ΚΑΙ ΤΟ ΘΕΜΑ ΤΩΝ ΟΜΟΦΥΛΟΦΙΛΩΝ ΠΡΟΣΦΥΓΩΝ ΣΥΝΕΧΙΖΕΤΑΙ...

Αντιγράφω από εδώ.

Διωγμός λόγω ιδιαιτερότητας
Με απέλαση από το Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο κινδυνεύει μια ομοφυλόφιλη γυναίκα από την Ουγκάντα. Εάν πάει πίσω στη χώρα της κινδυνεύει η ζωή της καθώς η ομοφυλοφιλία είναι παράνομη. Την είχαν ξυλοκοπήσει και διασύρει κατά το παρελθόν
Μια γυναίκα από την Ουγκάντα, η οποία είναι λεσβία, κατάφερε να παρεμποδίσει προσωρινά την απέλασή της.
Η Μπρέντα Νάμιγκειντ δηλώνει ότι φοβάται για τη ζωή της εάν από το Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο όπου βρίσκεται πάει στην Ουγκάντα όπου η ομοφυλοφιλία εκεί είναι παράνομη.
Μάλιστα η αρχική της αίτηση περί ασύλου απορρίφθηκε καθώς δεν υπήρχαν αποδείξεις ότι είναι όντως λεσβία.
Τώρα η περίπτωσή της θα περάσει από δικαστικό έλεγχο. Οι συνήγοροί της ζήτησαν από έναν δικαστή να εκδώσει απόφαση κατά της απέλασης της, η οποία επρόκειτο να πραγματοποιηθεί την Παρασκευή το βράδυ.
Ο δικηγόρος της θα υποστηρίξει την παραμονή της στο Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο παρά την σεξουαλικότητά της καθώς εάν γυρίσει στη χώρα της κινδυνεύει η ζωή της.
Η Νάμιγκειντ βρίσκεται τώρα σε ένα κέντρο κράτησης έξω από το Λονδίνο και δήλωσε στο BBC ότι την διακατέχει έντονος φόβος όταν σκέφτεται την ενδεχόμενη επιστροφή της στη πατρίδα.
Το 2002 μάλιστα ξυλοκοπήθηκε και διασύρθηκε για αυτό και αποφάσισε να φύγει. Σημειώνεται ότι ο ακτιβιστής υπέρ της ομοφυλοφιλίας Ντέιβιντ Κάτο ξυλοκοπήθηκε μέχρι θανάτου κοντά στη Καμπάλα.
Οι ομοφυλοφιλικές πράξεις στην Ουγκάντα είναι παράνομες και επισύρουν μέχρι και ποινή φυλάκισης 14 ετών ενώ αξιωματούχος ήθελε να ενταχθεί και η θανατική ποινή στους "αμαρτωλούς".

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ΕΝΑ ΓΕΡΜΑΝΙΚΟ ΣΠΟΤ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΗΣ ΟΜΟΦΥΛΟΦΟΒΙΚΗΣ ΒΙΑΣ.

[μουσική: Klee - 2 Fragen.] .

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΕΙΣ ΣΤΟ ΕΥΡΩΚΟΙΝΟΒΟΥΛΙΟ: ΓΙΑ ΤΑ ΔΙΚΑΙΩΜΑΤΑ ΤΩΝ ΛΟΑΔ.

Αντιγράφω από την ιστοσελίδα του Ευρωκοινοβουλίου.

