Speaking on the sidelines of the International AIDS Conference, Global Fund chief Michel Kazatchkine and UNAIDS head Peter Piot said that China and other fast-advancing economies could shoulder more of their own burdens in the future, freeing up resources for poorer countries.

“When we look at global targets, none of us believes that it will be 100 percent everywhere,” Mr. Kazatchkine told a group of reporters.

“But if you look at individual countries, and if you look at the percent that have achieved universal coverage or [will] be close to universal coverage, there may be much more than you may think of.”

The 2010 target, enshrined in a June 2006 UN General Assembly resolution and supported by the Group of Eight (G8) industrial nations, is emerging as a touchy political issue.

Three million poor people now have been able to grasp the drug lifeline, thanks to a big increase in the past two years, but this is still two-thirds short of the total in need and time is running out to meet the deadline.

As a result, activists have closely scrutinised the July G8 summit statement and last week’s UNAIDS report on the state of the pandemic.

Some see a weakening verbal commitment to 2010 and a dangerous slippage to 2015, which is also the goal date for the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal on reversing the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Mr. Piot, UNAIDS’ executive director, said, however, that the 2010 commitment has not changed.

“2010 is 18 months from now,” he noted. “What we’ve seen is that in a number of countries, they’ve already reached their universal access targets, others not.”

Some countries could achieve universal access in 2011 or 2012, in line with their national programmes, Mr. Piot’s spokesman explained.

33 million people around the world are infected with HIV, 90 percent of whom live in developing countries.

By some estimates, universal access will cost $54 billion (£27bn) per year in 2015 – and the bill will endure for decades, as the treatment is for the rest of one’s life.

Mr. Kazatchkine said he looked to the G8 countries, which account for 90 percent of contributions to the Global Fund, to meet their commitments.

The Christian Congress for Traditional Values, founded in 2005, was instrumental in organising anti-gay demonstrations outside Parliament opposing the Sexual Orientation Regulations.

The closure of CCTV was sparked when its founder, former Met officer Michael Reid, was caught having an affair with the choir mistress of his church in Brentwood.

A CCTV campaign in January, which took the form of a mobile poster, “Gay Aim: Abolish the Family,” breached Advertising Standards Authority code.

In April, founding member and preacher of family values Bishop Reid stepped down after he admitted to an eight year extra-marital relationship with his church’s music director, Sheila Graziano.

64 year-old Reid is a former police officer and insurance salesman, who entered Christian ministry without any formal theological education.

More than thirty years ago he founded Peniel Pentecostal Church in Essex, which was later renamed “Michael Reid Ministries.”

The organisation also runs a school with 170 pupils aged 2 to 19 and a college in Brentwood, as well as a TV ministry.

He has reportedly been dismissed from all posts at Peniel.

Reid is known for his far-right views, such as gays are “filthy perverts” and Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists are variously described in videoed sermons as “vile” and “foul heathens.”

Christians who do not work, Reid said in one video recording, should be allowed to starve.

His teachings on the family are not to everyone’s taste.

Writing in the latest issue of the Peniel’s newspaper, Reid says: “Parents have a tremendous responsibility when they have children; fathers have the biggest responsibility, because God has placed them as ‘head’ of the household, to give leadership to the family by setting the standards.”

He continues: “In today’s society, however, many women have usurped the place that God gave to their husbands.”

The CCTV used to describe itself as “an alliance of Christians from a wide spectrum of professional and working backgrounds who have pledged to campaign against the declared intention of BBC executives to push back the boundaries’ of taste and decency.”

The website no longer exists.

A change to blood donor rules sought by a gay man to remove discrimination threatens to bring infection and death, according to the Australian Red Cross, reports The Age.

Electronics technician Michael Cain, 21, of West Launceston, was rejected as a donor in October 2004, after replying “yes” in the Red Cross questionnaire to whether he had had gay sex in the past 12 months.

The tribunal heard homosexual sex is lawful in Tasmania, where legislation prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or lawful sexual activity.

The Australian Red Cross donor rule rejecting sexually active gay men is being challenged before the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Tribunal, which was told yesterday it amounted to textbook discrimination.

The organisation replied that the proposed change would be an experiment with the blood supply that made humans the guinea pigs, at real risk of HIV infection.

Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesperson, Rodney Croome, described the Red Cross opening statement in defence of the current ban as a “statistical diatribe against gay men.”

“The Red Cross cited statistics about rates of HIV and other infections in the gay community which were misleading because the infections in question arise from unsafe sex, not gay sex, and because almost all these infections are increasing dramatically in other groups which aren’t banned from blood donation,” Mr Croome said.

“It was particularly offensive and unprofessional for the Red Cross to assert that “monogamy is a myth” in regard to men who have sex with men.”

