Tel Aviv Voted Best Gay City
Jan 12th
Tel Aviv – Tel Aviv has won an American Airlines competition declaring it the world’s number one gay travel destination, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.
The Mediterranean metropolis emerged far ahead, with 43 per cent of the vote, followed by New York City with 14 per cent, Toronto with 7 per cent, Sao Paulo with 6 per cent, Madrid and London with 5 per cent each, and New Orleans and Mexico City with 4 per cent each.
The final results of the Best of Gay Cities 2011 contest were published overnight on the competition’s website, Gaycities.com.
Visitors had been asked to vote for their favourite gay destination. The site did not say how many votes were cast.
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai issued a statement, welcoming the win and saying he and local gay community activists would ride around the city in an open-air bus Wednesday to celebrate.
It further strengthened the city as one that ‘respects all people’ and ‘in which everyone can be proud of who they are,’ he said.
He noted his municipality spent 500,000 Israeli shekels (@ US$130,000) a year on a gay centre with support groups and cultural activities.
Tel Aviv-Jaffa City Council Member Yaniv Waizman said that about 5,000 gay tourists visited Tel Aviv during last summer’s Gay Pride Week alone, and that he expected double the number for this June’s pride week, which includes the biggest gay parade in the Middle East.
Gays Insulted By Newspaper
Jan 10th
Ankara – Turkey’s High Court of Appeals has ordered the daily newspaper Yeni Akit to pay compensation for insulting gay people in a headline it printed in 2008.
Yeni Akit, which is now known as “Vakit,” printed a story titled “Üskül prefers perverts,” concerning Zafer Üskül, the head of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission at the time, after he attended an “International Anti-Homophobism Meeting” organized by KAOS GL, a leading support association for Turkey’s LGBT community.
A piece written by Yeni Akit columnist Serdar Arseven defined Üskül as “an AKP [Justice and Development Party] member who gave assurances to she-males” in reference to Üskül’s words during the meeting in which he said the government guaranteed that gay and lesbian people would not be segregated because of their sexual orientation.
“[Üskül] went on and attended a meeting by sexual perverts! A meeting of [gays],” Arseven wrote.
KAOS GL filed a lawsuit against Yeni Akit and Arseven, seeking compensation for the headline and the related piece. But the lawsuits were rejected by two Ankara courts on the grounds that the newspaper was “within the limits of criticism.”
But the High Court of Appeals overruled the decisions of the two courts, saying, “The freedom of the press does not encompass the freedom to insult the personal freedoms of individuals.”
The court’s decision said KAOS GL was an organization that sought to protect the rights of people with different sexual orientation and that Zafer Üskül was a member of Parliament who responded to requests by KAOS GL.
The court said Yeni Akit insulted people with different sexual orientations in a way which could not be considered criticism and thus sentenced the newspaper and Arseven to pay compensation.
The paper has been ordered to pay 4,000 Turkish Liras while Arseven has been sentenced to pay 2,000 liras in damages.
Amnesty Calls For Repeal of Sodomy Law
Jan 10th
Kuala Lumpur – Following the acquittal of veteran Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim in a high profile sodomy trial, Amnesty International has joined the chorus calling for Malaysia to repeal its antiquated and unfair sodomy laws.
The Malaysian government must repeal the criminal sodomy law used in a politically motivated attempt to bar Anwar Ibrahim from politics, Amnesty International said today after the opposition leader was acquitted by the country’s High Court.
“Anwar’s acquittal is a welcome move. Fortunately, the Malaysian authorities have refrained from turning the country’s opposition leader into a prisoner of conscience,” said Donna Guest, deputy Asia-Pacific director at Amnesty International.
“The government must now repeal the sodomy law, a repressive statute that enabled this politically motivated persecution.”
The High Court verdict comes in the run-up to national elections, widely expected to take place in early 2012.
If Anwar had been convicted and sentenced to prison for a year or more, he would have been barred from politics for five years.
This case was the second time Anwar was prosecuted for criminal sodomy.
After he was sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998, he was arrested on sodomy charges and imprisoned for six years. The sodomy conviction was later overturned and he was freed in 2004.
As a result of that conviction, Anwar was barred from politics until 2008.
In July 2008, a month before he returned to parliament in a by-election, the opposition leader was again arrested on sodomy charges. A 26-year-old former aide told police that he and Anwar had had a sexual encounter in a Kuala Lumpur apartment.
