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Society

MI5 recruits Gay Spies

MI5 (Military Intelligence Section 5), the UK security service, is looking to recruit more gay staff, the Financial Times reports. Stonewall, the gay lobby group, has been hired to advise MI5 on how to encourage its spies to be more open about their sexuality and how to attract more gay applicants for posts. The contract marks a significant change in stance by MI5. Gay men and women were barred from working in sensitive posts in the diplomatic or security services until the early 1990s, a quarter of a century after sexual acts between men were decriminalised in 1967. The ostensible rationale was concern that gay spies could be vulnerable to blackmail, while gay ambassadors could exacerbate tensions between the UK and countries that still criminalise homosexuality. The change is driven partly by necessity - MI5 has been rapidly recruiting hundreds more staff since the July 7 2005 bombings.

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Society

TV | Society | Religion | DVD

Camp Out on DVD

Can you be gay and christian at the same time? Camp Out is a feature documentary film that follows ten Midwestern teenagers as they attend the first overnight Bible Camp for gay Christian youths. For these six boys and four girls, it’s just as hard to come out as Christian as it is to come out as gay. They’re caught in the battle between religion, politics and sexuality that’s raging in the United States today. These kids are outsiders – their straight classmates ostracize them and their churches reject them. But like all teens, they yearn to feel at home, somewhere.

Struggling to find a way to be true to both their spirituality and their sexual identity, these teens come to camp hoping to finally find a place of acceptance. Camp Out is now available on DVD. Watch a video...

Camp Out is now available on DVD.

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Society | Politics

Massachusetts & out-of-state gay weddings

Massachusetts on Thursday opened the door for gay couples from across the country to marry in the northeastern state, reports AFP. Governor Deval Patrick (picture) signed a bill with immediate effect allowing homosexual non-residents to tie the knot there, circumventing bans in their own states. "Today, by repealing a nearly century old law, we affirm the right of same-sex couples from out-of-state to marry in Massachusetts, to enjoy all the protections of our good laws," Patrick said in comments provided by his press office. Massachusetts in 2004 became the first US state to allow gay marriage, followed by California this year. Non-residents can also marry in California. A spokeswoman for Patrick, the state's first black governor, said the now-repealed law against gays coming to marry in Massachusetts had originally been passed in 1913 to prevent inter-racial marriages. Thousands of same-sex marriages have taken place since the ban within the state was lifted.

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Gay Marriage | Society | Politics

Politics | Society

Don't Ask, Don't Tell hearing

U.S. Congress is holding its first hearing in 15 years on the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy barring bisexuals, gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, Times reports. The hearings, called by a House Armed Services subcommittee, are likely to be more notable for the fact that they are being held at all rather than anything of substance they may produce. The simple fact that the hearings are taking place offers the most significant indication yet that the U.S. is finally reconsidering its strange policy of enforced hypocrisy that came to be called "Don't ask, don't tell." The hearings should also provide a delicate moment for Senator Barack Obama, who has said he opposes "Don't ask, don't tell" but is also reportedly considering one of its major architects, former Senator Sam Nunn, to be his running mate. Watch a video...

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Society | Politics | Events

Gay Pride Weekend

Around half a million people marched in the streets of Paris, one of the most crowded Gay Pride in the world. A new poll published on Sunday in the JDD shows that a large majority of French people (62%) think that same-sex marriage should be allowed and for the first time a majority (51%) thinks they should be allowed to adopt children, despite the opposition of French President. Eastern Europe Gay Pride marches have been disrupted by right wing extremists in Czech republic and in Bulgaria where the police arrested nationalist opponents trying to attack participants reports AFP. In the U.S., Hundreds of thousands marched from Fifth Avenue to Greenwich village in New York for the 39th annual Gay Pride in Manhattan. Starting off the parade were Governor David Paterson, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (picture below). San Francisco Pride march was also crowded with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (picture above) receiving ovations along the parade for his role in Gay Marriage victory in California. San Francisco Pride Message was this year: "Inclusion Not Tolerance."

