Rise in gay men forced into marriage by families that refuse to accept their sexuality

01 July 2010- London, England- Gay men are increasingly being forced into marriage because their families refuse to accept their homosexuality, the Government revealed today.

The Forced Marriage Unit says there has been a surge such cases over the past year. The number of contacts with the Whitehall agency concerning male victims increased from 134 in 2008 to 220 in 2009, a rise of 65 per cent.

But officials believe the figures are still only 'the tip of an iceberg' as the problem is under-reported concerning both sexes. Men accounted for just 14 per cent of the total number of forced marriage cases, numbering 1,682, referred to the FMU last year.

It is estimated that in reality there are more like 10,000 incidents of forced marriage involving British nationals each year and that up to 20 per cent are men. The large majority of cases involve families from south Asia, particularly Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

Victims are often locked up, subjected to physical and sexual violence and forcibly removed to other countries if they refuse to comply with their families' wishes. Men in particular frequently face being forced to marry because their families refuse to accept their homosexuality.

Other cases can revolve around property issues, securing visas or other family expectations. Most victims are aged between 15 and 24. But the FMU, a joint unit of the Foreign Office and Home Office, is concerned that many people fail to realise that it is an issue that even affects men.

With the approach of the summer holidays, when the danger of young people being taken out of the country against their will is particularly high, ministers sought to raise awareness. Support is available from caseworkers at the FMU and victims, or people acting on their behalf, can apply for a Forced Marriage Protection Order.

Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne said the Government wanted to help communities address the issue and urged victims to speak out. "Boys and men who are forced into marriage find it harder to ask for help than women, but we are urging males affected by forced marriage to speak out and seek the help that is available to them," he said.

"Of course, women make up the majority of forced marriage victims and over 1,400 reports of women facing this abuse were dealt with by the unit last year.

"Any professionals working with young people who suspect that a forced marriage could take place should contact the Forced Marriage Unit for advice."

Prison guards accused of homophobia

01 July 2010- England-  One officer at HMP Dartmoor, in Devon, would only hand a prisoner a gay magazine in brown paper because "he did not want to touch it".

Prison inspectors were also concerned about general attitudes of some officers, including some refusing to push prisoners in wheelchairs.

Their report said there were 23 gay prisoners in the jail said they were concerned by "consistent reports of homophobic attitudes by some staff".

It said: "Throughout our inspection we were concerned about consistent reports of homophobic attitudes by some staff, although no formal complaints had been submitted by prisoners.

"Several prisoners told inspectors that staff referred to them as ‘girls’ or ‘ladies’ and one gay prisoner said he was handed a copy of Gay Times in a brown paper bag because, according to the officer, he did not want to touch it."

The report added that prisoners had described a "significant group of staff who had no interest in assisting prisoners, and were said to be uncaring and, in some cases, obstructive and rude".

It said: "Prisoners gave many anecdotes and examples of unprofessional, and even delinquent, behaviour by staff.

"They said such staff were dismissive and disrespectful, and gave examples of inappropriate language used over the public address system, homophobic behaviour, a determination not to use preferred names or titles, and an unpreparedness to push prisoners in wheelchairs."

Dame Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons, said more general but serious concerns raised about the prison in a previous inspection had not been heeded.

16 June 2010-A GAY Iranian who fled to the UK because homosexuality is illegal in his homeland has been jailed for having a fake passport and driving licence.

Majid Naderi, 20, arrived in Britain in July 2007, fearing persecution in the Muslim country.

He moved to Basildon and applied for asylum, but his application was turned down. He was given temporary permission to stay, while lawyers challenged moves to send him back to Iran.

Last month, Naderi’s case came before the Supreme Court, and a ruling is awaited on his asylum status as an Iranian homosexual.

In the meantime, Naderi found himself in trouble with the British authorities. He appeared before Chelmsford Crown Court to admit possessing a forged Bulgarian passport and a Portuguese driving licence. He also used the passport to open a bank account at the Basildon branch of NatWest.

Mark Lakin, prosecuting, said police found the forged documents when they searched his home in Beeleigh Cross, Basildon, last October in connection with an unrelated matter.

His lawyer, Jacqueline Carey, said Naderi’s family got him the documents when his asylum claim was rejected in November 2007. She added: “They were bereft at the prospect of his return to Iran.”

He had opened the bank account as a way of making the passport seem legitimate. Naderi even enrolled at Thurrock and Basildon College for a time in the name of the person on the fake passport, Georgi Hristov.

Miss Carey urged the judge to impose a suspended sentence, saying it was an unusual case.

However, Recorder Jason Beer jailed him for 12 months.

After serving his sentence Naderi will be liable to be deported, unless on the Supreme Court rules otherwise.

German court recognizes gay Canadian marriage

15 June 2010- A German man who married his homosexual partner in Canada won a partial victory when a Berlin court ruled that the partnership must be recognized, albeit not as a marriage.

Germany introduced "registered partnerships" for same-sex couples in 2001 but stopped short of granting them the full rights and privileges afforded to married couples.

Andreas Boettcher, a 37-year-old German event manager, married his Spanish partner, a dancer and choreographer, in Montreal in July 2006 but when he returned to Germany, he was registered as single because the authorities did not recognise the foreign wedding.

Now the local registry office must at least list him as half of a "registered partnership", the Berlin administrative court found.

"The court agreed with the view of the authorities that he could not be registered as 'married' because a marriage under German law requires different-sex couples," it said in a statement.

"However the plaintiff could demand registry as a life partner because Canadian gay marriage largely corresponds under German law to a registered partnership."

The court said the policy would apply to any gay couple lawfully married abroad.

Germany's "registered partnership" law grants couples similar privileges to those of married spouses in areas including hospital visits, inheritance and adoption of children but stops short of equality, notably with tax benefits.

08 June 2010- While homophobic politics and violence are rising across Africa and are entrenched elsewhere, the UK is at a critical juncture. Many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people seek asylum in the UK, but until now many have been sent back to countries where they are persecuted, and told to be discreet.

Last month the supreme court heard two cases challenging the Home Office over its refusal of asylum based on the argument of discretion. The men involved – an Iranian and a Cameroonian – are still awaiting a judgment which could set a major precedent in asylum law.

Since 1999, sexuality has been accepted as a fundamental part of identity in the 1951 Refugee Convention, under which asylum is granted to those with "a well-founded fear of being persecuted". But judges and asylum tribunals have found that if someone hid their sexuality – and therefore avoided persecution – they could be returned to their home country. The appellants want them to ask why a person would be discreet, attaching significance to the persecution avoided by such concealment.

As well as exposing people to the risk of violence if they are found to be gay, the UK has been ordering people to suppress an immutable part of themselves. This means a life of fear in hiding, unbearable pressure to conform and often forced marriage. Perhaps worse, discretion means acquiescence to a regime or culture that would rather you did not exist.

The government's coalition agreement said: "We will stop the deportation of asylum seekers who have had to leave particular countries because their sexual orientation or gender identification puts them at proven risk of imprisonment, torture or execution."

But no action has yet been taken under the home secretary, Theresa May – LGBT people fleeing persecution are still being turned down for asylum. One of them is Baffour Obeng, a bisexual man who is booked on a British Airways flight back to Ghana on Sunday.

Baffour, 23, fled his home country with his father and brother because of a chieftaincy dispute. They both abandoned him when they found out he had a relationship with a man and he was arrested in Barking, east London, in March for being in the UK illegally. Baffour has received a written warning that he will be in danger if he returns to Ghana because, he said, "the secret is out".

In Ghana homosexuality is illegal. A human rights report by the US state department, published in March, said: "LGBT persons face widespread discrimination, as well as police harassment and extortion attempts." Only last week thousands of people marched on the city of Sekondi-Takoradi in an anti-gay protest.

Baffour believes he will be killed if he returns. The Home Office admitted to him that in Ghana there would be "no protection available if you were to experience problems on account of your sexuality".

He has been told he can live safely if he moves to another part of Ghana – but this means keeping his sexuality hidden and running the risk of word spreading. Baffour said: "If I go somewhere else, someone will see me."

The UK Border Agency maintains that "the independent courts found that the claim was totally without merit".

But Baffour was put into a fast-track system, which aims to deport people from "safe" countries as quickly as possible. The Stonewall report No Going Back last month condemned the use of fast-tracking for LGBT asylum seekers "because it takes time to produce evidence about a reason for claiming that is secret and that there is no public evidence for". Baffour has been denied the time or legal help to put his case.

The judges and the Home Office must act quickly to amend a system which routinely fails to provide sanctuary for these vulnerable people, forcing them to suppress themselves and become complicit in the very bigotry they flee.

'I should have admitted I was gay but it was too hard'

01 June 2010- London, England-David Laws today admitted he should have been open about his sexuality as he spoke of the 'high price' of losing his Cabinet post. The former Chief Secretary to the Treasury told how he had decided to hide he was gay years ago because many still regarded it as 'wrong or shameful'.

Mr Laws conceded he should have come clean about his relationship with lobbyist James Lundie but said it had become harder to do so as time went on. The Liberal Democrat, who quit his Cabinet post on Saturday after he was exposed for abusing his expenses, is now considering whether to remain an MP.

He had funnelled £40,000 of taxpayers' cash in rent to his gay lover - lifting the veil on his secret sexuality which until then even his family had not been aware of. Frantic efforts are being made in the Government to stop Mr Laws, MP for Yeovil, from quitting frontline politics altogether following the revelations.

He has pledged to see whether he still has the 'confidence' of his constituents before deciding if he can stay on.

'My problems have been caused by my unwillingness to be open about my sexuality and not by any intention to exploit the MPs' expenses system,' he said today. 'James Lundie and I were aware that we could have been far better off financially if I had been willing to be open about our relationship - but I was not.

'I grew up at a time when homosexuality had only just been legalised and when most people still thought it was wrong or shameful. 'I decided, therefore, to keep my sexuality secret, and the further time went on the more difficult it seemed to be to tell the truth.

'When the rules changed in 2006 to prevent MPs from renting from partners, I should probably have changed our arrangements. 'I could have done so without any financial cost, but getting a mortgage and buying a house together would have meant revealing our relationship - which I was not prepared to do.'

Mr Laws, in a statement released to local media in Somerset, added: 'I have paid a high price for trying to keep my sexuality a secret. Losing your privacy, your Cabinet job and your perceived integrity within 48 hours isn't very easy.

'But I accept that I should have been more open and should have set a better example as a public figure. I will now need to take a few days to recover from the events of the last week and I then intend to get back to my work as local MP. 'There are many people with far greater problems than I have and they are entitled to expect me to get on with the job which I am paid to do.'

He insisted his partner had never used the parliamentary entitlement to travel or any other allowances made available to spouses or their equivalent.

'That is why I thought it would be all right for him to be treated as just a friend, when actually we were much more than that,' he said.

'I love my job as local MP, and it is the greatest job and responsibility which I will ever have. Over the weeks ahead, I will want to understand whether I still have the confidence of my constituents, without which it would be difficult to continue my work.'

Mr Laws claimed between £700 and £950 a month to sub-let a room in a flat in Kennington, south London, from Mr Lundie from 2004 to 2007.

Mr Lundie sold the property for a profit in 2007 and bought another more expensive place nearby. The MP then started claiming to rent the 'second bedroom' there and his claims rose to £920 a month. 

In 2006, the rules were changed and MPs were banned from 'leasing accommodation from a partner'. Mr Laws referred himself to the Commons sleaze watchdog which will now investigate his claims.

The MP won 55.7 per cent of the vote on May 7, against the Conservatives on 32.9 per cent. Senior ministers want to avoid a by-election that could drive a wedge between the Tories and the Liberal Democrats.

Liberal Democrat Danny Alexander stepped up into his role at the Treasury after he quit, sparking fears he does not have enough experience for the crucial job. Mr Alexander has only been an MP since 2005 and before that was communications chief for Cairngorms National Park in Scotland.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg insisted outside his home this morning that the politician was 'extremely gifted' and up to the task.

'The departure of David Laws is, of course, a very sad thing but it doesn't alter one bit our determination as a coalition Government to get to grips with a huge black hole in our finances,' he said.

'The partnership between George Osborne and Danny Alexander is an excellent one and they'll now set to work to fill this black hole so we have sustainable public finances and can do the good things that this coalition Government wants to do in the years ahead.'

Mr Alexander is 'as determined as anybody else is' to get to grips with Britain's financial crisis, he added.

30 May 2010- England- The public shaming, then political suicide, of the Treasury Chief Secretary, David Laws, began as a weekend scandal about money, and abruptly ended as one about love.

The Liberal Democrat praised as Mr Integrity resigned from Britain's Coalition cabinet on Saturday after revelations that he claimed £40,000 ($68,000) of taxpayers' money to pay rent to his male partner.

As he stepped down Mr Laws expressed his regret for ''the hurt done to those I love most''.

He insisted that he had not meant to profit from the arrangement but rather was caught in a confusion over parliamentary rules on expenses. More embarrassingly, he said, he was trying to keep secret that he was gay.

''I have pursued a political career but I have too often put this before the interests of those I love most and it is time to redress that balance,'' he said.

Government sources said the Liberal Democrat stepped down as treasury chief secretary while parliamentary watchdogs investigated his expense claims.

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, were understood at first to have been willing to let Mr Laws remain in his key post, at least over the weekend.

However, at least two Liberal Democrat cabinet ministers, Vince Cable and Chris Huhne, believed the circumstances of Mr Laws's expenses claims ''did not look good at all''. They suggested that he was left with no choice other than to step aside.

The Scottish Secretary, Danny Alexander (a Lib Dem), will take over from Mr Laws, 44.

The blow has come early for Britain's new coalition government - just three weeks into its term - and is deep, given that Mr Laws was to be the cabinet minister responsible for finding savage spending cuts.

Mr Laws had been the Lib Dems' gentleman banker. As a leader of the party's free-enterprise wing he was to push the budget cuts. He was one of Mr Clegg's most trusted lieutenants who led negotiations to form the coalition with the Conservatives in the first place.

Like most other MPs whose expenses became an issue, his problem arose from questions about claims for the ''second home'' that MPs are entitled to claim because of their need to commute between their constituencies and London. In Mr Laws's case it was a ''second bedroom'' in his partner's London house.

His claims for his London housing dated back to 2001. But the rules changed in 2006, stopping claims for reimbursement for second-home expenses in cases where the owner of the house was a relative or a partner.

Mr Laws said he concluded that he was not covered by the change of rules, since the 2006 rules defined a partner as ''one of a couple who although not married to each other or civil partners are living together and treat each other as spouses''.

Mr Laws said that although he and his partner, James Lundie, were living together, ''we did not treat each other as spouses''.

Gays 'lower than dogs, pigs'

21 May 2010- As a gay couple in Malawi began serving a 14-year jail term for conducting an open relationship, another southern African country came under fire on Friday over its treatment of gays.

New York-based rights watchdog Human Rights Watch warned that recent homophobic statements by religious leaders and government authorities in Zambia, Malawi's neighbour to the west, was undermining that country's fight against the HIV and Aids pandemic.

In a letter to Zambian leaders dated May 17 and released to the media late on Thursday, HRW called on the government of President Rupiah Banda to condemn statements that could discourage gay men from using healthcare facilities, including HIV testing, and "erode their fundamental human rights."

The letter also called on Zambian lawmakers to decriminalise consenting homosexual conduct.

Homosexual acts are banned in Zambia, as is the case in Malawi and a number of other African countries.

On Thursday, a gay couple in Malawi received the maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment with hard labour after being found guilty of engaging in acts "against the order of nature."

The case caused an international outcry and shone a light on the ongoing repression of gays across the continent.

In Zambia, at least two religious leaders have recently criticised donor countries for speaking out in defence of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population.

HRW quoted Bishop JHK Banda, chairman of the National Aids Council, as describing the donors efforts as being "against the traditional values of the country."

Zambia's Anglican Council presiding bishop Robert Mumbi also recently described homosexuality as un-African - an oft-repeated refrain.

Elsewhere in the region, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has said gays were "lower than dogs and pigs" and refused to include gay rights in discussions on a new constitution.

And in the central African country of Uganda, a draft bill is before parliament that would increase penalties for homosexual acts to life in prison, or even the death penalty for some offences.

HRW fears that homophobic statements will compromise efforts to prevent the spread of the deadly HIV virus in the gay community. HIV is mainly contracted through unprotected sex.

"Zambia has a strong track record on addressing HIV and Aids," Joseph Amon, Health and Human Rights director at Human Rights Watch said in the letter.

"However, promoting intolerance and creating a climate of fear will only sabotage efforts to ensure access to HIV prevention and treatment by driving men underground," he said.

Zambia's anti-gay law, which dates to the British colonial era, violated the country's constitution, in that the charter guarantees the right to privacy and prohibits discrimination, HRW said.

The same argument has been made by human rights groups in Malawi.

Amnesty condemns sentence

21 May 2010- Michelle Kagari, deputy Africa director of Amnesty International, called the sentence "an outrage."

Her rights watchdog has adopted Chimbalanga and Monjeza as prisoners of conscience, and would "continue to campaign on this matter and to work tirelessly to see that they are released unconditionally as soon as possible," Kagari told The Associated Press by telephone from her office in Kampala, Uganda.

Mark Heywood, director of the South Africa-based AIDS Law Project, called the sentence "outrageous and a violation of human rights." He said activists should hold protests around the world against Malawi.

In a joint statement issued in London Thursday, lawmakers Henry Bellingham, Stephen O'Brien and Lynne Featherstone urged the Malawi government to review its laws to ensure human rights were protected.

They said their country "believes that human rights apply to everyone regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity," and would, with its international partners, "continue to press the government of Malawi on this issue."

In Washington, Philip Crowley, an assistant secretary of state, expressed his country's deep disappointment with the conviction of Chimbalanga and Monjeza.

"We view the criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity as a step backward in the protection of human rights in Malawi," Crowley said.

Calls to withdraw foreign aid

Malawi's government has been defiant in the face of international criticism over the couple's prosecution.

Betsy Chirambo, an adviser to President Bingu wa Mutharika, expressed concern over calls by some activists for the West to withdraw aid to Malawi because of the case. Up to 40 per cent of Malawi's development budget comes from foreign donors.

"It is not our culture for a man to marry a man," Chirambo said this week. "That is not even in our constitution. Some of these rights are not good for our culture."

The government has been backed by religious leaders in the country who have equated homosexuality with Satanism.

But the debate also has emboldened some rights activists in the country. The independent Centre for the Development of People was recently formed by Malawians to fight for the rights of homosexuals and other minorities.

Gift Trapence, executive director of the Centre for the Development of People, was at the courthouse Thursday and told reporters: "How can they get 14 years simply for loving one another? Even if they are jailed for 20 years you can't change their sexuality."

Gay people forced underground in Africa are unlikely to seek counselling and treatment for AIDS, activists say. In Malawi, nearly one million people — an estimated 12 per cent of the population — are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Homosexuality is illegal in at least 37 countries in Africa including Malawi. In Uganda, lawmakers are considering a bill under which homosexuals could be sentenced to life in prison and "repeat offenders" could be executed. Even in South Africa, the only African country that recognizes gay rights, gangs have raped lesbians.

21 May 2010- The Conservative government has become a defender of gay rights overseas, this time blasting an invited African guest for jailing homosexuals.

Days after Ottawa extended a special invitation to Malawi for the G20 summit, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon criticized the country for jailing a gay couple for 14 years under the country’s anti-homosexual law.

“Cases like this are cases we condemn,” Mr. Cannon said Thursday, hours after the two men were sentenced. “We will be following this case as every other case. Canada has a great reputation internationally because we stand up for human rights, and speak out on … things that need to be denounced."

Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 33, and Steven Monjeza, 26, were arrested Dec. 27, one day after they celebrated their symbolic wedding at a hotel where Mr. Chimbalanga works as a janitor.

The couple was given the maximum sentence for “unnatural acts and gross indecency.” Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa said he imposed the harsh sentence because the “offences carry with them a sense of shock against the morals of the Malawi society."

Malawi, the current head of the African Union, is one of the countries said to be leading a democratic renaissance in Africa. Malawi was invited, along with Ethiopia, Vietnam, Spain and the Netherlands, to bring “valuable perspective” to the summit, according to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Deeply conservative and 80 per cent Christian, Malawi is also one of at least 37 countries where homosexuality is banned. The law dates back to colonial days but the case is believed to be a first in Malawi.

Some of Mr. Harper’s harshest critics gave him credit last November, when he took aside Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to express his “deep concern” over the country’s plan for a bill that could jail or even execute gays.

In Canada, Conservatives have been called homophobic for standing against same-sex marriage and, more recently, cutting off funding for a Gay Pride event in Toronto.

Mr. Cannon declined to answer follow-up questions and did not say if the matter will be raised at the meeting next month.

21 May 2010- UK- It is wrong to deny asylum on the grounds that those seeking it should simply suppress their sexuality to avoid torture at home.

In the new government's newly published policy on equalities, there is a statement that says: "We will stop the deportation of asylum seekers who have had to leave particular countries because their sexual orientation or gender identification puts them at proven risk of imprisonment, torture or execution."

This commitment should be welcomed, but with caution. As a statement taken out of context, it is legally meaningless until it is translated into policy changes by the Home Office. On the face of it, it doesn't really change anything. Some people are already accepted by the courts and the Home Office to be refugees because of their sexuality. However, the vast majority are refused, even when they are from places that the Foreign Office regularly condemns for the abhorrent treatment of LGBT people, such as Uganda or Malawi.

There are two main reasons for this contradiction. First, the "culture of disbelief" within the UK border agency, which will often flatly accuse asylum seekers of lying about their sexuality, even when British partners give evidence of a gay or lesbian relationship. Second, the deployment of a deeply cynical logical fallacy by the court of appeal in the case of J (Iran) [2006], which forms a convenient basis for refusing an asylum claim in most LGBT cases.

This is the particular test which has left the Iranian film-maker Kiana Firouz in danger of removal to Iran. The reasoning that the court gave, and which was applied in Firouz's case, is that a gay person will, of their own volition and as a matter of fact, choose to live in secrecy by exercising "discretion" (a very British word for it) in their daily lives, thus concealing and suppressing their identity as a gay person. In so doing, they evade persecution and do not need protection as refugees.

According to the court of appeal, the question then becomes whether or not they can "reasonably tolerate" this suppression of their identity. This is an absurd question and one which cannot realistically be answered, except by engaging in speculation. It has led to immigration courts engaging in gross culturally relative questions as to who can tolerate what, and why, and in the end it is entirely down to the prejudices of the particular judge. The Home Office, naturally, says it is always perfectly reasonable, because modifying your behaviour to hide who you are doesn't amount to persecution. By this logic, if Anne Frank chose never to leave the safety of the attic, she would never have been persecuted, and so would not have been a refugee had she reached Britain.

This is the nature of the issues that the new government must really address if their public commitment to protecting gay asylum seekers is to have any legal significance. It is a question of equality. No other category of asylum seeker is told to go home and hide. If, on the other hand, the current policy is maintained, we will continue to be, in the words of Australian judge Micheal Kirby, the "enforcers for those who diminish the identified freedoms instead of the protectors of those who say their freedoms are at risk".

Coincidentally, the timing is perfect. Last week the supreme court heard submissions in the case of HJ (Iran) and HT (Cameroon) v secretarty of state for the Home Department. Both appellants are gay men challenging the reasoning of the court of appeal in the case of J (Iran). In a few weeks the court's decision will settle the issue in law. The appellants, supported by UNHCR and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, argue that no one should be expected to conceal their identity to evade persecution. The only question that matters in LGBT asylum cases is the objective risk of harm that would be done to a person were their sexuality to be discovered.

The secretary of state maintains that, despite HT having been seen kissing another man in his garden and subsequently beaten up by a mob, which included members of the police, he is not at risk on return to Cameroon because he will conceal his sexuality and not get caught again. HJ, who comes from Iran where the death penalty for gay men is maintained, will also be fine on return, for the same reason. Each can ensure his safety by "modification of behaviour", and this is something he can "reasonably be expected to tolerate".

All of this goes to the question of "proven risk" of ill treatment that the coalition mention. The new government is a party to the case before the supreme court. This is the perfect chance for the coalition to immediately signal it is serious about gay rights. Will the home secretary, Theresa May, now write to the supreme court to withdraw the submissions made on behalf of her predecessor? I won't be holding my breath.

04 May 2010- Turkey- One of the interesting stories I recently read in this paper was about Turkey’s first “nudist hotel,” opened in Marmaris, a beautiful town on the Aegean coast. Here was a place where “nudist tourists will be able to work on their full-body tan” on their “private naturist beach.” This would be, the story added, “a small revolution in Turkey’s conservative society."

If you look for such “small revolutions” in this conservative country, you can find other ones. Gay bars and lesbian clubs, for example, have boomed in big cities in recent years. A new and fancy one was launched in Istanbul just a few weeks ago.

My secular liberal friend Orhan Kemal Cengiz, who pointed out to these things to me over lunch a few days ago, also said that he, as a fine diner, has a better time on the Ankara-Istanbul trains now. “They started to serve alcohol on the fast train,” he said, quite approvingly. “I am thankful to the ‘Islamist’ AK Party for that."

Openness and diversity

Another small revolution, or perhaps a mid-size one, was the May Day demonstrations that freely took place in Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Saturday. After being banned from Taksim for more than 30 years, not just labor unions but Marxists of all types opened their red flags and sang their marches in the county’s most popular spot. “Godless communists,” in other words, had their biggest show in decades.

Now, if I wanted to argue that Turkey is rapidly becoming a more “corrupt” and “godless” society, I could cherry-pick all such examples and draw a convincing picture. (And you could be alarmed or thrilled, depending on your worldview.) But this would be a misleading picture, for I would be consciously choosing the facts that fit into my agenda, and overlooking the ones that don’t.

Unfortunately, that is precisely what some of my hyper-secularist colleagues have been doing for quite a while. Their endless rantings about the “Islamization” of Turkey under the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government is based on a compiling of carefully selected facts: We have more veiled women on our streets. Getting a license to sell alcohol is harder in some AKP-run municipalities. Or Islamic communities are more active in public life than ever. Hence, the reasoning goes, we are being Islamized. (And, perhaps, we need a little hand from our enthusiastic generals to “save our secular republic.")

What I think instead is that all these seemingly contradictory things – more veils and more gay bars – are happening at the same time and for the very same reason: Thanks to capitalism, urbanization and globalization, Turkey is becoming a more open and diverse society. Or, perhaps, the diversity it always had is getting more visible. The reason why we have more veiled women on the streets is that the religious conservatives have become more urban, self-confident and active. (In the past, such women mostly lived in rural areas and often sat at home, and my hyper-secularist colleagues did not notice that they exist.)

Openness and diversity are visible on many other fronts. Kurds, who are not “mountain Turks” anymore, are demanding (and at least partly achieving) civil liberties that they could not have imagined in the ’80s. Turkish Armenians, members of a community that has kept its head down since the beginning of the Turkish Republic (for reasons you can imagine), now have public intellectuals who influence our national discussions. What exactly happened to their forefathers in 1915 is being discussed freely on television for the first time.

All this change not just empowers previously suppressed groups, but also transforms them. The case of the Islamic conservatives is the most interesting one. If you read only the secularist Turkish press, you will only get complaints about their ascendance. But if you also read the Islamist press, as I do, you will also see complaints about their modernization. The more old-fashioned voices in that camp routinely criticize the “Westoxification” that young Muslims are going through, and the “consumerism” that AKP policies have dragged them into.

What modernization does

What is simply happening is that Turkey is becoming truly modernized. And if you ask what this means, I would agree with social scientist Peter Berger: “Modernization does not secularize,” as the secularists hope and the Islamists fear. “It rather pluralizes."

So, here is my bet for Turkey in 10 years’ time: It will be an even more diverse country, a bit like America. Like the latter’s Bible Belt, it probably will have some conservative inland regions with dry zones, but also ultra-liberal coasts with even more nightclubs, nudist beaches and God knows what else. In the Southeast, Kurdish culture and language will be more visible, perhaps giving the sense of an unofficial “Kurdistan region.” The Islamic conservative camp will be more multicolored in itself, while the godless communists, who might perhaps go a little more “green” than just “red,” will continue to prove their resilience.

It will be, in other words, an even more interesting country. Just wait and see.

Soccer kiss causes gay stir in UK

20 Apr 2010- An on-field kiss between two UK soccer stars has caused a massive media sensation.

Manchester United’s  Gary Neville kissed teammate Paul Scholes square on the lips for a prolonged period of time after Scholes scored a late goal to give Manchester United a key win last Saturday.

While kisses of congratulations are pretty routine on the soccer field, especially in Europe, Neville smooch has drawn headlines across the UK including these gems: “When men’s lips meet. By kissing Paul Scholes, Gary Neville declared war on homophobia.” “Kiss and Hell.” “Eternal Scholes gives United kiss of life.” “Kiss of life.”

The Guardian reported on the kiss as a massive step towards combating homophobia in a sport that is renowned for homophobia at the highest level.

“Neville…may be married with two kids, but if this crazy, untamed obsession partisan feels that the only way of truly conveying his feelings is to lock lips with a bemused redhead then surely there’s a broad message that could be made from it. The Manchester Pride event runs through the last 10 days of August this year. Neville should be invited as a guest of honour.”

To date, homophobia in English soccer has reached the point where they cant get players to speak out against it publicly lest they be ridiculed and lebelled.

Early next month almost 30 Australians AFL sportsmen and coaches will take part in the inclusion and diversity” campaign aimed at battling homophobia in sport. The campaign coincides the International Day Against Homophobia on May 17.

Brad Sewell, Neil Balme, Joel Selwood and Brownlow medalists Jimmy Bartel and Adam Goodes are among nearly dozens of participants who will be photographed holding handwritten sign calling for acceptance and understanding of homosexuals.

An attempt at a similar campaign by English soccer authorities failed earlier this year because players would not take part.

Its been an interesting week for sports. Also on the weekend, Olympic champion Daniel Kowlaski came out publicly as a gay man.

The 34 year old spoke about the pressure of being gay and an elite sport person.

“I often think that I had people to hook up to, to read about, who were elite athletes and were easily accessible- people who had lived some of my experiences as an athlete- then it would have helped the situation. It would have made it easier. But having lived it, I do understand why so few elite athletes have come out.”

The other African Genocide- How the American rights taught Africa to hate gays by example

01 Apr 2010- In 2004, the American political-religious Right, led by Karl Rove and President Bush used the matter of Gay marriage to rob Sen. John Kerry of the Presidency. It was a successful campaign that saw 11 states pass constitutional amendments against Marriage Equality. With America engaged in two wars, the political-religious right used the matter of gay marriage as a wedge issue to distract the country from the real problems it then and still faces. The success of the political-religious rights' homophobic 2004 campaign was not lost on other would-be politicians around the world, and that has led to a new African Genocide against GLBT people.

Genocide is a heavy, overwrought word sure to arouse condemnation from the various corners of the political discussion. But dip your toes into the reality of life for GLBT people in Africa today, and reconsider. The President of Gambia has demanded that all gay people leave or they will be beheaded, which is minimally better than the proposed Ugandan law that would order a life sentence or death for those convicted of being homosexuals.

