Police at Scotland Yard have denied speculation that there was gay paraphernalia found in the flat nor that there has been any link to a male escort. Williams was found dead last Monday at his £400,000 flat in Pimlico, Central London, about half a mile from MI6 headquarters. He was discovered in the bath stuffed into a sports duffle bag.

There are no signs of violence on Williams’ remains, and toxicology has yet to return. It may be another week before it is known if there were poisons, drugs, or alcohol in his system, and those results might show that he was asphyxiated. What is known is that Williams was stuffed into the bag after he died. There is one line of inquiry that he died in a strange accident and then was put into the bag.

His death is still being described as ‘suspicious and unexplained’ by Metropolitan police. Police are also looking into the movement of some £18,000 which disappeared from William’s bank account two months ago by what they are describing as ‘complex means’. Williams was known to work on interception of messages and code-breaking.

The police are trying to determine whether or not the money was moved as part of something innocent, such as to another account or that he may have been paying blackmail. The movement of the money is being scrutinized to find out if it may be linked to his death. Williams had recently made trips to Afghanistan to help decode Taliban messages at MI6’s station in Kabul. He also apparently played an important role in the development of the electronic intelligence gathering system called Echelon.

No arrests have been made, and so far no one has come forward to say that they had seen him in the eight days before his body was discovered.

Source

“They were moments of great injustice, great injustice! If someone is responsible, it’s me,” Castro told journalist Lira Saade from La Jornada, a Mexican daily. “We had so many and such terrible problems, problems of life or death, that we didn’t pay it enough attention,” Castro stated about how lesbians and gays were treated. Currently, the island nation off of Florida is grappling with the possibility of legalizing same-sex unions.

Fidel Castro was recently forced to hand power over to his brother Raul Castro due to ill health. He had ruled the nation since he rose to power in 1959 and stepped down in 2008. He is currently 84 years old.

His remarks were made in the second part of a two part interview. They also bring up the question of why is it that an old and vicious dictator can change his mind about injustice, but it seems so many in the United States, including President Barack Obama, cannot?

Source

Yes, an earthquake is beginning- an earthquake of common sense. The Charities Commission in New Zealand has rejected the Exodus Ministries Trust Board’s attempt to keep its status as a charitable organization. In fact, the Commission flat out booted them out of the list of tax-exempt charities because they are not performing any public benefit because being lesbian or gay is not a mental illness. In other words, the Charities Commission sided with the scientific and realistic evidence against the mythology and psudoscience of Exodus.

The US based Exodus Global Alliance promises “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ”, but has yet to actually back up any of its claims. The group even claimed to have a legitimate point of view and to be providing support to homosexuality during “very difficult times”. Of course, what they do not say is that they try to force people to stop being gay using techniques which have been proven ineffective at best and damaging at worst.

They compared themselves to Rainbow Youth Inc., a group aimed at raising the self-esteem of LGBT youth and their families. They decried Rainbow Youth’s continued charitable states because clearly an education provided by Rainbow Youth Inc. would be from a preconceived point of view, ie that homosexuality and other forms of sexuality are perfectly normal for some people.”

Of course, if the United States would just follow behind New Zealand and start yanking these fraudulent groups’ tax exempt status, then, perhaps, the country would be better off. Of course, NOM manages to really screw it up when the decried the decision in New Zealand. It is suppose to be “Gay is the new Black”, even though most people disagree with that statement. Oh yes, and not all Christians are homophobic. Just the people at NOM and the people just like them.

Source 1
Source 2

Melanie Nathan; 8-30-10-

Editors say Qadita.net will be the first Arabic website to include a section on gay and lesbian writing, including reviews of Arab gay-oriented cinema and literature.

Two prominent Israeli-Arab literary figures yesterday launched www.Qadita.net, an Arabic-language politics and culture website they say will tackle issues widely considered taboo in the Arabic press, according to Israeli news HAARETZ.

The site’s editors are author Ala Hlehel and Anton Shalhat, a journalist and culture critic.

Hlehel said quality will be the sole determining factor for featuring items on the site. “We’ll post controversial texts that touch on social and cultural sensitivities,” he said. “The margins of freedom of the press in Arabic are shrinking under political and social tension from the whole Arab-Islamic scene, with its suffocating effect on free creation.”

Hlehel said yesterday that the site is aimed at “restoring the written word as the center of content in Arabic discourse and returning cultural texts as the focus of the Arab literary, cultural, political and societal experience.”

This will be the first Arabic website to include a section on gay and lesbian writing, he said.

“That section will be featured prominently on the home page,” he said. “It will include texts written by Arab gays and lesbians who, naturally, will publish anonymously.” He said the section would include reviews of gay-oriented cinema and literature in the Arab world and beyond.

The Full article here…

Reblogged by Melanie Nathan
Article by Maya Sela at
HAARETZ.

The Education Committee of the Tel Aviv municipality is the first in Israel to require city schools to integrate learning content to change stereotypes about gays, lesbians and gender identity. The program will start next January.

The Education Committee o yesterday approved unanimously the proposal to integrate the Hoshen curriculum into every school.

Hoshen is a professional organization working on education to change existing stereotypes about sexual orientation and gender identity through information and activities within schools.

The upcoming school year will begin a pilot of 10 schools, which will include working with consultants, teachers, administrators and with students.

Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Melanie Nathan – August 28  2010;

JERUSALEM — Israelis demonstrated in Jerusalem in the thousands in support of Gilad Shalit, marking the soldier’s 24th birthday and his fifth as a captive of Palestinian Islamists in the Gaza Strip.

He was a child when captured – surely there is a fiber of compassion – something that would show the world that these Palestinians could end this torture of a human life and find peace for a family who have done little more than love a son.

Shalit’s mother Aviva called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do everything he could to secure freedom for her son, who was seized by Gaza-based militants in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006.

“You have the chance of freeing Gilad,” she told a gathering from a makeshift podium outside the premier’s residence. On August 3, the soldier’s father Noam appealed in an open letter to Palestinians in Gaza to pressure their Hamas rulers to agree to release his son in a prisoner exchange.

And where is America? Where is the outcry? There is no reason to hold a boy turned man; a child captured for what – to make little men look powerful? It is nothing more than an act of cowardice sustained by the continued oppression and a human right infraction that renders the Palestinian’s own case unworthy.

It is terrorists who capture and kidnap and threaten and abuse.

Hamas and other militant groups have demanded a swap involving hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including several top militants. Yes thousand for one. Gilad you rock! Happy Birthday you will come home.

Israel made its most recent offer late last year through a German mediator, but Hamas has yet to formally respond to the deal. Each side has blamed the other for the failure to reach an agreement.

On Saturday, Aviva Shalit said she would continue a sit-in in a tent outside the Netanyahu residence, begun two months ago, and would not return home until her son was free.

Both France and Britain marked the birthday of Shalit -- who also has French citizenship — by calling for his release. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a message read out by a French diplomat, said Paris was working hard for his freedom.

“Gilad is not a prisoner of war, for POWs have rights such as visits from humanitarian organisations or exchanges of mail with their loved ones. Gilad does not have these rights because he is a hostage,” Sarkozy’s message said. He denounced “this revolting way of treating a human being which provokes our collective indignation, in Israel, France and across the globe.”

Britain also used the occasion of Shalit’s birthday to condemn his “unjustifiable” detention. But where is President Obama? Can you please speak up Mr. President? Leader of the free world.

“The thoughts of many in Britain are with Gilad Shalit and his family as he spends his 24th birthday in captivity,” a Foreign Office spokesman said in London.

“His detention is unjustifiable and unacceptable. The British government demands his immediate and unconditional release.”

President Obama we await your response!

Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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London:- Conservative Crispin Blunt, who is prisons minister in the coalition government has disclosed that he is gay and that he has separated from his wife.

