Turkey blocks gay Web sites
Turkey has blocked two of its largest LGBT Web sites.
Users of hadigayri.com and gabile.com are finding messages stating the sites have been blocked by the Telecommunication Directorate.
The newly created body is permitted to shut down Web sites without a court order if it believes they violate the law.
The administrators of the two sites say they do not contain any pornographic or criminal content. They had been accused of allowing prostitution.
Legislation passed in 2007 allows the directorate to block access to pornographic and obscene Web content.
Hadigayri.com and gabile.com were blocked on Oct. 2. It is estimated that they have 225,000 users between them.
“These sites are mainly used by people to meet each other and they give news about LGBT issues in Turkey,” said Ismael Alacaoglu, project coordinator at KAOS-GL, an Ankara-based gay group. “We are concerned about them being blocked. It’s a kind of violence against freedom of expression.”
Although it is not illegal to be LGBT in Turkey, discrimination and persecutions are commonplace.
French pol criticized for sex tourism
French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand is facing calls for resignation over his 2005 autobiography, in which he admitted to paying “young boys” for sex while he was traveling abroad.
In his 2005 book, “La Mauvaise Vie” [“The Poor Life”], Mitterrand recounts the thrill of engaging with prostitutes despite “the sordid details of this traffic.”
“I got into the habit of paying for boys,” Mitterrand wrote. “All these rituals of the market for youths, the slave market, excited me enormously … the abundance of very attractive and immediately available young boys put me in a state of desire.”
Mitterrand is facing criticism from both conservatives and liberals.
Marine Le Pen, vice president of the far right National Front party, demanded Mitterrand’s resignation, and the party is circulating a petition calling for the politician to step down.
Benoît Hamon, a senior Socialist Party leader, also found the account inappropriate.
“I find it shocking that a man can justify sex tourism under the cover of a literary account,” Hamon said.
Mitterrand, who drew criticism for his support of Roman Polanski following the director’s arrest in September for having had sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, is surprised by the public outrage.
“I am flabbergasted,” Mitterrand said. “If the National Front drags me through the mud, then it is an honor for me. If a leftist politician drags me through the mud, then it is a humiliation for him.”
This is not the first time the politician has had to clarify the language used in the autobiography.
In a 2005 interview, Mitterrand told France3 television that he did not partake in sex with any underage male prostitutes, and that the term “garçon” — French for “boy” — is what the gay community calls men regardless of age.
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government has not commented on the calls for resignation.
Muslim/gay football match on
A French Muslim team that apparently refused to play against a gay soccer team has said the conflict was a “misunderstanding.”
Paris Foot Gay, of the Parisian suburb Creteil, was due to play against predominantly Muslim team Bebel but the latter called off the match.
According to PFG president Pascal Brethes, his team received an e-mail from Bebel saying the match was “against their principles.”
PFG said the communication was homophobic and that the team was considering pressing charges.
Later, Bebel declared it would play against the gay team.
In a statement, Bebel director Zahir Belgharbi insisted there had been “a misunderstanding” and said his team was ready to play against PFG.
“We had rejected playing this match not on the grounds of homophobia, as we have been accused of doing, but simply because the name of the club did not seem to us to reflect our vision of sport,” he said.
Boy-band singer dead at 33
Irish boy-band member Stephen Gately of Boyzone was found dead Oct. 9 in a hotel room in Majorca, Spain, where he was vacationing. He was 33.
According to reports, Gately returned to his hotel room after a night of drinking with friends, went to sleep and never woke up.
A Spanish court says autopsy results show Gately died as a result of a pulmonary edema, or fluid in the lungs.
All four remaining members of Boyzone are expected to travel to Majorca to pay their respects.
The singer caused a stir when he came out 10 years ago, while Boyzone was still at the height of its fame.
Gately is survived by his partner, Andrew Cowles. The two entered into a civil union in 2006.
Swedish students call out Toys ‘R’ Us
A group of Swedish sixth-graders has issued a complaint against Toys “R” Us for gender discrimination, and one of the nation’s consumer-advocacy groups agrees.
The complaint was filed with the Reklamombudsmannen, a self-regulatory agency that polices marketing and advertising in Sweden, and maintains the retailer’s 2008 Christmas catalog featured “outdated gender roles.”
The students concluded that the portrayal of boys and girls abided by antiquated gender constructs that idealized boys as active and girls as passive.
The Reklamombudsmannen reviewed the complaint and, on Oct. 12, determined the catalog was not in line with guidelines set out by the International Chamber of Commerce.
“Taken together, the catalogue portrays children’s games and choice of toys in a narrow-minded way, and this exclusion of boys and girls from different types of toys is, in itself, degrading to both genders,” said the Reklamombudsmannen in a statement.
Larry Nichols can be reached at [email protected].