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Friday, April 29, 2011

Oklahoma Gets Official State Gospel Song

On Tuesday, Oklahoma's House voted unanimously to make Swing Low, Sweet Chariot the official state gospel song. No other state has an official religious song.
When state Representative Jabar Shumate of Tulsa (left), the Oklahoma bill's House sponsor, was asked by a colleague to give a rendering of the song on the House floor on Monday, he declined, saying his pastor told him to always sing solo -- "so low nobody can hear." Even without a performance, no one voted against the song. "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" was written in 1862, when Oklahoma was still Indian Territory, by a Choctaw Freedman named Wallis Wallis. It's said the Red River made Wallis think of the Jordan River, and the song was loosely based on a Bible passage that describes the Prophet Elijah being taken to heaven in a chariot. "It should be a source of pride to all Oklahomans that this meaningful song was written in our state," Shumate said.
Gov. Mary Fallin signed the bill into law last night.
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Quote Of The Day - Peter Sprigg

"In any discussion of 'sexual orientation,' it is important to remember that this is only an umbrella term for three quite different things—a person’s sexual attractions, the sexual behavior, and their self-identification. In the survey upon which this study was based, there was only a single question on 'sexual orientation,' which asked 'which of the following best describes you.' The choices were 'heterosexual (straight), gay or lesbian, bisexual' or 'not sure.'

"This is essentially a measure of self-identification. Therefore, the logical take-away from the study would be this: the most effective way of reducing teen suicide attempts is not to create a 'positive social environment' for the affirmation of homosexuality. Instead, it would be to discourage teens from self-identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual." - Family Research Council bigot Peter Sprigg, in an FRC article denouncing last week's Pediatrics study on teen suicide.

According to Sprigg, gay kids wouldn't kill themselves so much if adults would just do a better job of browbeating them out of accepting their sexuality. Seriously.
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NOM Signs Up For Diaz Rally

NOM has officially aligned themselves with NY Sen. Ruben Diaz' massive anti-gay hate rally, which takes place in the Bronx on Sunday, May 15th, the day of the AIDS Walk in Central Park.
On May 15, Rev Díaz called for a rally in the Bronx and I will be there! Talk about fighting for marriage in the deep blue country! But marriage is an extraordinary issue which gathers together people of all races, creeds and colors in defense of an idea: Marriage is the way we bring together the two great halves of humanity, male and female, in part so that children can know the love of their mom and dad. We're gearing up with Rev. Díaz and thousands of New Yorkers to fight for marriage. Pray for Rev. Díaz and for all on the front lines of this fight, will you? And following Rev. Díaz's lead, pray for those who wish to redefine marriage—for their safety, for a new spirit of civility and decency—and for the conversion of their hearts to support for marriage. - Brian Brown.
As in 2009, I will among the likely few counter-protesters at the Diaz rally. If you plan on attending, you might consider including respectful messages in Spanish on your signage. The odds are high that your image will end up in the other side's materials.
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Tony Perkins: Gay Activists Are Terrorists

"This has moved from cultural terrorism to corporate terrorism. That's what this is. Now, back in the 80's and early 90's I worked with the state department in anti-terrorism and we trained about fifty different countries in defending against terrorism, and it's, at it's base, what terrorism is, it's a strike against the general populace simply to spread fear and intimidation so that they can disrupt and destabilize the system of government. That's what the homosexuals are doing here to the legal system." - Hate group leader Tony Perkins, on King & Spalding's DOMA withdrawal.

Just three days ago we were cowards, now we're terrorists. Make up your diseased mind, Miss Perkins.
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HomoQuotable -Jimmy LaSalvia

"Our organization’s number one goal between now and November 2012 is defeating Barack Obama. We look forward to the Iowa Straw Poll as the kickoff to this effort. Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House has been an unmitigated disaster for all Americans, including gay and lesbian Americans. Defeating Barack Obama and putting a conservative in the White House should be the number one goal of every single person in the conservative movement." - GOProud president Jimmy LaSalvia, who hilariously adds that "this Republican presidential field is shaping up to be an incredibly strong one."
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Spike in searches causes Google to suggest “James Middleton Gay”


The search engine Google has begun to auto-suggest “James Middleton gay” following a surge in searches on the younger brother of Catherine ‘Kate’, Duchess of Cambridge.

Mr Middleton, who is a cake designer, gave a reading earlier today at the marriage of his sister to Prince William. As soon as he began to speak, hundreds of people asked on Twitter and other social media networks if he is gay. There is no evidence to suggest that he is.

An increase in searches on Google for the term “James Middleton gay” has led to the search engine auto-suggesting the term “James Middleton gay” when a user begins to type his name.

Google’s suggested terms are driven by the volume of people querying a particular term as opposed to an algorithm or editorial involvement by the company. In 2006, the search engine auto-suggested “Ashley Cole gay” when users searched for his name. The spike in traffic relating to Cole coincided with his legal battle with the News of the World that wrongly implied that he was involved in a gay sex incident with a well known DJ.

The social media traffic relating to Mr Middleton today has included users sharing photographs of him partying in one of his sister’s dresses and another dressed as a French maid. A third photograph shows him naked aside from a strategically placed bottle of beer.

The Daily Telegraph reports that last month Mr Middleton posted a photograph on his Facebook page showing “four men, backs to camera, with their trousers around their ankles and bottoms on show standing on a country road called Back Lane.”
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Remembering the Admiral Duncan bombing 12 years on


Tomorrow marks the twelfth anniversary of the Admiral Duncan nail bomb attack on April 30th 1999 in Soho.

It was one of three nail bomb attacks and killed three people, while 80 were injured.

While the incidents in Brixton and Brick Lane were targeted directly towards ethnic minorities, the Admiral Duncan bombing was a vicious attack intended to kill gay people.

The bomb detonated in the busy pub at 6.37pm. The location was an obvious choice for bomber David Copeland due to its location in Old Compton Street, at the heart of London’s gay community. Allegedly, it was the first gay pub chosen from an alphabetical list.

One witness described the scene as “absolute carnage”, with several people blown out of the pub into the street.

What made the situation even more frightening, was that no warning was given and many were anxious that another explosion was set to go off, causing panic in the streets. Many injured were treated on the roadside, while others fled the area.

At the time, many gay people had seen the area of Old Compton Street as a safe haven where they could socialise without fear of homophobic attacks. The explosion inevitably changed all this and highlighted the prejudice inherent in society that many had forgotten existed.

Peter Tatchell summed this view up after the attack, saying: “This outrage has destroyed that cosy assumption.”

Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Alan Fry, head of the Metropolitan Police’s anti-terrorist branch, said that when officers arrived at the scene they were confronted by utter devastation. He said: “It was an horrendous scene. It was a complete wreck.”

The device exploded at the start of a bank holiday weekend so the Old Compton Street area had been heaving with people. It was a pre-mediated attack in which the aim was to hurt and kill as many gay people as possible.

Copeland, a former BNP member and neo-Nazi, was so fuelled by hate that he did not consider integration in any of his attacks.

In this, where he thought he would be attacking specific groups because the areas he targeted were known to be either gay areas, or ethnic areas, he faltered. In all three attacks, he injured whites and straight people.

One of these was Andrea Dykes, 27, who was four months pregnant. She was was instantly killed while enjoying pre-theatre drinks at the Admiral Pub and her husband was one of those seriously injured.

Their friend, Nik Moorem, 31, was also killed and the best man at their wedding, John Light, 32, later died in hospital.

There is now a memorial and a plaque in the pub to commemorate those injured and killed in the blast.

The explosions were set off by David Copeland, then 22, whose objective was to wage a war against ethnic minorities and gay people in Britain.

He was arrested at his flat in Sunnybank Road, Farnborough, where police found Nazi flags and a poster of Adolf Hitler in the middle of a collage of photos of bomb victims.