Blunt said he had “decided to come to terms with his homosexuality”. In a statement, he said the move was “difficult” for his family and hoped for their “understanding and support”.

He married Victoria Jenkins in September 1990 in Kensington and they have a son (born August 1994) and daughter (born March 1992). His niece is Golden Globe-award winning actress Emily Blunt^[.  Blunt’s voting record in Parliament had previously been broadly unsympathetic towards gay rights.

He has been MP for Reigate since 1997, before which he served in the Armed Forces for many years.  The 50-year old – a junior minister in the Department of Justice – has two children.

He announced his separation from his wife Victoria in a statement on the Conservative Home website, saying he had “explained the position” to his family. “There is no third party involvement but this is difficult for his immediate and wider family and he hopes for understanding and support for them,” the statement said.

As prisons minister, Mr Blunt is responsible for penal policy and finding savings in the prisons budget as part of this autumn’s departmental spending review.

He hit the headlines last month when he called for rules banning comedy gigs, parties and other recreational events being held in prisons to be relaxed – which No 10 immediately ruled out.

Apparently a local commented – everyone in the local party likes him and it’s a courageous thing to do. It’s really a private matter for him.

By Melanie Nathan
This pattern of anti-gay votes and campaigns leading right to the gay watering hole is becoming too much!

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The Jerusalem Post, is reporting that “Four men from the Muslim village of Tamra, 20 km. east of Acre, were arrested on Tuesday night on suspicion of kidnapping a 19-year-old gay relative because of his sexual orientation.”

The victim moved to Tel Aviv in an attempt to escape his family who were his tormentors. When they  found him walking near his apartment, the took him and assaulted his friend,  who alerted the police.

The Post reports that the victim was beaten and held for about 12 hours until the police caught up with the car carrying the kidnappers and victim.

A year and a half ago, the victim, named Angel moved to Tel Aviv, but his family members, who strongly opposed his lifestyle, continued to harass him in an attempt to “set him back on the right path.”  “I started working as a drag-queen, and after my photos appeared on the internet, I started receiving threats,” Angel told Ynet.

“At first they told me ‘take the pictures off the internet, or we’ll kill you.’ I was surprised, but moved on as usual. I had a good relationship with my family, so I ignored it,” he said. Now this and “I was afraid for my life.”

Picture: Angel in Drag- Ynet,

Posted by Melanie Nathan.

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Melanie Nathan 8-26-10

Hundreds of gays, lesbians, LGBTQI and their supporters from around the country danced through the Nepalese capital in the country’s first international gay parade.

Nepal’s gay community has added some extra colour to the traditional festival of Gaijatra this year, in a carnival of humour, satire, fanfare and fun.Led by Sunil Babu Pant, a parliamentarian representing gays and sexual minorities in the House,  on top of an elephant waving the rainbow flag representing sexual diversities, was followed by hundreds of gays and gay rights activists – on decorated horse-drawn chariots, open trucks and also on foot.

Those present seemed overjoyed that – in Nepal’s otherwise very conservative society – so many had come out on the street, and shown their support. The Interim Constitution of Nepal in 2006 changed the way Nepal’s gay community is treated – establishing the rights of gays and sexual minorities by officially recognising them as the third gender. Before the recognition, gays and sexual minorities were chased and beaten up by the police in the very same streets.

The participants, dressed in colorful clothes, thronged the main streets of Kathmandu, led by Sunil Pant, a member of Nepal’s parliament and the nation’s most prominent gay activist.

Posted by Melanie Nathan
8-26-10

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According to Heikka:

In the debate that has taken place views have been put forward that a gender-neutral marriage law would be something negative from the point of view of the Church. There have been very critical views of the possibility that homosexual couples might be married.
The matter is actually not quite that straightforward. From the point of view of the ethos of the Church, promoting the rights of same sex couples is a good thing. There are also strong theological points of view that favour marrying couples of the same gender.

The emphasis in the debate has been that the Church has traditionally been linked with the classical tradition of natural law in which marriage is an institution between a man and a woman. Arguments against homosexual marriage have also included that the Lutheran concept of marriage is built specifically on a male-female relationship.

However, in the Protestant Church the view that is constantly gaining strength is one that interprets marriage in the frame of reference of modern natural law, according to which the structures of natural law are not unchanging, and that they can be reinterpreted in changing cultural contexts. The Swedish Church approved the marriage of people of the same gender in accordance with this tradition.

The Lutheran concept of marriage has also come under reassessment. The thinking has been that marriage is not built significantly on the genders of the parties involved. Instead, key characteristics of marriage are love, commitment, and fidelity. Accordingly, couples of the same gender would also fit within the framework of the Lutheran concept of marriage.

A view that follows the lines of modern natural law is not new in the Finnish Lutheran Church. The Church has given up on classical natural law by accepting contraception and abortion. The Church as also accepted divorce and the remarriage of those who are divorced. In the new Family Book, the bishops took a cautiously positive view of cohabitation. Also in evaluating homosexuality, decisions have been made that follow the lines of modern natural law.

However, the predominant view in the Finnish Lutheran Church at the moment is one of classical natural law and the traditional Lutheran concept of marriage. Although the modern view is growing stronger all the time, it is not realistic to think that the Church could change its concept of marriage without serious consequences. A split in the Church would also have profound impact on all of society. The Church needs time for an internal discussion and the evaluation of various options.

Religion and the Church are still important to many people in Finland, and many want to have their marriages solemnized in the church.  While this sentiment might be limited to the Lutheran Church in Finland, it is something that all religions are grappling with.  The populations of many First World nations are already moving towards the acceptance of homosexuality as part of the norm, but many religious institutions are holding on to traditional values in a belief that they are right and the change in society is wrong.

Source

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Lutheran+Church+open+to+discussing+same-sex+unions/1135259588228

MELANIE NATHAN
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Roughly two hundred protesters on each side gathered for the dueling protests. The gay rights activists held up signs reading “Thank God I’m Gay” and waved rainbow flags. One of the Roman Catholic protesters ripped up a sign held by one of the gay rights protesters.

This was the second confrontation between the two sides in Guadalajara in as many days. The protests follow in the wake of controversial remarks made by Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez. He has alleged that the mayor of Mexico City bribed the Mexican Supreme Court to render a verdict in favor of the city. He is being sued over those remarks.

Source

According to one name police officer, “A 21-year-old female native of Kyrgyzstan came to police on Sunday. The woman claimed that she had been raped by two men. However, when the woman showed her passport, it turned out that she was actually a man.”

According to another official “According to preliminary information, the victim, a well-known stylist from Kyrgyzstan, arrived in Moscow for sex-change operation and met two of his country-fellows at a Moscow restaurant. . .One of the owners of the apartment committed an act of sexual intercourse with the stylist and gave his guest some cash for a cab afterwards.”

The transwoman, who has not been named, took the offered cash as an insult and went to the police to file criminal charges based on Article 131 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation.  Article 131 covers rape.

The police reports repeatedly refer to this particular individual as a male despite her being post-op and transsexual.  It is unclear what the laws in her native Kyrgyzstan are regarding transsexuality and change of identity pre or post operation.

Source

South Africa is known as the ‘Rape Capital’ of the world, with mind blowing statistics of around 500,000 rapes per year.   This is a human rights catastrophe  of untold proportion- with the HIV/AIDS ramification serving as the lethal weapon of mass destruction.

Especially sinister is the flagrant finger flip to each and every victim, as the  entire world cheered metaphorically on,  aiding and abetting the somnolent  South African Government, akin to perpetrators, like an Oudtshoorn ostrich with its head deeply embedded in the sand, while women continued to be raped day after day, each hour.

Through the games and festivities of Soccer World Cup 2010, the host Country and the world, cavorted with these criminals, dancing to goals and singing with each ring of  cash registers ‘cachinging’  the sound of desperate cash, while the screams of  our sisters faded with the romance of the stampede to win.

