31 May

Thursday 31 May 2012

Photo: Helen Westwood’s facebook profile picture

Gay Marriage may have moved a step nearer in Australia. The New South Wales upper house passed a motion calling on the federal government to allow gay marriage by 22 votes to 16, joining Tasmania and the ACT in having a parliamentary chamber call for the 1961 commonwealth Marriage Act to be amended to allow same-sex marriage.

During the debate, Labor MP Helen Westwood described being in a lesbian relationship and having eight grandchildren. “There’s just no evidence that my children or my grandchildren have been disadvantaged by being raised in a same-sex relationship,” she told the chamber on Thursday.

Nick Herbert. Photo: Sky

Meanwhile in Britain Nick Herbert, the justice and policing minister, waded into the row in the Conservatives about gay marriage. Mr Herbert, who has a civil partnership, said that he and others of the same sexuality are effectively being treated as second-class citizens, and opponents of same-sex marriage are making intemperate and unreasonable arguments. “I am getting rather fed up with people metaphorically jabbing a finger into my chest and saying I should put up with a civil partnership.”

Condoms and a banana. Photo: Izismile

At this time of year the health statistics seem to pour out like an overflowing medicine bottle and today we are on STDs. This year there is a two percent rise in the number of new sexually transmitted infections in England: 427,000. Young people and men who have sex with men are at highest risk, with new gonorrhoea cases up 61 percent in their group. The increase was mainly cases of gonorrhoea, syphilis and genital herpes, which were up by 25, 10 and five percent. Among gay and bisexual men who have sex with men, new cases of gonorrhoea were up 61 percent, with syphilis up 28 percent. The number of new chlamydia infections reported had risen by 48 percent on 2010′s figures.

Senator Ted Lieu. Photo in public domain

Reuters reports that a bill to ban an ex-gay therapy directed at children and teens passed California’s Senate on Wednesday, moving the state a step closer to becoming the first in the nation to ban the controversial treatment. The 23-13 vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate marked a major victory for opponents who say the therapy has no medical basis because homosexuality is not a disorder, and that the therapy can cause depression leading to substance abuse and suicide. “These therapies are dangerous,” Senator Ted Lieu, a Democrat who sponsored the bill, said on the Senate floor before the vote, citing the case of Ryan Kendall, an outspoken advocate of gay rights who underwent such therapy as a child. “Ryan was told that being gay made God cry,” Lieu said. “He testified that for 10 years of his life, he wanted to commit suicide. He has not done that and now he is speaking out against this type of therapy.”

Lord Browne’s comments over gays in senior positions, which we blogged yesterday, have drawn some criticism. “Homophobia in the workplace? Lord Browne would have had an easier time if he’d been open about his sexuality,” says Andrew Pierce. “… Lord Browne of Madingley, often described as Tony Blair’s favourite businessman, was one of the most influential men on the planet. In 2005 he was asked by the Financial Times if he was gay. He replied ‘you have got the wrong man there’. The journalists knew that he was lying. .. Browne, in his speech at Arup this week to launch the company’s Connect Out gay networking organisation, revealed he had lived in the closet for so long was because of his mother Paula. Mrs Browne regularly accompanied her son to BP social events to the evident bemusement of some of his colleagues.”

Your Activist – out at work from 1976 – with no detrimental effect on a career – has always advocated openness and honesty in such matters. Yes, Your Activist was lucky but still believes that honesty pays dividends.

SP

30 May

Wednesday 30 May 2012

AP

“The survival rate of heterosexual relationships is very poor. Same sex couples are unlikely to do worse. Time will tell but my guess, from observing many gay and lesbian relationships over the years, is that same sex couples may provide equally stable or unstable marital relationships and parental bonds as heterosexual couples.” So writes Dr Robert Lefever in The Daily Mail today. He concludes that gay couples deserve the same rights as anybody else.

Teletubbies Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po. AP

So far nobody is campaigning for equal rights for Teletubbies with the rest of society. It turns out that the Teletubbies were straight, not gay, acording to – Teletubby LaLa. Great. But what about Bagpuss?