He is currently serving six life sentences in Broadmoor Hospital at Crowthorne.

In March 2007, the High Court ruled Copeland could not be released before 2049, when he will be 73.

The initial sentence ordered him to spend at least 30 years behind bars but this was extended due to what the High Court judge described as the case’s “exceptional gravity”.

One year on from the tragedy, in 2000, a memorial service was held at St Anne’s church nearby to mark the anniversary of the bomb, an event which has been carried out ever since.

A trio of cherry trees were planted on the church grounds in dedication to Andrea Dykes, John Light and Nik Moorem. The trees symbolised the three local London communities: Soho, Brick Lane, and Brixton, which were left in chaos by the three nail bombings.

Today, the Admiral Duncan will remember the tenth anniversary of the bombing.

There will be a two-minute silence at 6.37 pm at St Anne’s Gardens, which will stay open until 7.30pm for those wishing to pay their respects. The Rector of St Anne’s Chruch will also say a few words for families and friends.
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Interview: Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard, the man with the X Factor


You might not know his name, but you can’t fail to know Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard’s music. Working with The Spice Girls, Kylie, U2 and countless other bands and artists he’s arguably written and produced some of the best songs in the history of pop music.

Born in London’s east end in 1966, Stannard says he stood out from his brothers at an early age.

“It’s a bit of a Billy Elliot story really,” he says. “I grew up in a very masculine environment. My brothers were all fighters and I was literally going jazz-tap rather than boxing. When I was four I would get two bricks and a bit of wood and stand outside our terraced house tap-dancing for money.”

He left home at the age of 17 with the aim of becoming a dancer.

“I earned money doing window dressing and some other bits and pieces. I did some bad deejaying and ran around with Philip Sallon and the Mud Club crowd for a while. It was all music, music, music and clubbing all the time.”

It was while he was dating Tom Watkins, The Pet Shop Boys’ former manager, that Stannard met Tony Mortimer.

“He had these tunes on a little cassette. House of Love was one of them. Deep was another. I heard them and I was like: ‘This is brilliant, let’s play it to Tom.’ Tom loved it but wanted Tony to be part of a band. He was impressed that I’d seen the material’s potential and my career in music sort of started from that. I helped put East 17 together and House of Love was the first hit I produced. I started co-writing with them on their second album.”

East 17 went on to sell more than 20 million records, although Stannard ceased working with them after he and Watkins split up. Within a month of the break-up however, Stannard had a surprise encounter with a girl called Melanie.

He was walking down a corridor in West London’s Nomis Studios, having finished a meeting with Jason Donovan, when Mel B jumped on his back and told him he had an arse like a black man.

“She asked me what I did and I mentioned the song Steam and East 17. She said she loved it and dragged me in to meet them all. We were all best mates in 20 minutes. I went and got Matt Rowe who I’d been doing stuff with and within ten days we’d written Wannabe and 2 Become 1.”

Wannabe, of course, went to number one in 37 countries and launched the Spice Girls as a global phenomenon. The group went on to sell more than 75 million records.

Was he just in the right place at the right time?

“We were working 18-hour days, seven days a week. We wrote Wannabe quite quickly, but it took ages to get it to sound right. I remember waking up on the studio floor with this post-it from Matt saying, ‘Press play.’ We’d finally got it. So it was luck and hard work.”

Since The Spice Girls and their respective solo careers Stannard has written songs for Kylie, Will Young, Gabrielle, Five, Westlife, Ellie Goulding and Sophie Ellis Bextor to name just a few.

I ask him if he’s a frustrated pop star.

“Not at all. I don’t have that ambition to be looked at. I work with people who have that though and it fascinates me.”

What makes him such a good songwriter?

“A lot of people say my strength is being able to morph into different people. I can work with U2 and become Bono. Then I can be a girl with pigtails and be a Spice Girl. I tend to write happy songs because I’m a very happy person.”

Right now he’s happier than usual: later this year he’ll be marrying his partner Pat in a civil partnership.

“It’s kind of soppy, but meeting Pat has changed everything for me. Simon noticed it in me instantly.”

That would be Simon Cowell.

“I’ve known Simon for ages. Over the years he’s asked me to do a lot of stuff, but when he asked me to do X Factor I hadn’t worked with him for like 12 years. It was such a great opportunity. I started off doing one of the groups with Dannii. I’d help choose the songs, arrange them and record them and my role just sort of grew from there.”

During their first X Factor meeting, Cowell sensed something different about him.

“He smiled and asked me: ‘Who is he?’ I told him I’d met Pat and he said: ‘I knew it!’ He’s incredibly perceptive.”

I ask him why he took the X Factor job.

“I just thought it would be fun. It’s very hard work, but I love the idea of 20 million people watching. No matter how big a hit you have nowadays you never get an audience that big anywhere else. I’m not doing it for the money. Neither does Simon. Because of it though I’ve got to work with Matt, Rebecca and One Direction. I’m doing Matt’s album now.”

How does he answer the criticism that shows like X Factor are destroying the traditional music industry?

“Rubbish,” he says. “Shows like X Factor give a voice to the people who aren’t lucky enough to be born in London and weren’t bought a Power Mac by their parents.”

I ask him what he makes of the decline in album sales the music industry typically bemoans?

“There’s not been a decline for the big releases. Look at the Take That’s Progress: it outsold all of their previous albums. When you’ve got a good pop record it sells. Part of the decline is because nowadays kids are buying different stuff. It’s just the recent phenomena have been Harry Potter and Call of Duty, not albums.”

With a Spice Girls musical in the works, written by Jennifer Saunders, 2011 looks like being another busy year for Stannard.

Does he work too hard?

“Maybe. Pat’s very good at telling me when to stop. Otherwise I’d be working in the studio until three o’clock in the morning every night. He’s amazing.”

“A lot of the artists I’ve worked with are coming to our wedding. They’re Pat’s friends as much as mine. He’s really shy, but he’ll sit and sing Especially For You on SingStar with Kylie and not be phased by it. I’m a very lucky guy.”

Lucky? Perhaps. But very, very talented with it.
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Atlanta Braves coach accused of anti-gay slurs


The coach of the Atlanta Braves, Roger McDowell, has been accused of shouting homophobic slurs at fans during a match last Saturday.

During the game at the AT&T Park in San Francisco, he allegedly asked three Giants fans: “Are you a homo couple or a threesome?”

He reportedly made lewd gestures at them and threatened another fan with a baseball bat.

American lawyer Gloria Allred was in the stands with Giants fan Justin Quinn and his family.

She said Mr Quinn asked Mr McDowell to mind his language in front of children. Mr McDowell allegedly responded: “Kids don’t [expletive] belong at the baseball park.”

Ms Allred claimed that the coach then walked towards Mr Quinn with a baseball bat, asking: “How much are your teeth worth?”

In a statement, Mr McDowell said: “I am deeply sorry that I responded to the heckling fans in San Francisco on Saturday. I apologise to everyone for my actions.”

Mr Quinn has demanded an apology, a fine for Mr McDowell and an order for him to attend sensitivity training.

The Atlanta Braves said: “This in no way represents the Braves organisation and the conduct we expect of our employees.

“We will withhold further comments until we finish gathering information.”

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said “real disciplinary action” must be taken.

President Jarrett Barrios said: “McDowell’s apology is a start, but the Atlanta Braves and Major League Baseball must take real disciplinary action and send the message that anti-gay slurs have no place in sports.

“Professional sporting events should be an environment that all fans and families can enjoy, not a place where children are exposed to violent threats and discriminatory language.”
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New Mexico school bans all clubs after gay-straight alliance forms


A school board in New Mexico has voted to ban all school clubs after a gay-straight alliance applied for recognition.

Officials on the Clovis school board said the ban was a coincidence but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) questioned the timing.

The alliance was approved by the principal last month who apparently did not realise that the district superintendent must approve new clubs.

