In Mexico, two common anti-gay words have been outlawed, Global Post reported. The Supreme Court ruled "puñal" and "maricon," which mean "faggot," constitute hate speech and are no longer protected as freedom of expression under the constitution. A majority of the magistrates voted in favor of a journalist who sued a reporter at a rival newspaper who had written a column referring to him as "puñal" and his colleagues as "maricones."
In her first move as Israel's new health minister, Yael German instructed the ministry staff to reconsider the ban on accepting blood donations from gay men, Gay Star News reported. In Israel, gay men as well as people who are HIV-positive, have used drugs or have been exposed to mad-cow disease are prohibited, among others. Israel's ban, which is also present in many other countries, has been in effect since 1980. The LGBT community has been consistently campaigning for the ban to be listed, saying it amounts to discrimination.
British singer Duncan James has said he was "so frightened" when The News of the World broke the news that he was bisexual that he had to flee the country, according to Digital Spy. The 34-year-old singer, who is a quarter of boyband Blue, said that when the tabloid newspaper printed the article in 2009, he "couldn't even be in the UK." Speaking on ITV2's The Big Reunion, James revealed he had "a secret undercover relationship" with one of Blue's male backing dancers, adding, "I actually really liked him and I couldn't tell anybody."
The international site misterbnb ( www.misterbnb.com ) has launched—and it's being advertised as "the first short-term apartment rental website in the world dedicated to a community of gay and gay-friendly travelers to provide insurance to its users," according to a press release. Although the site is primarily aimed at a gay audience, misterbnb is also open to all travelers and open-minded owners. (Hosts enroll their apartments for free. Future tenants can choose what suits them.) French model Johan Akan will be the misterbnb brand ambassador.
Justin Welby, the head of the Church of England, plans to meet with gay activist Peter Tatchell to discuss gay marriage and LGBT rights in Africa, according to Gay Star News. Welby pledged to meet Tatchell after the veteran campaigner sent him an open letter questioning the church's attitudes on LGBT issues. The meeting will take place shortly after Easter.
In Somalia, a gay teen was allegedly stoned to death as punishment for his sexual orientation, according to Gay Star News. The 18-year-old was buried in a hole up to his chest and pelted with rocks. Mohamed Ali Baashi was initially grabbed by members of the al-Queda link group Al-Shabaab about 50 miles from the capital, Mogadishu.
In Australia, Sydney police have launched an internal investigation into the treatment of a young man at the city's famous Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras after onlookers captured footage of him being violently thrown to the ground, according to the Guardian. The video shows Jamie Jackson, 18, being forced down heavily by a police officer who then presses his foot down on Jackson's back. It also shows Jackson, who appears to have previously sustained a head injury, sobbing on the pavement.
In Russia, Press Secretary of the Kostroma Oblast Court Julia Medvedeva announced the court reversed a ban on gay-pride marches in the region and on two rallies against the local law prohibiting propaganda of homosexuality among minors, Gay Star News reported. The court found that the rallies and marches did not constitute as "propaganda of homosexuality," but saw them as methods of conveying information to the public. A bill banning the "propaganda of homosexuality" was voted into law in the Kostroma region in February 2012.
Popular Colombian model Natalia Paris thinks chicken injected with hormones can "turn" a child gay, the Huffington Post noted. The model reportedly made the comments as she greeted fans outside a store in Bogota. Paris claims girls between the ages of 7 and 10 are starting to develop sooner because hormones in poultry make everything in the body accelerate. "That's why those boys who are eating those chickens. ... They're starting to turn into homosexuals," she added. Facebook users criticized Paris for the remarks.
Primary school teacher Lucy Meadows was found dead at her home in Accrington, Lancashire, England, according to The New Statesman. The death of Meadows, 32—who taught at St. Mary Magdalene's School—is not being treated as suspicious; an inquest will be held. In December 2012, The Daily Mail ran a story with the headline "Shock at CofE [Church of England] school where Mr. Upton will return after Christmas as Miss Meadows." Helen Belcher, director of Trans Media Watch, claimed Meadows had committed suicide. Gay Star News noted, however, that a coroner had not verified this claim.