Pink News

Its Playtime again folks: The Gay Sports Day is on this summer, slipping in between the London Olympic and Paralympic Games on the August Bank Holiday. Raising funds for gay men’s health charity GMFA, the 2012 event will be the sixth annual collaboration between the charity and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. The Vauxhall Sports Day will see the handbag toss, the 50m mince and the Space Hopper relay making their return to south London in the Olympic year.

HIV prevalence is four times higher in gay and bisexual men who inject drugs, compared to heterosexual, male, injecting drug users, UK investigators report in Sexually Transmitted Infections. The study also showed that prevalence of infection with the hepatitis C virus was significantly higher among gay and bisexual male injecting drug users (IDUs), reports National AIDS Manual. The higher HIV prevalence seen in gay and bisexual IDUs was due to sexual transmission of the virus. However, the higher rate of hepatitis C is largely attributed to sharing injecting equipment. The study showed that gay and bisexual men were significantly more likely to report unsafe injecting practices than heterosexual men.

Lord Browne. Photo: Lord Browne

‘My sense is that the business world remains more intolerant of homosexuality than other worlds such as the legal profession, the media and the visual arts… I am one of a handful of publicly gay people to have run a FTSE 100 company.’ Lord Browne, former chief executive of BP, told the BBC’s business editor Robert Peston today. He originally resigned from BP after it emerged he had lied to the High Court about a gay relationship he had. He pointed specifically at private equity as a culprit: ‘In some industries, the situation is particularly bad. Among the many people I know in private equity, where I now work, fewer than 1% are openly gay.’

SP

22 May

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Ravi. Photo: Time

Dharun Ravi, 20, yesterday was sent to jail for just 30 days for the death of Tyler Clementi, his room mate. He could have gone to prison for 10 years and been deported from the country after being found unanimously guilty in March of 15 charges, including invasion of privacy, interfering with a witness, tampering with evidence and the hate crime of “bias intimidation”. Despite saying that “society has every right to expect zero tolerance for intolerance” and criticising Ravi for his lack of apology, the judge angered gay-rights campaigners with the short jail term.

Rev. Charles Worley called for gays and lesbians to be placed in a form of concentration camp. Catawba Valley Citizens Against Hate says it plans a peaceful protest on Sunday outside Providence Road Baptist Church, where Rev. Charles Worley delivered his controversial homily on May 13.

Gay England football fans travelling to Ukraine for Euro 2012 have been warned to keep a low profile for their own safety, after Kiev’s first ever gay pride parade was cancelled on Sunday amid fears of violence from far-right thugs. Television pictures showed Svyatoslav Sheremet, head of the Gay Forum of Ukraine, being kicked and jumped on by a group of men after the event was stopped.

Amnesty International said police in the capital advised organisers to abandon the march just 30 minutes before it was due to start after 500 ultra-right football hooligans had gathered. Thousands of England fans will travel to the eastern European country for Euro 2012, which begins on June 8.

Welcome to the summer of no love.

However some positive news from Britain’s National Health Service. Same-sex couples will be given the same rights as heterosexual couples under guidance issued by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

The recommendation follows implementation of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 which abolished requirement for fertility clinics to take into account a child’s need for a father or a male role model before agreeing to treatment. Gay couples or single women now need only show they can provide “supportive parenting”.

Demand from gay couples paying privately for fertility services has boomed, and the number of lesbian couples undergoing IVF rose from 178 in 2007 to 417 in 2010.
One cycle of IVF can cost up to £8,000 privately. Because success rates are low – typically 20 per cent for a 38-year-old – couples can spend tens of thousands on treatment.

Many same-sex couples receive “outright discrimination” from health authorities, commented some gay spokespeople today, while anti-gay commentators said it amounted to a Government-backed attempt to “rewrite biology”.

SP

26 April

Thursday 26 April 2012

Photo: Allegedly, the recent hanging in Iran. Uncredited Photo: Pink News

A young man known only by the initials CH M was hanged publicly in Marwdasht, Fars Province, Iran, for allegedly engaging in ‘sodomy’ with another man on 19 April. Gholamhossein Chamansara, the Attorney General of Marwdasht, reported that the death penalty was given to the man, whose age is not known, due to his ‘despicable/heinous act’ that contradicted Sharia Muslim laws, and that the man was a gangster and performed the type of ‘unlawful activities’ for which the death penalty is usually applied.

