in the place where planned. Mr. Alekseev underlined that the references of Moscow Government to Article 11 of the European Convention are not appropriate because Russian legislation does not permit a ban of a public event of sexual minorities. He cited references to the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in which the Court held that the view that the majority can not prevail over the views of the minority and in which the European Court have ruled that public actions of sexual minorities must be provided police protection. In all the organisers of Moscow Pride sent 155 notifications for the marches between May 1 and 31 this year – five a day. All of them were turned down by the Moscow Government. However, The court decision delivered today concerns only one march – on May 1. “As soon as we have the final text of the decision of judge Alexey Sevalkin we will immediately appeal it in Moscow City Court,” Mr. Alekseev following the court hearing. “Depending on the actual written decision, we will also appeal all the other bans of the marches for which we applied in May.” He went on to suggest that if “needed, we are ready to take all cases up to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Two of our applications concerning the bans of Moscow Pride event in May 2006 and in May 2007 are already awaiting consideration in Strasbourg”. Earlier this week Moscow Pride organisers sent a new application to the European Court of Human Rights against the ban by the Prefecture of the Central Administrative Area of Moscow of the picketing in support of a call for a travel ban in the European Union by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. The ban was ruled to be lawful by Taganskiy District Court of Moscow and by Moscow City Court. The third Moscow Gay Pride successfully staged on June 1, despite tthe ban by the Moscow authorities. Around 30 activists, following a little subterfuge, total secrecy and a little ‘cat and mouse’, gathered at the monument of Russian composer Petr Tchaikovskiy, said to have been gay, on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street and then, following a brief march, displayed a huge banner from one of the flats on Tverskaya street opposite the office of Moscow Mayor which read: “Rights to Gays and Lesbians. Homophobic of Moscow Mayor should be prosecuted”.
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