Cain’s solicitor, Peter Tree, highlighted the fact that risk of HIV infection is based on safety of sexual activity, not gender of sexual partner.

Mr Tree said it was “illogical and medically flawed” to ban all sexually-active gay men from donating blood.

“The appropriate screen ought be based on unsafe sexual activity.”

Mr Tree also highlighted statistics showing the failure of the current screening process to eliminate all HIV positive blood donations, especially from heterosexual donors.

The hearing will continue next Tuesday.

Dr Barry Morgan said it would “take time” to resolve deep theological divisions over human sexuality, particularly same-sex partnerships, in an interview with the Western Mail on his return from the Lambeth Conference

The issue has threatened a schism in the Anglican communion and dominated last week’s conference in Canterbury, the meeting of bishops from around the globe held once every ten years.

Some churches in North America have carried out blessings for same-sex couples, a development that led some conservatives, mainly from Africa, to boycott Lambeth in protest.

Calling for a reconciliation, Dr Morgan said: “For people who are gay and lesbian, we can give the impression that we are more harsh in our dealings with them than with any other group of people.

“That must impair our mission, and leave them feeling rejected.

“It’s all going to take time. My hope is that people will realise that on these moral issues, as on many moral issues, there is no one Anglican solution.

“On marriage and divorce, there are those who believe that there ought not to be re-marriage of divorced people in church; others believe that ought to be possible.

“There is a willingness there to live and let live in a way there doesn’t seem to be over the issue of same-sex relationships.

“In 1972 the American Institute of Psychiatry still believed it [homosexuality] was a mental illness.

“In 1967 it was still forbidden by law in the this country, and there are African countries where homosexuality is a crime. We all come from different backgrounds and scriptural understanding.

“My hope is that people will realise that the other point of view is a possible viewpoint, and we therefore we can co-exist.”

On the final day of the conference, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams addressed the audience, calling on North American churches to abide by agreements not to consecrate gay bishops or carry out blessings on same-sex couples.

He wants to see an agreement, or “covenant,” agreed for the long term, which would involve setting down the basic principles of Anglicanism and agreeing to be bound by them.

Dr Williams said it was often assumed that the blessing of same-sex marriages or the ordination of gay bishops was simply a human rights issue.

“That’s an assumption I can’t accept because I think the issue about what conditions a church lays down for a blessing have to be shaped by its own thinking and its own praying.”

Before the Lambeth Conference a “breakaway meeting” took place in Jerusalem, the Global Anglican Future Conference. Many of the bishops who attended that gathering chose to boycott Lambeth.

The division in the Church was widened in 2003 by the consecration of openly gay Gene Robinson as the Bishop of New Hampshire in the US. He was not invited to Lambeth by Dr Williams because of the controversy over his appointment.

The Archbishop of Canterbury intends to convene a meeting of primates as early as possible next year for further discussions.

Last month Dr Morgan said that fundamentalists are damaging the Anglican community.

“There used to be a generosity of spirit and diversity in the Anglican Communion,” he said.

“There should be a backlash against this fundamentalism that has been thrust upon us.

“It is contrary to the ministry of Jesus and damaging that in the Church, we’re still fighting battles that have already been won in society.”

Fernando Soares, 54, lost his life partner of 31 years, Nigel, to a rare form of stomach cancer in March.

Five years ago and long before Nigel had developed cancer they bought a small house together in the village of Ceret, near Perpignan, France.

However, when they went to see a notary last summer in France, because Nigel wanted to write a will, they found out that France does not recognise their CP and Mr Soares discovered he would have to pay a 60% inheritance tax on the property.

“It is unfair because Britain gives French PACS couples the same rights and benefits.” Mr. Soares told PinkNews.co.uk

Amanda McAlister, a British solicitor who specialises in CP is appalled by the situation.

She believes that the French government’s stance is in breach of ‘right to family life,’ article 8 in the 1998 Human Rights Act guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights.

“The French are a nightmare in recognising other civil partnerships. The British are the best,” a French notary told PinkNews.co.uk

“This is a case of nationality discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination. I have to sell my flat in London to pay the tax,” Mr Soares said.

He has had little positive response from gay support groups or government officials.

The only support Mr Soares has received is from Michael Cashman, a member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands constituency.

Phelps and congregation are doing what they know best and heading to Toronto, Canada tomorrow to picket.

78 year-old Phelps is a disbarred lawyer and current leader of fundamentalist Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church – slogan “God hates America, God Hates Fags.”

They claim to believe that disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq war are due to the “moral downfall” of the country.

The church runs a website, GodHatesFags.com, dedicated to “opposing the fag lifestyle of soul-damning, nation-destroying filth” and has protested at scores of funerals of soldiers killed in the line of duty in Iraq.

