Law
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10 October 2007Press accused of ignoring death of lesbian soldier + The questionable and untimely death of Specialist Ciara Durkin, a service member with the Massachusetts Army National Guard who was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head on September 27th, has not gone unnoticed.Late last week Democratic Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, along with Congressman William Delahunt and the Servicemembers Legal Defence Network (SLDN), made headlines by calling on Pentagon officials to conduct a full and thorough investigation into the incident that occurred while Durkin was serving in Afghanistan. -
9 October 2007Tennis coach denies she is a lesbian + A top female tennis coach accused of having an affair with a 13-year-old girl denied she is a lesbian, a Liverpool court heard yesterday.Ex-tennis pro Claire Lyte, 29, told police "I like men," when asked about her sexuality.Transcripts of the police interview with the former Lawn Tennis Association coach of the year were read to a jury yesterday.Lyte stands accused of five counts of unlawful sexual activity with a pupil, which she denies. -
8 October 2007Swedish politicians unite to support gay marriage 1 The three opposition parties in Sweden have joined forces to put a proposal before the country's parliament to legalise gay marriage.Given the governing coalition's slim majority, only four MPs would need to vote in favour of the opposition motion for it to pass.The Green party, Left party and Social Democrats' motion, if passed, would make Sweden the fouth country in Europe to legalise gay marriage after Holland, Spain and Belgium. -
8 October 2007State grants right to silence for gay partners in court + Another small victory for LGBT equality in Australia has been won with the announcement that same-sex partners in the state of New South Wales will have the right to decline to give evidence against their partner in court.The change from "de facto spouse" to "de facto partner" is intended to be gender neutral, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.A spokesman for the NSW Premier pointed out that the Commonwealth, or federal government, still refuses to recognise same-sex couples in this way.
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6 October 2007Gay hate gang member faces 25 years after manslaughter conviction 1 A jury has convicted a man for manslaughter and homophobic hate crimes following an attack on a gay victim on a remote New York beach.John Fox was acquitted of the murder of Michael Sandy (pictured) but found guilty of second-degree manslaughter and attempted robbery.Mr Sandy was ambushed and chased into oncoming traffic during a mugging attempt. -
6 October 2007Colombian court rules in favour of equal rights for gay couples + Gay couples in the deeply Conservative Catholic country of Colombia have won equal social security rights following a Constitutional Court ruling.In June, Colombia's conservative President Alvaro Uribe gave his backing to the country becoming the first in Latin America to nationally give gay couples full rights to health insurance, inheritance and benefits. -
5 October 2007Australian trans passport victory + A tribunal in Australia has created the country's first legally recognised same-sex married couple and overturned a government decision about a trans woman's new passport.Grace Abrams was refused a female passport by the Foreign Affairs department despite having undergone transition between 2001 and 2005.She married her partner Fiona Power while still transitioning, and the authorities said that in order to get a new birth cerificate and therefore a passport idenitfying her as female, she would have to divorce.
