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June 18, 2013

'What I said was correct,' says Liberal senator Cory Bernardi about comment that gay marriage will lead to polygamy and bestiality 

Controversial former Liberal frontbencher Senator Cory Bernardi said in an interview this morning that he does not regret linking gay marriage to bestiality.

Bernardi said during a debate in the Australian federal parliament last September that legalizing same-sex marriage would lead to polygamy and bestiality. His comments prompted opposition leader Tony Abbott to ask him to resign as shadow parliamentary secretary.

June 18, 2013

Lyon gay pride participants attacked in four separate incidents, activists blame homophobic rhetoric used during the debate on France’s gay marriage as inciting hate 

Anti-gay attackers beat up and spat on a man because of his sexuality during Lyon pride, while at least three other incidents of anti-gay attacks have been recorded.

All the attacks occurred during the evening during the 18th gay Pride of Lyon that celebrated France’s historical passing of the marriage equality bill.

In one incident, two male attackers, one 23 year-old and another aged 17 kicked to the ground and spat on a gay man around 5pm in Lyon’s town center on Saturday (15 June).

June 18, 2013

LGBT people are being told it is 'unsafe' to travel to Sochi if the Senate passes the 'homosexual propaganda' law, making homophobia legal

Gay rights activists from Russia are calling for a boycott of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

The RUSA LGBT organization based in New York have said lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are not safe in Russia, and are hoping straight people too will support the ban.

June 18, 2013

Outcry across the political divide over Liberal senator Cory Bernardi's reiteration of his belief that gay marriage will lead to polygamy and bestiality

The lesbian sister of Australia's opposition leader Tony Abbott has condemned comments by Liberal senator Cory Bernardi about gay marriage.

This morning Bernardi reconfirmed his view that legalizing gay marriage will lead to calls for the right to mutli-person marriages and marriages between humans and animals.

June 18, 2013

Lawmaker says kids adopted by gays are 'seriously traumatized'

The lower house of Russia's parliament on Tuesday (18 June) gave initial approval to a measure that would ban gay people from foreign countries from adopting Russian orphans.

June 18, 2013

Tanzanians who are most at risk of HIV face widespread police abuse, being driving into further risk of infection said a report 

LGBT people, along sex workers and people face abuses including torture, rape, assault, arbitrary arrest, and extortion documents a report released today.

In just one example of many interviewees, Saidi W., a gay man arrested in December 2011 reported how he was forced to assemble other gay men in a local bar at gun point, and told by police: ‘If you don’t call your friends, we’ll shoot you.’

June 17, 2013

Right-wing newspaper columnist Piers Akerman says rumors about Julia Gillard's boyfriend Tim Mathieson are going around the capital's press circle

A newspaper columnist questioned the sexuality of the Australian prime minister's boyfriend again on a TV show yesterday.

On Sunday discussion TV show ABC Insiders right-wing newspaper columnist Piers Akerman said 'a lot of people in the Canberra [press] gallery have been saying the same thing [as radio host Howard Sattler]'.

Guests on ABC Insiders were discussing Sattler's live radio interview with Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week, in which he asked if her parter Tim Mathieson is gay.

June 17, 2013

A meeting in Shanghai highlights inequalities and obstacles to LGBT people feeling comfortable enough to come out at work in China

Twenty people gathered in the IBM offices in the Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai's second tallest building, today start an effort towards more LGBT inclusion in China's workplaces. 

Business people from multi-national banks, legal firms and pharmaceutical companies met to learn about how to make their workplaces more comfortable for LGBT employees. However no purely Chinese companies showed interest in the topic.

June 17, 2013

Man arrested after brutally attacking the first openly gay member of parliament in Poland Robert Biedron

An openly gay member of parliament was brutally attacked following the Warsaw Pride parade on Saturday (15 June).

Robert Biedron, the first gay MP in the country, has said he was with friends in a Polish capital café relaxing after the march.

‘An aggressive man insulted us, using homophobic statements,’ the Palikot’s Movement MP told Polsat News.

June 17, 2013

First episode of My Husband's Lover praised for 'mature, nuanced and honest' depiction of gay characters

A new TV serial about a woman who finds out her husband is having an affair with another man has garnered positive feedback from viewers and the LGBT community in the Philippines.

The first of 16 weekly episodes of My Husband's Lover was shown on Filipino TV last week (10 June) and received competitive ratings and a trending hashtag on Twitter.

June 17, 2013

According to new research, gay people say they are more likely to be put off by religious organizations than the rest of the population

June 17, 2013

Zimbabwe’s president vows to have gay and lesbians rot in jail if his party wins the country’s upcoming elections

Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe has promised hell for gays and lesbians, if his Zanu PF party wins the upcoming elections, vowing to amend laws that would make ‘offenders’ ‘rot in jail’ for life.

The president stated that current sentences imposed on child rapists, sodomisers and paedophiles are ‘too lenient’.

Mugabe vowed that gay marriage would never be accepted in Zimbabwe and seems to conflate LGBT people with rape.