Since March of 2009, Lez Get Real has reported extensively on the insidious  and endemic hate crime – in particular the calculated rape of lesbians, specifically in South African Townships,   which has become known as “corrective rape.”

Lesbian Corrective Rape is a slogan attached to what is truthfully a brutal hate crime; the slogan is incongruous, yet reflects an abhorrent trend.

Drawing attention to oneself is an act of courage and one that cannot be emphasized enough, especially if the victim is one whose rape is termed  “corrective rape” where the odds are that the victim could be re-victimized again and again.

Years ago, Lesbians would never have come forward to tell their stories, but now with the unrelenting support and tender care of an extraordinary human being, Ndumie Funda, a lesbian woman living in a South African Township, near Cape Town, women and lesbians are telling their stories, willing to be named, photographed and to stand up on our pages to say:- “This is what happened to me!”

I personally have developed a close relationship with this hero, who is unlike anyone I have ever met.  An  unrelenting tireless warrior, who despite the worst of odds has not given up, even through her own tragedies along the way – as she houses and cares for lesbian victims of corrective rape. ” They just keep coming in,” say Ndumie Funda co-founder of Lulekwe Sizwe,  “It never stops.”

Ndumie  touched me deeply when she helped  Milicent Gaika, whose shocking  photos were published by us,  in the hope of drawing attention to this human rights travesty.  More stories flooded in, of other victims, as well as the continued bravery of Funda, who formed a support organization, named for lovers and victims, who were murdered by these rapists.

Ndumie Funda, at one time housed 15 victims in a tiny two roomed shack in a Township near Cape Town.  No running water – no amenities at all. The shack, flooded by heavy rains, housed the injured lesbian victims, who huddled together, trying to make doctors visits, police reports, bail hearings, with little bedding, no medication, no money for rent, food or transportation.

Here at Lez Get real, we publicized the stories and begged you to send a few dollars. I cannot say the money poured in, it was scarce.  A few good people did send money. Wake Up America hosted a Radio Podcast sharing the plight and My cousin Judith, a struggling single mom in South Africa went at my request to visit Ndumie in the cabin.

Judy reported back saying, “Melanie it is very bad; they are desperate, its dire! “  She gave what she could and I am sure it was more than she could afford.   I too sent my month’s mortgage – albeit a looming foreclosure in this awful economy.  This is not something anyone of you can turn your back on any longer.

I became despondent, even with my power of publicity.  Until I was contacted by a French reporter who wrote a story for a European Magazine.   But still the group continued to suffer. I had nothing to send. I could only write.

Now there is another victim. Do we want to hear her story too? or Can we simply send our few dollars?

This week I received word of yet another victim and another shocking picture too horrible to publish – but yet we must! Because they have asked us to. 

Luleke Sizwe is desperate for help as Ndumie Funda  goes it alone again – with her note to me on Face Book as she now proudly displays her own campaign to raise money for our sisters :- at http://lulekisizwe.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/the-r10-campaign/ They are asking for R10.00 (a little over $3.00 US per donation)

Ndumie has found a way to get a website going. She once told me she would never give up and tonight she sent me this link to an article which has now appeared in mainstream  press:-

Ndumie can be friended via Face Book  at facebook.com/ndumie.funda

READERS AND FB UPDATE: Thanks for all the inquiries about where to send money…

DONATION DETAILS: TO DONATE – We need $3,000 per month and we could fully support this Group.  If you can make a donation directly or send same c/o Melanie Nathan made out to PRIVATE COURTS INC.  P.O. Box 1108 Woodacre, CA 94973, USA . The Latter would save on expensive bank transfer fees as I would send it all as one.

OR DIRECTLY to

Please make a direct transfer into Luleki Sizwe’s Bank Account:

Account Name: Luleki Sizwe LBT Women’s Project
Business transaction account 071362940
Branch code 024909
Swift code SBZA ZA JJ
STANDARD BANK

Please quote “R10 Campaign” on the deposit

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Egyptian authorities stopped two people suspected in the theft of a painting, “Poppy Flowers” by Vincent Van Gogh,   moments before they were to board a plane and flee the country, according to Egypt’s official news agency, MENA.

Two Italians — a man and a woman — suspected of stealing the painting were preparing to board a plane to Italy when they were stopped at Cairo International Airport.

The painting stolen earlier Satturday, from Cairo’s Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil Museum, has an estimated value of $50 million.

It also had been stolen in 1978 and returned under unknown circumstances, causing some to think that the piece was copied in the process, according to MENA.

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Sandoval has the support of the archdiocese in Mexico City as well as the Bishops’ Conference of Mexico.  Ebrard has the support of the secular institutions including the Supreme Court which censured Sandoval’s statements unanimously.

Ebrard issued a stark warning to Cardinal Sandoval “We live in a secular state, and here, whether we like it or not, the law rules the land.  The cardinal must submit to the law of the land, like all other citizens of this country.”  The Mexican Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of same-sex marriages and same-sex adoption rights by wide margins.  With regards to adoption rights for same-sex couples, Justice Arturo Zaldivar stated “There is nothing that indicates that homosexual couples are less apt parents than heterosexuals ones.”  While same-sex marriages are not performed in all thirty-one of Mexico’s states, the ones performed in Mexico City must be recognized by all.

Mexico City’s Socialist dominated legislative assembly voted to allow same-sex marriage in December.  The law went into force in March, and then faced a challenge in the Supreme Court brought by the conservative-led federal government.  Since March, some 320 same-sex couples have married in Mexico City.

Figures on adoption are harder to pin down, and that is largely because of the problems inherent in the whole set up.  Adoption rights in Mexico have never been restricted to married heterosexual couples only.  Unfortunately, adoption in Mexico tends to be overly complicated, take a long time, and often involves “very long, complicated and traumatic” processes including long interviews that include uncomfortable questions such as those involving questions about the sexual practices of the couple.

Source

Image via Wikipedia

8/19/10-by Paula Brooks
A Catholic adoption service in Britain that has refused to work with same-sex couples will not be allowed an exemption from Britain’s anti-discrimination laws.

The British government imposed anti-discrimination rules in 2007 that prevent organizations from discriminating on the basis of a person’s sexuality, but Catholic Care had argued that as a religious group it should be allowed to offer adoption-support services only to heterosexual couples, because the organizations funding from the Roman Catholic Church was dependent on its policy of helping only married heterosexual couples adopt.

However yesterday, in a final ruling, British charity regulators said the group’s policy was discriminatory and a breach of European human rights laws.

“We have concluded that in this case the reasons Catholic Care have set out do not justify their wish to discriminate,” said Charity Commission chief executive Andrew Hind.

It has also ordered the Catholic Care to either cease its work placing children with adoptive parents or to abide by the UK’s equality laws which would include offering its services to same-sex couples.

“The charity is very disappointed with the outcome, Catholic Care will now consider whether there is any other way in which the charity can continue to support families seeking to adopt children in need,” said the group in a statement.

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Image via Wikipedia

8/19/10-by Paula Brooks
Earlier this week Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court found that country’s inheritance tax put same-sex registered partners at a clear disadvantage after it said there were no legal grounds for taxing gay people who lost their partner differently from heterosexual married couples.

They gave the German government until 2011 to compensate those subject to the previous rules.

A suit questioning the constitutionality of the German income tax rules in relation to same-sex couples is now also pending before that court and it is expected to rule that, although the state protected the institutions of marriage and family, this does not justify tax advantages for heterosexual relationships.

However, German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger told Munich’s Merkur newspaper today she thinks the German government shouldn’t wait for the court’s decision to begin sorting out those disadvantages.

Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, also said same-sex legal partners should be granted income tax breaks similar to those enjoyed by heterosexual married couples and she is looking at ways to do it.

