Europe
Serbian gay rights activists say to march despite threats
Belgrade (Reuters) – Gay rights activists in Serbia said they expected to hold their first Pride march in three years on Saturday, undeterred by the risk of violence from right-wing nationalists who rioted during the last such event in 2010. Authorities in the former Yugoslav republic banned the march for the past two years after… Read more »
The Hospital’s Exam on Trans
Voltrans Transmen Initiative founding member Ali Arikan passed away last night after battling cancer. I have been in the hospital for about a month and a half now; my bowels do not function because of the pressure from cancerous cells in the peritoneum. I am getting chemo, they give me lots of drugs so that… Read more »
Serbian Rightists Threaten Gay Parade Carnage
Right-wing nationalists warn of a repeat of the street bloodshed seen in 2010 if the government allows a Gay Pride Parade to take place in Belgrade on September 28. “If we let this [parade] happen, they will as soon as tomorrow ask for legalization of their marriages, and then ask for the right to adopt… Read more »
10 LGBT Protesters Detained at Sochi Olympic’s Moscow Headquarters
Ten LGBT-rights protesters were detained Wednesday while attempting to picket the Olympic headquarters in Moscow. Prominent gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev, who has been detained more than a dozen times at protests over his career as a campaigner, was reportedly among them, an eyewitness told Gazeta.ru. Police were waiting as the protesters approached the entrance… Read more »
Nude men take the spotlight in Paris art exhibit
‘It’s male beauty in all its glory’ said Musée d’Orsay curator of the exhibit that explores pain, temptation, desire and idealization through two centuries’ worth of naked men The Musée d’Orsay in Paris has launched an exhibition title Masculin/Masculin focusing on the male nude. The naked male is ‘no longer possible to ignore,’ said president… Read more »
Germany’s openly gay foreign minister loses seat and job
Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s first openly gay Foreign Minister, has failed to retain his seat in parliament, forcing him out of that role German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has lost that job after his party failed to gain enough of the vote to retain his seat in parliament. Westerwelle’s Free Democratic Party only received 4.8% of… Read more »
Pope Francis’s Vatican Excommunicates Pro-LGBT Priest
Last week, Pope Francis once again made international headlines by saying something nice about LGBT people. And just like the last time Francis had nice-sounding words for our community, I was the proverbial fly in the ointment, counseling caution even as others tripped over themselves to praise the pontiff. As I noted then, Francis’s words… Read more »
Backlash from Italy’s LGBT groups as Parliament votes on ‘useless’ gay hate ban
Italian LGBT groups are unsatisfied with a proposed anti-homophobia bill that passed in the lower Chamber of Deputies last night, arguing the bill’s freedom of speech protections still allow discriminatory transgressions Italy’s LGBT groups are saying the new ban on homophobia is ‘hypocritical’. LGBT rights and ally groups criticized the proposed legislation, which intends to… Read more »
St Petersburg QueerFest offers LGBTs a way to stay in Russia and make things better
The first QueerFest since Russia banned ‘homosexual propaganda’ will see over 1500 visitors attend the 10 day event to take a stand against gay hate Risking fines and arrests, the fifth annual international QueerFest launched in St Petersburg today. Attracting nearly 2000 visitors every year, Russia’s ‘queer pride and culture festival’ comprises seminars, discussions, photo… Read more »
Turkish Court Decides People Need Protection From Gay Dating
A Turkish court has issued a ban on popular gay dating and hook-up app and website Grindr, demonstrating Turkey’s apparently conflicted stance on wider human rights issues. For those not in the know, Grindr is a free iPhone app and website that allows gay, bisexual and “curious” men to connect online. Due to its use… Read more »
Romanian gay couple marry on TV and win reality show
Romania had its first televised same-sex marriage last week when a gay couple won a popular wedding themed reality TV show Romanians watched their first televised same-sex marriage last week when gay couple Daniel and Michael won that country’s version of UK reality show Four Weddings. Both theatrical directors, the couple chose an ‘A Midsummer… Read more »
Uzbek Mob Tries To ‘Rape Away the Gay’ in Siberia
An Uzbek student was stripped of his clothing, handcuffed, beaten, and raped at gunpoint with a bottle by a group of vigilantes who targeted him because he is gay, according to a report from Radio Free Europe. The assault took place on September 11 in Novosibirsk, the capital of Russia’s federal district of Siberia. One of… Read more »
Lithuania: Parliament to consider five separate anti-gay and anti-trans bills
Five separate anti-gay and anti-trans bills are set to be considered in the Lithuanian parliament later this year, including a ban on gender reassignment, a ban on same-sex adoption, regulations of public events, and a legalisation of anti-gay hate speech. The proposed bills are expected to be heard in December this year. The first proposed… Read more »
Russian Gay Activist’s Plea: ‘Get Us the Hell Out of Here’
Masha Gessen is a Moscow-based writer, journalist and activist who’s been speaking out in recent months on Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law. Though she’s an American citizen, she’s from Russia and has lived in Russia for many years, raising three children with her lesbian partner, a Russian citizen. Gessen hoped Western pressure in recent months would… Read more »
Obama Meets With Gay Rights Activists In Russia
President Barack Obama met with gay rights activists in Russia on Friday. The president met with a group of 9 civil society leaders, including some gay rights activists, before returning home at the conclusion of the G-20 summit in Saint Petersburg. According to a White House pool report filed by Peter Baker of The New… Read more »
Vladimir Putin Says He’s Not Anti-Gay; Admits Tchaikovsky May Have Been Gay
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he can’t be anti-gay because he gives gays prizes. Putin made his remarks during a wide-ranging interview with the AP at his country residence outside Moscow. “I assure you that I work with these people,” Putin said. “I sometimes award them with state prizes or decorations for their… Read more »
Russia: Gay rights activist Nikolai Alekseyev seeks urgent meeting with Vladimir Putin
Gay rights activist and Russian pride organiser Nikolai Alekseyev has officially requested a meeting with Vladimir Putin after the President claimed he was willing to speak with members of the LGBT community in a recent interview. In an interview with Associated Press, Putin said he would meet members of the LGBT community if they asked… Read more »
Russian Conservatism on Gay Issues Provokes Clash With West
Gay marriage is increasingly legal in Europe. Gay parades are massive events in European capitals. So how are gays faring in Russia, sometimes seen as Europe’s largest nation? In Russia, Max “The Hatchet” cruises gay Internet dating sites and then lures young gay men for “re-education” sessions at the hands of his “neo-Nazis.” Max’s group,… Read more »
Comment: With all eyes on anti-gay Russia, there are three countries with a shocking need for coverage
Paul Canning looks critically at media coverage of the LGBT situation in Russia, highlighting other areas around the globe where hate crimes and violence have also soared, yet where media coverage is still minimal. It’s Russia, Russia, Russia when it comes to ‘foreign gay news’ these days. But it’s a much bigger and badder gay… Read more »
Russian LGBT Network: Anti-gay laws have increased homophobic violence in Russia
Activists in Russia say the controversial anti-gay “propaganda” laws passed in June have led to an increase in homophobic violence, with those responsible for the attacks no longer fearing legal reprisals. President Vladimir Putin signed the controversial law in June banning the promotion of “non-traditional relationships” toward minors, a move that has been criticised as… Read more »
Russia: First person to be convicted under anti-gay ‘propaganda’ law arrested by his own parents
24-year-old Dmitry Isakov may become the first gay rights activist to be convicted under Russia’s controversial “gay propanda” laws, after he was attacked and arrested by his own parents at a solo campaign in July. On July 30, Mr Isakov staged a one-man protest in the centre of the town of Kazan, Russia, holding up… Read more »
Russian law isolates gay teenagers
In Moscow — Like other gay teenagers here, Maxim Moiseyev grappled with his identity alone, frightened and uninformed. Adults either ignored him or admonished him. Classmates reviled him. And a new law that prohibits minors from hearing anything positive about homosexuality has only made life harder. Maxim, a 16-year-old Muscovite, is among the few Russian… Read more »
Anti-gay groups mount attacks in Ukraine
A rising wave of homophobia is spilling over from neighboring Russia where gay “propaganda” was recently banned This article originally appeared on GlobalPost. Global Post Kyiv, Ukraine — Taras Karasiichuk was near his home in Kyiv in May last year when he noticed a group of young men following him. They began taunting him with… Read more »
Russia Raids Nikolia Alexeyev’s Home; People Encouraged To Turn In Gay Neighbors
Police raided the home of Nikolia Alexeyev, considered Russia’s most outspoken gay rights activist, after a lawmaker lodged a complaint against him. According to Reuters, Alexeyev’s home was ransacked by Russian prosecutors. Alexeyev said that the officials removed several pieces of electronic equipment. “Do you think this is all legal?” he told reporters pointing to… Read more »
Stunning Photos Capture Albanian Women Who Have Chosen To Live As Chaste Men
Burrneshas, or Sworn Virgins, are a sector of the Balkan female population that chooses to avoid the oppressive restrictions placed upon their gender by living as men. Photographer Jill Peters set out to photograph the little-known phenomenon, in which brave women transform themselves completely to preserve their honor. Since the 15th century a number of… Read more »
Zurich unveils sex drive-in
The Swiss city of Zurich on Thursday unveiled a sex drive-in which local authorities say will enable them to keep closer tabs on prostitution, a year after voters backed the plan. Due to be opened officially in a ceremony on Aug 26, the nine so-called “sex boxes” are located in a former industrial zone in… Read more »
Turkey to become second majority Muslim nation to protect sexual minorities from discrimination
