Big Gay News

BigGayNews

BigGayNews from Washington D.C. :
The United States Urge Other Countries to Give Gays Minimum Human Rights Now

The Jamaica Gleaner, established in 1834, reports that a newly established U.S. foreign policy is demanding that GLBT people in countries such as Jamaica be afforded a minimum standard of human rights.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Baer said: “Individual nations shouldn’t be left to decide on their own, the same way they shouldn’t be left to decide on their own whether women should be beaten up, or imprisoned for being women, or whether somebody of a particular religious group ought to be beaten up or imprisoned for being part of that religious group.”

 

BigGayNews from Brazil :
Jews and Gays Rally in Rio to Protest Ahmadinejad Visit

Yahoo News reports that hundreds of Jews, gays and allies marched along Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema beach to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s attendance at the United Nations summit on sustainable development.

Head of a Jewish human rights movement Michel Gherman said “The Iranian president’s visit is an opportunity to criticize his hateful speech denying the Holocaust, as well as the persecution of homosexuals.”

 

BigGayNews from Uganda :
Ugandan Police Raid Gay Rights Meeting

Agence France Presse reports that police raided a gay rights workshop in Kampala and questioned local and foreign attendees from Canada, Kenya and Rwanda.

Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda and can be punished by prison sentences.

Parliament is considering a 2009 bill that would impose the death penalty for certain homosexual acts.

Amnesty International’s deputy director for Africa Michelle Kagari said “This ludicrous and senseless harassment of human rights activists has no basis in law whatsoever and has to stop.”

 

BigGayNews from Regina, Saskatchewan:
Everyone Knows Someone Who Is Gay

The Leader Post reports that A Langer Research Associates poll shows that 71% of Americans say they have an acquaintance, friend, or family member who is gay.

Polls regarding sexual orientation are notoriously inaccurate due to people not wanting to disclose their orientation, but it is estimated that about 10% to 15% of the population identifies as gay or lesbian.

Chances are you know someone who is gay.

 

BigGayNews from the United States :
Moving Past the “Gay Vague” in Ads Aiming Marketing at the Gay Audience 

The Denver Post reports that the June JC Penney catalog featured a pair of gay dads playing with their kids in a Fathers Day ad. Now Marriott International, Allstate Insurance and American Airlines have announced marketing campaigns aimed at the GLBT market.

The economic clout of the gay audience is estimated at $790 billion, according to the University of Georgia Selig Center.

However that figure pales in comparison with the fast-growing gay-supportive audience which now makes up more than half the country.

 

BigGayNews from Minnesota:
Rural Vote Crucial in Battle Over Gay Marriage

Star Tribune reports that Minnesota has noticed that other states have seen a sharp urban-rural divide on amendments, and activists on both sides of marriage equality are deploying their resources in rural Minnesota.

Political activists are aware that voters away from major population centers have played the crucial role in the outcomes of ballots in 32 states, and are likely to be the deciding ground in November for the proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

Amendment supporters are focusing on churches and socially conservative groups, while the group opposing the amendment, Minnesotans United For All Families, now has offices in Duluth, Rochester and soon Mankato.

 

BigGayNews from Minnesota:
Minnesota Mormons Marching in Twin Cities GLBT Pride

The group Mormon Allies issued a press release announcing that a contingent of Mormons will be marching in the Twin Cities LGBT Pride parade for the first time ever.

Contingent participant Sam Noble said “I think we’re witnessing a sea change among Mormons in relation to the LGBT community. A lot of Mormons can’t reconcile what they know personally about gay and lesbian family members, friends, and neighbors with a lot of the stereotypes people in the Church have about gay people, and they want to speak out.  Mormons are concerned about the continuing epidemic of gay teen suicide and bullying, and they’re concerned about the treatment of LGBT people in their own congregations.  For many Mormons this concern has reached a boiling point, and I think that’s why we’re seeing this sudden interest in Pride.”

 

BigGayNews from the United Kingdom:
Opponents of Gay Marriage Treated Like Bigots

The Telegraph reports that the former Archbishop Lord Carey claims that people who oppose marriage equality are being treated like homophobes and bigots by those who call for tolerance.

Carey said: “This debate is not about the dignity and rights of gay and lesbian people, who already have the benefits of marriage through civil partnerships, but about a change in the definition of marriage for everyone.”

Gay rights campaigner Colin Coward said “It worries me that bishops still can’t understand how critical it is they make positive and affirmative statements about the place of lesbian and gay people in the church.”

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