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US: Christine Quinn formally announces bid to become NYC s first openly gay and first female mayor
Quinn married her long time partner Kim Catullo, in New York City last May. She is expected to have the backing of the city s current mayor, who will be stepping down at the end of his final term, Michael Bloomberg. She has drawn criticism for her closeness to Bloomberg, who was a Republican-turned-Independent.
I m about keeping New York City a place for the middle class to live and grow and a place that is going to help those hard working people get into the middle class, she says in the video. I m not about talking and finger-pointing and complaining; I m about getting things done. If elected to the post, Quinn would not only be the first openly gay mayor of New York City, but also the first female.
Last year Quinn called on fast-food outlet Chick-fil-A to leave New York because of its anti-equality views. She wrote to the president of New York University where Chick-fil-A has an outlet, urging him to break off his relationship with the chain. Also last year Michael Bloomberg, used his much sought after endorsement for Barack Obama for the US presidential election, citing a need for strong leadership, and President Obama s support for equal marriage.
An advocate of equal marriage, and supporter of equal marriage campaigns in four US states, Mayor Bloomberg personally pledged $500,000 ( 312,000) towards equal marriage efforts in Washingon, Maine and Minnesota. He had previously pledged $250,000 ( 155,000) to help towards making equal marriage legal in the state of Maryland. Quinn s campaign launch video is available to watch below.
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Gay rights activists warn of reintroduction of Section 28 style discrimination in Scotland s schools
The Equality Network has voiced concerns that through the current consultation around it, the new law could be taken advantage of those opposed to gay rights, such as politicians and religious groups. The Scottish Government is currently consulting on its upcoming law to legalise equal marriage, and has sought opinions on its Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill, including on areas such as education. Scotland For Marriage, a group opposed to equal marriage, has already raised concerns about what will be taught in schools, arguing that parents should have the right to opt their children out of lessons mentioning equal marriage.
Tom French, policy co-ordinator at the Equality Network, said; We are deeply concerned that opponents of same-sex marriage are attempting to reintroduce Section 28 style discrimination back into Scotland s schools. He added that the group was concerned that opponents were attempting to reintroduce Section 28 by stealth. This would roll back equality and have a damaging effect on young people and the wider education system.
We firmly believe that school should be a welcoming environment for all young people, regardless of their sexual orientation or family situation. Schools have a duty of care to their pupils and it would be wrong to allow discrimination against LGBT people in the education system. Meanwhile, a briefing on the equal marriage consultation Christian organisation CARE for Scotland said: Concerns have been expressed that should so-called same-sex marriage be introduced it is likely that children will be taught in school that marriage can be between two people of the same sex.
To raise a generation of children with such a subjective view of marriage, is a huge social experiment which is likely to result in severely detrimental consequences. Arguably it may even increase the occurrence of homosexual relationships. The consultation on its draft legislation opposed by the Church of Scotland and the nation s Catholic Church will last until March.
The Scottish Government has pushed ahead with its equal marriage bill and said that all religious institutions including the Church of Scotland will be free to decide for themselves if they would like to provide marriages for gay couples.
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US: City Council hopeful may lose place after allegations of using homophobic slurs
During the council meeting, Friedman said: I wouldn t bring this up if this was not a very long series of posts around the Internet on blog sites, on YouTube, that are extremely disturbing, that are racist, homophobic, misogynist, threatening and really beyond something that we as a city can afford to have associated with one of our commissioners. A user named Zareh Sinanyan, had been posting comments on Youtube, as well as other websites, including homophobic, Islamophobic and racist views, up until around five years ago, according to an email sent to at least three City Council members. The allegations arose after a Glendale Blog, sent screenshots of the comments to the council.
Some of the comments were posted in response to other users, however a Facebook comment from September 2012, allegedly left by the City Council hopeful, on the Armenian National Committee of America included a racial slur against mongolians. Another reads: Fuck you, fucking faggot. Name the place bitch.
Tell me where you are and I will be happy to meet you and shove a big tennis racquet up your vratsi ass. Most of the original comments had been removed from Facebook and YouTube. Both Friedman and Councilman Ara Najarian had moved to have the City Council consider taking the accused off the city Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee at Tuesday s meeting.
In an election on 2 April, both Najarian and Friedman are seeking re-election, and are among 12 candidates, including Sinanyan, running for three seats. Sinanyan was appointed to the committee in November 2009 by Najarian and he served as chairman between 2009 and 2011. Friedman and Najarian declined to comment on the case ahead of Tuesday s meeting.
