Gay porn interrupts local TV news
A newscast on a local television station in Hamilton, Ontario, was interrupted April 20 by three minutes of hardcore gay pornography, which has drawn equal amounts of humor and outrage across social networks.
The incident occurred around 9:30 a.m. on the local CHCH television station, causing embarrassment for the news director.
The station was quick to disown responsibility, and said that it was a repair job gone awry, thanks to the work undertaken by a local cable company. Although CHCH attempted to recast the program, it could not do so for roughly three minutes. Mike Katrycz, vice president of CHCH News, said: “In the splicing together, unfortunately, some inappropriate content went [on] air.”
He was very apologetic about the incident, and admitted that the hardcore porn also reached people in the capital, Ottawa, through a repeat transmitter belonging to CHCH. Several apologies both on-air and online followed.
Prague to host second Pride
Prague’s second-annual Pride event will be held Aug. 13-19 in the Czech Republic’s capital.
The ambition of the organizing team is to attract an even higher number of visitors than last year. With seven days filled with entertainment, debates, concerts, exhibitions, theater and more, Prague Pride 2012 will represent the Czech LGBT community in its full color and diversity.
Prague Pride took place for the first time last year. Czech president Václav Klaus openly criticized the event and far-right groups protested, but organizers said it drew 25,000 visitors.
The theme of this year’s festival is “Bringing our colors together” which aims to bring to light LGBT communities that are usually hidden from the public eye, such as LGBT Roma, disabled or transgender persons.
Pride House festival at Olympics nixed
The Pride House festival event at this year’s London Olympics, designed to promote the LGBT community, has been cancelled due to a lack of funding.
An email leaked by the event organizers said the 18-day festival, which had been planned for Clapham Common and supported by patrons including Stephen Fry and Peter Tatchell, was “commercially unviable.”
The executive director of Pride House, Chad Molleken, wrote: “A combination of the lack of sponsorship and headline entertainment has proven to make the event commercially unviable. It was not without considerable effort that we tried to make this happen.”
In January, the Friends of Clapham Common had said the event was “highly likely” to become a “magnet for undesirable elements of the gay community,” and later apologized for the comments.
Gambia won’t ‘cave to pressure on homosexuality’
The president of Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, has warned foreign diplomats that his country would not be “bribed” with or dictated by promise of aid to accept homosexuality.
“If you are to give us aid for men and men or for women and women to marry, leave it,” he said. “We don’t need your aid because as far as I am the president of Gambia, you will never see that happen in this country.”
The comments come less than a fortnight after 19 people, including citizens of Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria, were arrested and charged with “indecent practices in a public place” after being “suspected of homosexuality.” They face up to 14 years in prison.
Gambian Parliament opened on April 21, and was attended by ambassadors from Britain and the U.S., both countries recently having said they will consider gay rights when considering aid. However, most African countries have reacted angrily, saying homosexuality is “un-African.”
— compiled by Larry Nichols