Κοινοβουλευτικές ερωτήσεις
20 Ιουλίου 2010 H-0396/2010
Ερώτηση για την ώρα των ερωτήσεων
προς την Επιτροπή
Περίοδος συνόδου: Σεπτεμβρίου I 2010
Άρθρο 116 του Κανονισμού
Barοness Sarah Ludford (ALDE)
Θέμα: Δικαιώματα των λεσβιών, ομοφυλοφίλων, αμφιφυλοφίλων και τρανσεξουαλικών ατόμων (LGBT)
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Από τα 79 κράτη της Αφρικής, της Καραϊβικής και του Ειρηνικού (ΑΚΕ) τα οποία συνδέονται με την ΕΕ μέσω της Συμφωνίας του Κοτονού τα 49 ποινικοποιούν την ομοφυλοφιλία με ποινές έως 14 έτη φυλάκισης και 5 κράτη τιμωρούν τις λεσβίες, τους ομοφυλόφιλους, τους αμφιφυλόφιλους και τα τρανσεξουαλικά άτομα με θάνατο.
Ωστόσο η αναθεωρημένη Συμφωνία του Κοτονού δεν περιλαμβάνει συγκεκριμένα μη διάκριση λόγω γενετήσιου προσανατολισμού, παρά την αύξηση στην υποστηριζόμενη από το κράτος ομοφυλοφοβία.
Δεδομένης αυτής της θλιβερής απουσίας των δικαιωμάτων των ατόμων LGBT στη Συμφωνία του Κοτονού, με ποιο τρόπο σκοπεύει να εξασφαλίσει η Επιτροπή, μέσω του σεβασμού των γενικών υποχρεώσεων των ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων στην εν λόγω συμφωνία, ότι διασφαλίζονται τα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα των ατόμων LGBT στις χώρες ΑΚΕ με τις οποίες η ΕΕ έχει αυτή την εταιρική σχέση;

Η ερώτηση αυτή απαντήθηκε από μέρους της Επιτροπής στις 9 Σεπτεμβρίου. Την αντιγράφω.

Πέμπτη 9 Σεπτεμβρίου 2010 - Στρασβούργο Προσωρινή έκδοση
ΠΑΡΑΡΤΗΜΑ (Γραπτές απαντήσεις) - QUESTIONS TO THE COMMISSION
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The Commission rejects and condemns any manifestation of homophobia as a blatant violation of human dignity. It also pursues a determined policy of opposing homophobic actions and campaigns for the decriminalisation of homosexual relations, both in the United Nations, but not least with partner countries. The Commission and the EU will continue to maintain pressure on partner countries to have legislation compatible with the international principles on non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Although admittedly far from ideal, in the revision of the Cotonou Agreement, the EU did manage to ensure the amendment of Article 8.4 in a positive way, introducing the concept of "discrimination of any kind", based on several grounds among others "sex or other status". This formulation is literally based on the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and did not exist in the Cotonou agreement before. The EU will now make use of these changes through all political dialogues with partner countries.
As an example of the commitment to the principle of non-discrimination, the Commission can mention the active role that both the High Representative/Vice president and the Commissioner in charge of Development played earlier in 2010 in a trial against a Malawian same-sex couple, as well as the Commission services, which made numerous approaches in Malawi at all levels of government and society. The couple was later pardoned by the Malawian president, at least in part due to European intervention.
Furthermore, the EU's Political and Security Committee endorsed on 18 June 2010 the Toolkit to Promote and Protect the Enjoyment of All Human Rights by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people. This will now be used by all EU Delegations and geographical services.
Civil society in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries is obviously a critical actor and it is supported both under the European Development Fund and the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights. Civil society can become an effective force for political reform and defence of human rights.

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ΗΠΑ: ΑΝΤΙΣΥΝΤΑΓΜΑΤΙΚΟΣ ΚΡΙΘΗΚΕ Ο ΑΠΟΚΛΕΙΣΜΟΣ ΤΩΝ ΟΜΟΦΥΛΟΦΙΛΩΝ ΑΠΟ ΤΟΝ ΣΤΡΑΤΟ.

Αντιγράφω από τα σημερινά Νέα.