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Gutiérrez Montaño, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Guadalajara, told reporters “Mr. Ebrard has the liberty to proceed as he wishes.” Regarding the threat of a slander complaint “There is no fear from this threat. He [the cardinal] also has the right to exercise what he thinks he should do if any calumny is raised against him.”

Cardinal Iñiguez made the charges against Mayor Ebrard and “international pro-abortion groups”, for some reason, of ‘feeding’ the justice ministers with ‘gifts’ in order to have them rule in favor of same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption rights.

The socialists and the Catholic Church leadership have closed ranks on opposing sides of this particularly thorny issue. Cardinal Noberto Rivera has also come under attack for his statements condemning the decision which required all of Mexico’s thirty-one states to recognize same-sex marriages from Mexico City. The leaders of the Mexico bishop’s conference wrote in a statement

“We express our solidarity and our feelings to Cardinals Norberto Rivera Carrera and Juan Sandoval Iñiguez regarding this delicate topic. The bishops of Mexico, sensitive to the majority opinion not only in Mexico City, but in the whole country, express, in the exercise of the liberty of expression guaranteed by our democratic political regime, our total disagreement with the verdict issued by the SCJN [Suprema Corte de Justica de la Nación]. We believe that equalizing these unions with the name of matrimony is a lack of respect, both for the very essence of marriage between a man and a woman, expressed in the Constitution of the country in its article 4, as well as the customs of the culture itself that has reigned over us for centuries.”

Jesús Ortega, leader of the socialist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), however, called on Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez to retract the accusation that the local leader [of Mexico City] bribed the ministers of the Suprme Court of Justice of the Nation.”

Ebrard stated that he will file charges against the cardinal in local court. He stated “He knows perfectly well that he is lying, that what he is saying is false and he is going to have to confront that process.” He has also called upon the Secretariat of Governance and the Federal Electoral Commission to investigate the cardinal.

The Catholics feel that same-sex marriage is worse than narcotics trafficing. Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico, denounced the Supreme Court’s decision stating that “[Marcelo Ebrard] and his government has created laws that are destructive to the family, that cause worse damage than narcotrafficking. Marcelo Ebrard and his party, the PRD, have endeavored to destroy us.”

Ebrard responded to Valdemar by asking for the federal government to prosecute him as well as the cardinal for violating the Constitution which was put into place in 1917 and which prohibits any participaton in politics by any of the nation’s clergy. It is not often enforced, but it remains there.

Source

The Supreme Court has already denied and condemned the accusation. Mayor Ebrard has gone one further stating that the Cardinal has until midnight to apologize for his statement or face a slander complaint.

Christians in Mexico and the United States have been rather ballistic over the recent court rulings supporting LGBT rights. It should not be surprising that they are stooping to the level of slander in order to do so given that so many of the views that they push are based on lies anyway.

Source.

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Melanie Nathan; 08-16-10

Many of  our readers have asked that we spread the word.  I only wish there were more we could do, at a time when we must wonder if life means so little especially if a woman?

Given Cultural and religious beliefs one may be apt to think, ‘well that is the way it is;’ however we have seen too much of oppression of women in the name of religion and cultural belief and that is all it is – violence and flagrant  disregard for the lives of women.

Seen often as mere chattels and under command, for a use, of body mind and soul,  we must speak out for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43 year old mother of two, was convicted in May 2006 of having an “illicit relationship” with two men and received 99 lashes as her sentence. Despite already having been punished, she has now been further convicted of “adultery” and she and sentenced to death by stoning.

She is currently being held on death row in Tabriz Prison, north-west Iran, and faces imminent execution. Around July 7th , following international protests, officials in Tabriz asked the head of Iran’s judiciary to agree that her sentence of stoning to death be converted to execution by hanging.

On 10 July, the head of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights said that her case would be reviewed, although he affirmed that Iranian law permits execution by stoning.

On 14 July Sajjad Qaderzadeh, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s son, was summoned to Tabriz’s Central Prison, and is believed to have been questioned by Ministry of Intelligence officials who possibly threatened him not to give further interviews about his mother’s case.

It is clear Sakineh remains in grave risk… PLEASE sign this petition which calls on the Iranian authorities to clarify her current legal status, demands that the authorities enact legislation that bans stoning as a legal punishment, and eliminates other forms of the death penalty for “adultery” such as fogging or imprisonment.

Sign Petition: http://freesakineh.org/

If you have not signed this or sent a note to Secretary Clinton now is the time.

I wish I could do more – I will promise though, that on Friday night I will Pray on my Sabbath in my Synagogue for the life of a sister and the goodwill of her children.

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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It is unlikely that the shootings had anything to do with sexuality, and were solely based upon an argument between the two gangs.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38714876

Three Montreal rabbis became the latest signatories yesterday of a statement by already signed by  Orthodox Rabbis in the US calling for the acceptance of Jewish gay men and lesbians into synagogues.

The document is the result of a debate between Orthodox rabbis, educators, mental health professionals and gay Jews worldwide. The full title is “Statement of Principles on the Place of Jews with a Homosexual Orientation in Our Community”.

Signed by 150 Orthodox rabbis worldwide before reaching Canada, speaking to CBC News, Adam Scheier, Rabbi of the Shaar Hashomayim Congregation and president of the Montreal Board of Rabbis said: “We have wonderful members of our community in our congregation who are gay, and come to us anticipating and expecting to be welcomed into our community.”

According to the Montreal Gazette, the statement begins: “All human beings are created in the image of God and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect (kevod haberiyot).”

It continues, “Embarrassing, harassing or demeaning someone with a homosexual orientation or same-sex attraction is a violation of Torah prohibitions that embody the deepest values of Judaism.”

The document also states that the issue of whether or not sexual orientation is genetic or environmentally generated is irrelevant when it comes to how LGBT people should be treated.

Though the document is generally agreed to be progressive, dissenting voices have complained that it does not include discussion of gay marriage. This omission may seem short of dealing with the hottest issue however that is not what the tone of the document requires- rather that it is incumbent upon Jews to treat each other with acceptance and to be welcoming, impacting dignity and respect.

The first statement tacitly applies to relationships, albeit no mention of the physical acts of sex,  which seems irrelevant for the purpose of the acceptance.  relationships are also to be respected.    I believe in time orthodox Rabbis will marry same sex couples to fully welcome them as equal Jews.

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by Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

Berchot 45, died early Friday morning after he and his husband, Gustavo Garcia, became the first gay couple to marry in the Argentine city of Mar del Plata.

According to the Buenos Aires newspaper Clarin, Berchot fainted during his wedding reception due to high blood pressure, and was pronounced dead at approximately 7 a.m. at a local hospital.

Argentina last month became the first Latin America country to legalize same-sex marriages.

Gay Man Married in Argentina Dies at His Wedding, Newspaper Says – Bloomberg.

Melanie Nathan;  August 12, 2010;

An Israeli Arab suspected in 20 stabbings across three states that left five people dead was arrested at the Atlanta airport as he tried to board a plane bound for Tel Aviv, authorities said.

Michigan officials said Thursday that Elias Abuelazam, 33, is currently charged with assault with intent to murder in a July 27 stabbing in Flint. Further charges are pending.

A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the agency’s officers arrested Abuelazam, an  Arab Israeli citizen, about 10 p.m. Wednesday night at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, as he attempted to board a Delta flight for Tel Aviv. He was handed over to the FBI and Atlanta police.

Passengers on the flight said as they arrived Thursday in Tel Aviv that the suspect was arrested at the boarding gate shortly before takeoff. They said his name was called over a loudspeaker, and then six police officers led him away without incident.

His Family was contacted at their home close to tel Aviv airport.  They expressed dismay at the lack of information received from US authorities, stating they were shocked at his alleged involvement in any crime, and that they had been relying on Television for News and updates.

