Australia’s Mardi Gras re-brand draws ire
Some of Mardi Gras’ biggest long-time supporters are incensed that Sydney Mardi Gras’ new name and look doesn’t include the words “gay” or “lesbian. ”
The annual event’s new logo and plans for the 2012 season were unveiled Nov. 17, and while many welcomed the new logo and guest-act announcements, many others were concerned over editing the event’s traditional title “Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras” down to “Sydney Mardi Gras.”
Former Mardi Gras president Richard Cobden has been particularly vocal.
“Neither the organization, and especially not this board or staff, had any permission or mandate to make Mardi Gras straight,” he said. “[Mardi Gras chair] Peter Urmson says ‘this is our gift to the city.’ It was not his to give. For 20-plus years we have been able to force the mainstream media to call it the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. They had to say the words. For a long time they did not want to but we made them. That has been thrown away.
“Finally, sponsors had to use the words ‘gay and lesbian’ when associating themselves with Mardi Gras,” he added. “Making them do so was a powerful force for liberation. Now they don’t have to use those words. Easier for marketing people to get sponsorship dollars and keep their jobs; a big step backward for gay and lesbian rights.”
Soccer fans arrested for homophobic chants
Hampshire, England police arrested two men after they allegedly chanted homophobic abuse at Brighton fans during a Nov. 19 Albion soccer game.
The men, both Southampton fans, were arrested after they allegedly sang offensive antigay chants during the match at Southampton’s St. Mary’s Stadium, which was attended by more than 3,000 Brighton fans.
People reported offensive singing in the stands despite police warning Southampton fans before the match that any homophobic chanting would be taken seriously.
The arrests, believed to be among the first of their kind, come just weeks after Albion fans said they believed they were targeted because of the city’s large gay population.
John Hewitt, the chair of Brighton and Hove Albion Supporters’ Club, said: “We get it everywhere we go.
“The ground regulations say you cannot use homophobic behavior. There’s a certain amount of banter between fans, but when it crosses that line and becomes offensive, it’s not acceptable.”
A spokesperson on behalf of the Brighton-based Justin Campaign, which works to tackle homophobia in soccer, said: “Southampton fans were warned before the game by police that any homophobic chanting would be taken seriously.
“While there is still a lot of work for equality in the game, these arrests do show that the authorities are taking positive action to show homophobia is not welcome in the beautiful game.”
DeMint: El Salvador ambassador has ‘gay agenda’
U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint is attacking Mari Carmen Aponte, the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, for what he describes as “strongly promoting the homosexual lifestyle” and attempting “to impose a pro-gay agenda” on that nation.
Aponte became interim ambassador in a recess appointment by President Obama in August 2010, but that appointment extends only to the end of this year, so Senate confirmation is required for her to continue in the post. At a confirmation hearing this month, DeMint objected to an op-ed piece Aponte had written for Salvadoran newspaper La Prensa Gráfica, praising the country’s president, Mauricio Funes, for signing a law prohibiting anti-LGBT discrimination by the government of El Salvador as well as a United Nations pledge to eliminate violence against LGBT people.
“The op-ed upset a large number of community and pro-family groups in El Salvador who were insulted by Ms. Aponte’s attempt to impose a pro-gay agenda in their country,” said DeMint, a conservative Republican from South Carolina, during the hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. DeMint had earlier sought to block Aponte’s appointment because of discredited rumors that Cuban espionage agents had sought to recruit her.
DeMint has taken numerous other anti-LGBT stances, saying that gay people — and sexually active single straight women — shouldn’t be teachers, and that it would bother him to have a gay man or lesbian as president because he considers homosexuality “immoral.”
Malta’s ruling party may recognize gay couples
Malta’s Nationalist Party, which holds a political majority in the country, has expressed a desire for some form of legal recognition for gay couples.
Currently, the state does not recognize relationships between two people of the same gender.
The central Mediterranean group of islands, which makes up the country, has a strong Catholic ethos, only legalizing divorce by referendum this past summer.
At the opening of the General Council, the party’s General Secretary said the country could not be “blind” to gay relationships. Paul Borg Olivier described it as a “renewed political vision.”
Malta’s non-recognition of gay relationships meant it was struck with a political anomaly earlier this year when it failed to introduce an EU directive properly and had to remove part of a piece of legislation.
The effect was that a gay couple made up of a non-European and a European living in a country other than Malta has more legal right to live in Malta than a gay couple made up of a non-European and a Maltese national.
The Nationalist Party joins the minority Labor Party, which had already expressed a desire for some recognition of gay relationships.
Earlier this year, a transgender Maltese man who was born female and underwent surgery abroad was allowed to update his official birth records to reflect the change.
Malta has a population of around 417,000.
Czech MP uses porn in bid to evict gay sauna
A Czech MP tried to attract the attention of her colleagues by displaying pornographic images at Prague City Hall in her bid to end the lease of a gay sauna in the city.
Katerina Klasnová, 34, is a member of parliament and vice president of the Chamber of Deputies, and insists the gay sauna in question, which operates out of city-owned facilities, is offering sex services.
Klasnová said there is ample evidence online of men discussing sexual experiences with other customers and with male prostitutes at Sauna Babylonia. The company is forbidden from offering sexual services.
She also believes the property is being rented to the company for less than its market value.
Proprietor Jan Ševcík said, “We live in a democratic state; for years now, gay couples can have registered partnerships. I think it is natural in our business that two people meet and go together. What happens next is their affair.”
Prague Mayor Ulrich Lomecký vowed Klasnová’s claim would be investigated, saying, “The images that she projected here are not conclusive.”
Shooting finishes on first gay Nepalese film
Filming has finished on what its actors have called the first serious gay film to be made in Nepal.
“Snow Flowers,” which was filmed in Kathmandu and Pokhara City and dubbed “Brokeback Everest” in a nod to Ang Lee’s film “Brokeback Mountain,” will be released in the spring.
Nisha Adhikari, who plays one of the film’s two central lesbian characters, said: “It’s two individuals falling in love and facing all the controversy and restrictions and mental, emotional and physical traumas of being a lesbian in Nepal. It’s a simple love story with a lot of complications.”
Sunil Pant, the only openly gay MP in Nepal, said, “Nepal has always been tolerant and we are now really ready to treat each other equally. It’s also about freedom of expression and our right to be able to watch films about our lives and issues. I am excited and can’t wait to see the film released in Nepal.”
Pant was instrumental in helping to organize two high-profile gay-wedding ceremonies in Nepal involving couples from the United Kingdom and the United States, though same-sex marriage is not yet enshrined in law.
Following the end of monarchical rule in 2007, many LGBT rights were enacted, and a new constitution is expected to make provisions for gay marriages. Religious gay ceremonies are reported to be widely accepted in Nepalese society.
Last year, Nepal’s census included a “third gender” for the first time.
— compiled by Larry Nichols