Anti-gay leader of Italian bishops
gets threats
The head of the Italian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Genoa Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, is under increased police protection due to continuing threats following a recent homophobic outburst.
Bagnasco angered gays when he said: 'Why say 'no' to forms of legally recognized cohabitation which create alternatives to the family? Why say 'no' to incest? Why say 'no' to the pedophile party in Holland?'
First, someone spray-painted 'Shame On You Bagnasco' on the Genoa cathedral. And now 'Death to Bagnasco' graffiti has appeared around the city accompanied by the logo of a left-wing terrorist group.
Bagnasco made the remarks shortly after the bishops' conference instructed Catholic members of Parliament to vote against Italy's pending civil-union legislation.
China gets a gay
radio program
PhoenixTV.com is airing China's first gay talk show on the Web.
The weekly program, Tongxing Xianglian, features celebrities, lawyers, teachers, psychologists, social workers and others discussing sex, identity, discrimination and other matters.
It is hosted by Didier Zheng and produced by Gang Gang, both of whom are openly gay.
According to Shanghai Daily, the show's name is a play on the words of the Chinese idiom 'People with the same afflictions sympathize with each other.' But the Chinese characters also can be translated directly as 'Same-Sex Love,' said one of this column's Chinese correspondents.
'In the West, it is usually pressure brought [ on gays ] by religion,' Gang told the Daily. 'In China, it is usually family and neighbors and peers.'
Gang said his parents would be 'very angry' if they found out he is working on the program.
Jamaican police quell anti-gay riot at funeral
Police in Mandeville, Jamaica, had to restore order at the funeral of businessman Kirk Wayne Lester on April 8 after some mourners smashed windows and threw rocks and bottles at cross-dressers in attendance at the True Vine Fellowship Church.
The incident follows two other recent mob actions by anti-gay Jamaicans.
On April 2, three gay men were attacked by a mob at Montego Bay's MoBay Nite Out carnival event. The men, one of whom was hospitalized, angered other attendees when they took to a stage and gyrated on each other, the Observer said. The crowd threw rocks and bottles at the men and, when the men returned fire, the crowd lunged for them, chased them down and beat them.
On Feb. 14, a mob surrounded a pharmacy in Kingston and demanded that four gay men inside come out and face punishment for being homosexuals. The crowd formed after another shopper took exception to the men's presence and began screaming that 'battymen,' or faggots, must be killed.
Police fired tear gas into that crowd of 200 and rescued the men. But after removing them from the scene, officers disparaged the men en route to, and at, the police station, according to the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays. One of the rescued men, J-FLAG leader Gareth Williams, said officers hit him in the head and struck him in the stomach with a rifle.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley