India: Legal gay sex ruling challenged
A landmark ruling that legalized gay sex between consenting partners in India was challenged Thursday in the country’s high court, lawyers said.
The supreme court issued a notice to the nonprofit Naz Foundation that had won a lower-court verdict after a seven-year legal fight to decriminalize gay sex.
Notices also were issued to the federal government and the New Delhi high court, which ruled last week that consensual sex between partners of the same gender was legal.
An astrologer filed a petition challenging the ruling. The petitioner argued that no constitutional right is violated by the Indian penal code’s Section 377, which had outlawed gay sex, said his lawyer Praveen Agrawal.
The petition also cited Indian culture and health as grounds for seeking a stay on last week’s ruling, he said.
The supreme court posted the next hearing for July 20.
Last week’s ruling meant the law — Indian penal code section 377, which had previously criminalized consensual homosexual acts between adults — was partly struck down but remains in place as far as forced homosexual acts are concerned.
The verdict affects law enforcement all around India because it deals with a law enacted by the federal parliament.
See India: Legal gay sex ruling challenged
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Shanghai gay pride: the show goes on
A colourful show of drag queens dressed in Chinese opera costumes was one of the festivities that marked Shanghai’s gay pride on Saturday, the first in China where homosexuality remains largely hidden.
A “Big Bash” barbecue Saturday — billed as the highlight of the week-long festival — went ahead as planned in a bar despite previous last-minute event cancellations by local authorities that marred the “Shanghai Pride.”
Drag and fashion shows and a ‘hot body’ competition took place at Cotton’s bar attended by at least 500 people, in a garden that was hidden from view by a rainbow banner covering the surrounding fence.
Later Saturday night, two fake gay marriages were to take place before people were ferried onto buses to go to an afterparty at a bar on Shanghai’s famous Bund promenade.
“We would have liked the whole week to go without cancellations, but today everything has happened as we wanted it to, so we’re happy,” said Kenneth Tan, spokesman for organisers Shanghai LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender).
Events for “Shanghai Pride” have been organised at private venues without a public parade — in stark contrast to similar events elsewhere in the world — to avoid attracting unwanted official attention.
But still, city authorities forced the cancellation of a film screening and a play during the festival, and the two venues hosting the “Big Bash” events Saturday had received calls from officials, according to Tan.
He said police had come to Cotton’s Saturday where expatriates and Chinese people mingled but soon left.
Liu Yang, a 27-year-old Chinese homosexual who was enjoying the shows Saturday, said he was amazed by the festival.
“I’ve never been abroad, and I have really wondered how such an event could take place so smoothly — I’m really nicely surprised,” he said.
See Shanghai gay pride: the show goes on AFP - 4
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China’s first Gay Pride event
China’s first Gay Pride event, organised by Shanghai’s English-speaking expatriates, has been quietly celebrating homosexuality this week with no hint of a parade or advertising hype.
In a country where acceptance of homosexuality is still low, organisers — foreigners living in China — have been reluctant to draw official attention.
So “Shanghai Pride” does not include the colourful parade that typifies Gay Pride events in Europe and the US, but is centred around events held in private venues to avoid the need for government permission.
As a result, few Chinese appear to be taking part — or even to know about the events — and attendees have been mostly expatriate.
“Even though we have talked about (Shanghai Pride) for a long time, the news published in Chinese about this is only very recent,” said Xing Zhao, a gay man in his thirties.
Homosexuality has long been a taboo subject in China with gay sex decriminalised only in 1997, while homosexual behaviour was officially viewed as a mental disorder until 2001.
Those behind Shanghai Pride hope it will help change prevailing attitudes, no matter how incrementally.
See China’s first Gay Pride event AFP
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President hails gay pride month
President Obama has issued a proclamation honoring “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Pride Month 2009.”
Gay pride month is observed every June to commemorate the “Stonewall riots,” an uprising that took place in 1969 when police tried to arrest gay patrons at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. The bar is shown here on the 25th anniversary of those events — widely viewed at the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.
Brad Luna of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay rights organization, says Obama’s proclamation is not a first: Former president Bill Clinton regularly recognized gay pride month during his second term in office. But Luna says Obama is right in claiming that he has tapped more openly gay nominees for high profile posts early in his administration than any previous president.
See a few excerpts from the president’s proclamation @ President hails gay pride month USA Today -
- It’s out: White House resolution honors 40th anniversary of … San Francisco Chronicle
Clinton vows to fight for gay rights abroad AFP - Clinton pledges to fight for gay rights worldwide CNN Political Ticker
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Gay US diplomats to get benefits for partners
In a policy shift, the US State Department will offer equal benefits and protections to same-sex partners of American diplomats, The New York Times reported.
The newspaper said the shift was spelled out in an internal memorandum Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent last week to an association of gay and lesbian foreign service officers.
Clinton said the policy change addressed an inequity in the treatment of domestic partners and would help the State Department recruit diplomats, since many international employers already offered such benefits, the report said.
“Like all families, our foreign service families come in different configurations; all are part of the common fabric of our post communities abroad,” Clinton said in the memorandum, a copy of which was provided to The Times by a member of the gay and lesbian association.
“At bottom,” the paper quotes Clinton as saying, “the department will provide these benefits for both opposite-sex and same-sex partners because it is the right thing to do.”
A senior State Department official confirmed the new policy, but did not say when it would take effect, the paper said.
Gay US diplomats to get benefits for partners: report
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Russia warns of clampdown on Eurovision gay protest
Russia on Friday warned it would clamp down on an unsanctioned gay rights parade in Moscow that coincides with the Eurovision Song Contest final, but organisers vowed to press on with the demonstration.
Russia is proudly trumpeting the annual pop extravaganza in Moscow on Saturday as the latest example of its ability to hold large-scale international events.
But away from the lights and laser beams at the mammoth 80,000-capacity Olympiysky Arena, police, homosexual activists and extreme-right wingers risk clashing at the “Slavic Gay Pride” parade in central Moscow. See Russia warns of clampdown on Eurovision gay protest
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‘Gay man’ disinterred in Senegal BBC News
he body of a man believed to be homosexual has twice been dug up from a Muslim cemetery in Senegal.
The man, in his 30s, was first buried on Saturday before residents of the western town of Thies dug up his body and left it near his grave, police say.
His family then reburied him, but he was once more exhumed by people who did not want him buried there. His body was dumped outside the family house.
Senegal outlaws homosexual acts but there is a tradition of effeminate men.
A police officer told the AFP news agency that the body was eventually buried away from the cemetery.
The state-owned Le Soleil newspaper reports that it was buried within the grounds of the family home.
“Goor-jiggen” (men-women) dress up as women, socialise with females and have long been tolerated in Senegal, a majority Muslim country. However, attitudes seem to be changing.
The AFP news agency reports that local imams, as well as some newspapers and radio stations, have denounced homosexuals after an appeals court last month overturned the conviction of nine people for homosexual acts.
‘Gay man’ disinterred in Senegal
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Wage ‘all-out war’ vs discrimination, LGBT group urges AFP
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is being challenged to “wage an all out war” against discrimination, particularly on lesbians and gays, a group said Sunday.
In a statement, Project Equality, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights network in the Philippines, challenged the AFP to “wage” the “war” after the declaration that military service is open to gays and lesbians.
“We welcome the statements made by top military officials declaring that lesbians and gays are now accepted in the military. However, this is not insufficient. There has to be a concrete and comprehensive non-discrimination policy in the military,” Project Equality spokesperson Jonas Bagas was quoted as saying.
“There has to be a clear policy explicitly stating that anyone, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, can join the military provided that they qualify for military service,” Bagas said.
Project Equality also urged the AFP to address other forms of discrimination within the AFP, particularly discrimination once gays and lesbians enter into service.
“Once inside, LGBT soldiers can encounter other forms of discrimination and abuse. That, too, should be prohibited,” Bagas added.
“The military is a macho establishment. Hearing pro-LGBT statements from its officials may be refreshing, but they cannot hide the strong anti-LGBT sentiment in the military,” Bagas said.
The LGBT group also urged AFP chief Gen. Alexander Yano to introduce anti-discrimination reforms in the military if they are “truly serious” with its pro-LGBT stance.
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California legal chief calls for end to gay marriage ban
California’s top lawyer has called for the result of a referendum effectively banning same-sex marriage to be quashed, two days ahead of the latest court-room showdown over the issue.
Attorney General Jerry Brown said the ballot measure known as Proposition 8, which redefined marriage in California as a union between a man and a woman, should be invalidated because it “discriminates against same-sex couples.”
On Thursday, supporters of same-sex marriage are to go before California’s Supreme Court in San Francisco to argue for the ballot measure to be invalidated in the latest twist to the long-running legal battle.
Brown said Tuesday the Supreme Court should strike down the measure on the grounds that same-sex couples had an “inalienable” right to marry that should not be allowed to be taken away by a simple majority vote.
He compared the current dispute to a case in 1964, where the California and US Supreme Courts quashed a voter measure that would have allowed racial discrimination in renting or selling of property.
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Robinson Invocation Supposed to Be Included in HBO Broadcast
Crowds attending the concert at the Lincoln Memorial
(AFP/Robyn Beck)
Late last night AfterElton.com reported that HBO, which had broadcast The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial Sunday afternoon — a
concert organized by the Presidential Inauguration Committee to start the inauguration festivities — said they were not to blame for …
