Man murdered in London cruising area
A 24-year-old bar manager was kicked and punched to death on London's cruisy Clapham Common Oct. 16.
Jody Dobrowski was attacked after midnight by two men who shouted antigay slurs as they bashed him, police said. Several other cruisers heard the screaming and Dobrowski's cries.
Police officers later found Dobrowski alive, but he died the next day at St. George's Hospital.
'Jody Dobrowski died from severe head, neck and facial injuries,' Detective Chief Inspector Nick Scola told The Times. 'He was the victim of a sustained and violent assault.'
Two men were charged with the murder on Oct. 22.
Thomas Pickford, 25, who is unemployed and homeless, and Scott Walker, 33, a decorator from South London, were scheduled to appear in court Oct. 24.
Turkish gay group survives shutdown attempt
Turkey's Kaos Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Organization has survived a legal attempt by Ankara Deputy Governor Selahattin Ekremoglu to shut the group down.
The 11-year-old organization incurred Ekremoglu's wrath when it received official recognition as a nongovernmental organization from the Ministry of the Interior. He said the group's existence violated Turkish Civil Code articles that prohibit organizations that threaten morality.
But on Oct. 12, Ankara prosecutor Kursat Kayral disagreed, declaring that homosexuality is neither a disorder nor immoral.
Sperm donor must support offspring
A Swedish lesbian who broke up with her girlfriend has succeeded in forcing a friend who donated sperm so the couple could have children to begin paying child support, Radio Sweden reported Oct. 13.
The unnamed man from the city of Örebro lost an appeal to Sweden's highest court, which said he is the legal father of the three children, who were born in the early 1990s.
The man argued that his agreement with the lesbians was that he would have no responsibility for the children, though he could visit them on occasion.
However, just prior to their breakup, he said, the women pressured him to sign a document admitting paternity. The children's mother then quickly demanded maintenance payments, the report said.
A Swedish activist and former journalist who said she knows the biological mother took issue with the media's reporting on the case, however.
Elisabet Qvarford said: 'When the couple split up, the biological mother was unemployed and the other mother was studying. When the biological mother tried to get a kind of parental welfare as a single mum, the authorities said she could not get that since the three kids had a father who should pay. The authorities then took the dad to court to make him pay for his kids. This has been a terrible case for the mum who has tried all means to protect her children from the publicity and herself refused to be interviewed. ... She has been portrayed in the media as a bitchy, lesbian golddigger when all she wanted was to be able to buy her kids shoes.'
Marriage bill
introduced in Austria
The Green Party introduced a same-sex marriage bill in Austria's Parliament on Oct. 19, the gay group Rechtskomitee Lambda reported.
'Registered partnership is the model of the past century', said Lambda President Helmut Graupner. 'What we are in need of today are not statutory ghettos for homosexuals ( registered partnership ) and heterosexuals ( marriage ) but simply equal rights for all.'
The bill should see preliminary action in Parliament by January.
Unknown gay group takes credit for fake bombs
The previously unknown 'Gay Power Brigade' claimed responsibility for planting 13 fake bombs around Warsaw on Oct. 20.
Much of the Polish capital ground to a halt during morning rush hour as citizens began to report the devices to police.
'The 'bombs' were very professionally done, and it was only after thorough checks that officials were able to say we were dealing with fakes,' Interior Minister Ryszard Kalisz told the Agence France-Presse news wire service.
In an e-mail to media, the gay brigade said: 'You paralyze our life, we'll paralyze yours' — a reference to, among other things, a gay-pride-parade ban issued by Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski, who is a candidate for president.
Kaczynski said he didn't believe gays were responsible for the fake bombs.
'Gay groups are very well organized but not for this type of operation,' he said.
The city is offering a $30,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the people who planted the devices.
Lesbians form group
in Kyrgyzstan
A lesbian organization has formed in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan after several women were kicked out of a Bishkek cafe because two of them kissed, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting said this month.
'After this incident, when we were thrown out of the cafe like dogs, we decided to gather together and create an organization which could protect our rights, the rights of lesbians,' said Labris cofounder Sasha Kim, a law student.
'This will take years, and perhaps several generations,' another group member, identified only as Sveta, told IWPR. 'But we have come out of the underground and have been the first to do so.
'If we were not certain that we could stand up for our rights, gain acceptance from society, love each other openly like everyone else, register our marriages legally and have families, we would not have gathered together to fight.'
New Zealand gets
five gay MPs
New Zealand's 122-member Parliament has five openly gay members following the September elections, the Sydney Star Observer reported.
Labour MPs Tim Barnett and Chris Carter were re-elected, as was transsexual Labour MP Georgina Beyer. Labour MP Maryan Street and National Party MP Christopher Finlayson were elected for the first time.
'It will have some impact on Parliament as a whole because having an openly gay MP in your party allows you to see and understand some of the issues that affect LGBT people,' activist Calum Bennachie told the paper.
Lesbian selected for New South Wales Parliament
A lesbian was elected to the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales in late September.
Penny Sharpe, 34, was chosen by Parliament to fill a vacancy in the Legislative Council.
'Yes, I am gay,' Sharpe told reporters. 'Yes I have two children. ... Beyond saying that I have been in a relationship for 12 years and I have two children, I am not saying anything. No other parliamentarians are asked about their families and how their children are conceived and I don't see why I have to. I have children to protect and I don't want to go into it.'
Assistance: Bill Kelley