In a rare showing of bi-partisanship, President Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe agreed that it was absurd to include any protections for GLBT in the new constitution. President Mugabe has described homosexuality as "a white man's disease." In Malawi, where homosexuality is outlawed, Peter Sawali was arrested for passing out posters saying "Gay Rights are Human Rights," and faces 4 years in jail.

These are not aberrant examples of extremism on the African continent. The GLBT community (or those even accused of being a homosexual) are subject to harsh penalties and death. The sudden emergence of homosexuality as a political issue there has the finger prints of many American Right politicians and faith based organizations. The African leaders learned a valuable lesson in the American 2004 election, you can persuade a whole populace that the enemy is not inequality, poverty, lack of access to health care, rampant rates of AIDS, or high infant mortality rates - it's the Gay Agenda.

Fear mongering works, thankfully in this country not for long. The United States has now emerged from the long national nightmare of the previous administration. The GLBT movement is advancing protections for marriage equality in the courts and on ballots, the country is poised to repeal the Don't Ask Don't Tell homophobic military exclusion policy, and perhaps on the horizon is the repeal of the inaptly named Defense of Marriage Act.

GLBT people in Africa, with the rare exception of South Africa, do not enjoy the same deepening societal acceptance. There, they face death, jail, or persecution. The shadow of the 2004 election still blocks the sun from the lives of these people. President Obama's recent condemnation of the Ugandan law that proposed the death penalty for convicted GLBT people is the beginning of the American penance to that continent's GLBT community for the dastardly work of the American political religious right in the 2004 state and federal elections. Eventually, the peoples of all nations will not be distracted by gladiators and coliseums either, and with renewed American leadership, African GLBTQ people will no longer be the straw man for lackluster leaders.

30 Mar 2010-London, England- Europe Minister Chris Bryant became the first homosexual MP to enter into a civil partnership in the Houses of Parliament yesterday.

The Labour MP for Rhondda, a former Church of England clergyman, tied the knot with his partner Jared Cranney, a company secretary.

The ceremony took place in the Members’ Dining Room, overlooking the Thames, after the Speaker John Bercow gave his permission for it to go ahead.

In a statement released afterwards, the couple said they were ‘enormously grateful’ to Mr Bercow and Leader of the Commons Harriet Harman for making the ‘really special day’ possible.

‘We never thought this day would come – and never thought we’d have to worry about cakes and flowers and rings,’ they said.

‘It’s amazing how much things have changed in such a short time.’

The Civil Partnership Act 2004 gave gay couples the right to obtain the same inheritance and legal rights as married couples.

After the ceremony yesterday, Mr Bercow hosted a drinks party in Speaker’s House followed by an evening reception in the State Dining Room for the couple, who  met on the local election campaign trail in April last year.

In 2006, Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw became the first MP to enter into a civil partnership, with BBC journalist Neal Dalgleish.

25 Mar 2010- England- A Christian family from Cookham, who turned away a gay couple from their Bed and Breakfast, say they have received threats of physical violence since the story broke in the national press on Sunday.

Mike and Susanne Wilkinson, who own the Swiss Bed and Breakfast in Cookham, turned away Michael Black and John Morgan on Friday because it went against their beliefs.

The Wilkinsons say they did not realise the couple were gay until they arrived. Mr Black and Mr Morgan, who are from Cambridgeshire, have said they will take the Wilkinson's to court over the incident, claiming it breaches discrimination laws.

Since the incident was reported in the national media, the Wilkinsons have received a torrent of abusive emails and phone calls, several threatening violence against the couple and their home.

Mrs Wilkinson said: "I would have offered them two single rooms but we were fully booked as it was a Friday night.

"I have nothing against gay people and we have some friends who are gay. If they want to do that then it is up to them but I object to it under my roof."

23 Mar 2010- Turkey-  Representatives of A Call to Life Platform sent a support letter to Turkish State Minister Selma Aliye Kavaf, who reportedly defined homosexuality as a “sickness,” on Monday.

Asiye Dilipak, a member of the platform, read aloud the letter, which “deems homosexuality as a threat to the continuation of human species and labels it as a corruption, and a perverse immoral and unnatural act, with references to all divine religions," in front of the Sirkeci Post Office.

The letter also stated that the good deeds of those who stand up against acts and conducts, which aim to naturalize this behavior, are wrongfully labeled as discrimination. The platform members also asked Kavaf never to give up on her cause.

Kavaf was severely criticized by many nongovernmental organizations, political parties and scholars after stating that homosexuality was a biological disorder and that homosexuals should seek treatment.

The platform comprises conservative NGOs such as the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, or İHH; Human and Civilization Movement; Humane Values and Mental Health Association; Turkey’s Voluntary Organizations Association; Civilization Society; and the Association for Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples, or Mazlum – Dez.

23 Mar 2010- Poland- Poles remain socially conservative, opposing abortion and gay marriages, the new Polish airport in Berlin and the modest impact of poop-scooping campaigns are just some of the stories in today’s press.

RZECZPOSPOLITA has the results of its probe on abortion and gay marriages, in which 5% of respondents were in favour of abortion on demand and the right of gay couples to adopt children. Even so, 60% of respondents were in favour of abortion in special circumstances.

The paper quotes a joyful comment from an anti-abortion campaigner, saying that the pro-life camp is three times as big as the one in favour of abortion… as well as a cold summary from a women’s rights activist that the probe only highlighted Polish hypocrisy, with the public theoretically against abortion but also wanting full access to it “under circumstances”.

In the same probe 3% of respondents supported gay marriages in opposition to 80% who said gays should not have the right. RZECZPOSPOLITA writes that Poles are even more radical in respect of adoption by gay couples, with 93% against and only one to a hundred fully in favour.

Gay communities in Poland have never asked for the right to marry, point out activists, only for partnership which has far more acceptance. “Poles are traditionalist and attached to the traditional family, with a man, a woman and their children” the paper quotes a commentator.

GAZETA WYBORCZA reports on a new Polish airport… in Berlin.

“For years there has been a discussion about a major air hub in the vicinity of Warsaw or Łódź. This is from where all of Poland would have travelled abroad” writes the paper, adding that now there’s no certainty anything will be built, for one because air traffic in Poland is developing too slowly, and for another because a new giant airport in Berlin launches this year. One in ten passengers there may be Polish, calculates the daily, forecasting that Warsaw’s airport dream is over. 

Tabloid SUPEREXPRESS investigated which Polish cities are cheapest to live in, considering services such as hairdressers, dentists, plumbers, car mechanics etc and unsuprisingly ranking Warsaw and Kraków at the top of the list. Overall, the paper calculated that the cheapest city to live in is Siedlce. Generally, cheaper services are in those places which have bigger unemployment, notes SUPEREXPRESS, adding however that even life in smaller localities can be costly, if they are tourist destinations, for instance.

DZIENNIK GAZETA PRAWNA informs of the sad results of clean-up campaigns.

“Local governments are spending big money on campaigns for dog owners to clean up after their pets but effects are modest” reports the paper,  writing of yet another one, this time in the city of Toruń, which is putting up a poster presenting dog excrement in the form of a heart and the caption “love your dog poo”.

Officials in Toruń have calculated that there are five dog “souvenirs” to each 10 cm square of grass and worry that they have tried everything with very little impact. Still, Polish campaigns are reticent in comparison to the British one, for instance, even though canines in Warsaw alone – that’s some 100 thousand of them - leave 2 thousand tonnes of excrement lying around in a year. The solution? Hefty fines, writes the paper, though in the same line it adds that this is not so easy as law enforcement has to catch the culprit on the job. (ek)

15 Mar 2010- Sweden- SL, the Stockholm local transport authority, has been asked by the Swedish discrimination ombudsman (DO) to provide adequate compensation to a gay man after he was instructed to leave a bus by a local driver.

The man was on his way to his home near Taby when he boarded the vehicle outside of Danderyd hospital. It was then that the driver was alleged to have confronted the man with the offensive comments, including asking the passenger: “Do you think it is fun that I can see your panties?”

According to The Local the man’s report to the discrimination ombudsman explained that, no, he was not wearing panties, but rather his male drawers could be noticed at the top of his waistline. This explanation was apparently not sufficient for the bus driver who then reclined and stated: “In fact, you best leave the bus as I could get turned on”.

The man, although angered and shocked at the driver’s antics, boarded the bus and took a seat near the back. After five minutes had passed the bus had not moved, leading the man to suspect that he may be being held responsible for the delay. It was then that two security guards climbed aboard and instructed the man to accompany them to the pavement, where he was told that he was lucky the departing driver did not take the matter further.

Sexually harassed, ridiculed and offended, the man took his story to local media and even his mother attempted to liaise with the manager of the Busslink bus station. She was offered a potted plant and movie tickets. DO found that the man was entitled to compensation, the amount of which could be decided under agreement by both parties before a court hearing.

Gambia row over wave of arrests

11 Mar 2010- Gambia- An opposition leader has criticised a wave of arrests in The Gambia, saying detainees - including a former minister - do not know why they are being held.

Halifa Sallah told the BBC that those arrested have been denied visits from lawyers and family members. High-ranking military and police officials are reportedly among those detained, and last week ex-fisheries minister Antouman Saho was jailed.

President Yahya Jammeh is frequently criticised by rights groups. In recent years, he has publicly threatened to kill gay people and rights workers.

Last month the government of Mr Jammeh, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1994, expelled the envoy of the UN's children charity, Unicef.

No reasons given

Mr Saho, who served in Mr Jammeh's government from 1994 until he was sacked last month, was taken from his home on Friday night.

Police said he was wanted for questioning by intelligence officials. His family has not been able to contact him since and no official reason has been given for his arrest.

"According to our constitution, within three hours of an arrest the person should be told why he or she has been arrested," Mr Sallah told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

He said relatives of people arrested as far back as October had told him they had not been able to contact their detained family members.

He said those arrested in the more recent wave of arrests were in the same situation. "We've still been unable to establish why they've been arrested, and as it stands there is only speculation," he added.

Mr Sallah, of the National Alliance for Democracy, has himself been arrested several times in recent years.

11 Mar 2010- Jeddah, Saudi Arabia- A 27-year-old man who was arrested in January on three charges, including homosexuality, was sentenced to one year in prison and 1,000 lashes and fined SR5,000, local media reported on Wednesday.

The man, who has not been named by officials, was arrested in January after a video was widely viewed locally. Rumors began circulating as to the origins of the video and the background of the man depicted in it, causing local police to release a statement this week confirming the arrest.

The video depicts a man with long hair dressed in a police uniform flirting with the man filming him. He asks for the cameraman’s driver’s license, then demands “physical comfort” after saying the license is expired. At one point the man displays a firearm.

Toward the end of the two-and-a-half minute clip, the man begins to partially undress and rub his chest to the sound of club music emanating from the car stereo.

He was charged with impersonating a police officer, committing a “general security” offense and being homosexual.

The man had previously been charged with homosexuality and was sentenced to counseling and memorizing a chapter of the Qur’an.

Thousands Protest Portugal's Upcoming Gay Marriage Law

21 Feb 2010- Portugal- Thousands of Portuguese poured onto the streets of Lisbon Sunday in protest of a gay marriage law currently seeking the president's approval, the Spanish news agency EFE reported.

Organizers estimated the event, called “in defense of the family,” attracted a crowd of 5,000, but no official figures were reported.

Demonstrators marched down Lisbon's main downtown artery Av. da Liberdade (Liberty Avenue) calling on President Anibal Cavaco Silva to reject a gay marriage law approved twice by lawmakers. Silva is a Roman Catholic and a member of the PSD party, groups which oppose the legalization of gay marriage, and he has publicly stated his opposition to gay marriage.

However, Silva has several options before him, including vetoing the bill. Commentators in the Portuguese press have speculated he could forward the issue to the Constitutional Court. Last year, despite the fact that Portugal's Constitution outlaws discrimination based on sexual orientation, the court denied a lesbian couple the right to marry in a narrow 3-to-2 decision. The ruling prompted Socialists to draft the gay marriage bill.

Protesters are also demanding a referendum on gay marriage, although Parliamentarians have already rejected such a measure.

Portugal's Parliament approved the bill on February 11 and forwarded it to the president. Under the bill, gay and lesbian couples would be allowed to marry but not adopt children.

Cavaco Silva has a week left to decide what to do with the bill. Supporters, however, say a veto would only delay the legislation. The Socialist-controlled Parliament, led by Prime Minister Jose Socrates, is prepared to overturn a presidential veto.

The Vatican condemned the legalization of gay marriage in neighboring Spain in 2005 and has called for the ouster of Socialists in the country, but the church's opposition in Portugal has been muted. However, Pope Benedict is widely expected to criticize the bill when he visits Portugal in May.

Gay marriage is legal in five European counties, including Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and, most recently, Sweden.

No gay marriage for Albania

05 Feb 2010- Albania- Gay rights advocates in Albania are welcoming the partial victory of an antidiscrimination law parliament passed Thursday. The law includes protections for LGBT people, but it drops a provision to legalize same-sex marriage that drew international attention this past summer.

According to Reuters, “The bill guarantees citizens against discrimination on grounds of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation, but has widely come to be known in Albania as the gay law because of the publicity [Prime Minister Sali] Berisha gave their cause.”

Religious groups successfully lobbied against the proposal to recognize same-sex marriage as part of the law, however.

“Approved by the ruling Democratic Party and its allies in parliament late on Thursday, the law does not allow same-sex marriage as promised by Prime Minister Sali Berisha,” reports Reuters. "Muslim, Orthodox and Catholic communities condemned the idea.”

The Alliance Against Discrimination, an Albanian gay rights group, hailed the antidiscrimination law as a strong start despite the loss of the marriage equality provision.

“This law is not simply a fulfillment of requirements that Albania has undertaken for European Union integration and visa liberalization,” said a statement issued by the group. “Above all, it is a victory for democracy and for human rights for all Albanians.”

31 Jan 2010- Northern Ireland- An openly gay bishop in Northern Ireland has announced he will marry his long-term partner in a civil union.

Pat Buckley, 57, is an unaffiliated Catholic bishop. He will exchange vows with his male partner on February 8 in the same chapel where he celebrates mass twice a week, according to the Belfast Telegraph.

The Catholic Church excommunicated Buckley in 1998 when he received an unauthorized episcopal consecration as a bishop from Bishop Michael Cox, the man who had also ‘ordained’ Sinead O’Connor, the Telegraph reported. In 2006 he published a book called “A sexual life, a spiritual life: a painful journey to inner peace.”

Buckley became a Catholic priest in 1976 and was sacked from the priesthood in 1986. He has conducted an independent ministry in Larne, Northern Ireland, ever since, along with a team of helpers and other disenchanted priests who are no longer formally part of the Church, one of whom is married.

On his website Buckley asserts that he “has a long established ministry to the gay and lesbian community,” adding that he believes “homosexuality is not sinful in the context of love. Sex is only sinful when it is about use or abuse.”

He also says, “Sex is good. It is God's gift. It even allows men and women to share in God's role as Creator. That's why we pro-create. Sex is only wrong, immoral and sinful if it hurts someone or if it is used to use or abuse.” Buckley concludes, “A sexually active life (in love) is as pleasing in God's sight as celibacy / virginity.”

Buckley told the Telegraph he had not expected his announcement to attract such publicity, and said his partner wants their relationship to remain private. “I did not realise that this was going to come out and I would prefer not to talk about it at the moment,” he said.

Couple set for 'gay' marriage legal battle

20 Jan 2010- London, England - A straight couple battling to have a "gay" civil partnership in the name of equality are taking their case to the highest court in Europe.

Civil servants Tom Freeman and Katherine Doyle, of North Road, Holloway, are to sue Islington Council after being turned down for a "gay marriage" last November.

The couple, who have been together almost four years, feel "alienated from the patriarchal traditions of marriage" but are banned from having a civil partnership under UK law because they are heterosexual.

Now they are searching for another straight couple and two gay couples to back their stance as they prepare to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Mr Freeman, 25, said: "We're looking for two gay couples and one straight couple who want the ceremonies they are not entitled to by law, and are prepared to join our legal battle, preferably in Islington.

"That's quite a tall order but it will take five years for the case to be heard and we're in it for the long haul.

"It's standard practice to stack the appellants up like this to strengthen the case. We're hopeful we'll be able to get the law changed."

Ms Doyle, also 25, added: "We object to the way same-sex couples are prohibited from getting married. We don't want to take advantage of marriage when it is an option that is denied to our lesbian and gay friends."

The couple have the backing of Peter Tatchell, founder of gay rights group OutRage!

Last week they met Islington South and Finsbury MP Emily Thornberry, who has vowed to raise the issue in Parliament.

Ms Thornberry said: "I support them. I can see no reason why they can't have a civil partnership and gay people can't get married."

The couple hope to be represented by "a prominent human rights lawyer" who has offered to work for free on a "no win, no fee" basis.

Terry Stacy, Liberal Democrat leader of Islington Council, who has himself had a civil partnership, has backed the couple's stance but says the local authority has no choice but to bow to national UK law.

Minister announces gay parade for 2010

18 Jan 2010- Belgrade- Minister for Human and Minority Rights Svetozar Čiplić announced that a gay pride parade will be held this year.

“We already met with the representatives of gay associations and the plan is to prepare the public and the organizers themselves in time,” Čiplić said for the Monday edition of the daily Večernje Novosti.

He assessed that the organizers made a mistake in 2009 when they did not agree to holding the gathering in front of the Palace of Serbia.

“Only the hooligans would have lost in that case,” Minister Čiplić said.

The organizers of the pride parade, which was supposed to take place on September 19, 2009 at the square in front of the Faculty of Philosophy in downtown Belgrade, canceled it due to safety concerns after several right-wing organizations and extremist sports fan groups threatened to physically prevent the gathering.

Despite the risks, the Serbian government allowed the parade to be held, and advised the organizers to move it to the Palace of Serbia, which they refused.

West turns Africa into gay battlefield

17 Jan 2010- The trial of a young male couple charged with unnatural practices and gross indecency after announcing their engagement in Malawi was adjourned last week when one of the accused collapsed in court while enduring jeers from the public gallery.

Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, was made to return with a mop to clean up his own vomit, even though he has malaria.

He and his boyfriend, Steven Monjeza, 26, have been held in Chichiri prison, Blantyre, for more than a week — in order, the judge says, to protect them from mob violence.

Chichiri has a reputation for overcrowding, disease and homosexual rape. The couple say they have been badly beaten and Peter Tatchell, the British gay activist, describes their conditions as appalling.

Such scenes will only increase the pressure from western human rights activists and donor countries on Malawi’s government to moderate its draconian anti-gay laws, for which the couple have provided a test case. They face up to 14 years in jail.

Following similar donor pressure, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda distanced himself from an anti-homosexuality bill before parliament in Kampala last week. Museveni appealed to MPs to “go slow” on the private member’s bill, which stipulates the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, including homosexual acts by HIV-positive men.

Museveni said he had come under pressure from Gordon Brown, Stephen Harper, the prime minister of Canada, and the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in a 45-minute phone call. He was also struck by the fact that a US protest rally had drawn 300,000 people, saying he would have great difficulty attracting such a crowd.

The two cases illustrate the way Africa is becoming a battleground over differing attitudes to homosexuality in the West.

Both sides accuse the other of being driven by external influences: gay rights campaigners say conservative American evangelists are encouraging homophobia, while the anti-gay side insists that homosexuality is only surfacing openly in Africa because of western encouragement.

Some argue that the African rows over homosexuality are really a proxy skirmish in an American cultural dispute, with both evangelicals and gay rights groups in the US pouring in money and support.

In Uganda, attention has focused on a visit by three US evangelicals, Scott Lively, Caleb Lee Brundidge and Don Schmierer, just before the anti-homosexuality bill was introduced. They held seminars for MPs and officials where homosexuality was described as a disease that could be healed, although they have subsequently disclaimed any responsibility for the bill.

Lively, the president of Defend the Family International, told Ugandans that legalising homosexuality would mean legalising “the molestation of children and having sex with animals”.

Schmierer works with “homosexual recovery groups”, while Brundidge, who claims once to have been gay himself, works with the International Healing Foundation as a “sexual reorientation coach”. He also leads Christian groups to mortuaries where they attempt to raise the dead.

Gay activists have placed on the web a video of Lively telling a Ugandan audience that he “knows more than almost anyone else in the world” about homosexuality. He says that the genocide in Rwanda was carried out by gays, that Aids is a just punishment for homosexuality and that foreigners are trying to promote homosexuality in Uganda.

Museveni has warned Ugandan youth that homosexuality is against God’s will and that “European homosexuals are recruiting in Africa”.

His minister for ethics, Nsaba Buturo, says homosexuality is a “moral perversion that must not be allowed to spread”.

Ugandas churches are themselves strongly homophobic — Archbishop Henry Orombi and Pastor Martin Sempe have been leading a campaign in support of the bill.

The Church of Uganda is vehemently against gay clergymen and when retired bishop Christopher Senyonjo preached tolerance towards homosexuals in 2005, Orombi stripped him of his pension.

A similar pattern is found in Malawi. George Thindwa, director of the Association of Secular Humanism, who is attempting to help the arrested gay couple, said “the churches are definitely spearheading the anti-gay campaign here”. He said Malawi was often visited by foreign evangelists, though he thought the local clergy needed little encouragement in their homophobia.

Pastor Mario Manyozo, of Malawi’s Word of Life Tabernacle Church, says “homosexuality is against God’s creation and is an evil act since gays are possessed with demons”. Similar sentiments are echoed by many churchmen, based on the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Pastor Joseph Mbeme, of Malawi’s Ambassadors for Christ Church, says the church must pray for homosexuality to be stamped out.

Thindwa points out that 83% of Malawians are Christians and another 13% are Muslims — and that Islamic law is even more hostile to gays. In Muslim northern Nigeria the penalty for homosexuality is stoning to death.

The claim that western influence is encouraging homosexuality is common. Some wealthy westerners are accused of sex tourism and paedophilia.

Peter Atekyereza, a sociology professor at Makerere University in Uganda, said “external influence is definitely behind the spread of homosexuality”. He said international organisations had been giving “scholarships and hand-outs in an attempt to recruit young people to homosexuality”.

Many Africans echo President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who calls gays “sexual perverts — lower than dogs or pigs”, and who claims that homosexuality is “unAfrican” — “leave whites to do that,” he has said. There have even been assertions that homosexuality did not exist in Africa until the white man imported it.

Last year nine Senegalese gay activists were jailed for eight years after coming out. This followed an international Aids conference attended by 50 foreign activists who stressed the need for gays to be dealt with openly.

Uganda expelled the local director of UNAIDS, the United Nations programme on HIV and Aids, for organising a meeting with Ugandan gay activists. The US and Sweden, both big donors, have threatened to cut off aid if the anti-homosexuality bill is not moderated.

An anguished editorial in The Uganda Record accused the West of trying to bully Africans into homosexuality. “To Africans this is an almost existential matter. Their very future as societies is at stake.”

16 Jan 2010- London, England- It's all a far cry from the fusty respectability of Michael Fish and Bill Giles. But this is current BBC weather presenter Tomasz Schafernaker as you have never seen him before.

He shocked corporation bosses after he turned up in a gay magazine in a pair of skimpy shorts. It is understood that while someone at the Met Office had been informed of the article, BBC bosses were completely unaware.

The first thing they knew was when they were told by readers of Attitude magazine about the pictures of the toned-up meteorologist.

Mr Schafernaker's makeover stunned staff who were unaware of his impressive physique, which is usually kept well-hidden under his suit. 

A weather centre insider said it was a question of 'minor hot water' for not informing the corporation of the magazine article.

The source said: 'Eyebrows were raised big time. You have to look to see that it is him. The boy was transformed into a swan.

'Let's just say that everyone is seeing Tomasz in a different light now. But we are worried that when people are watching the weather when Tomasz presents they will not be able to concentrate on watching the symbols.'

Attitude features both straight and gay men in the magazine. Mr Schafernaker appeared as the cover star of Attitude Active, the health special which came with this month's magazine.

The article said that underneath his suits and shirts sported on TV, lay the secret - 'Tomasz Schafernaker is ripped'. It also said 'undressed he is the specimen you see before you, all pecs and ripped abs.'

The Polish-born presenter, 31, usually fronts the weather reports on The One O'Clock News and has appeared across the BBC networks.

He famously had to apologise in 2007 when on BBC1 he referred to the Outer Hebrides and Western Isles as 'nowheresville' 

Last summer on Radio 4 Schafernaker jumbled his words and accidentally said 'muddy shite' for Glastonbury instead of 'muddy site'.

He then giggled on and off throughout the rest of the forecast. In his interview with the magazine he told Attitude Active: 'I get myself into trouble every now and then but the producers are very forgiving and I thank them for it. I love working with the team.'

Schafernaker was born in Gdansk but came to the UK as a child.

On the BBC's weather website is is said that he developed a 'keen interest' in weather and the natural sciences at a young age 'despite his strongest abilities in the arts and crafts'.

He obtained a degree in meteorology from Reading University. During his studies he spent a short time at Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences analysing tropical weather data. 

The presenter joined the BBC in 2000 as a broadcast assistant and months later got his first go at presenting at the age of 22. This made him the youngest man to present on BBC Weather. 

He gained more experience by working as a civil forecaster for a year at Met Office London as well as ITV before returning to the BBC.

According to the BBC website he lives in west London with his two housemates and enjoys jogging and his local gym.

11 Jan 2010- Matuba Mahlatjie is gay, African and married, which is unheard of outside liberal South Africa, because the continent's governments are clamping down on homosexuality.

Gay pride parades, same-sex marriages and the famously gay-friendly city of Cape Town puts South Africa way ahead of countries such as nearby Malawi, where a gay couple was thrown in jail this month for trying to marry.

But scratch the surface and sexual intolerance and hate crimes still riddle the continent's powerhouse.

"We still have hate crimes perpetrated against gay and lesbian people in our communities. The legalisation of same-sex unions did not make our life any easier," said Mahlatjie, who feels gays are still "under siege" in the country.

Across Africa governments are laying down the law against homosexuality and 38 out of 53 countries have criminalised consensual gay sex, in what Human Rights Watch says is a method of "political manipulation".

Uganda has been criticised for the tabling of a bill against the "sinful lifestyle" that would toughen penalties for gays and also punish anyone who "promotes" homosexuality.

In Malawi, where discussing sex is taboo, the attempt by the gay couple to get married was labeled a matter of "gross indecency". A judge is expected to decide next week whether they will face trial.

In Nigeria, northern Muslim states have the death penalty for homosexuality, while anti-gay incidents have flared in Senegal, where the bodies of homosexual men have been exhumed and tossed out of Muslim cemeteries.

Scott Long, Human Rights Watch's director for gay rights issues, says that anti-gay sentiment in Africa rose steeply about 15 years ago when the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, started "manipulating the issue for political gain".

Mugabe, who has called gays "worse than dogs and pigs", latched on to the issue to "distract attention from economic and political crises and shore up political support," Long said.

"It was very successful in bringing together different groups," said Long, adding that this trend had spread across the continent to countries such as Nigeria, where the issue has proved a rare unifier among the Muslim north and Christian south.

Mahlatjie says that even in liberal South Africa, legal protection has not made way for social acceptance.

"It is difficult everywhere. We have white South Africans disowned by families because they are gay. We have black lesbian women raped and battered by people in their neighbourhood in a bid to 'cure' them."

South Africa's post-apartheid constitution ensures equal rights for homosexuals, but the government was forced by the courts into recognising same-sex marriage with a 2006 law, after months of protests by the gay community and thousands of its opponents.

Unlike many homosexuals Africans, Mahlatjie says he was never forced to take a girlfriend to conform to societal expectations, but "my wedding band shocked a lot of people".

While South Africa now has a prominent homosexual judge on its constitutional court, President Jacob Zuma was forced to apologise in 2006 for saying that same-sex marriages were "a disgrace to the nation and to God".

South Africa was "not necessarily more advanced than the rest of Africa," said Dawie Nel, director of the gay rights group OUT. He said it's "still a very homophobic society".

08 Jan 2010- Lisbon - The Portuguese parliament on Friday passed the Socialist government's bill to legalise same-sex marriages, which Prime Minister Jose Socrates said was an historic step in the country's fight against discrimination.

Socrates' minority government pushed the bill through the house with support from left wing parties, while alternative proposals by the centre-right opposition for civil partnerships and a referendum on the issue were rejected.

"It is a small change in the law, but a very important and symbolic step to fully realise values that are pillars of open, tolerant and democratic societies; freedom, equality and non-discrimination," Socrates told parliament ahead of the vote.

The bill gives gay marriages the same rights as heterosexual marriages, including those on taxes, inheritance and housing, but does not offer them the right to adopt children.

CHURCH WARNING

It marks another modernising step for this predominantly Catholic country, especially after abortion was legalised in 2007. But the Catholic Church warned against the move.

"Millenary culture deems marriage as a contract between a man and a woman. Changing this understanding of what is a family can have extremely grave consequences in the future," said Bishop Dom Jose Policarpo, Lisbon patriarch.

The bill now needs to be ratified by conservative President Anibal Cavaco Silva. If he approves it, Portugal will join Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, South Africa and Canada in allowing gay marriages, all of which allow gay married couples to adopt children as well.

Gay and lesbian hopes had been dented by the rejection of the Left Bloc party's gay marriage bill and by a Constitutional Court upholding a ban last year.

CHAMPAGNE AND WEDDING CAKE

Friday's bill prompted celebration by around 70 supporters in the house, who cheered when the result was announced. They continued outside, drinking champagne and cutting wedding cakes.

"We are talking of a state which repressed, harassed and criminalised relationships between people of the same sex, and that same state today affirms that they have equal recognition and dignity in law," said Paulo Corte-Real, head of ILGA, one of Portugal's largest gay and lesbian organisations.

But the Left Bloc and the Green Party, who supported the bill, criticised the government for leaving out adoption rights. "The government has given itself a mandate to discriminate," said Left Bloc parliamentary leader Jose Pureza.

"Adoption is different from marriage. In adoption, what is at stake is not the rights of free and adult people, but the interest of the children the state must protect," Socrates said.

02 Jan 2010- London, England- BBC newsreader Jane Hill has made the headlines herself - after revealing she is gay.

Jane, who read the Christmas Day lunchtime bulletins, outed herself in the Beeb's in-house magazine, Ariel.

The 40-year-old anchor revealed she lives with partner of one year Sara and their dog Mavis in North London.

A colleague said: "Everyone has known for years that Jane is gay.

"She hasn't made a secret of it at the BBC and although she has had other girlfriends over the years, this one seems to be the one."

Jane, a regular on BBC1 and News 24, has also dated men. She once went out with Strictly Come Dancing winner Chris Hollins. The pair, who split up some years ago, remain friends.

Her BBC career started on local radio at the age of 16. After completing a politics degree she got on to the corporation's news trainee scheme, later working as a producer on Five Live before moving into television.

She has reported on many high profile stories, including 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and Barack Obama's inauguration.

But, she says her hardest job was the Madeleine McCann case.

"I was there the day after she disappeared and ended up being there for the whole of May," she told Ariel.

"It was emotionally draining, that lack of resolution. I'm not a parent but I don't need to be one to know how absolutely horrific it must be."

