Former Star Trek actor George Takei has reasserted his position that next year's Winter Olympics should be moved from Sochi to Vancouver because of Russia's "horrific" and "homophobic" anti-gay laws, according to the Winnipeg Free Press. The gay actor, 76, supports an online petition urging the International Olympic Committee to relocate the Feb. 7-23, 2014, sporting spectacle to Vancouver, which successfully held the last Winter Games in 2010. The petition has attracted roughly 160,000 signatures.
A coroner has ruled that a 23-year-old assistant of gay British artist David Hockney died from drinking acid after taking various drugs, according to a BBC News report. Dominic Elliott died after drinking household drain cleaner at the artist's home in East Yorkshire in March. A two-day inquest in Hull heard that Elliott drank the liquid after "partying" with his partner John Fitzherbert, 48. Fitzherbert was Hockney's partner for 20 years, and still lives at the artist's home and runs his domestic affairs.
In China, new health figures reveal that only 20 percent of HIV-positive people there contracted the virus through unsafe sex with someone of the same gender, according to Gay Star News. Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention AIDS Center director Professor Wu Zunyou released the figures during the recent National Health and Family Planning Commission hearings—and the numbers also show that heterosexual sex account for 70 percent of infections. Zunyou added that since their introduction a decade ago, close to 23 million people in China were now receiving antiretroviral therapies.
A Uganda lesbian is in a coma after a mob reportedly attacked her, Gay Star News reported. Jennifer Ikanza, 25, received a phone call from a woman who feared her husband would discover she was bisexual and would be killed if he found out. As Ikanza rushed to the woman's aid, a mob went after her. Frank Mugisha, from Sexual Minorities Uganda, has said the attack was not a hate crime and was more likely a random act of violence, even though some have implied the phone call was a trap.
In Ireland, a young gay man claims he has been discriminated against from giving blood, despite never being sexually active, Pink News reported. Tomas Heneghan, 21, has donated blood since he was 18; however, he recently received a letter from a doctor at the Irish Blood Transfusion Service asking him to contact her to discuss a query about previous donations. The service has a lifetime blood-donation ban on any man who has ever had sex with another man. In 2011, England, Wales and Scotland introduced a one-year deferral for gay and bisexual men who wish to donate blood; they can donate, providing they refrain from having sex with men for 12 months.
In Jamaica, 41-year-old openly gay man Dean Moriah was fatally stabbed, according to Minority-Insight. (Moriah was an entertainment coordinator of Bogue Village in Montego Bay.) Additionally, his house was set on fire with his body inside and his car was stolen. In the same parish/location in Jamaica, on July 22, 16-year-old transgender individual Dwayne Jones was mobbed, stabbed, beaten and shot after attended a local party.
Jamaica's assistant commissioner of police, Devon Watkis, has claimed that LGBT people are no more at risk of being victims of crime than any other group, Gay Star News reported. He told the Jamaica Gleaner, "Our numbers generally show that we have had some violence committed against the citizens of Jamaica, inclusive of all groups." A 17-year-old boy dressed in traditonal female attire was stabbed to death for dancing with another boy in July and LGBT people have been attacked in their homes, including an Aug. 22 incident where five gay men had to barricade themselves in their house to avoid being beaten by a mob. In addition, out gay man Dean Moriah was fatally stabbed recently.
In Denmark, approximately 10,000 people got an early start on Copenhagen Pride festivities by marching against Russia's recently passed anti-gay law, according to CPHPost.dk. Protestors taking part in the "To Russia with Love" demonstration gathered in front of Christiansborg, the house of parliament, and then marched to the Russian Embassy, where they submitted signatures of people opposing the law.
South Africa's minister of justice confirmed that the government intends to introduce the concept of hate-crimes law for the first time after more than 170,000 people from 175 nations joined one of the largest international campaigns ever hosted on Change.org, according to a media release. Ndumie Funda—founder of Luleki Sizwe, a South African activist group—launched the campaign following escalated violence against LGBT people in the country, particularly the so-called "corrective" rape and murder of lesbians and transgender men. Funda said that, each year, more than 500 women report being the victims of "corrective" rape in South Africa, and over the past decade 31 lesbians have been murdered in the country because of their sexuality.
The rate of new HIV diagnoses in the Philippines has broken records for the fifth time in seven months, with 449 new infections recorded, according to Gay Star News. July's total beat June's record of 431 new infections, which in turn had broken May's record of 415. More than 91 percent of the new infections were sexually transmitted, with men who have sex with men accounting for 84 percent of those. LGBT coalition Dangal criticized those in the majority Catholic nation who opposed the use of condoms to stop the spread of the virus.
Anglo-Dutch firm Unilever says it has ordered the withdrawal of a Flora margarine advertisement in South Africa that has been condemned as anti-gay, according to BBC News. The ad features a bullet with the words "Uhh, dad I'm gay" flying towards a heart made of china; in addition, there's a pink background with the tagline "You need a strong heart today" near the Flora logo. "This advert was prepared by an external agency in South Africa and was not approved by anyone at Unilever," the company posted on its Twitter feed.
A gay man in New Zealand has spoke out after being banned from a bar for dressing in women's clothing, Gay Star News noted. Jamen Staiger, 25, was reportedly thrown out of the Bahama Hut in Tauranga after less than a minute when the bouncers accused him of being "too drunk." But when a friend of Staiger informed them he did not drink, they admitted that it was Staiger's attire that purportedly presented a problem. Staiger—who has had trouble with the security at the Bahama Hut in the past because of his appearance— was born with Klinefelter's syndrome, a genetic condition in men that gives them an extra X chromosome and can result in a feminine appearance. He lives as a male, but often dresses as a female when going out.
French actor Alain Delon has said gay people go against human nature, according to Gay Star News. The 77-year-old actor made the comments in reference to the recently passed bill legalizing same-sex marriage and adoption. Asked about controversial comments in July when he admitted he was against same-sex couples having children, Delon said, "Yes, it is against nature, I'm sorry. We are here to love a woman, to woo a woman, not to flirt with or get picked up by guys." He added that he doesn't care about gay marriage, but he is against adoption.
