Irish civil union bill signed

A bill to legally recognize same-sex couples was signed into law by Ireland’s president.

Irish civil union bill signed

A bill to legally recognize same-sex couples was signed into law by Ireland’s president.

Irish judges: Gay sperm donor should see his son

(Dublin) The Irish Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a gay man who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple should be permitted to see his 3-year-old son regularly – in part because Ireland’s constitution doesn’t recognize the lesbians as a valid family unit.

The ruling was a legal first in Ireland, …

Elton John recovering in hospital from flu, e-coli

(London) Elton John has been hospitalized after suffering from a case of E. coli bacterial infection and the flu, his spokesman said Monday.

Gary Farrow said the pop star hopes to be released soon but has been forced to cancel concerts in England, Ireland and the United States.

John intends to rejoin …

Most gay pupils bullied in school – youth service

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EDUCATION COMMITTEE: MOST LESBIAN, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) second-level students have suffered homophobic bullying, the Belong To youth service has told an Oireachtas Education Committee.

More than 20,000 post-primary students are lesbian, gay or bisexual, representing an average of two students in every classroom. A smaller number of students identify as transgender, according to Belong To.

Research involving over 1,100 LGBT participants, funded by the Health Service Executive (HSE), found that half were subject to verbal abuse in school because of their orientation, 40 per cent were verbally threatened by their peers, 34 per cent heard homophobic comments by staff and one-quarter were physically threatened by their peers. Sandra Gowran, director of education policy with the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen), said homophobic bullying was pervasive in schools, regardless of whether they had a particular religious ethos or whether they were co-educational or single sex.

“The bottom line is that these young people are not safe in our schools because of the extent of homophobic bullying,” she said.

Most young people became aware of their LGBT identity at around 12, but did not disclose it to another person until around 17.

“LGBT young people are part of every school . . . in Ireland yet they are largely invisible in any meaningful or positive way,” she said.

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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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Bush State Department Ignored Iraqi Gay Murders Gay City News

As concern over the killings of gay Iraqis grew in 2006 and 2007, the US Department of State appears to have done little more than develop media talking points and squabble over who at that agency should handle press interviews.

“[I]t is outrageous to see that by walking away from their responsibility to further investigate, document, and then ultimately discuss the human rights abuses with the Iraqi government, the US government missed a great opportunity to prevent the mass-scale attacks against LGBT community, which happened earlier this year in Iraq,” wrote Hossein Alizadeh, regional coordinator for Middle East and North Africa at the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), in an email.

Writing in Gay City News, Doug Ireland first broke the story in March of 2006 that Iraqi gays were being killed by death squads. Ireland and other gay press outlets continued covering the story in 2006 and into 2007, with the mainstream press offering occasional stories. The killings and the gay press reports on them have continued into 2009.

In September 2007 –– nearly two years ago –– Gay City News sent a Freedom of Information request to the State Department that sought all records “that relate to or identify homicides, assaults, or other violent acts committed against homosexual persons in Iraq.”

On May 26 of this year, the department responded, releasing two documents, totaling nine pages, that represent all the records that agency compiled from March 1, 2003, roughly the start of the Iraq War, through the date of the records request. No documents were withheld and only a small portion of the released documents was blacked out. See Bush State Department Ignored Iraqi Gay Murders

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Ireland’s hospitals to recognize gays

Orange anger at gay row

A PLAN to “celebrate diversity” at a high-profile Church of Ireland service has been scrapped after the Loyal Orders withdrew over the involvement of a pro-gay lobby group.The symbolic service, held during the Church’s annual General Synod in Armagh, to be attended by the Roman Catholic Cardinal, Sean Brady, would have been the spiritual focal point of what is effectively the denomination’s parliament.