HIV Research for Prevention 2014 ( HIV R4P )—the world's only global scientific meeting dedicated exclusively to biomedical HIV prevention research, including treatment as prevention, microbicides, pre-exposure prophylaxis ( PrEP ), vaccines and circumcision—is taking place in Cape Town, South Africa, on Oct. 28-31, according to a press release. Among those speaking/attending are Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, Anatoli Kamali of the MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit on AIDS and Helen Rees of Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute in South Africa.
The CEO of a Chinese e-commerce company has posted a banned gay advert on social media that has since gone viral, according to Gay Star News. The poster did not pass censors; however, Li Guoqing uploaded the advert to his Weibo account—the Chinese version of Twitter—anyway, making Dangdang the first mainland company to openly support LGBTI people. The poster was for the "Dare to Do, Dare to Be" campaign, which celebrates the company's 15th anniversary.
Designers Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce were ruled not guilty of tax evasion by Italy's highest court, according to Forbes. The ruling overturned two sentences by lower courts that found them guilty of tax evasion, imposing 18-month jail sentences. Prosecutors had wanted the pair locked up for heftier three-year prison terms, but now the pair have been vindicated in the face of accusations they hid hundreds of millions of Euros.
CONFEX, a LGBT conferences and exhibitions company in Latin America, has confirmed the city of Merida in Mexico's Yucatan as the host of the fifth edition of its LGBT business expo, according to a press release. The expo is scheduled to take place Sept. 18-19, 2015. Designed to maximize networking business and educational opportunities, the event has continually grown since its inaugural event in 2011 in Puerto Vallarta, doubling in scale with its 2012 edition in Cancun and continued its growth in 2013's International LGBT Business Expo in Guadalajara, Mexico and 2014's edition in Vallarta-Nayarit. See www.lgbtconfex.com .
In Spain, a teenage girl was hospitalized after getting attacked with stones by her classmates because she's lesbian, Gay Star News noted. She was with a gay male friend as they were walking from home from school in Spain's Murcia region. The teens were attacked by three schoolmates who followed them out of school grounds in the town of Caravaca de la Cruz. The attackers allegedly shouted terms such as "dyke" and "poofter" at the two classmates.
LGBTI Liberians have gone into hiding after church leaders said Ebola was a punishment from God for homosexuality, Gay Star News noted. LGBTI people in the capital of Monrovia have been harassed, beaten and a few have had their cars smashed. Liberia is the country worst hit by the current Ebola outbreak, with 4,500 infections and 2,700 deaths, and has enforced a curfew that people such as activist Leroy Ponpon said police used as an excuse not to help LGBTI people who asked for protection.
A right-wing Malaysian newspaper, Mingguan Malaysia, has said supporting oppositon leader Anwar Ibrahim means supporting the international LGBTI rights movement ahead of his sodomy trial, according to Gay Star News. Anwar has been prosecuted under the country's colonial anti-gay law four times in what LGBTI groups have called a politically motivated prosecution. He is appealing his March sentence of five years in jail.
Human Rights Watch has said that the public prosecutor of Perugia, Italy, should immediately drop charges against six gay rights activists accused of disturbing the peace because they kissed during a demonstration in March, SDGLN.com reported. The police conducted an identity check on the three men and three women after they held a spontaneous, uncoordinated protest against an anti-gay-marriage group calling itself the Sentinelle in Piedi, or Standing Sentries. "The charges would be laughable if they didn't reflect exactly the anti-gay sentiment the activists are fighting against," said Judith Sunderland, senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch.
In London, transport authorities have launched an investigation after a gay couple were reportedly thrown off a bus for kissing in August, The Guardian reported. Jack James, 23, said he and his partner were ordered off a number 89 bus near Blackheath in southeast London by the driver, who then reportedly verbally abused them. Ken Davidson, transport for London's head of bus operations, said, "All customers have the right to use our services without fear of being abused, and offensive behavior is completely unacceptable."
In New South Wales in Australia, anti-gay gangs are reportedly targeting gay men at a cruising spot known as Braye Park, The Newcastle Herald noted. The publication reported that more than 100 men go to the park daily for casual sex. However, they have been followed by groups of young men keen to assault them in what some victims have described as serious hate crimes.
Concerned locals have called on Leicester Police to hunt a mystery monk who was circulating anti-gay leaflets in the UK city, according to Gay Star News. A man matching that description has previously been reported circulating anti-LGBTI material in cities around Britain from Brighton to Preston. Leicester police said they responded to concerns from individuals upset and offended by leaflets pushed through their doors, comparing homosexuality to perversion and pedophilia, and urging LGBT people to repent. The items even name a Gay Star News reporter, Jane Fae, who has written articles about this situation.
Latvia has banned a Russian actor from entering the country after he said gay people should be "burned alive," according to Gay Star News. Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said Ivan Okhlobystin, the controversial former priest, would not be allowed to give a one-man show about religion in Riga on Nov. 7. In December last year, Okhlobystin caused an international outrage after he said he would burn all gay people alive in the oven, calling them a "living danger to my children."
In the Philippines, prosecutors rejected a motion filed by the camp of U.S. Marine Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton, who sought to reduce the murder complaint filed against him to homicide, saying it would be premature to do so, GMANetwork.com reported. The 19-year-old Marine is the suspect in killing transgender woman Jeffrey "Jennifer" Laude, who was found dead in a motel Oct. 11. The motion was one of three filed by the defense, led by lawyer Rowena Garcia-Flores, during the preliminary investigation at the Olongapo Hall of Justice.