David McArthur. Birmingham Mail

Florian Baboi battered David McArthur to death at his home in Birmingham. Mr McArthur had picked up Baboi for sex. Baboi fled to his native Romania after killing McArthur in Woodbroke Grove, Northfield, last August, but returned to the UK after handing himself in to the British Embassy in Bucharest a month later. Baboi, 35, of Izons Street, West Bromwich, met openly-gay Mr McArthur, a 63-year-old quantity surveyor, on August 19 in Lower Essex Street, part of Birmingham’s gay quarter and went back to Woodbrooke Grove for sex. The prosecution allege that “once there consensual sexual activity took place and, after that, the defendant battered David McArthur, kicking and stamping on his head and chest before leaving him for dead, half-naked, at the foot of the stairs in the hallway of his home.”

The next day, he said, commuters saw Baboi, who appeared drunk and whose hands and clothes were stained with blood, waiting at a bus stop on Bristol Road. Baboi asked a man, who had seen him the night before with Mr McArthur, for money and to use his phone to call a taxi. After taking the bus to the city centre he took a taxi to the home he shared with two other Romanians, telling one of them he had “hit a gay man” who refused to give him money. Baboi took a bus to Romania and police who searched the address where he had been staying found a watch he had stolen from the victim. Baboi has denied murdering McArthur between August 19 and 23 last year. The case continues.

Daily Record

Senior Aircraftsman Robert Fleeting, 24, of East Kilbride, was found dead in his room after a drunken night out went terribly wrong. He left five suicide notes. A coroner concluded yesterday that Robert took his own life after having consensual sex with a gay medic at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire.

Fleeting’s parents Charles and Susan are outraged. Susan said: “We are devastated by the coroner’s verdict. We have been unable to get closure and grieve for Robert because we are too busy fighting for justice for him.” The couple called for the police investigation to be re-opened. They say Robert suffered internal injuries, which they claim shows that he was sexually assaulted, and they are furious that Robert’s body was released for cremation before the results of the post-mortem into his death were made available.

“My son was living the dream. He was happy and engaged to be married. He was due to go out to the Falklands and had signed up for Afghanistan. There is no way my son was gay and we believe something terrible happened to Robert that night that he couldn’t live with. I don’t believe he would have taken his own life if he had had consensual sex with a man.”

Coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded a verdict of suicide after a half-day inquest in Oxford. He said he believed Robert’s sexual experience that night had come as a “dreadful blow” to him because he “had no such feelings in the past” and was engaged. “I can come to no conclusion other than that he took his own life.”

Robert, who was engaged to Maxine Menhennet, from Margate in Kent, was found hanging from a rolled-up curtain on the back of his room door on September 4 last year.

Gay Activist sends condolences to all friends, family and colleague of Mr Fleeting, and Mr McArthur.

Photo: Gary Calton/Guardian

Writing in The Guardian, Stonewall comment on their research published this week over the treatment of gays and lesbians by the National Health Service. Their findings were disturbing.

“GPs will soon be making decisions about not only about who can access services, but also which services are available. Unfortunately, my conversations with them highlight that there has been limited work at the frontline primary care level on addressing the needs of different groups that make up a local community. It is vital, both for tackling the poor experience many lesbian, gay and bisexual people report, and for the distinct health needs many have, to actively work with the local lesbian, gay and bisexual community, designing and commissioning services that take their needs into account.”

Stonewall has a Health Champions programme. It is much needed.

SP

24 April

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Photo of Dr Mike Davidson: Peter Ould

The man behind the “Post Gay” campaign which has been banned from London transport is revealed as South African born Dr Mike Davidson, 57, of Belfast. He has really driven the “Post Gay” programme with his claims of having been “treated” for homosexuality himself. Davidson admits he didn’t have a “tactile” relationship with his father. He became a Christian when he was embraced by a speaker at summer camp. At bible college he had a homosexual relationship with a visiting professor. Davidson repressed his homosexuality for years until he moved to Britain in 1999, by which time he was married and had two children. Davidson had begun a secret life surfing gay websites and at this point he sought therapy. Davidson claims this therapy steered him back to heterosexuality. He believes homosexuality is a “Normal Development Aberration” where “Normal Development” is the process of reproduction between a man and a woman.

