In France, demonstrators gathered in 75 cities to oppose a bill that would allow gay marriage and adoption, the Huffington Post reported. However, the most indelible image from that development is likely to be a photo of two young women kissing in the middle of the demonstrators. AFP photographer Gerard Julien took the picture—which has been retweeted thousands of times—which was shot during the rally in the city of Marseille. The two women are seen kissing in the forefront while faces of shocked protesters can be seen in the background.
Rosario Crocetta, a politician from the Italian Partito Democratico party, has become the first openly gay governor of Sicily, Gay Star News reported. He won the election on the Italian island with more than 30 percent of the votes, beating the right-wing PDL (Popolo delle Liberta) that has governed Sicily for the last decade. Crocetta is Italy's second openly gay governor, after Puglia's Nichi Vendola.
In Brazil, a 39-year-old trans individual was stoned to death in the city of Aracaju, according to Gay Star News. The victim, known locally as "Madona" and whose birth name was Amos Chagas Lima, died from her wounds after a group of people attacked her with cobblestones. Keila Simpson, president of the National Counsel to Combat Discrimination of the Secretary of Human Rights to the President of Brazil, said, "Since January we have had over 100 transgender people murdered here—that means over 10 people murdered every month. ... People here in Brazil think that if they don't like someone, like a trans person, they have a right to murder."
In Jamaica, Maurice Tomlinson is suing the country's major television stations, CVM TV and TVJ, for refusing to run pro-gay ads, according to Gay Star News. Tomlinson, who appears in the latest ad, is suing on the basis of breach of his constitutional rights. He said, "The stations' refusal to air the 'Love and Respect' ad is totally arbitrary and reflects the growing dominance of the powerful fundamentalist religious right in dictating public discourse."
In Cape Town, South Africa, six lesbians from Gugulethu were brutally beaten at a gas station, IOL News reported. One of the women, 22, said that a man charged toward the group and started punching one of her friends without provocation. He then attacked the other women, allegedly shouting, "These f***ing lesbians—we must beat them up until they stop."
Activists around the world celebrated the 16th Intersex Awareness Day (IAD) Oct. 26, calling for an end to stigmatization and discrimination, Gay Star News reported. Intersex people have physical differences that may include genetic, hormonal or genital differences. The now-defunct Intersex Society of North America started Intersex Awareness Day in 1996 with a demonstration outside the annual conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Boston.
In Australia, New South Wales authorities have reopened the investigation into a gay man's death to see if it's linked to the suspicious deaths of three other men that occured around the same time, according to Gay Star News. U.S.-born mathematician Scott Johnson's body was found below cliffs near Manly Beach in northern Sydney 24 years ago; however, police at the time ruled the death a suicide. Around the same time on the city's southern beaches, several gay men are believed to have been bashed and then thrown off cliffs—situations that were also initally deemed suicides.
The UK publication The Independent recently spotlighted a returning trend in gay British clubs: hip-hop nights. The events—which organizers claim to be the UK's first pure hip-hop gay nights for several years—come as the urban music scene has been forced to readdress its attitude to homosexuality after U.S. songwriter Frank Ocean revealed that his first love was a man. Two such events are "It's a Hard Cock Life" (HCL)—a pun on Jay-Z's hit "It's a Hard Knock Life"—and "Pac Man," which originally opened in 2001 but closed in 2006.
In Taiwan, tens of thousands of people marched through Taipei to push for the legalization of same-sex marriage as the island marked its 10th annual Gay Pride event, according to Agence France-Presse. Mu Chuan, one of the rally's organizers, said, "The theme this year is to fight for equal rights on marriage. Gay people are also tax-paying citizens and we demand the same basic right as any heterosexual couples." Taiwan is one of the most culturally liberal societies in East Asia; gay-rights groups have been urging the government for years to legalize marriage equality.
A new report says that gay Europeans spend up to 50 billion euros ($65 billion U.S.) each year on tourism, according to Gay Star News. The Gay European Tourism Association has estimated the number of openly gay people in Europe is about 26 million—2.6 percent of the population. The figure ranges from 5-10 percent in Western Europe to just 0.25 percent in Turkey and the former Soviet states.
In London, a man died in a sauna that gay men frequented, according to Gay Star News. Police and paramedics were called to help save three men who had collapsed in Pleasuredrome, a venue in Cornwall Road, Waterloo. While it has not been confirmed, police reports say it was likely drug-related; a post mortem will be conducted soon.