June 17, 2013

Young football fans learning about anti-discrimination with new ‘UpFront’ game

While there are an increasing number of reports of gay and lesbian elite sportspeople becoming more open about their sexuality, for LGBT equality campaigners the battle is still far from won.

The European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF) are targeting young sports fans in the 11 to 16 age range, using game-based education to tackle homophobia and transphobia in sport.

June 17, 2013

Israel Dagg, who represents his country internationally, uses the word 'fag' to insult another player

New Zealand rugby player Israel Dagg who plays on the national squad prompted outcry yesterday by using a gay slur in a tweet.

The All-Black criticized fellow rugby player Brendon O'Connor calling him a 'fag'.

Following a flurry of tweets calling Dagg out on the word, he deleted the comment and tweeted:

'Wrong choice of word people don't let it ruin ya Sunday, keep smiling.'

June 17, 2013

A Nigerian argues Obama would be doing Africa a favor by pointing out gay rights will help the continent develop

From 26 June 26 to 3 July, US President Barack Obama will be visiting Africa. The visit takes him to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.

According a statement released by the White House, Obama will use his visit ‘to reinforce the importance that the United States places on our deep and growing ties with countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including through expanding economic growth, investment, and trade; strengthening democratic institutions; and investing in the next generation of African leaders’.

June 17, 2013

New exhibition weighs in on marriage equality and poses some challenging questions for gay men and lesbians

I met photographer William To at antipodean favorite cafe Long White Cloud in London’s Hackney Road.

I ordered a long black, To opted for a chai latte (he’s lactose intolerant).

Originally from Brisbane in the northern Australian state of Queensland, To speaks slowly and with an endearing twang - every sentence sounding like an implied question, for example: ‘It’s pretty good coffee, eh?’

June 17, 2013

Turkish police has bashed a gay activist as he takes aid to Istanbul protestors, while three others have been detained and verbally abused

A peaceful gay activist has been pushed to the ground and beaten by Turkish police at an anti-government protest in Istanbul.

And three other LGBT protestors have been reported to have been verbally abused by the riot police who targeted them because of their sexuality.

All four are part of Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park protest that started in Turkey on 28 May.

The protests were sparked by outrage at a brutal eviction of a peaceful sit-in at the park protesting against its demolition.

June 16, 2013

National Public Radio chronicles the ups, and downs, of transgender life in the US

While the gay equality movement in the US has made recent strides, from the abolition of Don't Ask, Don't Tell to the increasing number of states where gay marriage is legal, too many transgender men and women still live in the shadows.

National Public Radio aired a piece (15 June) on the lives of transgender Americans, specifically teenagers and young adults.

June 16, 2013

Provoking a nation already torn over gay marriage, the head of the Roman Catholic Church urges French politicians not to follow ‘fashions of the moment’

Pope Francis encouraged French politicians to take matters into their own hands in a speech apprently directed at gay marriage.

Speaking to a delegation of French politicians and representatives at the Vatican yesterday, Pope Francis called France a ‘nation to which the eyes of the world often turn,’ pointing to the controversial Marriage for All Bill that split the country into in an unprecedented show of public discord between gay marriage opponents and supporters.

June 16, 2013

Slovenian President Borut Pahor lead his country’s pride parade while thousands marched in the Zagreb Pride parade in neighboring Croatia

Pride parades were held free of violence in the former Yugoslav republics of Slovenia and Croatia yesterday in a growing sign of acceptance of LGBT rights in the region.

Slovenian President Borut Pahor lead the Ljubljana Pride parade where around 600 people marched with the theme ‘Freedom and Solidarity are a Same-Gender Couple.’

Prior to the march organizers released a statement where they urged Slovenians to not let economic woes in Europe push social justice issues off the agenda.

June 16, 2013

US folk musician Jenny Owen Youngs has revealed that she is in a committed lesbian relationship and plans to marry her partner in a letter to fans

Jenny Owen Youngs has revealed she is engaged to another woman in an open letter to fans.

In the letter, posted online on the website EveryoneIsGay.com on June 12, Youngs writes about her plans to marry this summer and about her decision to come out.

‘I’m writing to tell you, among other things, that I am super gay,’ Youngs wrote.

‘This may or may not come as a surprise to you. If it does: Surprise! If it does not: You were right all along! Either way: Hooray!’

June 15, 2013

Belarus lawmakers deny reports of plans to recriminalize being gay in the country, which have alarmed the local LGBT community

Earlier reports that circulated in Belarus’s media, that plans are afoot in the country's parliament to pass a law that would recriminalize gay sex, were firmly denied.

June 15, 2013

A new policy dictates that gay priests in civil partnerships must prove they’re celibate to be considered for bishop-hood

Gay priests looking to move up in the Anglican Church must now undergo questioning into their sex lives.

In December, the House of Bishops ruled that priests who are in civil partnerships could become bishops, a decision that opened the doors for a number of openly gay priests who were already partnered to rise in the ranks of of the Church.

June 15, 2013

Equality Florida demands Senator Marco Rubio meet with LGBT families to discover the impact of his policies

Florida Senator Marco Rubio is facing heat from a gay political organization in his home state.

Equality Florida, a gay and lesbian civil rights group, pushed back against the senator's comments about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).