It is yet to be determined whether these crimes alleged  were motivated by the psyche of a serial killer, a racist or if the actions  were to incite terror.

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8/11/10-by Paula Brooks
Germany’s openly gay foreign minister Guido Westerwelle, has said he will not be taking his partner along on officials trips to countries where being gay is illegal.

Westerwelle, who is also Germany’s vice-chancellor, told the German gossip magazine Bunte that there were at least 75 countries that prosecute gays and lesbians for being gay and lesbian also noting that in seven countries, Iran, Sudan, Yemen, Mauritania, Somalia, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, relations between same-sex couples  are a capital offence.

Westerwelle’s partner, Michael Mronz, 43, did get to accompany Westerwelle when he went on official trips to Asia in January and Latin America in March, but when Westerwelle visited, Yemen and Saudi Arabia in October, it was sans longtime partner Mronz.

“We want to promote tolerance in the world,” said Westerwelle. “But we also do not want to achieve the opposite by acting thoughtlessly. I think it is important that we live by our own standards of tolerance and that we do not adopt sometimes less tolerant standards as our own.”

“My motto is: do what you like if it does not hurt anyone else,” Westerwelle added.

Westerwelle has been the German foreign minister since October 2009.

via News – World: Partner to avoid anti-gay countries: minister.

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8/11/10-by Paula Brooks
Costa Rica’s High Court has blocked that country’s electoral tribunal from holding a referendum that would have let voters decide if same-sex civil unions should be allowed in that Central American country.

Costa Rica’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) had approved the referendum after a group, backed by the Catholic Church, had collect 150,000 petition signatures, many collected inside Catholic and Protestant places of worship, calling for voters, rather than the legislature, to determine whether to allow gay and lesbian civil unions in that country. It had set Dec. 5 as the date for the vote, when Costa Rica also is holding municipal elections.

However, the Constitutional Court’s 5-2 decision released yesterday said it considers gays and lesbians a group at a disadvantage and the target for discrimination, requiring government authorities to protect their rights and such a referendum would put them at a further disadvantage in the largely Roman Catholic country.

“Minority rights that are derived from claims against the majority cannot be subject to a referendum process where majorities are needed,” the court said in a statement.

The court also ruled, same-sex civil unions are a legislative issue and not an electoral one.

A bill legalizing same-sex civil unions has been before the country’s lawmakers for some time now, but was stalled. The court’s decision, which cannot be appealed, is expected  to get the country’s legislators addressing the issue again.

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8/11/10-by Paula Brooks
By a 9-2 vote, the Supreme Court of Mexico has ruled the marriages of same-sex couples performed in Mexico City must be recognized by all Mexican states.

The court had also ruled last week that the Mexico City’s law permitting marriage rights for same-sex couples is constitutional, rejecting an appeal by Mexican federal officials, arguing the law violated mandates to protect the family.

Mexico City’s legislature legalized same-sex marriage by a vote of 39-20 on December 21, 2009 and same-sex marriages have been legal in Mexico City since March; however, that law has drawn opposition from the Catholic Church and the Mexican government, and most notably Mexican President, Felipe Calderon, who has said he is personally opposed to same-sex marriage.

While all of Mexico’s 31 states now must recognize such unions from Mexico City, none are required to sanction gay marriages performed within their locales, however several state are looking at passing same-sex marriage laws similar to Mexico City’s.

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Image via Wikipedia

8/8/10-by Paula Brooks
On Thursday, the Mexican Supreme Court, on an 8-2 vote, upheld the constitutionality of Mexico City’s same-sex marriages after the Mexican federal government sought to have the court invalidate the law.

Today, the Archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera, while agreeing LGBT’s have suffered abuses from the broader society, argued that allowing same-sex marriages is not the way to make up for such injustices and criticized Mexico’s Supreme Court for upholding the law allowing gays and lesbians to marry in Mexico City, calling their ruling “aberrant” and “immoral.”

In his statement Rivera also called same-sex unions “inherently immoral,” saying they “distort the nature of marriage raised by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament.”

A suit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles’ federal court, says Cardinal Rivera knew a priest, identified in the suit as Nicholas Aguilar, was abusive, but authorized him to move back and forth between Mexico and the U.S. and to continue serving in parishes.

Aguilar faces dozens of accusations of sex abuse and was defrocked by the Vatican last year, according to various news media reports and to the law firm that filed the suit. The church has not commented on Aguilar’s status, but it has not countered reports that he was defrocked.

The suit alleges that Rivera, then bishop of Tehuacan, Mexico, transferred Aguilar to the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 1987 after Rivera suspected him of abuse and then sent the Los Angeles Archdiocese a letter documenting what Rivera called Aguilar’s “homosexual problems.”

Relative to offenses against children, Christ said, “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”

If these allegations prove true… many could consider Rivera actions in relation to Aguilar as “inherently immoral,” as well…. Including his boss it would appear.

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8/8/10-by Paula Brooks
Gay rights advocates in Russia say they will open a “Pride House” at the 2014 Winter Olympics scheduled to be held in the Black Sea city of Sochi.

According to the organization Gay Russia, gay rights advocates in that country have sent letter of intent to both the International Olympic Committee and the Russian Olympic Committee saying the group plans to match similar events presented at the Vancouver Winter Olympics held earlier this year and that are planned for the London Summer Olympics in 2012.

Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, however Russian political and social life is heavily influenced by the conservative traditions and the extreme sexual restrictions of the Russian Orthodox Church. Gays are often attacked and ridiculed on the streets of Russia and therefore many live in secret.

“The idea of Pride House received great support from gay activists around the world and we believe that we have to continue this tradition in Sochi after Vancouver and London,” said the chief organizer of Moscow Pride, Nikolai Alekseev. “We are ready to work with the organizers of the Olympics in order to effectively implement this project. This initiative will help to bring more tolerance in sport and not only in Russia.” he added.

According to Alekseev the Sochi “Pride House” would include an exhibition of the history of the LGBT movement in Russia, film screenings and human rights seminars. Information material on homophobia in sport would be available too.

“The problem of homophobia in sport is real and not only in Russia. The Olympics are regularly attended by hundreds of gay and lesbian athletes who are forced to hide their sexual orientation by fear of the damage it could make on their career,” Alekseev also said.

via Russian Gays Plan ‘Pride House’ During Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

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There is some debate going on in the Mexican state over whether or not the legalization of same-sex unions would be in the form of marriage or in the form of civil unions. Currently, the constitution of the state prohibits recognition of same-sex marriage, but that could be amended by lawmakers.

Governor Ortega is the first woman to be elected governor of the Yucatan.

Source

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8/5/10-by Paula Brooks
By an 8-2 vote, The Mexican Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of Mexico City’s law allowing same-sex marriages.

The Mexican High court ruled that the law did not violate the constitution and said that nowhere does the Mexican Constitution define what a family is, thus was valid in allowing gay couples to possibly adopt children..

Mexico City is the only part of that nation to allow same-sex couples to marry and it is the first in Latin America to have such a law.

The law passed Mexico City’s legislature with a vote of 39-20 on December 21, 2009 and same-sex marriages have been legal in Mexico City since March; however, that law has drawn opposition from the Catholic Church and the Mexican government, and most notably Mexican President, Felipe Calderon, who has said he is personally opposed to same-sex marriage.

Some 320 marriages of same-sex couples have taken place in that city since the law was put into effect.

The Associated Press: Mexican court upholds capital’s gay marriage law.

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8/4/10-by Paula Brooks
The Labor Government of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has turned down a request from Australian marriage equality advocates to remove the ban, in place since 2005, on issuing Australians in same-sex relationships with the documents they need to marry overseas.