A spokesman for the council said that some people believed the comments were placed there as a cruel hoax . Scott Lowe, a blogger who reported the images, said that it appeared the posts were made anonymously, but that when Sinanyan linked his YouTube and Google+ accounts, the site retroactively connected his name to all comments made prior. He said the comments were removed this week, as emails began circulating.
The agenda for Tuesday s meeting read: City staff has not verified and does not and cannot represent that these posts or any other posts were made by Mr. Sinanyan. The accused s campaign director, Elen Asatryan, said: Since the City Council has chosen to place this on its agenda, he will address those concerns on Tuesday.
Several local leaders have pulled out from supporting Sinanyan, until it is proven that he did not write the comments. They include Representative Adam Schiff, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti, and City Councilman Paul Krekorian. Krekorian wrote to Sinanyan on Friday to say that he was withdrawing his support.
He said: While I very much hope that the facts will demonstrate that you have no connection to these vile comments, until such time I cannot even impliedly lend my support to intolerant viewpoints and language that are contrary to everything I believe. On the campaign Facebook page for Sinanyan, his supporters have referred to these allegations as a smear campaign . Unfortunately it has become a common practice in this town that if you cannot beat an individual and/or when you feel that you have no possible chance against a candidate of Zareh s caliber, start spreading lies and rumors in order to distract people from the real issues, posted Sam Manoukian, a current member of Glendale s Civil Service Commission.
I promise you that we will diligently work to find out who is behind this smear campaign and hold them responsible for their actions.
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Recommendation to ban porn discovered in upcoming EU report
Bloggers drew attention to the report after they noticed it includes an article calling for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media , including the digital field . The report, if passed, would only act as a recommendation to EU states, and would not result in pornography being legally banned. However, EU reports are often used to gauge support for potential future laws.
Jacqui Hunt, director of Equality Now in London, told the Huffington Post that the report s recommendations would help to build a truly equal and democratic society, where women and girls do not have to experience prejudice or fear physical and psychological abuse. However, critics say the report is worded too broadly, as it does not distinguish between types of pornography. There are also concerns that this could mark a new trend in draconian policing of the internet and, in the words of one blogger, unacceptable political invasion of people s bedrooms .
MEP Christian Engstrom of Sweden s Pirate Party wrote on his blog: This is quite clearly yet another attempt to get the internet service providers to start policing what citizens do on the internet, not by legislation, but by self-regulation . This is something we have seen before in a number of different proposals, and which is one of the big threats against information freedom in our society. Although I completely agree that eliminating outdated gender stereotypes in the EU is a worthwhile goal, I will be voting against this resolution next week.
Mr Engstrom added that he had received 350 emails within a day of blogging on the subject, all calling on MEPs to vote against the report. Fears that internet censorship is growing in Europe were heightened in February when it emerged that legislators in Iceland are drafting a ban on internet pornography which, if passed, would be the first of its kind in a Western democracy. Freedom of speech campaigners and academics wrote to Iceland s interior minister last week urging him to end the legislation.
Iceland is a liberal democratic state which should not serve as a role model for Internet censorship, said the letter. It added that the ban on pornography may create demand for an underground porn industry, unregulated and most certainly affiliated with other illegal activities. MEPs are said to be intending to amend the wording of the report on Tuesday, clarifying that the ban is specific to pornography in advertising.
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US: Texas woman charged for beating son with electrical cable for gay sex act
Moore said: My cousin, at the time, he was 18. My son he was 15, and I had walked in the room on my cousin giving oral sex to my son and I started whooping my son, and I m the one who got in trouble as a result of me whooping him. She added: It was just disgusting to me, the way he was looking and my cousin was looking, and my cousin immediately ran out the door.
The police department told me that it was consensual, but they was committing a homosexual act in my house and we are totally against that. So I whooped my son and about three or four months later they came and arrested me for abuse. As well as justifying her actions based on her disgust , Moore said she had beaten her son because she had also been beaten that way as a child.
She added that she did not discriminate, as she would have done the same thing if she had caught her daughter in a similar position. She said: What do you do in a situation like that where I m catching my son having sex? It would be no different than me catching my daughter and she had a boy in the house and me disciplining her for having a boy in the house.
Moore is facing a Class-A misdemeanour assault charge, which has the potential to result in a jail sentence. She remains adamant that she did not act wrongly, and claims that the police officer who charged her had said that, off the record, he would have done the same. This was denied by the Police Department.
Moore said: Even that day when the police officer came out here, he told me out of his own mouth, If it was me and I walked in on my child, he said, parent to parent I probably would have shot him. I probably would have shot both of them. But with the law you can t, you re not allowed to put whoops on him.
