Gay News from London

The Roundup

Turkey: Gays and lesbians in Turkey believe the European Union has failed to lend them adequate support and expect Brussels to speak out in favor of their struggle for equal rights in the mainly Muslim nation, activists said yesterday. Ali Erol, a KAOS GL member gay group member, told a conference that the EU failed to react to discrimination against homosexuals as strongly as it does to other human rights abuses in the country. "When it concerns homosexuals, the issues are passed over in silence, maybe because there is no penalty" for homosexuality in Turkish law, Erol said.

Australia: Western Australian Opposition Leader Colin Barnett is refusing to say whether he will lift the age of consent for gay sex to 18 if he wins the election. Gay and Lesbian Equality organized an election forum and no-one from the Liberal party turned up to defend their disgustingly homophobic polices.

Commercial radio station 2UE has been ordered to broadcast apologies for anti-gay comments made by presenters Steve Price and John Laws. The Administrative Decisions Tribunal found they'd vilified gay men by making negative comments about two gay participants on the Channel Nine program "The Block." The case was brought to the tribunal by gay activist Gary Burns. The Sydney based station will appeal.

UK: The Church of England is to grant partners of gay clergy who have registered under the Government's new civil partnership scheme the same pension rights as other clergy spouses. The disclosure, made at the General Synod last night, could prove an embarrassment to the bishops because sexually active gay people are theoretically barred from the priesthood.

Police in London hope victims of a man who used gay dating websites to meet people and rob them of their credit cards will come forward.

Members of the Federation of Gay Games and the Gay and Lesbian International Sports Association, as well as European groups representing a range of sports from football to aquatics, met in London last weekend to mend fences.

USA: The Washington state House passed a gay rights bill that will prohibit employment, housing and insurance discrimination. The bill has passed the house before and was first introduced there nearly 30 years ago. The bill now goes to the Senate where it has routinely died in the past, although Democrats are in control this time around.

A bill in the Tennessee legislature would prohibit gay and lesbian couples from adopting children and make it illegal for us to become foster parents. "Our state already says that all of these things have nothing to do with sexual orientation. It should be judged on the best interest of the child," said Pastor Bob Galloway.

In New Mexico, Lea County Probate Judge Darrell Powell refused to marry a couple on Valentine's Day because although one of them looked like a woman and considers herself to be a woman she didn't have a doctor's certificate verifying the gender change as well as a new birth certificate.

A federal lawsuit alleges that middle and high school students in Kentucky's Boyd County Public Schools are being forced to participate in diversity training, are being told homosexuality cannot be changed and are warned not to say otherwise. Parents are also not given an opt-out option for their children, according to the lawsuit filed against the Boyd County Board of Education.

Today's Roundup[Date: 16-Feb-05 ]