District superintendent Terry Myers told the Albuquerque Journal that the gay-straight alliance’s application did not trigger the ban.

“Being a new superintendent in Clovis, the board asked me to review each policy as it came up and make recommendations or at least bring those to their attention if there’s some question as to what the board truly wants with a particular policy,” he said.

“This was not prompted by a particular request.”

The school board voted to ban any extra-curricular school group from using school premises during school hours. The ban also means that groups cannot use school resources.

Micah McCoy, of the ACLU of New Mexico, told Reuters: “This sort of tactic has been used in the past by school districts to discourage gay-straight clubs from forming. A lot of alarm bells went off when we saw this.”

The gay-straight alliance has not yet been approved. Mr Myers said it would be if it meets normal requirements.
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Gay US politician abandons plan for gay marriage this year


The House Speaker for Rhode Island has abandoned efforts to bring marriage equality to the state this year.

Gordon Fox, who is gay, says he will instead push for civil unions because a gay marriage bill does not have enough support to pass.

He said he still personally supports marriage equality but civil unions are “the best we can do right now”.

Gay rights campaigners were deeply disappointed at his decision and urged him to rethink it.

Mr Fox, a Democrat, said: “This is the best we can do right now. Full marriage will happen. I’m born and bred in Rhode Island. When I do get married it will be in my home state.”

Gay marriage bills have failed in Rhode Island repeatedly in recent years. The latest bill was greeted with more hope, as new governor Lincoln Chafee promised he would sign it if it reached his desk.

Mr Chafee said yesterday: “I think [gay marriage is] inevitable. But it doesn’t look like we had the votes this year.”

Marriage Equality Rhode Island said it was “extremely disappointed” at Mr Fox’s decision.

Martha Holt, chair of the group’s board of directors, said: “Civil unions are a compromise for no one. Advocates both for and against marriage equality have clearly expressed their opposition to the half measure of civil unions.

“We are extremely disappointed in the lack of leadership at the State House and we would urge Speaker Fox to rethink sponsoring legislation that would create a second class of citizens.”

Five states – Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire and Vermont – and the District of Columbia – currently allow gay couples to marry.

Recent national polls have found that just over half of the population support marriage equality.

The latest, by CNN, found that 51 per cent of the 824 adults surveyed said gay couples should be allowed to wed.
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US Marines begin training to accept gay soldiers


US Marines have begun training in preparation to accept openly gay troops.

Before President Obama signed an order to repeal the 17-year-old ban, there was concern that the Marines in particular would react badly to serving alongside out gay colleagues.

A Pentagon survey carried out last year showed that nearly 60 per cent of troops in the most dangerous roles – in the Marines and combat units – said repeal would be damaging.

General James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, said at the time that gay servicemembers might cause a “distraction” that could result in increased injuries and deaths.

According to AP, training materials ask Marines to consider scenarios such as seeing a colleague in a gay bar or hearing locker-room jokes aimed at gay colleagues.

While Marines will not be expected to change their views, the materials say they must follow orders.

“You remain obligated to follow orders that involve interaction with others who are gay or lesbian, even if an unwillingness to do so is based on strong, sincerely held moral or religious beliefs,” the training material states.

Testifying before a Senate Armed Forces hearing earlier this month, Gen Amos said: “We’ve not seen issues. There’s not been anxiety over [out gay soldiers] from the forces in the field … there hasn’t been pushback.”

It is expected that gay soldiers will be permitted to come out at some point during the summer.

The ban will not be lifted until military chiefs have certified that repealing the law will not harm military readiness. Following this, 60 days must pass.
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Anger over Tennessee’s ‘don’t say gay’ bill


The US Senator who introduced a bill to ban discussion of homosexuality in schools says he has received hundreds of angry letters from parents around the world.

Republican Stacey Campfield’s bill, if approved, will ban all teachers in public elementary and middle schools from talking about the subject.

The legislation, known as the ‘don’t say gay bill’, has been compared to the UK’s Section 28 law, which was repealed in 2003.

Last week, it passed a Senate education panel. It will soon go to the Senate floor for a vote.

Mr Campfield claims his bill is neutral and is not anti-gay.

In an interview with CNN, he said: “My bill is neutral. It doesn’t say anybody can speak for it or against it. So, I’m sure people wouldn’t want someone coming out and saying, you know, there are some people who say, you know, we should be preaching against it and saying it’s evil, dirty and wrong, or some people say hey, it’s great, wonderful thing.”

“I don’t think that’s appropriate,” he added. “Like I said, I think we need to let the families decide that.”

Mr Campfield has been pushing for the law for years.

According to On Top magazine, he compared homosexuality to bestiality during an interview in 2009.

Speaking to Sirius XM’s Michelangelo Signorile, he said: “If I want to talk about the bestiality movement, do you think we should be teaching that?”

Mr Campfield also claimed that homosexuality was a “learned behaviour”.

The Tennessee Equality Project said the bill could lead to more gay teen suicides.

“We believe it’s a ploy to advance a social agenda into the classroom,” chairman Jonathan Cole told FoxNews.com.

“And we think it will create an unsafe environment for kids who may be gay, lesbian, transgender or just have questions.”

He added that it would prevent anti-bullying initiatives and ban counsellors from speaking to children who are worried about their sexuality.

“So if they witness a kid being bullied because of sexual orientation, how will they be able to deal with that?” he said.

Similar legislation was introduced in the UK in 1988.

Section 28 of the Local Government Act prevented schoolteachers from educating children about homosexuality, and “the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”, but it was repealed in Scotland in 2000 and in the rest of the UK in 2003.
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Elton John’s mother speaks about rift


Elton John’s mother has spoken out about the rift between her and her son.

Sheila Farebrother, 86, said the pair had not spoken for three years and she had not met the star’s baby son Zachary.

She told the Sun: “He has cut me off completely.

“It happened three years ago this June, he has had nothing to do with me since then.”

Mrs Farebrother, who lives in Sussex, would not say what caused the row but confirmed that the singer still looks after her financially.

“I don’t want to start mud-slinging. It was very painful,” she said.

Sources told the newspaper that Mrs Farebrother had offended Sir Elton’s civil partner David Furnish.

A spokesman for Sir Elton said: “I have never had a conversation with him about whether he talks to his mother. She is a lovely lady but she is 86 and she is frail and old.”
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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Gay man beaten in homophobic south London attack


A gay man has received hospital treatment after being beaten up in a homophobic attack at the weekend.

Chas Andersen, 20, from Bethnal Green, was knocked to the ground and punched twice in the head while trying to use a cash machine on Clapham High street in south-west London, opposite the gay KAZ Bar.

Mr Andersen’s partner, Mike Adler, told Rob Parsons of the London Evening Standard: “The only reason the man started on him was to say the shorts he was wearing were ridiculous.

“[Chas] was standing up for himself and I was standing up for him. The man just switched from yelling backwards and forward to becoming violent.”

Mr Adler was taken to hospital and X-rayed after the attack. He has suffered from blurred vision but was told there would be no permanent physical damage. He said: I have always thought London was the most diverse and open city in the world. For this to happen makes me realise that these people are still around.”

This attack comes only weeks after Philip Sallon, a friend of Boy George and a fixture of London’s alternative and gay scenes since the late 1970s, was beaten in Piccadilly Circus.
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San Francisco’s legendary gay bookshop to close


The last of the four shops owned by A Different Light Bookstores – and the last exclusively LGBT bookstore in San Francisco – is set to close by the end of this month.

The chain, which opened its first shop in Los Angeles in 1979, established the San Francisco branch on Castro Street in the heart of the city’s gay district in 1986.