Laws criminalizing consensual sexual activity between adults are contrary to international human rights standards.
In December 2011, the UN Human Rights Commissioner published a report calling on states to repeal provisions that criminalize same-sex relations between consenting adults.
In the case of Toonen v Australia, the UN Human Rights Commission in 1994 found that laws punishing same-sex sexual behaviour infringe on the right to privacy.
Malaysia’s criminal sodomy law, Section 377, was drawn from the Indian Penal Code of 1860 and imposed under British colonial rule. In 2009, India repealed its sodomy law.
“The sodomy law violates the rights of gay Malaysians. Moreover, it was used as a tool of political repression against Anwar,” said Donna Guest.
Wild Wedding For NZ Celeb
Jan 10th
Auckland – TV One weatherman Tamati Coffey and his partner Tim Smith have shared a detailed account of their recent civil union in a magazine cover story, which describes the event as their “wild wedding”.
The striking couple joined hands at The Wharf on Auckland’s North Shore late last month, in a flamboyant ceremony which featured a wedding party of showgirls, Jason Gunn as MC, Candy Lane as choreographer, performances by drag queens Buckwheat and Tess Tickle, plus the pair’s pet dogs in feather boas, the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly reports in a colourful multi-page spread.
The couple entered after a dance by Buckwheat, Tess and the showgirls to a medley from Sister Act 2, after which the pair danced down a pink carpet to We Are Family, while on their mothers’ arms.
NZWW reports the 40 minute ceremony featured moving speeches from several of Coffey and Smith’s gay and lesbian coupled friends, who spoke about what love means to them. It says the event also included a pop-up band playing The Beatles’ All You Need Is Love, plus “tower of balls” wedding cakes.
Coffey told the magazine he is aware there will be some who disagree with his decision to legalise his relationship with his same-sex partner, but pointed out the gay community disagrees just as strongly with the fact that same-sex couples can’t get married in New Zealand.
“At the moment we have this second-class citizen thing called a ‘civil union’ … as much as I wanted to wait for us to be able to marry as the rest of society do, I’ll take the current option, as life’s too short.”
Facebook Leads To Gay Nuptials
Jan 8th
Bangkok – Thailand’s “The Nation” newspaper reports that two gay men who met on Facebook were ‘married’ in Thailand’s picturesque Trang province.
“Having found each other on Facebook and dated for three years, 27-year-old Thongchai Rattanakaew wed his 30-year-old florist boyfriend Chumwit Sudsai in front of their parents and 200 guests in Trang’s Huay Yot district yesterday.
Chumwit’s mother, Jinda Sudsai, said she had known her son was homosexual since he was young, but she had never criticised him because he was a good person and didn’t cause any problems to society. She also encouraged him to join beauty contests, eventually leading to his victory in the Miss Krabi Fairies 2011 title, she said. She gave her blessing and consent to his wedding because it made him happy, and because society was now more open to same-sex marriage.
Jinda said her family sought no money or assets from the “groom” – as she described Thongchai; the families speak of Chumwit as the “bride” – beyond the gold-and-diamond wedding ring, because love and understanding were more important than money.
She said she planned to open a restaurant for her son-in-law to run because he cooked very well.
Chumwit said he initially added Thongchai – who had served as a private at Chon Buri’s Sattahip Navy Base – as a Facebook friend because they were fellow southerners. Impressed by Thongchai’s simple, down-to-earth nature, Chumwit said the pair had been “boyfriend and girlfriend” for three years. After Thongchai came to help him at his flower shop, Chumwit proposed and Thongchai said yes.
Chumwit said they planned to continue running the flower shop, while Chumwit also taught traditional Thai dancing as a sideline.”
Gays cannot legally marry in Thailand but a religious ceremony is possible and family recognition is often enough for gay couples. There are no issues such as hospital visiting rights, etc, for gays in Thailand.
LGBT Out Of Chinese Closet
Jan 7th
Beijing – reased awareness is breaking down the stigma of HIV/AIDS treatment in China. This year, the country will host its first ‘AIDS Walk,’ which will include a trek along the Great Wall.
There are officially 780,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in China, but stigma and discrimination means that people are afraid to get tested. Anyone taking an HIV test at an official disease control center must give their ID number.
But international bodies like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are backing grassroots groups such as one run by gay man Nan Feng in the sprawling city of Chongqing, which also offers testing as part of its AIDS prevention work.
