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Saint Petersburg Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Cancelled
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(Russia) Gay and Lesbian Film Festival “Bok o Bok” which was
supposed to take place in Saint Petersburg from today and last until
Sunday finally did not open after Fire Department Inspectors closed
the place due to problems with fire security. In a phone interview to
Project GayRussia.Ru, Organiser of the festival Irina Sergeeva said
that the clubs “The Place” and “Sochi” where
the screenings of the films were supposed to take place, were closed
due to fire security
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Arsham Parsi discusses sexuality, politics and refugees in SF
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(USA) - As part of Bibi's outreach to our communities, Bibi|SF will be
hosting talks on various issues affecting queer South West Asian,
North Africans (aka Middle-Easterners). Its first engagement is with
Arsham Parsi of the IRanian Queer Organization on Thursday, June 26 at
the SF LGBT Center.
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IDAHO Action in San Francisco To Support Russian Gays
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(USA) - Gay human rights activists in San Francisco staged a speak out at
the Russian consulate on May 16, in conjunction with IDAHO events
around the planet. Before showing up at the consulate, the group sent
emails to the staff explaining their reason for coming -- to press the
government to grant parade permits to Moscow's Gay pride event.
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Reform the Homophobic Asylum System
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(London) - Speaking at the London IDAHO event on 16 May, hosted by
Amnesty International and the Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association,
Peter Tatchell of the LGBT human rights group OutRage! challenged the
UK asylum policy.
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European Parliament Will Discuss a New EU Anti-Discrimination Directive
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(EU) - Tomorrow the members of the European Parliament will debate and
vote on a resolution “Progress made in equal opportunities and
non-discrimination in the EU”. The resolution is based on a
report produced by Elisabeth Lynne, MEP, and adopted by the European
Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs on 17
April 2008. The draft resolution clearly urges the European Commission
to stay committed to the Commission’s work plan for 2008 and to
come out with a proposal for one ‘horizontal’
anti-discrimination directive covering all grounds of discrimination,
including sexual orientation.
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Police in Moldova Watches As Homophobic Mob Assaults Gay Demonstrators
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(Moldova) - On Sunday, participants in the 7th Moldovan Pride were
precluded from marching peacefully in support of anti-discrimination
legislation and tolerance in the centre of Chisinau. Police did not
guarantee the right to freedom of assembly. Large aggressive
coordinated groups, including extremist religious groups, members of
the neo-fascist movement “New Right”, and legionnaires
blocked the bus with participants, forced the door, violently hit the
windows, and attempted to remove the engine, while shouting
“lets get them out and beat them up”.
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European Study on Transgender's Healthcare Is Published
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(EU) - ILGA-Europe and TransGender Europe published the first
comprehensive report on the experiences of health care by Transgender
people in European Union. This report is a result of the largest and
most comprehensive data collection on transgender people's lived
experienced to
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New Website Highlights Gay African Heroes
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(UK) - A new website highlighting African heroes and achievers has
included three prominent Gay Africans. "Gay Africans make up a part of
the landscape of the continent and any member of the Gay community who
has achieved something of merit deserves a place on our site. We
welcome the submission of their biographies," said the website's
creator, Kadija Traoré Bush, who is of is Malian and Beninoise
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Barroso Urged to Keep His Word On Equal Rights
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(EU) - Within the next couple of months, the fate of an EU directive
protecting against discrimination on the grounds of age, disability,
sexual orientation and religion/belief in all areas of life will be
decided by the European Commission and the European Council. At the
moment, there are signs that this directive will not include sexual
orientation, age and religion/belief. ILGA-Europe is calling on
everyone to join its campaign to ensure that a comprehensive new EU
anti-discrimination directive which protects against discrimination on
all grounds and in all areas of life is proposed and adopted.
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Olympic Torch Ambushed in London
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(UK) - The bus bearing the Olympic torch was today ambushed outside
Selfridges department store in Oxford Street, London, by Gay human
rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of OutRage! Mr Tatchell ran in front
of the bus carrying the Olympic flame. He held up a placard which
read: "Free Tibet, Free Hu Jia." He shouted the same words as he ran
along in front of the bus. The police wrestled Mr Tatchell to the
ground, which delayed the bus briefly while he was removed to
pavement. After questioning, he was later released without
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European Court of Justice Rules in Favour of Gay Pensioneers
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(EU) - European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg delivered its
judgement in a landmark case on pension rights for registered same-sex
partners (case of Tadao Maruko v. Versorgungswerk der deutschen
Bühnen). The facts of the case are as follows: Mr. Maruko lived with
his partner in a registered partnership. After his partner died the
VddB, the pension scheme for German theatres, refused to pay him a
survivor’s pension as such pensions were provided only for
married partners. Mr. Maruko sued the VddB, and the Bavarian
Administrative CourtMunich referred the case to the ECJ for
interpretation of the 2000/78/EC Directive which established a general
framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation.