ΗΠΑ: αντισυνταγματικός ο αποκλεισμός των γκέι από το στρατό.
Επιμέλεια: Εύη Ελευθεριάδου, Τα Νέα, 10/09/2010
Αντισυνταγματικό έκρινε τον αποκλεισμό των ομοφυλόφιλων αντρών και γυναικών από τον αμερικανικό στρατό ομοσπονδιακό δικαστήριο.
Η δικαστής Βιρτζίνια Γουίλιαμς θα εκδώσει δικαστική απόφαση που θα υποχρεώνει την αμερικανική κυβέρνηση να σταματήσει την πολιτική του «μη ρωτάτε, μην αποκαλύπτετε» που εφαρμόζεται στο στρατό.
Σύμφωνα με την δικαστή, η απαγόρευση των ομοφυλόφιλων στο αμερικανικό στράτευμα καταπατά το δικαίωμα της ελευθερίας του λόγου των πολιτών και της προστασίας τους από την κατάχρηση της κρατικής εξουσίας.
Η πολιτική του «μη ρωτάτε, μην αποκαλύπτετε» απαγορεύει στις στρατιωτικές αρχές να ρωτούν τη σεξουαλική προτίμηση των στρατιωτών, αλλά απαιτεί την αποπομπή από το στράτευμα όσων παραδέχονται ότι είναι γκέι ή αποκαλύπτεται ότι έχουν ομοφυλοφιλικές σχέσεις ακόμα και στο σπίτι τους.
Σύμφωνα με τα στοιχεία οργάνωσης ακτιβιστών στρατιωτών, που προσέφυγε το 2004 στα δικαστήρια για την άρση της απαγόρευσης, περισσότεροι από 13.500 στρατιώτες έχουν αποπεμφθεί από τον αμερικανικό στρατό λόγω της σεξουαλικής τους προτίμησης, από το 1994 ως σήμερα.
Διευκρινίζεται ότι στην Αμερική, ο στρατός αποτελείται από επαγγελματίες οπλίτες.
Η δικαστική απόφαση υποχρεώνει την αμερικανική κυβέρνηση να απαντήσει μέσα σε μία εβδομάδα. Ο Μπαράκ Ομπάμα είχε υποσχεθεί προεκλογικά ότι θα ακυρώσει αυτή την πολιτική και θα επιτρέψει στους ομοφυλόφιλους να υπηρετούν ανοικτά στο στρατό. Τον Μάιο, η αμερικανική Βουλή ψήφισε υπέρ της ακύρωσης, κάτι που αναμένεται να κάνει και η Γερουσία πριν το τέλος του χρόνου.

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15 ΜΑΘΗΤΡΙΕΣ ΣΥΝΕΛΗΦΘΗΣΑΝ ΣΤΗΝ ΖΙΜΠΑΜΠΟΥΕ ΜΕ ΤΗΝ ΚΑΤΗΓΟΡΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΟΜΟΦΥΛΟΦΙΛΙΑΣ.

Σύμφωνα με δημοσιεύμετα του αφρικανικού τύπου,15 μαθήτριες λυκείου συνελήφθησαν στην δεύτερη μεγαλύτερη πόλη της Ζιμπάμπουε, Bulawayo, με την κατηγορία ομοφυλοφιλικής δραστηριότητας στις 30 Ιουλίου. Οι μαθήτριες αναφέρεται ότι ανήκουν στην ποδοσφαιρική ομάδα του σχολείου θηλέων Eveline. Κρατήθηκαν από την αστυνομία για μία ημέρα και στη συνέχεια παραδόθηκαν στους γονείς τους. Αντιγράφω από το pink paper.

15 high-school girls arrested in Zimbabwe.
Pink Paper, 9 August 2010.
African media outlets reported that some 15 high-school girls in Zimbabwe's second-largest city, Bulawayo, were arrested for alleged homosexual activities on 30 July.
The students, reportedly all soccer players, attend the girls-only Eveline High School.
Police reportedly took the girls into custody at school and held them for a day before releasing them to their parents.
The authorities are said to be considering the possibility that a feud among pupils could have led to false allegations of lesbian sex.

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ΗΜΕΡΑ ΤΗΣ ΓΥΝΑΙΚΑΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΙΣ ΛΟΑΔ ΣΤΗΝ ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑ.