Their campaign, “Thank God for Improvised Explosive Devices,” involves protesters holding up signs and chanting slogans such as “America is Doomed” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” at the widows of the servicemen.

The Pastor Phelps Project is part of a Toronto-based indie theatre and arts festival SummerWorks.

The show is described as: “homophobia versus burlesque in a musical cabaret showdown, sexy political satire with razor wire barbs.”

Newton wrote in his letter to Phelps:

“Our show is just like you: a shameless spectacle. It’s not just your fundamentalist hate-addiction that fascinates me; there’s something more.

“You’re not the type of conservative who hates fags but hides behind slick rhetoric about the sanctity of marriage and family values.

“No, you are the real deal: a balls-to-the-wall lunatic; spitting bile with all the conviction and dedication of a man possessed and there’s a part of me that can respect that.

“You are so utterly loathsome, your ideas so mind-bendingly facile and your tactics so crassly ludicrous that you provide the perfect mirror to reflect the awesome stupidity of religious homophobia.”

The Westboro Baptist Church responded to the letter in a press release:

“The Pastor Phelps Project is a tacky bit of filthy sodomite propaganda, with no literary merit and zero redeeming social value, masquerading as legitimate theatre.

“It is of the fags, by the fags, and for the fags – designed only to mock the word of God and the servants of God. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision.” Psalms 2:4.

“God Hates Canada – Land of the Sodomites.”

Newton’s letter will appear in print in today’s issue of Toronto’s gay scene publication, Fab Magazine.

The fourth Moscow Gay Pride will take place on May 15 to 17 2009, when the Russian capital will also host the Eurovision song contest, which traditionally attracts attention from the LGBT community in Europe.

Letters were sent today to Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, London Mayor Boris Johnson and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit.

“This will be a good opportunity for you to express your solidarity with LGBT community in Russia and other European countries,” Nikolai Alekseev and Nikolai Baev from Russian LGBT Human Rights Project GayRussia.Ru and Organising Committee of Moscow Pride said in a the letter to the mayors.

“Many Eastern European countries, including Russia, face serious problems of the breaches of LGBT civil rights. Moscow authorities ban all manifestations connected to the rights of LGBT people.

“Your personal participation and support of our manifestation would change this situation. Gays and lesbians in Moscow could get a real chance for the equal right to freedom of assembly.”

A similar letter was sent out last year though none of the mayors attended the event.

The Mayor of Paris thanked organisers for the invitation and expressed his support of the freedom of assembly for LGBT people in Russia but could not attend due to a planned visit to Israel.

London Mayor Boris Johnson attended Pride in the city for the first time last month.

Invitations to European politicians and deputies for next year’s Moscow Pride will be sent shortly.

The political group wants compulsory training for all asylum staff.

Earlier this year, gay rights groups were taken aback by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s assertion that gay men and lesbians who are “discreet” are not in danger in Iran.

The Iranian regime’s record of brutality towards sexual minorities is well-documented and the Islamic nation regularly uses torture and the death penalty.

The issue has not only been taken up by various LGBT equality rights groups such as the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration group, but has also attracted attention in the US.

In April, during the race Democratic nomination for President, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s campaign teams both condemned Gordon Brown and the UK government policy to deport LGBT people to countries where they face persecution, citing the controversial case of gay Iranian teenager Medhi Kazemi.

Phelim Mac Cafferty, media spokesperson for LGBT Greens stated: “After much campaigning on the issue since the cases of Iranian LGBT asylum seekers Pegah Emembakhsh and Mehdi Kazemi came to light, we have got clearance from the web team on the Prime Minister’s website for our petition.

“We now challenge the government to start treating LGBT asylum seekers with the fairness that they deserve.

“These are people who’ve often fled persecution, rape and torture who flee to our country and our response is to lock them up like criminals. We say enough is enough of this inhumane policy- we need to stick our necks out now and stand up for LGBT asylum seekers.”

The petition also calls for explicit instructions to all immigration and asylum staff and judges that homophobic and transphobic persecution are legitimate grounds for granting asylum.

View the petition here.

The initiative brings a number of potentially risky HIV-related scenarios to life, in the form of creative narrative and has already attracted voluntary participation from well known actors, authors and journalists.

The unusual approach aims to capture the attention of today’s youth, who are increasingly at risk of contracting the virus.

In 2007 those aged 15-24 accounted for nearly half of all new infections.

Leading Hollywood actors Selma Blair, Ashley Judd and Idris Elba, along with hip-hop and R&B superstars Ludacris and T-Pain have all leant their voices to the engaging stories, which can be viewed online.

