Friday April 27, 2007 SGN.org |
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Volume 35 Issue 17 |
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Sunday, Oct 12, 2008
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Rex Wockner |
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| International News | |
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COURT: LATVIAN PRIDE BAN WAS ILLEGAL Latvia's Riga Regional Administrative Court ruled April 12 that the Riga City Council's ban on last year's Gay-pride parade was illegal. The council had cited safety concerns in prohibiting the march and was backed up by the District Administrative Court. Pride spokeswoman Kristine Garina said the new ruling "shows that freedom of speech and freedom of assembly do exist in Latvia, and that the right of the LGBT community to organize a march has been evaluated as having more importance than the desire of some other people to push a certain community out of the public arena by means of threats and violence." Because of last year's ban, organizers instead held a religious service and meetings at a local hotel. They were confronted by Christian, ultranationalist and neo-Nazi protesters who pelted them with eggs, rotten food and human feces. The GLBT group Mozaika, which organizes the pride events, said it may seek financial compensation from the City Council to cover the administrative and legal expenses related to the ban. In 2005, Gays were allowed to stage the nation's first pride parade. About 150 marchers were attacked by some 1,000 anti-Gay protesters who hurled bottles and rotten eggs, blocked the streets and screamed "No sodomy" and "Gays fuck the nation." This year's pride march is scheduled for June 3. MOLDOVA BANS PRIDE AGAIN City officials in the Moldovan capital Chisinau have banned all public Gay pride activities for the third year in a row, saying such events threaten public order, offend Christian values and promote sexual propaganda. The decision flouts a recent Supreme Court ruling which declared the 2006 ban illegal. "Not only [do] the Chisinau city authorities openly disregard the rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, but they act illegally in breach of the decision of the supreme judicial body of their own country," said Christine Loudes, policy director for the European branch of the International Lesbian and Gay Association. Swedish Member of the European Parliament Maria Carlshamre added, "With decisions like this, Moldovan authorities are taking further steps away from the rest of Europe." In its ruling, the Supreme Court said it "considers unjustified the refusal of the Chisinau city hall to authorize a march of solidarity by [pride organizing group] GenderDoc-M reasoning that it is a possible threat to public order, as this motive is disproportional with the right to freedom of assembly, guaranteed by ... the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms." GenderDoc-M plans to ignore this year's ban and "go out on the street at the time indicated in the application to City Hall to protest against local authorities' violation of basic human rights." "All the responsibility for the consequences of this action we will lay on those taking the decisions blatantly violating basic human rights," said Executive Director Boris Balanetkii. Other pride activities will take place on private property, including cultural events, concerts, forums, a soccer match and the Moldovan premiere of The Vagina Monologues. Activists from numerous nations have said they will join in the late-April festivities to support the Moldovan GLBT community -- including individuals from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and Ukraine. FIRST PRIDE SET FOR SMALL SASKATCHEWAN CITY The small Canadian city of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, will see its first Gay pride parade June 9. Some local Christians unsuccessfully lobbied the City Council to block the march. Preacher Rick Potratz warned of "men walking down public streets half-naked ... wearing nothing but a G-string." Prince Albert, population 41,460, is Saskatchewan's third-largest city after Saskatoon and Regina. It is located near the geographic center of the province, 88 miles (141 km) north of Saskatoon. CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST MOSCOW PRIDE Police dropped all charges against chief Moscow Gay pride organizer Nikolai Alekseev on April 11. Alekseev was arrested last May 27 during the disastrous attempt to stage the city's first public Gay-pride events. He was charged with a "breach of order in the organization or conduct of a gathering, meeting, demonstration, march or picket" when he and other activists tried to lay flowers at the Kremlin's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. "Police could not find any evidence that I breached Russian legislation [so] they had nothing else to do than to close all proceedings against me without official accusations or administrative sanctions," Alekseev said. After Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and a court banned last year's planned first pride parade, activists tried to deliver the flowers and to hold a rally across from City Hall. They were violently attacked at both sites by neofascists, skinheads, Christians and riot police. Luzhkov has banned this year's planned parade as well, saying: "[T]hrough the Gay parade you promote some uncertain people and it becomes an invitation to acquire this quality of the sexual minorities. [It is saying that] this is OK, that's normal, this is useful. Our view is that it is wrong and unusual. "Last year, Moscow came under unprecedented pressure to sanction the Gay parade, which can be described in no other way than as satanic. We did not let the parade take place then, and we are not going to allow it in the future. ... Some European nations bless single-sex marriages and introduce sexual guides in schools. Such things are a deadly moral