Changes in San Diego reflected in San Diego’s Pride Parade, Festival
The hundreds of San Diegans who marched for gay rights in the mid-1970s walked through a city largely indifferent, even antagonistic, to the cause.
What strides they have made.
Today, up to 9,000 people will take part in the San Diego Pride Parade, including the mayor, police chief and seven of the eight City Council members. Organizers are expecting 175,000 spectators from across the country and as far away as Australia, Germany and Britain.
While San Diego’s parade may never be as big as those in San Francisco or Los Angeles, there are many signs of how San Diego has changed into a city in the forefront of the campaign for gay rights.
In November, in the days after California voted to ban same-sex marriage, the largest protest in the nation occurred in San Diego. More than 20,000 people marched, double any other city’s turnout.
The size of San Diego’s crowd came as a surprise to many, including Cleve Jones, the gay rights activist and lecturer who founded the AIDS Memorial Quilt and was an intern for slain San Francisco supervisor and gay icon Harvey Milk. Jones is the grand marshal of today’s parade and several others around the country.
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San Diego Union Tribune
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Gay footballers battle for world domination
One year before the FIFA World Cup kicks off, 26 teams of gay and lesbian footballers are battling for global supremacy in the Gay Soccer World Championships
Co-ordinated by the International Gay & Lesbian Football Association (IGLFA), the tournament, which began on Sunday, is being hosted by the Federal Triangles club in Washington D.C., and supported by the local Major League Soccer (MLS) side D.C. United.
IGLFA spokesman Michael Pranikoff told CNN that the competition has been running annually since 1992.
“We started very small. There were just a few clubs from around the world. But we have gone from strength to strength. Last year the tournament was in London and sanctioned by the Football Association.”
Pranikoff said there are no professional players involved, but the standard of play is strong and the teams in the top divisions are very competitive.
Although the tournament involves club sides — rather than national teams, there is still a strong international feel with players from the U.S., United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Australia, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, Argentina, Italy, and Norway all taking part.
The London Stonewall Lions are the reigning champions in the men’s division and expected to figure in Sunday’s final at Trinity Washington University, he said.
Despite the competitive nature of the event, Pranikoff said there are also less serious divisions where there is a more important message.
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CNN International -
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Australian Gay parents welcomed. Just not for adoption
Katherine Eastaughffe and Una Harkin are lesbians.
They’re also mothers, to six-month-old Daniel, whom Katherine gave birth to after undergoing fertility treatment.
The Queensland Government has no problem with lesbians using IVF to have children.
Neither do they have a problem with taking on Katherine and Una as registered foster carers.
But they draw the line at gay adoption, meaning Una cannot be legally recognised as one of Daniel’s parents.
The Bligh Government’s refusal to consider same sex adoption is being used as part of a renewed push for federal laws preventing discrimination against gays and lesbians.
A Galaxy poll released today reveals 85% of Australians support the case for a national law on the issue.
Ms Eastaughffe told brisbanetimes.com.au the State Government’s Adoption Bill 2009, reintroduced to Parliament in April, was clearly discriminatory.
“It was a joint decision to have Daniel. He is very much both of ours,” Ms Eastaughffe said.
“If Una was a man, there’d be no issue either way. Either by having her name on the birth certificate or by being able to adopt him as a step-parent.
“It doesn’t make sense to me. A man might not be the biological father but he is still treated as the parent, but not if it’s a woman who’s the “non-biological parent”. That just seems outright discrimination.”
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Brisbane Times
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In Australia, Gay couples’ access to IVF delayed
GAY couples wanting access to IVF and donor sperm will have to wait for authorities to develop a way to make sure they are fit to be parents.
Laws allowing same-sex couples access to donor sperm and extra IVF services will be delayed at least five more months amid claims the Government doesn’t have the technology or resources to implement mandatory police checks in the legislation.
The Assisted Reproductive Treatment Bill, passed in December, gave lesbian and single women access to donor sperm and additional IVF services, but it also made it compulsory for all women and their partners, and any man donating sperm, to have police and child protection record searches.
The Act was to be proclaimed on July 1, but Melbourne IVF director Dr John McBain said the Government had stalled, unable to handle the hundreds of expected record checks.
“The Government is telling us it doesn’t have the resources in place to cope with the police checks,” he said.
“The bureaucracy isn’t in place in the relevant department to screen the very large numbers of people who will be trying to get police checks.” See Gay couples’ access to IVF delayed
Melbourne Herald Sun
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Transexual lesbian loses party bias case
A TRANSEXUAL lesbian banned from attending an all-female party has had her discrimination case thrown out.
Dr Tracie O’Keefe lost her three-year battle this week, after the Equal Opportunity Tribunal ruled the organisers of “Sappho’s Party” - an all-lesbian event held in Adelaide - were within their rights to refuse her entry.
The Sydney psychotherapist wrote to organisers in 2005 after she was handed a flyer advertising the Adelaide Hills party.
“I am someone who has lived as a woman for 35 years and considered in my country of origin, England, and my adopted country, Australia, as legally female,” Dr O’Keefe wrote.
“Although initially I was raised as a boy, I have lived as a female since I was 15 years old, where I was still legally a child, therefore I was raised both male and female. I would like to come to your event with my long-term female partner of 12 years.”
But a reply sent to Dr O’Keefe refused her request. “. . . this event is specifically being organised for those lesbians raised female from birth who feel the need to meet as a specific group,” organisers wrote.
“Our intention is affirmative action for this group. Therefore it is not appropriate for you to attend.”
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Gay man attacked for third time
Attacked outside bar in Australia, 20 year old had been bashed at 13 and 18. Called ‘faggot.’
Tags: Australia, Gay Man, Third TimeGay man attacked for third time
Attacked outside bar in Australia, 20 year old had been bashed at 13 and 18. Called ‘faggot.’
Tags: Australia, Gay Man, Third TimeGay man attacked for third time
Attacked outside bar in Australia, 20 year old had been bashed at 13 and 18. Called ‘faggot.’
Tags: Australia, Gay Man, Third Time300,000 party down under for Mardi Gras
300,000 party at Australia Mardis Gras
Tags: Australia, Mardi Gras, Mardis Gras
