In the UK, Kelly Farrugia, 19, has been sent to a juvenile-custody facility for five years after stabbing girlfriend Kirsty Brown, 25, Advocate.com reported. Farrugia attacked Brown Dec. 20, 2011, after looking at Brown's cell phone while she was asleep, and then refused to call for an ambulance. Judge Paul Glenn said that while he accepted "the view of the probation officer" of Farrugia that she poses "a risk to future partners," he said she was still "a person with good qualities."
British fashion designer John Gallianowho was found guilty last year of making anti-Semitic remarkshas been stripped of the prestigious French honor Legion d'Honneur, the BBC reported. The decision was published in a decree that French President Francois Hollande signed. Galliano lost his job as artistic director of Dior over the comments he made in a Parisian bar.
The Honorable Judith Collins, New Zealand's minister of justice, has come out in favor of marriage equality, according to Pink News. This is an about-face for Collins, who once questioned if same-sex unions were a human-rights issue at all. On the subject of gender identity, she once said, "There is no need to make any person a protected species." However, she said recently, "It doesn't hurt for us to acknowledge people's diversityit actually helps us."
The U.S. State Department issued a release condemning Zimbabwe's government for "the violent arrest and detention of 44 members of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe" Aug. 11 and a second raid nine days later. The department added that "several of these members sustained serious medical injuries from the attacks and were detained without charges." Additionally, the department urged Zimbabwe's government "to end this pattern of abuse and to eradicate the culture of impunity that allows members of the security sector to continue to violate the rights of the Zimbabwean people."
The breast-feeding support group La Leche League International is reconsidering its policies limiting leadership roles to women after rejecting a transgender man, according to Advocate.com . Canadian Trevor MacDonald, who transitioned to male years ago but kept his female reproductive organs, has been breast-feeding his son despite having little breast tissue left after surgery. He asked about taking a leadership position in La Leche, but was turned down.
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said at the annual meeting of the Socialist Party that the country's government will introduce a marriage-equality bill to Parliament in October, Advocate.com reported. He added that the measure "would also allow [same-sex couples] to form families and adopt children." France has offered marriage-like civil partnerships since the late 1990s, but those do not bestow adoption rights.
Days after photos of a naked Prince Harry surfaced, Vivid Entertainment have offered the British royal $10 million to star in an adult film, according to E! Online. In a letter, Vivid CEO Steven Hirsch wrote, "Dear Royal Sir, we were amused and pleased by the photos of your recent frolic in Las Vegas. ... We would like to offer you the opportunity to truly become the coolest Prince of all time, by starring in a fun, sexy, big-budget adult film called The Trouble with Harry."
The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) has its first openly gay president in Anna Reid, M.D., Pink News reported. Reid officially became the president of the CMA at their national convention in Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, where she works as an emergency-room physician. Reid will lead the organizationwhich as 76,000 membersfor a year. In her inaugural address to the CMA, she spoke about the country's aboriginal people and the need for doctors to collaborate.
In Germany, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats Union (CDU) party has stirred controversy by saying the country's future "lies in the hands of families [and] not in same-sex partnerships," Pink News noted. Katherina Reiche told the newspaper Bild that the rise of same-sex unions was "next to the euro crisis [as] the biggest threat to German prosperity." Thousands of people have joined a protest Facebook group called No Future with Katherina Reiche.
Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has again refuted claims about the sexuality of her husband, according to Pink News. For some reason, Thorning-Schmidt and husband Stephen Kinnock told tax inspectors in 2010 that he was "bisexual/homosexual." Thorning-Schmidt said, "We live in an unusual way, since we don't live together. He lives in London and I live in Copenhagen," adding she has no idea why the accountant made the comment about Kinnock's sexuality.