The interview, which took place in 2002, reappeared in the Irish press on Monday. Consequently, his chances of becoming Ireland’s next president have been severely reduced.

As reported by Henry McDonald in the Guardian, Mr Norris had been ahead in all opinion polls in the race until this point.

The interview was with current affairs publication Magill. Norris had said to them: ”I haven’t the slightest interest in children, or in people who are considerably younger than me.

“I cannot understand how anybody could find children of either sex in the slightest bit attractive sexually . . . but in terms of classic paedophilia, as practised by the Greeks, for example, where it is an older man introducing a younger man to adult life, there can be something said for it. Now, again, this is not something that appeals to me.

“Although, when I was younger, I would have greatly relished the prospect of an older, attractive, mature man taking me under his wing, lovingly introducing me to sexual realities, treating me with affection, teaching me about life.”

Mr Norris has said the re-publication of the piece is part of a smear campaign. Speaking on an Irish radio station RTE, he said that he abhorred any sexual contact with children, and opposed paedophilia and incest in all its forms.

He added that, in the original interview he had “engaged in an academic discussion about classical Greece and sexual activity in a historical context. It was a hypothetical, intellectual conversation which should not have been seen as a considered representation of my views on some of the issues discussed over dinner.

“People should judge me on my record and actions as a public servant, over the last 35 years and on the causes and campaigns, for which I have fought, and not on an academic conversation with a journalist over dinner. I did not ever and would not approve of the finished article as it appeared.”

However, Helen Lucy Burke, the journalist who wrote the story in question, contested the claim made by Mr Norris that she had repeatedly turned her Dictaphone on and off during the interview.

Ms Burke also said she had amended a draft of her article in Magill prior to publication in order for Mr Norris to make any suggestions about changes.

Mr Norris is a longtime gay rights activist and respected James Joyce scholar.

If elected, he has vowed to challenge homophobia worldwide.

Betty Tibikawa, who is currently detained in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedford, is expected to be removed from the UK after losing her asylum claim.

This comes after deputy prime minister Nick Clegg announced last week that the coalition’s year-old promise that it would no longer continue the practice of deporting people to countries where they were likely to face persecution – and worse – over their sexual orientation had been met.

According to Tuesday’s Guardian, Ms Tibikawa was about to start university in Kampala when she was set upon by three men who taunted her about her sexuality. They branded her with a hot iron and left her unconscious. Ms Tibikawa was then bedridden for two months. An independent medical report confirmed her scars were consistent with being branded.

Ms Tibikawa told the Guardian: “I can’t sleep and I’m having terrible nightmares about what will happen to me if I’m sent back to Uganda. My family have disowned me because I’m a lesbian and I’m convinced I’d be killed if I’m sent home.

“I was ‘outed’ in a Ugandan magazine called Red Pepper in February of this year saying that I’m wanted for being a lesbian. This has put my life at increased risk.”

Human rights organisations worldwide have repeatedly documented abuse against gay men and lesbians in Uganda, reportedly one of the most dangerous countries in the world for LGBT people.

Another Ugandan lesbian, known only as “BN”, was to be removed from the UK in January but her deportation was prevented after her lawyers successfully intervened. Her case will come before the court of appeal next month.

Also, a 34-year-old Ugandan gay man was to be deported on 17 May, though it is not yet known if this went ahead.

David Kato, a gay activist in Uganda, was murdered there earlier this year.

Homosexuality is illegal in the country and an anti-gay bill calling for more stringent measures against LGBT people was to be voted on by the Ugandan parliament last week. Ultimately, it was not included on the agenda, though it is likely it will come before parliament again later in the year.

Peter Tatchell said: “His article appears to be in direct response to my critique of his long silence and inaction on LGBT human rights, which was published in the Guardian on 17 May.”

In his article, written on International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO), Mr Tatchell said: “The Commonwealth is a bastion of global homophobia, often bucking the worldwide trend towards sexual orientation equality, with increased state-sanctioned threats and repression.”

