September 13, 2007
365Gay.com reports:
Polish police say they are dropping the hunt for whoever was behind a series of bombs which later turned out to be fakes that were discovered in four cities in the days leading up to the 2005 presidential election.
The devices were discovered after anonymous phone calls to police from someone claiming to be from an organization called the Gay Power Brigade.
Thirteen devices were found in Warsaw. Police said that the “bombs” were sophisticated and it took bomb squad experts some time to realize they were not dealing with real explosives.
Similar dummy bombs also were discovered in train stations in Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot.
The discoveries caused panic in the streets of all four cities.
In a lengthy manifesto sent to Warsaw newspapers and wire services the Gay Power Brigade condemned Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski, who was running for president.
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September 12, 2007
Reports 365Gay.com:
An Albany court has dismissed a challenge to a decision by New York State’s Comptroller that treats out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples the same as any other legal marriage in terms of benefits afforded to state employees through the New York State Retirement System.
In 2004 in response to an inquiry by a gay state employee wanting to know if his retirement benefits would cover his family if he went to Canada to legally marry his partner, New York State Comptroller at the time, Alan Hevesi, stated that, “Based on current law, the retirement system will recognize a same-sex Canadian marriage in the same manner as an opposite-sex New York marriage under the principle of comity. That principle has been legal practice pursuant to New York Court of Appeals rulings for many years.”
. . .
Hevesi’s interpretation of the law matched that of then Attorney General, now Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who also said that, under the state’s current laws, same-sex couples who legally married in other jurisdictions should be treated as any other married couple in New York State.
The Alliance Defend Fund, an Arizona- based organization that regularly fights LGBT issues, filed the suit, citing the July 2006 ruling by the Court of Appeals - the state’s highest court - that upheld New York’s ban on same-sex marriage.
. . .
The issue that Hevesi addressed for the purpose of retirement benefits involved only same-sex marriages from Canada. Following today’s ruling by Judge McNamara, Hevesi’s successor, Thomas P. DiNapoli announced that the retirement system would be recognizing all legal out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples and not just those from Canada. This will include same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts, Spain, Netherlands, South Africa and Belgium.
The ADF has not said if it will appeal today’s ruling.
See also:
NY recognizes Canadian same-sex marriages
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Canada,
Europe,
Marriage Equality,
Massachusetts,
New York,
Radical Religious Right
September 9, 2007
Good! ‘Cause Baja is a great
honeymoon destination!
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Newsweek checks the climate of same-sex equality in countries where you’d least expect to find it:
After eight years together, Gilberto Aranda and Mauricio List walked into a wedding chapel in the Mexico City neighborhood of Coyoacán last April and tied the knot in front of 30 friends and relatives. Aranda’s disapproving father was not invited to the springtime nuptials. For the newlyweds, the ceremony marked the fruit of the gay-rights movement’s long struggle to gain recognition in Mexico. The capital city had legalized gay civil unions only the month before. “After all the years of marches and protests,” says Aranda, 50, a state-government official, “a sea change was coming.”
. . .
The sweeping terms of the 2006 Civil Union Act placed South Africa in a select club of nations that have enacted similar laws and that, until last year, included only Canada, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands. But there are glimmers of change in other nations. China decriminalized sodomy a decade ago and removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 2001. Police broke up a gay and lesbian festival in Beijing in 2005 but took no action last February against an unauthorized rally in support of legalizing gay marriage. The Chinese Communist Party has established gay task forces in all provincial capitals to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. And in April a Web site launched a weekly hour-long online program called Connecting Homosexuals with an openly gay host. It is the first show in China to focus entirely on gay issues.
Tolerance, however, by no means spans the globe. Homosexuality remains taboo throughout the greater Middle East. In most of the Far East, laws permitting gay and lesbian civil unions are many years if not decades away. In Latin America, universal acceptance of homosexuality is a long way off. Jamaica is a hotbed of homophobia. Even in Mexico, the first couple to take advantage of Coahuila’s new civil-union statute were fired from their jobs as sales clerks after their boss realized they were lesbians. The new Mexico City law grants same-gender civil unions property and inheritance rights, but not the right to adopt children.