Rapper Ludacris said in a press statment: “I’m honoured to be involved in such an innovative project.  Not only is it a great interactive way for young people to learn about such an important issue, it also allows them to think about it from different perspectives.

“I believe that it’s everyone’s duty to be involved in this fight.”

The launch of Untold Stories ties in with the International AIDS conference, taking place  in Mexico City until 8th August.

At the conference MTV and MySpace are spearheading a second awareness-raising initiative: The Big Question, asking “Why, when the risks are known, are young people still having unsafe sex?”

The initiatives are part of MTVNI’s Staying Alive Campaign, launched in 1998.

The campaign is one of the world’s largest multimedia global HIV and AIDS prevention campaigns.

As a punishment, they gang-raped him.

The alleged assault on the 20-year-old-man, a convicted ‘foot-soldier’ for a Catania-based crime-family, has been brought to light by his lawyer, Antonio Fiumefreddo.

“Writing poetry is considered stuff for an ‘iarruso,’” he said.

The word is Sicilian slang for a gay man.

Speaking on an internet current affairs programme, Klauscondicio, Mr Fiumefreddo declined to name his client, who he says was sodomised by eight men in 2006 and is still in jail.

“I don’t even know if he really is homosexual, but for his sensitive ways, and the fact that he wrote love poems, he is thought of as gay and treated accordingly,” Mr Fiumefreddo said in a video interview posted on Monday.

Italian gay-rights activists have reacted with outrage at the report, condemning authorities for their alleged inaction.

“It is stupefying that news of a prisoner’s rape has only surfaced two years after the attack,” the president of the Arcigay association, Aurelio Mancuso, said.

Equal Opportunities Minister Mara Carfagna has asked Italy’s Justice Department to provide more details on the matter to establish if the case represents an “act of violence based on sexual discrimination.”

Fiumefreddo said his client was treated for the injuries he sustained in the rape at the Catania prison Piazza Lanza’s medical centre, requiring several stitches.

Apparently the attack was not reported to authorities and no charges were laid against the alleged assailants.

The lawyer said the decision to “go public” with news of the alleged rape followed remarks by one of Italy’s top anti-mafia prosecutors, Antonio Ingroia, who said the Mafia’s gay bosses are afraid of coming out because they would get tossed out of the organisation.

Ingroia argues that the Mafia’s violent reaction towards affiliates who declare themselves gay or are “outed” as such, exposes a weak link in the secretive organisation’s dealings.

“The mafia’s vision of (traditional) masculinity serves to emphasise its power and its claim of being ‘set apart’ from (modern) society where there is growing openness to the role of women and gay people,” he said in an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

The number of teams is limited by the local council to 20, but places are filling up fast.

The teams, each with five members, will compete in a series of competitive events with a comical twist such as the drag relay, the handbag throw and the 50m mince.

“The great thing about this Sports Day is that there are events for everyone, from the light-hearted and frivolous events, which you might expect at a particularly broad-minded school’s Sports Day, to the events that are a little bit more athletic,” said Matthew Hodson of GMFA.

“You don’t have to be Ben Cohen to take part, or even to win – although if he wants to put together a team and come along he’d be very welcome.”

Last year’s event attracted more than 500 people, who took part in non-competitive events such as a live duck race and a gay Punch and Judy.

This year’s event will be officially opened by the Mayor of Lambeth, Councillor Angela Meader.

“The Sports Day is a lot of fun,” added Hodson, “but it also raises much needed funds for GMFA, which goes towards those projects that receive no statutory funding, such as our work for HIV positive gay men.

“We’re delighted that the event supports local Vauxhall charities too, and we’re thrilled to have Lambeth’s Mayor coming to give the day her official blessing.”

Established in 1992, GMFA is dedicated to gay men’s health and has provided courses for over 10,000 gay men over the past fourteen years.

GMFA is still accepting team applications. To enter the event, teams are being asked to get as many people as possible to sponsor their team.

There will once again be a trophy for the winning team, and another trophy for the team that manages to raise the most money.

For more information or to enter a team contact Matthew on 020 7738 6872 or email: matthew.hodson@gmfa.org.uk.

Join the thousands of visitors who have watched last year’s event by visiting YouTube.

The American government has failed to prevent the virus in black community, who account for half of new infections, he said yesterday at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.

In Africa, 30 percent of babies born to mothers with HIV are infected with the virus, though there are drugs that could cut the risks to less than two percent if widely available.

He said his Foundation will increase projects to reduce the infection rates.

President Clinton, 61, who has made the fight against AIDS the focus of his post-White House career, said every health clinic should routinely test for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, especially in developing countries where 80 percent of infected people don’t know their status.

He commended Mexico for passing legislation to increase access to health care, saying similar actions would help reduce the number of annual new HIV infections.