He also added that the vast majority of the Commonwealth’s anti-gay laws were the “poisonous” legacy of British colonialism, and originally imposed in the 19th century.

In the response piece, Mr Sharma wrote: “I have consistently made it clear publicly that we deplore hate crimes of any nature and the vilification and targeting of gay and lesbian people runs counter to the fundamental values of the Commonwealth, which include non-discrimination on any grounds.

“I also recognised the Delhi High Court for its landmark decision to decriminalise homosexual acts. This addressed a legal legacy of the British colonial era that continues to affect more than three-quarters of Commonwealth countries long after Britain itself has moved on.”

He continued: “If attitudes are to change, if homophobia is to be challenged – as it should – and if laws on homosexuality are to be reformed the best hope lies in democratic and legal processes.”

Mohammed Hasnath, 18, of Leamouth, Tower Hamlets, was arrested last month at his home and represented himself in court today. He pleaded guilty to the offence and was fined £100 plus £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

When told the allegation against him of a public order offence of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour between 11-14 February, Hasnath reportedly said: “But I just put up stickers, I didn’t harass or swear at anybody or anything.”

The court also heard that Hasnath was on bail for allegedly defacing a billboard advertising women’s fashion.

In a statement read to the court, Jack Gilbert, a board member of the Sandy Row Synagogue and co-chair of the Rainbow Hamlets community forum, said: “For me I read this no differently from a sign that said ‘Jew free zone’.

“When I see that sticker I see the signs my mother saw in 1930 which actually carried less suggestion of punishment.

“For me I perceived an immediate threat of violence and had to make an instant risk assessment to my personal safety.”

However, Mr Gilbert had earlier claimed that the stickers could be the work of the English Defence League. In February, he said: “We have evidence that they were very likely to have been produced by far-right sources in order to ferment community tension.”

A retired resident in the local area also made a statement saying: “I was deeply shocked and decided to remove it as it immediately struck me as deeply offensive contained an implied threat of violence.”

The stickers, which were found in Brick Lane, Poplar, Bow and Canary Wharf, showed a red line through a rainbow flag and the words ‘gay-free zone’.

They said: “Arise and warn. Gay free zone. Verily Allah is severe in punishment.” At least 70 were reported.

After the anti-gay messages were discovered, local residents began a campaign to remove them and replace them with messages of love.

A Pride parade was also planned but had to be cancelled after it was revealed that one organiser had links to the far-right group English Defence League.

Writing in today’s Guardian, Clare Allan said that a close friend of hers who suffers from a number of mental health problems, was already in state of anxiety when she arrived for her assessment. Her friend, said Ms Allan, was unable to work and was concerned she might lose her incapacity benefit, which is soon to be replaced with employment allowance and a work capability test.

The patient claimed she was ignored by her doctor for five minutes while he worked at his computer screen. He then asked her about her current health and after disclosing she had been suffering from haemorrhoids, she was apparently “forced to sit and listen as the doctor described in graphic detail the physical damage men did to each other by having anal sex. ‘They’re everywhere!’ the doctor said. ‘They’re running the government.’ He would not allow his grandchildren to be brought up in a country run by homosexuals and paedophiles.”

Ms Allan said that her friend kept quiet about her own sexuality at this point, being stunned by the outburst. The patient was then told by her doctor that a lesbian couple had complained about him, saying that he had rejected their claim because he was homophobic: “‘I had to go to tribunal,’ he said. ‘I could have lost my job. But they found against them and they lost their benefits.’ The doctor then left the room without any explanation. Some minutes later he returned with a nurse and proceeded [with the examination].”

Atos offices across the UK were picketed by disabled people last month, and their ethics have also been questioned in the British Medical Journal.

Rachel Maddow, a 38-year-old Stanford graduate who hosts her own show nightly on MSMBC, is one of the few openly gay news anchors in America. In an interview with the Guardian today, Hadley Freeman asked Ms Maddow’s opinion on a fellow news anchor who was “widely assumed” to be gay but had made no move to come out. Ms Maddow responded: “I’m sure other people in the business have considered reasons why they’re doing what they’re doing, but I do think that if you’re gay you have a responsibility to come out.”