Rwanda: Church Condemns Election of Openly Gay Bishop

11 Dec 2009- Kigali — The Archbishop of the Church of Rwanda, Rt. Rev. Emmanuela Kolini has strongly criticized and condemned the decision of an Anglican diocese in the United States of America to elect an openly gay clergy as the bishop of Diocese of Los Angeles.

In a close-to-call election that took seven ballots, the Diocese of Los Angeles elected an avowed lesbian, Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool to be the next Bishop of the diocese, setting off another storm around the Anglican community six years after the election of Gene Robinson, a non-celibate homosexual, as the Bishop of New Hampshire.

Speaking to The New Times, Kolini condemned the election and said the fact that Mary is a lesbian was against the will of God to place such a person in position of religious leadership.

"I condemn not only the act of electing Glasspool to the position, but also lesbianism as an act against the will of God," Kolini said, adding that it only contributes to divisions in the global Anglican society.

The election of Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool, 55, has created a theological rift between The Episcopal Church of America and the vast majority of Anglicans worldwide.

According to Kolini, placing such a person in a position of leadership makes it worse because she will only give wrong directives to the society.

"God did not plan the creation of different sex for enjoyment, he had a plan, he wanted man to multiply and feel the world."

Glasspool is one of only two women to be appointed the position of Bishop in Los Angeles in over 100 years, and is also the first gay woman.

The American church set off a debate within the world Communion when it confirmed Robinson as bishop-elect of the Diocese of New Hampshire.

Anglican bishops in Africa, Asia and Latin America condemned the vote, with some threatening to sever ties with the U.S. church.

Robinson, a 56-year-old divorced father of two, has lived with his partner, Mark Andrew, for more than 15 years.

Gay British soldier talks about coming out to his comrades

11 Dec 2009- UK- An openly gay soldier in Afghanistan has spoken about the support and acceptance he has received from his comrades.

Trooper Ben Rakestrow, said that since he came out to his squadron a year ago he has faced nothing but harmless banter from his fellow soldiers.

The 21-year-old, who serves with 2nd Royal Tank Regiment (2RTR), said it was difficult to reveal his sexuality in such a high-testosterone environment. "It was difficult to start with," he said. "I didn't know how they'd react."

Rakestrow, from Exeter, Devon, who today completes a six-month operational tour in Helmand province, had already come out to his family and close friends. He decided to come out to his comrades after a night out midway through a training exercise on Salisbury Plain, in Wiltshire.

Rakestrow, who serves with Egypt squadron, 2RTR, had been out at a nightclub with a friend who knew he was gay. The next morning his colleagues started asking questions.

"The next morning I arrived for the exercise late, because we'd had a bit to drink," he said. "The lads all asked if we'd had any luck, then at least our late arrival would have been worth it. I just said, 'His name was Ryan'. Some of their faces dropped, and asked if I was serious. They couldn't believe it."

The army hasn't always been so accepting. In 1999, the year before the ban on gay personnel was lifted, 298 people were discharged for their sexuality.

But in 2000 a legal victory, fought for by three gay men and a lesbian, who had been discharged from the Royal Navy and RAF after being found to be gay, paved the way for openly gay servicemen and women.

British servicemen and women now march at Gay Pride in uniform.

Earlier this year the then head of the British army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, became the first army chief to address a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender conference. "Respect for others is not an optional extra," he said.

Rakestrow believes he made the right decision to come out to his comrades and said the men have treated him as an equal since he disclosed his sexuality.

He said: "I get banter from them all the time, but it's good banter. They all want to know about my life, they ask a lot of questions, you can imagine. I don't find it hard to talk about it."

Rakestrow said he would advise gay men or women unsure about coming out to their colleagues to talk to close friends. "Talk about it with them and then if you're confident tell your mates. But the important thing is to tell them when it feels right."

The trooper said he did not fit any gay stereotypes, although he admits to having a pink quilt cover decorated with a picture of heartthrob actor Zac Ephron in the squadron's temporary digs and a copy of Attitude magazine often in his rucksack. He also said he would be wary of starting a relationship with another soldier.

"I always said I wouldn't let my personal life clash with my professional life," he said. "I've got to work with these guys every day."

Rakestrow ‑ who has witnessed the bloody violence of conflict at first hand ‑ has received the highest praise from senior officers. He was in the same convoy as Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe when the commanding officer was killed in an explosion, along with his fellow 2RTR comrade Trooper Joshua Hammond, aged 18.

"I was right at the back, there was not a lot I could do. It was terrible," he said. "When something like that happens, I just think, let's get the job done. We get the job done and we reflect on it later."

A confidential review across the army, navy and air force two years after the ban on gay personnel was lifted found that the majority of officers and junior ranks, particularly younger servicemen and women, had accepted the ruling. But there was evidence of resistance among older senior non-commissioned and warrant officers.

Stonewall estimates that the number of gay servicemen and women reflects the national average of 8%, putting the figure at approximately 14,000 personnel, although the army does not keep official figures. According to a survey conducted by the website proud2serve, a resource network for the gay and straight military community, two-thirds of respondents were open about their sexuality.

10 Dec 2009- The New York senate may have voted down marriage and the New Jersey senate has delayed their vote. But there is positive news today coming from Europe.

The Austrian parliament voted today to allow civil unions. The law goes into effect on Jan. 1.

The law will give same-sex couples many of the same rights as married couples including alimony and pension benefits.

The bill passed 110-64. The right-wing Freedom Party rejected the legislation for going too far and the Greens said it didn’t go far enough. Austria is considered one of the more conservative countries in the European Union.

Although same-sex couples will gain parity in financial areas including taxation, certain rights will be denied. Gay and lesbian couples will not have access to adoption and insemination services and will not be allowed a ceremony at registry offices.

Being gay and HIV in Middle East

01 Dec 2009- I live in the Middle East and having to walk into seeing a doctor if you are HIV positive would be asking for your death penalty.

I contracted HIV when I was live and studying in UK, but still had to come back to the Middle East. I then realized that you could not easily go for a check up just incase they realized I was HIV positive.

So I usually go back to the UK just to have my check ups and get my treatment out there. The same with the medication I’m on, I have to find a way of brining that medicine here as you are aware Middle East is not liberal when it comes to human rights. 

There are a lot of people living with HIV in this country but they would rather not go to the hospitals here.

What normally happen is that, if you test positive, the very doctor that gives you your results will also inform the government.   So within a short period of time you are condemned and what follows is that they have to find out else you have infected.

After all this, they follow all your movements , eventually your friends even stop visiting you because everyone of them that visits you, is taken in for questioning so as a result of that no one wants to even visit you. The government basically takes over your life, that’s if they don’t make you disappear.

This will not change now, the culture here is far too different from the western, so if we are looking at change and acknowledging that our own people here have HIV, it will sound like we are accepting the western laws, which I’m sure you all know that the middle east will never accept.

So every time the world recognizes World Aids Day, we miss out, we always hope that there will be time, when countries within Middle East will accept that people with HIV and Aids can still live amongst them. To be able to freely go to the hospital or the clinic to have an HIV test voluntarily and trusting the doctor, to talk to you about it without letting you sign so many documents regarding your health.

A lot of rich Arabs in these countries fly far away to just get their treatment or their check ups. Even in the very government that’s against it all, there are leaders that are HIV too, but they will not just admit it and will always keep it that way.

This even makes it hard, if some of these leaders will never disclose their health or sexuality, as part of the public, I would not survive, if I spoke about it. The laws are too tight here, as for our women, they are even treated badly when it comes to adultery, and I honestly think it should be the same with men, because the majority of those that are HIV positive in Middle East are men.

For us, World Aids Day is not only recognizing and being aware about HIV and Aids, it’s more about hope that our government would be considerate and be liberal about people that suffer with the illness. That time will come, the only worry we have is that how many lives would we have saved or treated before the government comes to realize it.
 

Report by Ndanji

Bare-backing  in the gay world

01 Dec 2009- It’s becoming very much normal everyday to have unprotected sex, most of us we refer to it as a slight mistake or a got carried away thing or I was too drunk. Let’s admit it; we know skin to skin sex is good and horny.

Africanveil took this opportunity to go inside the bare-backing world of today and what we discovered is more shocking comparing to what is being campaigned against HIV/Aids.

There are a lot of sex parties now that will strictly not allow the use of condoms, and some websites that are strictly for bare-backing only and some that are strictly Hiv/Aids sites and chat rooms. You will be surprised that even the language that’s used is different as in terms of having unprotected sex, words like breeding and seeding.

Some of the website managers we talked to about the subject, told us they were catering for everyone without discriminating.

We managed to visit some African countries, European and United Kingdom; we also managed to interview with those that allowed us to publish their experience.

Tumi from South Africa tells us how he became positive, "its was my own carelessness, you know when you live in townships here, there is not much happening when it comes to gay parties and functions, so most young guys head off to Johannesburg."

When I moved there, I suppose I was a new boy on the bloke, so it was about being taken out by other guys that pretended to be good friends but it was not about friendship. Sex was the main thing and the worst about it was that it was unprotected. So I would not blame the townships now no, but it would help if all those young guys coming from townships were warned about the dangers of HIV/Aids. For me I worry about the next generation that’s coming up with out being warned.

Malindi from Zambia tells us that its still not easy out here to get condoms, so most of young guys will always want to use protection for just preventing pregnancies which is really sad, if you had to go and ask for a condom, the whole clinic wants to know who you are sleeping with. I’m having this experience from a rural part of Zambia, we do have a few guys out here that want to practice same sex but that does not exclude us from catching HIV.

Peter from Holland says its very normal out here, Amsterdam has got used to that kind of fun on a gay scene. Some of the parties here in Amsterdam, you don’t need to even ask, but you rather have to prove that you are positive instead, and when you all have sex at these parties, it’s a normal thing and what is expected of everyone to do.

We asked peter if we could be invited to some of these parties, as he organizes these private parties.

Ndanji: So what are we supposed to do when we get there? Do we have to introduce ourselves to everyone?

Peter: Oh no, you will be my special guest, you might even be lucky that you would even manage to talk to some of the boys there and their experiences.

Africanveil managed to have an invitation to the sex party, but what was surprising is that, you just don’t turn up at the house party, you have to receive an invitation via email and you have to confirm, that way you are expected.

The first thing we noticed when we got to the house party was that, everyone was friendly, very warm place, but there were no condoms displayed anywhere. The party started at 11pm, by 1am everyone of them were excited by the influence of smoking weed, cocaine, crystal meth, so all this led to unprotected sex.

We managed to talk to a few guys about their experience after the whole act.

Ndanji: So how do you feel about all this? Is unprotected sex more fun you think?

John: I think its ok and I also don’t think you can have much choice if you are positive already, this is my second time I’m coming to this kind of party.

Ndanji: So you are not scared that you might get other diseases from others like STIs?

John: I think if someone was having STDs they would not want to come here, and I have always gone to have a check up after fun like this anyway.

Ndanji: You are still young, don’t you think you need to get settled with a partner and live your life with him than just these sort of parties?

John:  Well my life has been ruined already, so I don’t think there is much left for me out there, its not that easy to find someone like me to have as a partner. So you just get frustrated about it all and end up coming here.

Ndanji: What would be your advice to those that you think might fall into your steps?

John: It’s not a good life, they should always test with their boyfriends before they have unprotected sex and they should be both clean otherwise they would end up like me.

We also talked to the organizer about these parties and here is what he had to say.

Ndanji: Why do you have to host these sort of parties?

Peter: I’m HIV positive myself and when I tried to talk about it openly to those that I tried to have sex with they always told me, they were positive too and wanted to go somewhere they would be able to do it without protection.

Ndanji: But don’t you think that’s not being helpful if it comes to campaigning against HIV and encouraging people to use protection?

Peter: Look, there are a lot of people out there that are having unprotected sex and they take it very normal, there are also people out there that will take drugs freely, its not that people don’t know about this no, they just choose not to protect themselves and that’s it really. So its not up to me to start telling them that they need to change their lives and that’s not encouraging it.

In UK it was very different, most guys had a different reaction to bare-backing, but its happening, there are a few private parties that take place but we did not manage to get an invitation, some of the people we talked to confirmed, most of bare-backing in London were happening at saunas than private parties.

Steve is HIV positive and goes to the saunas all the time, he agreed to talk to us openly.

Steve: It’s happening; there are a lot of guys that I have sex with at the sauna that will not even bother to ask for protection, I think your looks also contribute.

Ndanji: How do you mean, just looks would make one have unprotected sex?

Steve: oh you will be surprised, if you have a good dick, nice body and nice arse, well anyone is able to fall for that and they do, so the question is would they want all that package covered in a plastic? no, they just go for it without a condom.

Ndanji: So is this the only place you can have unprotected sex from?

Steve: Not really, you can go on Gaydar or Gay Bareback websites, and you will in no minute find someone that will want to have it.

Ndanji: So would you say that these sites are encouraging the whole bare-backing act?

Steve: No I don’t think so, look I go to the saunas, I pay to get in, when I’m there, I’m an adult I know what I want, so its not like those owners have to come knocking on doors to find out if we are using condoms no, its our responsibility but that seems to slip off our hands and we like it that way at least some of us.

You will be surprised how many young people in London are having HIV, the same when you go and have unprotected sex, its all with guys between 23 and 40 years, unprotected sex is now like a fashion, most young guys are having it.

In German it wasn’t much different from Holland, except that it was more of Older guys that were having unprotected sex, we briefly spoke to Klaus and here is what he had to say.

There are a lot out here that have bare-back sex, I think its not just German that’s doing that, Europe’s HIV status is growing, we used to say Africa and India are worse when it comes to HIV/Aids, well it’s certainly increasing here.

In German older guys are the ones that like to have bare-back sex, so they tend to pass it onto most young ones. At some point there was someone that started hosting bare-back private sex parties but its now all underground, and those that were against it are the ones that do it.

Ndanji: Is it because you are HIV, that’s why you say that?

Klaus: Before I tested positive, I would have unprotected sex most of the times, it was always good and it still is.

Ndanji: Don’t you think that’s killing the whole entire world? Why would you not help to prevent it even if you are positive?

Klaus:  Look you don’t expect the world to tell you everything, its not about the world anymore, we cant always be controlled, look at the climate issue, the global warming, its now becoming like it’s a world’s anthem, there are so many out there that need help than being told how to not keep heating on when you are having great unprotected sex.

Africanveil thanks all those that it interviewed and those that contributed. Please note that all the names in this article have been changed due to security reasons.

Interview by Ndanji

12 Nov 2009- A party promoter in Australia has banned ‘Metrosexuals’ from a popular club night in an aim to stop violence.

The new rules will see men who try to enter the club wearing anything that is considered to be metrosexual will be stopped.

It means anyone supporting items of clothing such as low-cut V-neck T-shirts, skinny jeans and pointed white shoes will not be given entry to the hit club night – Dorcia.

Scott Mellor who is the night promoter and founder of the new rules and is bringing the ‘Dorcia’ evening to Melbourne says his ideas are to stop unwanted violence.

He says: “We are really trying to push a party night that is a safe place to go and have a good time without worrying about safety,” the 27-year-old said.

“We wanted to shed light on the problems with nightlife in Australia. We took everything that we disliked about going out to clubs and inverted it … no dressing up like David Beckham.

“We are about creating an environment where people can be comfortable and confident.”

Posters promoting the evening the states “No metrosexual attire, no aggression, no problems.”

Mellor believes that this move will stop the ‘sport jock’ mentality and will hopefully stop violence.

Other items that will deny entry to the club are trends such as fashion brand Ed Hardy, leather shoes, shirts with numbers on them, tight t-shirts and polo shirts with popped collars.

It won’t only end at the customer’s attire; their appearance will also play a factor on their entry. Men who have hair with blond tips or a dyed rats-tail’s will also be denied.

Management has said that the ejected troublemakers would be photographed for a “name and shame” inside the venue.

“We are not turning away people who look after themselves, wear product in their hair or dress with a degree of style,” Mr. Mellor said.

“We are simply providing a venue for people who don’t subscribe to the standards of 90 per cent of other clubs.”

A fellow nightclub owner, Nick Russian, believes it to be unfair, saying:

“I think you find the people who make an effort are the people who’ve come out for a good time, and the last thing on their agenda is starting fights,” Mr. Russian said.

“The main objective is for people to come with the right attitude. If people are drunk or aggressive they won’t get in.”

Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner Dr Helen Szoke said:

“It is against the law to refuse a person service on the basis of age, sex, physical features, race and a range of other characteristics,”

12 Nov 2009- Alan Carr reckons gay men make the best chat show hosts. The openly gay comedian, who is preparing for the second season of his Channel 4 chat show Alan Carr: Chatty Man which begins on November 19, said: "I think, at the heart of it, gay men are very gossipy, and very anecdote-led."

The 33-year-old added: "I think maybe a straight man wouldn't want to hear all of that - so maybe it's because we're interested in people's lives, and what makes them tick."

Alan spent three years working on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross and reckons he picked up some tips for his own show.

He said: "I watched the master at work from the studio floor. He gets the Hollywood A-listers who are media-trained within an inch of their lives and he still manages to get something good out of them."

But sometimes a chat show host needs to put his life on the line, as Alan found out when he challenged Mickey Rourke to a wrestling match.

"He's been hit round the head so many times he's a bit shaky now, and forgetful. We'd planned him to do these wrestling moves one at a time, one, two, three. But when I whispered to him 'Go' he did all three together.

"So I did the body-slam, I was pulled over the head, and then he had me in a headlock - all in one go. My life flashed before my eyes, which is hard when you're wearing a gimp mask."

Alan will be interviewing Mariah Carey, Noel Fielding, Chris Moyles, Alesha Dixon and Westlife during his second series.

Capital set for gay art festival

28 Oct 2009- London, England- An arts festival showcasing work by lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans (LGBT) and queer performers, artists, filmmakers and designers will take place in London next month.

GFest - gayWise LGBT Arts Festival, which is organised by arts charity Wise Thoughts, will take place between November 9 and 22 at venues across the capital.

The festival will be made up of three main artistic strands, performance events, short film screenings and visual arts exhibitions and more than 100 artists will be taking part.

There will also be social and networking events, workshops, debates and seminars with leading LGBT artists, workshop facilitators and academics in the UK.

Events include a free art exhibition at McKenzie Pavillion Gallery Space in Finsbury Park. Work on display will include The Jack and Jill Snapshots, an exhibition of photos of a young couple in which artist Corrine Bot plays both the man and the woman.

There will be three performance evenings at the Cochrane Theatre, Southampton Row, on November 19, 20 and 21, featuring a variety of acts including musicians, dancers, storytellers and comedians. Film screenings will take place at Rich Mix in East London on November 13, 14 and 15

Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who is supporting the event, said: "It is fitting that GFest takes place in the capital.

"I wish the festival every success and encourage Londoners to get involved."

Author Sarah Waters has also lent her support to the event. She said: "As a lesbian and a Londoner, I'm excited about GFest, an LGBT arts festival filled with cutting-edge exhibitions and performances by new and established artists.

"GFest is a celebration of the wonderful diversity that makes our queer communities so vibrant, and our capital city so rich.

"It's so inspiring to see LGBT arts showcased in this way. I hope GFest just gets bigger, bolder and more beautiful, year by year!"

Niranjan Kamatkar, artistic director of Wise Thoughts, said: "Now in its third year, GFest 09 features the work of both established and emerging talent.

"We have taken some risks in selecting work that will challenge audiences.

"We are really proud and thrilled to announce its ever-expanding greater artistic contents."

Wise Thoughts works across the arts addressing social justice issues and the needs of the LGBT and black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.Go to www.wisethoughts.org for further details.

For more information on GFest and to view the full programme of events visit www.gaywisefestival.org.uk.

Congo men strut their stuff as Kenyan priests stir the gay nest 

27 Oct 2009- Congo - As the row over the gay marriage of two Kenyans two weeks ago continues to rage, a priest at the coast has added fuel to the fire.

Kenyan priest Fr Ambrose Muli said during his Sunday homily at the St. Anthony Catholic Cathedral in Malindi, along the Kenya coast, that men are turning to each other because “the women are no longer marriageable”. Women, he said, had become too complicated and unattractive in marriage

While gay relations remains a touchy issue in most of Africa, with a proposed law in Uganda likely to impose the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality, and Burundi recently banning homosexuality, some countries have a surprising liberal attitude.

South Africa’s constitution, perhaps not surprising for Africa’s richest and among its freest countries, recognises the rights of gays — and has its gay parades. The other country with enough tolerance to permit gay parades in Africa is a surprise candidate: It is long-suffering and war-weary Democratic Republic of Congo.

The western part of the DRC, where the capital Kinshasa is located, is not ruled by the homophobia common in most of Africa. This year it had a gay parade that passed off without incident.

Why DRC would permit a gay parade, why more stable and richer nations will not countenance it is another puzzle in the books for one of Africa’s biggest countries, with a complex and twisted history.

Irish sports star says he is gay

24 Oct 2009- Dublin, Ireland- One of Ireland's best-known sports stars has announced that he is gay, sparking widespread debate and comment across the country.

Donal Og Cusack, the goalkeeper of the Cork hurling team, is on the front page of most Irish newspapers, and every radio phone-in programme has been dominated by discussions about the player.

It is rare for elite sportsmen in any country to talk so openly about their homosexuality. This is particularly true in Ireland - and especially in the macho field of hurling, one of the world's oldest sports.

In spite of all the changes in recent years, Ireland is still a largely conservative country, hence the sport star's reluctance to come out as gay until now.

Not easily intimidated

When he told his father that he was gay, his dad told him he would get him "fixed".

Cusack, who is 32, has won three all-Ireland hurling titles with Cork, the same county where the former Manchester United footballer Roy Keane was brought up.

Like Keane, Cusack is strong-willed and not a man who is easily intimidated.

In an interview on Ireland's prime-time entertainment programme, The Late Late Show, he gave his first live TV interview about the recent revelations.

He admitted he was taken aback by the media frenzy his announcement had created.

"The scale of it has surprised me. It's hard to believe really", he said.

Although he has waited until now to speak publicly about being gay, he told his family four years ago.

He said: "I went home. As usual, my mam had my dinner ready. I just said [to myself] 'this is something I have to do'.

"I asked them to come down to the sitting room and said that we needed to talk.

"I told them that I wasn't into labels, but that this is the way I had been living my life. That was it. I was as up front as I could be.

"My dad obviously was in shock and the first thing he said was 'we need to get you fixed'."

At the end of the family meeting, Cusack's brother, Conor, put his hand on his father's shoulder and said "that'll broaden your mind now, dad".

Cusack comes from a small village, Cloyne, where hurling is part of the fabric of life.

Shane McGrath, who writes about Gaelic Games for the Irish Daily Mail, said: "In national terms this is huge. Hurling is bigger than politics, music, everything. Its hold on rural Ireland is supreme.

Team support

"The GAA [Gaelic Athletic Association] has been the greatest cultural force in Ireland since the state's foundation. While it was incredibly brave of Donal Og to do this, it also reinforces the GAA's ability to move with the times."

His fellow players on the Cork team have been supportive, said Cusack.

"The team-mates are good. I think I'm very fortunate in that I've got a very mature team in Cork. We've got a great loyalty towards each other", he said.

Cusack has written an autobiography called Come What May.

He said: "I want to go back playing for Cork. Hopefully this book will bring closure to a certain amount of things."

Apart from some homophobic text messages sent to radio stations, the overwhelming reaction to Cusack's announcement has been positive.

However, in some ways, the biggest test could be the opposition crowd's reaction the next time he runs out on the pitch for Cork.

In most sports across the world, rival fans are not renowned for their open-mindedness.

Russian stars urge gay acceptance

13 Oct 2009- Russia- A group of well-known Russian singers and writers has called for an end to discrimination against gay people. They met after a local official tried to close Moscow's longest-running gay club, Dusha i Telo, where many of the artists have performed.

Activist Nikolai Alekseyev, who called the meeting, said it was the first time celebrities had come together publicly to denounce homophobia. Requests to hold a gay pride march in Moscow have been rejected for years. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzkhov has previously described such parades as "satanic".

Russia pop star Lolita, speaking after the event entitled Russian stars against discrimination of the gay community, said gay discrimination was in breach of the constitution which permits people to live their lives freely. She also said gay discrimination was a problem nationwide, not just in Moscow.

Lolita, one of the biggest names at the event, told the BBC Russian Service: "Lots of members of the gay community have been celebrated across the world because of their professional and personal achievements.

"Why then in our country do we have things like 'homosexuality is a genetic deviation; gays must be cured; gays should stay at home'? "We think that this is a return to fascism."

Homosexuality was decriminalised in Russia in 1993 and was removed from the official list of mental illnesses in 1999. However, there is no legislation protecting people from discrimination or harassment on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and same-sex relationships are not officially recognised.

13 Oct 2009- UK- Chris Bryant, the Labour MP for Rhondda, has been promoted to the position of Europe minister.
Previously a junior minister with responsibility for Africa and Asia, the gay politician replaces Glenys Kinnock. She will now take on responsibility for Africa.

Bryant announced his new job via Twitter on Sunday night before Downing Street had chance to announce the change and reportedly before Kinnock was aware of it.
He wrote: "Off to work with a new job – minister for Europe."

Both Downing Street and Bryant's spokesman were quick to state the change was "just internal housekeeping" and was not a big move.
Bryant will keep his parliamentary undersecretary pay cheque of £96,167, while Kinnock remains on £106,136.
He will not sit in cabinet meetings, unlike his predecessors.

The move has been attacked by some, with shadow Europe minister, Mark Francois, saying: "Chris Bryant is now Labour's twelfth Europe minister in as many years, concrete proof of their failure to take European issues seriously.. No wonder Labour's record on Europe is of retreat, not leadership."

 

12 Oct 2009- Stephen Fry last night "revealed" that he is gay - decades after it was known to the rest of the world.
The Blackadder star, 52, told followers on Twitter website about his sexuality to mark International Coming Out Day.
Stephen wrote: "Oh my, it's International Coming Out Day - just time to announce that I'm a screaming gaysexual before midnight strikes."
But the comic, who has never hidden his sexuality, was forced to amend his site after realising he had come out too quickly.
He added: "Oh no, I've come too soon. It's actually Coming Out Day in the UK in 32 minutes.
"But I was coming out to Americans where it is today."
 

Jeremy Clarkson: TV obsessed with hiring 'black Muslim lesbians'

 
09 Oct 2009- London, England-As the BBC tries to draw a line under the Strictly Come Dancing racism row, Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has added his thoughts on the television industry's diversity policies.

In a column for the new issue of Top Gear magazine, the BBC presenter ridicules TV bosses for being obsessed with having "black Muslim lesbians" on shows to balance out the numbers of white heterosexual men.

In response to questions about the lack of female presenters on BBC's Top Gear, Clarkson said: "The problem is that television executives have got it into their heads that if one presenter on a show is a blond-haired, blue-eyed heterosexual boy, the other must be a black Muslim lesbian.

"Chalk and cheese, they reckon, works. But here we have Top Gear setting new records after six years using cheese and cheese. It confuses them."

The comments come just days after it emerged that dancer Anton Du Beke had referred off-screen to his dance partner Laila Rouass as a "Paki". Du Beke apologised and the BBC tried to draw a line under the incident.

But the show's presenter Bruce Forsyth said yesterday the nation should get a "sense of humour" over Du Beke's "slip up".

Forsyth was later forced to clarify his views in a statement issued through the BBC, in which he said that "racially offensive language is never either funny or acceptable".

In his column Clarkson went on to defend women drivers and ask why there are not more of them in Formula One. He said: "Unlike furious thin-lipped feminists, I tend not to draw distinctions between men and women, apart from in bed where you really do need to spot the differences.

"At work, girls are just people. It's the same story at parties and it's especially the same on the road. The worst driver in the world is Top Gear's studio director ... He cannot park without kerbing the wheels and he cannot get into his own drive without crashing into his house. And he has a scrotum."

Pattern of persecution of gays continues in Senegal- Teen faces trial

21 Aug 2009  – Senegal-  A 17 year-old Sénégalese man is due to stand trial on August 24 for sexual acts “against nature”, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) revealed last night. 

The trial next week comes two weeks after two other men were convicted on identical charges and sent to prison.  And the New York-based IGLHRC expressed outrage last night.

“This is yet another indication that gay men and those perceived to be gay are in grave danger in Sénégal,” said IGLHRC executive director Cary Alan Johnson.

“The arrests violate both international and African human rights law.  Unpopularity is never a justification for abuse.”

All three men are from the town of Darou Mousty, in Louga, Sénégal, and were arrested and detained for alleged same-sex relations on June 19, together with a fourth man whose status is currently unknown.

The first two men were sentenced to two and five years in prison respectively.  Reports indicate that denunciations from neighbours were the only evidence against the men.

These are the latest in a pattern of arbitrary arrests and detentions based on perceived sexual orientation in Sénégal, a country in which same-sex relations are illegal, homophobia is widespread, and incitement toward violence against those perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender is often encouraged by politicians and religious leaders.

Human rights abuses related to sexual orientation and gender identity in Sénégal have accelerated since February 2008, when 10 people were arbitrarily arrested and charged with “homosexuality, incitement to debauchery and corruption of good behaviour”, after the popular tabloid Icône published pictures of a ceremony to affirm a gay relationship.

In a separate incident in August 2008, two men were arrested at their home in Dakar for “homosexual marriage” and also charged with “acts against the order of nature”.  In December 2008, nine members of AIDES Sénégal who were participating in an education workshop to combat HIV and AIDS were arrested and sentenced to 8 years in prison for “indecent conduct and unnatural acts” and “conspiracy”.  The Court of Appeals in Dakar overturned their conviction in April 2009.

Violence and official persecution of those perceived to be LGBT is also evidenced by several disturbing incidents in which the graves of men perceived to have been gay have been desecrated and their bodies exhumed.

In May 2009, the body of 30-year old Madièye Diallo was dug up from his grave in the town of Thiès.  After his family re-buried him, his body was exhumed again and dumped outside the family’s home.  Finally, family members buried the body in the grounds of their own house.

Religious and political leaders in Sénégal have stoked the flames of hatred. In recent months, representatives from both sectors have loudly condemned same-sex practicing people.

Addressing the release of the December 2008 detainees, Massamba Diop, the Imam of Pikine, told his congregants that: “the judge was too lenient, we should have killed them”.

In May 2009, Prime Minister Souleymane Ndiaye Ndéné asserted that “homosexuality… is a sign of a crisis of values” in Senegal and that the Senegalese government would become more involved in future attempts to repress and punish same-sex relations.

“The Imam of Pikine is inciting his congregation to murder,” said Imam Muhsin Hendricks, director and spiritual advisor of the Inner Circle, an Islamic human rights organisation based in South Africa.  “But the Quran instructs us in Surah 2:179 that ‘in the law of equality there is the saving of life, o you men of understanding so that you may restrain yourselves.’”

Under Article 3.913 of the Sénégalese penal code, homosexual acts are punishable by imprisonment of between one and five years and a fine of 100,000 CFA francs ($200) to 1,500,000 CFA francs ($3,000).

Both IGLHRC and the Inner Circle have called for the repeal of this legislation, which empowers police and other authorities to abuse, harass, extort, and imprison those whose sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression challenges social norms.

