Openly gay German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has lost that job after his party failed to win enough of the vote to retain his seat in parliament, Gay Star News reported. Westerwelle's Free Democratic Party received 4.8 percent of the vote—and 5 percent was needed to retain his seat. Westerwelle came out publicly when he attended Chancellor Angela Merkel's 50th birthday party with long-term partner Michael Mronz in 2004; the couple formally entered into a registered partnership in 2011.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 81, has said that God demands he speak out for LGBT rights, according to Gay Star News. Ahead of Butler University and neighboring Christian Theological Seminary naming a center for Tutu, he said, "People took some part of us and used it to discriminate against us. In our case, it was our ethnicity; it's precisely the same thing for sexual orientation. People are killed because they're gay." Tutu, an anti-apartheid champion, has also welcomed the new pope and the pontiff's softer line on gay people.
Russia's culture minister, Vladimir Medina, has denied that composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was gay, according to Gay Star News. The sexuality of the composer is well-documented but now Tchaikovsky is being forced back into the closet so the government will support a biopic about his life. The minister's view contradicts Russian President Vladimir Putin, who appears to accept the composer was gay—although Putin has added, "We do not love him for it." Medina has also denied the sexuality of another Russian figure: Prince Felix Yusupov, best-known for helping in the assassiation of faith healer Grigori Rasputin.
In Toronto, several dozen residents of the Mimico neighborhood drew chalk flowers and waved rainbow flags in a park to support a gay couple (Bram Zeidenberg and Jamie Berardi) who claimed they were "embarrassed" and "humiliated" in an area restaurant, according to MetroNews.ca. Zeidenberg said they in Canadiana restaurant waiting for a business meeting when a waitress loudly said they couldn't sit together. The owner, Stefanos Stavropoulos, however, said he was told the couple's behavior was inappropriate—including putting their hands on each other's groins—and has denied anti-gay sentiment had anything to do with how the couple was treated.
In Taiwan, more than 1,200 people joined a mock "wedding banquet" aimed at gathering support for a same-sex marriage bill parliament will be debating soon, according to SCMP.com . Participants sat around tables decorated with red cloths printed with the Chinese character for "wedding," as they had dinner, saw live performances and watched a video recording of local celebrities showing support. Gay and lesbian groups in Taiwan, one of Asia's more liberal societies, have been urging the government for years to make same-sex unions legal.
The government of Oman is suing the editor of the tabloid The Week after suspending it from publication for running a story depicting the Gulf state as more tolerant toward homosexuality than its neighbors, according to Lebanon's The Daily Star. Homosexuality is punishable by law in a number of primarily Muslim countries, including Oman. However, activists say it is generally more tolerant than in countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, where those charged with being gay face the death penalty. The Week subsequently ran an apology, saying "there was never any intention to knowingly or unknowingly cause harm, offend or hurt the sentiments of the people with our article."
In France, one of the first gay men to marry under a landmark new law has been sent to prison for beating up his new spouse just hours after tying the knot, according to an Inquirer.net item. Police in the northern city of Alencon said they had arrested the 22-year-old man after being called to the couple's home. The man, who also attacked and injured two policemen, appeared in court under a fast-track trial process. Despite an appeal for leniency from his new spouse, he was given a two-year prison term, six months of which were suspended.
A gay filmmaker who has been imprisoned in Egypt—seemingly without cause—has been on a hunger strike since Sept. 16, according to Advocate.com . Canadian filmmaker John Greyson, along with Tarek Loubani M.D., were arrested Aug. 16. In addition to actress Sarah Polley and directors Atom Egoyan and Alex Gibney speaking out on their behalf at the Toronto Film Festival, an online petition to release the two have the backing of more than 100,000 people, including Ben Affleck and Charlize Theron. Greyson was praised for his 1996 film Lilies, and has directed episodes of shows like Queer As Folk and Paradise Falls.