Ms Maddow rose to prominence on Air America, a national radio station where she co-hosted ‘Unfiltered’ with Chuck D. She then moved to CNN before being give her own show on MSMBC in 2008.

That same year, David Frum, a former speech writer for George Bush told Ms Maddow – live on her own show – that he saw her as part of “the ugliness that has been a feature of American politics in the past eight years”. Despite this, Maddow is a popular figure, whose ratings were 26% higher than CNN’s Piers Morgan-hosted talkshow in the same timeslot.

Freeman says that Maddow is “inspirational to all women, gay or straight. With her short brown hair and elegant if gangly body, she is a defiant rebuttal to the cookie cutter blonds who dominate US television.” Maddow said “I’m definitely not an ‘autocutie’ . . . I’m confrontational.”

While South Africa has enjoyed a constitution which “recognises same-sex partnerships and condemns discrimination”, it seems to be “backtracking” on gay rights, according to the paper’s Poverty Matters blog.

PinkNews.co.uk reported this year on Uganda’s widely condemned anti-homosexuality bill, which would heighten the severity of punishments available for the offence to include the death penalty and life imprisonment.

At the same time, a Ugandan publication began naming gays and lesbians, before a High Court order forbade them from printing further identities.

Earlier this year, a couple in Malawi were sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment for “gross indecency” and “unnatural acts”. They, however, were pardoned by president Yoweri Museveni.

Controversy struck the international community recently when the UN general assembly’s human rights committee supported the removal of the words “sexual orientation” from its list of grounds on which to protect people from execution.

The move was supported by the South African government.

The current holder of the Mr Gay World title is Charl van den Berg, himself South African.

Coenie Kukkuk, the director of the bid to host Mr Gay World 2012, said: “Charl is a gay role model who gives courage to gays all over Africa and shows them their lives are about more than repression, torture, HIV and prison sentences.

“That message will be enhanced if we can elect the 2012 Mr Gay World on African soil, where the vast majority of governments are anti-gay and are currently hardening their repressive laws.”

The winner of the 2012 bidding process will be announced in the Philippines on 13 March next year.

To read the Guardian article in full, click here.

As a senior Republican figure with a high public profile, Mr Mehlman’s admission of his homosexuality is a bold move at a time when the Republican party are asserting their opposition to the legalisation of same-sex marriage and the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

When Mr Mehlman was asked by the Atlantic magazine to explain how he reconciled his sexuality with the Republican party’s “gay-baiting tactics”, he replied: “I can’t change the fact that I wasn’t in this place personally when I was in politics, and I genuinely regret that. It was very hard, personally.”

It was during the period 2005-2006 when Mr Mehlman was chairman of the national Republican party that strategists used state referendums banning gay marriage in order to galvanise their voters.

Mr Mehlman said that his move was an important one in order for him to be able to openly support the legalising of marriage for LGBT Americans.

He added: “It’s taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life . . . I’ve told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they’ve been wonderful and supportive . . . It’s something I wish I had done years ago.”

He also said that he had been working with the American Foundation for Equal Rights, who back the legal challenge to California’s Proposition 8 which bans gay marriage in the state, by encouraging Republicans to donate funds.

t’s all about the cards, apparently. Who’s holding them? Who’s afraid of them? Card players are a menace, according to the rightwing papers. So how does it work? The first ­person I spoke to is a friend in the police; let’s call him Sam. Sam is Asian and he tells me that, despite all we read, the race card isn’t all it is cracked up to be. “It’s great for the higher-ups,” he says. “They can position themselves so they are seen as representing a ­particular community.” But for the lower ranks, the idea that you can ­prosper or be protected by the race card is a bit of a myth. “If you mention race, all that does is inflame the situation. The senior types panic and then they call the lawyers in.”

So I mull it all over with Millie, whose work provides a front-row view of what happens in the workplace. A lot of headline sex discrimination cases, I suggest. The gender card must be a winner. “It fluctuates,” she says. “At the moment, what worries employers the most is disability, race and religion, followed by gender, then sexuality and don’t forget age.”