The documents, called Certificates of Non-Impediment to Marriage or CNIs, are used to show the parties are not already married in Australia. Some countries, which allow same-sex couples to marry, require foreign nationals to provide a Certificate of Non-Impediment to Marriage before they can marry in that country.

“As if it’s not bad enough that the Government’s ban on same-sex marriages forces hundreds of Australians to marry overseas every year, often at great expense and without their families and friends present, the Government still wants to reach around the world in an effort to stop these Australians marrying,” says Australian Marriage Equality National Convener Alex Greenwich.

“We are seeking legal advice about challenging the mean-spirited ban on CNIs for same-sex partners in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.”

via Overseas gay weddings will remain blocked to Aussies on SameSame.com.au.

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8/2/10-by Paula Brooks
Senator Fulvio Rossi, president of the Chilean Socialist Party has announced he plans to present a bill on Tuesday that would permit same-sex marriage in Chile.

On Saturday, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, the archbishop of Santiago, spoke out against Argentina’s new gay marriage law.

“It may be that two people, two men or two women, want to live together and share life, but to call that marriage is an aberration,” Errazuriz said.

“‘This is a project that I will present … and I am also calling on the Church to be more welcoming, and I say that as part of the Church,’ Rossi said, responding to remarks from Cardinal Errazuriz.

Chilean Lawmakers were already considering a set of reforms similar to civil union laws adopted by several states in the United States called the Acuerdo de Vida en Comun (AVC) that would give both gay and straight couples all the rights and obligations of marriage.

Chile’s conservative president, Sebastian Pinera, has vowed to give more rights to same-sex couples, but opposes gay marriage.

Rossi’s proposal is also expected to meet strong resistance in Chile’s Congress.

(source)

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Ronnie and Elior

One Sabbath earlier this year, a small group of young gay and lesbian Israelis all from Tel Aviv came to Marin County where I live, to my Synagogue, to pray. Two barely years older than my own, stood up to speak to our large congregation, concluding with many a tear in response to the harrowing account of that bloody day.

The Tel Aviv LGBT Center was a safe place for LGBT youth, their refuge, their playground; their home away from home – and perhaps for some, the only place that felt like home. One of our speakers spoke of being kicked out by his parents for being gay; while the other spoke of the acceptance by his father, a Rabbi. Some parents believed their sons and daughters were safe, in the celebration of their sexuality and never thought to worry that hate could come from within.

Yet on that day one year ago, friends and counselors lay bleeding on the floor, dead and maimed all because of the hate of one man, probably fuelled by others through whatever form of provocation, perhaps religious fervor of the extremist or perhaps confounding insanity; we do not know until the shooter is caught. However what we do know is that an attack on a LGBT Center is an attack on LGBT love.  It was a crime of rage ignited by hate.

Today 3,000 people joined a memorial march marking one year since the mayhem at a gay youth club in Tel Aviv. The marchers left Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Avenue and made their way to Meir Park carrying torches and banners reading “Homophobia is equal to racism.”

Israel is not unused to violence from its enemies and people are probably more prepared than we anywhere in the world to deal with shocking realities when they occur; however when I interviewed the teens who had been there that day, they said nothing could have prepared them for what they saw.

“The murder shows the contemptuous attitude toward the gay community,” Ayala Katz, mother of Nir who was murdered in the attack. “With all the emotions and sadness and yearning for Nir, I also have enormous optimism that we will be able to talk to all. Only dialogue will bring us all, Israeli society, to a different place.”

Noa Raz, activist and counselor, who accompanied the teens to the USA that visit, went to the aid of the wounded and dying as did Elior Chen and Ronnie Klein, (pictured) who both ran down to the Center after hearing about the shooting, saying they will never be able to forget what they saw and felt;  the overwhelming breach of the bounds of their special safe space and how their own faith has stood at the helm of their passion to continue to be openly gay and lesbian regardless of religious extremists.

Elior comes from an orthodox background and Noa, deeply religious and fervently determined to prayer with her “Tiffilin” (daily practice usually reserved for men only) asserting her equality as a female Jew. Elior, Ronnie and Noa have recently entered into marriages with their respective partners.

While the organizers of the march called for donations to assist those left disabled after the hateful attack, the heart wrenching memorial was marred by the knowledge that the Israeli Government has failed to provide support for the victims of the deadly day, especially those injured and maimed, as they do not recognize this tragedy as ‘hate crimes.’

This caused a stir at the memorial itself when people heckled the Education Minister, who was the only government official present and speaking in support of LGBT education.

Israel is one of the few countries that has marriage equality under its civil law. Yet MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) asserts “The fact that those injured in the attack are not recognized in Israel of 2010 as hate crime victims, and are not supported by the State, is proof of the inadequacy of Israeli society,” to Ynet on Saturday.

by Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Source

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Among the weddings were Alejandro Vanelli and Ernesto Larresse. The two have been together for thirty-four years, and they were the first couple to marry. They were going to get married on 13 August, but were granted a request to move the date up to today. Two hours later, another couple married, this time in Santiago del Estero. That second marriage was between Miguel Angel Calefato and his architect partner of twenty-seven years Juan Carlos Navarro.

Calefato and Navarro were not worried about being the first. Their only concern was being legally married.

Vanelli and Larresse had tried to get married before, but both times they were denied. Vanelli is an agent, and Larresse is an actor. Argentina made history by becoming the first Latin American country as a whole to legalize same-sex marriage, though a few have civil unions. Mexico City legalized same-sex marriages earlier this year. Since then, both Chile and Peru have announced plans to debate recognition of same-sex marriage, and Uruguay and Paraguay are beginning to debate their own same-sex marriage legislation.

Three more couples will wed over the weekend.

Latin America has a long history of repressive dictatorships and interference from the Roman Catholic Church in political matters. Unfortunately for the Roman Catholic Church, that history of supporting dictators has come back to haunt them as many in Latin America are looking to the Church for guidance in matters of faith alone and not in politics. The feeling among many Argentines is that the Roman Catholic Church should just butt out of politics all together now.

Source1
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The gay pride events in the capital were officially began today with a moment of silence in memory of those murdered in last years gay youth center shooting in Tel Aviv, with an empty chair reserved with the sign “Reserved for Mayor Nir Barkat” placed on it as an act of protest against the Jerusalem mayor’s decision not to attend the gay pride events.

According to the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade organizers, some 3,000 people are expected to take part in the event today. They will also be joined by some 1,500 police officers, backed up by Border Guards, security guards and military police to provide security as police also fretted over a possible repeat of the 2005 march, during which a member of the ultra-orthodox Haredi community, stabbed and wounded three participants pride event with a kitchen knife.

But even with the heavy security precautions in place, Pride goers were still met with anti-gay protesters carrying signs that read, “Sick perverts, get out of Jerusalem” and “Go Strait For Family Sake”, that assembled along the parade route to harass the marchers. In one indecent police arrested three anti-gay female in possession of eggs, which they apparently intended to throw at parade marchers, near Jerusalem’s Independence Park.

“It is a disease of choice, and a man can change his taste and his ways,” Baruch Marzel said a protest leader, “when someone has AIDS they tell them not to infect others, so why are these people allowed to march here in Jerusalem and infect us with their disease?

One protest also took the form of a parade of paper donkeys outside Israel’s Supreme Court Building that was lead by Jerusalem’s Deputy Mayor Yitzhak Pindrus who has equated homosexuality with bestiality and was preceded by a banner reading “These Marchers Who Do What Beasts Do.”

Pindrus’ protest in turn prompted calls from Uri Regev, Director General of the Chadosh organization for freedom of religion and equality, demanding that Jerusalem Mayor Barkat dismiss Pindrus.

Openly gay Knesset Member Nitzan Horowitz also slammed all the protests and said “We will continue coming here every year, especially to Jerusalem because this is the most important place for the gay community – not only for us, but for everyone to whom the State of Israel’s character as a free and democratic country is important. Everyone who thinks like this must come.”