. . .
Tolerance is now the majority, at least among the young. A 2005 poll by the Mitofsky market-research firm found that 50 percent of all Mexicans between the ages of 18 and 29 supported proposals to allow gay marriage…
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Africa,
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Canada,
Europe,
Latin America,
Marriage Equality,
Middle East
September 8, 2007
Protests in Berlin to Save Iranian Lesbian From Deportation
An Iranian lesbian seeking asylum in Germany is to be deported, according to a recent decision by German authorities. Homosexuality is punishable by death is Iran. A protest vigil organized by the German Lesbian and Gay Association (LSVD) and attended by about 50 people was held today outside the Ministry for the Interior and Sports. The Iranian woman had sought asylum in Germany because of the imminent danger of execution in Iran. Authorities did not believe her, and, according to the newspaper TAZ, she is now to be deported to Turkey. A possible reprieve may come from the Commission for Cases of Hardship, however any resulting finding would be a mere recommendation.
In speeches by members of numerous German political parties Germany’s deportation policy was portrayed as racist and homophobic. In order to be granted asylum, it is necessary to bring incontrovertible proof of “irreversible homosexuality” (!), which is realistically nearly impossible, according to the speakers.
. . .
Further, speakers criticized the absurd methods used by authorities to obtain proof of homosexuality; officials had telephones the mother of the woman in Iran to ask her if her daughter was indeed a lesbian, which the mother of course denied. Naturally, the negative reply from a parent was not at all surprising, . . . considering that the penalty for homosexuality in Iran is death.
See also:
Iranian lesbian threatened with deportation in Britain could find refuge in Italy
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Immigration,
Iran
September 4, 2007
Out-and-about Socialist Bertrand Delanoe is going to run for a second seven-year term as mayor of Paris. There’s a lot of buss about a presidential run in 2012, but right now Bert’s just focused on greening the city, and making housing affordable for less-fortunate Parisians.
(And we’d heard somewhere that gay people hate the poor. Go figure!)
More at Expatica.com
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September 3, 2007
Reports Pink News:
Amsterdam’s special homosexual police unit is set to don frocks, leather and rubber gear in the fight against homophobic attacks, it has been revealed.
Lesbian officers will be sent undercover to infiltrate anti-gay gangs and gay activists are calling for judges to ban known gay-bashers from gay areas and pick-up spots.
The plans are part of a concerted effort by the authorities to retain Amsterdam’s image as the gay capital of the world following a spate of homophobic attacks and widespread concern in the gay community of increased violence.
The Netherlands has long basked in its reputation as a peaceful and tolerant country. It was the first country in the world to recognise civil marriage for homosexuals. Every major political party - right or left - has strong gay representation in Parliament. But a survey released last week revealed a rising ground-swell of homophobic sentiment and violent attacks. …
See also:
Amsterdam Now World Leader in anti-Gay Violence
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Hate Crimes,
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March 28, 2003
The only thing I know about Slovakia is what I learned first-hand from your foreign minister, who came to Texas.
— George W. Bush to a Slovak journalist, after meeting
with Janez Drnovsek, Prime Minister of Slovenia
Knight-Ridder News Service
June 22, 1999
This just in from Ljubljana! Hundreds of Slovenians hit the streets Wednesday to protest their country’s inclusion in President Bush’s $75 billion Iraq war budget as a partner in the war against Iraq. The White House asked for $4.5 million for Slovenia as part of the grants to members of the vast “coalition of the willing.”
Small problem: The lovely Alpine nation isn’t a member. “When we asked for an explanation, the State Department told us we were named in the document by mistake,” Prime Minister Anton Rop said at what Reuters called “a hastily arranged news conference.”
This of course would not be the first time someone confused Slovenia and Slovakia…
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George W. Bush,
Random Stupidity
