|
||||
|
||||
|
Thursday, Aug 28, 2008
|
||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||
|
|||||
Rex Wockner |
|
 |
|
| International News | |
| RUSSIAN GAYS ARRESTED
AT POLLING PLACE Thirteen Gays and Lesbians were arrested in Moscow December 1 as they were voting at a polling place. The activists, including lead Pride organizers Nikolai Alekseev and Nikolai Baev, were later charged with staging an illegal demonstration. The detentions were an apparent response to a call by activists for Gays to write "No to homophobes!" on their ballots. Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who banned Gay pride events this year and last year, was scheduled to vote at the same location about an hour after the arrests occurred. The activists were taken to a police station and released several hours later after a representative of the city prosecutor's office pointed out that it is illegal to detain someone for more than three hours without giving a reason. When Luzhkov banned the city's first two Gay pride parades, organizers responded by staging protest rallies, which were violently attacked by neofascists, skinheads, Christians and riot police. In January, Luzhkov said: "Last year, Moscow came under unprecedented pressure to sanction the Gay parade, which can be described in no other way than as satanic. We did not let the parade take place then, and we are not going to allow it in the future. ... Some European nations bless single-sex marriages and introduce sexual guides in schools. Such things are a deadly moral poison for children." BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT ORGANIZES LARGE LGBT CONFERENCE Brazil's federal government is organizing a groundbreaking 1st National Conference of Lesbians, Gay Men, Bisexuals and Transpersons. Subtitled "Human Rights and Public Policies: The Way Forward to Ensuring the Citizenship of Lesbians, Gay Men, Bisexuals and Transpersons," the event will be held May 9-11, 2008. A decree convening the conference was signed by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and published in the Official Gazette on Nov. 29. Toni Reis, president of the Brazilian Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Association, called the decree and the conference "unprecedented." Some 700 attendees are anticipated, 40 percent of them government officials. Beforehand, conferences will be held in each of Brazil's 27 states to prepare for, and elect delegates to, the main gathering. "The overall organization of the conference is the responsibility of the Special Department for Human Rights, which has ministerial status and reports directly to the president's office," Reis said. In his decree, Lula said he wants "to promote the citizenship and human rights of Lesbians, Gay men, Bisexuals and Transpersons, [and] strengthen the government's Brazil Without Homophobia Program." CROATIA SEES FIRST OPENLY GAY CANDIDATE Croatia's small Croatian Bell party has put forward the nation's first openly Gay political candidate. Vinko Kalinic wants to represent the northern region of Zagorje in Parliament. According to Javno.com, Kalinic is a reporter, songwriter, fisherman and former intelligence officer and seminarian. "I came out of the closet exclusively as rebellion and [in] solidarity with those who were discriminated against and humiliated, and I state that with pride everywhere I go," he told Javno. "My goal in politics is to, by coming out of the closet, have the sexual orientation of people become a completely irrelevant issue." BRIGHTON TO BAN ANTI-GAY MUSIC Local authorities in the Gay-resort city of Brighton, England, are set to ban music that bashes Gays. The ban would apply to live music and to recordings played in bars, clubs and other venues. Reports named rappers Eminem and 50 Cent and Jamaican dancehall singer Buju Banton as likely targets of the law. An establishment that violates the ban would face losing its business license and being shut down. The ban also would extend to music that incites hatred based on religion or race. Councilor Dee Simson, chairwoman of the local council's licensing committee, told the BBC the ban "will be used in really extreme cases to stop the playing of what's loosely termed 'murder music.'" "We have a large Gay and Lesbian community in Brighton and Hove, and we want to protect people from facing such hatred," she said. With assistance from Bill Kelley |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 New!! LGBT & LGBT friendly "What's Happening WA" |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 post your own information on the Seattle Gay Blog |
copyright Seattle Gay News - DigitalTeamWorks 2007