Up to date on Tuesday 14 May 2013

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Today Ukraine’s Parliament indefinitely postponed a vote on a bill that would have barred employers from rejecting workers based on their sexual orientation, while hundreds of anti-gay activists protested outside (pictured). The bill was opposed in parliament by the Communist Party and the nationalist Svoboda group. The vote on the bill, which was introduced by the government, was dropped while deputies sought to avoid another hot-tempered exchange in the chamber.

Sergei Supinsky/Agence France Press

In Paris’ Marais neighbourhood, couples stroll hand-in-hand, steal kisses while window shopping past chic boutiques, or whisper sweet-nothings over marble-topped tables at a sidewalk cafe, just as they do everywhere in Paris: but along the Rue des Archives, the couples in question are likely to be same-sex, Global Post informs us. But Gay Paree is not all it is cracked up to be, says the article: “The Socialist government’s bill to make France the world’s 14th country to legalize gay marriage has unleashed a wave of opposition that has mobilized mass demonstrations and revealed a current of homophobia running deep and wide through French society.” Opponents have launched a legal challenge at the Constitutional Court to block gay marriage. A “national demonstration day” in favor of the “rights of children to have a mother and a father” has been called for May 26th.

“Homophobia is growing in France,” said Adrian Lambert, a barman at Cox, pictured, a gay bar on Rue des Archives. “Society is more closed than other countries,” he said, while pouring beers. “If you look at Spain or the Netherlands, France is more backward. Plus, there is this extremist tendency we always have to watch out for.”

Anti gay marriage protest on May 5, 2013 in Paris. Photo: Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images | Trip Advisor

Kira Izzard and Laura Cull, a lesbian couple on the Isle of Man, pictured, are calling for a change in the law after being turned down for a flat on the basis of their sexual orientation. They were shocked to discover there was no legislation to protect them from discrimination. They have now launched an online petition calling for the island to adopt the UK’s Equality Act 2010.

The island’s chief minister, Allan Bell, pictured, said: “I am extremely disappointed that this type of ugly, outdated prejudice survives after all the work that has been done over the past 20 years or so to make the island a more tolerant place. I do believe that our society today is generally much more tolerant than it used to be. But this incident shows that there are still isolated pockets of bigotry that can only be tackled through legislation. An equality bill, based on the UK Equality Act 2010, is already in the drafting process and will deal with discrimination of this kind. I have asked that preparation of this legislation be accelerated.”

BBC | Isle of Man Government

Russian gay activists applied yesterday to Moscow City Hall for permission for a gay pride parade on May 25. “We will consider the application within the lawful time period, but our position on such events has not changed,” said Alexei Maiorov, the head of City Hall’s regional security department. Activists plan to hold the rally with about 1,000 people on the weekend of May 25-26, with a march starting on Myasnitskaya Ulitsa at Chistiye Prudy metro and up to Ploshchad Revolyutsii.

One of our readers writes: “Dear Activist, have you noticed the close resemblance between Raquel Welch and Richard Branson? Are they at all related?”

Miss Google, can you help, please? Thank you.

Richard Branson

Raquel Welch

Goodness! Richard has had a free upgrade.

Public Domain | Uncredited

SP

Up to date on Friday 26 April 2013

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Writing for Time, Latin America’s Homophobic Leaders Should Stop Their Gay-Bashing, says Tim Padgett. President Nicolás Maduro narrowly won Venezuela’s special presidential election on April 14 and was sworn in last Friday to succeed President Hugo Chávez, who died last month of cancer. Maduro may have eked out his victory with the help of some old-fashioned gay-bashing: he made a point in his campaign of suggesting to voters that his centrist and unmarried opponent, Henrique Capriles, is a homosexual. “I do have a wife!” Maduro, who also called Capriles “a little princess,” roared at one rally. “I like women!” Maduro has since said he’s not a homophobe.

Ariana Cubillos/Press Association

John Paulk, who was once one of the most visible advocates of so-called gay conversion therapy, has admitted he has always been gay. “In 1998, he appeared on the cover of Newsweek alongside his wife. The headline asked ‘Gay for Life?’ Now estranged from his wife and sporting a much less conservative look, including long blond hair and a deep tan, Paulk seems to have the answer. And if you haven’t figured it out, it’s a yes,” says The Daily Mail. Yes, indeed, this is the same man who founded and ran a ministry called Love Won Out based on what he called ‘reparative therapy.’

And the books? “‘I don’t get any royalties from these publications,’ he told PQ Monthly. ‘I discourage anyone from purchasing and selling these books or promoting my “ex-gay” story because they do not reflect who I am now or what I believe today.’”

Daily Mail

Russian gay rights activist Aleksei Kiselyov has reportedly been granted political asylum in Spain. Fellow gay rights activist Nikolai Alekseyev says Spain gave Kiselyov asylum and a five-year permanent resident permit.

Kiselyov participated in a protest against the reelection of President Vladimir Putin on Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square in May 2012 (pictured) that was violently dispersed by police. Several activists who took part in the protest have been charged with organizing mass disorders. Aleksei Kiselyov is believed to be the first Russian activist to receive political asylum abroad in connection with the protest.

RIA Novosti

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Up to date on Monday 22 April 2013

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Toutes les nouvelles d’aujourd’hui est de la France, et ce n’est pas bon.

“As an often ill-tempered debate in the national assembly on the subject of gay marriage came to an end last week, violence against gays and their businesses was clearly escalating,” says The Guardian, “with arrests at protests in the capital and other cities, and reports of attacks on gay bars. Anti-gay marriage protesters, who have taken to calling their movement Le Printemps Français (the French spring, an echo of the Arab spring uprisings that overthrew unpopular dictators), mimicked the radical feminist movement FEMEN, whose members demonstrate topless, and took off their shirts outside the French parliament. The figurehead of the anti-gay marriage movement, the comedian Virginie Tellenne, who calls herself Frigide Barjot and who has described herself as “press attaché for Jesus”, had earlier said: “If Hollande wants blood, he’ll get it.” She later retracted her comment, saying she had “gone too far”.

“Jean Soubeyre, a 43-year-old who works in marketing, said the legitimacy given to homophobia in the current climate was horrible. “The law will pass, but it’s crystallising all sorts of other problems, such as the financial crisis.” Rol agreed that the law will pass. “Hollande knows he doesn’t have a choice. If he renounces it, he will lose all credibility,” he said. “For me, the [anti-gay marriage] protests just confirm that France is a rightwing country at heart.”

Michel Euler/AP

Raphaël Leclerc has become another victim of violence in the wake of the debate and protests. He was punched and kicked after being jumped by three men when he and his partner left a club on Saturday in Nice. “We were not kissing and we were not holding hands,” explained the 24-year-old. “A couple of minutes later there were three, who were shouting ‘hey gays’ at us, and then they ran at us.”

LGBT campaigners say the pending arrival of France’s same-sex marriage bill has been used by some as an excuse to carry out anti-gay violence.

Raphaël Leclerc

SP

Up to date on Thursday 18 April 2013

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Four people have been detained on suspicion of carrying out an attack at a Lille, France, gay bar, amid nationwide tensions over the gay marriage bill. Four men smashed the bar’s windows, hurled furniture and yelled insults, and started an altercation that left the assailants, the bar’s owner and two bar tenders with light injuries.

More people were detained in Paris after a protest against gay marriage ended with demonstrators fighting police and damaging cars along the Champs-Elysees.

President Francois Hollande’s government called today for an end to violent protests. It said those behind the rise in homophobic assaults would be punished. “I cannot accept … homophobic acts and violence against property in the midst of protests, or any defiance of law enforcement officials,” Hollande told reporters during a visit to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. “Procedures must be respected, sensibilities must be respected, and everyone must be heard … but the law and parliament also need to be respected.”

Agence France – Press

California’s law to ban licensed counsellers from practising ex-gay treatments is boiling down to whether the therapy is free speech or a medical treatment that can be regulated by government, Judge Morgan Christen of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said yesterday. Morgan and two other judges considered 90 minutes of legal arguments over the ban on “sexual-orientation change” counselling of minors. The court will issue a written ruling later.

Undated Photo: Uncredited/Pink News

Greg Bourke, of Louisville Kentucky, pictured with his son, who signed up to help at the Boy Scouts of America when his son joined, but who was made to step down because he is gay, has delivered a petition with over 64,000 signatures to one of their major donors.

The Boy Scouts of America is currently embroiled in a debate over whether to lift its ban on gay volunteers, members and staff. Earlier in February, it delayed a vote on whether or not to lift the ban until May “due to the complexity of the issue”. Bourke’s petition urges United Way, a large nonprofit organisation in the US, which allocates funding to BSA troops across the country.