There were 2.7 million new infections worldwide in 2007.

“AIDS is a very big dragon,” President Clinton said yesterday.

“The mythological dragon was slain by St George, the original knight in shining armour, but this dragon must be slain instead by millions of millions of foot soldiers.”

56,300 people in the U.S. contract HIV in 2006, 40 percent more than previously forecast, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week.

“For Americans, this should be a wake-up call that even as we keep working globally we need to do much more to fight AIDS at home, and I intended to do so with my foundation,” President Clinton said.

The William J Clinton Foundation has worked to reduce the cost of treatment by 50 percent and help more than one million people get access to care by negotiating pricing deals with drug manufacturers.

Its budget for international AIDS relief is almost as large as the U.S. government’s budget was for those programmes during his administration.

In the two years since the former President last spoke at the biennial AIDS meeting, his Foundation has grown from 50 people and $5 million (£2.5m) to employ more than 500 people with a $200 million budget.

It also expanded its work last month to include reducing the cost of malaria drugs.

In office President Clinton, a Democrat, found his efforts to further increase AIDS funding blocked by a Republican-controlled Congress and by social stigmas about the disease and contraception, said Russell Riley, a Presidential scholar at the University of Virginia Miller Centre of Public Affairs in Charlottesville, bloomberg.com reported.

The New York-based William J. Clinton Foundation’s AIDS programme focuses on increasing access to treatment by lowering the cost of generic drugs and improving health care services in developing countries.

Unlike other organisations, the Foundation doesn’t employ relief workers or buy drugs. Instead, it provides money, equipment and training for health care clinics in remote areas.

By exploiting Clinton’s contacts, the Foundation persuades businesses to expand the availability of drugs and encourages government to spend more money on neglected areas such as preventing the transmission of HIV from mothers to their newborn children.

The foundation also has a staff of chemists who develop less expensive ways to manufacture drugs.

About 60 percent of the Foundation’s AIDS money comes from a program called Unitaid, funded by an airline ticket tax on flights out of France, Chile, and six other countries.

The remainder comes from private donors, such as the singer Elton John and the Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“South Carolina is so gay,” proclaimed posters in one Tube station.

The campaign was proposed by the state tourism agency’s London advertising contractor.

It promotes tour operation Amro Worldwide. Several US cities took out similar ads to coincide with last month’s Pride London celebrations.

Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism Director Chad Prosser said the agency had no authority to ask the ads be taken down anyway, since the contract was through a third-party British vendor.

“There was nothing that could be done to pull it. The campaign was going to end before that whole chain of events could take place,” said Prosser.

The state’s Governor Mark Sanford and others objected to the ad content calling the state “So Gay,” arguing state tourism dollars were being used to make a political statement.

After the ad campaign became news in South Carolina – a week after Prosser found out about it – he announced the state would not pay the vendor.

This prompted the South Carolina Pride Movement to raise the £2,500 necessary to pay the debt owed.

They will also launch their own campaign using a “South Carolina WILL BE ‘So gay’” from the SC Pride website.

Prosser said he did not ask the ads be removed for three reasons: concerns the advertising and tour companies would use it for free publicity; the agency could not remove the ads; and the campaign had nearly run its course, coinciding with last month’s gay Pride events in London.

“It shows we made the right decision,” Prosser said of press releases criticising the state by Amro Worldwide, the tour company, and Out Now Consulting, the advertising firm, according to myrtlebeachonline.com

“They’ve gotten a tremendous amount of free publicity at South Carolina’s expense.”

Ian Johnson, chief executive of Out Now, said the two companies only got involved to correct what they felt were untruths by Prosser and the agency.

“I just find it really strange that the South Carolina Parks Recreation & Tourism think they are somehow doing their state’s industry a favour by creating so much negative publicity for their local tourism industry.

“In 2008, homophobia is just not a smart tourism marketing strategy, if it ever was. Shambolic probably does not go far enough in describing their ineptitude,” said Johnson.

Andrew Roberts, CEO of Amro Worldwide, noted the state willingly violated a contract.

Both were disappointed PRT initially tried to blame a “low-level” employee.

Rand Romaine, the employee who approved the campaign, was an agency international marketing manager. Prosser said they were trying to protect Romaine’s identity, and should not have used the “low-level” modifier.

Romaine has since resigned.

According to e-mails released by the agency, Parks Recreation & Tourism employees were surprised to learn that posters advertising South Carolina as a gay destination had been displayed in London subway stations.

The e-mails verify the agency’s claim that a lone employee approved the ad campaign without a supervisor’s approval.

Prosser told South Carolina newspaper The State on July 10 that Parks Recreation & Tourism had asked the ads be removed.

The July Fourth holiday and Romaine’s vacation, Prosser said, made it difficult to piece details together initially.

