Police disciplined for sending homophobic emails

Two Scottish police officers have been disciplined for sending homophobic emails to their colleagues in the Gay Police Association and to the force’s choir. The emails to members of the choir were described as “nasty” inferring the choir members were all gays.

Such use of emails is harassment. If you are employed, or you are an employer, check your company’s policies on the use of email. Incorrect use of provided facilities can be a disciplinary offence with a monetary cost.

More unacceptable rhetoric from Islamic preachers

Islamic speaker Abu Usamah is due to speak at at University College London (UCL)next week. He was recorded by Channel 4 television in a programme transmitted two years ago saying gay people were “dogs” and that they should be “thrown off a mountain”. Usamah says his remarks were taken out of context.

Gay groups in London are outraged, fearing yet more attacks on gay men and lesbians. He has already spoken to students at City University. In both cases he was invited by the universities’ Islamic societies.

In 2007, the Channel 4 programme, Undercover Mosque, recorded Mr Usamah saying: ” Do you practise homosexuality with men? Take that homosexual man and throw him off the mountain.”

A spokesman for City University’s Gay Society said: “Providing publicity for extremists who preach hate risks not just freedom of speech, but all human rights. Inviting an extremist who has expressed offensive views about homosexuals, women and non-Muslims to our campus is morally and ethically wrong.”

This story just highlights the enormous gulf between some Islamic people and the rest of society. There is growing intolerance of gay men and women throughout the world. It is not only adherents of the Islamic faith who are stirring it up. They have declared a holy war on us.

Updated 25 November: The BBC reports that the address and invitation have been cancelled. I should think so too.

Gay students and groups at all universities and colleges need to check the policies of their universities for homophobia and regulating the invitation of speakers with controversial views with a view to ensuring that equal opportunities and other human rights are respected and there is a balance between free speech and the prevention of harassment or incitement.

11% more hate crimes, says the FBI

The Associated Press reports that hate crimes against gays and lesbians in the USA have increased by 11% over the last year, whereas hate crimes overall rose by only 2%, highlighting the trend of increased hostility to gay men and lesbians in western society. Interestingly race motivated hate crimes were down by 1%, emphasising the trend even further.

The figures are also broken down by type of attack. Among all categories of hate crimes, roughly a third are vandalism or property damage. About 30 percent involve intimidation of some kind, and another 30 percent were physical attacks.

It isn’t just the USA. Its everywhere; its been a dangerous year to be gay or lesbian.

New gay paper born in Washington DC

The staff from the failed gay newspaper the Washington Blade have started a new paper, reports the Miami Herald. DC Agenda is hoped to be on bookstands by December 4th and the paper is currently being financed by donations.

Washington Blade staff have not received any redundancy money for losing their jobs. They may take the former newspaper to court to try to secure the newspapers’ archives.

Gay Activist wishes them every success with their new venture.

The religious anti-gay ban has got to go: orders from Brussels. Told them so

The government is being forced by the European commission to rip up the controversial exemptions from equality that allow church bodies to refuse to employ homosexual staff. The commission wrote to the government last week raising concerns that the UK had incorrectly implemented the EU directive prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of a person’s sexual orientation. The “exceptions to the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation for religious employers are broader than that permitted by the directive”, said the letter.

The UK government now has no choice but to redraft anti-discrimination laws, which is likely to prompt a furore among church groups.

Told them so.

Churches won’t like this one little bit: but the law is the law.

Thinking about the Lilian Ladele case makes me think that even if they did take their appeal all the way to the European Court of Human Rights they will not win.

The young aren’t listening, says a recovering Elton

Young people aren’t listening to health education messages about HIV and are having unprotected sex, says Elton John, who was speaking at a fundraiser for his Foundation, his first public appearance following his recent illness.

“We are finding that too many young people are not listening to what we are saying,” he says. “I’m afraid people do get a little complacent about the disease by going out and having unsafe sex.” The Elton John AIDS Foundation honoured former US president Bill Clinton and actress Sharon Stone for their AIDS-fighting efforts.

If you can’t trust fellow policemen, who can you trust?

A Metropolitan Police sergeant has been jailed for eight months for sexually assaulting a sleeping male colleague in a hotel room in Elstree, Hertfordshire after their work Christmas party, reports the BBC. The sergeant will also have to sign the Sexual offenders register.

His barrister Susannah Stevens said: “As a police officer, add to that a police sergeant, add to that the fact that he is gay, add to that he is to be sentenced for a sex offence, he will be regarded in prison as the lowest of the low.”

Rightly so.

Another gay bashing in Liverpool

Another teenager has been battered in Liverpool by thugs because he is gay. A student at the Liverpool Community College, hewas set upon at 7pm on Wednesday as he walked to catch a train at James Street station by an eight strong gang who pounced on him in Lord Street, hurling homophobic abuse and beating him up, leaving him covered in blood while the mob, aged only 12-14, fled the scene leaving him with a broken nose and due to undergo surgery next week, reports the Liverpool Echo.

Gay Activist wishes the student a speedy recovery from this ordeal and a successful operation, and hopes his attackers are brought to justice and appropriately dealt with.

Where have all the gay magazines gone? Long time passing. Where have all the gay papers gone, long long ago?

San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter is now one of the few remaining US gay newspapers and they have been looking at the declining fortunes and collapses in the American gay media following the closure of Southern Voice and Washington’s Gay Blade. It appears that the once-Pulitzer-Prizewinning Advocate magazine is also facing closure and has laid off staff.

The shuttering on Monday of the well-respected weekly papers, along with the company’s south Florida media holdings, sent shockwaves from coast to coast. Longtime readers of the papers, whether in D.C. or in the Bay Area, expressed dismay at the silencing of trusted sources for LGBT news at a time when coverage of LGBT issues by the mainstream media has been shrinking due to cut backs in newsrooms around the country, writes Matthew S. Bajko.

Cathy don’t come home just yet

The news that European leaders have chosen Baroness Ashton as their new foreign policy chief came through late last night. Most people in the UK will not be familiar with Baroness Ashton, as she is a former leader of the House of Lords is not elected. Pink News reports that Baroness Cathy Ashton helped guide gay law reforms through the Lords and was Stonewalls Politician of the Year in 2006 for her work achieving equality for gays and lesbians in the UK.

Gay Activist hopes Baroness Ashton will take her interest in equality and fairness with her to her new post and be able to deal with gay and lesbian equality issues with errant European States and their neighbours. It is high time someone did. Meanwhile Gay Activist thanks the Baroness for her work for our community to date.