Burundian Homosexuals Suffer Under New Anti-Gay Law

04 Aug 2009- Burundi- Homosexuals in Burundi say that their lives have been marked with increased discrimination and fear following the East African country's move to ban homosexual practices.  Burundi officially passed the law criminalizing homosexuality in April this year.

The interviews conducted by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch documents the difficulties of being a gay or lesbian in Burundi, including instances of sexual violence, family rejection, police intimidation, and now the daily possibility of imprisonment.

Yves, an HIV-positive gay man who lives in Bujumbura, says that finding work has been a serious challenge for him since the law was passed. He also worries that the new law will discourage those in the gay community from seeking HIV testing and treatment for fear of scrutinization.

Another self-identified gay man from Bujumbura, Théophile, says that he was beginning to see increased tolerance among his friends and family before the issue became politicized. He describes the law as a "step backward."

Burundi received sharp rebukes from much of the international community following the passage of the law. Key donor countries Belgium and The Netherlands have been critical of the move.

Much of the region has laws which criminalize gay relations, but for Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, these laws were largely remnants of the colonial British rule. Burundi's actions received special attention from human rights organizations because under its Belgian colonization, no law existed against gay behavior.

The new law first passed the National Assembly in November 2008. Amid international pressure, the country's Senate overwhelmingly rejected the criminalization provision.

The Burundi National Assembly, though, refused to accept the Senate's rejection, and the law became final in April.

The action by the Burundi government to formally outlaw homosexual activity came as a small group of gays and lesbians began to bring the issue into the public spotlight and attempt to create national discussions about what had always before been a sensitive subject.

Encouraged by some of the recent gains seen globally by gay activists, the Association for Respect and Rights for Homosexuals was formed five years ago in Bujumbura to mainly serve as a support group for gays and lesbians

Since 2007, though the group began to do radio interviews and more actively make its case for increased homosexual rights to the public.

But the group's limited public exposure seems to have created an intense political backlash, at least for the short term.

According to Human Rights Watch researchers, Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza personally led the charge to get the law passed. Following the Senate's rejection of the clause, his ruling party organized an anti-gay march in Bujumbura, bussing in protesters from rural areas. His office then reportedly phoned legislators individually to lobby for the April passage.

Some observers partly attributed the president's activism on the issue as a move to weaken political rivals within his own party who had made public statements seen as more liberal on the gay rights issue.

Boris Dittrich, head of homosexual rights advocacy at Human Rights Watch, which actively worked against the law's passage, says that his group has not given up its efforts to have the criminalization rescinded.

"After the next elections, there might be the possibility that new politicians will see that criminalization of homosexual conduct is a violation of human rights and it doesn't lead to anything productive. So we will continue trying to persuade politicians in Burundi to change course," Dittrich said.

The group says that it hopes that the international backlash Burundi received for its action will pressure the government to quietly seek to modify the law after the 2010 elections.

Human Rights Group researchers told VOA that, like similar trends seen in elsewhere in the world, there is a growing tolerance among the country's youth for gays and lesbians, while older generations are much more likely to consider it a taboo.

The progress that homosexuals have seen in the country towards acceptance, though, is mostly limited to its capital city, Bujumbura. The vast majority of Burundians live in rural areas.

Many of the those interviewed by the organization shared similar stories of banishment by family members if their sexual identity was discovered.

Seventy-seven countries in the world have laws against homosexuality, many of them in Africa.

03 Aug 2009- Tel Aviv, Israel- Fifteen years ago, Berg first took refuge in that basement, then a newly established community center of the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Assn. "I came here, found people to share myself with, to be who I was with others," he recalled. And so it had been for a generation of young gay men and women who came for company, counseling and courage to come out.

"This basement is our home," and the teens who had frequented it lately are "our kids," Berg said. "Last night someone came into our home and killed our kids. As hundreds of gay men and women gathered in mourning Sunday near the scene of the attack, Israel's bloodiest recorded assault on homosexuals, expressions of outrage came from national leaders, lawmakers across the political spectrum, and the Orthodox Jewish religious hierarchy.

Some secular politicians called the shooting a hate crime and demanded an end to incitement against gays by elected officials, religious leaders and others."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned what he called a "horrific killing" and told his Cabinet, "We are a tolerant, democratic country governed by the rule of law, and we must respect each and every person."

Police said the masked gunman holstered his weapon and fled on foot into central Tel Aviv's busy streets. Limited by a court-imposed gag order, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld offered few details. He said the assailant used a pistol, not an automatic rifle as some witnesses first reported. And he said police had discarded the possibility that the gunman was a Palestinian militant.

"All indications point to a criminal incident and not a terror attack, which was most likely deliberately directed against the gay and lesbian community," Rosenfeld said. The crime dominated Israeli headlines Sunday. People awoke to front-page photographs showing overturned furniture on the blood-streaked floor of the community center. Newspapers and websites ran guest columns by gay celebrities and articles on the two people killed.

One of the dead was Nir Katz, 26, a counselor at the center who devoted himself to helping closeted teenagers. The other was Liz Trobishi, 16. Relatives and friends said she did not identify herself as gay but frequented the center to support friends who were. Most of the wounded were teenagers. Four were listed in serious condition Sunday and breathing with the aid of respirators. Two adult counselors were undergoing surgery.

Community leaders said some of those wounded had concealed their sexual orientation from their parents, who were doubly shocked by the shooting attack and the revelation of where their children had been. Berg, the entrepreneur who years ago gained parental acceptance of his homosexuality, said he worried about the effect of the shooting on Israel's young homosexuals.

"What happened last night takes us back years in the fears of parents and families," he said. "But we cannot let anyone or anything take us back into the closet."  Shaul Ganon, who runs the center, said the gay community was angry and determined "to fight back," not cower in fear.

"Just like we do not stop riding the bus after a suicide bombing, we will continue meeting and holding our activities," he said. Mourners lingered in front of the center in the predawn hours after the shooting and for much of Sunday. They lighted candles on a sidewalk littered with the blue surgical gloves of the paramedics who had helped the wounded.

In the late afternoon the crowd swelled, hoisted rainbow flags and held a rally in the middle of nearby Rothschild Street, a main thoroughfare. "Perhaps this terrible day can be a turning point," said Tzipi Livni, leader of the center-left opposition in parliament. "It is true, we do not yet know who the murderer is and what his motives were. But we do know that there was hate here. . . . We must all ask ourselves whether we have truly done enough to prevent incitement and derision."

Some of the public discussion of incitement against gays focused on statements by lawmakers with Shas, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious party. One lawmaker had suggested establishing "rehabilitation centers" to "cure" gays of their sexual orientation. Another said homosexuals had caused Israel's most recent earthquake and were "poisoning" the Jewish state.

Shas issued a statement condemning the killing but not addressing the issue of vilification of homosexuals.

Albania 'to approve gay marriage'

31 July 2009- Albania- Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha has announced his party will propose a law legalising same-sex marriage. It is an unexpected move in a country that is still one of the most conservative in Europe and where homosexuality was illegal until 1995.

Mr Berisha acknowledged the proposed law might provoke debate but maintained that discrimination in modern Albania had to end. The bill was drawn up by a group of non-governmental organisations.

It has been accepted by Mr Berisha's Democratic Party and will now come before parliament in the autumn. In a predominantly Muslim country with almost no open homosexual community, the announcement by a conservative PM has taken people by surprise.

Goran Miletic, a Belgrade-based human rights lawyer, working partly on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues said it was an important step forward for the country.

"(It is) encouraging for the LGBT community in Albania, bearing in mind that they are not visible comparing to some other Balkan states like Serbia, like Macedonia or Croatia."

But he said he did not think the law would be passed easily in the face of immediate opposition from religious communities The reaction by Islamic and Catholic leaders has been vehement.

Under the isolationist rule of Enver Hoxha, Albania was officially an atheist state. But since the fall of Communism almost two decades ago, religion has once again grown and its leaders' voices are influential.

Albania, though, has set its sights firmly on the goal of European Union membership, and it seems this proposed law is aimed at showing Brussels a progressive new image. If it is passed in the autumn, it could move the country one step further on its European path.

28 July 2009- Amnesty International Ireland Executive Director Colm O'Gorman is to say the Irish Government's proposed Civil Partnership Bill would create 'a second-class form of marriage for what the Government clearly feels is a second-class group of people'. He will describe the failure of the bill to legislate for the children of gay couples as 'cowardly'. Mr O'Gorman will be delivering the annual Amnesty International Pride Lecture in Belfast on Tuesday 28 July (7pm).

'At a time when countries around the world are moving forward, ending inequalities, we are enshrining discrimination in Irish law,' said Mr O'Gorman.

'This is not about the right to marry; it is about the right not to be discriminated against because of who you love. Failure to provide full marriage equality means that same-sex couples will not have full protection under the law. In effect, it is creating a second-class form of marriage for what the Government clearly feels is a second -lass group of people.

'The most serious weakness of the bill is its failure to provide for the children of gay couples, creating insecurity for families across the state. A same-sex couple will not be allowed jointly adopt their children. Children raised by same-sex couples will be denied the same protection as other children because the Irish Government chooses not to acknowledge their existence and denies their rights. These children will be discriminated against because the Government has decided to discriminate against their parents. 
 
'It is a cowardly decision, undermining the rights of children on the basis of ill-informed arguments rooted in a bigotry that still exists in a small and increasingly marginalised section of Irish society.

'We read the scare stories, the spectre of gay bogeymen coming to steal away children. We hear a national newspaper columnist argue on radio that women are more likely to have abortions out of fear that if they choose adoption, the children might end up with a gay couple.

'This is the kind of thinking that sees gay people as something 'other', something to be afraid of and defended against, as a community that has no place in normal society.

'There are positive aspects to this legislation and some have characterised it as a step towards equality for gay couples, but in a way it shows us just how far short of equality we actually are that human rights activists can be expected to settled for this.'

27 July  2009- Geneva — The United Nations granted official status to a gay and lesbian organization from Brazil on Monday, allowing it to participate in U.N. meetings ranging from health to human rights.

The victory for the Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians and Transsexuals marks the third consecutive year the U.N. Economic and Social Council has overturned a decision by a 19-country committee blocking gay groups from participating in the global body's debates.

Swedish and Spanish groups were accredited as recognized non-governmental organizations in 2007 and 2008, breaking years of resistance from some governments. At one U.N. debate in 2003, Pakistan's ambassador even suggested use of the term "sexual disorientation."

One of the U.N. council's main powers is granting consultative status to organizations so that they can participate in formal U.N. meetings. More than 3,000 groups already have such rights.

"If the U.N. cannot be open and diverse, then we are really set for failure," said Guilherme Patriota, a senior Brazilian diplomat. "There are another 400 NGOs seeking the same status next year. We need to keep working on making the U.N. more open to plurality and diversity."

Patriota told The Associated Press that the organization was a valuable partner of Brazil's government in AIDS campaigns, condom promotion and other social causes, and questioned why the application was rejected in the first place.

The U.S. also criticized the U.N. committee mandated with recommending which campaign groups should be given a place. U.S. diplomat John Sammis said that body seems to spend more time coming up with ways to exclude qualified civil society groups rather than on work aimed at including them.

The U.N. council also backed a U.S.-based democracy group to participate in meetings, and suspended an Arab human rights group for a year after a complaint from Algeria.

The Democracy Coalition Project says it acts as a caucus of the world's democracies, but nonmembers China, Cuba and Russia argued that it was "engaged in politically motivated activities" against certain governments, according to the U.N. report recommending rejection of the application.

The Arab Commission for Human Rights had its status suspended until 2010 because it allowed a non-registered individual to speak at a U.N. review of Algeria's human rights record.

Algeria said the speaker, Rachid Mesli, is accused of belonging to a terrorist group. But the commission's Geneva representative, Abdel Wahab Hani, said Mesli is a human rights lawyer who was given political asylum in Switzerland after Amnesty International called him a prisoner of conscience in Algeria.

"We're not diplomats. We're not here to hide reality," Hani said. "We're here to say what is happening in the Arab world."

The ban followed the February recommendation by 18 U.N. countries as diverse as Britain, Cuba, Egypt and Israel. The U.S. was the only country to abstain, saying it needed more information about the charges against Mesli to take a position.

08 July 2009- Sweden- Swedish scientists have suggested that brains of gay people may share similar physical attributes to those of the opposite sex.

Previous research has found differences between men and women in the extent to which they employ the brain’s hemispheres in verbal tasks, while other studies have suggested that gay people people may exhibit the tendencies of the opposite sex in brain behavior unrelated to sexual activity.

In this study, Ivanka Savic and Per Lindström, of the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, say they believe the brains of heterosexual men and lesbians are slightly asymmetric, with the right hemisphere larger than the left.

However, the brains of gay men and straight women were found to be symmetrical.

The study, which analysed the brains of 90 subjects through MRI and PET scans, also found that in connectivity of the amygdala (which is used for emotional learning), lesbians resemble straight men, and gay men resemble straight women.

The authors suggested that one reason for the connectivity pattern in straight men and lesbians could be that the amygdala is wired for a greater fight-or-flight response.

Last year, another study found that the brains of gay men and women have structural and functional differences from those of their straight counterparts.

The Wellcome Trust Centre for neuro-imaging at University College London used MRI scans to look into the brains of 80 men and women, including 16 gays and 15 lesbians.

They found that lesbians have a "male-like" proportion and distribution of grey matter in their brain when compared with heterosexual women.

Hindu guru claims homosexuality can be 'cured' by yoga

07 July 2009- The television guru whose yoga programmes are watched by an estimated 85 million people throughout the world, made the claim in an appeal to the overturn a ruling last week which legalised homosexuality.

He has warned he will launch nationwide protests if the ruling is not struck down and said all of India's main religions regarded homosexual acts as sins.

In his petition, he argued that homosexuality was a curable disease and that sufferers could seek a cure.

"It can be treated like any other congenital defect. Such tendencies can be treated by yoga, pranayam and other meditation techniques," he said.

Pranayam are a series of breathing exercises which include hyperventilation, a slow release of breath while chanting "Om". His followers have said there are particular yoga positions which also help prevent sexual urges.

The overturning of India's law criminalising homosexuality was welcomed by India's gay community and by campaigners, including several leading designers and Bollywood stars.

But it was condemned by Muslim, Christian and Hindu leaders in India.

Baba Remdev, who counts senior government ministers among his devotees, issued a particularly strong response. In his petition he compared homosexuals to "other anti-social groups", and said legalisation would have a "negative effect" on the young, while increasing the prevalence of HIV/Aids.

"These are unnatural acts not designed for human beings. The decision of the High Court, if allowed to sustain will have catastrophic effects on the moral fabric of society and will jeopardise the institution of marriage itself. This offends the structure of Indian value system, Indian culture and traditions, as derived from religious scriptures," it said.

Swami Ramdev remains extraordinarily popular despite a number of controversies surrounding his own ayurvedic medicines. In 2006, a leading Communist MP claimed laboratory tests revealed human and animal remains in his herbal treatments. Other tests supported his denial, but the popularity of his medicines grew regardless.

He has also drawn criticism for his claims that yoga and ayurvedic medicines can ease the symptoms of HIV/Aids and cure cancer.

His petition was filed as gay activists extended their campaign for equality in other areas of social life. A young couple in Haryana defied their families to stage India's first gay wedding in a Hindu temple.

03 July 2009- London, England- The prime minister made the comments in a message of support to the organisers of this weekend's march in London.

Mr Brown's wife Sarah is expected to join up to 1 million lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) marchers at Saturday's parade.

Peter Tatchell, the prominent gay rights campaigner and founder of the group Pride, said he would march with Mrs Brown.

He promised not to try to embarrass her despite an earlier row when he was not invited to a Downing Street reception for gay community leaders.

"Sarah's participation is much appreciated," said Mr Tatchell. "I won't embarrass her. I will be on my best behaviour.

"But I do plan to remind Sarah that she and Gordon were able to get married, whereas gay couples cannot. Her husband supports the ban on same-sex marriage. He won't give lesbian and gay partners the same right to marry as him and Sarah have enjoyed.

"I hope Sarah will be persuaded that the time has come for marriage equality, and that she'll have a word in Gordon's ear when she gets back to Downing Street after the parade."

Mr Tatchell said that the civil partnerships introduced by Labour for same-sex couples were "a form of sexual apartheid" because they institutionalised different marriage laws for heterosexual and homosexual people.

In his message to Pride London, Mr Brown described the creation of civil partnerships as one of a set of "massive strides towards equality" for the gay community made under the Labour Government.

"I'm very proud of all that this Government has achieved on LGBT rights these last 12 years - often in the face of fierce opposition," said the Prime Minister.

"But I also know that we quite simply couldn't have done it without the activism of our out and proud LGBT community, so I hope you're very proud of what your campaigning has achieved: you've changed laws, you've changed lives, you've changed the world.

"Together we've done a lot - but we can never be complacent and must always be vigilant to see that progress isn't reversed.

"This Government is committed to standing at your shoulders in the fight for equality and we are guided by one very simple principle when it comes to LGBT rights: you can't legislate love."

On Wednesday, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, publicly apologised for Section 28 - the law introduced by the Thatcher government banning local authorities from promoting homosexuality.

Mr Cameron, speaking at another Gay pride event, went much further than before in apologising for decisions taken by the party when Baroness Thatcher was leader.

He said: "I am sorry for Section 28. We got it wrong. It was an emotional issue. I hope you can forgive us."

Section 28, which became law in 1988, banned local authorities from portraying homosexuality in a positive light. It became a totemic issue for Conservative modernisers. In 2003, when it was abolished by the Labour government, Mr Cameron voted for only the partial lifting of the ban.

13 June 2009- Thousands of people across Europe on Saturday took part in colourful gay pride parades to protest against anti-gay prejudice.

In Rome, organisers said an estimated 200,000 people took part while in the French city of Strasbourg the turnout was put at between 2,800 and 3,500 by police and organisers.

Around 2,000 Greek gay and lesbian people also marked the annual gay pride event in Athens, with an estimated 1,000 taking to the streets in Warsaw and several hundred in Zagreb.

Gay rights activist Rossana Traitano in Rome said the country had more in common with "Russia than with France" in its attitude to gays and lesbians.

In Zagreb, special police accompanied the marchers and a few dozen anti-gay protesters carrying banners with slogans including "gay pride the shame of our city" booed and shouted insults.

"Despite our presence there is still a lack of freedom, a restrictedness," Marko Jurcic, a gay activist, told journalists before a 30-minute-long march through central Zagreb.

"We want that the city of Zagreb, its institutions and citizens recognise our existence and our support for an open and better Zagreb," he added.

"They (gays) are endangering the freedom of normal, heterosexual people who want to raise their families ... and live according to God's and natural laws," said Josip Miljak, head of the extreme-right Croatian Pure Party of Rights that organised the anti-gay protest.

Polish activist Tomasz Baczkowski said attitudes were changing slowly in the largely Catholic country.

"But the intolerance is still omnipresent, so much so that our parades are always useful," he said.

12 June 2009- Netherlands- A leaked report from the Dutch government has said that religious schools can refuse to employ gay teachers.

The report came from the Council of State, the highest advisory body to the Dutch government. It said that religious schools can exclude gay teachers if their behaviour is contrary to school beliefs, regardless of whether it is outside the classroom.

The advisory paper, which had been prepared for the government, was leaked to a newspaper with Christian values, NRC Handelsblad reports.

Although it said schools must not discriminate, the report said they have the right to demand "explicit loyalty" from staff with regard to school ethos. The vast majority of religious schools are, like non-denominational schools, state-funded.

In April, the village of Emst saw a gay male teacher suspended after he spoke to fellow members of staff at the school where he worked about being in a relationship with another man.

According to the school board, his sexual orientation was in conflict with the school's mission.

In the same month, the Dutch Labour party's minister for education, Ronald Plasterk, wrote to high schools and primary schools saying that they should not exclude gay staff on the grounds of Christian beliefs.

The school's dismissal of the teacher in Emst, and the leaked report from the Council of State both seem to contradict article one of the Dutch constitution which states that: "All persons in the Netherlands shall be treated equally in equal circumstances. Discrimination on the grounds of religion, belief, political opinion, race or sex or on any other grounds whatsoever shall not be permitted."

The Netherlands' current law on anti-discrimination policy states that no schools in the country, even religious schools, can allow the "single fact" of a person's sexuality, race or gender to affect whether they are hired for a position, or dismissed.

However the law currently allows what is known as "additional behaviour" to be taken into consideration. If a teacher leads “a certain lifestyle” which the school that employs them considers contrary to what the institution represents, they could run the risk of dismissal.

The Council of State has suggested removing the "single fact" rule from the anti-discrimination law. It would instead allow schools to consider "additional circumstances" and make distinctions and decisions based on these.

While religious schools praised the Council's report, which has yet to be officially released, it was met with condemnation by gay rights groups and left-wing parties.

British ambassador to Poland under fire for promoting gay rights

11 June 2009- The British ambassador to Poland has sparked a diplomatic incident after promoting a controversial gay pride march due to take place in Warsaw on Saturday.

Ric Todd has been told by the country's civil rights ombudsman that he has 'exceeded his authority' and Roman Catholic groups have accused the ambassador of representing the 'homosexual lobby'.

The problem arose after Mr Todd, who has been our man in Warsaw for almost two years, gave gay rights leaders a UK Guide To Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender People And Their Rights, translated into Polish, earlier this week.

It was adapted from the so-called Transgender Toolkit, a political correctness manual for civil servants that the Foreign Office funds with taxpayers' money.

It came ahead of the gay pride march scheduled for this weekend.

But the move has provoked a storm of protest. 'Ambassador Todd has exceeded his authority,' Janusz Kochanowski, the Polish civil rights ombudsman, told The Daily Mail.

'He is being improper and doesn't understand the role of a diplomat. He represents the UK, he is not meant to intervene here in the way that he chooses. '

Mr Kochanowski added that Polish homosexuals do not live in fear of discrimination as the British ambassador seemed to be implying. 

Irish civil partnership condemned as “Sexual Apartheid” by UK gay campaigner

08 May 2009- Dublin, Ireland- Irish government plans to introduce British-style same-sex civil partnerships have been condemned as “retrograde, divisive, second best, discriminatory and sexual apartheid” by LGBT rights and Green Party parliamentary candidate Peter Tatchell.

He was speaking yesterday at the Marriage Matters symposium in Dublin, organised by the National Lesbian & Gay Federation of Ireland and attended by delegates representing Ireland’s LGBT organisations.

“The proposed Irish civil partnership legislation is a big mistake and an insult to same-sex couples. It is a rejection of marriage equality,” Mr. Tatchell said.

“Separate laws for gay people are not equal laws.

“Civil partnerships will reinforce the ban on same-sex marriage and thereby reinforce discrimination. They will extend discrimination by denying heterosexual couples the right to have a civil partnership.

“This is not equality,” he insisted.

“I urge the Irish government to take a principled stand in favour of equality by ditching its civil partnership proposals and instead bring forward legislation to extend civil marriage to same-sex couples.

“Civil partnerships are not good enough. They are second best.

“Same-sex couples deserve the same legal rights as heterosexual couples. Creating one law for gays and another for straights is a retrograde, divisive step.

“I urge the Irish government to not follow the flawed British system of civil partnerships. Let Ireland lead the way and outdo the Brits by giving full civil marriage rights to its lesbian and gay citizens.

“Equality has always been our goal. We should settle for nothing less,” he concluded.

07 May 2009- Scotland- Eight members of a paedophile ring, including the former head of LGBT Youth Scotland, were today found guilty of more than 50 child abuse images and abuse charges.

After deliberating for ten hours over two days, a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh found James Rennie, 38, guilty of sex attacks on children. Rennie, who worked with children in his post, was found guilty of abusing one child over a four-year period. The child was three months old when the abuse began.

Convicted sex offender Neil Strachan, 41, was convicted of attempting to rape an 18-month-old boy in Edinburgh on New Year's Eve in 2005. An image of the attack came to be known as the Hogmanay Image in court.

Strachan was also convicted of repeatedly touching a six-year-old boy indecently on the same night. Rennie was convicted of two charges of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by accessing insecure internet connections.

A jury of 14 men and women found the pair guilty of conspiring to abuse children, along with three other men. One jury member had been discharged during the trial. Ross Webber, 27, Craig Boath, 24, from Dundee and John Milligan, 40, of Glasgow, were all found guilty of conspiring to participate in the sexual abuse of children along with Strachan and Rennie. They were also convicted of child porn offences.

Colin Slaven, 23, from Edinburgh and Neil Campbell, 46 and John Murphy, 44, both from Glasgow, were also found guilty of child abuse images offences. Campbell was cleared of a charge of conspiracy.

All eight men were convicted for possessing and making indecent images. Seven of them were found to have distributed images, although a charge of distribution against Slaven was withdrawn. Nearly 125,000 indecent images were seized during Operation Algebra, which uncovered the internet group.

The men had used web cameras and other means to plot and take part in sexual offences, including rape. The offences were committed in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and East Lothian between February 2004 to May 2008. It is believed to be Scotland's biggest paedophile network.

Rennie previously admitted to police that he looked at images of child abuse. He said: "I have discovered I have a somewhat addictive personality to sex. I just find it difficult and when I am not busy I kind of fall into a pattern of looking for sexual activity of all sorts."

When arrested he told the police: "Today I know I have lost just about everything I have worked so hard for a long time. I knew this day was coming."

Rennie was suspended from his post in December 2007 and resigned in February 2008.

Moscow bans gay parade

07 May 2009-Moscow- Russian news agencies say Moscow City Hall won't allow a gay pride parade that activists had planned to coincide with the Eurovision Song Contest's final.

RIA-Novosti and other agencies quote City Hall spokesman Sergei Tsoi as saying Thursday 'there have never been gay parades in Moscow and there never will be.'

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has drawn international criticism by describing homosexuality as 'satanic.'

Russian gay rights movement leader Nikolai Alexeyev said the May 16 parade would go ahead regardless.

He said he hopes participants of the Eurovision Song Contest, which Moscow is hosting on the same day, will join the rally.

Court overturns first Greek gay 'weddings'

07 May 2009- Greece- A court in Greece has overturned the country’s first “homosexual weddings”, which took place last year as a result of a legal loophole.

Greek civil law does not specify the gender of a couple who intend to get married. As a result a gay and a lesbian couple tried to get married last year on the island of Tilos, despite warnings of criminal charges from officials.

However a public prosecutor from the island of Rhodes took the case to court and argued that neither the constitution nor the law refers to same-sex marriage. The prosecutor asked the court to cancel the weddings.

Vassilis Hirdaris, the defendant's lawyer said, “The court said the weddings were invalid … We will appeal within May ... but I fear the appeal court's decision won't be different, considering how conservative Greek courts are."

Hirdaris added that the couples wanted to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if their appeal was unsuccessful.

The “marriages” were strongly criticised by the Orthodox Church in Greece, which performs around 90 per cent of weddings in Greece. The Greek Justice ministry also declared the “weddings” illegal.

Nationalists offer Moscow authorities help in fighting gay propaganda

24 Apr 2009- Russia- A Russian radical nationalist movement has appealed to Moscow authorities seeking tougher legislation on public actions promoting homosexuality, particularly the unauthorized gay parade expected in Moscow in early May.

The Movement against Illegal Immigration said that the proposals it made, which suggested introducing legal penalties for homosexual propaganda, were aimed at helping Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, Kommersant daily said Friday.

“We want the mayor’s decision to ban gay parades to be based on laws, not just on his personal opinion,” the activists said.

Moscow’s mayor has banned numerous gay prides in the city, and is unlikely to give the go ahead to this year’s parade. The march is planned for May 16, the same day the Eurovision song contest final will be held in Moscow and thousands of tourists are expected to travel to the city to watch the show.

The Mayor’s Office, however, responded to the group by saying it did not need any extra help in governing the city. In March, Russian gay parade organizers filed a case with the European Court of Human Rights against the Moscow authorities, demanding $2.2 million compensation for failing to allow 155 gay-rights marches.

Gay pub wins its bid for male strippers

22 Apr 2009- London, England- One of the Europe's oldest gay pubs has been given permission to put on a male strip show.

The King Edward VI, in Bromfield Street, Islington, which is said to be one of the longest-running gay pubs in Europe, was granted a licence to offer male striptease at a town hall meeting yesterday (Wednesday).

Five neighbouring residents objected. One said: "The pub is the only building in the street which is used for non-residential purposes.

"We can see into the premises from our property. I do not wish to see any male striptease from my living room, nor do I wish my children to be able to do so."

But Kay Stokes, who owns the pub, insisted that the first floor was used exclusively as a restaurant and any striptease would be taking place on the ground floor out of view from the street. She said: "It's pretty innocent really. Nothing can be seen from outside and all the blinds are shut from 6pm every day."

Ms Stokes was delighted with the result. She said: "We hold a cabaret every Thursday and customers wanted a bit more so we decided to try to get a male stripper in every other week. They will only perform between 10.15pm and 11pm and I don't think it's hurting anyone.

Hungarian parliament passes same-sex partnership bill

21 Apr 2009- Hungarian- Parliament yesterday passed a bill that allows same-sex couples of over 18 to establish legal registered partnerships with 199 affirmative votes, 159 dissensions and eight abstentions. The bill does not permit gay couples to adopt children, however.

The Socialists voted with 183 affirmative votes and the Free Democrats with 16, while Fidesz, the Christian Democrats and six independent MPs dissented. Fidesz MPs said they consider the new bill unconstitutional.

The Constitutional Court voided the Registered Partnership Act in a ruling made public on December 15, 2008, arguing that the constitution protects marriage, preventing the legislation from taking effect on January 1.

The bill is now expected to come into effect from July, Kossuth Rádió reported.

High speed gay sex ends in tragedy

20 Apr 2009- Moscow, Russia- The police are investigating whether a recent Lamborghini Murcielago crash in Moscow that destroyed four cars happened because the driver was having sex with his passenger while exceeding the maximum speed level more than three times.

The $400,000 Lamborghini was driving at 200 kilometers per hour when it lost control and crashed into an oncoming Honda Civic. One of the sports car's wheels, which the collision sent spinning off, hit the gas tank of a passing Ford Mondeo, and set it on fire. The Mondeo then hit a taxi parked by the road, smashing it.

 Altogether, four cars were badly damaged in the crash that happened late on Thursday in Moscow's Vorobyovye Gory district. None of the drivers were fatally injured, although the driver of Honda is still in hospital with a head injury.

The driver of the Lamborghini, 22-year-old Yuri, was also taken to hospital. However his injuries were light compared to those of his passenger, 16-year-old Christian, Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reports.

Although Christian was sitting in the passenger seat, in the accident he managed to hit his head on the wheel and get a serious head trauma, making the police doubtful whether he was sitting up straight and buckled up, or had his head on the driver's lap.

The young men got acquainted just before the crash at Vorobyovye Gory, a district in Moscow where owners of fancy cars and bikes come to show off.

The Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Versace can reach a speed of 100 km per hour in just 3.4 seconds. Its maximum speed is over 330 km per hour.

Dutch City Rules 'Euro Islam' Proponent Is not Homophobic

16 Apr 2009- Rotterdam has exonerated Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan in an investigation over alleged homophobic and misogynistic statements he made in tapes aimed at immigrants. Holland's second largest city says it will retain him as an adviser to build bridges between its immigrant communities.

