Hundreds of Ugandan LGBT people and their supporters held a gay-pride parade on a beach in the lakeside town of Entebbe, according to USA Today. The parade is their first public event since a Ugandan court invalidated a publicly criticized anti-gay law. Many marchers wore masks, signaling they did not want to be publicly identified in a country where homosexuals face discrimination; others waved rainbow flags as they danced on a beach.
Speaking of Uganda, that country's president, Yoweri Museveni, is urging parliamentarians not to rush to reintroduce a controversial anti-gay law that was invalidated earlier this month, saying the measure is not a priority and could hurt the country's economic development, LGBTQ Nation reported. Medard Bitekyerezo, a lawmaker who strongly supports the anti-gay measure, said that Museveni formed a committee to look into the concerns of rights activists who challenged the constitutionality of the law. A panel of judges tanked the bill because it was passed during a parliamentary session that lacked a quorum.
Billie Jean King and Elton John will host a tennis match at Royal Albert Hall in London, ESPN.com reported. The longtime friends will coach teams that feature former top-ranked Kim Clijsters and John McEnroe as well as Britain's Tim Henman and 2013 Wimbledon runner-up Sabine Lisicki. King's World Team Tennis Smash Hits event will be held Dec. 7 and benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation. John says the aim is "an AIDS-free future" and "access to lifesaving treatment to more people living with HIV in Africa."
The website Pornhub has discovered that Internet porn users in Russia are more likely to search for videos featuring anal sex than people from any other country, according to the UK Independent. The website said Russian users' preference for those videos exceeded that of users from Western countries including the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. It also found that anal sex was featured in under 6 percent of searches specifically for gay material, and less than the 7.24 percent of "straight" searches.
Its passengers included celebrities, a rabbi and revelers in biblically themed costumes, but Amsterdam's gay-pride parade had its first Jewish boat, according to Forward.com . Following a west-to-east course along the Dutch capital's Prinsengracht canal along with dozens of similarly flamboyant vessels, the Jewish boat was also the only one in the parade isolated by police. With increased violence aimed of late at Jews in the Netherlands and across Europe, authorities weren't taking any chances.
One of the people who has died from Ebola in Sierra Leone was Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, who worked for AIDS Health Foundation. Khan was praised for treating patients who contracted the disease in the outbreak that has led to the deaths of more than 670 people, Justice News Flash reported. The Ebola outbreak is stated to be the largest in history, with deaths having been linked to the disease in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Liberia. Khan was 39, WJLA.com noted.
An adviser to Europe's highest court held that men who have sex with other men should not be automatically barred from donating blood in the EU, according to Courthouse News. In 2009, France's blood agency refused Geoffrey Leger as a blood donor because he is gay. Leger challenged the decision, and an administrative court in Strasbourg asked the European Court of Justice if EU law allows a permanent blanket exclusion of such donors. Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi ruled that just because a man has or had sexual relations with another man does not mean he engages in sexual behavior that warrants a permanent ban on giving blood.
A study in Cyprus showed that openly gay job applicants are about 40 percent less likely to be offered a job interview, International Business Times reported. Anglia Ruskin University's Dr. Nick Drydakis, the author of the research, sent out four applications for each of 9,000 roles that he applied for, with almost identical experience and qualifications. ( Two of the applications were for a heterosexual man and woman, and the other two were for a gay man and a lesbian. In the covering letters for the applications, one set of male and female applicants said they had been volunteers for a charity; the other two claimed to be members of the Cypriot Homosexual Association. )
Transgender Eurovision song contest winner Dana International has lashed out at European leaders following numerous interventions about the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas, Breitbart.com reported. International, who was recently featured on YouTube dancing in a synagogue, said to Israel's critics, "You need to shut your mouths. You have murdered millions and millions of people throughout history. ... International, who was recently featured on YouTube dancing in a synagogue, issued a firmly-worded statement aimed at Israel's critics. She said: "You need to shut your mouths, you have murdered millions and millions of people throughout history. ... There is no nation in Europe who can come in guilt free and criticize Israel."
Israel says it will now allow Jews to immigrate to Israel with their non-Jewish same-sex spouses, according to the Associated Press. In a directive, Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Saar told immigration authorities not to differentiate between married gay and straight couples. Israel does not permit gays to marry in the country, but recognizes same-sex marriages if they were performed legally abroad.
Hundreds of Nepal's LGBT citizens paraded through Nepal's capital, Katmandu, to celebrate Gaijatra, a Hindu festival overtaken each year by the country's gay community and cheered by onlookers, according to LGBTQ Nation. In the socially conservative Hindu-majority nation, the festival was traditionally the only day people felt free to truly be who they want to be, although norms are apparently changing quickly. A government committee is recommending same-sex marriage be guaranteed in a new constitution, giving gay and lesbian couples the right to adopt, buy joint property, open joint bank accounts and inherit from one another.
A lesbian couple from Russia married in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and want asylum there to escape Russia's homophobic laws, according to Gay Star News. The couple, Marina Mironova, 38, and Oxana Tomofeeva, 36, wore matching outfits at their marriage ceremony at Buenos Aires City Civil Registry on July 15. The couple said living in Russia as a lesbian couple in the midst of increasing hostility towards the LGBTI community made them fear for their safety and the safety of their 16-year-old son.