Turkey’s Constitutional Consensus Committee agreed Monday that sexual orientation be added to a section of a draft new constitution – which if passed would make it only the second majority Muslim country to protect sexual minorities Turkey looks set to join Albania as one of only two majority Muslim nations to protect sexual minorities from… Read more »
Eight Horrific and Uplifting Stories About Being Gay in the New Russia
On January 25, Kremlin-friendly journalist Anton Krasovsky invited a bunch of drag queens on his show on KontrTV, a Kremlin-owned channel. It was his personal protest against a proposed law [1] in the Russian parliament, the Duma, which would ban distributing “gay propaganda” to minors. The law’s broad definition of “propaganda” would prohibit publicly discussing… Read more »
Understanding Russia’s homophobia
Because there’s been so much discussion about Russia lately, and because I’ve written quite a bit about the immediate context of Russia’s anti-gay laws and political difficulties (most recently 1, 2, 3, and 4), I thought it might be useful to back up a bit and provide some of the deeper background for these issues… Read more »
Analysis: Why life is getting harder for LGBT Russians
PinkNews.co.uk has spoken to a PhD student originally from Moscow and now living in the UK on the challenges facing Russia’s LGBT community. Anna Grigoryeva was among several hundred people, including Stephen Fry, who gathered in Westminster on Saturday to protest against Russia’s homophobic censorship laws. She says it was important to attend the demonstration… Read more »
Gay Russian man seeks refugee status in Vancouver
Maxim Zhuravlev says stay at Vancouver homeless shelter safer than life in Russia A gay refugee claimant living in Vancouver says he fled to Canada from his native Russia to escape being persecuted for his sexual orientation. Maxim Zhuravlev is staying at a homeless shelter in downtown Vancouver, but says the conditions are far safer… Read more »
Gay Russian teens communicate in secret to avoid law on ‘propaganda’
Young homosexuals faced with hatred and rejection in Russia turn to closed internet forum Deti-404 for support Only one person knew that Svetlana was gay when she wrote to Deti-404, a Russian support group for lesbian teenagers. In her letter, the 16-year-old described a life of hiding her sexuality in a small town in central… Read more »
How Russia’s science of sex threatens gays
Twenty-five years ago, when I lived in Russia, I was in a restaurant with some friends. The meal abruptly ended when we were escorted, at gunpoint, into a back room. The restaurateurs-cum-criminals wanted us to pay them a few hundred dollars or else they would inform our families and employers that we were “pederasts” and… Read more »
Gay Muslims in Turkey: torn between religion and sexuality
“When I was a child, I was told that homosexuals would burn in hell,” said Ertugrul, a Muslim fighting for greater freedom for gays in a country where homosexuality remains taboo. Ertugrul, who did not want to give his last name, is president of the group Muslims and Gays, which he says wants to “break… Read more »
Video: Russian paratroopers violently attack lone gay rights activist in St Petersburg
A lone gay rights activist, Krill Kalugin, was assaulted by a violent group of Russian paratroopers in the city that was the birth place of the country’s anti-gay legislation. Mr Kalugin was holding a rainbow banner in St Petersburg that read “This is propagating tolerance” when he was attacked. President Vladimir Putin signed the law… Read more »
Russian Sports Minister: Anti-Gay Law Will Be Enforced At Sochi Games
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko on Thursday declared that Russia’s anti-gay law will be enforced at next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi. “The law talks not about banning non-traditional orientation but about other things, about propaganda and implicating minors,” Mutko reportedly told R-Sport news agency. “No one is banning an athlete with a non-traditional sexual… Read more »
Sicily’s first openly gay governor wins support with anti-mafia crusade
Palermo, Italy — Of the last two men to sit in Sicily’s palatial governor’s office, one is up on criminal charges and the other is doing hard time. Enter their successor, Rosario Crocetta — the unlikeliest politician ever to govern Cosa Nostra country. Back when he was mayor of a coastal town plagued by mob… Read more »
Croatia: Mayor of Zagreb agrees to host and sponsor annual LGBT conference
Following a meeting held on monday with Croatian LGBT groups, the Mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandic has said the city would host and sponsor an annual LGBT conference. The annual conference of ILGA-Europe, now to take place in the city will have family relations as its main theme. “Zagreb is a tolerant, secure and hospitable… Read more »
Gay marriage in the year 100 AD
Gay marriage sounds like an ultra-contemporary idea. But almost twenty years ago, a Catholic scholar at Yale shocked the world by publishing a book packed with evidence that same-sex marriages were sanctioned by the early Christian Church during an era commonly called the Dark Ages. John Boswell was a historian and religious Catholic who dedicated… Read more »
Protesters Try to Disrupt Lithuania Gay Pride
Vilnius, Lithuania (AP) – A group of protesters tried to disrupt Lithuania’s second gay pride parade ever on Saturday, defying an enormous police presence by throwing eggs at marchers and attempting to storm a stage. Several hundred gay rights activists took to the grand main street of Vilnius to show their pride, waving Lithuanian and… Read more »
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