Last month, the Gay Krant, a newspaper for the homosexual community in the Netherlands, accused Tariq Ramadan of making homophobic and mysogenistic statements on tapes in Arabic destined for immigrant communities in Europe.

Ramadan, 46, a Swiss philosopher and theologist of Egyptian descent, was hired by the city of Rotterdam two years ago to "help lift the multicultural dialogue to a higher level". He dismissed the Gay Krant's accusations as slander.

The city of Rotterdam has since carried out its own investigation, the results of which were presented on Wednesday. The city had 54 Arabic-language cassette tapes translated and examined. According to council executive Rik Grasshof of the Green party GroenLinks, the Gay Krant's reporting was incomplete en inaccurate.

As a result, Ramadan's contract with the city will be extended for another two years, during which time he will lead public debates in an effort to bring the various communities in Rotterdam closer together.

The right-wing liberal party VVD, one of four coalition parties in the city government, had demanded Ramadan's resignation following the newspaper's accusations. "He can think what he wants but he cannot spread homophobic ideas in the name of the city of Rotterdam," VVD council member Bas van Tijn said.

Van Tijn also questioned what Ramadan brought to Rotterdam. "How can someone who doesn't speak Dutch bring the communities in Rotterdam together? Especially if that someone is constantly accused of having a double discourse?" Van Tijn asked.

Ramadan's principal message is that Islam and European culture do not have to be at odds. He is in favor of a " European Islam" that adapts to its surroundings. But his detractors claim that Ramadan propagates far more conservative ideas in his speeches in Arabic.

Former Pc jailed over boy abuse

02 Apr 2009- Portsmouth, England- A former police officer has been jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting four counts of sexual activity with a 15-year-old boy.

Mark Brigham was serving with the Metropolitan Police when the incident took place in Portsmouth, in 2008.

The victim's family asked Brigham, a lesbian and gay liaison officer, for advice after their son came out as homosexual, the court heard.

The 38-year-old, from Hackney, east London, had resigned from the force. He had been suspended pending the case.

Portsmouth Crown Court was told that Brigham, a police constable for nine years, had attended a party last August where he befriended the boy.

The off-duty officer had been asked to talk with the boy to offer advice. But, the court heard, they performed consensual sex acts on each other.

Matthew Lawson, prosecuting, said that Brigham had described his victim as "stunning" to other people at the party during the evening but had been informed that the boy was only 15-years-old.

He added that after the party, Brigham kept in contact with the boy through text messages and through the Facebook internet site.

The boy later told his family what had happened. The hearing was told that Brigham had been going through a number of personal issues at the time including the break up of a relationship and had large debts.

Sentencing Brigham, Judge Roger Hetherington, said: "The offences are aggravated by the disparity of age between the two of you - you were more than twice his age.

"You were someone he could expect to look up to and expect some guidance from."  Brigham was jailed, ordered to sign on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period and banned from working with children.

Speaking after the hearing, Det Con Dave Anderson, of Hampshire police, said: "It's a sad end to an officer's career but also it will give some finalisation for the victim."

Sweden allows same-sex marriage

02 Apr 2009- Sweden will allow gay couples to be legally married from next month. Parliament voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to recognise same-sex marriage, becoming the fifth country in Europe to do so.

Sweden was one of the first countries to give gay couples legal "partnership" rights, in the mid-1990s, and allowed them to adopt children from 2002.

The new law lets homosexuals wed in either a civil or religious ceremony, though individual churches can opt out.

The law was passed by 226 votes to 22 and will come into force on 1 May.

"The decision means that gender no longer has an impact on the ability to marry and that the law on registered partnership is repealed," the government said on its website.

Six of the seven parties in parliament backed the bill, while the Christian Democrats, one of four parties in the governing coalition, refused.

The Lutheran Church, the largest church in Sweden, has offered to bless gay partnerships since January 2007, but has still not given formal backing to the term "marriage", and will allow individual pastors to refuse to carry out gay weddings.

Sweden has become the fifth European country, after the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Norway, to recognise same-sex marriage.

Elsewhere, Canada and South Africa have also passed such legislation, as have some US states and local authorities in other countries.

29 Mar 2009- Burundi- Journalists are targeted, poor peasants whipped into frenzies of protests, and the roughly 400 gay people living in Burundi find themselves Target No. 1 in their own land.

For the past month or so, this tiny country long forgotten by most of the world has been in the spotlight for the one thing people may have never suspected — a mirage-legislature rising up against both the president and the allies — the missionary churches dotted throughout the country.

There are few things as unpopular in Africa as homosexuality. It is seen as a particularly virulent and sinister strain of the West’s unwelcome foray around here. To be gay is to be evil, criminal, and un-African. You can lose your family, livelihood, and sometimes your life.

There just happens to be no law against it in Burundi.

It hadn’t made much of a difference until one was proposed by the president and defeated by his senate. It was a blow to the president, and a temporary confidence-booster for people who live in secrecy and fear.

An article in an amendment to the national penal code that would have made homosexual acts punishable by up to two years in prison was pulled out by the Senate on February 24.

It was a shock to the system in Burundi, where legislatures more often than not are rubber stamps of the head of state. President Pierre Nkurunziza took it as a slap in the face.

“The president’s power is weakening,” said Pancrace Cimpaye, chairman of the opposition party and member of senate. “We must take advantage."

Burundians are deeply religious. The church and the Word of God are transcendent. That includes President Nkurunziza, who attends the local Church on the Rock in Bujumbura.

Though founded in Texas, much of the Church on the Rock operates abroad, in places like Burundi, Third World states where fates and livelihood still hinge on the mercies of nature.

From Rwanda to Brazil to the Philippines, these modern-day missionaries have found converts and a powerful voice. So, in the past weeks, the government, together with this and other churches, has gone on an all-out campaign to reverse the Senate’s decision.

 
29 Mar 2009- UK- New laws to allow a gay Royal couple to take part in a civil partnership and become joint monarchs of England were demanded yesterday.

The call followed Gordon Brown’s move to bring equality to the Monarchy by scrapping the law which gives males priority over females in the Royal line of succession.

He also wants to sweep away the ban on members of the Royals Family marrying Roman Catholics – unless they give up their claim to the throne.

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of gay rights group Stonewall, says the review is an ideal opportunity to end similar discrimination against homosexuals.

He wants measures to let future generations of Royals take part in a same-sex wedding – without losing their right to inherit the throne.

Mr Summerskill said: ‘I have little doubt that in 21st and 22nd Century Britain the public will judge the quality of their monarch by much more than their sexual orientation.’

He said the subject could be debated openly now because, as far as he was aware, there are no gays in the Royal Family.

Zurich elects a gay woman as mayor as city gears up for Euro Pride

29 Mar 2009- Zurich, Switzerland- As the city prepares for Euro Pride, the people of Zürich have today elected an openly gay woman as the Mayor.

Forty-eight-year-old Corine Mauch has been living with her partner for many years.  In today’s election, the social democrat won against her liberal opponent.

The organisers of EuroPride 09 said in a statement this afternoon that they were “overjoyed by the result of the election and congratulate Corine Mauch on her victory”.

EuroPride said today that the newly elected mayor will deliver a speech at the opening ceremony of the traditional parade together with European Parliament member Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Moldavian human rights activist Mihaela Copot.

‘This is a real stroke of luck for the EuroPride in Zürich,” commented Michael Rüegg, spokesman of the EuroPride.

“None of us really expected that.  The election was held because Corin Mauch’s predecessor went into early retirement.

“It only became known near the end of 2008 that the office would be up for election.”

With the election of Ms. Mauch, Zürich is now in good company.  Paris, Berlin and Hamburg have had openly living gay mayors for some time.  Zürich has now what is believed to be the first openly lesbian mayor among international top cities.

29 Mar 2009-moscow, Russia- Russian gay pride events will coincide with Moscow's hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest this May and competitors will be asked to back homosexual rights onstage, Russian gay activists said on Sunday.

Moscow city authorities have repeatedly banned events organised by gay activists and those that have taken part have often attracted violent protests by anti-gay demonstrators.

While homosexual sex is legal in Russia, it faces strong disapproval from the influential Russian Orthodox Church. "Moscow Pride will take place on May 16th, the day of the Eurovision song contest final," gay pride organisers stated on the website gaypride.ru.

This year's 54th Eurovision was already shaping up to be one of the most politically charged final in the history of the competition, one of Europe's most watched annual television shows.

Georgia, which fought a war against Russia last August, has already said it will pull out of the competition after the governing body banned its song for containing political references, perceived as a thinly-veiled swipe at Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin.

Russia's own entrant has been criticised by some nationalists because the singer comes from Ukraine, another country which has tense relations with Moscow.

Russian gay rights Nikolai Alekseev was quoted on the site as saying of the timing decision:

"We believe this is the best way for those who support democratic values in Europe and who take part in the show to bring support to human rights campaigners in Russia."

The website said Russian authorities have banned 167 gay events in the past.

Eurovision performers will be asked to wear lapel pins to show support for gay rights during the live show. The activists also say they will announce full details of their planned events later this month.

Russia is due to host the contest for the first time this year after Dima Bilan won the competition in Belgrade last year.
 

25 Mar 2009- London, England- MPs last night voted against keeping a free speech protection in the ‘homophobic hatred’ offence by 328 votes to 174.

The matter will pass to the Lords where a much closer battle is expected. The earliest opportunity for a Lords vote will probably be May.

In the Commons last night supporters of free speech included a Labour backbencher who had never voted against the Government before.

A number of homosexual MPs voted in favour of free speech, as did the Conservative Party leader David Cameron.

The result represents a small shift in favour of a free speech clause. When the House of Commons debated the same issue in January 2008 a similar clause was rejected by 338 votes to 169.

Last night’s Commons amendment to keep the free speech protection was tabled by Labour MP David Taylor and had cross-party support.

Insisting that the Government had failed to justify removing the protection, Mr Taylor said: “It simply makes it clear that discussion or criticism of sexual conduct is not caught by the homophobia law.”

“We need free speech about sexual conduct to be put beyond doubt. Joe and Helen Roberts, the Bishop of Chester, Iqbal Sacranie, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow, and Lynette Burrows—I could go on—are all names synonymous with vexatious complaints to the police and with heavy-handed police intervention against people whose actions were not inciting hatred against anyone.”

The Minister responsible for the Bill, Bridget Prentice, insisted that the homophobic hatred law has built in safeguards and that “The additional provision was and still is unnecessary.”

However, other Members were not convinced. Shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve said: “I believe that [the free speech clause] is sensible. …I can think of no good reason for us to get rid of it on the basis of the arguments that I have heard this afternoon.”

He also referred to “deep anxieties about the erosion of freedom of speech” that have led public figures such as comedian Rowan Atkinson to publicly back the free speech clause.

During the debate former minister Tom Harris MP said: “I am speaking against the Government for the first time since I became a Member in 2001 and face the prospect of voting against the Government on a three-line Whip, which I have never done before.”

Later he explained his decision on his blog: “If it is not the government’s intention that people of faith who criticise homosexual practice should be prosecuted for doing so, why are they insisting on the removal of this phrase?”

“If this phrase is removed from the Act tonight, it will be seen as a green light to all those who believe they can silence anyone who disagrees with them.

“There are a great many things in the Bible – the New as well as the Old Testament – which many people would find objectionable if they only bothered to read it.

“If it hasn’t already happened, I can see, in the not too distant future, a complaint being raised with the police because a quote from the book of Leviticus or I Corinthians on a placard outside a church is ‘incitement to homophobic hatred’.”

Conservative MP Ann Widdecome said: “Out there in the country, in case Ministers are completely oblivious to it, there is a swelling unease about freedom of speech.

“The religious hatred and sexual orientation laws, and myriad other laws that seek to bring equality, have an oppressive heart. The face may be liberalism, but the heart is oppression.

“We need [the free speech clause] to ensure that the Bill contains the clearest possible explanation—hammered home and spelled out—so that there can be no doubt in the mind of anyone responsible for interpreting and implementing the law that the ordinary exercise of free speech is not caught by it.”

Denmark OKs adoptions by gay couples

20 Mar 2009- Copenhagen Denmark’s Parliament has passed legislation allowing same-sex couples to adopt children.  The bill puts gay and lesbian couples on the same footing as opposite-sex couples.

The measure was passed on a 62-53 vote with 64 absentees.

Gay couples had been fighting for a decade to have the law passed. They found backing in the latest attempt from the opposition Social Democrats and Socialist People’s Party. While the center-right government opposed the bill, seven members of the ruling Liberal Party voted in favor of the bill.

Passage of the law puts Denmark in line with other European Union countries, including Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden, allowing same-sex couples equal rights in adoption.

In 1989, Denmark became the world’s first country to allow civil unions for gays. In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country to offer full marriage rights to gay couples.

Danish LGBT groups hope passage of the adoption law will spur lawmakers to support same-sex marriage legislation.

MSPs back wider hate crime laws

18 Mar 2009- Scotland- A new law widening the definition of hate crimes to include attacks on gay or disabled people has been passed in principle.

MSPs voted unanimously in favour of making them aggravated offences that can be more severely punished. The bill, proposed by Green MSP Patrick Harvie, is expected to become law later this year.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said it would send out a signal that such crimes would not be tolerated.

He said: "People whoever they are, whatever disability they are afflicted by, whatever sexual orientation they possess, are entitled to the full protection of the law and to be treated with dignity, with compassion, and to be fully and properly protected."

Violent assaults

Under existing law, crimes motivated by religious or racial hatred are singled out for special treatment.

The Offences Aggravated by Prejudice (Scotland) Bill widens the definition of hate crime to include people victimised because of their sexual orientation, transgender identity or disability.

Mr Harvie said hate crimes against gay and disabled people were a "significant" problem.

"Disabled people are four times more likely to be violently assaulted than non- disabled people," he told MSPs.

The bill now moves to its second and third stages for more detailed scrutiny.

Court rules homosexual couple can adopt foster son

11 Mar 2009-Jerusalem, Israel-  Fourteen years after arriving at his foster parents' home, the Ramat Gan Family Court ruled Tuesday morning that Yosi Even-Kama, now 30 years-old can be adopted by his foster parents, a homosexual couple.

As a result of family court  Judge Alissa Miller's decision to recognize Professor Uzi Even and Dr. Amit Kama as Yosi's parents, they will now have the same rights as biological parents of any child. In order for the adorption to be official, Yosi's biological father had to agree to renounce his paternal rights to his son.

In 1995, Yosi was kicked out of his biological family's home after they discovered that he was homosexual. The Even-Kamas took the teenager into their house and got the authorities to recognize them as Yosi's foster family.

The Even-Kamas petitioned for recognition as Yosi's foster family, which they received in a ground-breaking decision shortly after they took the fifteen-year-old in, becoming the first homosexual couple to gain legal recognition as foster parents.

In 2004, Even and Kama were married in a ceremony in Toronto, Canada. A year later, they said that they planned to petition the Supreme Court to recognize their union.

But the family did not consider applying for full legal adoption until 2007, when Yosi was accepted to university studies and the university's appeals board decided that he was not entitled to receive the reduced tuition to which the son of a professor is entitled. It was at that point that the family turned to attorney Dori Spivak for legal counsel regarding the possibility of adoption.

Following the family's petition, the Welfare Ministry opened a probe to ascertain the nature of the family dynamics and specifically determine whether the three had a parent-child relationship. After reviewing the ministry's findings, Judge Miller ruled that "I was convinced that the necessary conditions as proscribed by the laws concerning adoption of children had been fulfilled."

"The significance of this decision is that tomorrow homosexual couples can turn into a family and adopt a child," wrote Kama Tuesday. "After speaking with Dori Spivak we decided to shoot into the mist and we said that we don't have anything to lose. The Welfare Ministry was shocked by our demand to recognize the adoption.

"The parent-child relationship has existed with us for 14 years. Its not that we adopted a child yesterday. We always were a loving, living family but were not recognized by the authorities. Personally, there is great excitement and great happiness. The authorities and the state know now officially that the life that we live is the life of a loving family. This is a great victory."

This is not the first case in which a homosexual couple was allowed to adopt, but in the previous precedent-setting case, one of the members of the couple was already the biological parent of the children in question. In that October 2005 ruling, which followed eight years of legal hurdles, the Supreme Court ruled that Tal and Avital Yarus-Hakak - a lesbian couple - could adopt each other's biological children.

09 Mar 2009- London, England- A 46-year-old man has been charged with murder after the double stabbing of an elderly gay couple.

Gerry Edwards, 59 was knifed to death in the suspected homophobic attack at their home in Bickley on Wednesday night.

His long-term partner, Chris Bevan, 56, was also repeatedly stabbed injured at their home on Page Heath Villas around 8pm. Police say he is "clinging to life" in hospital - Edwards died at the scene,

David Kilcullen, 46, from Bickley in Bromley, Kent, will stand trial for murder and attempted murder.

He will appear at Greenwich Magistrates Court today.

A 59-year-old man also arrested in connection with the attack was bailed to return in April pending further inquiries.

Survivor gives Det "vital clues"

Mr Bevan, who survived the attack has given detectives vital clues. Det Ch Insp Cliff Lyons said:

"A man came to the premises, it would appear, and, from the information given by one of the surviving victims, it was a homophobic attack. That is a line of inquiry that we are pursuing."

It is thought they had been living together for a number of years.

The detective refused to be drawn on whether the couple had been targeted in the past but admitted an attack on two people in their home was a "very unusual crime". He added:

"That particular night it was quite windy, there was heavy rain and it would be quite unusual for individuals to be around at that time of night."

Bevan worked as a healthcare assistant and had been a member of Unison for a number of years.

Police keeping an 'open mind'

Police say they are keeping an open mind about the attack but a murder enquiry has been launched.

The detective added:

"We have found no evidence of a break-in and we are not ruling out that it may have been a homophobic attack."

Thousands Protest To Criminalize Being Gay In Burundi

07 Mar 2009- Burundi- A demonstration thousands strong in Bujumbura, Burundi Friday called on lawmakers to criminalize being gay.

It was the largest protest yet since President Pierre Nkurunziza came to power in 2005, attracting between 10,000 and 20,000 people.

The protesters were angry that senators had rejected an amendment that would criminalize being gay when voting on a new draft criminal code law on February 17. In November, Burundi's lower chamber of Parliament had voted in favor of the amendment that prescribes two years in jail for being gay.

Speaking to reporters at the event, CNDD-FDD Party Chairman Jeremie Ngendakumana said, “The CNDD-FDD is protesting today to support the [view of the] majority of Burundians that homosexuality should be punished by law.”

“Homosexuality is a sin. It is a culture which has been imported to sully our morals and is practiced by immoral people.”

“If we love our country, if we love our culture, we must ban this practice which will draw only misfortune for us,” he added.

Critics accused Nkurunziza and his CNDD-FDD Party of “manipulating” the issue in their favor by pandering to the country's popular opposition to being gay to retain power in 2010.

Anti-gay sentiment in Africa has been on the rise in recent years. Ethiopian religious leaders recently called on lawmakers to constitutionally ban being gay. In making their case, the religious leaders called being gay “the pinnacle of immorality” and blamed it for an increase in sexual attacks on boys and young men.

Nigerian leaders attempted to pass a law last year that would have criminalized associating with a known gay person. Gambia's president has called for the beheading of gay men and women. And human rights groups have condemned the harsh eight year prison sentence given to nine men in Senegal who were found guilty of being gay.

The anti-gay U.S. religious right exports homophobia to Africa

04 Mar 2009- A seminar which features Scott Lively and is designed to attack lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Ugandans under the cloak of religion has been strongly condemned by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG).

The three-day seminar in Kampala, which opens today (March 5), features an array of U.S. speakers known for their efforts to dehumanize LGBT people and for their belief that homosexuality can be “cured”

In addition to Lively, the speakers include, Don Schmierer and Caleb Lee Brundidge.  All are leading voices in the crusade by religious extremists to roll back basic human rights for LGBT people in the United States.

Brundidge is affiliated with Extreme Prophetic Ministry in Phoenix, Arizona while Schmierer is on the board of the so-called ‘ex-gay’ organisation, Exodus International.  Lively is infamous for his belief that the Nazi Holocaust never happened and his anti-gay crusading group Watchmen on the Walls which is closely associated with the New Generation Church in Riga, Latvia.

“The American religious right is finally showing its hand and revealing the depth of its support for homophobia in Africa,” IGLHRC’s executive director Cary Alan Johnson said this afternoon.

“This seminar will increase violence and other human rights abuses against LGBT people, women and anyone who doesn’t conform to gender norms.  This newest form of colonialism is deplorable and must be stopped.”

The seminar is hosted by the by Family Life Network (FLN), a Ugandan non-governmental organization founded in 2002 that claims to be committed to the “restoration of Ugandan family values and morals”.

The FLN opposes access to safe, legal abortions.  It also opposes the use of condoms and promotes abstinence-only programming as its approach to HIV prevention.  The FLN makes the sensationalised claim that homosexuality is “spreading like wildfire in schools”.

Seminar organisers have invited parents, teachers, government workers, politicians, counsellors and faith leaders.  The seminar costs 25,000 Ugandan Shillings a day (approximately $12.60) to attend.  Books and materials are extra.

“This seminar is just another way of encouraging hatred and abuse,” said a spokesperson from SMUG.

“We condemn their discriminatory words and actions that only lead to violence.  Suffering is all that they are bringing to Uganda — all in the name of God.”

Ugandan Bishop Dr. Christopher Ssenyonjo, who was expelled from the Anglican Church for supporting gay people, pointed out that there is a lot of misunderstanding about human sexuality.

“This workshop is going to bring more conflict, greater hostility, increased intimidation,” he said.  “We need love ... in the long run, love will overcome.”

The U.S. religious right has a history of exporting homophobia to Africa.  With support from anti-gay organizations and faith leaders such as Family Watch International and Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, Pastor Martin Ssempa from Makerere Community Church has attacked not only gay men and lesbians, but also women’s rights and HIV activism.

Pastor Ssempa has stated, “there should be no rights granted to homosexuals in this country”.  In 2007, he organised a multi-denominational rally against LGBT rights in Kampala, where one cleric called for the “starving to death of homosexuals”.

In response to this ongoing pattern of violence and abuse, SMUG launched its Let Us Live in Peace campaign, aimed at decreasing violence against LGBT Ugandans.

The campaign was launched shortly after human rights defenders Victor Mukasa and Oyo Yvonne filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General related to an illegal raid on Mukasa’s home.

The plaintiffs won their case in December 2008 — a landmark victory by organisers in a country that still punishes homosexuality by life in prison and has repeatedly made efforts to silence human rights leaders.

04 Mar 2009- UK- A man aged 59 was stabbed to death and his male partner is fighting for life after being seriously injured in a possible homophobic attack in their south London home.

Police said they were called to a flat in Page Heath Villas, Bromley, at 8pm yesterday and found the victim unconscious. He died at the scene. Another man, aged 50, was taken to hospital where his condition is described as critical. He had also been stabbed.

A police source said at this stage they were treating the attack as a "stranger murder". The 50-year-old victim was able to tell detectives that he heard his partner being attacked and when he went to investigate he was also set upon.

Scotland Yard issued an appeal for anyone who may have seen a white man in his forties in the area of the address last night to contact them. A spokesman said that they were not ruling out the possibility that the attack was homophobic.

The victims are believed to have been stabbed repeatedly. The men lived in a flat in a converted house in a tree-lined street. The street was cordoned off today as police forensic science teams were examining the scene.

‘Fashion for Gay’ appears on local catwalk

23 Feb 2009- The HCM City-based Café FTV was full with curious audience members who came to watch the first fashion show of NewUrbanMale, the famous fashion brand for gays in Singapore.

NewUrbanMale is a luxurious fashion series for men which came on to the market in 2003. It is known for its special logo with the figure of a spermatozoon and products for gays. It has 17 shops in Singapore. NewUrbanMale products are sold online in many Asian countries and this is the first time it has opened a shop in Vietnam.

NewUrbanMale’s style is very manly but unique and colorful. This brand is famous for underwear, sea-wears, footwear, bags, and T-shirts for men.

NewUrbanMale has more than 200 salesmen. Many of them were the winners of gay beauty contests, or are models for fashion magazines and TV channels.

NewUrbanMale was presented in Vietnam by the first free show at café FTV in HCM City, which had that participation of some local models, three models from Singapore, and Vietnamese singers Cindy Thai Tai, Wanbi, and Ocean group.

NewUrbanMale invited Aaron, the winner of the Menstyle 2008, a beauty contest for gays in Vietnam, as its ambassador in Vietnam.

20 Feb 2009- Italian singer Giuseppe Povia is causing outrage in Italy over "Luca era gay" (Luca was gay), a song about a gay man who goes straight. See the clip and read more...

Material for this post was compiled by our Observer in Milan, Alberto Celani.

Giuseppe Povia is launching the song at the famous Sanremo festival, something of an Italian Eurovision, which opens on Tuesday and is broadcast on state TV channel RAI. The somewhat ambiguous lyrics tell the tale of a young man, looking back on his past, who realises why he was gay:

"I was too smothered by my mother", and decides to turn straight. It's not the first time the singer has caused offence over the subject. He was previously quoted in an interview saying "you're not born gay, you become gay through your social surroundings".

The president of a gay rights organisation, quoted by Ansa agency, said that the song is "an insult to all gay people fighting homophobia and ignorance in Italy". A good number of Italians are pushing for a similar message to be broadcast on public TV. The debate comes not long after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who's also been chided for homophobic notions, made sexist remarks about rape.

"Luca was gay and today he's with her, he speaks with his heart, Luca says he's another man.

Luca says ‘before telling the tale of my sexuality change, I'd like to say that while I believe in god, I don't recognise myself in the thinking of men, who are divided on this subject.

I didn't go to see a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a priest or a scientist. I dug into my past, and I came to understand things about myself. My mother wanted too much of me, something that became an obsession, I suffocated from so much attention.

My father never took decisions and I came to never speak to him. He was always out at work, although I had the idea that wasn't entirely true. Indeed, mother asked for a divorce, I was 12, I didn't understand very well, father said it was for the best and then took to drinking.

Mama always talked badly about papa, she told me never to marry for pity, she was terribly jealous of my friends, and I became more and more confused about who I was.

This is my story, simply my story, no sickness, no cure..."

London Lesbian and Gay Film

Event: London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
Date: March 25th until April 8th

Between March 25th and April 8th London will be the place to be to see the very best in gay and lesbian cinema productions.

Taking place for the 25th time, the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival will celebrate the latest in queer cinema from around the world, showcasing powerful movies and documentaries focused on issues relevant to gay people.

Visitors will have the opportunity to see productions such as Les Biches, a character study of an obsessive lesbian relationship, and 3 Women, which examines aspects of female desire.

Another highlight is Promiscuous Pop, which sees a new generation of performance artists queer the boundaries between art and entertainment to explore notions of desire, self and identity.

It is not just films which attendees will enjoy, as a series of other events will also take place, including Amy Lame's Pom Pom International, which aims to promote peace and understanding across the world through Pom Pom making.

There will also be a special celebration of the centenary of Bette Davis, workshops for up-and-coming filmmakers as well as dancing, performance and cabaret.

For movie fans, this event is a must and something else which is required is somewhere smart and comfortable to stay afterwards.

The luxury London hotel the 41 is that place.

By choosing the Suite Dreams package, lovers can enjoy a bottle of Joseph Perrier Rose champagne, chocolate-dipped strawberries, a three-course table d'hote meal for two and much more.

Burundi senate rejects gay bill

18 Feb 2009- Burundi- Burundi's senate has rejected a draft law that criminalises homosexuality. The draft proposed a sentence of three months to two years in prison for homosexual conduct.

It was approved by the lower chamber of parliament, the national assembly, last year - provoking criticism from human rights groups.

US-based Human Rights Watch has warned that the country would be in breach of international human rights treaties if the legislation is passed.

The draft, amended by the senate, will now go back to the lower chamber.

Married man blackmailed after visit to gay website

18 Feb 2009- UK- A man tried to blackmail a married man he met through a gay social networking site by demanding £500 not to tell his wife, a court heard.

David Beales, 41, had arranged to meet up with the victim who was a retired married man after they met on the gay website, but Norwich Crown Court heard that after Beales was “stood up” by the victim he sent a threatening text in which he demanded “£500 for his cheek” of messing him about or he would tell his wife that he had been using a gay website.

The text message added “if you don't pay up I will see your wife and tell her all about me.”

Lori Tucker, prosecuting, said that the victim decided to then tell his wife what had happened and police were called in and Beales arrested.

Beales, of Trafalgar Road, Great Yarmouth, admitted blackmail.

Jailing him for two years, Recorder Peter Guest told him: “Blackmail is often described as one of the most serious offences in the criminal calendar. It was a mean, nasty and cruel act on your part and in my judgement you chose to exploit a married man who carried with him a secret.”

He said he believed the victim thought that Beales would carry out his threat to tell his wife. “There can be no other reason for him to tell his wife of his secret and express a fear that you could come to his home.”

Jonathan Morgans, mitigating, said that Beales was genuinely full of remorse.

He said he had sent the text in a “fit of pique” as a direct result of the victim not turning up at the meeting. He said Beales had insight into his offending and at the time had not realised the full consequences of his actions.

The Spanish ministry of defence has said it will reform legislation to allow transsexuals to serve in the armed forces.

12 Feb 2009- Spain- The move follows a publicised battle by a 28-year-old male transsexual who has been rejected by the army on two occasions because he does not have a penis.

The man, who has only been named as Aitor G R, was born female but underwent a mastectomy and hormone treatment several years ago in the first step of "gender reassignment". He is on a waiting list for an operation to reshape his genitals into a penis.

Although the Spanish army recruits women, Aitor G R is recognized as a man legally and was declared medically unfit by army recruiters because of his lack of male genitalia.

He was first turned away in Feb 2007 but reapplied earlier this month only to be refused again. He said it had always been his dream to join the army since playing with toy soldiers as a child.

"I want to be a soldier, not a porn star," the transsexual from Jaen told Spanish media, stating that he would appeal the decision.

Carme Chacón, Spain's minister of defence, has promised to revise legislation concerning medical reasons for exclusion from the armed forces.

A ministry spokesman said on Thursday that under the new guidelines the lack of a penis would no longer be sufficient reason for excluding a male army candidate.

09 Feb 2009- South Africa- Gay rights activists and lawyers who have worked on LGBT human rights cases met in South Africa last week.

The four-day workshop on legal strategies for promoting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in Africa was attended by 45 participants from 11 countries— Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), Global Rights, Interights and the Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists were among those taking part.

It was the first meeting between lawyers who have worked on litigation related to LGBT rights and African LGBT leaders. Participants reviewed key pieces of litigation to document lessons learned.

These cases included an unsuccessful challenge to Botswana's sodomy laws in 2003 (Kanane v. Botswana), the prosecutions of 11 gay men in Cameroon in 2006, the arrests of two women in Rwanda on charges related to sexual orientation in 2008, and the ongoing trial of 18 young men in Northern Nigerian on charges of cross-dressing and homosexuality.