It was first managed by Terry Anderson, at the time the partner of novelist Armistead Maupin. In 1987, the job was taken over by Richard Labonte, who went on to manage the entire chain for more than a decade.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the shop was a vibrant cultural centre, with frequent in-store events and exhibitions, a vast stock of new and backlist books, self-published books, zines, activist t-shirts and other materials. It also served as a meeting location and message center for a number of ad-hoc radical queer groups in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

A huge number of events were held at the San Francisco store up until 2000, with author readings and other in-store presentations taking place twice a week or more. Those who appeared included Dorothy Allison, Diamanda Galas, Justin Bond and Larry Kramer.

Staff at Gay’s the Word, London’s only remaining independent LGBT bookshop said:

“Sadly we are now witnessing the world’s last independent gay bookshops – pioneers of gay enlightenment and equality – closing one by one.

“For staff at Gay’s the Word in London, the news about A Different Light feels like the loss of a sibling. We send our love and respect to the employees of this fine bookshop.

“Gay bookshops are the mind, heart and soul of the LGBTQ community – institutions that nurture all that is special and unique about us, but that we need to nurture back in return.”
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Moscow gay pride parade now uncertain


Moscow have said they are ‘studying’ the proposal for the city’s first gay pride parade, after it was previously thought to be going ahead.

Nikolai Alexeyev, Russia’s top gay rights activist, said yesterday that the city council had given the go-ahead to the proposed march on 28 May, a claim dismissed by Moscow’s central district head, who said he was not aware of any such event.

But according to the Russian state news agency RAI Novosti, the Moscow city government says it is “studying” a request by a Mr Alexeyeve to hold the country’s first ever gay pride march in the capital.

“We are studying the proposals and will reply in due time,” Lyudmila Shvetsova, overseer of the capital’s social policy, said today.

The current mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, told a radio station back in February he was not in favor of the idea of a gay pride march through the city.
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Last known gay holocaust survivor to receive France’s top honour


The last known gay survivor of the Nazi holocaust is to receive the Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur.

Rudolf Brazda, 97, who spent three years in Buchenwald concentration camp, was recommended for the honour by President Sarkozy.

News of his award came 66 years to the day he left the camp, in 1945.

Philippe Couillet, president of Les Oublié(e)s de la Mémoire (an association campaigning for recognition of the suffering of gay people once imprisoned by the Nazis), said the award marked “a further step in the recognition of the deportation of homosexuals” and was a deserved reward for the bravery Mr Brazda had displayed in speaking publicly about his experience.

Author Alexander Zinn has documented Mr Brazda’s life in a new book titled Das Glück Kam Immer zu Mir (Happiness Always Came to Me). In addition, Mr Zinn has gathered material for a documentary which he hopes will be screened this year, which includes interviews with Mr Brazda and his return to Buchenwald.

It was after the unveiling of the Berlin monument to gay and lesbian holocaust victims that Mr Brazda came forward to tell his story. He has previously received the gold medals of the cities of Toulouse and Nancy.

Writing on his LGBT Asylum News blog, Paul Canning said: “In spite of his old age, and health permitting, Brazda is determined to continue speaking out about his past, in the hope that younger generations remain vigilant in the face of present day behaviour and thoughts similar to those which led to the persecutions endured by homosexuals during the Nazi era.”

Mr Brazda will receive his award tomorrow at College Puteaux in Hauts-de-Seine. He will give a speech and the honour will be presented to him by Marie-José of Chombart Lauwe, a former resistance fighter who was an inmate at Ravensbrück, the notorious women’s work camp. She is now president of The Foundation for the Memory of the Deportation.
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Pakistan allows trans men and women their own gender category


A landmark decision has been taken in Pakistan to allow trans people their own gender category on selected official documents.

The country’s Supreme Court has ruled that Pakistanis who do not consider themselves to be either male or female should be allowed to choose an alternative sex when they apply for their national identity cards.

This is startling and positive news given the conservative climate in Pakistan, a country where trans people - known as hijras - are often ridiculed and forced to live in isolation. Many struggle for survival and are unable to secure jobs other than sex work, or even find a place to live away from their families. Often, they are reduced to begging.

Illiteracy rates among trans Pakistanis are also reportedly high.

Shehzadi, a trans woman living in Karachi, told the BBC that it was indeed “a difficult life” and that she had known she didn’t fit into either gender since the age of six. She left home as soon as she could, she said, and came to live with other trans people.

With the new gender category comes new hope, and some trans men and women are already being employed by the government in their drive to crack down on tax evaders. Those interviewed by the BBC said they were “proud” to be working in such a role.
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Horses killed in Midwestern barn fire in apparent gay-hate arson attack


Eight horses owned by a gay man were killed in a barn fire in Ohio on Monday in what police believe was a homophobic hate crime.

Brent Whitehouse was at home in the town of McConnelsville when he saw an orange glow in his garden. Rushing outside, he witnessed flames shooting up through the roof of the barn where he kept his horses. “It was gone in five minutes” he told the Zanesville Times Recorder.

The heat from the flames was so intense that the chassis of a tractor inside the barn melted. Yet despite the destruction, spay-painted slogans saying ”fags are freaks” and “burn in hell” were still visible on the remaining walls.

As the fire marshals declared the blaze to have been arson, the slogans were enough for police to launch an investigation into whether or not a hate crime had been committed.

Mr Whitehouse had eight horses, including a foal. He said: “The barn I can rebuild, but the bond I had with those horses can’t be replaced.

“Whoever did this had to walk right by all those horses, including the baby, and didn’t care that they were killing a gentle, loving animal.

“I just don’t understand someone wanting to kill innocent animals. It’s like killing a child.”

Of the messages he said: “They were just hateful.”

A reward of $5,000 has been put up in the hope that anyone with information regarding the fire will come forward.
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Cary Grant’s daughter claims her father ‘enjoyed being called gay’


The daughter of legendary Hollywood star Cary Grant has stated in a new book about her father that he “enjoyed being called gay”.

In her new book, Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of my Father, Cary Grant, Jennifer Grant – whose mother is actress Dyan Cannon – claims her father was always intrigued by the rumours surrounding his sexuality and was even keen to play up to them.

She said: “Can’t blame men for wanting him, and wouldn’t be surprised if Dad even flirted mildly back. When the question arises, it generally speaks more about the person asking. Dad somewhat enjoyed been called gay. He said it made women want to prove the assertion wrong.”

Grant, who was born Archibald Leach in Bristol in 1904, has been the subject of rumours surrounding his sexuality for decades. In the 1930s and 1940s he lived on and off with cowboy star Randolph Scott in a Malibu beach house known as ‘Bachelor Hall’, though there is no hard evidence that their relationship was anything other than platonic.

Cary Grant was married five times, and died in 1986.
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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Maddow: Gay Anchors Should Come Out

"I'm sure other people in the business have considered reasons why they're doing what they're doing, but I do think that if you're gay you have a responsibility to come out." - Rachel Maddow, in a profile by the UK's Guardian.