The e-mails show agency officials were hoping the ad campaign would not become an issue in South Carolina. The agency’s spokesman wrote on July 3 he was “praying this little story doesn’t jump the pond.”

That same day, Romaine e-mailed agency officials and the British vendor, recommending they pull the ads. “I made a serious error in judgment regarding the political sensitivities surrounding the marketing opportunities with AMRO Vacations and the London campaign,” Romaine wrote.

Prosser said the agency has changed its policies for approving international advertising. Nonetheless, a number of lawmakers said they were disappointed in the lack of oversight.

“The ads’ content certainly don’t represent the public policy of the state,” ” said Republican state Representative Greg Delleny.

Police in Thornton, Colorado arrested Allen Ray Andrade after responding to a noise complaint early Wednesday morning and finding him in Zapata’s stolen car.

Andrade now faces charges of first-degree murder as a hate crime, identity theft and aggravated motor vehicle theft. He has been refused bail.

It will be the first murder in Weld County to be prosecuted as a hate crime.

In 2005 a new law added protections for people based on sexual orientation, including “transgender status,” to Colorado’s “bias-motivated crimes” statute.

Zapata’s sister found her in her apartment in Greeley, Colorado.

She had been beaten to death on July 17 and covered with a blanket.

Andrade told police that he met Zapata on July 15 for a one-time sexual encounter through social networking site MocoSpace.

Andrade reportedly discovered Zapata’s male genitalia the next day after seeing photographs around the apartment, becoming suspicious, and forcibly grabbing her crotch after her insistence that she was “all woman.”

Andrade then hit Zapata twice in the head with a fire extinguisher after striking her with his fists.

While cleaning the scene for evidence, Andrade told police that, though he thought he’d “killed it,” Zapata tried to sit up.

He then struck her a third time with the fire extinguisher and also took her purse, keys and phone before fleeing in her 2003 Chrysler PT Cruiser.

“You get the sense that maybe he wasn’t seeing Angie as a person. Then you get an idea of the violence behind this act,” Crystal Middlestadt, Director of Training and Education for the Colorado Anti-Violence Program told PageOneQ.com.

Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck told the Denver Post that he will aggressively prosecute Andrade.

“It just can’t be tolerated at any level. And I hope that if anything positive were to come of this, we would develop a stronger relationship with the gay, lesbian, transgendered community so that they understand just how seriously we take crimes like this and how vigorously we will pursue justice in a situation like this,” Buck said.

About 200 people attended the July 23rd memorial service for Angie Zapata.

“Angie gave me the power to not care what people thought of me,” friend Angie Portillo, a lesbian, said at the service. “She always just wanted to be who she was, and that was female and to be loved.”

“Opponents of relationship recognition for same-sex couples often say that we have to protect children, or that same-sex relationships are against God,” said Ramona Faith Oswald, a University of Illanois associate professor of family studies, according to medicalnewstoday.com.

“But this study suggests that lesbians and gay men who seek relationship recognition may be acting to protect their children and enact their own religious beliefs.”

190 people in same-sex cohabiting relationships were surveyed to gather a broad range of information about lesbian and gay persons living in downstate Illinois. Within this group, a sub sample of those who had legalised their same-sex relationship by making a will or granting power of attorney to their partner was identified.

Length of relationship was the strongest predictor that a couple would legalise their relationship. The study also showed that those who legalised their relationship were more likely to belong to a supportive religious congregation than non-legalising cohabiters.

“Faith communities may be important sources of legal education and advocacy for same-sex couples.”

From the ‘legalisers’, Oswald identified a still narrower group she called ‘ritualisers’, couples who had both legalised and participated in a commitment ceremony.

Having children and identifying religious beliefs as being very important in their daily life were the strongest predictors that a legalised couple would ritualise their relationship.

Most children in this study were from partners’ previous relationships.

“Couples may be using commitment rituals to build cohesion within stepfamilies as the role of gay and lesbian stepparents is often vague. Such ceremonies may help couples validate their sense of belonging and obligation to each other while also demonstrating to friends and relatives that they are a family unit.”

Most children in the study were teenagers at the time of the commitment ceremony.

“It’s interesting that couples were motivated to have a commitment ceremony when their children were at this developmental stage, just starting their own romantic explorations.
There may be an element of parenting going on here, with couples wanting to give their children an example of commitment by formalising their own. It’s an interesting question for future research.”

With the Religious Freedom and Protections Civil Unions Act under consideration in the Illinois House of Representatives, Oswald hopes this study will help to explain the motivations of gay and lesbian couples who wish to obtain civil unions.