Ένα ενδιαφέρον άρθρο από την τουρκική εφημερίδα Hürriyet Daily News, για την ημέρα της γυναίκας από την οπτική των λεσβιών, αμφί και διαφυλικών γυναικών. Μιλούν, η Esmeray τρανσέξουαλ φεμινίστρια, η Ecem Dalga εκπροσωπόντας την λοαδ οργάνωση Kaog GL, και η Nevin Öztop μέλος πάλι της Kaog GL από μέρους του λεσβιακού κινήματος της χώρας. Αντιγράφω.

Women's Day not easier for those on margins of society.
SEVİM SONGÜN
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
It is International Women’s Day on Monday, March 8, and many women’s organizations and activists will be celebrating the date with activities throughout the week.
Some groups will meet to protest inequalities resulting from age-old patriarchal understandings between men and women. Others will distribute flowers to women on the street like on Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day. Still other women and men will come together to discuss problems of being a woman in Turkey and the rest of the world.
To contribute to the events, the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review has spoken to women on the margins of society, such as lesbian, bisexual and transsexual women, about their views of Women’s Day.
Discrimination
Esmeray, a transsexual feminist who acts in standup shows and plays, said Women’s Day is significant because it enables women to ask for their demands. Atop the agenda for feminist women lately is the conflict in Southeast Turkey, which Esmeray said is an “ongoing war” and that it affects women the most.
As a feminist, Esmeray has joined every Women’s Day march for the past seven years. She said women’s organizations and activists have always been supportive of her participation in these celebrations.
Esmeray believes she faces discrimination in two ways: first, since she disclosed herself as a woman, she faces all problems females suffer from patriarchal society, and second, she has separate issues resulting from her transsexual identity.
“Since I started to wear a skirt and disclose my identity, my close male friends started telling me, “Don’t carry this table, you could injure your back,’” said Esmeray. “Also, my boyfriend’s friends started calling me ‘yenge’ (a word used for the wife of a relative),” said Esmeray. Men’s politeness and sensitivity disturbed her, she said. “This is women’s problem in society. Men treat women as is they are incapable of doing things in life. Unfortunately, some women also internalize this belief.”
As a transsexual, the difficulties Esmeray faces are not harder than other women’s problems, but they have different aspects. “As a transsexual, if I walk in Beyoğlu at night, a man can easily come and ask me, ‘How much?’ because all transsexuals are prostitutes in the eyes of wider society,” she said. “But that does not mean this is only our problem. Unfortunately, men’s understanding is that only loose women come to Beyoğlu after midnight,” she said.
“We experience difficulties at different levels, but in the end they are all related to the gender issue,” Esmeray said.
Gender Identity
Ecem Dalga, from Lambdaİstanbul, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual, or LGBT, association, said March 8 is important for her because women are exposed to every type of discrimination on the street and in schools, businesses and homes. “Because of our gender identities, when the issue is homosexuals, nobody recalls lesbians, as if there are only male homosexuals in Turkey,” she said. She complained that lesbian gender identity and sexual orientation, which she said is not a choice but an orientation, are invisible in society.
“This is why it is important for us to be on the streets during the March 8 celebrations and protests in order to break this invisibility,” Dalga said. The women’s movement and the LGBT movement can contribute to each other as they have many common agendas, she added.
“It was a sentimental moment for me when a few words about our problems were read from the chair on Women’s Day last year, and all the women in the street chanted “no silence, shout, there are lesbians,” she said.
Dalga said women are always described as belonging to someone or somewhere rather than as individuals. “I see posters saying, ‘We celebrate March 8 for our women,’ and I say I am nobody else’s women. We are always ‘belonging’ to someone and identified as such by others, like husbands, children, family or the state,” she said.
“As women, we are all expected to give birth to a child, wash the clothes and know our limits,” she said.
Lesbian movement
Nevin Öztop, from Kaog GL, an Ankara-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual, or LGBT, association, said during her first years of participation in March 8 celebrations, she was there “mixing in as if she was a straight woman,” but later as she disclosed her bisexual identity, she decided to be part of the leabian movement.
“I started feeling that women’s movements were only considering women who love men, and their demands of changes in the marital law were only trying to make female and male relations equal in the law,” she said. The movement had gained ground in legal reforms in favor of women, but there should be an amendment in the Constitution considering discrimination against lesbians and bisexual women, only saying equality between men and women does not provide that, she added. “It only perpetuates the re-creation of womanhood- and manhood-terms, which must always be subject to questioning.”
Öztop said, as a bisexual woman the main problem she faced is blindness of society toward people who love their same kind and transgender.
“If you have ‘outed’ your sexual orientation to your family, you know you can never bring your girlfriend home, as your partner and your life would be full of lies,” said Öztop. In school, family and in the streets, a lesbian must pretend to be friends with her partner, she said.
We believe whatever is private is also political and we make an effort to voice our identity and demands at any opportunity. “Just as domestic violence should not stay in the home and should be uncovered in order to be stopped, our love should be in the open on the streets, too,” she said.