Continue reading Hugh Muir’s article

The newspaper’s political editor Jane Merrick writes: “Gordon Brown last month blocked Sri Lanka’s attempt to host the next Commonwealth summit, and last week David Miliband told the Commons that there remained ongoing concerns about the island’s government after a crackdown on the Tamil population earlier this year.

“Despite this, Mr Bradshaw, wearing a straw hat, checked shirt and jeans, arrived at Colombo airport on Friday morning for a Christmas break in the country.”

Human Rights Watch said that while on his trip in the country, the minister should publicly condemn President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s clampdown on Tamils. The organisation say while Mr Bradhsaw can travel freely around the island there are tends of thousands of internally displaced persons who have their movements restricted despite some relaxations on the rules this month.

The paper quotes James Ross, legal and policy director of Human Rights Watch as saying that Mr Bradshaw “should travel around, all over the country, and then publicly express his disapproval of the fact that there are still tens of thousands of Sri Lankans who cannot do the same thing because they are being held in detention centres.

“If he is going to go to Sri Lanka he should speak out and publicly honour the British government’s concerns about the situation there.”

The newspaper also points out that the culture secretary paid “£1,600 for a business-class ticket for the 10-hour flight. He left Heathrow on Thursday just before snowstorms hit – causing delays and cancellations – and arrived in Colombo on Friday, to be met by temperatures of around 31C.

“The minister’s choice of a far-flung destination and long-haul flight, with its sizeable carbon footprint, just as the Copenhagen climate talks were peaking, will earn him no points with environmental campaigners.

Mr Brashaw’s spokesman did not comment to the newspaper.

To continue reading this column please click here

Credit: Guardian Open Platform

David Bahati, the MP for Ndorwa West in the Ugandan parliament, would not normally come to international attention. His name is becoming notorious, however, as the sponsor of a wretched piece of legislation intended to rile the west and torment an already suffering part of his country’s population. Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill 2009, which is now before parliament, is unpleasant even by the standards of anti-gay laws around the world. Its supporters will decry any criticism as neocolonial interference, but the reality is that Uganda is being misled, not least by evangelical churches, some of which have links with the American Christian right.

Ugandans may ask why they are being singled out for criticism: some American states still have anti-sodomy laws on the books, and in Britain legal equality is a recent development. Ugandans may also feel that their laws should not be decided by outsiders. And some in the west, though appalled by the legislation, will fear that international criticism will only further isolate Africa’s gay and lesbian population. Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni – like President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe – likes to claim that homosexuality is a decadent import to Africa from the west. He may use foreign attacks on the bill to bolster his case. “When I was in America some time ago I saw a rally of 300,000 homosexuals. If you have a rally of 20 homosexuals here I want to disperse it,” Mr Museveni said in 1998.

Gordon Brown raised the bill with President Museveni at the Commonwealth summit. Sweden, which holds the EU presidency, says it will reconsider its development aid if the law is passed. They are right to use this leverage. Some people may fear the imposition of western liberal values. The far greater prejudice would be to tolerate an injustice in Africa that would not be tolerated at home.

To read the article in full click here 

“Cathy Ashton, who was given a life peerage in 1999, has forged a successful political career serving both as leader of the House of Lords and lord president of the council before replacing Peter Mandelson as EU trade commissioner.

To read the full article click here
 

“Ian Burford and I had not spoken since 2001. Then, it was a short but delightful conversation. He was about to tie the knot and was keen to tell me all about it. Happy days. I didn’t really think of him again until the other day when the papers were full of headlines about Lillian Ladele, the Christian registrar who went to court because she didn’t want to conduct same-sex civil partnerships. Ian is the cause of your problem Lillian, I thought.

“There were 33,000 civil partnerships across the country last year, but Ian’s was the first. The story went that Ian, a gregarious actor who is now 75, met Alex, a nursing manager. They fell in love, became an item and benefited as society tired of hounding young men for their preferences and moved to a sort of quiet acceptance…..

Click here to read the article in full