Articles written by the PinkNews.co.uk 'staff writer' are authored by one or more of the PinkNews.co.uk editorial team.
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1 February 2006Gay Pride knifeman jailed + An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man who stabbed people at the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade last year, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.Judges ruled that the accused displayed extreme fanatical behaviour in his actions that injured three people.The Jerusalem District Court convicted Yishai Schlissel, a resident of the ultra-Orthodox community of Kiryat Sefer, of attempted murder and severe injury for stabbing and injuring three people at the gay parade. -
1 February 2006Outgames finds new partners 1 The International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association and the 1st World Outgames Montreal 2006 have announced a formal partnership.The 1st World Outgames Montreal 2006 has been a member of the IGLTA for the past two years, during which they have developed a strong partnership and cooperated on projects allowing both organisations to promote their services and events, as well as promote gay travel as a whole. -
1 February 2006Civil Rights activist dies + The widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, died on Monday night in Mexico, where she was receiving treatment at a holistic health centre after a heart attack last year.Coretta Scott King, 78, suffered a stroke and a mild heart attack last August. Her sister Edythe Scott Bagley told CNN she was receiving further medical treatment as part of her rehabilitation at Hospital Santa Monica when she died. -
1 February 2006Brad Pitt wants to play gay + Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt has expressed his desire to star in the ultimate gay love story after the success of films such as Brokeback Mountain.An insider told the Sun, "Brad has asked his people to find him a script to play a gay man. He wants it to be a story that appeals to both men and women and he wants it to be the edgiest work he's done."He is reportedly expecting a baby boy with lover Angelina Jolie. -
31 January 2006Signatures on anti-gay marriage petition were fakes- gay rights group claims + More than 2000 voter signatures appeared illegitimately on the initiative petition to ban gay marriage, the gay rights organization MassEquality claimed today. It is to call on the Massachusetts Attorney General and Secretary of State to fully investigate the signature collection activities of VoteonMarriage, an offshoot of the Massachusetts Family Institute.MassEquality says that its own investigations have uncovered more than 2000 voters whose signatures were collected through fraud, deception, forgery and trickery during the signature drive which ended Dec. 7, 2005. -
31 January 2006Men appear in court over gay murder + Two men appeared in court on today charged with murdering the gay bar manager, Jody Dobrowski, on Clapham Common last year.Unemployed Thomas Pickford and decorator Scott Walker denied murdering the 24 year old last October.Mr Pickford, 25, and Mr Walker, 33, who appeared at the Old Bailey by video link were remanded in custody. Their trial will begin on June 12th 2006. -
30 January 2006Washington state passes gay rights bill 1 The Washington state Senate passed a bill today protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination, making Washington the 17th state to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and the 7th state based on gender identity. It now goes before Governor Christine Gregoire, who pledged to sign it."States like Washington are picking up the slack as fairness remains stalled in Congress," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. -
30 January 2006700 gay weddings in London since December + 700 gay couples from London have tied the knot in civil partnerships since the introduction of civil partnerships during December of last year.A further 500 London couples are expected to hold gay weddings over February.The City of Westminster appears to be the most popular with couples with 38 weddings having already taken place with a futher 230 expected over the next few months. -
29 January 2006Israeli claims he had internet sex meet with Hughes 19 An Israeli engineer has claimed in national newspaper that he had a one night stand with the Liberal Democrats leadership candidate Simon Hughes.Greg Nesbett, 28, told the Sunday Mirror that he met up with the MP after exchanging messages on a popular gay website."It was rapid and businesslike, he made contact with me in the chatroom, came to my house then we got straight into it." -
28 January 2006Simon Hughes claims saying he was not gay was not “morally or factually incorrect” 19 Simon Hughes, candidate for the leader of the Liberal Democrats today told the Independent that his previous statements regarding his sexuality were not morally or factually wrong."What I said to this paper [that I was not gay] was not intended to mislead. I was trying to reinforce that barrier around my private life. It is not dishonest to protect your privacy. What I said wasn't morally wrong. It was not factually wrong." -