“This study is an important contribution because it separates the legal and ritualistic aspects of solidifying a relationship. Not all same-sex couples want legal protection or ritual recognition. However, those who do appear to take these steps for the same reasons straight people often do – parenthood and religious commitment.”

“This common ground should be part of our policy debates.”

The study was published in the June issue of the Journal of Family Psychology.

Facebook, the online social network, is being used as a tool by some claimants to help prove their sexual orientation to immigration officials in Canada.

“Sexuality has always been very complicated and when you have to prove it as a matter of life and death you will use any resource you have available to you,” Diego Macias of Among Friends, a Toronto-based gay and lesbian refugee support group, told The Canadian Press.

Those seeking refuge after 1992 were permitted to claim status based on their sexual orientation and required to prove their claim to the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).

Wearing their sexuality on their sleeve was never an option for many back in their home countries and finding suitable evidence to support their claims can be difficult.

Macias tells his members to use technology to their advantage and feels facebook can help demonstrate involvement in the gay and lesbian community.

“During Pride we took hundreds of pictures and we have a facebook group and when people sign up to that group we encourage them to show their membership to the IRB member.”

In more than 75 countries people face jail, or worse, for having gay sex.

Acts of homosexuality are punishable by death in several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Sudan.

In many other Muslim countries homosexuality carries prison sentences, fines, or corporal punishment.

Last week in Winnipeg a federal court judge upheld a decision to ship a Nigerian man back to his native country because the IRB ruled his claim of being gay was a hoax.

He says his life is in danger if he goes home.

Experts say it can take different components to paint a convincing picture of one’s sexual orientation for the Immigration and Refugee Board.

“I have used facebook (because) people put stuff on there about themselves and who they are, and in a relationship with,” immigration lawyer El-Farouk Khaki, who specialises in representing gay and lesbian refugee claimants, told The Canadian Press.

Khaki explains how many in this situation have spent years – even decades – trying to hide their sexuality back in their country of origin, so any glimpse into a claimant’s new life can help.

“Basically it’s like a jigsaw puzzle and you just try and take the little pieces here and there and you try and construct a larger picture of a person’s life,” he explained.

Khaki says he often provides his clients with a list of items that can help prove their sexual orientation to the immigration board – and there is very little off-limits.

Claimants can use letters from family and friends, pictures at Pride festivities and memberships on gay chat rooms.

Incorporating one of the most-used web-based networks in the world (facebook has 90 million members) is just the next logical step says Khaki.

“Before there was facebook, I was using other profiles,” says Khaki, giving examples of Gaydar.com and adam4adam.

Evidence can come in many forms, agrees Charles Hawkins, spokesman for the Immigration and Refugee Board.

“A refugee claimant may not have (typical) documentation to support their claim and individuals may have to be more resourceful in their submissions.

“A member of the board can accept any relevant evidence and then assign an appropriate value to that evidence.” Hawkins told The Canadian Press.

With Macias’ support group at more than 45 members and more coming through the doors every week, he says he will continue to use facebook to support refugee claims.

“I do foresee the IRB saying this is not an acceptable form of evidence,” says Macias.

“But until then I am going to keep on using it.”

Saudi police are awaiting a medical report to assess the claims of 28-year-old suspect that he was acting in self-defence after his victim tried to sexually assault him, police sources told Gulf Daily News.

Mr Havering suffered four stab wounds to his neck, one in the back and one to his waist during a knife attack last Tuesday.

His body was found on Wednesday morning in an apartment on Prince Naif Al Suad Street.

“The Egyptian suspect, Muhammad Mukhlis Shamsuddin, has claimed that Mr Havering was trying to sexually harass him,” police sources told Gulf Daily News.

“He says he stabbed Mr. Havering in an attempt to defend himself.

“We are doing medical reports to see if the claims are true.”

Mr Havering was known to occasionally visit Saudi Arabia as an investment consultant for the Shoaibi Group, an oil company with several branches including one in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

A colleague from Shoaibi Group told the Gulf Daily News that Mr Havering had been living in Bahrain, but commuted to Saudi Arabia for the past six months.

Mr Havering was married to a German woman and the couple have a son and a daughter.

It is thought his family were planning to join him in Bahrain from their home in the Netherlands.

“I didn’t know him very long, maybe others knew him better. But he was a typical Englishman with a good sense of humour, very gentle and a good father. I think everyone working with him had respect for his professionalism and politeness.” said a colleague, who asked to remain anonymous.

The Foreign Office has declined to discuss any details of the case, but did confirm that Mr Havering was killed.

Homosexual acts are illegal in Saudi Arabia. The so-called ‘morality police’ have been conducting a recent crackdown on parties they allege are held by gay men. Last week 55 people were detained at a farm in the east of the country.

Drugs and alcohol were reportedly found at the gathering.