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Media Frenzy at Warsaw Airport for Arrival of Gay American Couple
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(Poland) - Gay Americans Brendan Fay and Tom Moulton found a media frenzy
when they arrived at Warsaw airport yesterday for a three-day visit.
The couple, who were married in Canada, hit the international
headlines when their wedding image was used in Polish President Lech
Kaczynski’s televised prime-time address to scare the Polish
people against supporting the Lisbon Treaty, arrived to Warsaw for a
three-day visit. The trip is sponsored by TVN Television. Their first
day in Poland was an opportunity to meet with Polish Gay rights
leaders Tomasz Szypula and Greg Czarnecki from the Campaign Against
Homophobia (Kampania Przeciw Homofobii – KPH) as well as other
members of the LGBT community.
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Scott Long's Troubling Style of Advocacy
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(USA) - As the head of the LGBT desk at the Human Rights Watch (HRW),
Scott Long bears critical responsibilities for investigating human
rights abuses and advocating greater freedoms for our community
worldwide. That is estimable work, by any measure. One occupational
hazard, however, of taking on a highly specialized charge on matters
of such delicacy involving repressive and dangerous regimes is
undoubtedly a compounding sense of proprietorship, a fatigued feeling
that others "shouldn't mess with my turf, they should stay out of my
bailiwick." On matters related to anti-Gay repression in Iran, dating
back almost three years, Long seems to have fallen into that trap,
indeed to have fallen quite
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First Hate Crime Punishment in Croatia
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(Croatia) - Josip Situm, 25, was detained by police for carrying the
homemade bombs. He was charged soon after with planning to hurl the
cocktails at the crowd. Although he denied the charges, insisting he
decided after he arrived at the parade not to throw the bombs, Situm
admitted that he disapproves of homosexuality because he is Roman
Catholic. On 28 February, Situm became the first person in Croatia
found guilty of a hate crime. He was convicted of endangering lives
and property at the Pride parade and sentenced to 14 months in prison
and psychiatric treatment. Situm’s conviction was a major
victory for Croatia’s LGBT community, for whom street violence
is nothing new.
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Call to Reform Asylum System to Protect Lesbian, Gay Refugees
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(UK) - The British Government is currently failing Gay refugees, Peter
Tatchell told a rally in Whitehall, outside the Prime Minister’s
official residence 10 Downing Street. Over 120 protesters braved hail
and rain on Saturday to demand that Gay Iranian asylum seeker, Mehdi
Kazemi, be granted refuge in the UK. They also urged asylum for the
Iranian Lesbian refugee, Pegah Emambakhsh, and an estimated 12 other
Gay Iranians who are at risk of deportation back to Tehran. There were
calls for a “fundamental reform” of the way the Home
Office treats LGBTI asylum applicants. “The British government
had ordered Mr Kazemi to be deported back to Iran,” said protest
speaker Peter Tatchell, spokesperson for the LGBTI human rights group
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Two EU Cities Refuse to Sign Gay Rights Appeal
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(EU) - The Mayors of Riga in Latvia and Tallinn in Estonia have declined
to take part in a campaign affirming freedom of assembly and
expression for LGBT people in Europe. The Europe branch of the
International Gay and Lesbian Association wanted the leaders of those
cities to join 19 others in Europe and declare their support for their
initiative. The Mayors of Paris, Nicosia, Amsterdam, Winterthur,
London, Stockholm, Cologne, Barcelona, Venice, Vienna, Bologna,
Manchester, Copenhagen, Budapest, Ljubljana, Zürich, Berlin, Dublin
and Luxembourg have all pledged their
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Deportation of Gays to Iran Raised in UK Parliament
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(UK) - The British Government is coming under pressure from members of
both houses of Parliament, mainly Liberal Democrats, to “come
clean” about policies on who are deported to Iran –
especially Gay men and women. At lunchtime at Prime Minister’s
Question in the House of Commons, Greg Mulholland, the Liberal
Democrat MP for Leeds North West, raised the matter, complaining about
refugees being deported to Iran.
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Polish President Uses Gay Wedding Video to Scare Poles of EU
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(Poland) - A Gay man from the United States on Tuesday voiced outrage
against Poland's President Lech Kaczynski for publicly using a video
of his marriage to bash the EU's proposed charter of rights. Kaczynski
used a prime-time televised address Monday to argue the EU's proposed
Charter of Fundamental Rights, linked to the bloc's crucial reforming
Lisbon Treaty, could allow homosexual marriage in Poland, a devoutly
Catholic country. A video of the couple's marriage in Toronto, Canada
was broadcast nationwide to illustrate Kaczynski's presidential
address.