A high point of the meeting was the discussion of Ooyo and Mukasa v. Attorney General of Uganda, a case settled in December 2008, in which two transgender activists successfully challenged the unconstitutional invasion of their home and their mistreatment by local police and elected officials. One of the litigants, as well as the lead counsel, key donors, and local organizers from Uganda were present at the meeting.

Lawyers, activist leaders and donors attending the meeting acknowledged the importance of impact litigation for repealing sodomy laws and challenging other discriminatory statutes and policies.

Such litigation however needs to be situated within the context of local, national and regional LGBT groups.

Participants discussed the need for security for lawyers defending LGBT clients and causes. Many of the lawyers at the meeting had faced attacks on their reputations, attempts at disbarment, and even physical violence.

The event concluded with a call to create a multi-faceted LGBT legal fund for Africa and a training and support network for African lawyers working on sexual rights cases.

Police in Swedish gay sex party scandal

09 Feb 2009- Sweden- Partying police officers who simulated homosexual acts and ordered a male stripper are being investigated by Swedish authorities.

The nine male officers, who partied in a remote cabin, took pictures of themselves naked and posing with sub machine guns and attempted to play a 'dramatised' gay sex game.

But sadly for the male stripper, who had just turned up, the party was busted by senior instructors who sent everyone home.

The party was for mid-level officers finishing training for special tactical units. They were all experienced policemen.

All of them have been banished to desk duty during the investigation.

Gay Activists Ask Russia to End Ban on HIV+ Foreigners Entering Country

06 Feb 2009- Moscow, Russia –  A group of Russian gay activists launched today a campaign demanding their government to stop requesting foreign visa applicants for their HIV status.

In three letters sent to the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitri Medvedev, the Prime Minster, Vladimir Putin and the Foreign Affairs Minister, Sergey Lavrov, the activists ask for the cancellation of article 10 of the law of 1995 on prevention of distribution of HIV in Russia.

The law, which was signed by former President Yeltsin, bans HIV-positive foreigners from staying in Russia for more than three months.

It does not apply to diplomats and members of international organisations.

In applying this law, Russian consulates request a compulsory HIV test within one year from any foreigner applying for a visa which requests a stay above three months.

“Requesting HIV status in a visa application can be considered as an intrusion to private life in the definition of article 8 of the European Convention for Human Rights” commented Nikolai Alekseev.

“However, it has not yet been challenged at the European Court yet,” he added.

Russia and Armenia are the only countries who are members of the Council of Europe to impose a partial travel ban to HIV-positive foreigners.

Eleven countries around the world ban or limit the right of HIV-positive people to enter their territories.  The list also includes Colombia, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sudan, and Yemen.  Although the US Congress passed a measure lifting the ban six months ago, the ban has not been fully lifted in USA.

In June 2008, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for an end to discriminatory travel restrictions based on HIV status.

“This absurd policy prevent some talented HIV-positive foreigners from living and working in Russia,” said Nikolai Baev from GayRussia.

Activists further revealed that they recently tested the application of a multiple entry visa by an HIV-positive foreigner.

“Last October, we asked Michael Petrelis, a well known US gay HIV+ advocate, to apply for a one year visa at the San Francisco Consulate, Mr. Alekseev explained.

“He enclosed a HIV positive test in his application and received a visa with a right to stay only 90 days,” he added.

The Russian law, whose initial aim was to protect the country from the risk of the spread of the epidemic, is no longer in line with the current medical research on HIV transmission.

 “The disease is spread when safe sex is not practiced or drug users share needles … it is important to make education the key component to stopping HIV in Russia,” he added

“The problem of HIV infections rising in Russia, like in USA and EU, is not when foreigners with HIV visit, but instead the lack of full and honest messages about using condoms and not sharing needles to halt new infections,” he pointed out.

The Mayor of Moscow, one of the most homophobic politicians in Russia, came under heavy critics last December after he declared that safe sex practice only worsened the expansion of Aids.

“Some companies insist that condoms are a safe guarantee against Aids but contemporary science proved that it is not the case,” the mayor said, adding that “the slogan that condoms protect against AIDS 100% is used by manufacturing companies to increase their distribution markets”.

 “The Russian government should think whether it wants its nationals to face the same discrimination when travelling abroad,” said Mr Baev.

Last year, activists from GayRussia successfully obtained from the Russian government the end of the ban on blood donation by gays after a two years campaign involving letters and demos.

In October 2009, Moscow is due host the third International Conference on HIV/AIDS for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Gay pride flag flies at police HQ

02 Feb 2009- The flag to be hoisted to mark "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual History Month" at North Wales Police, where Richard Brunstrom, the controversial chief constable is in charge.

However anger is growing about flying the flag, and whether special interest groups should be perceived to be favoured by the police.

David Jones, Tory MP for Clwyd West, called it "political tokenism".

He added : "I can't see any reason why any flag other than the Union Flag and the Red Dragon of Wales should fly outside our police headquarters.

"This is tokenism and posturing. People want to see their police force focus on fighting crime, not getting involved in political tokenism and gestures."

Darren Millar, who is Conservative Welsh Assembly Member for the constituency, commented : "It's very strange for this sort of flag to be flying from a public building.

"Whilst I recognise North Wales Police have done a great deal to make sure they are open and behave equally to everyone this seems to be political correctness gone mad. I don't think it's going to enhance their ability to catch criminals."

Mr Millar, a former member of the police authority, said : "Perhaps they should focus more on a significant morale problem among their officers, which showed in a recent Police Federation survey."

A retired senior officer from the force said : "I think the flying of symbolic flags by this chief constable is divisive and unnecessary.

"I was always dismayed when he took the decision not to fly the force flag any more, which was a symbol of a family force to which everyone belonged irrespective of race, colour or sexuality.

"Flying the flag of special interests, as worthy as they may be, is divisive."

It's flying "to mark the start of a series of internal staff activities aimed at celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual History Month," according to the force website.

On Friday there was a ceremony organised by the Gay Police Association North Wales and backed by the Association of Chief Police Officers and Stonewall Cymru together with supporters and "key public stakeholders".

The website explains that the flag "symbolises not only the continuous struggle for recognition and equality that many lesbian, gay and bisexual people have experienced over the years but its vibrant colours also represent celebration and hope for the future."

It quotes Assistant Chief Constable Ian Shannon praising the work of the Gay Police Association and adding : "Sexuality is a highly emotive and personal matter and I have great respect for those involved with the Gay Police Association who, over the years, have worked selflessly to promote equality within our organisation."

"I am immensely proud to support our gay officers and staff and I hope that this event sends out a clear message as we continue to strive for inclusivity and equality."

Jenny Porter, community liaison officer for Stonewall Cymru says: "It is a great sign to lesbian, gay and bisexual people in North Wales how much the police has changed and it is encouraging that people have confidence in the police to report homophobic hate crime."

"The flag signifies that we are celebrating the fact that the world is full of people with differing sexual orientations and that everyone should be treated equally and with respect."

26 Jan 2009- Bahrain’s gay community is outraged after a number of social networking sites were blocked as part of a government clampdown on porn.

Homosexuals previously used the Internet to meet new partners, but say their safety has been put at risk by a government decision to block access to sites such as www.gaydar.com.

One gay Bahraini man, who asked to remain anonymous, said they would now have to meet in public - exposing them to the possible wrath of family, society and the dangers of meeting strangers. He claimed the ban would lead to an increase in porn being sold on the black market, but said if the government wanted to address homosexuality it should start in its own schools.

"I also think a lot of expats will end up leaving now - they live here mainly because Bahrain is more liberal."

A gay expat man, who wanted to remain anonymous, agreed the move was a backward step.

"I'm really disappointed, but I have already found a way around it."

Meanwhile, a lesbian Bahraini who asked to remain anonymous said although she didn't use gay social networking sites herself, many of her friends did and were upset with the clampdown.

Outrage as Two Gay Men Beaten by Lebanese Army in Achrafieh

25 Jan 2009 -Beirut- The gay community in Lebanon is angry this weekend.  And so are human rights groups, according to two local French language web sites.

The anger is over the savage public beating of two men by soldiers in Sassine Square, Achrafieh in eastern part of Beirut, on Thursday evening.

The two men, thinking they were out of sight, were “engaged in lovemaking, in the lobby of an uninhabited building”, L’Orient Le Jour website reports.  The website of LGBT rights group Helem carries the same French language report.

Discovering the two men in action, the Lebanese army soldiers subjected the pair to a summary beating in the street.

The report said that the two men were subject to “punching, kicking, rifle butts, insults, humiliation”, says the report which was originated by the ALEF (Association Libanaise pour l’Education et la Formation) human rights group..

The beating only ends when bystanders start condemning the action by the Army.

Held overnight by troops, the two men were reported transferred to the Hobeiche barracks, on the order of Attorney General.

Barracks, as L’Orient Le Jour notes, is “known not to be particularly kind to prisoners”.

ALEF notes that “both men had sinned recklessly, even by mistake”.  But the group questions the “barbaric and unacceptable reaction of the soldiers facing the display of homosexuality”.

“But should we beat them and treat them like this?

“It is high time that the country’s lawmakers are looking at an obsolete law, ridiculous and totally from another era, that condemns and punishes homosexuality in Lebanon.

“At a time when gay marriage is permitted in many countries, the authorities hypocritically deny the simplest expression of a reality that [exists],” ALEF says.

Arrests After ‘Gay Swoops’ in Bahrain, Egypt and Morocco

23 Jan 2009- A top producer at Egyptian TV and a young man working with the foreign press were among four men arrested in Cairo earlier this month when a “network of homosexuals” was broken up, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission says in a digest of press reports.

Almoheet, a Pan-Arab News Internet portal reported:  “On Jan 5, The Egyptian Security Services destroyed a network of homosexuals, following complains to the Morality Unit of the Interior Ministry that the young men frequented an apartment in Ahmed Orabi Street.

“At first, the detectives suspected that the place accommodated young girls with male clients, but the police soon found out that all people in the place were men.

“After surveillance, the detectives found out that all of the people who visited the apartment were gay, and the location was a place set up for gays to commit sodomy,” the report continued.

“The ringleaders of the gay prostitution operation were four people, including a top producer at Egyptian TV, a fabric merchant, an accountant, and a young man who worked with foreign press.

“Following the raid, eight people were arrested and police confiscated gay pornography on the detainee’s computers and on their cell phones.

In Morocco, an Italian man has been sentenced to four months in jail for operating was described as “a gay network” in the country.

The Almaghrebiya newspaper reported that on Jan 19, the Criminal Chamber of the lower Court in the city of Marakesh, sentenced an Italian citizen to prison and a fine of 1,000 Derham on charges of “homosexuality, filming and possession of pornographic images”

The man, named as Gian Paolo, will be deported from Morocco at the end of his sentence.  An Italian resident of Morocco, he confessed to the law enforcement officials that he headed a network of Moroccan and foreign homosexuals in Spain, Belgium, and the United States, the paper reported, saying he took pornographic images of “abnormal sexual situations” involving Moroccans and citizens of other countries, and posted them on the internet.

In Bahrain, the newspaper Alwaqht reported the two Asian men were sentenced to six months in jail with hard labour when found guilty of the “practicing of debauchery”.

Under the headline Men's Barbershop Became a Cruising Gay Scene, the paper reported that “the accused were arrested by the Public Morality Police for committing prostitution with their barbershop clients.

“After police were tipped off to their activities, undercover agents went to their place of business, pretending that they wanted to have sex with them.  The accused agreed to have homosexual sex for 10 dollars.  After their arrests, they confessed that they used to have sex with their clients for 10 to 20 dinars a trick.”

Cardiff fights gay bashing

19 Jan 2009 - Cardiff Council Leader Rodney Berman has welcomed the success of a pilot programme aimed at challenging and raising awareness of homophobic and transphobic bullying in
schools.

The Safe Space programme was created by the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Excellence Centre Wales and helps schools set up systems for tackling the problems they might encounter in dealing with sexual orientation and gender identity issues.

The programme was sponsored by Cardiff Council and involved performances by international hip hop artist Qboy. Presentation materials were developed in collaboration with the Council’s Schools and Lifelong Learning service.

As a result of the pilot carried out in Cardiff, and the promotional work carried out by the LGBT Excellence Centre Wales, initial expressions of interest to run similar programmes have now been received from other Welsh local authorities.

Safe Space was delivered to 460 pupils in total at three Cardiff High Schools. Three performances were delivered to all pupils in Year 9 at each school. These pupils have the advantage of being amongst the first cluster of pupils who have received
this pioneering workshop in Wales, leaving them and the whole school better equipped to understand and tackle homophobia and homophobic bullying.

Council Leader Cllr Rodney Berman said, "I am delighted that Cardiff took part in this Safe Space programme and am grateful to the LGBT Excellence Centre Wales for helping us take forward this pioneering work. I am pleased it was so well received by the schools which took part and that other local authorities in Wales are now considering using it as well. It is clear that the rapper QBoy's experiences and ability to communicate really struck a chord with pupils.

"Addressing bullying of any kind in our schools is vitally important, but in the case of homophobic bullying there is much to be done in ensuring people are aware of all the issues and able to understand what some of our young people may be dealing with.

“Research has shown that young people who experience homophobic bullying are more likely to leave school at 16 even if they are keen to continue their studies. Also, at its very worst, homophobic bullying can undoubtedly be a contributory factor to teenage suicides. This is not therefore an issue we can choose to ignore.

"Some young people may find themselves very isolated in dealing with homophobic bullying and may feel uncomfortable talking to anyone about what they are experiencing, including their own families. Anything that can help to promote better
understanding of this issue must therefore be welcomed."

18 Jan 2009- Dont´t get too excited. Let me start by stating categorically that I am NOT gay. I am not a big fan of gay folks either. If anything, I try to avoid them the most I can. Once, during a trip to Norway, a homosexual man in his mid-thirties tried to make advances at me. I almost broke his jaw.

However, in 2002, when the then-President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo signed the bill that forbade the same-sex marriage of Nigerians, I could not help but ask: What right does the President of the country have to tell his people who not to marry. The president did not give birth to them.

And then, the same scenario was repeated in Kenya recently. The Kibaki-led administration announced a ban on same-sex marriages in the country, calling it illegal. The punishment for same-sex marriage in Nigeria is five years behind bars.

For some reason, Africans want to be too sacred, and rather than our government solving the most pressing issues that affect Africa today- poverty, Health issues, Corruption, lack of accountability, ethnic clashes, and the sorts, our governments spend their time in parliament deliberating on laws that would make life harder and worse for the common man.

In an Africa that is full of so many problems, if a man decides that he will find solace spending the rest of his life in the arms of another man, why disturb him? Why have our Parliamentarians forgotten the Universal rights of human beings to express themselves in whichever way they deem fit?

I came across an old high school classmate of mine in South- Africa recently, and while we got talking, he told me how much he missed his home country of Nigeria, and how much he longed to go back. On asking him why he did not return to his country, he revealed that he left Nigeria so as to get married to his long-time boyfriend in South-Africa since it was the only African country that permitted the same-sex marriage. He was on exile from his own country, and he was not a criminal.

The Nigerian, Kenyan and other African governments should go back to the law that forbids the same-sex marriage and destroy it because it is actually senseless. If one finds happiness and contentment in marrying a member of the opposite sex, why prevent another from finding happiness because he or she has a different sexual orientation? If the government thinks banning the same-sex marriage will decrease immorality in the society, it had better thought again. Gays may not get married in these countries, but no one can stop them from living together under the same room and doing their thing.

My mother always forbade me from saying this, but the truth is, once an adult, one should be allowed to live his or her life the way they deem fit. The top countries in the world- America, Europe and Australia do not bother about trivial issues such as same-sex marriages and other related issues. They battle with major issues. Why should we bother with issues such as Gay people.

And so, Africa, live and let the Gays live.

15 Jan 2009 -Strasbourg- Members of the European Parliament on Wednesday urged EU states to put an end to discrimination against gays, women and gypsies within the bloc.

In a report which condemned the high number of human rights violations across the region, MEPs called on the 27 EU member countries to recognise the rights of same-sex couples, already enshrined in some of them.

It also criticised persistant gender inequalities, excessive anti-terrorism policies and the ongoing discrimination facing gypsies, notably by the police in countries like Italy.

"It is high time the EU practices what it preaches. The European Commission wants to be a champion of human rights, but sadly every day we hear about anti-discrimination laws being flouted by member states," said Spanish deputy Ignasi Guardans.

Same-sex marriage is legal in a number of EU countries, including the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Belgium. While countries such as Britain, France and Germany recognise same-sex civil unions for tax, inheritance and other purposes.

12 Jan 2009- London, England- Retired police officer Brian Paddick has tied the knot with his partner of two years, Petter Belsvik. The pair were married in a ceremony in Belsvik’s homeland of Norway during the weekend.

They were joined by friends from Paddick’s stint on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, at a party held in their honour in London last night.

Guests at the bash at the Hempel Hotel in Paddington included Simon Webbe, Nicola McLean and George Takei.

Paddick, who is Former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan police, took part in the reality TV show last year. He was the sixth celebrity voted out and endured challenges including sleeping in a cage full of rats and skydiving.

On leaving the jungle, he said: ‘For a long time, in the police force, I've been doing serious stuff. It's all bad news I've been commenting on so I thought why not do something trivial.

'It was hard work, particularly the hunger. I lost a stone in weight in two weeks.’

Paddick ran against Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone as the Liberal Democrat candidate in the London Mayoral elections last year, coming third.

The 50-year-old, who was previously married to a woman, told The Daily Mail about his plans to marry Belsvik in September

He said: ‘My ex-wife Mary had been very kind to me and remains a loyal supporter to this day.

‘The 'unreasonable behaviour' she cited in our divorce petition was me being more in love with my job than with her, rather than me being in love with another man.

‘And of course, fully realising I was gay meant marriage was never again going to be an option, or so I thought.

How the world has changed. I no longer have a job to be in love with, having retired from the police after 30 years.

‘And from January 1 next year, same-sex couples can actually get married, as opposed to entering a civil partnership, in Norway.

‘So, at the age of 50, I am taking the plunge again. This time it's with a man: my Norwegian boyfriend, Petter

Belarusian Army Will Not Now Call-up Openly Gay Activist for Military Duty
 

12 Jan 2009- Moscow  (GayRussia.ru)–   The openly gay editor-in-chief of the largest Belarusian LGBT site Gay.by, Alexander Paluyan, will not now be conscripted into the Belarus army.

Even though the sexual orientation of the 23-year-old conscript was known by the personnel of the military department, they called on him to report to Mozyr military department, as GayRussia and UK Gay News jointly revealed last week.

Mr Paluyan was until recently considered as ineligible for military duties due to a health problem.

But after an amendment to the law as passed at the end of 2008 which declassified Mr Paluyan’s disease as ineligible to service in the army.

After the details Mr Paluyan’s military call-up into the army were made public in both the Belarusian and International LGBT media, as well as the appeal of the members of the Belarusian Initiative for Sexual and Gender Equality to the Mozyr City Council about the staging of a picket in front of the military department, the decision to suspend the conscription was made.

Additionally, activists had launched a campaign calling on the Ministry of Defence of Belarus to start a comprehensive anti homophobia campaign in the army.

“According to the legislation, you are ready for military service and will be put on the list of conscripts, though we will put a special mark that you cannot serve in the army of the basis of your way of life,” Mr. Paluyan was told by the military authorities.

In the majority of known cases in Belarus, when a conscript declares his homosexuality during the medical commission, he is ‘diagnosed’ with having a ‘psychiatric disease’ which de facto exempts him from serving in the army.

As a result, Mr Paluyan became the first known Belarusian citizen to be exempted from serving in the army – but not diagnosed as being mentally ill.

“Frankly speaking, I am happy with the result,” Mr. Paluyan said yesterday in an e-mail to GayRussia.

“It is good that everything was done on time and many thanks to everyone for support which I received from friends and colleagues.

“Without their help, I would now be wearing the military boots. “I hope the military department will not change their decision,” he concluded.
 

Polish Politician to Former Polish Prime Minister: Are You Gay?
 

11 Jan 2009- Warsaw Poland-  It has to be one of the most startling Polish political blogs of all-time.  A politician publicly asking the former Prime Minister if he is gay.

But that is what the controversial Member of the Sejm (MP) , Janusz Palikot asked today on his blog of Jarosław Kaczyński, the former Prime Minister.

Mr. Palikot, from the ruling Civic Platform party, astonished reporters at an April 2007 press conference by turning up in a t-shirt with “Jestem gejem” (I am gay) on the back.  He said he wore the t-shirt to highlight that the Public Platform should be the defenders of minorities.

Rumblings on the sexuality of Jarosław Kaczyński have been going on for years.  The sexagenarian, whose identical twin brother Lech is President of Poland, has never, it is said, had a girl-friend and has always lived with his mother and his cat.

It was the former trade union leader who rose to be Poland’s first post-Soviet era President, Lech Wałęsa, who ten years ago first hinted one the sexuality of Jarosław Kaczyński when he said on television the he had invited the Kaczyński twins to a party – Lech with his wife and Jarosław with his husband.

In asking his blunt question on his blog (in Polish), Mr. Palikot says that there is no problem for him whatever the answer.

“The problem would be to hide this from the public,” he writes.

And as an example of how to be candid, he ends this blog:  “Ja – niepytany – oświadczam, że jednoznacznie preferuję kobiety. A Pan, Panie Jarosławie?”

In English: “I – unasked – declare unequivocally that I prefer women.  And you, Mrs. Jarosławie?

Last year, Mr. Palikot said in an interview: “Uważam prezydenta za chama” (I think the President is a fool) – an offence under Poland’s stringent anti-defamatory laws.  He faces up to three years in prison.

Gay man killed himself after going on Jeremy Kyle show to dicuss homosexuality

08 Jan 2009- London, England-A homosexual killed himself after appearing on the Jeremy Kyle television show to discuss problems in his gay marriage. Roger Irons, 21, appeared on the controversial ITV daytime show with Matthew Millington, 26, whom he married in a civil ceremony in 2006.

But in August last year he was founding hanging from a tree in woods after telling his family he "couldn't take any more" homophobia.

An inquest heard how the care assistant became depressed by taunts about his homosexuality. His sister Lisa, 30, told the inquest in Truro, Cornwall: "Roger was happy and easygoing but he hid his problems.

"People being homophobic hurt him a lot. It really got to him and eventually it boiled over." Mr Irons, of Falmouth, Cornwall, and his partner appeared on the Jeremy Kyle Show on ITV1 in October 2007.

Mr Millington later said that appearing on the programme solved everything and that their relationship worked well afterwards.

He told the inquest: "Roger was bubbly and a happy easygoing person but he did get a lot of abuse about being gay."

Mr Irons hanged himself from a tree in Falmouth on August 2 last year after running out of a cocktail party to celebrate his sister Susan's 18th birthday.

She told the inquest: "He was crying and very emotional. He kissed me on the cheek and said 'I can't take it any more' and ran off."

The episode of Jeremy Kyle they appeared in was repeated on the Tuesday after his death. He had also developed epilepsy but controlled it with medication, the inquest heard.

As a child Mr Irons went to school at Beacon Junior and Infants and then Falmouth School, before becoming a care assistant at Sheldon House Nursing Home in Sea View Road.

His aunt, Bridget Irons, said: "He would help anyone out." Deputy coroner for Cornwall Andrew Cox recorded a verdict of suicide.

A spokesman for the Jeremy Kyle show declined to comment on the death of former guest Roger Irons.  She said: "His death was not linked to the show and came well after his appearance."

Plane diverted over gay jibes

06 Jan 2009- A packed holiday jet was forced to make an emergency landing after drunken passengers became violent, started smoking and made gay jibes at cabin crew.

The pilot of the transatlantic flight from Manchester was so concerned he took drastic action and touched down in Bermuda.

Three British men were ordered off the flight and arrested. They were held in police cells before being quizzed.

The incident occurred aboard a flight to the Dominican Republic on New Year’s Eve.

Grant Smith, 35, of Burnley, Lancs, has been charged with interfering with the performance of a crew member contrary to the Air Navigation Order 2005.

The two other men arrested are believed to have been travelling in the same party. One has been released without charge and the other was due to land at Gatwick this morning after being deported.

Officers investigating the alleged air rage incident said Smith was questioned about possible homophobic public order offences, affray and smoking on board the plane.

Chief Inspector Ed Henriet, of Sussex police, said: “People who endanger aircraft in this manner can expect to receive custodial sentences.”

The flight left Manchester at 12.15pm on New Year’s Eve and was due to reach Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic at 5.35pm local time.

Instead, flight TOM133 landed in Bermuda and the remaining passengers eventually made it to Punta Cana four hours late.

A Thomson spokesman said: “Flight TOM 133 Manchester to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, was diverted, and landed into Bermuda at 5.35pm local time on Wednesday December 31, due to disruptive passengers on board."

Smith flew back to England on Thursday where he was met by police at Gatwick airport and arrested on suspicion of endangering an aircraft.

He was charged on Monday and released on police bail. He is now due to face the charge at Crawley Magistrates on January 16.

Stars urged to back FA's anti-homophobia campaign

05 Jan 2009- England, UK- Football stars David Beckham and Wayne Rooney were urged to speak out against homophobia today in a video which could be shown in schools.

Plans to make a film to rid terraces of anti-gay chants have been confirmed by the Football Association (FA).

The initiative follows a barrage of abuse aimed at England internationals Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole, neither of whom are gay, at grounds in recent years.

Peter Tatchell, of gay rights group Outrage, said he hoped a host of players - including Beckham, Rooney, Campbell, Cole, Theo Walcott, Frank Lampard, David James and Cristiano Ronaldo - will be persuaded to take part.

The video is due to be released later this year and could be shown in schools, cinemas, on television and at grounds, he said.

Mr Tatchell praised the FA for backing the video "after years of lobbying."

He added: "The plan is to feature big-name stars speaking out against homophobia, in order to make anti-gay chants look as stupid, ignorant and uncool as racist ones.

"We also want the FA to put it on YouTube and distribute copies to every school in the country.

"Our aim is to give homophobia the boot - to kick anti-gay prejudice off the pitch and out of the terraces.

"It will also be a world first, since no other football governing body has even attempted anything as upfront and bold.

The FA and Kick It Out, the sport's diversity and inclusion campaign, confirmed they had approved the video but were unaware of its exact content.

"Homophobia has become a massive concern," said a spokesman for Kick It Out. "A release date has not been decided."

Mr Tatchell said authorities should impose big fines and match suspensions on players and managers who use anti-gay insults.

He added: "Stewards should be required to identify fans who shout homophobic abuse and the FA should secure the agreement of the police to arrest and evict them - in the same way that they arrest and evict racist fans.

"The appointment of Luiz Felipe Scolari to manage Chelsea should have been vetoed by FA and Chelsea bosses. He had previously said he would refuse to have a gay player in his team."

Gay row hits Sanremo festival

23 Dec 2008- Rome - Italian gay rights group Arcigay on Tuesday threatened to disrupt Italy's biggest musical event of the year, the Sanremo song festival, if a song apparently about 'converting' gays to heterosexuality is not pulled.

The song by 36-year-old Milan singer-songwriter Povia, entitled Luca Was Gay, was announced on Monday as one of 16 numbers that will compete for the title of best song at next year's festival in February.

Arcigay President Aurelio Mancuso said that despite the fact that the lyrics of the song have not been released, the title ''left no doubts about the theme and the position of the author''.

Mancuso said Povia was ''not exactly new'' to taking public stances against homosexuality, adding that he was famous for a magazine interview in which he declared that ''people aren't gay, they become gay on the basis of who they spend time with''.

The Arcigay president said Povia had gone on to say that he had ''had a gay phase, it lasted seven months, and then I got over it'' as well as claiming to have ''converted'' two of his friends who ''thought they were gay'' but were now married.

Mancuso claimed the song referred to a formerly gay man called Luca Tolve, who claims to have been ''cured'' of his homosexuality thanks to the controversial reparative therapies of American Catholic psychologist Joseph Nicolosi ''widely refuted by the global scientific community''.

Mancuso warned state broadcaster RAI, which shows the glitzy five-day event each year, that protests would be ''extremely strong, noisy and organised'' if the song was not withdrawn from the festival.

Some 200 people signed up to a Facebook protest group launched by Arcigay on Tuesday within hours of its going online.

But politician Luca Volonte' of the Catholic UDC party described Arcigay's efforts as ''a clear attempt at discrimination and censorship''.

''A firm response is needed to the violent verbal threats of Arcigay against Giuseppe Povia and his song, which is about real experiences of friendship,'' he said.

Volonte' added that last year Italian pop singer Anna Tatangelo had competed with a song entitled My Friend, written for a gay friend about the difficulty he faces in Italy because of his sexuality.

''Tatangelo can sing about these issues but Povia can't? That's intolerable, racist and fascist,'' he said.

High court rejects gay priest marriage case

16 Dec 2008- Sweden- A homosexual couple have lost their case in the Supreme Administrative Court (Regeringsrätten) against the Swedish tax authority (Skatteverket) for registering their marriage in Canada as a partnership.

Lars Gårdfeldt and Lars Arnell, who are both priests in the Church of Sweden, alleged discrimination when their marriage was classified as a civil partnership.

The couple have lost their case in the district court, the court of appeal and now in the Supreme Administrative Court, Sweden's highest court.

The couple argued that a same-sex marriage entered into in accordance with Canadian law should be recognized in Sweden, despite the fact that there is no legal basis for it under current Swedish law.

In their application to the court the couple argued that the "tax authorities can make an exception for a marriage where one party is under-age but not for homosexuals."

The authority confirmed that it does make exceptions to Swedish law with regard to under-age couples legally married overseas. But only for marriages involving a man and a woman.

Lars Gårdfeldt is a prominent debater of homosexual issues both within and outside of the church, reacted to the ruling, calling it discriminatory.

The court referred to the definition contained within Swedish legislation covering marriage, concluding that the term applies only to a union between a man and a woman while a union between two people of the same sex is designated as a partnership.

The court concluded in its judgement that even if this union in a foreign state is classified as marriage it is, according to current Swedish law, classified as a partnership.

Gay rights group riled by tampon makers' sex ed books

16 Dec 2008- Sweden- The youth arm of Sweden's largest gay rights group has expressed fury at educational material distributed by two major tampon manufacturers.

The two companies, Libresse and OB, are accused by RFSL Ungdom of providing teachers with sex education material that "reinforces offensive norms and opinions".

One of the books indicates that, for young people, the idea of being homosexual "is enough to send a shiver down their spine." There is also a passage that states: "If you are a Muslim, you may not be allowed to have a girlfriend or boyfriend".

In another section, Muslim girls concerned that they might not bleed on their wedding night are advised to contact a gynecologist who can sew stitches in their vaginal opening.

"Libresse and OB ought to be ashamed of themselves for giving out material that is so heteronormative and in many ways racist," said Felix König, chairman of the youth faction of RFSL, the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, in a statement.

The two makers of women's hygiene items have pooled their resources to compile sex education material for pupils aged 13-14 and 15-16.

RFSL Ungdom said it believed the two educational packages produced by the companies ran counter to laws protecting Swedish schoolchildren from exposure to offensive material.

