Generation will be ‘forced into the shadows’ if anti-gay ‘propaganda’ law is passed
Activists have launched a petition calling on the president of the Ukraine to denounce an anti-gay ‘propaganda’ bill.
The bill, similar to the one passed in St Petersburg, is expected to be voted on this week and would amend existing laws on ‘the protection of morals’, media and publishing, as well as the criminal code, effectively banning virtually all information on gay and bisexual issues and criminalizing LGBT human rights work in Ukraine.
Over 21,000 people from around the world have already signed AllOut.org’s online letter to President Viktor Yanukovych, which urges the leader to speak out against the proposed bill and stand up for LGBT rights before he meets with an EU human rights delegation on Friday (1 June).
Kyiv’s first ever gay pride parade was cancelled on 20 May after a threat of violence from right-wing football hooligans and the event’s organizer Svyatoslav Sheremet was later beaten by thugs.
A spokesman for AllOut.org said President Viktor Yanukovych is the only person with the power to stop the ‘gay gag’ bill and warned he must take action now before ‘an entire generation will be forced into the shadows’.
‘Ukraine has been trying to forge a “special alliance” with the European Union for years,’ he said.
‘If we create a massive outcry in the next three days across Europe, President Yanukovych will be forced to finally speak out against the law or risk endangering his lucrative EU partnership.’
Via The Daily Beast comes this disturbing image of Gay Forum of Ukraine leader Svyatoslav Shereme getting beaten during an announcement that a scheduled gay pride parade had been called off.
Rather than intervening, it appears at least one photographer spent the time instead snapping a picture.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Gay students at America’s military service academies are wrapping up the first year when they no longer had to hide their sexual orientation, benefiting from the end of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that used to bar them from seemingly ordinary activities like taking their partners openly to graduation events.
For the first time, gay students at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis were able to take a same-sex date to the academy’s Ring Dance for third-year midshipmen. The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., officially recognized a club for gay students this month. And gay cadets at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., are relieved they no longer have to worry about revealing their sexuality.
Several gay students from the nation’s major military academies said the September repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” an 18-year-old legal provision under which gays could serve as long as they didn’t openly acknowledge their sexual orientation, meant significant change.
“For the most part, it allows us to be a complete person, as opposed to compartmentalizing our lives into different types of boxes,” said newly commissioned Air Force 2nd Lt. Dan Dwyer, who graduated from the Air Force Academy on Wednesday. West Point held its graduation Saturday, and the Naval Academy’s was set for Tuesday.
Jared Swank, Gay Pennsylvania Student, And Transgender Prom Date Allegedly Filmed By Teacher
This teacher should be fucking fired. This happened less than 30 minutes from where I live. Last year, my best friend was outed to her family by a teacher she trusted against her will. Fuck this fucking town.
Four Iranian Men Due To Be Hanged For Sodomy
Four men have been sentenced to death for sodomy in the Iranian town of Choram, a town in the relatively remote and undeveloped Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province. Saadat Arefi, Vahid Akbari, Javid Akbari, and Houshmand Akbari are due to be executed soon. According to gay news site JOOPEA, the men will be hanged for sodomy according to strict interpretaion of Shari’a law. The location of the trial and the speed with which the punishment it expected to be meted out reportedly makes it unlikely that international organizations will be able to intervene on the men’s behalf.
Jackie Green, Transgender Beauty Queen, To Enter Miss England Semi-Final
A transgender British teen who transitioned at the age of 16 is hoping to make history by winning the Miss England beauty pageant.
As the International Business Times is reporting, Jackie Green, 18, entered the Miss England pageant after being spotted by scouts at “Britain’s Next Top Model” in London just two years after she underwent gender reassignment surgery in Thailand, where such procedures are available to minors. She has now reportedly won enough of the public’s vote, and so throughly impressed the panel of judges, to secure a spot in pageant’s semi-finals.
Jay ‘Corey’ Jones, Gay Minnesota Teen, Commits Suicide After Allegedly Being Bullied
Friends and family are mourning the loss of a Minnesota teen who jumped to his death last Sunday after allegedly being tormented by classmates for being gay.
As the Rochester Post-Bulletin is reporting, 17-year-old Jay ‘Corey’ Jones of Rochester, Minn. had suffered severe depression after being bullied for a number of years. Jones had known he was gay from a young age, according to his father, Jay Strader. Police officials say Jones jumped from a pedestrian bridge near Century High School on May 6.
“He said all of his life they always picked on him,” Strader is quoted as saying. “He’d still try to keep his head up at school, but then he’d come home and be really sad about it. He just got really depressed about it because the guys weren’t accepting him.”
Troy Mayor’s Anti-Gay Post Inspires Lesbian Mom to Create Anti-Bullying Film
My partner of 14 years is an active-duty military member. We lived many years under “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT), and now that the ban has been lifted, we can finally live as a family… or can we? Thanks in part to the misleadingly named Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the military does not acknowledge me as a spouse, nor do they acknowledge me as our child’s mother. The only recognition I receive is the status of “caregiver.” When I drive on base, I have special identification that says “caregiver.” When I take our son to MWR events, I have to sign in as “caregiver.” This one word, whether spoken or written, pierces my heart when I have to use it to describe my relationship to our son. All I want is to be recognized for what I am: his mother. After all, I’ve been here the whole time. I was there when he was conceived, I was there through the pregnancy and delivery, and I was there through good times and bad. I load the minivan and take him to gymnastics, swim lessons, and play dates. I am the one who will hold him when he cries as his mommy deploys again. But most importantly, I love him unconditionally, not as a caregiver but as his momma.
