Rex Wockner

International News

by Rex Wockner - SGN Contributing Writer Latvian officials want to fence in Pride Latvia's prime minister and integration minister said April 24 that they want Riga's Gay pride parade to again take place inside a fenced-in park, to protect celebrants from violent anti-Gay protesters. Last year, armed with a court ruling that the ban on the 2006 parade was unconstitutional, more than 500 GLBT people marched inside Vermanes Park under heavy police protection, dodging only a paint bomb, an ice-cream cone and a few firecrackers. In 2006, after the City Council banned the parade, organizers held a service at a church and meetings at a hotel. The attendees were attacked by Christian, ultranationalist and neo-Nazi protesters who pelted them with eggs, rotten food and feces. In 2005, about 150 marchers attempted to march in the streets. They were outnumbered by around 1,000 anti-Gay protesters who hurled insults, bottles and rotten eggs; blocked the streets; and forced the parade to be rerouted. The protesters chanted "No sodomy" and "Gays fuck the nation." The move to again fence in Pride was criticized by the director of the Latvian Human Rights Center, Ilze Brands-Kehre, who accused the government of interfering with freedom of assembly. Serbia vows to protect GLBT Eurovision attendees Belgrade's police department has promised to protect the throngs of GLBT people who typically travel to the Eurovision Song Contest - being held in Serbia this year because a Serbian singer won it last year. The vow came at an April 24 meeting between the Gay-Straight Alliance, Interior Ministry officials, contest officials, Belgrade police and the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation. "The issue, and fears upon this matter, are mostly a product of lots of threats of cleric-fascistic organizations in Serbia - such as Obraz, whose president ... uses every single public appearance to announce open hunt on LGBT population of fans who are about to attend the ESC 2008," the Gay-Straight Alliance said in an English-language press release. Kurt Krickler of the European Pride Organisers Association, which has taken interest in the matter, said "it's difficult to judge" if the meeting means Belgrade will be safe for GLBT contest attendees. "I believe the Serbian authorities have realized that the safety of LGBT song contest fans is an important issue, and at least the authorities seem to understand that it would badly damage Serbia's image abroad if incidents of homophobic violence occurred," Krickler said in an interview. "I am convinced the police will do everything to prevent homophobic incidents but of course there cannot be a policeman behind every foreign visitor. ... I would still recommend Gay visitors to keep a low profile and, for example, not wave rainbow flags in the streets." The campy song contest, now in its 53rd year, is hugely popular among European Gays. Forty-three nations have entered this year's competition, which culminates May 24. The European Broadcasting Union will stream the contest over the Web at broadcast quality. See eurovision.tv for details. Singapore TV station fined for too-Gay broadcast Singapore's Media Development Authority has fined MediaCorp TV's Channel 5 $11,000 for airing a program that was too Gay-friendly. The home and decor series Find and Design made the error of being too accepting when it helped a Gay couple transform their game room into a nursery for their adopted baby, the authority said. "The episode contained several scenes of the Gay couple with their baby as well as the presenter's congratulations and acknowledgement of them as a family unit in a way which normalises their Gay lifestyle and unconventional family setup," the regulator said April 24. "This is in breach of the Free-to-Air TV Programme Code which disallows programmes that promote, justify or glamourise Gay lifestyles." Gay sex is illegal in Singapore and could lead to a two-year jail sentence. Last year, Channel 5 was fined $3,700 for showing a Lesbian kiss on the imported U.S. series Without a Trace. Canadian charity must pay fired Lesbian, stop discriminating The large Ontario charity Christian Horizons, which helps disabled people, must pay $23,000 to a Lesbian it fired and stop discriminating based on sexual orientation, the provincial Human Rights Tribunal ruled April 25. Connie Heintz will receive $8,000 for being discriminated against, $10,000 for suffering a poisoned work environment and $5,000 for willful and reckless infliction of mental anguish. She also will be compensated for nearly two years' lost wages and benefits plus interest, minus any income she made working elsewhere. Horizons operates with substantial government funding and does not restrict its services to people who share its beliefs, which, the tribunal said, makes it a "public service" subject to the Ontario Human Rights Code. The tribunal also ordered the agency to stop requiring staff to sign a "Lifestyle and Morality Statement" that banned them from engaging in extramarital, premarital or Gay sex and from using or endorsing alcohol or tobacco. "When faith-based and other organizations move beyond serving the interests of their particular community to serving the general public, the rights of others, including employees, must be respected," said Barbara Hall, chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Spanish activist awarded government honors Veteran Spanish Gay activist Jordi Petit of Barcelona was awarded the Catalonian government's Cross of Saint George on April 22. "(It) is the highest award that is granted in Catalonia, a very honorific distinction that each year the government of Catalonia grants to a few people, more or less 20, who have distinguished themselves by their work or their life - in science, art, culture, social movements, etc.," Petit said in an interview. The ceremony, followed by a champagne reception, was heavily covered by all media. "So many people have congratulated me, including strangers in the street," Petit said. The awards were handed out by José Montilla, president of the autonomous Catalonian government. With assistance from Bill Kelley