According to Zhang Beichuan, a Chinese AIDS expert, there are now more than 200 such non-governmental groups in China.
Nan launched a gay website in 1998. Three years later, a local newspaper interviewed him on his AIDS-prevention work.
After the interview was published, Nan’s colleagues surreptitiously put the full-page newspaper report about him unfolded on his desk.
“The people around me had the common prejudice that all gays have AIDS,” he tells Xinhuanet.
He quit his job and Landian starting distributing condoms at gay bars and promoting the website.
Landian was established in the provincial capital of Taiyuan in 2006 and has provided free and private HIV tests for more than 450 gay males and their family members since September 2010.
With the help of Landian, volunteer groups were set up in another five cities in the province of Shanxi last year.
The number of volunteers is also growing as the public has become more tolerant to the gay community, according to the group.
Last month, HIV/AIDS prevention posters appeared on the streets in Beijing, to the surprise of many. The posters had previously only been seen inside gay bars.
The AIDS Walk first took place in Los Angeles in 1985 to raise awareness of the epidemic, and later this year it will happen in China for the first time. It is being organized by three non-profit organizations, including the government-backed China Population Welfare Foundation, and has been approved by Chinese authorities.
As well as the support for grassroots gay groups, Global Fund for Women is backing a lesbian group, Lala Alliance, which has grown to have hundreds of members.
The group has organized several activist training camps and published China’s first lesbian oral history.
In another example of positive change, last month the first China Rainbow Media Awards were handed out, recognizing positive representations of LGBT people in China’s mainstream media.
The organizers invited an elderly gay man nicknamed ‘Old Paris’ to present the Special Contribution Award to Dr. Li Yinhe, a well-known sociologist who has spoken out many times on homosexuality and who submitted several proposals to legalize same-sex marriage.
‘Old Paris’, who is 72 years old, was jailed three times under the ‘hooliganism’ provision. Today he lives a quiet life together with his boyfriend. Awards organizers quote him saying:
Although I went to prison several times, I never felt that I was wrong. I never stole anything, I never robbed anyone, and I never did anything that was wrong.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/gay-lesbian-and-hiv-grassroots-growing-in-china.html#ixzz1ij0nXsck
Anwar Slams Malaysian Sodomy Law
Jan 6th
Kuala Lumpur (AP) – With the verdict in his sodomy trial days away, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Thursday decried the laws he’s charged with breaking, calling them archaic rules that can be abused to promote intolerance, invade people’s privacy and punish them too harshly.
The remarks place Anwar, who denies the charges that he sodomized a young male former aide, alone among senior Malaysian politicians. Government and opposition leaders alike in this Muslim-majority nation usually avoid making statements that could be perceived as a nod to gay rights, partly because of discomfort among religious conservatives.
Sodomy in Malaysia is punishable by 20 years in prison and whipping with a rattan cane. The 64-year-old Anwar said he is bracing for the possibility of a long prison sentence when the Kuala Lumpur High Court delivers a decision Monday. He will not face the whipping penalty because of his age.
“My view is that you can’t have laws to be abused for political purposes and to be seen to be punitive and to be unjust to others,” Anwar said in a telephone interview while traveling on a six-day tour of the country for opposition rallies ahead of the verdict.
Anwar’s 26-year-old accuser, Saiful Bukhari Azlan, testified that Anwar coerced him into having sex at a Kuala Lumpur apartment in 2008. Anwar did not take the witness stand but criticized the proceedings in a long courtroom tirade from behind the lawyers’ table, where he could not be cross-examined.
Anwar, who is married with six children, insists he is innocent and claims the sodomy charge is part of a government conspiracy to discredit him and destroy the opposition’s chances of winning general elections widely expected this year. Prime Minister Najib Razak has denied any plot.
The anti-sodomy law is seldom and selectively enforced, often only in cases of sexual abuse of children and teenagers, but gay rights activists have long claimed that it encourages homophobia. New York-based Human Rights Watch last month urged Malaysia to abandon laws banning same-sex relations.
Anwar said that although he believes government must prohibit same-sex marriage and prevent public obscenity, he also believes that current sodomy laws could “be abused to show violent discrimination or intolerance.”
“Our present laws are deemed to be rather archaic,” Anwar said. “The whole idea (should be) to encourage people to understand not to be seen to be so punitive. In this case it’s worse — you can go and probe and peep into people’s bedrooms just to try to smear them.”