He said you can whoop him, but you re not allowed to leave any marks on him. Chief Dan Dennis of the Forest Hill Police Department said that Moore had lied about the officer s comments. He told CBS: Miss Moore s statement of the officer s alleged inappropriate comments are simply untrue.
The conversation was recorded. The officer s conduct was entirely professional. The Forest Hill Police Department does not discriminate against any citizen based on sexual orientation.
The 18 year old cousin could potentially be charged, but Moore has refused to allow police to interview her son. The Police Department said The fact that we couldn t interview the victim hindered us from furthering the case. Discuss this Get the latest LGBT headlines in your inbox with our free daily newsletter!
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US: Parents of Tyler Clementi demand apology from anti-gay group for speech referring to their son s suicide
She was speaking to a group of Catholic students at the university back in February, and encouraged them to encourage gay peers to discourage them from becoming sexually active. That kid Tyler Clementi who killed himself who threw himself off the George Washington Bridge , she said. I mean, there was a much older man in the picture And so I think friendship is what you have to offer.
There are a lot of situations where people are doing something sexual that s probably not the best thing for them and it would be better if they had somebody who d be friends with them without coming on to them or without judging them. Jane and Joseph Clementi called Morse s comments ludicrous , for linking their son s suicide support from LGBT peers. To exploit our late son s name to advance an anti-equality agenda is offensive and wrong, the Clementis said in a statement.
By doing so, National Organization for Marriage proves that not only is there no low they will not sink to, to advance their cruel agenda but that neither they nor Ms Morse have any grip on reality. The very idea that Tyler s tragedy happened because of too much support instead of not enough is ludicrous. Shame on them.
GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign, as well as the Clementis called for the apology from NOM. This is among the more reprehensible tactics we ve seen from NOM, GLAAD President Herndon Graddick said in a statement. They re using Tyler s story to pit young people against their own peers.
The case of Tyler s suicide attracted national attention in the US, including comment from President Obama, and prompted anti-bullying measures. Clementi, a Ridgewood native, committed suicide in September 2010 during his freshman year at Rutgers University after his roommate secretly recorded and broadcast his romantic encounter with another man in their dorm room. Roommate Dharun Ravi was convicted last year of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation and other counts and served less than a month in jail.
He is now appealing his conviction.
Rutgers University has announced that they will open the Tyler Clementi Centre, which will create programmes to help people transition to college.
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Poll: Support for same-sex marriage among US Catholics rises to 54%
Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said: Catholic voters are leading American voters toward support for same-sex marriage . Among all Americans, it s a closer margin, with 47% supporting and 43% opposing equal marriage. Meanwhile, as the Vatican prepares to select a new Pope, most American Catholics believe the leadership of the Catholic Church is out of touch with their views.
52 % of US Catholics say the leaders out of touch, while 40% say they re not. Following last month s resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, LGBT Catholics in the US and around the world have stated the importance of the Vatican moving away from its current anti-gay doctrine. The poll also shows that 52% of Catholics want the new Pope to take the Catholic Church in a new direction.
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Canada: Quebec launches first awareness campaign to tackle homophobia and transphobia
They all encourage viewers or listeners to ask themselves whether they are really open to sexual diversity. Both TV adverts end with same-sex couples sharing a kiss, which is followed by the question: Does this change the way you thought twenty seconds ago? As well as the adverts, the campaign includes a an interactive website which allows users to investigate different situations, and challenges the way the user looks at them.
It contains resources for fighting homophobia, and information about different types of homophobia. A recent poll of 800 Quebecers run by Global News found that 90% had no issue with homosexuality, however 40% did say they felt uncomfortable with same-sex couples engaging in public displays of affection. In January, an advertisement for the University of Alberta s Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services s No to Homophobes campaign asks why the word faggot can be so casually used in society.
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US: FBI to investigate killing of Mississippi gay mayoral candidate Marco McMillian as a possible hate crime
The agency will assess evidence to determine whether federal prosecution is appropriate, Deborah Madden, an FBI public affairs specialist, said in a statement on Thursday. Marco McMillian, 33, was found on Wednesday 27 February near the Mississippi River west of Clarksdale, the city where he was running for mayor on a platform of helping the poor and fighting crime. Police charged Lawrence Reed, 22, from Shelby, Mississippi, in connection with murder soon after the body was discovered.
Last weekend, in a statement, McMillian s family said the victim had been beaten, dragged and burned. Mississippi s hate crimes law covers acts motivated by bias against a victim s race but not sexual orientation. However, a federal hate crimes law covers bias against sexual orientation and local and state agencies can seek assistance to pursue a federal hate crime under the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
The Act was introduced in 2009 as is named after murdered gay teenager Matthew Shepard.
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