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5 October 2007Sentenced to 7,000 lashes for sodomy in Saudi Arabia 8 Two men have been publicly flogged in Saudi Arabia after being found guilty of sodomy and sentenced to 7,000 lashes.The men, who have not been identified, received an unspecified number of lashes in the south-western city of Al-Bahah on Tuesday evening, according to a report from the Al-Okaz daily.The men will remain in prison until the rest of their punishment can be completed. -
5 October 2007Teenagers face jail for homophobic hate crime + Two Vermont teens are being charged with a hate crime and face up to five years in prison for allegedly spray painting antigay slogans on and slashing the tires of a pair of vehicles belonging to two men joined in a civil union.16-year-old Melissa Gaboury pleaded not guilty to charges of hate-motivated unlawful mischief and unlawful trespass after police found a knife and spray paint underneath the backseat of her SUV, while her sister, Meghan Gaboury, 18, is still being sought by police.According to WCAX News, the sisters are related to the one of the victims. -
5 October 2007Mystery death of lesbian solider in Afghanistan + Senior American politicians and a group fighting for gay rights in the military have called for an investigation into the suspicious death of Specialist Ciara Durkin, a lesbian service member with the Massachusetts Army National Guard.Specialist Durkin's body was discovered on September 27th at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan with a gunshot wound to the head.She was set to return from duty in January to marry her partner. -
4 October 2007Police appeal over missing gay man + Police are appealing for the public's help in tracing a man who has been missing from his home in Cheadle Hulme.John Chadwick, who is aged about 42, of Hall Meadow, was last seen by his landlord on Monday evening, 2 July 2007, at about 8pm at The Ryecroft Arms on Turves Road.John visited a cousin in the Brixton area of London between 6 and 8 July, but since leaving his cousin's house, he has not been seen or heard from and police are now unable to reach him. -
4 October 2007Firefighters fined for disturbing cruising ground activity 41 A group of firefighters have been disciplined over an incident on Bristol Downs where they "interrupted" four gay men in a cruising ground.They shone their torches from their engine into bushes catching men engaged in outdoor sex.One of the men caught by the torch light then filed a complaint under advice from HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust. -
4 October 2007Stonewall FC set their sights on London World Cup + They took silver in Buenos Aires last week, but gay football team Stonewall FC are going for gold at next year's International Gay and Lesbian Football Association World Championships in London.The annual event, established in 1997, took place in South America for the first time this year.Douglas Edward, Stonewall FC's first team striker, was upbeat despite losing 1-0 to Argentine team Los Dogos. -
3 October 2007Lesbian coach forced me into sex, girl tells court 1 An award winning tennis coach threatened to wreck the career of a promising 13 year old pupil unless she continued to have sex with her, Liverpool Crown Court heard today.Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) coach Claire Lyte, 29, denies five counts of unlawful sexual activity with a child, and claims the allegations have been made up by the girl's mother.But the alleged victim says her coach threatened to throw her out of the Loughborough LTA academy if she revealed the affair to anyone. -
3 October 2007White gays have more mental disorders than blacks + New research by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health has shocked many observers by showing that black gays have far fewer problems with mental disorder than their white or Latino counterparts.Psychologists and sociologists have long presumed that homosexual ethnic minorities would suffer from greater mental health problems because they were a member of two groups suffering discrimination."These findings suggest that black lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals have effective ways to cope with prejudice related to racism and homophobia." -
3 October 2007Judge allows gay porn evidence in case against naval doctor + In the case against American Navy doctor Kevin Ronan, a military judge has ruled that gay pornography found on his computer can be used as evidence.The commander is being accused of filming Naval academy members engaging in sexual acts while guests at his home.Cmdr. -
1 October 2007Doctors acquitted on charges of infecting thousands with HIV + Monday morning in Alberta,. -
1 October 2007Scotland considers new law to protect gays 1 Scotland's lawmakers are set to consider new laws to protect gays after a private members bill was lodged in Holyrood yesterday calling for violence towards gay and disabled groups to be treated as seriously as violence against religious or ethnic groups.The Sentencing of Offences Aggravated by Prejudice (Scotland) Bill, proposed by Patrick Harvie, a Scottish Green MSP, would bring Scotland into line with England and Wales, where courts have been able to impose tougher sentences for offences committed due to the victims disability or sexual orientation since April 2003. -
1 October 2007Police adopt softly-softly approach on public orgies 17 American police adopted a distinctly relaxed approach to this year's Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, taking little notice of the hundreds of men baring their genitals on every street corner.Orgies of men fellating and fondling each other in the street provoked laughs and photographs from curious onlookers but no police action, according to reports.Two reporters for Americans for Truth about Homosexuality documented prevalently older men walking down the street completely naked. -
1 October 2007School which ‘outed’ lesbian did not violate her rights + A lesbian high school student who sued an Orange County school district and her principal for revealing her homosexuality to her mother did not have her rights violated, a federal judge has ruled.The ruling was filed on 25 September 2007, almost 10 months after the trial ended.Charlene Nguon, 19, was singled out because of her sexual orientation and unfairly disciplined by school officials, who "outed" her to her mother.