Jerusalem Pride Parade encounters protests, insults – Israel News, Ynetnews.

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Image via Wikipedia

7/29/10-by Paula Brooks
A British Gay right advocate has taken on the UK’s Equalities Minister over her governments stand on same-sex marriages in the United Kingdom.

Peter Tachell yesterday urged British Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone to initiate a government review and public consultation on the ban on gay civil marriage.

The meeting was convened by Ms Featherstone to feed back from British gay advocate on allowing civil partnerships to have a religious content, which is currently prohibited, and on the option of extending civil marriages to same-sex couples.

Noting a recent poll that showed 61% of the citizens of the UK support same-sex civil marriage, Tachell said, “The government is out of step with popular opinion. Without any major campaign or wider debate, nearly two-thirds of the British public now says that the law on civil marriage should not discriminate…. We would not accept the government telling Jewish people that they were prohibited from getting married, and offering them instead a separate Jews-only civil partnership system. We’d say it was anti-Semitic and not the kind of law we would expect to find in democratic Britain. Well, that’s the way I feel about civil partnerships. They are institutional homophobia.”

Tachell’s call, which came yesterday during a meeting with Featherstone and other lesbian and gay rights advocates at Britain’s House of Commons said, “The coalition government should undertake a public consultation to determine whether the ban on gay marriage ought to be lifted. It should invite representations from individuals and organizations and, on the basis of the submissions received, decide if the ban should stay or go.”

“Maintaining the ban without considering public opinion is unreasonable and unjustified,” Tachell further added.

Featherstone responded by saying that the British government needed to take one step at a time, beginning with giving religious bodies the option to hold civil partnerships, if they wished, in accordance with an amendment to the UK’s Equality Bill passed earlier this year.

However recently, Featherstone, a Liberal Democrat, did acknowledged that any consultation would take into account the views of those who are vehemently opposed to equal marriage.

Gay activists say government is ‘ignoring’ calls for same-sex civil marriage – from Pink News

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That article, which appeared last year on the website Tsofar said, “Many citizens who are sick and tired of the reckless and morally uninhibited conduct expect law-enforcement authorities to put the heads of the murder club [the gay center] on trial for the crimes they committed.”

The Tsofar article also quoted from a letter that an anonymous reader purportedly sent to the National Council for the Child, saying there was proof that public sex acts took place at the club.

Aguda, an Israeli LGBT rights group, sent a letter to Tsofar shortly after the article was published, demanding payment of damages for defamation. Tsofar did not respond, and the author of the article said at the time that he did not regret what he had written.

The article was full of “defamatory and homophobic expressions,” the National Association of LGBT in Israel said in the lawsuit, which it filed in the Tel Aviv Magistrate&’s Court yesterday. “Boorish and ignorant insults of the kind that the defendants published are liable to lead to additional hate crimes against the plaintiffs and members of the pride community in Israel.”

via Gay group suing religious website for libel – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

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Sunil Pant who is his Nepal’s foremost gay rights advocate, says he hopes 3,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people will join the event, to be held in the capital Kathmandu next month.

The date coincides with a traditional Nepalese festival called Gaijatra in which men dress as women.

Gaijatra is one of Nepal’s most popular holidays and it has become a favorite of the country’s international LGBT tourist as well.

“The occasion of Gaijatra has been chosen as it is the centuries-old Hindu festival when Nepali men dress up in women’s attire,” said Panta, adding, “We will make the event international this time.”

The country only decriminalized homosexuality in 2007, but due to efforts by Pant is also now considering a same-sex marriage law.

Earlier this year, Nepalese tourism officials announced that they hoped to attract one million tourists a year, and are setting there sights on the LGBT travel market, discussing the prospect of holding gay weddings at the base of Everest and giving gay couples the chance to enjoy their honeymoons with tours on elephant-back.

“Nepal has made so much progress on gay issues in the last few years, and we hope to spread hope and inspire others.”

Age-Old Nepalese Festival To Welcome Gay Pride Parade | AHN.

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According to the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade organizers, some 3,000 people are expected to come to Jerusalem to take part in their event. They will be joined by some 1,500 police officers, backed up by Border Guards, security guards and military police to provide security in light of violence committed against marchers at past Pride Parades in that city.

However, Itzhak Pindrus, the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem had asked police officials for permission to hold a counter protest featuring donkeys as a way to apparently equate homosexuality with bestiality.

“Doesn’t a donkey have a right to be a donkey?” Pindrus said . “This is a democratic state, so we will not accept the claim that donkeys have no right to march. There are donkeys who are proud of their donkeyness and want to have a parade.”

Pindrus had said that he would petition the Israeli High Court to allow them to hold their parade if they did not give him the march permit.

To avoid that, Jerusalem police instead offered the deputy mayor a compromise of carrying cardboard cut-outs of donkeys during his group’s planned counter-protest and Pindrus has accepted that offer.

Similar events have been held in the past by right-wing activists and various religious figures, but with security being  a concern in light of last years shooting at a gay youth center in Tel Aviv, police were reluctant to grant the request. Police also fretted over a possible repeat of the 2005 march, during which a member of the ultra-orthodox haredi community, stabbed and wounded three participants pride event with a kitchen knife.

Fake donkey parade counters gay march.

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Kai Hahner, a member of Germany’s right of center political party, the CDU,  sent a homophobic diatribe  accusing the organizers of  Leipzig’s Christopher Street Day festival of promoting homosexuality and threatened them with legal action if they continued.

The leader of the CDU, Angela Merkel, is currently the Chancellor of Germany.

According to PinkPaper.com, organizers of the CSD festival in Leipzig, which is the equivalent of Pride, received the homophobic rant in an email from Hahner this week in which he accused them of “promoting homosexuality” and leading vulnerable young people away from the “right path”.

Haehner also criticized, the CSD organizers for publicizing and promoting gay events, and wrote in his email,“You may live as you like in private, but don’t disturb others with your abnormality.”

Haehner also said,“Because of your public displays, homosexuality is now considered ‘trendy’. You entrap young people who are going through a phase where they are unsure of their sexuality”.

Haehner also went on to slam those who promote tolerance in schools, and threatened to bring legal action against those who do.

“If this happens in this country and young children are confronted with homosexuality, I will be the first to bring those responsible to justice,” said Haehner.

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Nelson Mandela Bay - Port Elizabeth

Melanie Nathan – 7-27-2010.  Port Elizabeth, a small magnificent seaside resort in the Eastern Cape (Ciskei) Area of South Africa,  has celebrated its long overdue gay and lesbian film festival. The ‘Port Elizabeth Gay and Lesbian Film Festival’ saw visitors come from different parts of South Africa to see the selection of lesbian, transgender and gay films that were carefully selected reports ” Frank Malaba from http://www.rnw.nl/africa/article/port-elizabeth-celebrates-gay-and-lesbian-rights

“We wanted to pick films that would appeal to the broader lesbian, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender’ (LGBT) community. One of the films of interest to the audiences might be a lesbian film called ‘I can’t think straight’ set in the Middle East. It will be a great film because South Africa is a multicultural society and this film explores the elements of diversity”, said a spokesperson for the event.

Apparently transport to the event has caused attendance problems as is often the problem for any event held far from the target audience, in this case the local surrounding townships , now perceived as suburbs, but once considered the nucleus for The Group Areas Act, which separated people of different racial classifications.  However such an event may attract unwanted violence if actually held in a township where gays and lesbians tend to be ostracized through cultural beliefs.

Port Elizabeth is a beautiful seaside resort town, renowned for its surf and pure sandy coastline.  It serves as a stop along the famous “Blue Train” Garden Route to Cape Town.  Having lived there for 13 years of my childhood I remember the “Windy City,” with much fondness, as well as the suffering of the township people.