"We hope all schools that have distributed this material gather it back in and throw it away. Pupils shouldn't have to read offensive opinions. We are also going to contact Schools Minister Jan Björklund," said Felix König.

Homophobic killer jailed for life

12 Dec 2008- UK- A homophobic man has been jailed for life for stabbing to death an accountant in a public toilet. Mark Malone, 30, of Clement Road, Walton-on-Thames, was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years at the Old Bailey.

He was found guilty of the murder of 50-year-old Jeff Akers near a beauty spot in Walton-on-Thames in February, following a trial in November. Mr Akers, formerly of south Wales, died in hospital after he staggered from the toilet with a large knife in his back.

'Unhealthy interest'

Sentencing Malone, Judge David Paget said: "You murdered him in a particularly savage way, stabbing him in the back with a carving knife with such force that it completely severed the eighth rib and punctured his right lung.

"The knife went into his back up to the hilt. The knife had an eight-inch blade. You did this simply because he was gay. "I am satisfied that you took that knife and went into those public lavatories looking for someone you thought was gay to stab."

He added: "You clearly have an unhealthy interest in knives and very clearly have a hatred of homosexuals. "You will have to be regarded, therefore, as posing a significant risk of serious harm to members of the public, in particular gay men, in the future,"

The court was told that in September 2007 Malone attacked a Brazilian man in a cubicle at the same location.

He was jailed for three months five years ago for punching an autistic man twice he thought was gay because he believed he was staring and winking at him on a bus in Helston, Cornwall.

Following last month's verdict, Mr Akers' brother, Richard, said justice had been done. Mr Akers was described as a "wonderful, caring and loving son" by his parents.

Originally from Barry, south Wales, Mr Akers had lived with his partner, Mike Drew, for 22 years, in Wallington, south London.

During the trial, Ann Cotcher QC, prosecuting, said the only possible motive for Malone's unprovoked attack had been "a dislike of homosexuals".

The court was told the toilet was a well-known meeting place for gay men and Malone, a married father, had earlier been seen in the area waving a knife.

Malone eventually handed himself in, claiming he knew the toilet was a popular spot for gay men "but that he had no issues with the gay community" and "was not an angry person".

But after the hearing Surrey Police said it was a "vicious, unprovoked homophobic attack by Mark Malone on a harmless, innocent man".

RIGHTS: Europe Goes Slow on Gay Laws

 
11 Dec 2008- Brussels- European Union governments are in no hurry to widen the scope of the bloc's anti-discrimination rules so that gays and lesbians can enjoy greater rights.

Under a law dating from 2000, discrimination in the workplace on grounds of sexual orientation is prohibited. Yet because the measure is restricted to employment and training, homosexuals are denied its protection once their working day is over. As a result, a doctor could refuse to treat a gay patient, or a landlord could refuse to let his apartment to a same-sex couple.

To plug this legislative gap, the European Commission came forward with a new proposal in July this year that would make it an offence to discriminate against gay people in access to healthcare, education, social protection, housing and the provision of goods and services. Discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, religion and belief are also covered by the proposal, which is modelled on EU-wide laws that have already been introduced against racial prejudice.

The blueprint has had a problematic birth. Senior figures from the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, are known to have been reluctant to introduce the proposal, with some arguing that only discrimination against people with disabilities should be covered by it. Their rationale was that a more comprehensive measure would be unlikely to win approval from the EU's governments.

This prediction appears to have at least partly materialised. Greece and Malta are seeking to have the measure watered down, according to EU officials, by seeking that the clauses on discrimination in education are removed.

An official tracking the law's progress said that there is little chance that the Czech Republic will be able to secure a deal allowing the legislation to come into effect when it holds the EU's rotating presidency in the first half of 2009.

While homophobia has been encountered throughout the EU, it has been especially pronounced in the ten mostly ex-communist countries that joined the Union in 2004. During 2006, Poland, the largest of the ten, considered introducing a law that would ban the "promotion of homosexuality" by teachers. The law has never been adopted, however, and Poland has subsequently had a change of government.

Nonetheless, similar measures are now being discussed by the national parliament in Lithuania. A suggested amendment to the country's law on the protection of minors recommends that images which convey a positive impression of homosexuality should be banned in the classroom, equating them with displays of death or mutilation. Petras Vaitekaunas, Lithuania's foreign minister, told his country's parliament in October that "Lithuania is one of the most homophobic countries in the EU" and that it could take a "change of generations" before it becomes more tolerant.

Meanwhile, Hungary's constitutional court is scheduled to issue a ruling next week in a legal challenge against a plan to allow same-sex couples to be granted formal recognition. If the challenge proves unsuccessful, people in gay and lesbian relationships will be able to register a civil partnership from the beginning of 2009. Marriage will, however, remain only open to heterosexuals.

Homophobia appeared in a particularly nasty form in Budapest when gay pride parades were held over the past two years.

Before these events took place, extreme-right websites offered tips on how participants could be attacked, giving details of bars they were likely to frequent and hotels where gay visitors to the city would be staying. One of these bars ended up being petrol-bombed earlier this year, while the parade itself was attacked by a mob throwing eggs and tins of cat food. These attacks came even though police had sought to keep extreme-right sympathisers away from the parade by cordoning off an area especially for it.

Sandor Steigler, chairman of the Rainbow Mission Foundation, a Hungarian gay rights group, complained that right-leaning politicians did not condemn such attacks in unambiguous terms. He argued that the question of incitement to hatred needs to be tackled.

"You can't resolve everything by legislation," he added. "But we do expect politicians to be attuned to our problems. At the moment, I think this is missing among politicians."

Jan Snijder, a superintendent in the Dutch police force and president of the Euro Gay Police Association, says that there is "massive underreporting" of crimes against homosexuals in his country.

In an attempt to remedy this situation, the Dutch police introduced an online service for victims of homophobic hate attacks in the Amsterdam and Gelderland regions. Only five such crimes were reported.

Snijder argued that police officers who are homosexual should actively take part in gay festivals and that the composition of forces needs to better reflect the diversity of wider society. "When marching in gay pride, we can show that there are gay people inside the police," he said. "It can't go on that the police forces in Europe are only white and male. Everyone who lives in Europe must also serve the police."

Michael Cashman, a British gay rights campaigner and member of the European Parliament, said that politicians "resort to the politics of hatred and intolerance" whenever they think it will help them to be elected.

"The spotlight of hatred never diminishes," he added. "It merely shifts to another group. Our obligation is to lead, not to follow public opinion. We have to lead public opinion to where it needs to be in 20 or 30 years time."

I0 Dec 2008- Brussels – The majority of EU states, including the Republic of Ireland, deny same-sex partners of EU citizens the full right to move to join them as they do not recognise homosexual unions, the European Commission said yesterday.

“If a union is recognised in one member state, then another member should in principle accept that union,” justice commissioner Jacques Barrot told a news conference. EU citizens have the right to live in any of the union’s 27 states with their family but that does not apply in all states to the registered partners of homosexual citizens.

A commission report showed that 14 states – Ireland, Germany, Austria, France, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Cyprus, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Estonia, Slovenia and Latvia – do not give full entry and residence rights to partners of same-sex couples. Mr Barrot said the situation varied widely among the 14 states, with some allowing same-sex partners into the country and others imposing excessively strict requirements.

06 Dec 2008- UK- The Christian policeman sacked after a row over gay rights has told how his dismissal after 15 years in the force has ‘devastated’ his family.

As The Mail on Sunday revealed in the summer, Graham Cogman objected to being ‘bombarded’ at work by emails and posters promoting events such as Gay History Month.

He responded to the ‘politically correct’ campaign by sending emails to colleagues quoting Biblical texts suggesting that homosexual sex was sinful.

But he faced accusations of homophobia and a series of disciplinary hearings, culminating 12 days ago in his sacking by Norfolk Police for misconduct.

The twice-commended officer said yesterday: ‘I am totally devastated. It was a job I loved. This is destroying me and my family.’

He admitted he had ‘stupidly’ breached a ban by using the internal communications system to post a link to an American Christian organisation, but said the force’s decision to sack him was ‘harsh and disproportionate’.

Mr Cogman, 50, accused the police service of becoming so sensitive to the rights of gays that Christians could no longer safely express their views.

Speaking at his home in Sea Palling, Norfolk, which he shares with his wife Elaine, 46, and his two children, Mr Cogman said: ‘In the service in general there is a feeling of fear. There is a definite bias against faith – any faith – if it takes a critical view of homosexual sex.

‘The easy option for me would have been to keep quiet but when there is such prejudice towards one point of view, how can that be right? That doesn’t sound like equality and diversity to me.

‘I don’t have any worries with what people do in their private lives – if they are gay, that’s fine. I haven’t gone after anyone maliciously.’

Mr Cogman, backed by the Police Federation, is appealing against his sacking and is planning to take his force to an employment tribunal next year, funded by the Christian Legal Centre.

He said he had received a huge amount of support both from within and outside the force.

Last week the Rev Martin Young, vicar of St Andrew’s church in Norwich, wrote an open letter to Norfolk Police protesting that it had ‘manifestly failed to uphold PC Cogman’s right to express his Christian faith’.

The vicar added: ‘His views are not extreme or unusual. They are consistent with the published understanding of the Church of England, of which he is a member.’ Mr Cogman said he had no problems with colleagues until gay liaison officers circulated an email to officers in early 2005 encouraging staff to wear a pink ribbon on their uniforms during Gay History Month.

He emailed colleagues suggesting they might want to read biblical texts suggesting homosexual sex was sinful. As a result, he was ordered to stop using the internal messaging system for failing to show ‘tolerance and respect’ for fellow officers.

The following year, when officers were encouraged to wear rainbow ribbons during Gay History Month, Mr Cogman said it was ‘inappropriate, thoughtless and insensitive’ as the rainbow symbolised God’s faithfulness.

He was accused of unlawfully using the internal messaging system and victimising another gay liaison officer by saying: ‘Love the sinner, hate the deed.’ He was docked 13 days’ pay.

In April this year, he was questioned again after circulating a link to a helpline for people struggling with their sexuality on a website headed by the controversial American preacher Pat Robertson.

At the misconduct hearing, overseen by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, a panel found that Mr Cogman had ignored an order banning him from using the police computer system and had failed to treat a colleague with politeness and respect.

Mr Cogman said: ‘I felt physically sick when I heard the ruling. If I hadn’t posted that link I would still have a job. That was my downfall, my stupidity, however you want to put it. But my intention was to help.’

He claimed a small group of pro-gay officers had been determined to oust him. ‘They have their own agenda and now they have my scalp.’

Norfolk Police said: ‘The issue is not about Mr Cogman’s beliefs but about his behaviour. He ignored repeated warnings about his behaviour and was dismissed for failing to obey a lawful order and required to resign for failing to show politeness and tolerance to colleagues.’

Valencia Gay couple refused permission to bring their baby into Spain

27 Nov 2008- Spain- One of the men is the father of the child which was born in the United States by a surrogate mother.

A married couple of gay men from Valencia have been refused permission to bring two babies into Spain from the United States where the babies were born thanks to a surrogate mother. The woman was chosen by the two men, and one of them provided the sperm in a practice which is legal in the United States but not in Spain, and that is why now the Spanish Embassy is refusing a visa for the babies to enter Spain.

Diario Levante reports that such problems do not occur in heterosexual couples who use surrogates, or even in the case of lesbians, as the benefit of doubt is given by the Spanish authorities who consider that one of the women is the biological mother of the child. Hence the current discrimination against gay men.

Spanish socialist senator, Andrés Perelló, has commented that this is a matter which needs to be resolved as there are five other gay married couples who are expecting children next year in the same situation.

Norway team says sorry for Valencia gay jibe

27 Nov 2008- Norway's Rosenborg has apologised to Valencia after a prank saw their website refer to Spanish Champions League rivals Valencia as "homosexuals."

A video on the site had been designed to give a little linguistic guidance to readers ahead of Thursday's UEFA Cup encounter but one clip featured Rosenborg's Uruguayan defender Alejandro Lago calling the La Liga side "maricones" - slang for gays.

Reading from a script, Lago also slammed the Spanish as "little girlies who can't take it when temperatures drop below zero."

That comment came following a report that the Spanish outfit had had supplementary clothing flown in to cope with the Scandinavian winter weather - but the website furore was a frosty reception of a different kind.

Rosenborg apologised and said that "one should not joke" either about matters religious or issues of sexuality.

26 Nov 2008- London- Boy George's lawyer said on Wednesday the man who has accused the British singer of tying him up and beating him with a chain last year "sexed up" his story to sell it to the press.

Lawyer Adrian Waterman told Snaresbrook Crown Court in east London that Norwegian male escort Audun Carlsen had lied about his meetings with the 47-year-old, best known for fronting the band Culture Club in the 1980s.

"You have lied to the police," he said. "You have tried to make this story more exciting. You have added details and you have sold your story to the press and you have every intention of doing so again."

Carlsen disagreed, saying: "Do you think I would put myself through all this for the sake of a few thousand pounds?"

During his cross-examination of the witness on the third day of the trial, Waterman suggested Carlsen had received injuries to his arm and neck from bondage gear worn during a photo shoot with Boy George, being tried under his real name George O'Dowd.

He produced several colored photographs taken on the night and showed them to the judge and jury. A short video clip was also shown.

Carlsen said the injuries were the result of his handcuffing and beating at the hands of O'Dowd, who sat impassively in the dock during Wednesday's hearing. O'Dowd denies one charge of false imprisonment.

"MOTIVE WAS REJECTION"

Carlsen also told the court he believed O'Dowd had attacked him on their second meeting, in April 2007, because he had refused to have sex with him the first time they met in January.

"I think he couldn't handle the refusal of me not having sex with him," said Carlsen, who wore a dark jacket.

During the cocaine-fueled January meeting, which centered around a pornographic photo shoot for which Carlsen was paid, O'Dowd performed a sex act on him for a few seconds before he stopped him, Carlsen said earlier this week.

O'Dowd says he became angry because Carlsen had tampered with his computer and taken photographs from it to use on the website Gaydar without the singer's permission. He complained to Carlsen several times, the court has heard.

Waterman said Carlsen used the computer again during their second meeting months later.

"Do you think after all his accusations I would be so silly and go on his computer?" Carlsen countered.

After escaping O'Dowd's London residence by unscrewing the wall hook to which he says he was handcuffed, Carlsen ran into the street wearing his underwear and a T-shirt. He came across shopkeeper Diptesh Patel who invited him into his store.

"He seemed rather agitated," Patel told the jury. "He said 'Help me, help me, two guys have hurt me.'"

The police arrived soon after and Carlsen was taken to Shoreditch police station. Later that day they searched O'Dowd's flat and arrested him. The trial continues.

25 Nov 2008- In an unexpected blitz move, the parliament of Burundi has passed a law, making same-sex acts punishable by between three months and two years in prison, along with a substantial fine. Pro-gay groups are expressing outrage.

The new legislation, which still has to pass before the Bujumbura Senate, would criminalise homosexuality for the first time in the history of the country. The Senate may vote on the bill as early as tomorrow and if it passes, Burundian President Nkurunziza will likely sign it into law.

The government of Burundi's latest move comes in the context of considerable hostility to homosexuality in the East African region. Two-thirds of African nations maintain criminal penalties for consensual same-sex behaviour. In recent years several countries, including Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Uganda, have threatened to strengthen laws against homosexuality.

Several nations, including Burundi, have enacted legislation criminalising same-sex marriage, though little or no advocacy to promote such marriages has taken place. These laws appear to be emerging in response to an increasingly visible, outspoken, and organised sexual rights movement.

The new legislation in Burundi immediately sparked protests by national and international pro-gay groups and organisations. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and the local Association pour le Respect et les Droits des Homosexuels (ARDO) issued strongly worded letters to the entire membership of Burundi's Senate, asking them to vote against the legislation.

IGLHRC and ARDO also wrote to President Nkurunziza, asking him to veto the legislation should it be presented to him for his signature. Both groups have encouraged others, including the nation's donors, to contact Burundian authorities to protest the measure.

"Imprisoning people simply because of who they love offends every principle of human rights practice, which is to ensure dignity and respect for all people," said Paula Ettelbrick, IGLHRC's executive director. "This is less about sexuality and more about the visibility of a growing community of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Africa refusing to be treated as dirt. These laws are meant to silence and terrorize our community and must be stopped."

The UN recently condemned laws that criminalize homosexuality as being violations of the rights to privacy and equality and has called upon member states that maintain such laws to review them. Members of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights have condemned physical attacks on and the imprisonment of lesbians and gays.

International and local human rights defenders have expressed grave concern not only about the nature of the current legislation in Burundi, but also about the way in which it has been promulgated. "The government has moved this bill quickly and unjustly through the legislative process," said a representative of ARDO. "The whole process has happened over the course of a weekend, with no input from civil society or general discussion about the issue of homosexuality and freedom of expression within Burundi."

"If the current legislation passes, it is likely that the country’s HIV prevention efforts will suffer," according to IGLHRC. Burundi has made commendable efforts to fight HIV and AIDS during the last decade. But an IGLHRC report demonstrates how laws that criminalise homosexuality drive communities underground, making men who have sex with men less able to access HIV-related prevention information.

20 Nov 2008- Amsterdam, Netherlands- Amsterdam faces an ingrained problem of violence against gay men, despite its reputation as a haven of tolerance, according to a study released Thursday.

Town councilman Freek Ossel said the University of Amsterdam study, commissioned by the city, said the Dutch capital must improve protection of gays, increase education, and encourage reporting of discriminatory incidents.

"Amsterdam's title as a gay capital, according to some people, has already been gone for years, and according to others in any case it's at stake," he said.

The study said 67 attacks were reported in Amsterdam in 2007. Police commissioner Leo Wilde said the number was about average for recent years and "is not decreasing."

The figure is difficult to compare with other cities. Amsterdam, with 750,000 people, has tried for years to improve reporting of anti-gay incidents, but police believe most still go unreported.

The study found that most attacks were carried out spontaneously by poorly educated young men who feel their masculinity has been questioned.

"In 40 percent of cases the trigger is if people think they're being targeted" for seduction, said Laurens Buijs, one of the study's authors. Attackers "see gays as predatory animals that can strike at any moment."

The study drew its title "As Long As They Keep Away From Me" from that fear. It concluded that the tolerance often professed by Dutch youth is only a veneer: gay men are accepted only as long as they don't display stereotypically gay behavior.

The study combined a broad survey of Amsterdam youth with in-depth interviews with smaller groups. Authors also interviewed individual attackers and reviewed recent cases.

"It's very sad confirmation of what we already suspected," said Dennis Boutkan, chairman of the Union for Homosexual Integration. "The layer of social acceptance of homosexuality is exceptionally fragile and thin."

Gay ‘sinners’ registrar appeal date

14 Nov 2008- London, England- A date has been set for the council’s potentially embarrassing appeal against a decision to award damages to a Town Hall wedding registrar who refused to “marry” gay couples.

Council chiefs say they have been “left with no option” but to fight an employment tribunal’s landmark ruling to uphold Lillian Ladele’s claim that she was discriminated against on account of her religious belief that all homosexuals are “sinners”.
Ms Ladele, a devout Christian, argued she had been asked to choose between her god and her job by the council, which threatened her with the sack if she continued to refuse to officiate in civil partnership ceremonies.

The tribunal reached a unanimous decision awarding costs and tens of thousands of pounds in damages to Ms Ladele.
The council argues it must set the record straight to ensure future staff do not hold discriminatory views against others based on their sexual preference. Cllr John Gilbert, lead member for human resources, said:
“Appealing the tribunal’s decision wasn’t a decision we took lightly but we believe an important question is at stake and the law must be clarified.
“Islington Council expects employees to provide services to all sections of the community, regardless of who they are. In the light of the judgement, we and all councils and employers now need to know whether this is possible under the law as it currently stands.”
The appeal will be heard at the Employment Appeal Tribunal Court on December 10 at Audit House in Victoria Embankment.

14 Nov 2008- Oslo, Norway- The Church of Norway has yet to decide if it should create a new liturgy for same-sex couples. From January gays and lesbians will be able to have a full civil marriage in Norway.

The bishops of Norway's state church ruled in October that there will be no weddings in church for gay and lesbian couples. The Lutheran church counts nearly 85 percent of Norway's 4.7 million people as members.

The bishops said that pastors may say prayers for married gay and lesbian couples but not bless their relationships. Civil marriage in church was also rejected by the bishops. Bishops are considering a new blessing for same-sex couples.

“In this way, homosexual matrimony is recognised, and homosexuals are received in a way that is honourable and shows equality,” Bishop Jorgensen told NRK.

”We ought to manage that. It is not necessary to make drastic changes to the wording in order to give homosexuals their own liturgy."

In November 2007 the outright ban on clergy in same-sex relationships was lifted. However, each bishop decides whether or not to employ them.

While there is broad agreement in the Church of Norway on the usefulness of registered partnership as a legal framework for homosexual people living together, attitudes in the church are deeply divided on the ethical issue of homosexuality as such.

New legislation on same-sex marriage approved by the Norwegian parliament in June went further, amending the definition of civil marriage in Norway to make it gender neutral and extending parenting rights for gay and lesbian couples.

It will replace a 1993 law that gave same-sex couples the right to enter into civil unions.

Couples with a pre-registered civil partnership will be able to convert it into marriage.

Under the new legislation, which comes into force in January, the Church of Norway was allowed, but not compelled, to bless same-sex marriages.

13 Nov 2008- A senior civil servant stabbed by his gay lover was unable to defend himself after being tied up and blindfolded as part of a bondage game.

Adrian Poleglase was wearing high heels, suspenders and a blonde wig when emergency services rescued him from his burning home, a court heard today.

The government official was allegedly attacked by Ashan Mahmudd, a 21-year-old he met on the Internet, after the pair had sex in the kitchen.

Mahmudd allegedly knifed Mr Poleglase, in his 40s, seven times, before torching his luxury flat and fleeing with his laptop and credit cards.

The Old Bailey heard that the civil servant was helpless to resist, as he had allowed himself to be tied up and blindfolded by his attacker in a sex game.

Mark Gadsden, prosecuting, said Mr Poleglase, who liked to cross dress and call himself 'Claire', had met the defendant on the dating website Gumtree.

He said: 'Adrian Poleglase, the complainant, is an openly gay man who is an occasional transvestite, and who from time to time places advertisements in order to meet other men for no strings attached sex at his flat.'

'Earlier this year, he placed one using the pseudonym Claire, to which the defendant responded using the pseudonym Rubal Ahmed.

'During the course of Internet messenger conversations, it was made clear to the defendant that Claire was actually a gay man, who dressed up in women's clothes, purely for sexual purposes, and they arranged to meet up at Adrian Poleglase's flat.

'Mr Poleglase asked the defendant how he wanted Claire to be dressed, whether as a schoolgirl or in leather.

'The defendant indicated no preference, so he decided on a short black miniskirt, black stockings and suspenders, high heels and a white blouse, a long blonde wig, jewellery and make-up.'  

Jurors heard that Mahmudd arrived at the one bedroom flat in Stockwell, south west London, at around 7.30pm on the night of March 1 this year.

Mr Gadsden continued: 'Mr Poleglase offered the defendant a bottle of wine when he came into the flat, as a way of, as it were, breaking the ice between them.

'Whilst in the kitchen, the defendant became sexually aroused, and Mr Poleglase, dressed as I have described, gave him oral sex.

'They then went into the living room, where Adrian Poleglase assumed they would be joining in some bondage behaviour.'

The court heard Mr Poleglase allowed Mahmudd to blindfold him and tie his hands with sticky tape, but that the defendant then left him alone and went into the kitchen.

Mr Gadsden said: 'He heard the defendant rummaging through drawers, including ones where knives were kept.

'He came back in and said: "I've got a knife, lie down on the floor."'  The victim did as he was told, and heard the defendant unplug his computer, the court heard.

Mahmudd then ordered him to hand over his valuables, and forced him to tell him the pin number for his cards.

When Poleglase tried to escape, the court heard Mahmudd then stabbed his victim seven times and left him lying in a pool of blood, pausing as he fled with his victim's cards and laptop to set fire to the flat.

Mr Poleglase managed to call the emergency services.

Mr Gadsden said: 'A firefighter described Mr Poleglase as being in a very, very bad way, with wounds everywhere, especially a deep one in his chest area, and his whole body was red.

'We say it's obvious that had the emergency services not arrived when they did, the outcome would have been very different for the unfortunate Mr Poleglase, and that this defendant would not have been here charged with attempted murder, but with murder.'

Mr Poleglase told the court he feared for his life when the kinky sex game turned violent.

'I thought it was serious because when I heard him rustling in the knife drawer I knew he was coming back with a knife,' said Mr Poleglase.

'I knew I couldn't escape. My choice was to go on with whatever he was going to demand of me.'

'I decided he was going to kill me, so I thought I had got to get out of here now.

'The next recollection was feeling I had been stabbed. I could feel wetness on my body and Mr Ahmed had made movements towards my body.'  

Mr Poleglase, who works in procurement for the Ministry of Justice later told the court how he received threatening emails from his guest after leaving hospital.

Ahmed claims Mr Poleglase pulled out a knife on him and ordered him to have sex.

Asked if he had made the defendant strip at knifepoint Mr Poleglase said: 'That's not true.'

Jurors also heard that Mahmudd later withdrew £700 from Mr Poleglase's bank accounts, using the stolen credit cards.

Mahmudd, of 11 Napier Road, Enfield, Middlesex, denies attempted murder and arson with intent to endanger life.

The trial continues.

Imatra Vicar Plans Gender Reassignment Surgery

13 Nov 2008- Finland- A local Imatra vicar's announcement that he plans to undergo gender reassignment surgery is forcing the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church to take a stance on sex change.

The minister, Olli Aalto, who is taking a temporary leave of absence, intends to begin hormone treatments. After this, he will undergo surgery and physically become a woman.

Voitto Huotari, the bishop of the local Mikkeli diocese, says Aalto can no longer continue in his job. Aalto considers this view to be blatantly discriminatory.

Aalto says he has been encouraged to leave the Church. However, firing him would break equality law. Aalto says he's considering taking the Church to court if he is expelled from his job.

"Pressuring me to leave is already discrimination," says Aalto.

Aalto says he is tired of leading a double life. He says extensive studies have diagnosed him as a transsexual. Aalto says the Church has a responsibility to provide work for someone who has been a faithful servant.

Huotari will pay a visit to Aalto next week to discuss whether his decision to change genders will affect his future in the Church.

The Church, which is already now struggling with falling membership rates and disputes over women ministers, is now left grappling with yet an other burning issue.

Moscow Gay Pride Group Appeals to French and EU Presidents on Eve of EU-Russia Summit

13 Nov 2008- Moscow, Russia- The group of gay activists who organise Moscow Pride has written to the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso ahead of the European Union-Russia ‘summit’ which opens in Nice tomorrow (November 14).

France currently holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The activists are asking that the European Union discusses the human rights issue in Russia with President Dmitry Medvedev during the summit, which is expected to focus mainly on the Medvedev-Sarkozy six-point plan of August 12, 2008, which was designed to solve last summer’s crisis between Russia and Georgia.  The summit is also expected to further discuss the proposed EU-Russia basic treaty which is set to replace the 1997 Partnership and Cooperation Agreement.

“Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of association is breached every day by Russian authorities,” says the letter from the gay activists to Presidents Sarkozy and Barroso.

“Russian gays have no other rights than silence.  We refuse this silence.”

The activists also point out that they have been denied permission to conduct a gay pride march, demanding equal rights for sexual minorities, every year since May 2006.

“The mayor of Moscow considers such marches as satanic,” says the letter.

By the end of the year, activists will have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg all of the 164 banned gay marches that they attempted to organise in Russia over the last three years.

“We demand you to remind Russian authorities that EU should ask all its partners to respect essential human rights,” conclude the activists.

From Finland with lust

03 Nov 2008- The first time I saw a Tom of Finland drawing was in a well-thumbed, seventh-hand issue of Fiesta, a top-shelf favourite of schoolboys in the 1970s. The image, buried at the back, was in a small ad for more “specialised” publications. But it jumped out at me like an outsized erection.

It depicted a pair of muscular butch young men with big chins and broad grins grabbing each other's bubble butts and straining packets while winking at the reader. I immediately rushed out to the post office to buy as many postal orders as my pocket money would allow.

Although I was sorely disappointed with the lame leather gay fetish magazine with no Tom of Finland drawings that eventually turned up, I have spent much of my adult life and a fortune on gym membership trying to recreate that Tom of Finland image that I glimpsed as a teen.

I needn't have bothered, however, because as it turned out the whole world was going to become a Tom of Finland drawing. His sensualised, cartoonish über-male body and its endless potential for pleasure and pleasuring have become as common as, well, shameless hussies. Think of the rugby player Austin Healey pulsating on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing in tight pants and a sleeveless top. Or all those footballers keen to strip off and show us their assets on the sides of buses.

The notes for artist retrospectives usually make extravagant claims, and those for a major retrospective of Tom of Finland in Liverpool, part of that city's annual Homotopia queer culture festival, make some very extravagant ones indeed: “Tom had an effect on global culture unmatched by that of virtually any other artist,” we are told. But for once, there's something to this hyperbole, despite the artistic merit of his work being very debatable.

Tom was born Touko Laaksonen in Kaarina, Finland, in 1920, and his work is literally the masturbatory fantasies of a lonely young homosexual Finnish boy - he began drawing in his bedroom in the 1940s. His fetishised, overobserved gay appropriation of masculinity has in a mediated long-distance world become... masculinity.

It's often said that Tom's greatest achievement was in drawing gay men who were masculine, happy and proud at a time when they were supposed to be effeminate, neurotic and shameful. This is certainly the reason why so many gay men are Tom devotees, wittingly or not. Today's gay porn is merely footnotes to Tom, endlessly replaying the narrative of “regular guys” with very irregular-sized penises and pectorals having spontaneous, shameless sex at the drop of a monkey wrench.

The out-and-proud gay biker look - identity even - that Tom perfected after seeing Marlon Brando in The Wild One (Brando was a Tom drawing brought to life) and which became so popular in the pre-Aids 1970s and early 1980s, reaching its peak with the success of the Liverpool band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, has become a cliché - see, for example, the tangoing, mustachioed leather men in the Blue Oyster basement bar in Police Academy - and few if any young gay men today aspire to it.

But when you look at Tom's drawings in this retrospective, which features 25 of his works in a basement (predictably), it becomes apparent that his achievement goes much further than just making gay men feel good about themselves or love the snugness of leather harnesses. Tom, who worked as an illustrator in the Finnish advertising business until the early 1970s, when he became a full-time gay propagandist, sold the male body as a pleased, pleasuring and pleasured thing several decades before Calvin Klein thought of it. In the middle of the 20th century, Tom was effectively sketching the blueprint of 21st-century man. And boy, was he blue.

Before Tom no one drew men like he did, making them such unabashed sex objects and sex subjects, giving them such exaggerated male secondary - and primary! - sexual characteristics: big chins, strong jaws, full lips. Masculinity, and virility end up looking so... scrumptious. Buxom. Busty. Tom's men have round firm breasts, saucer-like aureolas and nipples you can adjust your thermostat with. One (from 1962) struts down the street, biceps bulging, chest out, and dressing very much to the left: no wonder he's being followed. And while Tom's men had their tits out for the lads, the kind of male body he helped to invent is nowadays getting them out for lads and lasses, gay or straight.

