Big Gay News
Gays May Have the Fastest Civil Rights Movement
United States – The Los Angeles Times reports that attitudes toward gays and lesbians have changed so much in the last decade that, as a poll reported, “half or more now agree that being gay is morally acceptable, that gay relations ought to be legal, and that gay or lesbian couples should have the right to legally marry.”
Cleve Jones, a protege of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk in the 1970s, said “It’s pretty extraordinary what we’ve accomplished in less than 50 years.”
“We Don’t Do Gays Here” -Chinamasa
Zimbabwe – The Zimbabwe Mail reports that Zimbabwe’s justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, said the country will continue to persecute people who engage in same-sex relations.
United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay recently visited the country to meet with relevant ministerial officials and civic society organizations in her assessment of the state of human rights situation in Zimbabwe.
President Robert Mugabe declared in November that gays will be punished for their behavior in accordance with “African and Christian values.”
Apology Undermines Focus on the Family’s Views
Colorado – DenverWestword.com reports that groups like Focus on the Family can no longer use junk science such as “gay cure” to justify their anti-gay views.
Dr. Robert Spitzer, author of a controversial 2001 study arguing that gayness could be reversed, rejected his own research and subsequently apologized to the gay community.
Perhaps his action can lead Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family to back away from the philosophy behind reparative therapy.
Israeli Report Recommends Surrogate Mothers for Gays
Israel– JTA reports that an Israeli Health Ministry committee has recommended that gay men be allowed to seek a surrogate mother to have a child.
How to Know Whether You’re Bisexual?
United States – The Stir reports that while you’re exploring your sexuality, it helps to think of it all on a spectrum. On one end, you have gay, and on the other, straight. But what if you find yourself attracted to both men and women? Many theories suggest we are all a little bisexual.
Here are some clues:
–You have more than a crush on people of the same sex; your feelings are deeper than a “bromance” or a “girl crush.”
–You have fantasies about people who are the same sex and about others who are a different gender.
–You feel it in your gut.
–You look for qualities in a person, rather than specific people, to date.
Argentina Grants Gender Self-Determination
Argentina – Bitch Magazine reports that Argentina marked the end of gender by giving its citizens the freedom to change their legal and physical gender without having to undergo any kind of medical treatment or judicial procedures.
The law gives Argentinians the unique freedom of gender self-determination.
In America, swapping gender on a birth certificate typically requires evidence of hormone therapy, sex reassignment procedure, and/or a psychological assessment.
Republicans Now Quietly Embracing Gays?
United States – The Miami Herald reports that a quiet transformation is occuring in the Republican Party. It has begun to embrace openly gay candidates and gay Republicans, who feel more comfortable speaking out in a party that may have accepted them but didn’t always show it.
Former Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe said “It’s an exponential change from a few years ago, and it’s going to continue to happen.”
Currently, only four members of Congress are openly gay, all Democrats. But that could change in November.
Iranian Gay Men To Be Hanged For Sodomy
Iran – Huffington Post reports that four Iranian gay men are due to be executed for sodomy under their nation’s Shari’a laws.
Last month, The Guardian reported that influential cleric and an Islamic scholar Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli referred to gays as inferior to dogs and pigs.
Javadi-Amoli said “If a society commits a new sin, it will face a new punishment. Problems like AIDS did not exist before.”