Canada's House of Commons passed a bill that would make it illegal to discriminate against transgender individuals, according to CBC.ca. The Opposition private member's legislation passed by a vote of 149-137, with the crucial support of 18 Conservatives, including four cabinet ministers. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Labor Minister Lisa Raitt and Heritage Minister James Moore were among the Conservatives who supported the measure.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko denied being aware of German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle's sexual orientation when he said he would rather be a dictator than gay, according to Euronews.com . However, Lukashenko also apparently said, "I forgive women for their lesbianism, but will never in my lifetime forgive men for being gay. … A woman becomes a lesbian only if we men are so wretched."
New York University plans to have a flagship campus in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates—but controversy has erupted over the Middle East campus possibly barring gay students, according to Gay Star News. Sexton has told NYU professors raising concerns if gay students would be unwelcome in Abu Dhabi that "I would say to any student here that wants to go to the Abu Dhabi campus, 'Go.' Gay students, Israeli students, I refuse to think in those categories." NYU board members said they are fully behind Sexton and will back the university's further expansions scheduled for completion in 2014, despite the professors' opposition.
The Mexican state of Colima hosted its first same-sex wedding last month, according to On Top Magazine. The men, both 30, married in the town of Cuauhtemoc. The town's mayor, Indira Vizcaino Silva, said that two additional gay couples are set to marry and that seven couples have also filed formal requests. Mexico City, a federal district much like the District of Columbia, is the only municipality in the nation that has legalized marriage for gay and lesbian couples.
A Christian pastor in South Africa has suggested that Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius—who is currently standing trial for the murder of his girlfriend—has been "cursed" for supporting gay rights, according to Pink News. Oscar Bougardt, a pastor with the Cavalry Hope Ministries, claimed on his Facebook page that Pistorius is "cursed for openly supporting homosexuals." Pistorius is currently on bail; his trial starts June 4.
Christopher Robson, a founding member of the Irish Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN), has died following a short illness, Pink News reported. "Christopher Robson was a huge force for wide-ranging social progress and the achievement of civil rights in Ireland over more than 30 years," GLEN said in a statement following his death. A founding member of the Dublin Lesbian and Gay Men's Collective, Robson helped to establish Gay Health Action—Ireland's first group to respond to the AIDS crisis.
UK Black Pride has announced that it will be featured in the capital's main gay festival for the first time ever, on June 29, according to Pink News. It also marks a "coming home" for UK Black Pride, which has not participated in recent London Pride activities because of concerns about the structural exclusion of the capital's diverse LGBT communities.
Despite a police ban, hundreds of thousands of people staged a final protest in Paris against a French bill that would legalize same-sex marriage and adoption, the BBC reported. There were scuffles and police fired tear gas as the protest spilled over onto the Champs Elysees, the avenue that runs past the president's palace. France's Senate is due to debate the bill next month after the lower house of parliament passed it.
New Zealand's AIDS Epidemiology Group has released figures for new HIV diagnoses in 2012—and has found they are up from 2011, according to Gay Star News. In total 170 people were diagnosed with HIV in 2012, of which 87 are believed to be MSM (men who have sex with men); the previous year, 69 MSM were diagnosed with HIV—the lowest number in 10 years in New Zealand.
Ronald Bentley Main, a real-estate agent and former president of the Greater Seattle Business Association (LGBT business chamber), died after being attacked inside his Chapala, Mexico, home, according to a Gayapolis.com item. Main's son, Todd Schwarzenbach, said that police discovered a semiconscious Main, 66, suffering multiple stab wounds, on the kitchen floor of his home. In addition, Main's housemate of many years, 48-year-old Martin Orozco Gutierrez, was found stabbed and bludgeoned in a hallway.
The city administration of Syktyvkar, capital of the Russian republic of Komi, announced that it's banning a planned gay-pride parade, according to Gay Star News. The authorities explained March 25 that the ban on the March 31 event was in response to "requests from the city's religious and public organizations not to allow public events promoting homosexual values." On the same day, while speaking on local TV live, pride organizer Artem Kalinin was badly beaten by Alex Kolegov, Syktyvkar's neo-Nazi leader, in front of the journalists.
A survey shows that Albania is the most anti-gay country in Europe, Gay Star News noted. Fifty-three percent of the country's residents are against homosexuality, according to the European Social Survey (ESS), which intends to track the changing trends of social attitudes in European countries. (The survey did not include countries in the western Balkans of Europe, where anti-gay sentiment is arguably stronger.) The most liberal ESS results came from Sweden and the Netherlands, with only 3 percent of participants believing "gays and lesbians should not be free to live life as they wish."