It is truly sad to me that the people once victimized by the Afrikaner apartheid government now victimizes a minority, – who happen to have a sexual orientation that goes against the cultural Xhosa grain.

While I believe the festival may open eyes serve the community on an educational level, I would hope that the chosen will speak to these differences. That in fact they would inform those with misgivings about LGBT people and rights.

People who happened to walk past the venue did seem to be interested, although the entrance was free or by donation, most of them were too shy to walk through the doors, says the Malaba. An undertone of uneasiness reigned in the local area.  I would suggest, that they were fearful rather than simply shy.

South Africa has taken bold steps in the recognition of gay rights, becoming the only country in Africa to legalize gay marriage in 2006, and to include sexual orientation in its Bill of Rights.  However, very little has been done to enforce hate crimes against lesbians who have been the subject of endemic rape attacks coined there as “corrective rape occurring most often in the Townships.”

The PE GLFF is a much needed tool in the education about gay and lesbian rights in Port Elizabeth and hats off to them for making this bold statement, whichever way it turns out.

“Jolly Good Show- as we would have said way back when!”

Port Elizabeth was named Algoa Bay, when the 1822 British Settlers landed and formed a Colony.  The Area is now referred to as Nelson Mandela Bay – as this is the area where Madiba Mandela, a Xhosa, was from.

Note: Picture depicts the Beach known at a time when it was “whites only”

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
@oblogdeeoblogda
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“On the issue of marriage I think the reality is there is a cultural, religious, historical view around that which we have to respect… The party’s position is very clear that this is an institution that is between a man and a woman. I am part of a party and I support the party’s policies,” Wong said in an interview with Australia’s Network Ten on Sunday.

Wong had earlier evaded the issue of same-sex marriage on another news show, saying her personal perspective was not relevant.

However Australian Marriage Equality spokesperson Alex Greenwich called Australia’s first openly gay cabinet minister hypocritical and noted Wong would never have made it into politics if discrimination against gays and Asians had not been opposed.

Greenwich said it was once the “cultural, religious and historical view” that women should not be members of parliament, Asians should not be allowed into Australia, and lesbians should not even exist, “yet thankfully all that changed, allowing people like Penny Wong to contribute to Australian society at the highest level”.

“By opposing marriage equality, Penny Wong has betrayed gay and lesbian Australians, and by using culture, religion and history to justify this opposition she has betrayed the principles of tolerance and inclusion that have given her immense opportunities as a lesbian woman of Chinese descent,”  said Greenwich.

Gays call Wong a hypocrite | The Australian.

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In 2008 Judge Ferrín Calamita was found by Spain’s Supreme Court to have acted with “malice” in slowing up the adoption process of lesbian couple by denying a second-parent adoption petition to the couple while he waited to obtain a report on how children of same-sex families fare. Last year the Spanish High Court increased Calamita’s suspension to 10 years and ordered he also pay the couple 6,000 € or about $7,700 US. The Spanish government as well demanded Calamita repay his salary of $127,000, which he received while on temporary suspension by Aug. 5.

In refusing Calamita’s appeal the Constitutional Court said the appeal cannot be heard as Calamita has also made a further appeal to the Supreme Court calling for the case against him to be declared null and void.

Spanish law allows gay and lesbian families to marry and adopt, however homophobia still lingers in Spain.

Constitutional Court refuses to hear Judge Calamita appeal.

When the couple asked about why, the clerk stated “You should reconsider your personal situation and continue to live in different places.” The comment shocked the pair. After all, it sounded not unlike a comment one would expect form someone who is homophobic and trying to push the idea that homosexuality is wrong.

“We were shocked. We wondered what on earth she meant. We also wondered whether a heterosexual couple would have been given the same advice. We were also surprised that she said it was a lot of money, as we knew that it was a bargain,” the couple has stated.

The couple approached Nordea, a rival bank for Swedbank, and were granted a mortgage. “They said immediately that it was a good purchase and that one of us alone would almost have qualified for that mortgage,” Maria told The Local. The have since renovated the apartment and it is worth almost twice what they bought it for.

They have also reported the incident to Sweden’s Discrimination Ombudsman.

Anna Sundblad, Swedbank’s head of press relations, has stated that the bank was sorry for what happened. She said “We take these kinds of incidents very seriously. We have a clear policy that we never discriminate on the grounds of religion, gender or sexual orientation. We also aim to set a good example in questions like this – we sponsor the Stockholm Pride festival for instance. What will happen now is that our customer ombudsman will investigate the matter together with the Discrimination Ombudsman.”

Sweden has full marriage equality, and is very tolerant of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transpeople, but it is still possible to find intolerant people within nations such as Sweden.

This is a trailer for a Movie which may wake us up to the anti-gay psychosis that is spreading rapidly, like a disease, across Africa, and ironically infested by the parasitic anti-gay white dominated American Evangelicals who thrive off ant-gay hate. The USA needs to make a stand firstly for equality for its own citizens and residents and then it will have a place in the World as a leader on Human Rights. Right now, the USA is failing miserably, so goodness knows who will look out for the rest of the World? Any ideas?

Their actions have brought about the condemnation of the Italian Catholic diocese of Rome. The article in the Italian magazine Panorama detailed the sexual encounters of these priests and their trips to clubs. The diocese characterized their behavior as sullying the honor of all others.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that sex outside of marriage is sinful and homosexuality is unnatural. It is teaching these in a day and age when scientific research has shown that homosexuality is perfectly natural and many Catholics are refusing to get married because of the Church’s stance on divorce.

The diocese stated that they did not wish any ill-will against the priests, but that it was saddened and troubled by the article. They vowed to pursue “with rigor any behavior that is unworthy of the priestly life.”

In 2005, Pope Benedict instructed that all homosexual priests should be barred from seminaries. According to Pope Benedict, same-sex marriage is an “insidious and dangerous threat to the common good.”

The vow of celibacy has been a major contention within the Catholic Church of late with reformers supporting an end to that vow. A priest who recently came out in support of same-sex marriages in Argentina had proceedings started to have him removed from his position as parish priest within a week of making his statements despite the fact that many priests who have molested children are still in their parish seats.

In all likelihood, these priests who have been having sexual relations with adult men will be defrocked in short order.

Source

Chavez is now going after the Roman Catholic Church. Specifically, he is seeking to take control of Vale TV, a Catholic channel operated by the Archdiocese of Caracas since 1998. Chavez has ordered Interior Minister Tareck El Aissami to review the granting of the channel to the archdiocese by former President Rafael Caldera.

Vale TV is a non-profit television station, and it issued a statement saying what is at stake is not only its work “producing and broadcasting content, but also doing so in a way that guarantees editorial independence, plurality. . .ratings, self-management and financial sustainability.”

Chavez has stated in a speech “I have ordered a review so that we can repossess the channel and put it at the service of the nation.” He repeated that statement elsewhere “I said we need to recover that channel and put it at the service of the people and not the cardinal.”

It is not surprising that Chavez is moving to take Vale TV back from the Catholic Church. He has done a very good job of squashing editorial dissent in Venezuela since he took office. Following accusations that the United States under President George W. Bush had tried to have him assassinated, Chavez moved to nationalize large swaths of the nation’s press and oil industry.

Chavez is seen as a Communist leaning quasi-dictator. He has moved to consolidate power in his presidency. So far, he has not declared himself to be President for Life.

The move to repress the Roman Catholic Church could very well be an attempt to try and bring the Church into line with his power structure in a manner not dissimilar to that of President Francisco Franco in Spain, and the taking over of this specific station is likely being done in order to prevent an attempt by the Catholic Church to question the tensions and possible war with Colombia.

The move is his latest in his campaign to suppress freedom of the press and freedom of speech in Venezuela, and may even indicate a move towards suppressing religious freedom within the nation.