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Gay and Grey in Berlin's New Old People's Home
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(Germany) - A fluffy yellow bedspread is severely tucked around the
hospital-style bed, there's a wheelchair-accessible shower and a token
pot plant. At first glance, the Asta Nielsen Haus in Berlin looks like
the average old people's home. But this is a pioneering facility - the
first in Europe to cater exclusively for Gays and Lesbians. The idea
of a Gay-only project for elderly people was first mooted at a "Gay
and Grey" congress in Cologne in 1995. It reflects fears among
Germany's first openly Gay generation about what will happen when they
are too frail to care for themselves. "At the moment, most Gay and
Lesbian residents keep themselves hidden. Imagine one Gay person in a
home of 100 people. It can be lonely and isolating," says Christian
Hamm, who is on the board of the organisation behind the care-home
plan. Hamm and his associates are now drawing up plans for an
assisted-care retirement centre for Gay people in another Berlin
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Complicity in Iran's Anti-Gay Jihad
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(UK) - The British government announced Thursday that it was ending
efforts to deport Mehdi Kazemi, a 19-year-old Iranian who has been
studying in Britain – a move that should be applauded by human
rights activists everywhere. Had he been forced to return to Iran,
Kazemi would almost certainly have been executed there. Roger Roberts,
one of eight members of the House of Lords who petitioned British Home
Secretary Jacqui Smith to allow Kazemi to stay in Britain, declared:
“There is no doubt that he will be persecuted and possibly face
state-sanctioned murder if he is forced to
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Nazi Persecution of Gays is Explored in Exhibit
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(USA) - A traveling exhibit from the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum uses photographs, documents, and artwork to chronicle the
Nazis' arrests and persecution of tens of thousands of Gay men from
1933 to 1945. The exhibit, on display through the end of the month at
the University of Rhode Island, gives voice to what its curator
describes as "one of the lesser-known stories of the Nazi era." The
exhibit begins just before the Nazis rose to power, when an estimated
1.2 million Gay men lived in Germany and a Gay culture flourished in
nightclubs and cafes. But after Adolf Hitler took power, the Nazis
began closing Gay clubs, and in 1934 the Gestapo asked local police
departments to compile lists of men believed to be Gay. A law known as
Paragraph 175 that had previously prohibited "unnatural indecency"
between men was reworked to dramatically expand the range of illegal
behaviors. By 1938, even a perceived wayward glance or touch could be
interpreted as criminal by the
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Gay Refugees Have Difficulty Proving They're Gay
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(Canada) - The Canadian Refugee Board needs to establish clearer
guidelines on sexual orientation to help adjudicators avoid
stereotyping Gay and Lesbian refugees who have little proof they are
Gay, say legal experts. Last week MP Thomas Mulcair exploded at
hecklers in the Commons and later shed tears at a news conference
after Immigration Minister Diane Finley refused to allow Canada's
latest Gay refugee claimant Kulenthiran Amirthalingam stay in the
country on compassionate grounds. He later told the Montreal Gazette
that he had seen a disturbing video depicting the kind of brutal
punishment Gay men receive in Malaysia, including strapping a naked
man until raw flesh was exposed. Amirthalingam, who is now back in
Malaysia where he spent time in jail for being Gay, was declared not
credible by the one-adjudicator panel. He joined a growing list of
refugee claimants who have been rejected because they can't prove they
are
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Anti-Gay Propaganda on British TV
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(UK) - George Galloway MP is accused of mouthing "the propaganda of the
Iranian dictatorship" after he claimed on the Channel 5 TV talk show
The Wright Stuff this morning that the boyfriend of Gay asylum seeker
Mehdi Kazemi was executed for sex crimes (see full transcript below).
The criticism comes from the Gay human rights group, OutRage!.
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Gay Teenager Is Facing Gallows as His Asylum Bid Is Rejected
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(Netherlands) - A Gay Iranian teenager faces deportation from Britain and
execution in his home country after a Dutch court refused to hear his
asylum claim. Mehdi Kazemi, 19, will be forced to return to Britain,
where his asylum application was rejected last year. He is then
expected to be removed to Iran where his boyfriend was hanged two
years ago for 'sodomy.' The ruling will put the Home Office under
renewed pressure to reassess his case - or face the possibility of
sending a young man to his death. The department’s own guidance
concedes that Iran executes homosexuals but rejects the claim that
there is a systematic repression of Gay men and
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Homophobic Abuse Endemic in Schools
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(UK) - Homophobic abuse is endemic in schools, with "Gay" now the most
common put-down by pupils in the classroom, teachers say. A
"conspiracy of silence" in schools and colleges means homophobia is
now seen as so normal that some teachers believe they risk disrupting
classes - and making themselves a target of abuse - if they challenge
students' behaviour. More than 70% of teachers have heard put-downs in
their school or college that refer to sexuality, according to a survey
of 268 teachers by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. In
particular, teachers report that pupils routinely use the term "Gay"
in a pejorative manner. Nearly two-thirds of teachers and lecturers
have heard homophobic language on a regular basis. A quarter
encountered it several times a week and about 16% of them daily. Boys
are significantly more likely to talk about sexuality in a bullying
way, but half of teachers have seen girls do the same and nearly 12%
said they had seen similar behaviour in the
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