Prime Minister honours gay victims in Holocaust Memorial Day statement

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has released a statement ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day tomorrow, the international day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust and other genocides.

HMD is marked each year on 27 January – the anniversary of the date of the liberation of Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

“The theme of this Holocaust Memorial Day is Standing up to Hatred,” Mr Brown said.

“We all like to think that we know what we would do in the face of hatred – that in a moment of decision we would honour our obligations to resist brutality and to stand with its victims.

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Analysis: Obama’s comprehensive support for gay equality

What can lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans Americans expect from the new President of the United States?

Barack Obama, who will take the oath of office tomorrow afternoon at noon (5pm GMT), is the most gay-friendly politician to lead America.

During his campaign for the White House, the former Senator from Illinois spoke about his personal friendship with gay people.

“Michelle and I have been blessed with many openly gay and lesbian friends and colleagues whom we have been close to for many years,” he revealed in a series of written answers to a gay newspaper.

“While that fact has made the issue facing the LGBT community more personal, the fundamental reasons I have for supporting equality are greater than any individual.

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Rumpole creator and Gay News defender John Mortimer dies

Author, dramatist and free-speech barrister Sir John Mortimer has died at the age of 85 after a long illness. Sir John famously defended the publishers of Gay News in 1976 after they were accused of blasphemy for publishing a poem that appeared to imply that Jesus was gay.

Sir John who trained as a barrister went on to become one of Britain’s most prolific writers. He created the acclaimed Rumpole of the Bailey in both print and on television.

His first radio play was broadcast in 1957 and aside from Rumpole, he adapted Brideshead Revisited for television. He received a CBE in 1986 and was knighted in 1998.

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Police investigating homophobic MP Iris Robinson seek advice about … PinkNews.co.uk

The Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland has confirmed that it has received a request for prosecutorial advice from police investigating whether a local MP’s homophobic statements broke the law.

Two incidents have been reported to police.

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Same-sex marriage supporters to petition Scottish Parliament

A group of gay rights advocates has launched a petition to the Scottish Parliament calling for a change in the law to allow two people of the same sex to get married.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Network says there is a “ban” on same-sex marriage and that the High Court and the UK Government “have both denied gay couples full equality.”

LGBT Network director Nick Henderson said:

“Equality means all citizens should be treated the same, and that everyone must have the same rights under law.

“Yet the status quo ensures a system of one law for straight couples and another for gay couples.

“Whatever the similarities between civil partnerships and marriage, separate but equal is inherently unequal.

“Marriage is the strongest word we have for a declaration of total love and commitment to one another; and to deny any person that opportunity is to deny the full measure of dignity and humanity that we are all endowed with?”

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Two executed in Saudi Arabia for male rape

Two Saudi men were publicly beheaded on December 26th after being found guilty of rape.

The official SPA news agency said Nasser al-Harby and Majid al-Sibeiy had gone into the bedroom where the unnamed victim slept.

They beat him, tied him up and raped him.

100 people were executed by Saudi Arabia in 2008.

Homosexuality is illegal under sharia, or Islamic Law. SeeTwo executed in Saudi Arabia for male rape

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Gay “cure” policeman’s employment tribunal backed by those claiming to be ‘Christians’

A Christian policeman who was sacked after he sent emails at work suggesting homosexualityis sinful is to take Norfolk Police to an employment tribunal.

Complaints against former constable Graham Cogman stem back to 1995 when a gay colleague sent emails round to staff encouraging them to support Gay History Month by wearing a pink ribbon.

In response to this PC circulated emails quoting the Bible, suggesting homosexual sex was sinful.

He was sent to a disciplinary tribunal who fined him 13 days pay and barred him from using the internal messaging system.

Despite the ban, PC Cogman posted a link to an American Christian helpline that offers to “cure” gay people.

He was dismissed following a disciplinary hearing in November.

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Can you help vulnerable gay teenagers this Christmas?

The Albert Kennedy Trust helps lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans young people who do not live in accepting, supportive and caring homes.

It provides a range of services to meet the individual needs of those who would otherwise be homeless or living in a hostile environment.

This Christmas AKT is asking PinkNews.co.uk readers to help those vulnerable young people – AKT helped more than 1,400 in 2007. “If just 365 of your online readers donate £18 each to the appeal they will have raised the money needed to keep one young person off the streets and safe in a Carer household for one year,” said AKT chief executive Tim Sigsworth.

“To donate they can visit the AKT website and click donate.”

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Hungarian court blocks same-sex partnership law

The Constitutional Court of Hungary has annulled a new law due to come into effect next month that would legally recognise gay and lesbian relationships.

Parliament approved the Registered Partnership Act in December 2007.

From January 1st 2009 lesbian and gay couples would have had have almost identical rights as married heterosexual couples in common law.

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South Africans still not OK with same-sex relationships

82% of the adult population of South Africa think that sex between two men or two women could be considered ‘always wrong,’ according to the latest South African Social Attitudes Survey.

Just 8% thought it was never wrong.

“Gay and lesbian identities continue to be characterised as ‘un-African’,” according to the report into the survey from the Human Sciences Research Council.

Figures for the last five years show a consistent 80% opposition to gay people.

“The assertion of ‘un-Africanness’ conceals a moral and cultural view that African societies are somehow unique and therefore immune to what is perceived to be a Western and European import.”

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