Paris is where people – lovestruck locals and tourists alike – kiss. You can hardly take two steps down a rue or grand boulevard without seeing a couple smooching, often in the middle of the pavement. However, it seems that not all kissers are equal in the land of liberté, égalité, fraternité. A train guard from a major railway company has been suspended after allegedly shouting at a lesbian couple that their farewell embrace “cannot be tolerated”. 60,000 people have signed a petition for the train guard's dismissal. Read More
Russia: IKEA shuts down magazine to avoid violating Gay Propaganda Ban
IKEA will shutter the website for its magazine, IKEA Family Live, in Russia to avoid running afoul of the country’s ban on “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” among minors.
“When we do business, we observe the legislation of the countries where we work, therefore to avoid violations, we have taken the decision to stop publishing the magazine in Russia,” IKEA said in a statement carried by AFP.
The Swedish furniture chain has featured same-sex couples and their families in the magazine, which is published in 25 countries. It came under fire internationally in 2013 for excluding a story on Clara and Kirsty, a British lesbian couple, from its Russian edition after the propaganda ban was passed. Activists held a kiss-in at the Brooklyn, New York, IKEA store to protest the move. Read More
Cameroon: Lawyer urges world to join her in fight against anti-gay legislation
Despite death threats, Alice Nkom is taking on Cameroon’s repressive law in the supreme court and says her campaign is part of a wider struggle for human rights. Alice Nkom knows she might not be alive today were it not for international support for her battle to defend homosexuals in Cameroon. But now she wants the world to do more to breathe life into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and make it tangible for all, including gay people in Africa. Read More
Jamaica: Alleged Gay Youth Stoned to Death
A recent video of an alleged homosexual youth was stoned to death in Jamaica was posted and subsequently removed from a Jamaican online news Facebook page. The video depicts the lifeless body of a young man clothed in tight pants with long hair laying in a pool of blood and continuously being stoned by his executioners.
In the video, one can hear clearly anti-gay slurs being used by one of the executioners with a Jamaican accent while carrying out the barbaric act lamented, "Batty-man yuh fi dead", in translation it means "gay, you should die", repeatedly. The identity of the deceased and location where the execution took place in Jamaica are being investigated. Read More
Kenya: Vigilante group threatens to behead homosexuals
An increase in threats against Kenya LGBTI activists from various quarters has culminated in a vigilante group issuing a warning to behead all homosexuals in a village in Mombasa.
The founders of PEMA Kenya, the oldest LGBTI organisation in Mombasa allegedly received a leaflet that warned him to vacate the area lest he is beheaded. While a police report has been filed in Mombasa, no investigations or further action has been taken. Read More
Iraq: Islamic State executes four in Iraq for homosexuality
Members of the Islamic State terrorist group publicly beheaded four young people on charges of homosexuality in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Monday.
A local administration official, Mohamed al-Faris, said that the jihadis summoned the inhabitants of al-Rashidia district, located in northern Mosul, to watch the execution of 4 young people, all aged between 20 and 30 years. Read More
US: Alzheimer's a growing concern among LGBTs
A major concern for health care providers is the large number of LGBT seniors who are already socially isolated and may be reluctant to seek out services due to past experiences with discrimination in a health care setting. If they are living with dementia, they may not be accessing the care they need. Read More
UK: LGBT older people with dementia should not be forced back into the closet
The government’s Dementia Strategy for England must include a “specific reference to LGBT issues”, the National Care Forum has warned. Dementia is at the top of the national agenda (by 2025, says the Alzheimer’s Society, there will be an estimated 1 million people with dementia in the UK), but there is no specific reference to LGBT issues in the National Dementia Strategy. Given LGBT older people may be estranged from their relatives and lack family support, formal care is likely to be even more important than it is for their heterosexual peers. Read More
New Zealand: Condoms optional: Promoting the PrEP philosophy
Visiting American porn actor Blue Bailey is amongst those who advocate for more opportunities for at-risk gay and bi men to have anal sex without condoms, based on reducing the infectiveness of those with HIV and pre-priming HIV-negative people with medications to ward off infection.
“Blue Bailey seems to be a voice for the strand of American thinking that is militantly anti-condom, as if condoms are some kind of oppression of gay men,” says the NZAF's Executive Director Shaun Robinson. As for Bailey's claim in an interview with GayNZ.com that promoting condom use shames and stigmatises gay men, Robinson says HIV and gay men's sexual health “is not a product of oppression it's about simple biological risks - anal sex is 18x riskier than vaginal sex for HIV & has similar risks for syphilis, gonorrhea. Gay men need to protect themselves just as women need to protect from cervical cancer, it's a fact of life.” Read More
New Zealand: Gay men infected with rare STI
The New Zealand Medical Journal reports five gay men have been infected with Lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV), a rare STI. LGVis endemic in developing countries but is uncommon here.
It is sometimes caused by chlamydia, and symptoms include rectal pain, bloody discharge, cramping abdominal pain, constipation, lesion and ulcers, fever and headaches. All of the men reported high-risk sexual behaviour and all had also contracted either HIV or gonorrhoea, or both. Read More
Australia: Gonorrhoea rates among Sydney gay men at 4-year high
Recent NSW public health surveillance data finds gonorrhoea rates among men who have sex with men are at a 4-year high.
Karen Price, the chair of STIGMA and ACON’s HIV and sexual health director, has expressed concern at the “continuing high rates” of STIs among gay and MSM residents in inner-Sydney.
“Gonorrhoea is a bacterial infection passed from penis to mouth or anus that can be easily treated. Condoms provide the most effective protection against gonorrhoea during anal sex. It’s also important for gay men to understand that the presence of STIs like gonorrhoea can increase the risk of HIV transmission. Read More
‘Empire’ Co-Creator: ‘Attacking Homophobia’ Was My Agenda
"Everyone wanted it,” Strong says matter-of-factly. He knows that might sound surprising—until he explains more. “Well, look, we pitched the show the week after The Butler was the No. 1 movie in the country, so the timing was pretty good.” But not just because of The Butler. “Scandal was a huge hit. Also, cable was killing the networks ratings-wise. People just felt open to something that felt new and original.”
A soap opera about a hip-hop record label owner battling ALS with a gay son struggling to come out, a son with bipolar disorder, and another who is dating a fashion designer played by Naomi Campbell certainly fit that bill. But also new and original, and certainly keeping with the philosophy preached by Shonda Rhimes’s dramas, was that TV shows should say something important, and have a social message. And Strong knew he wanted to do that with the gay son character, Jamal, played by Jussie Smollett.
“Attacking homophobia was in my original pitch to Lee,” he says. “Where I said the hip-hop mogul is going to have a gay son who is incredibly talented who should be the one who takes over the empire, but he hates him because he’s gay. And unflinchingly attack homophobia in this mainstream piece of material.” Read More