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Saturday, Sep 06, 2008
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Rex Wockner |
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| International News | |
| Cameroon jails Gay men Six men were jailed in Cameroon in mid-August after a young man who had been arrested on theft charges was coerced by police into naming his Gay friends, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission reported. "The tactics of the Cameroonian government define the term 'witch hunt,'" said Cary Alan Johnson, IGLHRC's senior program officer for Africa. "Imagine being forced to denounce your friends. Imagine finding yourself in prison because your name is on a list." More than 20 people have been detained in the past two years under Article 347 of Cameroon's penal code, which criminalizes consensual sex between men. "Hardly a month goes by without reports of the arrests of people because of their sexuality," said Steave Nemande, director of the Gay group Alternatives-Cameroun. Nemande recently wrote a letter to the Ministry of Justice in an attempt to address the situation. Dutch Gays worried about anti-Gay attacks An increase in Gay-bashings on the streets of Amsterdam this year is worrying some Dutch Gay people. A new survey conducted by the EenVandaag television show and the national Gay group COC found that 42 percent of Gays and Lesbians feel less safe in public than they did a year ago, ?dutchnews.nl reported. Of that 42 percent, 38 percent said they have encountered anti-Gay situations in the streets -- 64 percent of which were verbal assaults and 12 percent of which were physical attacks. Pollsters questioned 1,980 Gay people as part of a larger survey of 23,000 Dutch residents. Overall, 61 percent of respondents said the Netherlands is a Gay-friendly country and 72 percent support the nation's law that allows same-sex couples to marry. COC originally stood for Cultuur en Ontspannings-Centrum (Culture and Leisure Center) but the organization now is known solely by its former initials. Nova Scotia Gays sue city over flag snub Pride organizers in Truro, Nova Scotia, have filed a complaint with the provincial Human Rights Commission over the Town Council's refusal to raise the rainbow flag over the Civic Building during August's pride festivities. "[We] believe that there is some form of homophobia in the works there," Charles Thompson, spokesman for Truro Pride, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The council has OK'd flying flags for other groups and organizations. The vote against the Gay flag was 6-1. Mayor Bill Mills remarked: "God says, 'I'm not in favor of that [homosexuality],' and I have to look at it and say, 'I guess I'm not, either.' "If I have a group of people that says pedophiles should have rights, do we raise their flag too? I don't want to lump them in with homosexuals, but that's the point, the issues, and that's my feeling. There doesn't seem to be standards anymore. Everything is OK, everything is a go." Truro, population 12,000, is about 60 miles (96 km) northwest of Halifax. Hungarian radio station fires anti-Gay editors Budapest's Lánchid Rádió station fired two editors Aug. 29 after they posted a doctored photograph on the station's Web site that showed openly Gay government official Gábor Szetey wearing a pink triangle and standing outside the Auschwitz ?concentration camp. Szetey, the federal human resources secretary of state, publicly came out July 5 as he opened Budapest's 12th Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Festival of culture and arts. Responding to the photo incident, Szetey told reporters he "cannot be intimidated." The radio station's management called the picture "impermissible and offensive" and apologized to Szetey and anyone else who found it upsetting. Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány also denounced the image, calling it ?"a scoundrel act." "The fascists are gathering," Gyurcsany said. "They are not knocking on the door, they are right here among us." On July 7, Budapest's Gay pride parade was attacked by hundreds of skinheads, neo-Nazis and other thugs. They threw eggs, bottles, smoke bombs, Molotov cocktails and bags of sand at the 2,000 marchers, physically attacked several marchers, and pelted police with beer bottles. The protesters chanted, "Faggots into the Danube, followed by the Jews," "Soap factory" and "Filthy faggots." Dozens more pride attendees were attacked in the vicinity of the post-parade party at the open-air, riverside Buddha Beach nightclub, the parade's endpoint. In his pride-week coming-out speech, Szetey said: "It is not your choice whether you are Gay or not, but it is your choice to accept it. ... I believe in truth and I am sick and tired of lies. ... I believe that we can and we have to break the culture of silence. I have to say out loud who am I, so that finally my own decisions direct my destiny. We have to say it out loud so that we take control of our lives. So that we can be what we are meant to be. ... So that we don't have to live two different lives. One public life and one secret life. Indonesian Gay film fest gains acceptance The sixth Q! Film Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia, attracted less opposition than in some previous years when Muslim protesters tried to halt screenings. The event, which ran from Aug. 24 to Sept. 2, featured 80 movies, making it the largest Gay film festival in Asia. An Indonesian documentary shown at the festival focused on the "sacred transvestites" of a community on the island of Sulawesi. 60,000 at Copenhagen pride Some 60,000 people turned out for Copenhagen's Gay pride parade Aug. 25, the highlight of 11 days of pride events. A party followed in Town Hall Square featuring Danish and Swedish entertainers. A report on the Euro-Queer e-mail list said media coverage of the events was scant. Aussie transsexual loses birth-certificate case A postoperative transsexual in the Australian state of Victoria lost a federal court case Aug. 29 in which she sought to have her sex changed from male to female on her birth certificate. In a 2-1 ruling, the court said the unnamed woman could not switch her official sex because she is married and Australian federal law specifically bans same-sex marriage. |
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| "[I]f our Constitution really means what it says, that all are created equal, if it really means what it says, that there should be equality of opportunity before the law, then our brothers and sisters who happen to be Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Transgender should have the same rights accorded to them as anyone else, and that includes the ability to have a civil marriage ceremony."
-Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich at the CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate, July 23. "How would I want my two daughters treated if they grew up and had a different sexual orientation than their parents? Good jobs, equal opportunity, to be able to retire, to visit each other, to be with each other, as other people do. So I feel very strongly, if you ask yourself the question, 'How would you like your children treated if they had a different sexual orientation than their parents?' the answer is, 'Yes, they ought to have that ability in civil unions.' I don't go so far as to call for marriage. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman." -Presidential candidate Christopher Dodd at the CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate, July 23. "I would do what is achievable. What I think is achievable is full civil unions with full marriage rights." -Presidential candidate Bill Richardson at the CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate, July 23. "I feel enormous personal conflict about this issue [same-sex marriage]. I want to end discrimination. I want ... equal rights, substantive rights, civil unions ... but I personally have been on a journey on this issue. I feel enormous conflict about it. As I think a lot of people know ... my wife Elizabeth spoke out a few weeks ago, and she actually supports Gay marriage. I do not. But this is a very, very difficult issue for me. And I recognize and have enormous respect for people who have a different view of it." -Presidential candidate John Edwards at the CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate, July 23. "I remember hearing [former GOP Sen. Rick] Santorum ranting about how homosexual marriage threatens heterosexual marriage. I could be wrong, but I think heterosexual marriage is threatened more by heterosexuals. I don't know why Gay marriage challenges my marriage in any way." -Elizabeth Edwards, wife of presidential candidate John Edwards, to Salon.com, July 17. "[W]e've got to make sure that everybody is equal under the law. And the civil unions that I proposed would be equivalent in terms of making sure that all the rights that are conferred by the state are equal for same-sex couples as well as for heterosexual couples. Now, with respect to marriage, it's my belief that it's up to the individual denominations to make a decision as to whether they want to recognize marriage or not. But in terms of, you know, the rights of people to transfer property, to have hospital visitation, all those critical civil rights that are conferred by our government, those should be equal." -Presidential candidate Barack Obama at the CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate, July 23. "My only ask was that if his [Dick Cheney's] daughter doubted my tolerance to her [Lesbian] orientation that I would hope that he would help make it clear to Mary that this is a - I was just worried about - the reason I'd federalized the issue [of same-sex marriage] is because I was worried about the courts' defining the issue and that we'd end up with de facto marriage that was not traditionally defined, I guess is the best way to put it." -President George W. Bush to Weekly Standard writer Stephen F. Hayes in his new book "Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President," as reported by The New Republic, July 16. "You know when we lost everything, it was the Gay people that came to my rescue and I will always love them for that." -Tammy Faye (Bakker) Messner on TV's Larry King Live, July 19. She died the following day, of lung cancer. "I feel great about it [being a Gay icon] because I feel that it's a platform for my purpose, which is to bring the love and music of Christ to all of my fans. And because they trust me, I think, they know my music is honest and they believe me to be honest, and perhaps, because of that, they will follow where I'm leading. I want to lead them to Christ and what he has for them, not what I have for them. I have no hell for anyone to go to. I want to lead them to him, I want to lead them to truth. ... I want to lead them to Christ, simply, and whatever he has for them." -Singer Gloria (I Will Survive) Gaynor to BBC Radio 4, July 13. The final sentence was a response to the question, "That doesn't necessarily mean to you that you see homosexuality as something sinful?" Gaynor paused before answering the question. "I don't give a shit. I've never cared about the Gay rumor. It's so stupid. It's funny because people are always infatuated with