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TV | Society | Fun | Ads

Heinz Mayo Ad withdrawn for being Gay

Heinz Deli Mayo Ad withdrawn for being Gay

A new Heinz mayonnaise TV commercial showing two men kissing has been withdrawn after more than 200 complaints in the UK, this is London reports. The ad was launched a week ago for five weeks. It shows a family scene with a young boy and girl getting ready to go to school refering to a man, dressed like a delicatessen worker and with a New York accent making sandwiches in the kitchen, as "mum". Viewers said it was "offensive", "inappropriate" and "unsuitable to be seen by children", while some parents were angry that they had been forced to explain same-sex relationships to their youngsters who asked them about the ad. Nigel Dickie, of Heinz UK, said: "The advertisement, part of a short-run campaign, was intended to be humorous and we apologise to anyone who felt offended." Watch the ad...

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Society | Politics | Events

California's first Gay Marriages

California officials began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples Monday evening after a state Supreme Court ruling legalizing the ceremonies took effect. The May 15 ruling took effect at 5:01 p.m. (8:01 p.m. ET) Monday. Gay and lesbian couples had lined up for hours outside county clerk's offices in anticipation of the decision coming into force. Lesbian rights activists Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 84, were the first same-sex couple to receive a marriage license in San Francisco on Monday June 16th, with Mayor Gavin Newsom presiding over their wedding ceremony (picture). "This is an extraordinary moment in history," Newsom told a cheering, standing-room-only crowd at City Hall. "I think today, marriage as an institution has been strengthened." Watch an AP video...

Source CNN

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Travel | Society | Politics | Events

Norway approves Gay Marriage

Norway's parliament on Wednesday June 11th, 2008, adopted a new marriage law that allows homosexuals to marry and adopt children and permits lesbians to be artificially inseminated, AFP reports. After a heated debate, the members of parliament adopted the text by a vote of 84 to 41. The three centre-left coalition parties in power and two opposition parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals, voted largely in favour of the law, while the Christian Democrats and the far-right Progress Party voted against it. Norway thus became the sixth country in the world to grant homosexuals the right to marry on an equal footing with heterosexuals, according to Norwegian television TV2. "This decision is of an importance comparable to universal suffrage and our law on parity," Labour Party rapporteur Gunn Karin Gjul said during the debate.

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Society | Politics

2008, Year to win Equality for All

The Human Rights Campaign, the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) lobbying group and political action committee in the United States, reminds that it is crucial to support candidates who support LGBT equality: "2008 is the rarest of opportunities - an election year in which we could finally win fair-minded majorities in state legislatures and both houses of Congress, and elect a President who supports equality. Help make 2008 the Year to Win by pledging to vote for fair-minded candidates up and down the ticket and asking your friends and family to do the same. Because it is time to end the reign of bigotry and discrimination in our government... Because LGBT Americans deserve equality in the workplace, the health care system, the religious community, and the laws that shape our family lives... Because hate is not an acceptable response to diversity... Pledge to vote for candidates who will say YES to fairness and equality for all Americans." Learn more on Equality For All in the 2008 elections here.

Source Human Rights Campaign

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HRC | Homophobia | Gay Marriage | Society | Politics

Events | People | Politics | Society

T.R. Knight kicks off Gay-Pride month

Tonight, T.R. Knight will join the Matthew Shepard Foundation to help kick off National Gay-Pride month with a celebration of the California Supreme Court decision and a dusk "commitment to protect our rights" ceremony at the famed West Hollywood hotspot in California, The Abbey. At 8pm, couples from around the nation will commit with a "vow to vote no" and support of the campaign to defeat the November ballot measure that would take away the marriage rights granted by the Supreme Court (see previous post). The event will be officiated by West Hollywood Mayor Jeffrey Prang and witnessed by Judy Shepard and a host of celebrities. Couples will be wearing the Matthew Shepard Erase Hate pendant courtesy of Love and Pride jewelry designer, Udi Behr.

Source Matthew Shepard Foundation

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Events | People | Politics | Society | Matthew Shepard