Outgames attack injures three
Police in Copenhagen are investigating an attack on three men that followed the opening-night ceremony of the Outgames, July 25-Aug. 2, as a possible hate crime.
Two men, ages 28 and 33, were taken into custody after witnesses reportedly heard them scream “homo pig” before attacking three attendees of the Outgames opening ceremonies as they left Copenhagen’s town hall.
The victims, from England, Sweden and Norway, were treated at a local hospital for injuries and later released.
A spokesperson for the Copenhagen Police Department said the two suspects, who both have criminal records, are believed to have been intoxicated at the time of the attack. They are expected to remain in custody for the remainder of the nine-day Outgames event.
Outgames organizers say security has been increased in the wake of the attack.
Lesbians petition to donate blood
Lesbians in China have organized an online petition calling for gay people to be allowed to donate blood.
The petition, asking the government to remove a law enacted in 1998 banning the gay community from donating blood, has drawn 540 signatures from lesbians and aims to reach 1,000.
A vast majority of China’s gay and lesbian population faces discrimination and stigmatization, with many LGBT residents deeply closeted in a highly conservative society. Gay Web sites are often blocked by the government’s Internet firewalls.
China bars potential blood donors from giving blood once they have ticked the gay and lesbian box on the application form, according to a spokesperson for the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center, who refused to be named, citing policy.
“It’s a practical law because the gay community has much higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases. We must take our precautions wisely,” she said. “Even if they lie on the form and say they are straight, everyone’s blood will go through a final screening test for diseases.”
The government and UNAIDS estimate the number of people living with HIV in China is about 700,000 and, of those, about 85,000 have AIDS.
The HIV virus that causes AIDS gained a foothold in China largely because of unsanitary blood plasma-buying schemes and tainted transfusions in hospitals.
The government remains sensitive about the disease, regularly cracking down on activists and patients who seek more support and rights.
U.N. allows LGBT group to debate
The United Nations granted official status to a gay and lesbian organization from Brazil on July 27, allowing it to participate in U.N. meetings ranging from health to human rights.
The victory for the Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians and Transsexuals marks the third consecutive year the U.N. Economic and Social Council has overturned a decision by a 19-country committee blocking gay groups from participating in the global body’s debates.
Swedish and Spanish groups were accredited as recognized non-governmental organizations in 2007 and 2008, breaking years of resistance from some governments. At one U.N. debate in 2003, Pakistan’s ambassador even suggested use of the term “sexual disorientation.”
One of the U.N. council’s main powers is granting consultative status to organizations so they can participate in formal U.N. meetings. More than 3,000 groups already have such rights.
“If the U.N. cannot be open and diverse, then we are really set for failure,” said Guilherme Patriota, a senior Brazilian diplomat. “There are another 400 NGOs seeking the same status next year. We need to keep working on making the U.N. more open to plurality and diversity.”
Patriota said the organization was a valuable partner of Brazil’s government in AIDS campaigns, condom promotion and other social causes, and questioned why the application was rejected in the first place.
Lesbian event bans men
A company in Australia specializing in lesbian parties has won a case allowing it to ban men from its events.
The judgment comes just days after an incident involving a gay bar in Torquay, where a lesbian was turned away.
The ruling has been slammed by the Australian Men’s Rights Agency, whose director, Sue Price, said it contradicted Attorney General Rob Hulls’ move to open up elite men’s venues, including the Melbourne and Athenaeum clubs, to women.
In May, Hulls attacked the private men’s clubs as “a throwback to a bygone era,” saying he wanted to use antidiscrimination laws to remove their exemptions.
The directors of the events company, called “Pinkalicious,” hailed the decision as a landmark.
Director Julie MacKenzie said Pinkalicious was now the sole women-only party in Australia.
MacKenzie had complained to the tribunal that she couldn’t stop men attending the parties “even if I know they intend to hit on women.”
“The feedback I was getting from the girls was that they wanted something exclusive for women to be able to express themselves in a safe environment,” she said.
Fellow organizer Samantha Stevens argued that men should be banned from the events because they intimidate the women there.
“In my experience, feminine lesbians are often the target of heterosexual male fantasy, and therefore subject to more intrusive attention from them,” she said. “It is a major concern that heterosexual males will attend the Pinkalicious event in the hope they can achieve their desire for a sexual experience with multiple women.”
Price, however, said she was “enormously angry” about the law and the “special treatment” Pinkalicious has been given.
The Human Rights Commission in Australia has backed the ban.
Dr. Helen Szoke, chief executive of the commission, said it supports the event, as it is allowing “a disadvantaged group the chance to experience supportive social occasions, feel safe in public spaces” and to develop its own “sense of belonging.”
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which ruled on the ban, has also given some gay men’s pubs in the country permission to ban women.
Russian couple fights to marry
A lesbian couple has made plans to wed in Canada in an effort to test whether their marriage will be recognized in their home country of Russia.
Irina Fedotova-Fet and Irina Shepitko first applied for a marriage license in May but were eventually denied.
“We’re a couple of girls who have been together for a long time, who live together. We’ve been together five years,” said Fedotova-Fet. “We’re a family — our relationship is in every way a marriage, just like all those heterosexual couples. We have a joint household, a life together, vacations, everything. We’re a family, but the right to marry has been taken away from us.”
Russia has a family code, established in the early 1990s, which does not grant civil unions or any equivalent to gay couples, but does not explicitly prohibit foreign marriages of same-sex couples. The couple is attempting to use this loophole to their advantage.
“Somebody has to start it sometime. We are the first real couple to fight for same-sex marriage [in Russia],” Fedotova-Fet said. “We hope that we can set a precedent.”
Russia decriminalized homosexuality only in 1993 and its gay Pride parades are usually met with significant opposition. Anticipating that their marriage will not be recognized, Fedotova-Fet and Shepitko have hired a lawyer from France to bring their case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Larry Nichols can be reached at [email protected].