TV channel al-Arabiya reported that two young men wearing women’s make up and dancing together were among the people arrested by religious police.

]]> http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2008/08/04/briton-killed-in-saudi-accused-of-gay-sexual-assault/feed/ 1 http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2008/08/04/lindsay-lohan-anger-after-police-chief-says-she-has-gone-gay/ http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2008/08/04/lindsay-lohan-anger-after-police-chief-says-she-has-gone-gay/#comments Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:30:18 +0000 Phoebe Ferris-Rotman http://www.pinknews.co.uk/?p=8593 Lindsay Lohan has hit out at the Los Angeles police chief after he said she had “gone gay.”

Chief William Bratton made the remark while explaining why he does support a crackdown on the paparazzi.

“If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving, Paris is out of town not bothering anybody, thank God, and evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don’t seem to have much of an issue,” Bratton told LA news channel KNBC.

“Police chiefs shouldn’t get involved in everyone else’s business when it comes to their personal life. It’s inappropriate,” Lohan said in a video filmed by paparazzi and posted on celebrity website TMZ.

Ms Lohan has been romantically linked with DJ Samantha Ronson, sister of producer Mark Ronson, though her publicist has previously denied that they are in a relationship.

They were spotted kissing in May at one of P Diddy’s yacht parties in Cannes.

The two have been friends for years and it is said the pair got exceptionally close during Lohan’s stint at rehab last year.

At her 22nd birthday party in July the Herbie: Fully Loaded actress came clean about the lady in her life saying: “I just wanna live a healthy happy year, continue on the path I’ve been on and be with the person I care about.”

Bids are now being considered from consultancy companies to carry out an in-depth feasibility study into the centre, which could model itself on the famous San Francisco LGBT Centre.

The bidding process was officially launched at the annual conference of LGBT community group Kairos in Soho on July 30.

The council estimates that 10% of the 4,000 residents in the area are gay, lesbian or transgender, and if the plan goes ahead the centre will be the largest of its type in the UK.

“The community has created a great opportunity here but the lack of a central accessible location for the London LGBT community means that the average citizen has little opportunity to inform or take part in the crucial process of social change,” said Jane Standing, chief executive of Kairos.

“We are talking about a creative space where the community can gain support, stay informed and take part in community action.”

The proposal was voted the most popular out of 65 initiatives in the Soho Action Plan, a long-term plan to regenerate the area.

Projects include creating a virtual museum to document Soho’s vibrant history, increased support to small businesses and improving street lighting and paving.

Westminster also plans to remove all unlicensed sex shops from the area.

Following a series of joint intelligence-led operations with the Metropolitan Police the number has already been cut from 52 to eleven.

“Lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender residents, workers and visitors are an important and valued part of the Soho community and we know the concept of a “one-stop-shop” for their health, business and community needs is popular,” said Councillor Alastair Moss, chairman of Westminster’s planning committee.

“Now we want to look carefully at the logistics and practicalities to see if we can help make this exciting concept a reality.”

“We are a very small Pride, when compared with the big three of London, Brighton and Manchester, but we like to think that we have a big heart and can produce a good day out for everyone, regardless of sexuality,” Paula, the organising committee’s chairperson, said in a press release.

The importance of Gloucestershire Pride, the only pride in the West Country, has been reiterated by a number of recent homophobic incidents.

At a Pride meeting, held in a bar in Gloucester in June, a man walked up to the group and passed uncomplimentary remarks, asking the chairperson: “Are you a man or a woman?” according to a press statement from the organisers.

A few weeks later, another committee member witnessed an incident in Gloucester’s Barton Street where a young gay Polish man was addressed as “batty-boy” and threatened in the street.

Gay men and women throughout Gloucestershire continue to suffer homophobic bullying, much of it going unreported, especially in rural areas were the problems are worse, with gays ‘suffering in silence.’

In most cases, victims are scared to go the police and report what is a hate crime.

Support groups like Gay-Glos and the Gloucestershire Gay & Lesbian Community, together with the Gloucestershire Police, all say that relatively few cases are reported.

Reported cases are taken seriously by the police.

Last December, a Gloucestershire gay man received an ‘anonymous’ email that denounced homosexuality as anti-Christian and told the victim they hope “… that all gays and lesbians were killed off by aids. […] I hope the lot of you die a painful death.”

Gloucestershire Police, with the help of Hampshire Police, traced the sender, and appropriate action was taken.

Pride organisers hope to create a safe and fun environment on Saturday 9th August and to touch the “hearts and minds of all local people have not yet been won over.”

Organisers hope a replay of last year’s torrential rains doesn’t spoil the outdoor events.

Pride events will include a short rally with an address from a county council cabinet member, performances from local bands, and 40 information stalls.

Click here for more information.