21 May

Monday 21 May 2012

Reuters

Homophobic thugs beat up Svyatoslav Sheremet, head of Gay-Forum of Ukraine, in Kiev. He was attacked after telling the media that the first gay parade in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev was cancelled because of safety concerns.

Looks like he was right.

Gay Activist sends Mr Sheremet best wishes for a speedy recovery from the attack.

We wish it was safe here in the UK but sadly it is no safer than places like Ukraine. A 19 year old teenager who has not been named was the victim of an unprovoked attack in Worcester city centre when he was subjected to homophobic abuse by a group of five men who then punched him on the back of the head while he was walking down The Avenue towards the Cornmarket car park at about 12.45am on Friday after leaving a nightclub.

He said he woke up feeling “a bit low on confidence” and had a small lump on his head as well as a bit of a headache. “They just kept taunting me and one of them got really lairy and went for a swing for no reason,” said the teenager, who does not want to be named. “Then one of his other friends punched me to the back of the head. I was a bit scared and a bit intimidated. Generally it doesn’t bother me but as it was a group of people it did. I did feel really small and it was completely out of the blue.”

Gap

The US clothing retailer GAP has released a new advertising campaign in Los Angeles, which features a gay couple embracing under one t-shirt, and has angered the anti-gay group, One Million Moms.

Gay Activist wishes that One Million Moms would read the preceding two stories and wonder what they would feel like if that happened to their son.

SP

23 March

Friday 23 March 2012

Juan Hidalgo

Facebook is under fire for deleting a fan page because it featured a photograph of two gay men kissing. It reportedly removed a Spanish gay art group’s ‘offensive’ picture because it ‘infringed publishing rules’ of not posting photos of a ‘sexual’ or ‘delicate’ nature. The image, by Juan Hidalgo, was being used by the Madrid-based Visible Culture group for its ‘Gay Arts Looks For A Home’ initiative. Project organiser Pablo Peinado, who wants to create a Museum of Gay Culture in the Spanish capital, told El País: ‘For Facebook, a kiss between two men must be a delicate question.’ Facebook has claimed its removal must be down to a ‘technical issue’ and has launched an investigation.

Mark Shenton notes that the appointment of Gregory Doran to the Royal Shakespeare Company as Artistic Director, means that both of our major national theatre companies are now run by out gay men; at the National, Nick Hytner and executive director Nick Starr, and now Doran, whose partner is Antony Sher, are amongst a wave of gay men in charge of some of the most successful venues in the country.

Gay Activist sends congratulations.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Laureate, on Friday defended her country’s stand on gay rights after controversy following an interview she gave to a British newspaper. The Liberian government said there were no anti-gay laws “and as such the president could not be defending a law on homosexuality.” Voluntary sodomy is a criminal offence in the west African country and can result in up to three years imprisonment.

This year two new laws were introduced by lawmakers in a bid to toughen the punishment, including one which would make it a first-degree felony. “What the president is on record as saying is that any law brought before her regarding homosexuality will be vetoed. This statement also applies to an initial attempt by two members of the Liberian legislature to introduce tougher laws targeting homosexuality,” the letter said. It added that the government believed current legislation was sufficient. “The reality is that the status quo in Liberia has been one of tolerance and no one has ever been prosecuted under that law. The president also thinks that with the unprecedented freedom of speech and expression Liberia enjoys today, our budding democracy will be strong enough to accommodate new ideas and debate both their value and Liberia’s laws with openness, respect and independence.”

Liberia is one of the countries which have been threatened by the US, Britain and Europe that their stance on gay rights may mean a reduction in aid.

SP

15 March

Thursday 15 March 2012

Photo of a gay family by Jacob Z Flores

The natural father of a two-year-old boy living with his lesbian mother and her partner won a legal battle in the UK today against a ruling that he should have only a “limited relationship” with the child.

Court of Appeal judges said the boy’s interests were paramount and the future had to be decided “by stages in the light of accumulating evidence” and that the desire to set up “a two-parent lesbian nuclear family” might be “essentially selfish and may later insufficiently weigh the welfare and developing rights of the child”. The case is being seen as of general importance for the emerging world of “alternative families”

The father, a homosexual and an old friend of both the child’s mother, won the case against a lesbian and her partner. The father went through a “marriage of convenience” with the mother to smooth the way for the lesbian couple to have a child, but disputes broke out over the extent of his future role with the boy. A family judge had made “a fundamental error” by trying to lay down a general rule to limit the future relationship between father and child.

MPs will get a free vote on gay marriage to try to stop a Tory revolt. Downing Street is trying to stave off a mass rebellion by traditionalists furious at David Cameron’s promotion of the move to let couples of the same sex marry, so they will be allowed to vote with their consciences instead. More than 200,000 campaigners have signed a petition on the No 10 website in support of keeping marriage between husbands and wives.

Always be wary of television companies. David was at Manchester Pride last summer when he met traveller Mikey. The two boys hit it off and were quickly seen enjoying a snog, however, the teenager was unaware at the time that a camera crew were following Mikey. As soon as he realised he was being filmed he said he pleaded with them to not use the footage, but he said his appeals fell on deaf ears. Now the teenager has been outed against his wish on national television. The producers only offered to blur out his face, despite David telling them that his family would recognise him and didn’t know he was gay. ‘My parents could easily tell that was me on telly. They’re devastated. That silly attempt to blur my face wasn’t going to stop people recognising me.’ David said his haircut and pink shirt helped to instantly identify him and that the choice to tell his family he was gay was taken away from him. David is not his real name.

SP