that. A lot of the guys that say that are the typical guys that are insecure with themselves. I've heard so many rumors about so many people being Gay that it's ridiculous. I've sure you've heard a million." -Singer Enrique Iglesias to the New York Gay magazine HX, July 7. "It's [Lesbians] such an insular community - at least, it is in LA. It's so very small - really, that six degrees of separation thing where so many women have slept with so many others and all know each other." -The L Word star Jennifer Beals to the British Lesbian glossy Diva, August issue. "The Gay community has been my constant supporter. I used to sing in wet bars at four a.m. - I am not even sure such bars exist anymore. Not only did they have respect for me but they also paid me well. I have had many, many setbacks, heartaches, losses and even though I have been very, very low I have never seen rock bottom and that is because when the rest of the world didn't want anything to do with me, the Gay community supported me, they literally kept me from a life on the streets. But for them I would not exist. They have been very faithful to me. God is faithful too. So it's God and the Gay community that have kept me here." -Dreamgirls original Jennifer Holliday to Ohio's Gay People's Chronicle, June 22. "I have been a supporter [of the Human Rights Campaign] for six years now. Basically the Gay community has been my sole source of survival, especially when I was really down and out. So this is my way of giving back. If lending my name can help them then that's great. I wish I have money of my own to give but I'm not wealthy." -Dreamgirls original Jennifer Holliday to Ohio's Gay People's Chronicle, June 22. "I had gastric bypass surgery and lost two hundred pounds. I had always assumed that all my problems were connected to my weight. And then when I lost the weight I realized I still had the problems. I didn't have a career, I didn't have a boyfriend, I can't get along with people. And even recently I have had many losses, many heartaches. I lost my mother to cancer, a couple of relationships that failed. But I am trying to move on. I am beginning to find out how to make it all work, hoping I will survive, that I will make it." -Dreamgirls original Jennifer Holliday to Ohio's Gay People's Chronicle, June 22. "It would be impertinent of me to comment on Singapore society but this happens to be a law [the Gay-sex ban] that I find personally offensive and I don't think it should be on the statute books because it inhibits my free behavior as an openly Gay man. I feel free to comment on behalf of people who do have to suffer laws which the British empire invented and left behind. The press like to talk to actors. They mustn't be surprised when actors talk back to them. We are privileged that we have access to the media and our opinions sometimes are reported and I appreciate that. But I only speak on things that I am an expert on. ... You won't hear me talk about my politics, you won't hear me talk about my vegetarianism, you won't hear me comment on the Iraq war. You'll only hear me talk about being Gay and being an actor. I am just public on those two issues." -Sir Ian McKellen speaking to Reuters in Singapore, July 19. "[T]he fire chief is Gay, the mayor has Gay senior staff, a City Council member and a state senator are Gay, a superior court judge is Gay, the county's district attorney and innumerable lesser officials: Gay, Gay, Gay. Forget 'Don't ask, don't tell.' In millennial San Diego, the motto these days is, 'Who knows, who cares?'" -Writer Eric Wolff in the San Diego weekly newspaper CityBEAT, July 18. "[W]hen you're single and you've finally made it past the age when you've felt both love's deepest tongue probings and also its most random horror-flick slashings, past the age when getting moronically drunk every weekend and hooking up is the ultimate goal and you've had enough sex to fill a thousand porn movies and everyone around you is no longer on some sort of giddy, wide-eyed first-adult-relationship must-get-married must-have-babies track of impossibly optimistic utopian desire, what it means, at least for me, is that you get to become this odd sort of sounding board - a blank slate of love's warped potential, a reason for others to extrapolate on the nature of love and life and sex and how goddamn difficult/wonderful/impossible it all really is." -Straight San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford, who frequently writes about Gay stuff, in his July 25 column. |
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