His Core Issues Trust makes it profoundly clear that homosexuality is not considered a “disease” but describing homosexuality as a “aberration” has offended many.

You can get all sorts of things on one of these. Amazon

Meanwhile Father Martin McVeigh, the priest under investigation after accidentally displaying pornographic images of men during a school meeting, has taken an immediate temporary leave of absence. Parents and parishioners were read a statement from the Catholic Church which exonerated Fr McVeigh, but many parishioners were not happy with the statement and have refused to allow their children to take part in any ceremonies conducted by him. The flash drive seems to have disappeared.

In the Independent Fiona Shaw reveals that telling your children you are gay is harder than telling your parents.

I know him, he’s… Photo: Clapham Guardian

A festival which hoped to promote the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community during the London Olympics has been cancelled.

Pride House at Clapham Common failed to secure sponsorship and headline artists. The venture was backed by an array of celebrities, ranging from Stephen Fry to Ben Cohen, and promised a vibrant line up of entertainment across a period of 18 days. There were high hopes it would raise the profile of Clapham, while creating awareness of homophobia in sport.

A political storm has erupted following the news it has been cancelled, with opposition councillors condemning Lambeth Council for pushing the plans ahead. Tory Councillor Shirley Cosgrave, Clapham Common ward councillor said: “We had concerns about the financial viability of the event and hope that lessons will be learnt about the need for rigorous checking of applications before such events are given the go-ahead.”

LGBT campaign group Stonewall said the cancellation of the festival will come as a blow to Britain’s gay community, with Olympics organisers failing to promote sexual diversity. A spokesperson said: “Unfortunately they have done little, if anything, to promote or reach out to the LGBT community. There is one openly gay paralympian show jumper on team GB. Given the Olympic Games legacy which said they would promote diversity, they are ignoring 3.7m around the country in sport.”

Undated photo: Alamy

Gay and bisexual men are neglected and discriminated against by a health service that tends to focus solely on their sexual health.

6,900 gay and bisexual men who had used NHS healthcare services in the last year were surveyed by Stonewall who found that a third had negative experiences. Confidence in confidentiality systems and lack of opportunities for discussion were so poor that the same proportion had not even come out to their GP or other staff. The men said they were more likely to be open about their sexual orientation with their manager and work colleagues than with healthcare professionals.

3% of gay men and 5% of bisexual men had tried to kill themselves compared with 0.4% of all men. 7% of gay and bisexual men had deliberately harmed themselves, compared with just 3% of all men.

Among younger gay and bisexual men aged 16 to 24, 6% had tried to take their own life and 15% had harmed themselves. 50% of those surveyed had experienced at least one domestic violence incident from a family member or partner since the age of 16, compared with 17% of all men. (This does not surprise Your Activist. Our page on domestic violence in gay relationships is one of our most downloaded pages.)

Many patients were discriminated against by doctors and nurses. “I overheard the reception staff say to a nurse: ‘The poof is here for his appointment,’” David, 23, told Stonewall. Jack, 37, described how his doctor wrote “homosexual” in capital letters on a letter he had to take to hospital after breaking his wrist. Every time a different doctor pulled up his details on the computer, the same tag would appear.

Patients report health professionals assuming that because they were gay, they must be HIV positive, and of their partner’s rights being ignored.

Your Activist has been lucky so far with his own medical professionals, but recognises that there are areas of the health service which need improvement and further training. Gay Activist thinks the NHS as a whole suffers from an Imperious and bossy culture which is unhelpful.

SP

2 April

Monday 2 April 2012

Father Martin McVeigh. Photo: Ulster Herald

Father Martin McVeigh, a Catholic priest in Northern Ireland is under investigation after accidentally displaying a series of gay porn images instead of a Powerpoint presentation about Holy Communion to 26 parents at a primary school meeting. The priest inserted a memory stick into a computer linked up to the school projector system but instead of Eucharistic guidance for children, they got gay porn. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said there was no immediate evidence a crime had taken place.

A statement issued by the parents present said Father McVeigh was “visibly shaken and flustered” after the Powerpoint presentation went awry. He gave no explanation or apology to the group and bolted out of the room.