Pre-teen Dutch children raised by female same-sex parents scored significantly higher on core principles of democratic citizenship than their peers in heterosexual-parent families, according to a new report the Williams Institute announced. The 32 children raised by female couples were matched with 32 children reared by opposite-sex parents on the bases of age, gender, parental educational level and parental ethnicity. The report stated that the findings suggest that growing up in a nontraditional family may be associated with a greater appreciation of diversity and the development of good citizenship.
Members of the M5S ("MoVimento 5 Stelle," or Five Star MoVement) party interrupted a parliamentary debate to hold a same-sex kissing demonstration in support of expanding the country's anti-discrimination law to include the LGBT community, according to Raw Story. The new measure, which expands a 1993 law to ban "crimes motivated by homophobia or transphobia," passed in the Chamber of Deputies 354-79; however, is not expected to make it through the Senate of the Republic, generally considered the parliament's "upper house."
Pro basketball player Tony Parker (who normally plays with the NBA's San Antonio Spurs) has apologized for uttering an anti-gay slur while playing for his native France during the European championship semifinals, according to Outsports.com . "I'd like to apologize to the gay community. I did not want to offend them," Parker (the ex-husband of actress Eva Longoria) said at a press conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where the event was held. "If I have offended the gay community, I apologize it was not my intention at all. It is not right to say what I said I'm sorry and apologize." His team went on to beat Lithuania in the European final.
Costa Rica has apparently closed its marriage-equality loophole after it was "accidentally" approved in July, according to Gay Star News. Earlier this year, 45 Costa Rican politicians unknowingly approved a bill that some said was a legal gateway to recognizing same-sex unions. Even though President Laura Chincilla signed the measure, the Family Court of San Jose rejected a marriage request from gay couple Alberto Gonzalez and Lorenzo Serrano, setting a precedent and closing the loophole.
Two gay men are among the dozens of people murdered in the Kenya terrorist massacre that was still taking place Sept. 23, Gay Star News reported. The attack began Sept. 21, when militants entered the Westgate mall throwing grenades and firing automatic weapons. Kenyan gay-rights activist Denis Nzioka confirmed on Facebook that two gay men were killed. A third gay man, known only as "J.J.," was able to stay in contact with friends on the outside until his phone battery died.
The trial of four men accused of beating a gay man to death in Santiago, Chile, last year began Sept. 23, the Washington Blade reported. Prosecutors contend four aself-described neo-Nazis— Patricio Ahumada Garay, Raul Lopez Fuentes, Alejandro Angulo Tapia and Fabian Mora Mora—attacked Daniel Zamudio in a Santiago park on March 3, 2012, because he was gay. Authorities allege the four men attacked Zamudio with bottles and other blunt objects before they cut off part of his ear, carved swastikas into his chest and burned other parts of his body with cigarettes.
Daniel Abugattas, president of the Congress of Peru, has endorsed proposed legislation that would recognize same-sex couples with civil unions, according to On Top Magazine. The 58-year-old Abugattas announced his support during a wide-ranging interview on Agenda Politica (Political Agenda). "It could be a sort of private contract without stressing that it is for people of the same gender and as a legal concept based on free association," Abugattas said.
A Facebook site supporting the Australian Capital Territory's same-sex marriage bill has been set up by a former student of a Canberra Christian school after the principal sent out a letter from the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) urging parents against the bill, the Gay News Network reported. Signed by ACL Managing Director Lyle Shelton, the letter sent to parents from Trinity Christian School says the bill is a potential threat to Christian schools' freedoms. However, former student Michael Mazengarb has set up the "Trinity Christian School Students and Alumni for Marriage Equality" page on Facebook in response. More than 800 people have "liked" the page.
Officials at Crosspoint Wesleyan Church in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, have told a young man he can no longer volunteer with the children's ministry there because he is gay, according to Advocate.com . Colin Briggs, 20, had volunteered at the church since 2011; however, Pastor Mark Brewer and youth pastor Nathalie Estey called Briggs in for a meeting and told him he had to cease volunteering. Although Briggs was told he could still attend services at Crosspoint, he's not sure he will do so.