Tom's drawings also reveal the male derrière as a sexual organ: not just in some of the more hardcore examples, but the way that Tom-ish buttocks are so spherical, so inviting. One of the most striking and prescient sketches, from 1981, is also one of the tamest: a row of bedenimed male bubble butts sticking out at a bar - awaiting perhaps the attentions of the hugely powerful Abercrombie & Fitch photographer Bruce Weber (a big Tom fan), or perhaps a Levi's commercial.

Tom's big break came in the 1950s from Physique Pictorial, an underground, semi-legal gay American fanzine disguised as a straight men's bodybuilding magazine, which frequently put Tom's men on the cover. Half a century later, and 17 years after his death in 1991, the world is inverted: flesh-and-blood men who look like Tom's drawings appear on the cover of bestselling corporate mags such as Men's Health. Flick one open, and you'll find it full of advice on how straight men can turn themselves into something Tom-ish.

Tom of Finland is at the Contemporary Urban Centre, Greenland St, Liverpool 8 (0151-708 3510; www.homotopia.net), until Nov 30

03 Nov 2008- The British comedian, who is working on a film based on Bruno, a flamboyant character featured on his breakthrough television series Da Ali G Show, joined demonstrators near Los Angeles City Hall on Sunday.

Cohen donned a blond wig for the appearance as he mingled with demonstrators marching in support of Proposition 8, a measure on the ballot that would overturn a state supreme court ruling made earlier this year that allowed gay marriage.

When photographers and reporters at the rally realised who Cohen was and tried to approach the comedian, members of his film crew attempted to shield him before eventually ushering him to a van that whisked him away.

The appearance is the latest in a series of gate-crashing stunts by Cohen, presumably staged for his new film which has the working title Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Male.

It is being shot in the same documentary style as his 2006 hit Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, in which Cohen played a journalist from Kazakhstan.

Last month, the 37-year-old Cambridge graduate - dressed as Bruno - was thrown out of a Paris fashion show after climbing on to the catwalk and trying to hand a note to the models.

Earlier he disrupted shows in Madrid and was taken away by security guards after storming the runway dressed in a large black cape during Milan Fashion Week in September.

Malaysian police detain 70 in gay sex party raids

02 Nov 2008- Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian police have detained more than 70 male sex workers and their customers when they raided four parties in progress Saturday evening, a news report said Sunday.

Police teams from the northern Penang state launched raids on four separate locations including a massage parlour and a fitness centre, resulting in the detention of the 28 local men including a Chinese national, aged between 20 and 40, and their customers, state police chief Gan Kong Meng said.

"The case had been classified as an act of gross indecency under Section 377D of the Penal Code" said Gan, adding that some of the customers were from Europe and the United States.

It was believed that some of the men were still undressed during the surprise raids with several used condoms found strewn all over the floor of the premises, the Star daily reported.

Police have also seized some pornographic materials, lubricating jelly and boxes of condoms at the scene. Police have also confirmed that the owners of the premises will be charged for being involved in vice.

Stonewall launches Britain’s largest recruitment guide for gay jobseekers

30 0ct 2008- London, England- Stonewall today launched the fourth and biggest edition of Starting Out, Britain’s national lesbian and gay recruitment guide.

The guide, now featuring 325 potential employers, is designed for discerning graduates and job-seekers and is targeted at the 150,000 lesbian, gay and bisexual students in Britain.

“Attracting and retaining the very best staff, regardless of background, is now a fundamental part of business strategy for British companies wanting to remain market leaders, and public sector organisations striving to provide world-class public services,” said Ben Summerskill, Stonewall chief executive.

20,000 hard copies of Starting Out are being distributed to Students’ Unions, University Careers Services, Employment Agencies and University Lesbian and Gay Societies and secondary schools across Britain.  The guide is also available online HERE.

Once again, the guide has once again been sponsored by Credit Suisse.

Anita Harper, EMEA co-head of diversity and inclusion at Credit Suisse, said she was delighted at the partnership.

“Credit Suisse has a strong diversity and inclusion programme and actively fosters a positive working environment for its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender staff,” she said.

A launch event, attended by students from across Britain and also supported by Credit Suisse, is being held at the University of London Union (ULU).

“Starting Out showcases those employers who work hard to develop and maintain a culture in which differing abilities and backgrounds are fostered and valued in the workplace,” commented ULU president Kamran Ansari.

“Equality is at the heart of many of our campaigns and we welcome the chance to work alongside organisations such as Stonewall.”

David Shields, director of Workplace Programmes at Stonewall, said that the guide aims to connect graduates and job seekers with progressive employers who value people for their difference and the talents they bring.

“All employers are members of our Diversity Champions programme representing a wide range of careers.  Being in the guide speaks volumes of their commitment to equality which, in turn, is a key factor for discerning job seekers in making their career choices.”

New entries in this year’s guide include those from Rockpools, ITV and Thomson Reuters, The Law Society of England and Wales, NHS Employers and the Army, which now results in the inclusion of all three armed forces.

“I feel that Starting Out is essential for all graduates and job seekers in identifying employers who understand equality and diversity,” said Natasha Gamble, an MA student at the University of London.

“This is important as it ensures that your skills and experience will be valued, regardless of background, in a supportive and safe environment. I have found this can have a great impact on the way you feel within your job and supports you in achieving your potential.”

30 Oct 2008-  London, England- The BBC today denied it had been "homophobic" after a complaint was made to police about an episode of Have I Got News For You.

The complaint was made about an extended edition of the programme, broadcast over the weekend.

A discussion was taking place over reports that Iranians had failed in a bid to create to the world's biggest ostrich sandwich.

"On the plus side they do still hold the record for hanging homosexuals," guest host Alexander Armstrong said.

In a pun on words, comedian Frank Skinner joked that homosexuals are often "ostracised".

A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police confirmed: "A member of the public has made a complaint regarding comments made in the programme.

"The complaint is currently being reviewed."

The BBC defended the current affairs show as crisis talks were being held by the BBC Trust into the prank phone calls made to Andrew Sachs by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand for a Radio 2 show.

A BBC spokeswoman insisted that rather than being homophobic, the intention was quite the opposite.

She said: "The presenter never intended for this comment to be homophobic - quite the opposite.

"Viewers are more than familiar with HIGNFY use of satire - in this instance aimed at the Iranian regime and not the Iranian gay community."

Armstrong has recently been hotly tipped to take over as the new Countdown presenter, something he was ribbed about on the BBC show.

PinkNews.co.uk quoted a man named Lionel Wright from London, who said he had put in complaints about the matter to various bodies including the police.

He said: "I'm a middle-aged gay man who, in common with millions of others lived the first decades of my life under the shadow of prejudice against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities and at a cost in personal happiness and fulfilment."

He said he was "sickened" at the BBC.

But rights campaigner Peter Tatchell disagreed.

"I appreciate the complainant's concerns and good intentions but I interpreted it as an anti-Iran joke, exposing and mocking Iran's murderous homophobic regime," he told the website.

"It was parody and satire, I think, not an endorsement of executions."

Gay group appeals over drowning

28 Oct 2008- Manchester, England- Anyone who may have information about the death of a man in a Manchester canal is being encouraged to speak to the Lesbian and Gay Foundation (LGF).
Alexander Lynch, 46, known as Jimmy, drowned in the canal near to Ducie Street and Dale Street on 3 October.
The area is sometimes used for men looking for sex with other men, and police realise some witnesses may not want to be indentified.

Detectives are urging those who want to remain anonymous to go through the LGF.

Anonymity promise

Det Supt Julian Ross, of Greater Manchester Police's major incident team, said: "We understand there may have been people in the area who may not feel comfortable talking to us about why they were there or what they saw.

"The LGF can act as an intermediary between the witnesses and the police. "They will be able to collect information and pass it on to police, if necessary keeping the witness anonymous."

The LGF organisation, based on Princess Street, said anyone who comes forward with information would be helping the safety of Manchester's lesbian, gay and bisexual communities.

The police and the LGF said any information received would be treated sensitively.

Gay and group sex approved by court

23 Oct 2008- Istanbul, Turkey-  A suspect caught selling films of group and gay sex was judged by an Istanbul court not to have been selling material portraying “unnatural sex” and was sentenced only for sale of illegal pornographic material.

The Turkish Penal Code demands higher penalties for the sale of movies that include “unnatural” intercourse. The court sentenced the suspect on the lesser charge of selling pornographic films in an illegal location.

The verdict referred to the principles of privacy and equality from the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. Previous verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe were also noted by the court.

The referenced verdict of European court said, “Even if it shocks or brings discomfort to some members of society, gay intercourse between consenting adults is not criminal.”

In its verdict, the Istanbul court said: “Most European countries have given gay relationships the equivalence of marriage, and in Holland gay marriages were made legal a few years back. In a world of modern societies, it is not possible to say intercourse among members of the same sex is unnatural.”

The verdict also read: “Since the action happens in private places and does not include children it is not criminal. The term ‘unnatural sexual behavior' should be seen from a narrow perspective; otherwise there is the risk of judging every sexual relationship outside of certain limitations unnatural. It is without doubt that the images are eccentric. Although this kind of sexual activity is not common in societies, it is a fact that in every society collective sexual relationships exist.”  

 
23 Oct 2008- Austria-  Jörg Haider, governor of Austria’s Carinthia province and a leader among far-right European politicians, crashed his car and died after leaving a gay bar in the city of Klagenfurt Oct. 11. Police said his blood-alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit for driving.

Haider, 58, was married with children, though rumors had swirled for years that he was secretly gay. He had been outed by gay activists and newspapers that included Britain’s The Guardian, Germany’s Die Tageszeitung and Austria’s Der Standard. Britain’s Telegraph said Haider’s “charismatic populism was instrumental in moving anti-immigrant politics from Europe’s fringes towards the mainstream and breaking the grip on government of established centrist parties which he said had lost touch with the people.”

From 2000 to 2002, the Freedom Party, which Haider briefly headed during that period, was half of a governing coalition in Austria. Critics viewed Haider as an ultranationalist, extremist, racist xenophobe. In 1995, the U.S. Anti-Defamation League accused him of making “numerous statements utilizing Holocaust terminology or legitimizing Nazi policy and activities.” Haider routinely disparaged the European Union, of which Austria is a member.

Portuguese Parliament Rejects Same-Sex Marriage
Two draft laws to legalize same-sex marriage were rejected overwhelmingly by the Portuguese Parliament on Oct. 10. The measures, proposed by the Left Bloc and the Green Party, were opposed by the governing Socialist Party, the Social Democratic Party and the People’s Party. The Left Bloc bill also would have allowed same-sex couples to adopt. The Green Party bill would not have. Bloc and Green MPs abstained from voting on each other’s bills.

During the vote, gay rights groups staged two “weddings” in a Parliament stairway, attracting wide media coverage. The ruling Socialists have said they will not support same-sex marriage until there is a broad national debate on the matter.

“Given that one of the main arguments of the (Socialists) to vote against the proposed amendments was that (same-sex marriage) was not in (their) election program, difficult times in the struggle for equality in access to civil marriage are expected in Portugal,” said the news portal PortugalGay.pt.

A recent public-opinion poll found 42 percent support for same-sex marriage and 53 percent opposition. Portugal has a de facto partnership law that grants limited rights to unmarried couples who have lived together for more than two years, in areas such as income tax, tenancy and immigration.

Norwegian Church Will Not Marry Gays When Law Takes Effect
Norway will become the seventh nation to grant same-sex couples access to full marriage in January, but the dominant Church of Norway will not marry gays, the state church’s bishops said Oct. 8. Pastors will be permitted to offer prayers for gay couples who get married but may not bless them, the bishops said.

Same-sex marriage also is allowed in Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain and, in the U.S., California, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Officials In Tambov, Russia, Block Gay Events
After initially giving a verbal OK, city officials in Tambov, Russia, reversed course and officially blocked the city’s first planned gay demonstrations Oct. 9. City Hall decided the city’s residents did not approve of the events (a demonstration and a march), that police couldn’t secure them and that they would cause traffic troubles.

Moscow activist Nikolai Alekseev, who was involved in planning the actions, said the decision violates the Russian Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, and that organizers will pursue legal redress.

Earlier this year, Tambov Mayor Oleg Betin reportedly said: “Tolerance? To hell! Faggots should be torn apart and their pieces thrown to the wind.” Tambov is about 300 miles (500 km) southeast of Moscow and has a population of about 292,000.

Head Of British Army Addresses Gay Conference
The head of Britain’s army, Gen. Richard Dannatt, chief of the general staff, made history by addressing a gay conference in London Oct. 9, The Sunday Telegraph reported. In remarks to the Fourth Joint Conference on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual Matters, Dannatt said that respecting GLBT officers and soldiers is “a command responsibility” that is mandatory to ensure “operational effectiveness.”

“We have made real progress in our understanding of equality and diversity in the military context, and there is a desire to achieve more yet,” he said. “Respect for others is not an optional extra, it is a command responsibility and an essential part of leadership, teamwork and operational effectiveness.”

Britain’s armed forces lifted their gay ban in 2000 on orders from the European Court of Human Rights.

Dutch Men On Trial For Deliberate HIV Transmission
Three men from Groningen, Netherlands, are on trial for deliberately infecting at least 12 other men with HIV, several news agencies reported. Hans Jurgens, 39, Peter Mulder, 50, and Wim Dekker, 49, allegedly advertised gay sex parties online, lured participants to their location, then drugged them, raped them and injected them with HIV-positive blood.

Prosecutors want the trio to be jailed for between eight and 15 years.

Polish Gay March OK’d, Then Banned
Officials in Krakow, Poland, OK’d an Oct. 31 gay march, then turned around and banned it after Polish President Lech Kaczynski announced plans to attend a celebration of the anniversary of Krakow’s independence the same day. Gay groups planned to march to the grave of King Wladyslaw III, who they claim was gay, on the anniversary of his death.

City officials had said they were fine with the two events occurring simultaneously but, after Kaczynski’s announcement, they banned all other street events and demonstrations for the day and said the king’s grave would be closed. “It is hard to say (if) Kaczynski (is) in Krakow to ban our march or just to be part of Krakow’s event,” said activist Lukasz Palucki. “Information about our meeting was in the biggest Polish media so I am sure he knew about our march.”

In 2007, gay pride organizers in Warsaw won a European Court of Human Rights case against Kaczynski, who, as mayor of Warsaw, banned the 2005 pride parade.

Kaczynski has said that if homosexuality “were to be promoted on a grand scale, the human race would disappear” and that he opposes “propagating gay orientation.”

'Gay sex ordeal in doctor's surgery'

22 Oct 2008- An asylum seeker blackmailed a GP after claiming that he woke up to a gay sex ordeal in his surgery, the General Medical Council heard.

The Ghanaian patient, who can't be named, fell into a trance as Dr Lewis Dickinson, 53, gave him a massage at his practice in Camberwell.

But when he came to he found the doctor holding a massaging machine in one hand and the patient's private parts in the other, the hearing was told.

Anxious not to endanger his immigration status, Patient A made another appointment instead of going to the police.

He recorded his next visit to the GP, when Dickinson mentioned something in relation to the alleged assault.

Patient A confronted the doctor with his evidence, and he agreed to pay the patient - who was HIV positive - £100 a week for the rest of his life to keep him quiet, the hearing was told.

When the doctor stopped paying two and a half years later, the patient pressed charges.

But the case against the doctor was thrown out because of a lack of evidence and Patient A was hauled to court to face blackmail charges.

Dickinson, who was based at 90 Wyndham Road, Camberwell, is accused of massaging a patient without either consent or gloves and masturbating Patient A.

He is also accused of failing to ensure Patient A’s dignity and privacy were preserved.

The doctor also faces charges of failing a series of assessments.

The hearing continues.

 
22 Oct 2008- London, England- Noisy lesbian club meetings are among a catalogue of complaints giving sleepless nights to neighbours of a busy King's Cross gay pub.

Central Station, in Wharfedale Road, stays open until 5am on weekends and regularly hosts cabaret, karaoke and striptease nights, as well as meetings of a lesbian club on Tuesdays until 3am.

But noisy punters on the pub's roof terrace have been giving residents a headache since the smoking ban.

Neighbour Eleanor Dowling, of Balfe Street, told a town hall licensing meeting: "We've had considerable trouble with noise since July 2007. It has caused a lot of residents a lot of disturbance."

Sophie Talbot, of Battlebridge Court, added: "It would be great to see conditions placed on this licence go some way to remove the problems between Central Station and the community."

Islington Council granted the pub a new licence on Monday - but ordered that the roof terrace be shut at 11pm until owners Duncan Irvine and Martin Mason could afford to have it soundproofed.

Mr Irvine said: "We've worked hard for 17 years trying to run a good venue and get on with neighbours. We've had a late licence for 15 years and the problems have been since the smoking ban. The terrace was an area where people can smoke. If you shut it at 11pm people would complain about people on the street."

Mr Mason warned they could not afford soundproofing until next summer or to have bouncers on the door every night to control smokers and unlicensed taxis.

He said: "We agreed on Thursday, Friday and Saturdays but on other nights we can't afford it - security is expensive. Tuesday nights is a meeting of a lesbian club and unfortunately women's voices carry more than men's because of the pitch."

Earlier Mr Irvine argued that an independent acoustic report had found most of the noise heard in neighbours' homes came from passing traffic.

Central Station reopened in September after the company holding the previous licence went bust in July.

Italian gay celebrity calls Putin sexiest man alive

20 Oct 2008- At home, Vladimir Putin is seen as macho. In Italy, a gay celebrity is calling him the sexiest man in the world.

Alfonso Signorini, a Canale 5 TV show host and the editor of two popular glossy weeklies, is causing waves after he described Putin as his "erotic dream" in an interview published late last week with leading Italian newspaper La Stampa.

Signorini, who is openly gay, was asked who is the sexiest Italian man. He replied that he didn't know, but added, "In the world, this is certainly Vladimir Putin.

"When I saw his naked torso and a slain Siberian tiger lying at his feet, I almost had a stroke. Won-der-ful!" Signorini said in a reference to Putin's much-photographed shirtless fishing trip in Siberia last year and an incident recently when Putin shot a tiger with a tranquilizer gun, putting it to sleep but not killing it.

"He is my erotic dream. I find him absolutely astonishing," Signorini said by telephone Friday from Milan. "I'm attracted by his charisma and his icy glance."

The comments could embarrass both the Italian and Russian governments.

Signorini said he had asked Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to introduce him to Putin and Berlusconi laughed in response. The magazines that Signorini edits, TV Sorrisi e Canzoni and Chi, with a circulation of 1 million and 500,000, respectively, are published by Berlusconi's publishing house Mondadori, and Canale 5 also belongs to Berlusconi's Mediaset Group.

"Berlusconi talked to me about him with enthusiasm. He told me how he was his guest at his country home," he said by telephone. "My dream is to meet him."

Signorini's praise for Putin was reported Friday on the web site of Russia Today, the state-owned English-language satellite channel, but the article later was removed. No one at Russia Today or the White House, where Putin serves as prime minister, was available for comment.

Berlusconi and Putin are close friends. Putin and his family have been guests of Berlusconi at his summer residence in Sardinia several times. In the summer of 2002, Putin's two daughters spent a month at Berlusconi's villa. The following summer, the entire family visited. Berlusconi also has defended Putin against international criticism. In 2003, he called criticism of Russia's actions in Chechnya and the detention of Mikhail Khodorkovsky on fraud charges, "distortions in the press, in Italy as abroad," and recently he defended Russia's actions in South Ossetia.

Some Italian media, meanwhile, are giving prominent coverage to Signorini. "The director of Chi and TV Sorrisi e Canzoni unveils his passion for the prime minister and former secret agent," headlined the Italian web site Gay.it, putting Signorini's picture close to a picture of a bare-chested Putin.

Putin, 56, made international headlines last year when he stripped off his shirt for the cameras while vacationing in the Siberian mountains. The photos were prominently enshrined on the Kremlin web site. Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote that women who visited the web site "were screaming with delight and showering him with a lot of compliments."

Putin's photos have struck a chord among the Russian gay chat rooms and blogs as well.

Signorini told Gay.it that Berlusconi was tolerant toward gays.

Putin told a news conference last year that he also was tolerant toward gays, saying he respected "man's freedoms, whatever forms they take."

18 Oct 2008- Cardiff, Wales- ONE of Wales’ most popular family swimming pools is being targeted by gay men cruising for sex, we can reveal today.

Wales on Sunday has discovered that the £32m Cardiff International Pool, which opened in Cardiff Bay earlier this year, is just one of many family hotspots named on an online “community” website where homosexuals meet up for no-strings-attached sex.

Some members of Wales’ gay community last night expressed their concern about such venues featuring on cruising websites. Their comments come just weeks after police were called to the pool when two swimmers walked in on men having sex on the premises.

Squirt.org, founded in 1998, has 560,677 online members and boasts it is the best and biggest cruising community on the net.

The site names the most popular places to “cruise” in Wales and gives the popular pool a four out of five rating.

Parks such as Swansea’s Coedgwilym Park, beaches such as Llandulas in Colwyn Bay and even a Merthyr Tydfil war memorial and the Big Pit car park in Blaenavon, are also featured on the site, which gives tips on the best time to cruise and how much nudity to expect.

Cruising tips for the pool include: “Use the jacuzzi, sauna, shower rooms in men’s lockers. All lots of cruising. The shower block in the gym changing area has a partially clear door so you can see who is opposite you in the shower.”

And several site members boasted of their conquests at the pool, with another promising: “Group changing rooms at end of swimming pool changing area – I’ll be waiting for you in one of these with door open later on this evening.”

One gay pool user, who voiced his concerns after finding the listing on the website, last night told Wales on Sunday: “I regularly take my nephew swimming on Sundays and was a bit alarmed by the pool being on this site.”

The man, who did not wish to be named, added: “I don’t want my nephew walking in on something like that so I reported it to the manager.

“It’s not just the fact that it’s public. There are children there.”

Jo Smith, senior manager at the pool, said security measures had been taken to stop any offences being committed at the pool.

“Obviously we are alarmed by this. It’s certainly not a tag we want to be associated with,” she said.

“We have had one incident reported about two weeks ago which was immediately reported to the police.”

She added: “If we were to find anyone committing any lewd activities then we would look to prosecute. ”

Meanwhile Mike Smith, a prominent spokesman for Wales’ gay community, said he feared public incidents could lead to homophobic attacks.

He said: “While much has changed in society some gay men still feel the need to keep their sexuality concealed and meet other men anonymously.

“Our main concerns are for the safety of anyone who feels this need – for their health in ensuring they do not indulge unsafe sex and do not become victims to homophobic attacks – and also for the public, whether gay or straight, who should not encounter such behaviour, again whether involving gay people or heterosexuals.”

Women who like to watch gay porn
 

15 Oct 2008- Watching Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal rolling around in a tent in Ang Lee's groundbreaking Brokeback Mountain had knees trembling all over the world. Many of those lustily quivering weren't gay romantics but women. 'Who knew man-on-man action could be so beautiful?' they cried.

Although some women have been in on the secret for a while (Japan's female population lap up boy-love comics while slash fiction, which turns two male characters from cult TV shows into lovers, is mainly for women), us British girls have been lagging behind. Until now.

Leading gay fiction author James Lear, recently named Writer of the Year at the prestigious Erotic Awards, has seen a sharp rise in British women getting to grips with boy-only sex. His first book, The Back Passage (ahem) was more popular with women than men and his new novel, The Secret Tunnel, looks like it will repeat the same success.

'As one female fan put it: "One penis is good, two even better,"' he explains. 'They fancy men, they're turned on by men and so they're even more turned on by men with men - it's like "man squared".'

06 Oct 2008- UK- MP Chris Bryant who famously sent a photo of himself wearing only Y-fronts to a gay dating website has been appointed Deputy Leader of the Commons.

Mr Bryant takes up his new role five years after the uproar over the picture.

The former Church of England vicar weathered the storm and became renowned as one of Tony Blair’s most slavish supporters.

But two years ago he stunned Westminster by joining the “curry house coup” where allies of Gordon Brown forced Mr Blair to name the date of his departure. Mr Bryant was accused of turning on the then PM because he had not been made a minister.

His appointment as Commons leader Harriet Harman’s deputy will be seen by many MPs as a reward for his role in the plot.

There are also jobs for two other “curry house coup” plotters. Kevan Jones becomes a junior defence minister, while Sion Simon is appointed a junior universities minister.

Former Conservative MP Quentin Davies, who defected to Labour the day before Mr Brown took office, gets a junior post in defence.

Russian Authorities Shut Down Gay Film Festival

03 Oct 2008- St Petersburg, Russia- Authorities in Saint Petersburg, Russia have effectively shut down the first-ever gay film festival there as it was set to open Thursday.

The Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival was scheduled to open on Thursday, but now appears postponed at best after fire department inspectors closed the clubs (The Place and Sochi) where the films were to be screened, festival organizer Irina Sergeeva told gayrussia.ru.

It's believed that authorities also pressured the state-run Cinema House and a private theater to cancel their commitments to host the event, which pushed the event into bars and clubs.

The gay film festival has been controversial in a country where gays and lesbians continue to be marginalized. State Artist of Russia Nikoli Burlyaev had urged authorities to ban the festival, calling gays “perverts” and “ill.”

“Russian authorities continue their policy of homophobia and arbitrary unlawful actions by preventing events organized behind closed doors in private places,” said gay activist Nikolai Alekseev, whose Moscow Gay Pride Festival has been denied by authorities as well.

“From the very first day I supported the conduct of this film festival in Saint Petersburg, but already in February I expressed my fears that the authorities will stop the event on technical reasons at the very last minute.”

“The only major LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] event that could be organized over the last years in Russia are the May 2006 and May 2007 LGBT conference that were held during the Moscow Pride Festival at the Moscow Swissotel. And still, it is only because we booked conference rooms in a local 5-star hotel belonging to foreign interests that authorities were not able to play the same game with us,” Alekseev said.

Openly gay director/actor John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus), who was scheduled to appear at Sunday's closing ceremonies, feared violence threatened the gay festival. “We're still concerned about skinheads,” Mitchell said before leaving the United States.

Organizers of the gay film festival said it was unlikely the event would take place as planned, but hoped to reschedule at a later date.

Iran admits it has gay people…but only a few says President Ahmadinejad

30 Sept 2008- Iran- The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has done an astonishing volte-face by admitting in a US television interview last week that there are lesbian and gay people in Iran.

Only last year, in a speech at Columbia University in New York, he notoriously claimed there were no lesbians and gays in his country.

“We do not have this phenomenon,” he declared.

Last week, however, Ahmadinejad grudgingly conceded there “might be a few” gay people in Iran.

“This about-turn shows that Iran realises its gay-denial stance has been widely condemned and ridiculed,” said Peter Tatchell of the London-based LGBT human rights campaign group OutRage!, which has been campaigning in support of Iranian LGBT people for nearly 20 years.

“The fact that the President has moderated his ‘no gays’ position since last year is evidence that global gay protests are having an impact on the regime in Tehran,” Mr Tatchell said last night.

However, although Ahmadinejad has conceded the existence of gay Iranians, he went on to make it clear that he doesn’t approve of their existence one iota.

He denounced homosexuality as an “unlikable and foreign act” that is illegal because it is “against our values, and all divine laws….shakes the foundations of society….robs humanity….(and) brings about disease”.

The Iranian President made these remarks during his visit to New York to speak to the UN General Assembly last week.  He was interviewed on  September 24 by reporters Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman from the US current affairs TV programme, Democracy Now.

In the same TV interview, Ahmadinejad made this astonishing claim: “Sure, if somebody engages in an [homosexual] act in their own house without being known to others, we don't pay any attention to that.  People are free to do what they like in their private realms.  But nobody can engage in what breaks the law in public,” the President said.

“This is complete nonsense,” Peter Tatchell insisted.

“Iranian law stipulates the death penalty for homosexuality, whether in public or private.

“People suspected of being gay have their homes raided.  Private, discreet gay parties have been busted by the police and the party-goers arrested, tortured and flogged.

“Years ago, some of those arrested at private parties simply disappeared.  They were never seen again.  It is presumed they were secretly executed,” said Mr Tatchell.

When Gonzales and Goodman confronted Ahmadinejad with photos of two Iranian teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, who were hanged in July 2005, his reply showed either remarkable ignorance of Iranian law or wilful dishonesty:

“No, there is no law for their [gays] execution in Iran.  Either they were drug traffickers or they killed someone else…. So, we don’t have executions of homosexuals,” the President said in the interview.

“Of course, we consider it an abhorrent act, but it is not punished through capital punishment.  It’s basically an immoral act.  There are a lot of acts that can be immoral, but there's no capital punishment for them,” said the President.

Mr Tatchell said that “this claim is factually untrue”.

“None of the charges against Asgari and Marhoni involved drug trafficking or murder.

“In years gone past, the Iranian government proudly boasted that it had the death penalty for gay sex and that it publicly hanged gay people,” Mr Tatchell added.

“These latest statements by Ahmadinejad are much more defensive,” he suggested.

“He strenuously denies that gay people can face execution.  This shows that the regime no longer has the confidence to openly proclaim its violent homophobia.  The persecution of gays continues in Iran but now, unlike before, the regime seeks to hide it and deny it.

“This is strong evidence that the homophobic dictatorship in Tehran has been stung by international protests against its flogging and hanging of men involved in same-sex relations.  It realises this persecution has been a public relations disaster which has greatly harmed Iran's international image.

“Hence the current denials by Ahmadinejad.

“It is proof that the global protests against Iran’s persecution of lesbian and gay people have been effective.  We must maintain the worldwide campaign until Iran is so embarrassed by international condemnation that it completely halts the victimisation of gays,” added Mr Tatchell.

Elsewhere in their interview with the Iranian President, Goodman and Gonzales pressed him as to why Iran is one of the few countries in the world that still executes juveniles (Asgari and Marhoni were minors when they allegedly committed the acts for which they were hanged).

Ahmadinejad replied: “The legal age in Iran is different from yours.  If a person who happens to be 17 years old and 9 months kills one of your relatives, would you just overlook that?”

Russian Gay Film Fest

30 Sept 2008- Russia- A scheduled gay and lesbian themed film festival in St. Petersburg, Russia has produced a wave of criticism and controversy.

The first-ever Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival, scheduled to open in October, has had its share of detractors. Nikolai Burov, head of St. Petersburg's Committee on Culture, said he would neither interfere nor support the festival.

Harsher words were expressed by State Artist of Russia Nikolai Burlyaev, who urged authorities to ban the festival, calling gays “perverts” and “ill.”

With the recent announcement of a venue change from theaters to bars and clubs, it seems those brass-knuckle tactics have worked to some degree.

Openly gay director/actor John Cameron Mitchell (Shortbus) said violence continues to threaten the gay festival, “We're still concerned about skinheads.”

Whether you like it or not, Mitchell will be present at the festival's closing night, which will feature his 2001 gay boy-to-transsexual rock odyssey Hedwig and the Angry Inch – a classic for any gay fest!

A selection of more contemporary gay and lesbian themed feature films will also be screened at the four-day e