Whoever could she be talking about?
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GOP Praises Paul Clement, Disses King & Spalding Over DOMA Withdrawal

"I want to express my gratitude to former Solicitor General Clement. I admire his unwavering commitment to his clients and his dedication to uphold the law – qualities that appear to be inconsequential at King and Spalding where politics and profit now appear to come first. King and Spalding’s cut and run approach is inexcusable and an insult to the legal profession. Less than one week after the contract was approved engaging the firm, they buckled under political pressure and bailed with little regard for their ethical and legal obligations. Fortunately, Clement does not share the same principles. I’m confident that with him at the helm, we will fight to ensure the courts – not the President – determine DOMA’s constitutionality." - Rep. Dan Lungren, chairman of the House Republicans Study Committee.
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Prop 8 Proponents Move To Vacate Judge Vaughn Walker's Ruling Because He's Gay

They've been talking about it for weeks and today Prop 8's backers officially filed to vacate Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling overturning the ban of same-sex marriage in California. Because a gay judge cannot possibly be impartial about gay issues.
The sponsors of California's same-sex marriage ban said Monday that the recent disclosure by the federal judge who struck down Proposition 8 that he is in a long-term relationship with another man has given them new grounds to have his historic ruling overturned. Lawyers for the ban's backers filed a motion in San Francisco's U.S. District Court, arguing that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker should have removed himself from the case or at least disclosed his relationship status because his "impartiality might reasonably be questioned." "Only if Chief Judge Walker had unequivocally disavowed any interest in marrying his partner could the parties and the public be confident that he did not have a direct personal interest in the outcome of the case," attorneys for the coalition of religious and conservative groups that put Proposition 8 on the November 2008 ballot wrote.
Lambda Legal's Jon Davidson reacts:
To say that Judge Walker's should have disclosed his ten-year relationship with another man or that it made him unfit to rule on Proposition 8 is like saying that a married heterosexual judge deciding an issue in a divorce proceeding has to disclose if he or she is having marital problems and might someday be affected by legal rulings in the case. Or that any judge who professes any religious faith is unable to rule on any question of religious liberty or, at a minimum, must disclose what his faith teaches. Much like a suggestion that a female judge could not preside over a case involving sexual harassment or an African American judge could not preside over a case involving race discrimination, Proposition 8's supporters improperly are suggesting that a judge will rule in favor of any litigant with whom he shares a personal characteristic.
American Foundation for Equal Rights reacts:
"This motion is yet another in a string of desperate and absurd motions by Prop 8 Proponents who refuse to accept the fact that the freedom to marry is a constitutional right. They're attempting to keep secret the video of the public trial and they're attacking the judge because they disagree with his decision. Clearly, the Proponents are grasping at straws because they have
NCLR's Shannon Minter reacts:
"This is a desperate and ill-advised move that underscores their inability to defend Prop 8 on the merits. This is not likely to win them any points with the courts, who understandably do not appreciate having the integrity of judges called into question based on such outrageous grounds. This is part and parcel of the underhanded way the Prop 8 campaign itself was run-based on lies, insinuations, and unsupported innuendo."
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Levi Johnston Readies Palin Tell-All

This fall Levi Johnston will release Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin's Crosshairs, a tell-all book of his time with Mama Grizzly.
"I want to tell the truth about my close relationship with the Palins," Johnston, 20, says in a statement released by his publisher. "My sense of Sarah and my perplexing fall from grace – how I feel and what I've learned." Johnston adds: "I'm doing this for me, for my boy Tripp and for the country.
The timing of the book's release should prove amusing, as Palin may be officially launching her 2012 campaign by then
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Tony Perkins On King & Spalding

"Looking for attorneys that won't buckle under pressure? Don't bother contacting King & Spalding. In a stunning announcement, the Atlanta-based firm just dropped the most high-profile client on its books: the U.S. House of Representatives. Barely a week ago, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) hired King & Spalding to go to bat for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) when the Obama administration refused. Within hours, the homosexual community was up in arms.

"Led by the so-called Human Rights Campaign, activists promised to target the firm until its attorneys dropped the case. Five days later, they did. Unable -- and unwilling -- to take the heat, King and Spalding took the cowardly way out. Once again we see how the activists who are trying to redefine marriage want to shut down any and all public debate. King & Spalding have proven that they are not advocates for the law -- but for a small but influential cabal that want to undermine policy and society." - Family Research Council head Tony Perkins, via press release
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Marriage Protest At Buckingham Palace

Yesterday noted British activist Peter Tatchell led a marriage equality protest in the middle of the royal wedding media storm outside of Buckingham Palace.
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell delivered a gigantic wedding card to Buckingham Palace which, according to the website of Chicago Gay Pride, read: "Congratulations William and Kate on your Wedding Day. We wish you a happy life together. You can get married, gay people can't. We are banned by law. We ask you to support marriage equality. Equal=Love." Gay marriage supporters have put together a waved pink Union Jack flags as the giant card, part of the so-called Equal Love campaign, was unveiled. Tatchell said he hoped the royal couple would "find a way" to back the protest.
Tatchell: "I'm sure Kate and William have gay and lesbian friends. I'm sure they wouldn't wish to see them discriminated against."
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PhoboQuotable - William Gheen

"Targeting anybody for importation into the country based on their sexuality doesn't sound like something that Congress should be messing with at all. They're looking to bring in anybody challenging the established culture inside the United States that they want to bring down. And though the majority culture of the United States for the last 200 years has been predominately European Christian, they are looking for anybody that would take issue with that. And, of course, Christianity preaches against sodomy." - William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, denouncing the Uniting American Families Act.
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MARYLAND: Hundreds Attend Rally Against Anti-Transgender Violence

Last night hundreds of protesters crowded the street outside a Baltimore McDonald's in a rally against anti-transgender violence. The event was spawned by last week's brutal attack against Chrissy Lee Polis, a local transwoman who was beaten by two female McDonald's patrons for daring to use the ladies room. Kevin Naff reports at Washington Blade: “The turnout tonight is wonderful, I’m so happy,” said Renee Carr, Polis’s mother, who attended the rally with family and neighbors, but without her daughter. “I didn’t think that McDonald’s was a dangerous place, all she wanted to do was eat and use the bathroom.” In an interview with the Blade after the rally, Carr said she has always known her daughter was transgender and that she has supported her “100 percent.” “I even carried her pocketbook on the way to the bus stop as a kid,” Carr said, adding that Polis is doing better but was unable to attend. Others at the rally said Polis was afraid to leave her house. “I want to thank everyone personally who came tonight,” said Kathleen Hand, Polis’s grandmother, who also attended the rally, which was held in the McDonald’s parking lot in Rosedale, Md., where the beating took place. “Chrissy is doing great.”
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Andrew Sullivan On King & Spaulding

"To put pressure on lawyers defending clients or laws because lobby groups don't like them is deeply illiberal. It remains disgusting, for example, that rightwing groups targeted lawyers defending terror suspects and Gitmo prisoners. When the far right did this, it was despicable. Now that the left is doing it, it remains just as despicable.

"Memo to the gay rights leadership: the ends do not justify the means. Let DOMA have the most robust defense it can possibly muster and let us argue just as passionately for its unconstitutionality. When civil rights groups bully, they lose the moral high-ground. When you have men like David Brock leading the charge - and there are no means he has ever eschewed to achieve his ends - the danger is that we prove the far right's point. We must be better than them." - Andrew Sullivan, writing for Daily Beast.
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Moscow set to allow first ever gay pride parade in the city


Moscow city authorities gave permission today for the first ever gay pride parade to be held in the Russian capital.

This significant decision was greeted with delight by Nikolai Alexeyeve, Russia’s most respected gay rights activist. The city’s government will allow the march to go ahead on 28 May, although the head of Moscow’s central district has claimed to be unaware of the plans.

On the website gayrussia.eu, Mr Alexeyeve said: “The authorities must now ensure the security of the participants in line with the ruling of the European Court [of Human Rights].”

Last October, the Strasbourg Court fined Russia for banning gay pride marches in Moscow and fined the city’s authorities $41,090 in damages and for legal fees. This ruling, Mr Alexeyeve said at the time, was “a crippling blow to Russian homophobia on all accounts”.

Yury Luzkhov, the previous mayor of Moscow who was sacked last September, had been an outspoken critic of the proposals to allow gay parades, describing them as “Satanic”. The current mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has also said he is not in favour of the idea.

Gay rights campaigners who sought to defy the ban in the past found themselves attacked not just by nationalist and religious groups, but also by members of the city’s police force.
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Gay former governor of New Jersey has bid for ordination ‘deferred’


A gay former governor of New Jersey has had his bid to join the Episcopal priesthood deferred.

Jim McGreevey, who resigned from his post as Governor of New Jersey in 2004 shortly after coming out and admitting to an affair with a male member of his staff, has been told that his path to priesthood is now on indefinite hold.

