3rd CANADIAN MP COMES OUT, SORT OF
by Bob Roehr
Canada has a third openly gay member of its national parliament, sort of.
Vancouver MP Libby Davies told the Vancouver Sun she is in a same-sex relationship but doesn't consider herself a lesbian.
"I don't particularly think we need to put people into boxes or to put labels on things," she said. "It's who you meet and how you feel about a particular individual or person, and that's how I feel about it."
Davies' previous lover, who died, was male.
Suburban Vancouver MP Svend Robinson and Montreal MP Real Menard are openly gay.
SENATOR: POPE IS EVIL
Pope John Paul II is evil, says gay Irish Sen. David Norris.
And Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is "a Nazi," the senator said.
The pope is "an instrument for evil as far as I'm concerned because these constant, unremitting, ignorant, ill-informed attacks on the gay community have led to violence against the gay community," Norris is quoted as saying in author Stephen Costello's new book The Irish Soul: In Dialogue.
John Paul II's utterances are "calculated and deliberate wickedness," Norris said. "He closes down scholarly enquiry and, of course, behind him is Ratzinger, who is, in his mind-set, a Nazi, and they have marginalised all the wonderful people like Oscar Romero, Leonardo Boff, Hans Kung, Charles Curran, all these marvellous people who are the future and the hope of the Church and, instead, put into place these mindless bureaucrats, which is intensely sad.
"The awful thing about that Polish person and the Nazi is that they are afraid to tell the truth," Norris continued. "They won't even let themselves be in the presence of the truth, because it would shatter their very stylised view of things. You would have known that Pope John XXIII believed in God. I really don't think this one does."
Catholic doctrine, which is watched over and guarded by Ratzinger, considers gay sex "intrinsically evil," "objectively disordered," "deviant," and "contrary to the laws of nature."
Gay relationships are "a deplorable distortion of what should be a communion of love and life between a man and a woman in a reciprocal gift open to life."
The church says any sexual act that is not open to the possibility of pregnancy is a mortal sin which, if not absolved in confession prior to one's death, condemns one's soul to hell. The procreation doctrine also categorizes birth control, masturbation and oral sex ( including between heterosexual spouses ) as mortal sins.
BRITISH GOV'T
FUNDS GAY CHORUS
Britian's National Lottery has given the London Gay Men's Chorus about $7,000 to stage a tenth anniversary concert, the Pink Paper reported.
The Dec. 9 show at the West End's Prince of Wales Theatre will be the group's most elaborate performance ever, organizers said.
DUTCH FUND MOLDOVANS
The Moldovan gay organization GenderDoc-M is the latest Third World or East Bloc gay group to be funded by the Dutch government.
Ceremonies to mark a three-year grant took place in Chisinau, Moldova, Oct. 18, attended by the first secretary of the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, Meie Kiel, and the desk officer of the Eastern European Division of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rob Dekker.
The money, from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Good Governance and Human Rights Fund, will be spent on organizational development, consciouness raising, legal assistance, and creation of safe spaces.
"Sexual minorities in Moldova are one of the most discriminated [ against ] social groups," said GenderDoc-M's Maxim Anmeghichean. "Violence, blackmailing, constant 'visits' to the police stations, verbal abuse, firing from the job, hate propaganda from some of the newspapers, homophobic speeches by some members of parliament ...all these factors lead to creation of a culture of fear among the homosexual community in Moldova."
Anmeghichean added: "It is enough to recall the words of Moldovan MP ... Vlad Cubreacov, who declared recently in his interview to the National Journal: 'To be a homosexual doesn't only mean you are no longer father or mother, it means you are no longer a human being. They are people fallen before the face of God and the entire society.'"
THOUSANDS ATTEND
THAI FESTIVAL
Thousands of people attended Bangkok, Thailand's "Pink in the Park" festival at Lumpini Park Nov. 4.
"From now on, we won't be gay only for a day in a year," said activist and organizer Natee Teerarojjanapongs.
In addition to booths, the festival offered performances by gay artists, a volleyball tournament, raffles, games and a celebrity panel discussion on Thai gay life.
Later in the evening, some 3,000 people took part in a pride parade down Silom and Suriwon roads.
RUSSIAN GAYS UPSET
BY MUSIC VIDEO
The Russian rap duet Tchugunnyi Skorohod ( Cast Iron Footman ) debuted their new video "Faggots Are Coming" on MTV Russia's live "Hush Hour" program Oct. 25. Prior to showing the video, the men opened some beers and took off their boots and put them on a table for host Vasyliy Strelnikov to sniff, according to www.gay.ru.
The song says gays control Russian life and the media..."lewd homosexuals boss over everything"...and that if a straight man wants to get a job, he has to let a faggot screw him in the ass.
The refrain repeats, "Fags are coming! Fags are coming!" as the video shows simulated acts of male anal intercourse with the participants faces hidden by smiley-face symbols. "Compared to Tchugunnyi Skorohod, Eminem with his homophobic rap is a quiet child," said gay.ru reporter Tanya Ofigevshaya.