poison for children." On April 6, Luzhkov's press secretary, Sergei Tsoi, said activists planning this year's march on May 27 are "aggressive" and "play with fire." The Gay community's "most aggressive members try to impose their convictions on millions of Moscow citizens who deny their lifestyle," he told the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets. "If they disregard [the ban], they will assume overall responsibility for all possible consequences -- and it is dreadful to predict what they may be." Pride organizers have a suit pending in the European Court of Human Rights seeking a determination of their right to march and $26,000 in damages related to last year's fiasco. COURT: ARUBA MUST RECOGNIZE DUTCH SAME-SEX MARRIAGES The Caribbean island of Aruba, which is part of the Netherlands, must recognize Dutch same-sex marriages, the Netherlands' Supreme Court ruled April 13. The decision came in the case of a Dutch woman and an Aruban woman, Esther and Charlene Oduber-Lamers, who married in the Netherlands in 2001, settled in Aruba, and were told by local authorities that their marriage was not legal. The Common Court of Justice of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba previously ruled in the couple's favor but the island's government appealed, with Prime Minister Nelson Oduber calling it a moral issue. Aruba has a population of 71,566. |
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| above Riga Anti Gay Protesters Quote / Unquote "I had never hidden anything, and nobody asked me any questions. My only outing came eight or 10 years ago when I was an old man. [My former boyfriend, West Side Story and Gypsy writer] Arthur Laurents gave an interview in which he outed me publicly." --81-year-old actor Farley Granger, who starred in the Alfred Hitchcock movies Rope and Strangers on a Train, to the Associated Press, April 12. Granger and his partner, Robert Calhoun, have been together since the '60s, AP said. "I sort of sensed this witch hunt brewing. ... People were starting to ask for stories of other people that may have fooled around with me, and the last thing you want to do is talk about your private life based on scandal. ... I didn't want to have to respond to some story, whether it was lie or truth -- so I just made a statement [coming out] and sort of squashed the fires. ... [T]he greatest ending to the story so far [is] that nothing really has changed at all. I'm doing nothing different and people aren't behaving differently towards me." --Actor Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, M.D., and How I Met Your Mother) during an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres' TV show, April 19. "Because so many men who sleep with men continue to have unsafe sex, and so many more are unaware of their HIV status because they don't get tested for HIV, would you want a blood transfusion from me? ... [D]espite all of the advances in HIV testing, no test is perfect. ... A ban on Gay blood will continue to save lives." --Syndicated Canadian Gay columnist Richard Burnett in his column filed April 13. "America is watching Don Imus's self-immolation in a state of shock and awe. And I'm watching America with wry amusement. Since I'm a second-class citizen -- a Gay man -- my seats for the ballgame of American discourse are way back in the bleachers. I don't have to wait long for a shock jock or stand-up comedian to slip up with hateful epithets aimed at me and mine. Hate speak against homosexuals is as commonplace as spam. It's daily traffic for those who profess themselves to be regular Joes, men of God, public servants who live off my tax dollars, as well as any number of celebrities." --Playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein writing in The New York Times, April 13. "Never once in my 54 years have I ever once heard a Gay or Lesbian person who's politically active say one thing about anything that was not about them. They don't care about minimum wage, they don't care about any other group other than their own self because, you know, some people say that being Gay and Lesbian is a totally narcissistic thing and sometimes I wonder. I've never heard any of them say anything except for, 'Accept me 'cause I'm Gay.' It's just, it's screwed. It's no different than the evangelicals, it's the same mindset. They want you to accept Jesus and you guys want us to all believe it's OK to be Gay. And ... I do, I don't give a damn who anybody has sex with, as long as they're not underage and an animal. I don't give a damn, it's none of my damn business. But, you know, I'm just sick of all the divisiveness, it's not getting any of us anywhere." --Roseanne Barr on the Southern California radio station KCAA, where she is a regular co-host, April 6. "My Bad. I deeply regret that I have offended Gay people. I said things that I do not really mean, before I had thought them through. I was wrong and I seriously apologize! Call me up today and let me have it! I will apologize and try to make clear what I really meant to say, which was that everybody needs to unite right now, and step outside of their own neighborhoods, groups, races and classes to stop Bush's war on our country and our people. I love Gays and I hate division. I am just a big idiot with a big mouth sometimes. I will learn to be more careful! ... What I meant to say [is] the leaders of Gay groups need to align with the leaders of Acorn, and other groups of poor and desperate Americans and fight against those who oppress all of us! I have met too many Gays who are Republicans, and I cannot understand how they could choose that! Let's all leave our own bedrooms, kitchens, neighborhoods and groups and meet each other to form a diverse army that stands for Democracy and Economic Justice!!!!" --Roseanne Barr on her blog, April 10. "Ann Coulter is a horrible witch -- you know that some queen is bleaching and straightening that hair. And who designs her little black dresses and