As reported by the Associated Press, the American Episcopal Church – which does allow the ordination of gay people and women priests – want McGreevey to wait a while in order to “put more distance between his possible ordination and the fairly recent turmoil in his life”.

Along with McGreevey’s resignation, he came out on national television and endured a “messy divorce” from his wife in 2008.

Speaking to the AP, the Reverend William Sachs, director of the Centre for Interfaith Reconciliation in Richmond, Virginia, said it was “not unusual” for people to be deferred, adding that church officials would be interested in how someone with McGreevey’s baggage would handle the ministry.

Rev. Sachs said: “How would he apply what he’s learned to his ministry? Does he translate from being the person he was in the political realm to being in ordained ministry? It doesn’t surprise me there would be an instinct to defer.”

McGreevey, 53, attained a master of divinity degree last spring, after studying for three years at General Theological Seminary in New York City.

The Reverend Patricia McCaughan, who writes for the Episcopal News Service, said ordination was a complex, subjective process that differed from one state to another.

“If a person is deemed not ready to go forward, that doesn’t mean that’s the end. People can always try again.”

For now, McGreevey said he plans to continue ministering to inmates and helping raise his daughter, who is in elementary school.

McGreevey, who has lived with his partner Mark O’Donnell since 2005, has declined to comment on his potential ordination, saying the process is confidential.
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Rapper receives death threats over ‘I’m Gay’ album title


An American rap artist has told MTV that he has received death threats following the announcement that he intends to call his new album I’m Gay.

Lil B made the announcement at the Coachella festival in California last week, and his since claimed to have been sent death threats on Twitter.

He said: ”I’m not gonna stop and I’m not scared of anybody on earth . . . that’s why I titled the album I’m Gay and nobody gonna stop me.”

Lil B said that he was using the word ‘gay’ in the traditional sense and that he supported gay people. “I’m very gay, but I love women. I’m not attracted to men in any way. I’ve never been attracted to a man in my life. But yes I am gay, I’m so happy . . . I’m a gay, heterosexual male.

“I got major love for the gay and lesbian community, and I just want to push less separation and that’s why I’m doing it. I hope GLAAD sees that I’m taking initial steps to break barriers.”

A spokesman for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) reportedly said that they hope Lil B’s album title is “not a gimmick, and is really a sincere attempt to be an ally.”
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Lesbian newsreader says gay men and women have a ‘responsibility to come out’


An openly gay American newsreader has said she believes men and women in her industry have a “responsibility” to come out.

Rachel Maddow, a 38-year-old Stanford graduate who hosts her own show nightly on MSMBC, is one of the few openly gay news anchors in America. In an interview with the Guardian today, Hadley Freeman asked Ms Maddow’s opinion on a fellow news anchor who was “widely assumed” to be gay but had made no move to come out. Ms Maddow responded: “I’m sure other people in the business have considered reasons why they’re doing what they’re doing, but I do think that if you’re gay you have a responsibility to come out.”

Ms Maddow rose to prominence on Air America, a national radio station where she co-hosted ‘Unfiltered’ with Chuck D. She then moved to CNN before being give her own show on MSMBC in 2008.

That same year, David Frum, a former speech writer for George Bush told Ms Maddow – live on her own show – that he saw her as part of “the ugliness that has been a feature of American politics in the past eight years”. Despite this, Maddow is a popular figure, whose ratings were 26% higher than CNN’s Piers Morgan-hosted talkshow in the same timeslot.

Freeman says that Maddow is “inspirational to all women, gay or straight. With her short brown hair and elegant if gangly body, she is a defiant rebuttal to the cookie cutter blonds who dominate US television.” Maddow said “I’m definitely not an ‘autocutie’ . . . I’m confrontational.”
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Friday, April 22, 2011

HomoQuotable - Greg Quinlan

"When two plus two doesn't equal four anymore, you can do anything you want because logic and truth [don't] matter. We are no longer a nation of laws; we are a nation of lawmakers. And those lawmakers happen to wear black robes and sit in courtrooms. I have to speak to this as a former homosexual. This is part of the pathology, the arrogance of the narcissism of homosexuality, because Judge Walker is himself a homosexual and proud to say so. So this is the issue that we have here. We have the elitist arrogance of the homosexual political movement who are making rules as they go along. This is illicit and illegal what he did." - "Ex-gay" whackjob Greg Quinlan, who is ever so pissed that Walker recently played a Prop 8 trial clip during a speech to college students.
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FLORIDA: Anti-Gay Group Launches MTV Boycott Over Transgender Character

The Florida Family Association has launched an advertiser boycott against MTV because the network's Degrassi series positively portrays a young transgender man. Degrassi airs on MTV's Teen Nick channel. FFA chairman David Caton (left) writes in a letter to the show's advertisers:
It is very concerning that your company would knowingly advertise during a television show that condones and promotes transgender lifestyles to an audience that is almost exclusively watched by young teens and children. You would think by the number of episodes that MTV devotes to including the relationship between a female to male transgender high school student and a bi-sexual lesbian student that such relationships are a common occurrence in America’s high schools. The odds of this bizarre relationship occurring in high schools are extremely rare. Yet, MTV feeds this salacious and irresponsible propaganda to an audience made up of almost exclusively young teens and children as if it were common place. MTV airs a free promo for PFLAG on DeGrassi which directs kids to an organization that will encourage our youth to embrace a different sexual identity that may stay with them for life. Will your company continue to advertise on this irresponsible show?
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GOP Sen. John Ensign To Resign

Last month beleaguered GOP Sen. John Ensign announced that he wouldn't seek reelection in 2012. But today his aides revealed that Ensign will resign tomorrow.
Ensign has fallen under investigation by the ethics committee in the wake of an alleged sexual relationship with an aide and accusations that he steered business to her lobbyist husband. His departure could clear the way for Nevada's Republican governor to appoint Rep. Dean Heller (R) to the seat, giving the GOP an incumbent in 2012.
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NEW YORK: Sen. Ruben Diaz To Stage Massive Anti-Gay Marriage Rally

Arch homophobe Sen. Ruben Diaz will once again work with anti-gay Hispanic evangelicals to stage a massive anti-marriage rally in New York City on May 15th. JMG reader Sabirjan provides us with a translation of this news story.
Radio Vision Cristiana, a New Jersey-based Spanish-language AM radio station that broadcasts religious programming, is planning a huge anti-gay march in New York City on May 15, 2011. It will be held in the Bronx (starting at noon the participants will march from 149th Street and Third avenue to 181st street in the Bronx). The radio station, as well as the main organizer of the event, State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. are urging all Hispanics and especially evangelicals to oppose the possible legalization of same-sex marriages in New York State. Ruben Diaz is urging the participants "to paralyze all traffic in the Bronx" on that day. Organizers of the event expect up to 30,000 people to show up. A similar rally was held in 2009, it attracted about 20,000 people and took many city officials by surprise.
I attended the 2009 rally staged by Diaz and Radio Cristiana. The vast majority of the protesters arrived via church buses from outside New York City. In my video below, watch the crowd erupt in ecstatic song as their hero Diaz arrives.
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Updated: Lesbian couple sue Brighton hotel


A lesbian couple claim that a hotel manager in Brighton barred them from staying in a room together because they are lesbians.

Rebecca Nash, 22, and Hope Stubbings, 19, from Andover, claim that the manager of the Brunswick Square Hotel called them “rejects” when they complained.

In response, the hotel claimed the pair never had a booking and denied being anti-gay. A manager said that the building is full of gay couples during Pride weekend.

The couple, who are both office workers, say they arrived at the seafront hotel for a weekend away last October after booking a double room by telephone.

But they said that when they arrived, they were told that rooms were only available for “couples and families”.

They claim that when they said they were a couple, the manager said: “No two boys, no two girls. We don’t have any rooms.”

They claim that the manager then became aggressive and threatened to call police before shouting: “I don’t accept rejects in my hotel”.

