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Today’s Top Headlines

US ‘Concern’ Over Violent End to Russian Gay Rally
Florida Transgender Teen Crowned Prom Queen
South African Envoy to Uganda Guilty of Anti-Gay Hate Speech
Ousted Gay Referee Seeks Reinstatement in Turkey

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A former Turkish soccer referee who says he was forced out of the football federation two years ago because of his homosexuality pleaded to be reinstated at an Istanbul court on Tuesday. Halil Ibrahim Dincdag, 35, has accused the Turkish Football Federation of passing documents to the media showing he was exempted from compulsory military service because of his sexual orientation, which in turn led to death threats. The case is being closely followed by rights groups and has attracted much attention in Turkey, where homosexuals are excluded from the military, although many hide their sexuality and complete military service due to fears of social prejudice.

Read the full story from Reuters.

South Africa’s ambassador to Uganda was found guilty of hate speech on Tuesday for a homophobic newspaper column penned three years ago in which he compared homosexuality to bestiality. The Johannesburg Equality Court ordered Jon Qwelane to publish an unconditional apology to gays and lesbians in two newspapers, including the Sunday Sun, which carried his piece in 2008 before his appointment to Kampala. It ruled that the article and a cartoon had propagated hatred and harm against homosexuals who had suffered emotional pain and suffering.

Read the full story from The Province.

Andrew Viveros, a transgender teenager, has been crowned prom queen at a Florida high school, the Sun Sentinel reports. Viveros, 17, a graduating senior at McFatter Technical High in Davie, says he was “in complete shock” when his name was called at the ceremony Friday night in Fort Lauderdale, the newspaper reports. “It’s a big stepping stone,” Viveros says. “People can see it’s finally OK to be who you are and do what you want no matter how different you are.”

Read the full story from USA Today.

The United States voiced “concern” Sunday over the violent end to a gay rights rally in Moscow, and called on Russian authorities to better safeguard “fundamental freedoms” of assembly. “We note with concern… that a peaceable demonstration of Russians advocating for the rights of gays and lesbians, joined by international supporters, was forcefully disrupted by counter-protesters, and that Russian security forces then detained people from both groups,” US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement. Russian security forces had also detained American citizens at the march, Toner noted.

Read the full story from AFP.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Catholic Charities In Rockford, IL End Foster Care, Adoptions Over Gay Rights
Conservative Activists Seek Ban on Military Participation in Gay Weddings
Moscow Police Will Enforce Ban on Gay Rights Protest
Lesbian Sues Police For Trying to ‘Turn Her Straight’

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A lesbian woman is taking a sheriff’s department to court after it allegedly paid two self-styled evangelicals $600 to turn her straight. Amanda Booker claims officers at Bartow County Sheriff’s Department in Georgia took her to a pair of gay conversion therapists instead of a drug rehabilitation centre. Ms Booker, who is now in custody after a separate incident, is suing county officials – including the Sheriff and County Commissioner – for violating her constitutional rights.

Read the full story from the Daily Mail.

Police in Moscow said on Friday they will enforce the city’s ban on a protest by gay rights campaigners in the Russian capital. Nikolai Alexeyev, Russia’s leading gay rights activist and head of the Moscow Gay Pride organization, has said activists will try to hold the city’s first gay rights rally on May 28, despite a ban on the event. The Moscow police said on Friday they would cut short any “unlawful actions.”

Read the full story from RIA Novosti.

Conservative legal activists and Christian leaders said Thursday that they will sue on behalf of military chaplains if the Senate does not pass a Republican version of the annual Pentagon policy bill that includes language barring Defense Department employees from participating in same-sex marriage ceremonies. The annual defense authorization bill, which sets military policy for the following year, passed the House on Thursday with bipartisan support. Among hundreds of spending and policy provisions, the language backed by activists would bar service members and civilian Defense Department workers from participating in same-sex marriage ceremonies on military property.

Read the full story from the Washington Post.

Rather than allow unmarried people or same-sex couples to adopt or foster children, Catholic Charities of Rockford, Illinois announced Thursday that they would stop providing foster care services. The move comes after months of drama in Springfield over an amendment to the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act, which goes into effect June 1. The law says that if an agency receives state money, it cannot discriminate against same-sex couples, and must treat people in civil unions as it would treat married couples.

Read the full story from Huffington Post.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Gay Troops To Hold Las Vegas Convention
Brazil President Suspends Sex Education Material Over ‘Anti-Homophobia’ Kits
Police in Grenada Arrest Man for Alleged Gay Sex
NYC Mayor Makes Case for Gay Marriage Law

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned state lawmakers Thursday that if they oppose legalizing gay marriage they may be remembered as civil rights obstructionists similar to those who opposed the abolition of slavery and fought against giving women the right to vote. “The question for every New York state lawmaker is: Do you want to be remembered as a leader on civil rights? Or an obstructionist? On matters of freedom and equality, history has not remembered obstructionists kindly,” Bloomberg said in his speech at Manhattan’s The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

Read the full story from the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

Police have arrested a man for having sex with another male on the eastern Caribbean island of Grenada, where a law against homosexual acts remains on the books but is rarely enforced. A 41-year-old man was charged with having sex with an unidentified 17-year-old man, Grenada’s director of public prosecution, Christopher Nelson, said Wednesday. The age of sexual consent in Grenada is 16 but while the sex in question was consensual, local law prohibits sodomy under the charge of “unnatural connection.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

President Dilma Rousseff has suspended the distribution and production of sex education films for schools in Brazil. President Rousseff believes the footage is not suitable for youngsters. The education packs contain gay and lesbian video scenes and are supposed to combat homophobia. However, evangelical church groups and their allies in Congress threatened to block any upcoming legislation unless President Rousseff halted the films.

Read the full story from the BBC.

A group of actively serving gay, lesbian and bisexual military personnel is planning its first convention this fall in Las Vegas in what may be another sign that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy’s days are numbered. By scheduling its Armed Forces Leadership Summit for October 13-16 in the city with the slogan, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” OutServe, an underground network of more than 3,000 gay troops, appears to be thumbing its nose at the 17-year-old rule that bars gays from openly serving and has led to the discharge of more than 14,500 military personnel.

Read the full story from the Huffington Post.