ΣΥΝΕΝΤΕΥΞΗ ΜΕ ΕΝΑΝ ΓΚΕΪ ΑΚΤΙΒΙΣΤΗ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΟΥΓΚΑΝΤΑ.

Ο Frank Mugisha, είναι γκέι ακτιβιστής που δραστηριοποιείται στην λοαδ οργάνωση SMUG (Sexual Minorities Uganda). Την παρακάτω συνέντευξή του βρίσκω εδώ.




From: hgwb2009

ΘΡΗΣΚΕΥΤΙΚΟΣ ΦΑΝΑΤΙΣΜΟΣ: ΕΝΑΣ ΑΠΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ ΚΟΣΜΟΣ ΜΙΣΟΥΣ, ΜΙΣΑΛΛΟΔΟΞΙΑΣ, ΡΑΤΣΙΣΜΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΟΜΟΦΥΛΟΦΟΒΙΑΣ.

Αντιγράφω το παρακάτω άρθρο από την Huffinghton Post:

Scat Porn and Prayer? Welcome To Sssempa World
Ariel Rubin, Posted: January 16, 2010 06:31

"I will not call them gays any more, these are sodomites. And I ask you please, in the media, stop misusing the word gay, which means happy people. These are not happy people."

It's when the pastor starts showing the photos of men covered in feces fisting each other, that you realize this is no ordinary press conference. On January 15th, addressing a crowded room of local and foreign journalists, controversial "pro family" pastor Martin Ssempa , sitting beside a solemn-looking Muslim Sheikh in front of posters saying "Barack Obama Back Off" and "Africans Unite Against Sodomy", begins his lengthy invective.
Ssempa called the conference to announce his plan to mobilize more than one million people to march on February 17th in Kampala to show the world just how strong support is for the proposed 'Anti-Homosexuality Bill'. "We want to give a postcard that he [President Museveni] can send to his friend Barack Obama," he says. However Ssempa, clearly relishing the media's spotlight, takes the opportunity to begin a lengthy digression on his deep-seated feelings about homosexuality, pedophilia and the "broken" West's decadent influence. Most of what he says might be laughable if his influence wasn't so far-reaching and the message so deeply offensive. As he repeatedly boasts, 95% of Ugandans are against homosexuality, "this is democracy at work."
A highly charismatic and flamboyant man, Ssempa seems less to speak than to gesticulate wildly, gleefully exhorting the audience of the ills implicit in homosexuality. At one point, he even dramatically decides to break for prayer, calling on the god "who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah" to communicate to the media that Uganda will not perish in the same way. "God you know this bill has to pass," he prays with his eyes towards the heavens. "In Jesus' name, amen." Most of the journalists in the room, whether by force of habit or true faith, instantly mumble back, "amen".
Ssempa is no stranger to controversy, having over recent years, burned condoms in the name of Jesus and arranged for the publication of prominent homosexuals' names in cooperative local newspapers. His abstinence-based HIV/AIDS work was supported by the Bush White House and he has close ties with the born again First Lady, Janet Museveni. His latest work though, with MP David Bahati who privately introduced the bill, has thrust him into the forefront of the debate.
A captivating speaker and natural performer, (he was once the East African breakdancing champion), Ssempa clearly knows how to work a crowd. When a reporter asks why he is persecuting adults engaging in consensual acts in the privacy of their own bedroom, he quickly takes out his laptop to expose just what these acts are.
A pornographic slideshow of black and white photographs of men engaging in scatological fetishism is revealed. "I want to show you from their website", he proclaims, a devious smile forming. "I've taken the time to research what homosexuals do in the privacy of their bedroom. It is inhuman, it is animalistic, and it cannot be right. I want to show you these pictures." The audience lurches forward, leering at the pictures and groaning in disgust. Ssempa, enthusiastically goes on:

I want to say homosexuals eat each other's poop. Homosexuals stick their hands into their rectum. Homosexuals stick all sorts of deviant sexual things into their rectum. I want to show you this is from their website. So the first picture that I want to show you, you can see this man has just eaten the other person's poo poo and is rubbing it on his mouth, and I'm going to ask that we print for each of you a photocopy of this story so you get it fully.
Then, of course, they are grabbing each other's gentials, that is level number one, touching each other, grabbing each other. Then number three, now they are licking eachother's anus and are licking poop. And they call poo poo, chocolate. You see it is a change of words. I want you to see, Sheikh please forgive me but I want these people to see, they say a picture is worth one thousand words. This is a man eating the other person's poo poo, can you see that one? Please from BBC, I want you to tell them, we know what they do.

This coming from a man of god, a community and church leader, and yet also the co-author of a bill which makes touching another person "with the intention to commit homosexuality" an offense punishable by life in prison. He concludes, "After they have eaten poo poo, then he puts his hand inside the other man's rectum. You can see it. That is called fisting. FISTING! Practiced by 65% of all homosexuals. It is deviant! As if that is not enough, he puts it all the way," he pauses for effect and then excitedly grunts, "iiiiiin!" The audience erupts in laughter.
There is something distinctly un-Christian about Ssempa's lengthy tirade, whether it is the pronounced lack of compassion or the clever way he manipulates the argument. No he isn't victimizing, he is standing up for the real victims here: the minors and handicapped insidiously recruited by homosexuals. He criticizes rights groups for their betrayal of the "boy child" who is being molested and raped by men in Uganda without adequate protection. He accuses those who've accused him and his bill of fascistic and undemocratic aims as being "non-ideological" and "undemocratic" themselves, seeking to quash any discourse and stifle the debate.
Ssempa easily shores up support by turning the argument into one of African communal pride versus neo-colonial attempts to destroy it. He calls homosexuality a direct assault on the traditional African family in spite of (or perhaps to overcompensate for) the seldom-mentioned fact that he met his white wife in the United States. He frames the argument as the new clash of civilizations: "For us, as Africans, we are a community, our value system is 'I am because we are'. For the western people, the Europeans, they say 'I am because I am'."
He vigorously castigates America and European countries as "failed states" for "putting the export of sodomy as their number one priority" and seems especially emboldened by Uganda's recent oil discovery, dismissing Western aid as little more than a pittance. "If the changing of our laws to receive sodomy is the price we have to pay to receive mosquito nets and malaria nets, then we'd rather die in dignity."
According to Ssempa, America is bankrupt, deeply in debt to China and soon to be completely dependent on African oil. The U.S. can't afford to set preconditions now that Uganda sits on two billion barrels of crude. Uganda has entered a new era, the past Ssempa terms "B.U.O - before Uganda got oil"; now the country will sit alongside Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Ssempa laughs and goes on to wax lyrically about the inherent evils of "anal licking" while every day his draconian bill inches closer to being passed. After dismissing one reporter's query over possible cessation of aid to Uganda, he exclaims to a rapt audience, "I care deeply about white people telling us what to do. We really find that annoying. I want to say we are a superpower!"