The couple could not find anywhere else to stay for their trip and had to drive home.

They are claiming sexual orientation discrimination against the hotel and are being represented by Liberty.

In an email to PinkNews.co.uk, the manager of the Brunswick Square hotel, who would not give his name, said the couple had made an enquiry and had not booked a room.

He said they were asked to leave because they were “loud” and “rude” and said the hotel had never discriminated against anyone.

He added that the hotel was full of gay couples during Pride.

James Welch, Liberty’s legal director, said: “Laws prohibiting hotels and guesthouses from discriminating against gay men and lesbians have been in place for four years now, but clearly the message still isn’t getting through.

“With the Equality Act 2010 now in force, my clients intend to show that they have as much right to enjoy a quiet weekend away together as any other couple.

This is the latest in a number of cases around hotels accused of barring gay couples.

Earlier this year, Steve Preddy and Martyn Hall won £3,600 in compensation after successfully suing a Christian-run Cornwall hotel for refusing them a room.

Another couple, Michael Black and John Morgan, are suing a Berkshire B&B after the Christian owners said they could not stay.
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Man, 18, arrested over east London anti-gay stickers


An 18-year-old man has been arrested in connection with homophobic stickers plastered around London’s east end.

The teenager, from Leamouth, was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence yesterday, police said.

He has been bailed to return to police on Sunday May 8th pending further enquiries.

The stickers, which have been found in Brick Lane, Poplar, Bow and Canary Wharf, show a red line through a rainbow flag and the words ‘gay-free zone’.

They say: “Arise and warn. Gay free zone. Verily Allah is severe in punishment.” At least 70 have been reported.

This is the second arrest over the stickers. PinkNews.co.uk reported last month that an 18-year-old man had been arrested and then released after police found him with stickers in his possession.

After the anti-gay messages were discovered, local residents began a campaign to remove them and replace them with messages of love.

A Pride parade was also planned but had to be cancelled after it was revealed that one organiser had links to the far-right group English Defence League.
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Thursday, April 21, 2011

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Thousands could leave Church of Scotland over gay clergy


A substantial number of members could leave the Church of Scotland if gay clergy are permitted, a report says.

The church was threated by a schism two years ago when an openly gay man in a relationship was ordained.

Following this, the church placed a moratorium on gay clergy to last until this year.

A Kirk report on the issue is to be published later today and presented to the church’s general assembly next month.

According to BBC News, it says that “substantial” numbers of members have indicated they will leave the church if it sanctions out gay ministers.

The document reportedly says that there are two options: to begin training and ordaining out gay clergy or to enact an indefinite ban. However, a ban could leave a “festering wound”, the report says.

The report says there is no clear mandate for immediate change and calls for further reports on the issue.

The controversy began when Reverend Scott Rennie was appointed as minister of Queen’s Cross Church, Aberdeen. His ordination was opposed by many in the church because he is openly gay and lives with his partner.

However, his congregration voted overwhelmingly for him to become their minister.

The ban on gay clergy has been described as the biggest issue to face the church in 160 years.
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Tennessee Senate panel approves school gay ban bill


A Senate education panel in Tennessee has approved a bill to prevent students from learning about homosexuality in public elementary and middle schools.

The legislation, known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, was introduced by Republican Senator Stacey Campfield, who has been pushing for the law for several years.

As introduced by Mr Campfield, it would have banned all teachers up to the eighth grade from discussing homosexuality in class.

Another Republican Senator, Jim Tracy, argued that current law already prohibits this, as teachers may not teach any sex education that is not part of the state Board of Education’s “family life curriculum”.

Instead, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports that Mr Tracy proposed an amendment to the bill to require the Board of Education to investigate whether any teaching on homosexuality is taking place and to make recommendations on what should be done.

Another amendment, tabled by Republican Brian Kelsey, sought to place an explicit ban on teaching about homosexuality in the Board of Education’s standards once the review is completed next year.

Both amendments were approved and the revised bill passed by 6-3 votes. It will now go to the Senate floor.

The bill states: “No public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality.”

The Tennessee Equality Project says the bill is objectionable on a number of levels.

Speaking last month, Ben Byers from the group said: “The Don’t Say Gay bill raises all kinds of issues about anti-gay bias, free speech and government overreach.

“It limits what teachers and students are able to discuss in the classroom. It means they can’t talk about gay issues or sexuality even with students who may be gay or have gay family.”

Mr Campfield’s office said: “The bill is neutral. We should leave it to families to decide when it is appropriate to talk with children about sexuality – specifically before the eighth grade.”

Similar legislation was introduced in the UK in 1988.

Section 28 of the Local Government Act prevented schoolteachers from educating children about homosexuality, and “the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”, but it was repealed in Scotland in 2000 and in the rest of the UK in 2003.
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Interview: Peter Tatchell on a lifetime of campaigning


Peter Tachell is a name synonymous with the struggle for gay rights. He’s got 40 years of campaigning behind him and even his critics admire his tireless zeal for equality.

I caught up with him to discuss some of the highs and lows of a life that has been lived fighting for the rights many gay British men and women now take for granted.

Born in Australia, he came to London as a young man in 1971 to avoid the draft for Vietnam.

The plan was to return to Australia two or three years later but by then he had a nice flat, a good job and had fallen in love. He had also become heavily involved in the Gay Liberation Front.

In 1972 he was one of 40 people that organised Britain’s first Gay Pride March. Ten years later he stood in the now-infamous Bermondsey by-election, an experience which prompted him to devote his energies to campaigning for LGBT rights, full-time and with no pay.

He has been doing as much ever since. I ask him how he makes it work financially.

He says: “Well, in addition to the 70 hours a week I do on human rights campaigning I put in 20-25 hours a week on journalism and speaking engagements. I live on about £8,000 a year. It’s not easy, but I get my rewards in other ways. No amount of money could replace the emotional and psychological rewards I get from the campaigns I do.”

You don’t need to do the sums to work out that had he devoted nearly thirty years working 90-hour weeks to his own business, he’d probably be a millionaire by now.

“That has crossed my mind, but it holds no interest. Though there are moments when I hunger for a bit more money and a comfortable life.”

Honours hold little interest for him either. I tell him I’m perplexed I’m not interviewing Sir Peter Tatchell.

“I’ve turned those things down,” he tells me. “Over the years I’ve been contacted by a number of people who’ve said they’re in a position to make recommendation for honours: would I be mindful to accept (in turn) an OBE, a Knighthood and a Peerage. I’ve said no to all of them. I’ve got big problems with the honours system. It’s highly corrupt.”

He’s a seasoned campaigner and his methods are controversial, not least among those who favour behind-the-scenes diplomacy. I ask him about an age-old debate: does he believe the insider or outsider strategy works best?

“Both,” he answers. “On many occasions I’ve advised governments, parliamentary committees, police chiefs and senior church people, but often that’s only been as a result of confrontational protests, which have forced them to address an issue.”

“I dislike a lot of the way in which many campaigners are anti this and anti that. To win and have credibility you’ve got to have solutions. In all the campaigns I’ve done with the GLF through to Outrage it’s always been premised on ‘these are the solutions’.”

Readers may think of Stonewall here; Tatchell strongly criticised the group last year for not supporting marriage equality.

Speaking about why he set up OutRage, he says: “It was partly in reaction to the formation of Stonewall, which was set up in a very non-democratic way: a self-selected group of people set it up with no membership so there was no way to influence Stonewall’s policies.”

“We opted for an open accessible structure where the people who came along and gave their commitment were the ones who decided everything. That meant it was easy to get involved and we could react very quickly. You’d often find Stonewall sitting in committees for days or weeks discussing their stand on an issue while we’d already done three protests.”

These highly-publicised protests included the 1999 citizen’s arrest of Robert Mugabe and 1998′s hijack of Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey’s Easter sermon.