This is Anwar’s second time on trial for sodomy. A former deputy prime minister, Anwar was found guilty in 2000 of sodomizing his family’s ex-driver, but Malaysia’s top court freed him from prison in 2004 after quashing his conviction and nine-year sentence.
The current charge surfaced in 2008, several months after Anwar led the opposition to its best electoral results since independence from Britain in 1957.
Anwar said Thursday that regardless of the verdict, his three-party alliance is determined to unseat Najib’s long-ruling coalition in the next elections and form an administration that would curb corruption and racial discrimination. The opposition now controls slightly more than one-third of Parliament’s seats.
“The likelihood of our winning elections … is not a far-fetched idea,” Anwar said. “We believe that change is imminent and for the benefit of all Malaysians.”
Aussies Urge Action on Rights
Jan 6th
Sydney – Australian gay rights activists have called on their Government to take a stronger stand on LGBTI rights in the region following the release of a United Nations report into high levels of violence faced by LGBTI people worldwide.
The report was released in Geneva last week after a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution passed in June called for an end to discrimination against people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands representative Simon Margan warmly welcomed the report, but urged Australia to take notice of regional problems.
“We need to continue to place pressure on some of our Pacific Island neighbours to start recognising LGBTI rights,” Margan told the Star Observer.
“We have a large number of neighbouring countries which still have sanctions against homosexuality, so we could certainly take some action on our own doorstep.
The Cook Islands, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Western Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu all retain colonial-era anti-sodomy laws.
After a regional push this year (as part of the UNHRC’s Universal Periodic Review) to reverse such laws, only Palau and Nauru agreed.
Margan said outside the Asia Pacific region, he hopes the UN’s report will have an impact on the lives of LGBT people.
“It’s very significant as it’s the first time the United Nations has taken a proactive stance on this,” he said.
“I think we will see ramifications in the countries which haven’t seen their human rights abuses as human rights abuses before.”
The overall report found a pattern of human rights violations against LGBT people, including the use of murder, beatings, rape, and discriminatory treatment by authorities.
The report also found violence against LGBT people was “especially vicious” compared with other prejudice-motivated crimes, often displaying a high degree of cruelty and brutality.
UN Human Rights Office LGBT adviser Charles Radcliffe said the report highlights that the push for LGBT rights should not be prevented because of religious or cultural beliefs.
“What we are talking about here is universal human rights, making sure that everyone is entitled to the same rights,” Radcliffe told United Nations radio.
“No religious belief or prevailing cultural values can justify stripping people of their basic rights.”
Homosexuality is illegal in more than 70 countries.
Penis Masseur Nabbed By Cops
Jan 5th
Bangkok – Thai undercover police arrested a male masseur offering penis massage and enlargement services.
33 year old Jakrawuth Praesanom was arrested by a plain clothes cop while preparing to give the officer an enlargement treatment in the back seat of his car, parked in a department store car park.
Jakrawuth was reported to have been an employee at a gay massage center raided by officers earlier in the day.
Police charged him with practicing medicine without a licence, and seized a penis pump, and massage oils.
The service had been advertised on the massage center’s website and in men’s public toilets in the east of the city.
Michael Slams Christian Bigots
Jan 5th
London – Singer George Michael has lambasted a Christian group that said he deserved to die because he is gay.
Michael returned to his London home on Friday, December 23 after being released from a Vienna hospital.
In comments to the press outside his home in north London, Michael thanked his doctors and fans for helping him through a “touch and go” bout with pneumonia, which he described as “by far the worst month of my life, but I’m incredibly, incredibly fortunate to be here.”
Not wishing him a quick recovery, however, was the group Christians For A Moral America, which claimed the Faith singer could be suffering from AIDS and said he deserved to die because he’s openly gay.
Michael condemned the group in tweets to his more than 325,000 followers.
“Now don’t get me wrong, I know for a fact that many devout Christians, such as the ones I work, rest and play with on a daily basis, are truly wonderful, kind hearted men and women who take the best parts of that religion and live admirable, generous and loving lives.”
“But in my opinion, and I think made evident by those who prayed for my death, there are others who use their twisted interpretations of ancient scriptures as a pathetic excuse to be … wait for it, wait for it …!”
“Totally fucked up cocksucking bastards. And not in a good way … !”
“Oh my GOD that felt good …,” he added.
Michael was rushed to hospital on November 20, forcing the singer to postpone the remainder of his Symphonica European tour.