Το παραπάνω άρθρο το βρήκα από τις αναφορές του μπλογκ Gay Uganda.

ΠΟΛΥΠΛΗΘΗΣ ΔΙΑΔΗΛΩΣΗ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩΝ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΥ ΓΚΕΪ ΓΑΜΟΥ ΣΤΗΝ ΙΣΠΑΝΙΑ

Αντιγράφω από την Telegraph:

Thousands of Spanish Catholics march against abortion and gay marriage, By Edward Owen in Madrid, 28 Dec 2009
Tens of thousands of Spanish Catholics marched in Madrid against the socialist government's policies on abortion and gay marriage.
At a huge rally in the capital, Cardinal Antonio Rouco, the leader of Spain's Roman Catholics, told protesters the birth rate in Europe will be depleted unless Christian values are maintained.
Catholics attended a huge open air mass beside Real Madrid's Bernabeu stadium.
The mass marked the Feast of the Holy Family. But Catholic leaders from across Europe joined their local counterparts and members of the Spanish centre-Right opposition to castigate the socialist government's policies.
"Europe will be practically without children," warned Cardinal Rouco, 73, the conservative Archbishop of Madrid. "Who denies to defend a human being so innocent and weak, already conceived but not born, commits a grave violation of moral order."
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the prime minister, has introduced fast-track divorce and homosexual civil partnerships, while a controversial abortion law allows terminations on demand up to the 14th week og pregnancy, even without parental permission for 16 and 17-year-old girls.
A survey on religion in Spain, published just before Christmas by the newspaper Público, showed there has been a steady decline in those who describe themselves as Catholics in Spain - down almost four per cent to 26.2 per cent - and an increase in atheism.
Pope Benedict XVI sent a message of support to the rally, saying a family was "founded on the marriage between a man and a woman ... because it is of paramount importance for the present and the future of humanity".

ΑΜΕΡΙΚΑΝΙΔΑ ΛΕΣΒΙΑ ΠΟΥ ΥΠΗΡΕΤΟΥΣΕ ΣΤΟΝ ΣΤΡΑΤΟ ΖΗΤΑ ΑΣΥΛΟ ΣΤΟΝ ΚΑΝΑΔΑ.

Αντιγράφω από την ιστοσελίδα του περιοδικού Advocate:

Escape to Canada
By Matthew Hays, December 02, 2009
American lesbian soldier Skyler James was harassed in the military — and so she fled to Canada, where she is applying for refugee status. Now James tells her story to Advocate.com
Skyler James doesn’t hold back in her praise for Canada. “It’s awesome, I love this place,” she says. “It’s so much gayer than the U.S. OK, I take that back. It’s just a lot more open-minded.”
The 21-year-old lesbian has good reason to be happy. James fled the United States and her duties as a soldier in the American military in the fall of 2007 and arrived in Canada, broke. With the support of a Canadian peace group that supports American war resisters who want to remain in Canada, she applied for refugee status, citing homophobic discrimination as her reason for fleeing her native country.
James, born Bethany Smith, had her claim dismissed by a Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board earlier this year, but last month she won a reprieve, when she was granted a stay of deportation by a federal court, which also said she deserved another hearing with the board.
“My lawyer says this is very rare,” says James. “I’m thrilled that we have another chance to have my case heard. Going back to the U.S. will mean certain prison time for me.”
She says her troubles began almost immediately after joining the U.S. military. James, who comes from Wichita Falls, Texas, says her lower-income parents were eager for her to enlist. Worse, she says that recruiters — desperate to maximize their numbers — brazenly lied to her about what her obligations would be when and if she signed up. “They told me I’d never have to shoot a firearm and they said I’d never go anywhere near a war zone.”
But “I hated it right off the bat,” James recalls. “About six months in, someone saw me at a mall holding another woman’s hand. The Monday following, things got really bad. It was verbal abuse at first, 'There’s that lesbian!' Then it got worse. Eventually, on a daily basis, a soldier would actually pick me up and throw me to the ground. I often ended up with bruises.”
Which prompts the question, Why didn’t James file a complaint about such behavior? “There seemed to be no point. When a soldier would do it, a sergeant would be right there, doing nothing about it. I didn’t get the sense anyone was going to help me.”
Then things got even worse. James would find notes on her door daily, threatening physical violence. The final straw arrived in the form of a note in which someone threatened to break into James’s room at night and beat her to death while she was sleeping. “Given that I was suffering through abuse already, I had every reason to believe that whoever wrote the note meant it seriously.”
With two weeks until she would be deployed in Afghanistan, James and her fellow soldier Jeremy Daniel fled soon after she received that note, getting into a car and leaving the Fort Campbell military base in Kentucky. About an hour after leaving the base, James called a friend from a gas station and learned that the police were looking for her. She said she then felt like a “fugitive” and knew she had to escape. She and Daniel drove for 40 hours solid to the Canadian border, where they managed to cross without passports or birth certificates.
“The Canadian border authorities could see we were with the military, so they let us cross after seeing our military IDs. We told them we were just visiting for the weekend.”
They contacted an Ottawa-based war resisters’ group, who offered them shelter and legal advice. “I actually felt like I didn’t have much choice but to leave,” says James. “It had become so bad that I didn’t know who I would trust when I would be deployed. I was more scared of the guys who were supposed to be watching my back than the guys I was fighting against.”
As her case is before the courts, James has a work permit and is employed at a local call center. She says she’d ultimately like to get Canadian citizenship and go to college.
James has become something of a celebrity in Canada, interviewed by the gay press, on national TV, and in the daily newspapers, with most of the coverage being overwhelmingly supportive. (The Canadian military lifted the ban on gays and lesbians in the military over a decade ago.) Her friends had the first profile of her, in an Ottawa gay newspaper, framed for her.
James says she is heartened by the presidency of Barack Obama, and she certainly knows of his promise to end “don't ask, don't tell" and lift the ban on gays in the military. But she still views the situation as gloomy for American gays and lesbians wishing to serve in the military. “My lawyer put it well when she said that even if you change things in writing or on paper, it’s much harder to change the attitudes people have,” she says.
And she adds a few stern words of warning for young people who are considering signing up for U.S. military service, gay or straight. “Think very, very carefully before doing so. Be very wary of their promises of cheap education and travel opportunities — everything comes with a price, especially this job. I still can’t understand why my parents pushed me so hard to join — Americans are strange. I’m like, ‘What the fuck? Why would you want that for me?’”
James stays in touch with her family and has posted a video on YouTube offering support to soldiers in combat.

Συζήτηση στο Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο για τον ομοφυλοφοβικό νόμο της Λιθουανίας.

Αύριο Τετάρτη 16/9/2009, θα γίνει συζήτηση στο Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο με θέμα τον ομοφυλοφοβικό νόμο που ψηφίστηκε πρόσφατα στην Λιθουανία, και που απαγορεύει την δημόσια συζήτηση θεμάτων που αφορούν την ομοφυλοφοβία.

Θα απαντηθούν οι προφορικές ερωτήσεις που έχουν ήδη γίνει για το θέμα και θα γίνει συζήτηση. Περισσότερα για την ατζέντα της ημέρας μπορείτε να δείτε εδώ, ενώ εδώ μπορείτε να διαβάσετε την πρόταση για ψήφισμα για τον νόμο αυτό της Λιθουανίας, από το Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο. Τέλος, όσοι ενδιαφέρεστε να δείτε την συνεδρίαση αυτή on-line, μπορείτε να το κάνετε μέσω της ιστοσελίδας του Ευρωπαϊκού Κοινοβουλίου, πιέζοντας εδώ.

[Από την ιστοσελίδα της ILGA-Europe.]