picture top: Jordi Petit; picture bottom: Marija Serifovic

by Rex Wockner - SGN Contributing Writer "I never struggled with it [being Gay] or thought about it. It's something that tends to come up when you hit puberty, but my attendance at junior high and high school was brief and very sporadic. My parents didn't seem to have any issue with Gayness. I had no religious upbringing whatsoever, so I had no concept of it being a sin." -Running With Scissors author Augusten Burroughs to The Advocate, May 6. "There are some inconvenient truths that I'm now a born-again, sanctified, saved-in-the-blood Christian. So much of what's said and done in the name of that Christianity is appalling. According to my Bible, which I didn't write, homosexuality is immoral. But homosexuality is no more or less a sin than fornication. And I'm a fornicator with a capital F." -Singer Michelle Shocked to the Dallas Voice, April 18. "I never thought of myself as that [a Gay icon], and it never even crossed my mind when people started calling me icon and legend and all this other stuff. I remember I was over in Europe and I called my boyfriend once because they had introduced me on a show as a legend, and I said, 'You know they introduced me as 'the legendary Janet Jackson,' and he said, 'You are.' I never thought of that or looked at myself in that way." -Singer Janet Jackson to E! Online, April 22. "I'd be upset [if my boyfriend came out as Gay] because I want to be with him. It's so funny because I joke with him that it drives me crazy to be a girl sometimes, so in my next life I'm going to come back as a guy and [he's] going to be my bitch. But if he liked guys, I would be crushed." -Singer Janet Jackson to E! Online, April 22. "I think it [same-sex marriage] should be legalized. I think it's about finding your soulmate. It's finding that person you connect with. But most people don't get it right. Look at me! The thing is, I don't know if I ever will or won't get married again. I'm very happy where I am. I just think I jinx marriages, but that's not going to stop me from loving." -Singer Janet Jackson to E! Online, April 22. "I couldn't win any fight. Anyone could beat me up. So in high school, as a juvenile delinquent hag, basically, I learned that people who would beat you up, if you could make them laugh, they wouldn't beat you up, and maybe they'd sleep with you!" -Gay filmmaker John Waters on TV's The Daily Show, April 22. "I just did my book-signing tour and I went to San Francisco and it was such a great moment because there's a drag queen called Suppositori Spelling and I've totally been a fan and wanted to meet her for years. I took a photo and will put it on my MySpace." -Actress Tori Spelling to Philadelphia Gay News, April 11. "I have something of a weakness for potato chips. An enormous weakness, actually. I live and die for salty, crispy food. I'd rather have potato chips than ice cream or chocolate." -Queer Eye food guy Ted Allen to San Diego's Gay & Lesbian Times, April 17. "You [Gay celebrities] get a lot of baggage coming at you from the Gay world - to behave in a certain manner, to say a certain thing and be a certain person. And I've always been very lefty, very urban and very downtown in the way that I deliver my message, and that's very hard on a lot of middle-class, mainstream quote-unquote Gay people. I've never been one of 'the Gays' - I've always been one of the Queers." -Comic/singer/actress Lea DeLaria to the Kansas Gay magazine Liberty Press, April issue. "They let me play straight people and they let me play Gay people. They let me play men and women and anything I want to play. So I'm really lucky in that respect because a lot of times if Gay people come out they're just stuck playing a certain kind of role for the rest of their life." -Comic/singer/actress Lea DeLaria to the Kansas Gay magazine Liberty Press, April issue. "This is the 4000th post on JMG. As I said in December for post 3000, what HAVE we been going on about? Oh, wait. I do know: blah, bears, blah, Gay marriage, blah, wingnuts, blah, Clintobama, blah-dee-freekin-blah. Sheesh." -Popular Gay blogger Joe Jervis (Joe.My.God.), April 18. "Under an Obama administration, the United States will lead by setting a strong example, which includes making clear that asylum for persecuted people is a bedrock principle of American and international law. Moreover, Obama will exert diplomatic pressure and employ other foreign policy tools to encourage other nations to address human rights abuses and atrocities committed against LGBT men and women." -Statement from Barack Obama's campaign, April 21. "I don't think that the LGBT community should take its cues from me or some political leader in terms of what they think is right for them. Real change comes from the bottom up, not the top down. As your president, I will fight to make LGBT equality a reality at the federal level. But it is the LGBT community that has to decide what is in their best interest, and to help make it happen by engaging actively with the political process." -Barack Obama to the Carolinas Gay newspaper Q-Notes, April 30. "If you're reading these words I will have put down my camera, switched off the lights, drawn the curtains and taken my final bow. May all the efforts and work of a whole life, the quest for the moment of pure truth in the sublime communion of two beings under the spell of the undefinable desire for the other, inspire those who inherit my heart." -From the final post on the blog of famed French Gay porn director Jean Daniel Cadinot, who died April 23 of a heart attack at age 64. "Over the past 10 years more than 10,000 personnel have been discharged as a result of [Don't Ask, Don't Tell], including 800 with skills deemed 'mission critical,' such as pilots, combat engineers, and linguists. These are the very job functions for which the military has experienced personnel shortfalls. General John M. Shalikashvili, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1993 when the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy was enacted, no longer supports the policy because he now believes that allowing Gay men and women to serve openly in the military would no longer create intolerable tension among personnel and undermine cohesion. A recent Zogby poll supports this view. It found that three-quarters of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans were comfortable interacting with Gay people." -Lawrence J. Korb, assistant secretary of defense under President Reagan, testifying before the House Committee on Armed Services, April 16. "This tribute to Harvey Milk is long overdue. It is indeed time for his legacy to be commemorated with a place of honor and distinction in San Francisco's City Hall." -San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in a press release about a sculpture that will be installed in City Hall's Ceremonial Rotunda on May 22. Milk, an openly Gay city supervisor, was assassinated in 1978. "The episode contained several scenes of the Gay couple with their baby as well as the presenter's congratulations and acknowledgement of them as a family unit in a way which normalises their Gay lifestyle and unconventional family setup. This is in breach of the Free-to-Air TV Programme Code which disallows programmes that promote, justify or glamourise Gay lifestyles." --Singapore's Media Development Authority in an April 24 decision fining Channel 5 $11,000 for an episode of Find and Design. With assistance by Bill Kelley

picture top - Lea DeLaria; picture bottom - Joe Jervis