Tatchell was fined £18.60 for the stunt for breaking the 1860 Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act: proof that magistrates are not devoid of humour.

“It’s my only conviction,” he says. Not a bad result when you consider he’s been arrested over 300 times.

“The positive outcome was that from that moment onwards, George Carey hardly ever again spoke out publicly against gay equality. He also finally met with the Lesbian and Gay and Christian Movement.”

During the next’s year’s stunt involving Mugabe, Tatchell was beaten by the Zimbabwean leader’s bodyguards – not the last time he was injured during a protest.

I put it to him that Mugabe’s bodyguards could have been carrying guns and mistaken him for an assassin.

Is he prepared to die for the causes he fights for?

“No,” he tells me. “I don’t want to be injured. I’m not out to take needless risks. But the history of every successful social struggle is that sometimes you have to put your neck out in order to secure change. By comparison to democracy activists in Zimbabwe and Iran what I do is insignificant.”

In this case he received a direct request for help. I ask him how many such requests he gets each day.

“I get more than 500 emails a day. That’s not counting Facebook. Every week I get hundreds of requests for help: people suffering homophobic abuse from their neighbours; gay school kids who have been thrown out of their home by their parents; LGBT refugees fleeing persecution in countries like Uganda or Iran; people suffering police harassment or victimisation; prisoners who are being abused… The list is endless.”

Does that mean he has to make difficult decisions about whom he helps?

“I deal with every single request. Eventually. But it’s causing great mental and physical damage to me. Too often I have four or five hours’ sleep and I need eight. For more than 20 years I’ve been permanently tired and exhausted just from the sheer volume of work. I don’t want a medal or anything, but it does anger me the way big organisations like Stonewall with offices, staff and money, refuse to help individuals so they end up coming to me. That’s a great honour and privilege, but it’s also incredibly tiring and wearing.”

The help he needs might now be on the way. His friends are establishing The Peter Tatchell Foundation, which, in addition to funding campaigns, will ensure his work is continued should he be run down by an African dictator’s motorcade.

“The remit of the foundation is to work on both LGBT and non LGBT campaigns and to focus on issues that are perhaps a bit below the radar. I’ve now got an office for the first time in over four decades. We desperately need funding for two or three staff. I have one assistant at the moment, but really I need three.”

Having long fought for the legal rights of gay couples I ask Peter if he’s taking full advantage of the fruits of his labour. Is he seeing anyone?

“Not at the moment, no. The campaigning has taken quite a toll on my relationships. Until recent years I was subjected to a barrage of hate mail and death threats organised by groups like the National Front, the BNP and even Combat 18. A lot of people I’ve begun relationships with have found it very difficult to cope with.

“I remember once inviting someone I was dating for dinner. We were sitting in this room having dinner when a brick came through the window and bounced across the table. The food went everywhere. The upshot was my date saying: “I really admire you, but I can’t cope with this.””

I tell him some would say that’s an argument for leading a normal life.

“If that had been my reaction and if I’d opted for the easy life then the bigots and homophobes would have won,” he replies. “I’m not going to give them that satisfaction.”

He has suffered more than 400 attacks on his home and person in the last 30 years, including three arson attempts. His assailants have come at him with fists, iron bars, hammers, sticks, rocks, bricks and bottles.

“I am amazed I’ve never been seriously injured. It’s usually been because I’m alert and I can run fast.”

I ask him if the multitude of attacks means he’s slowly become desensitized to them.

“To some extent. I don’t even bother reporting threats to the police anymore because they’re hopeless. Apart from once or twice they’ve never arrested or brought the perpetrator to justice.”

“For about 20 years, though less so now, I’ve suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Except that mine was technically ongoing-traumatic stress disorder. I used to have really bad nightmares reliving attacks where I would jump awake in the middle of the night with my heart pounding almost out of my chest.”

In April 2007 he became the Green Party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Oxford East. He stood down in December 2009 citing ill health. I ask him how bad his injuries are.

“The brain and eye injuries came from the beating by President Mugabe’s bodyguards in Belgium in 2001 when I was knocked unconscious and the beating by Neo Nazis in Moscow in 2007. Before that I had perfect vision in my right eye. Now I can recognise you through it, but you’re very badly blurred. My left eye sort of compensates, but it’s not good. In terms of brain injuries they’re not major, because obviously I’m still functioning, but I’m not as coherent as I used to be and my balance, co-ordination, memory and concentration has been affected.”

Aside from the above, he’s in rude health for a man turning 60 next year. He boasts to me of the 140 sit-ups he did the morning of our interview and of course he still cycles everywhere.

“I have no plans to retire. I would say there’s hopefully another 30 years in me yet. I might think of retirement when I’m 90 or 95. If I’m lucky I have my paternal grandfather’s genes. He lived to be 97.”

Has he considered writing a memoir?

“It’s on my to do list together with thousands of other things.”

I ask if he’s still in favour of reducing the age of consent to 14, a matter on which he was grossly misrepresented by the press and special interest groups, some of which labelled him a paedophile.

“A compromise might be to say that the age of consent should be left at 16, but that sex involving young people under 16 shouldn’t be prosecuted providing both partners consent, there’s no harm, and there’s no more than two years’ difference in their ages. That formulation would end the criminalisation of young people involved in consenting sex with other underage people, while protecting them against manipulation by those much older.

“The fact is that most people, gay and straight, have their first sexual experience at the age of 14 and they’re all currently treated as criminals by the law. I don’t think criminalisation is the appropriate response. I’m not saying young people should be having sex, my own view is it’s best to wait, but if they do they shouldn’t be treated like sex offenders.”

Tatchell has been leading the Equal Love campaign, which seeks full UK marriage equality. Does he think the fight for gay marriage is the last big issue for the British gay rights movement?

“The exclusion of same-sex couples from the right to marry is the last major legal discrimination in the UK, though there are other issues to tackle such as those organisations that have opt outs from equality laws, the ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood and the often unfair treatment of LGBT refugees fleeing homophobic and transphobic persecution.”

I ask him if the whether the Equal Love campaign is necessary given the government’s recent announcement it will consult on the issue of gay-marriage.

“I’m certain the Equal Love campaign prompted the government to say it was prepared to consult on ending the ban on gay civil marriages and straight civil partnerships. They wouldn’t have made that move if it hadn’t been for the fact we’ve filed a case in the European Court of Human Rights.

“By February 2012 the British government will be required to state to the European Court its justification for sexual orientation discrimination in civil marriages and civil partnerships. I think they’re going to find that very difficult.”

He doubts gay marriage will happen this year. “I don’t think the government will move that quickly. Before the election last year we protested against the Conservatives’ lack of gay rights policies. One of the issues we highlighted was the gay marriage ban. As a result I met with George Osborne and Theresa May who promised they would review the ban on same-sex marriage. A month after the election they announced they’d done the review and decided to keep things they way they were.

“I’m sceptical about this latest promise of a consultation. You don’t consult about equality, you do it.”

With my interview coming to an end I ask him what he makes of the progress of gay rights in Britain during the 40 years he’s been campaigning.

“Until the 1990s Britain had more homophobic laws than any other country on Earth. Now within the space of one decade we are among the most progressive nations on the planet when it comes to LGBT human rights. That’s an amazing, rapid pace of change and it’s down to the cumulative collective efforts of tens of thousands of LGBT people and our straight friends and allies.”

Given people born today enjoy the kind of basic rights he could only dream about when young, I ask him if he’d rather been born later than he was.

“I’m really happy that LGBT people have an easier life today, but I’m really glad that I was born when I was. It was incredibly exciting as a teenager to be involved in big historic struggles against the death penalty, for aboriginal rights and against the war in Vietnam. Those were big landmark struggles. Then of course, I got to be involved in the LGBT liberation movement, virtually from the outset. I’ve met so many extraordinary people and with them done so many extraordinary things. That’s been a great blessing.”
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