shoes? Trust me, it's Gay men! I would love to see Ann Coulter in a Gay-free zone -- she would have coarse mousy brown hair, poorly applied drugstore makeup and walk around in a hideous floral housecoat and comfortable flats. You can't have it both ways, Ann." --Drag performer Jackie Beat, currently opening for Roseanne in Las Vegas, to QVegas magazine, April issue. "I happen to think Hillary Clinton will make a fabulous president. She doesn't always say what we want to hear, but, politically, she knows how to work the system. I think she will go in there and turn things around and do what's right for us." --Lesbian comedian and actress Sandra Bernhard to the Palm Springs Gay magazine The Bottom Line, March 30. "I can't put my finger on exactly what it is about her, but it's pretty obvious there's a lot of stuff going on there that isn't real -- it's disingenuous. She sets herself up to be this mother of the world and I don't totally buy it." --Lesbian comedian and actress Sandra Bernhard on Oprah Winfrey, to the Palm Springs Gay magazine The Bottom Line, March 30. "Don't tell me you don't want to talk about personal life when you wrote a book about your father's death and your brother's death. You can't move this big mass of personal stuff out for public display, then people ask questions and you say, 'Oh, no, I didn't say there was going to be any questions.' ... Don't tell me you can't talk about your personal life and then, when they send you overseas and you do a report that consists of your voice-over and pictures of you in a custom-made, blue-to-match-your-eyes bulletproof vest, looking somberly at these scenes of human devastation -- like a tourist -- and that's your report. Your shtick is your personal life." --MSNBC host Keith Olbermann on CNN's Anderson Cooper, to New York magazine, April 16. "Just what is it about being Gay that makes cowards of otherwise fearless men and women? This magazine does not support gratuitous outing, but does Anderson Cooper really believe that his calculated discretion about this one subject in his private life protects his journalistic neutrality? Or does he just not want to torpedo his chance of getting another cover of Maxim? It's not that we don't sympathize -- it's legitimate to fear being pigeon-holed by your sexuality, but power is only partly about how others see us; it's also about how we see ourselves. If we've learned anything from the last few decades, it's that playing with the straight boys and girls is one thing, playing at being them entirely another. It ties you into all sorts of knots. And not the fun kind." --Out magazine Editor in Chief Aaron Hicklin writing in the May issue. "If journalism is about digging for and reporting the truth, then there is absolutely nothing wrong, indeed there is everything right, about asking and reporting on who is Gay, particularly if they are in the public eye or making government policy. To do otherwise is to buy into the still prevalent idea that being Gay is something best kept in the shadows." --Fred Kuhr, editor at large of the Boston Gay newspaper In Newsweekly, in an April 18 editorial. "For many Saudis, the fact that a man has sex with another man has little to do with 'Gayness.' The act may fulfill a desire or a need, but it doesn't constitute an identity. Nor does it strip a man of his masculinity, as long as he is in the 'top,' or active, role. This attitude gives Saudi men who engage in homosexual behavior a degree of freedom. But as a more Westernized notion of Gayness -- a notion that stresses orientation over acts -- takes hold in the country, will this delicate balance survive?" --From an article in the May issue of The Atlantic Monthly, "The Kingdom in the Closet." "Gay men, as a brand, are starting to seem a little tired. Nowadays when young Canadians discover their homosexual feelings they have much less to fear -- loss of work, assault, taunts, rejection by family and friends, loneliness, childlessness. That's great, but gives them much less reason to band themselves together under the banner of opera lovers, Pet Shop Boys fans or the like. Meanwhile, men who would have years ago considered themselves as Gay are now dividing themselves into subgroups, describing themselves as bears, SM players, artfags or, worse, merely married." --Paul Gallant, in his final editorial as managing editor and news editor of the Toronto Gay newspaper Xtra!, April 12. "GLAAD's sole purpose these days seems to be to help Hollywood and media figures get through their various homophobic p.r. meltdowns while cooing with praise at the slightest bit of good they do. That is no more evident than in the GLAAD Media Awards -- star-studded, lavish events that now take place in four cities. ... The GLAAD Media Awards need to be halted, or at the very least, radically pared down, immediately, while the Gay movement still has some integrity left. A group that began in the 80s as a fiery organization committed to direct action against media bias has turned into a high-priced masseuse for Hollywood and media titans alike, offering full ejaculatory release. ... What we really need to do is get GLAAD out of the hand-job business entirely." --Gay columnist and radio host Michelangelo Signorile in an April 12 filing. "The truth doesn't get to us [in the U.S.] The media exists to invent narratives and to disguise unpleasantries. And our educational system for the general public is the worst of any First World nation. We try to develop docile workers and loyal consumers. We have no interest in education of any kind -- in fact it's dangerous to tell people what history really is. I've been spending 40 years telling the story of my country for my own amusement. It was hard work, but it wasn't being done by the high school textbooks -- I've read enough of those to know." --Gay author Gore Vidal in an interview in the summer 2007 issue of the Gay travel magazine The Out Traveler. |
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