Uncredited photo

Another health scare concerning MSMs (men who have sex with men). An increase in cases of dysentery caused by shigella infection has been identified among MSMs in the UK, says the Health Protection Agency. From September to December 2011 they found 145 cases of shigella infection, of which 31 were acquired in the UK. The 31 cases were predominantly male and just under half reported MSM activity within the previous week. The investigation showed that these men attended regular health checkups and all reported having a casual male partner in the preceding week. Shigella dysentery is often acquired by drinking contaminated water or by eating food washed with contaminated water. In the UK most cases of shigella are associated with foreign travel.

SP

2 March

Friday March 2nd 2012

David Lewis

Sgt. Brandon Morgan didn’t expect to become a global phenomenon when he kissed his partner upon returning from a six-month deployment to Afghanistan. But then a friend posted a photo of their embrace on the Gay Marines page on Facebook. Morgan, in desert camouflage, is seen wrapping his legs around Dalan Wells’ legs. A large U.S. flag is in the background, writes the Chicago Sun Times. This photo, taken some five months after the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy prohibiting gay servicemen from openly acknowledging their sexuality, is among the first showing a gay active-duty serviceman in uniform kissing his partner after coming home.

Aaaaaah.

Photo by Brandon Krepel

The Catholic school music teacher who was fired after church officials learned that he planned to marry his male partner of 20 years has been fired from a second position in the Archdiocese of St. Louis: as a music director at a north St. Louis County Catholic church. Al Fischer, 46, has been told that he could no longer work as one of the parish’s part-time music directors, a paid position he’s held for several years, according to Fischer’s partner, Charlie Robin.

Years and years ago – back in the 1970s in fact – your Activist was told by someone who knew about this sort of thing, that every service a gay man could need could be found in San Francisco and California. He was not joking. Now California has a circle for men who cannot.

Says SF Gate: “Malecare announces the first social gathering exclusively for single gay men with erectile dysfunction will take place on the evening of saturday, March 10, at a private home in Studio City, California.”

“Gay men experience health issues from their unique perspective, but, health care professionals continue to ignore this, causing needless harm to thousands upon thousands of gay men who experience erectile dysfunction,” said Darryl Mitteldorf of Malecare Cancer Support. “Malecare wants all gay men to find the help they need, from men who care about them and we are proud that one of our support group leaders, Dennis Bogorad, has developed a supportive meeting focused on erectile dysfunction.”

The gathering will offer single gay men with erectile dysfunction a chance to meet other gay men with erectile dysfunction. It will be a chance for men to mix and mingle in a no stress environment, share experiences, make new friends or maybe meet the love of their life.

And possibly catch up with their knitting. Who knows?

SP

#111002

An arrest in Moscow yesterday. Photo: Reuters

40 people were arrested at a Moscow gay rights march on Saturday, some of those detained were arrested for attacking the marchers. “Several men were seen trying to pelt the protesters with tomatoes and unfurling posters with pejorative remarks about homosexuality,” the Associated Press reported. Some of the tomatoes can be seen in the photo.

Bans on activism in support of gay rights are starting to cost the Russian government a sizable amount of money, and have not damaged the resolve of the activists themselves to campaign for their rights; the march in Moscow yesterday had actually been sanctioned by the authorities for once.

Anti gay graffiti in Belgrade. Photo: Uncredited/RTE

Meanwhile today’s event in Belgrade remains reportedly banned.

James Proescholdt writes in the Washington Post that the ban on gay men donating blood should be removed. Yes sir.

“The logic behind the ban is flawed — not only are all donations already tested for HIV, but even potential donors who present doctors’ results confirming an HIV-negative status will be turned away.”

Press Association

The Home Secretary and the Prime Minister it seems want to repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a watered down British equivalent. Only two weeks ago their coalition partners Lib Dems pledged it was here to stay. Prime Minister David Cameron said he agreed with Mrs May that the act should be scrapped and replaced with a British Bill of Rights. Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, he said that because of the coalition it would take longer to review this than he would like.

Over in Canada Tory MP Brian Storseth of Alberta believes a majority of his colleagues will support his private member’s bill to repeal controversial sections of the Canadian Human Rights Act banning hate speech over the telephone or Internet.

He believes the current human rights code fails to protect freedom of speech, which is guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The code allows too many frivolous cases to proceed against citizens, he says, and hate speech that could generate harm against an individual or group is already covered by the Criminal Code.

SP