27 January 2006Britain remembers the evils of holocaust + Wales yesterday played host to Britain's national Holocaust Memorial Day, commemorating the 61st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by allied troops.The event held at the Cardiff Millennium Centre was the highlight of a week of remembrance across the nation. It marked the anniversary of the liberation of the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where Nazis murdered Jews, Poles, Romas and Gypsies, gay men and women, political prisoners, people with disabilities, and others during the Second World War. -
26 January 2006Comment: So what if Hughes and Oaten are gay or bisexual? 19 PinkNews.co.uk's Benjamin Cohen considers the sexual controversies that have engulfed the Liberal Democrats.You'd have had to be on another planet to have missed the news that two of the candidates for leader of the Liberal Democrats have been "outed" by the tabloid press. But does this really matter in modern Britain, and what does it say about our society that they couldn't out themselves? -
26 January 2006Fun With Dick And Jane + There seems to have been a spate of comedy remakes of TV shows and films from the 60s and 70s recently, be it Bewitched or Starsky and Hutch, The Producers or The Longest Yard. Some have been more successful than others.With this updating of the 1977 husband and wife robbers caper, originally starring George Segal and Jane Fonda as the down-on-their-luck middle class types forced into a life of crime, director Dean Parisot has cunningly picked a film now largely forgotten in the hope of having less to live up to. -
26 January 2006The Matador 1 Fresh from being booted out of his most famous role as James Bond, Pierce Brosnan hits the big screen once again in a role that seems to have given him an immense amount of fun.In fact, those who know Brosnan primarily from his Bond turns - or perhaps as Remmington Steele in the 1980s TV show of the same name through which he first found fame - may not really have noticed that he's got a wonderful comic ability. -
26 January 2006Munich + Having become the darling of the Jewish world with his masterly portrayal of the sheer horror of the Holocaust in 1993's Schindler's List, Hollywood's biggest director has now risked being denounced by those who formerly praised him for highlighting some of the less savoury policies of the state of Israel, in a highly topical action thriller based on real events from more than 30 years ago.Considering the sheer levels of vitriol involved in the Israel/Palestine conflict, where to show any indication of criticising Israeli policy can lead to accusations of anti-Semitism, for a non-Jewish director to try and dramatise an aspect of the long-running and bloody dispute would have simply been begging for widespread condemnation. -
26 January 2006Zathura: A Space Adventure + In 1995, the still relatively new movie technology of computer-generated effects was employed to good effect in the Robin Williams-starring Jumanji, a children's adventure flick based on a book by Chris Van Allsburg in which a board game, the titular Jumanji, could magically affect real life.A decade on, we get another children's adventure based on a book by Chris Van Allsburg in which a board game, the titular Zathura, magically affects real life. -
26 January 2006Walk the Line + A little over a year ago, a biopic of a groundbreaking, near-legendary, recently-deceased singer-songwriter whose life had been filled with more than its fair share of tragedy and upset along with the success earned wild critical praise and numerous awards.Much was made about the accuracy of the central performance, with praise heaped upon the actor responsible for his vocal mimicry and attention to detail, as well as how the actor had got to know and gain the blessing of the person he was portraying before he died. -
26 January 2006Chicken Little + Although Disney studios have got a great and profitable film franchise on the go with the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the animated division has not been faring so well. Depending on whose opinion you ask, either 1999's Tarzan or even as far back as 1994's The Lion King was the last genuinely good Disney cartoon.Since the arrival of the likes of Pixar and Dreamworks and the 3D computer-animated successes of films like Shrek, Toy Story and The Incredibles, Disney's position as the undisputed king of Hollywood animation has been so badly undermined that many no longer even consider it a competitor for the title. -
23 January 2006PM’s website hosts petition to dismiss Ruth Kelly 18 PinkNews.co.uk ExclusivePinkNews.co.uk has discovered that Prime Minister Tony Blair's own website is currently running a petition calling on him to remove Ruth Kelly from her role as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Minister for Women and Equality."Ruth Kelly is incompatible with this position as she holds views about homosexuality (and other issues) which are contrary to the equality agenda which it is her ministerial duty to promote." -
23 January 2006Youths jailed for gay killing 2 Four people convicted of killing a gay London man in a "happy slapping" attack in 2004 have been handed long prison terms.Reece Sargeant, 21, Darren Case, 18, and David Blenman, 17, were each given 12-year sentences in the unprovoked murder of David Morley. Chelsea O'Mahoney, who was 15 at the time, was sentenced to eight years.