Uncredited photo: Pink News

SP

Up to date on Saturday 13 April

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A Canadian couple told UPI they want to change a federal law classifying gay people as high-risk for organ donation. Rob and Nancy Campana’s son Rocky was removed from life support in August after attempting suicide. Mrs Campana said the Trillium Gift of Life Network in Ontario, did not accept her son’s organs for donation. “I was asked if he was a gay male and I said, ‘Yes.’ And I was asked if he was a sexually active gay male or if he had a partner and I said, ‘yes,’” she told CBC News. “When I got off the phone to relay that to both Rob and a lot of Rocky’s friends … many of them broke down,” she said. “The gay ones said, ‘Nancy, we can’t donate blood; they’re not going to take our organs.’”

Photo of Rocky Campana: CBC

The High Court has upheld a classroom ban on a Christian school teacher who condemned the “homosexual lifestyle” in front of pupils. In the first case of its kind, a judge rejected an appeal by science teacher Robert Haye against the decision to ban him indefinitely. Mr Haye says the decision is likely to end his teaching career. Mr Haye told a Year 11 class of students aged 15-16 that the way homosexual people lived was “disgusting” and a sin, according to the Bible.

He also told Year 9 pupils aged 13-14 that “anyone who worships on Sunday is basically worshipping the devil”. Mr Haye, 43, and his family belong to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which observes Saturday as the Sabbath. Following his February 2010 comments at Deptford Green School in Lewisham, south-east London, a teaching assistant complained and triggered an investigation. Mr Haye was sacked from his job at the 1,200-pupil inner city comprehensive. He was also prohibited from teaching at any school or sixth form college last July after the Education Secretary backed a decision of regulatory body The Teaching Agency recommending the ban.

Deptford Green Comprehensive School: Google

SP

Up to date on Saturday 6 April 2013

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Boris Dittrich, head of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy at Human Rights Watch, discusses the current debates on same-sex marriage in Europe and the United States and virulent homophobia in Russia and Uganda in an interview with Spiegel Online. It is a sobering evaluation.

On the situation in Russia:

“On April 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin will open the Hanover Trade Fair and hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Human Rights Watch, together with a number of other NGOs, are protesting against the propaganda legislation and other human rights violations in Russia. Putin has orchestrated a crackdown on civil society. More than 200 NGOs were recently inspected without any announcement in an attempt to intimidate these groups. In February, the Dutch foreign minister visited Moscow and conveyed the message that the Netherlands rejects the legislation. A vicious back and forth ensued in the joint press conference, with Russia’s foreign minister stating his country was “independent” and others shouldn’t tell it what to do. But all European leaders should consistently raise the issue when they meet with with Putin and other Russian dignitaries. Russia has ignored decisions from the European Court of Human Rights. European leaders like Merkel should make it clear to Moscow that this behavior is intolerable.”

On the situation in Uganda:

“Our assessment is that it is some kind of political game between parliament and the president. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is under tremendous international pressure not to countersign the law once it has been passed by parliament. Apparently Museveni is also fearful of what will happen if it passes and how society will react to it. There have been vicious campaigns in the media recently, with newspapers sometimes outing gay men and lesbians with pictures and stories about where they live, work and even providing the license plate numbers of their cars.”

What an excellent article. Well done Spiegel.

A boat carrying a rainbow flag sails along the Neva River in St. Petersburg, Russia. Photo: Associated Press

Meanwhile a warning to all gays in Zambia. Zambia Police Service warns homosexuality is a very serious offence, reports UK Zambians.

“The Zambia Police Service has warned that homosexuality is a very serious offence in Zambia. … In a statement made available to ZANIS in Lusaka yesterday, Police Spokesperson, Elizabeth Kanjela, noted that the offence attracts a sentence of not less than five years imprisonment once one is convicted under Unnatural Offences of Section 155, 156 and 158 CAP 87 of the Laws of Zambia. Ms Kanjela, therefore, indicated that anyone who will be found wanting will face the wrath of the law as the police will be vigilant on perpetrators of such a crime. Ms Kanjela has since appealed to members of the public to report anyone found committing such a crime to any nearest police station in order to maintain sanity in communities.”

Zambia is a member of the British Commonwealth.

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