China cancels parts of Pride festival
Officials in China ordered organisers of the first gay pride festival to cancel two events – the staging of a play and the screening of a movie
Festival organisers were confused by the order after the state-run media called the festival an event of “profound significance” and highlighted the tolerance of Shanghai, China’s largest city.
Homosexuality was illegal in China until 1997 and was officially considered a mental illness until 2001.
Three gays in Brown’s reshuffled cabinet
The latest reshuffle in UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s cabinet sees the appointment of three openly gay figures. Peter Mandelson is business secretary, Nick Brown is chief whip and Ben Bradshaw is the newly appointed health secretary.
A 25-year-old Spanish trans man who was due to give birth to twin boys in September has miscarried.
Ruben Noe Coronado, who was born a woman, had stopped his course of hormone treatments in order to fall pregnant via artificial insemination after his wife was told she could no longer conceive. He had not yet had surgery to remove his female reproductive organs and the couple is planning to try again.
Last year Spain passed a law allowing those with “a sexual identity problem” to officially change their sexual status without gender realignment surgery.
Trans man Thomas Beatie has given birth to his second child – a healthy baby boy who was born three days premature.
Beatie and his wife Nancy had their first child, a daughter, last June. He decided to carry the child because his wife could not conceive and he had not yet completed his gender reassignment surgery. .
Despite being legally defined as a man for over ten years and having had some gender reassignment surgery, Beatie kept his female reproductive organs. Before starting a family, Beatie had been on hormone treatments but stopped in order to resume menstruating and conceive through artificial insemination. Both children were conceived with the help of sperm donors.
The UK’s Green Party is backing calls for an end to the ban on same-sex marriage in the UK and in other EU member states saying there should be marriage equality across the European Union.
Most EU countries do not recognise the different same-sex partnership laws in other member states. For a majority of lesbian and gay couples, legal rights stop at their own borders which creates problems for same-sex partners who travel or move to other EU countries.
The Church of Scotland has imposed a two-year ban on new ordinations of gay ministers. This decision comes just days after the General Assembly voted 326-267 to allow openly gay Rev Scott Rennie to serve as minister at Queen's Cross Church in Aberdeen.
It was also decided that a special commission be set up to consider the matter of ordinations of gay clergy and report on the matter in 2011. In the meantime, church members have been told not to talk to the media about the issue.
Levi’s supports marriage equality with store displays
Levi Strauss is no shrinking violet when it comes to public support for equality. The popular clothing brand was a leader in getting businesses to support the opposition of Proposition 8 last year and now Levi’s is giving their support for marriage equality a higher profile.
All mannequins in 20 Levi’s stores in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco will be dressed in white and will be accessorised with white knots – the symbol of solidarity with the same-sex marriage movement.
The Church of Sweden has appointed a lesbian as the Lutheran bishop of Stockholm.
Eva Brunne, who is in a registered partnership, is believed to be the world's first lesbian bishop. Brunne, 55, has a three-year-old son with her partner Gunilla Linden, who is a priest.
A gender-neutral marriage law in Sweden was passed on May 1, meaning gay couples can marry in the country in religious or civil ceremonies but cannot yet get married in church ceremonies.
The Lutheran Church, which was the state church until 2000, has said that while it supports the new law, it will not formally decide whether to perform gay marriage ceremonies until October.
A Catholic woman in the UK whose son was placed with a gay foster couple after she was unable to look after him, is taking legal action against social services, arguing that the child could be “encouraged” into a lifestyle that is against her religious beliefs.
The Brighton woman, who cannot be named, suffered a mental breakdown a year ago, reportedly the result of an abusive marriage. Her 10-year-old boy has been in foster care but has since been permanently placed with a male couple at the hotel they manage together.
Brighton and Hove Council has one of the highest rates of fostering and adoption by gay couples.
San Francisco gays help Iraqi gays
A group of San Francisco philanthropists has raised $7 500 to help gay Iraqi refugees in Beirut.
The groups called Rainbow World Fund and Gays Without Borders/San Francisco worked with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to raise funds from patrons of San Francisco’s gay bars and restaurants.
In recent months violence against gay Iraqis has sharply increased, prompting some gay men to flee the war-torn nation. Visit
www.rainbowfund.org for more details.
Gays blog more than straights
A recent survey shows that gay and lesbian adults online are reading more blogs than their heterosexual counterparts. Just over half (51 %) of the gay and lesbian respondents reported reading blogs, compared to 36 % of heterosexual adults. In November 2006 a similar survey showed that only 32% of online respondents read blogs. It has also been determined that LGBT adults are more into instant messaging, social networking and internet dating than their online heterosexual counterparts.
Hundreds arrested at California’s gay marriage ban protests
The California Supreme Court's ruling that upholds the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the state's controversial gay marriage ban, resulted in widespread protests and a number of people being arrested.
The first person arrested was an Episcopal priest, followed by a male couple who staged a kiss-in. Everyone arrested was released later on the scene.
In Los Angeles about 100 people staged a sit-in at an intersection near the University of California during rush hour while in West Hollywood actress Drew Barrymore addressed a crowd of protesters who had gathered for a protest rally.
Proposition 8 Upheld
California’s Supreme Court justices issued a ruling that upholds Proposition 8, the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. After six of the seven justices voted to uphold Proposition 8, the court ruled that overturning the ban would go against the will of the people.
Despite the ruling, the 18 000 gay and lesbian couples that married after the supreme court’s original decision in May last year which established equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, will be allowed to stay married.
US mayors support gay freedom to marry
At a meeting in New York the US Conference of Mayors recently passed a
resolution in support of ending the exclusion of gay couples from marriage.
The resolution is known as “Equality and Civil Rights for Gay and Lesbian Americans” and includes support for the freedom to marry along with endorsement of federal bills such as Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, the Uniting American Families Act, and the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
Dustin Lance Black in web photo scandal
Dustin Lance Black, writer of the screenplay for Milk, the biopic of gay rights campaigner Harvey Milk, has apologised after leaked photographs showed him having unprotected sex with another man.
The three-year-old photos show Black, an outspoken safe-sex advocate, and his boyfriend at the time engaging in a number of unsafe sexual practices.
Black's lawyers are said to be taking legal action to prevent further distribution of the images.
Black is scheduled to be one of three grand marshals of New York City's upcoming Pride March. He was also recently honoured in Los Angeles by the gay youth mentoring group LifeWorks.
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