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31 January 2012, Interns!

Gays Around the World - January Edition


The Swedish government have announced that they will maintain a law instituted in the 1970s that refuses official recognition of a transgender identity without sterilisation. According to Pink News, the majority of Swedish parliament is in favour of the change, but bill was blocked by a small conservative party. The law may violate the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights which demands “the right to respect for [everyone’s] physical and mental integrity”.
December 1st was the 23rd annual World AIDS Day, an international observance in support of those living with HIV/AIDS and in memory of the lives lost in the epidemic so far. 2011 was the 30th year of the epidemic, and saw an amazing outpouring of support for ending the epidemic by 2015, one of the UN’s goals. I wrote a lot about this day, so I’m not going to go on and on, but if you’re interested in how media coverage about AIDS in the USA has changed over these past three decades, I encourage you to check out my blog post “World AIDS Day: Acknowledging Progress” on the Gay and Lesbian Advocates Against Defamation’s website. And if you’re interested in AIDS at my university, I also wrote an op-ed called “We are not untouchable”.
Cuba is considering legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples this year, according to the daughter of the Cuban president. She stated that she is “confident that the party conference [scheduled to take place in January 2012] will help explicitly define a policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, which in turn will help to dismantle prejudices that hinder its adoption.”
That’s all for this month, folks. See you in February and enjoy that sunshine! smile

 

Welcome to 2012 and the next installment of Gays Around the World! I hope you all had amazing holidays and are enjoying the sun that has finally come out. I was only home in New Zealand for a month over Christmas so I missed most of the sun, and instead have been greeted with half a metre of snow. Enjoy the beach while you can! smile Anyway, here’s the roundup of what’s been going on around the globe in the world of gay.

 

OUT Magazine editor Aaron Hicklin wrote a wonderful piece in the UK newspaper the Guardian about how 2011 was a good year to be gay. He writes about the political shifts in the U.S. last year, including the repeal of the ban on LGB people serving openly in the military, as well as the rise of popular inclusive entertainment such as Glee and Modern Family. Highly recommended.

 

Same-sex couples from around the world have been able to get married in Canada since it was made legal in 2005. However, the topic made the news earlier this month when a Canadian government lawyer said that couples who could not get legally married in their home countries were not legally married in Canada either. This statement was met with outrage in the LGBTQ communities, and the progression of the story can be followed on the ever colorful (and co-founder of the It Gets Better campaign) Dan Savage’s blog here.

 

If you love Neil Patrick Harris half as much as I do, you will adore this interview he and his partner David Burtka did with gay magazine the Advocate in their annual ‘Love’ issue. For a brief taster, here’s a quote: NPH: “There’s something kinetic about him and his being. He’s classically sexy, yet he’s very much a boy in his energy. It’s a great dynamic. When I see people who are equally attractive, they tend to seem more quiet and kind of Marlboro Man-y, and David’s the antithesis of that. He’s more like Tigger. I’m, in turn, very introspective -- the thinker, rather than the doer. I tend to weigh options before making decisions, and David is the polar opposite of that. We’re hyper similar and also incredibly opposite.”  If there ever was proof that it gets better, its in this interview. Read the whole piece here.

 

Here in the U.S., the primaries for the presidential elections in November are heating up. The  candidates for the Republican nomination are all battling it out and while Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have all won primaries, no one is the clear winner. What is clear is that none of them have us LGBT folks’ best interests at heart. This is old, but it gives you an idea of the views each of the candidates have on gay rights issues.

 

Rick Perry has since bowed out of the race, but back in December he enraged liberals across the country with an ad that asked why gays could openly serve in the military when children couldn’t openly celebrate Christmas. The video went on to receive more dislikes on YouTube than Rebecca Black’s Friday music video. You know you have tanked your campaign when.. smile See it (and a great parody) below.

 

 

 

Welcome to 2012 and the next installment of Gays Around the World! I hope you all had amazing holidays and are enjoying the sun that has finally come out. I was only home in New Zealand for a month over Christmas so I missed most of the sun, and instead have been greeted with half a metre of snow. Enjoy the beach while you can! smile Anyway, here’s the roundup of what’s been going on around the globe in the world of gay.
OUT Magazine editor Aaron Hicklin wrote a wonderful piece in the UK newspaper the Guardian about how 2011 was a good year to be gay. He writes about the political shifts in the U.S. last year, including the repeal of the ban on LGB people serving openly in the military, as well as the rise of popular inclusive entertainment such as Glee and Modern Family. Highly recommended.
Same-sex couples from around the world have been able to get married in Canada since it was made legal in 2005. However, the topic made the news earlier this month when a Canadian government lawyer said that couples who could not get legally married in their home countries were not legally married in Canada either. This statement was met with outrage in the LGBTQ communities, and the progression of the story can be followed on the ever colorful (and co-founder of the It Gets Better campaign) Dan Savage’s blog here.
If you love Neil Patrick Harris half as much as I do, you will adore this interview he and his partner David Burtka did with gay magazine the Advocate in their annual ‘Love’ issue. For a brief taster, here’s a quote: NPH: “There’s something kinetic about him and his being. He’s classically sexy, yet he’s very much a boy in his energy. It’s a great dynamic. When I see people who are equally attractive, they tend to seem more quiet and kind of Marlboro Man-y, and David’s the antithesis of that. He’s more like Tigger. I’m, in turn, very introspective -- the thinker, rather than the doer. I tend to weigh options before making decisions, and David is the polar opposite of that. We’re hyper similar and also incredibly opposite.”  If there ever was proof that it gets better, its in this interview. Read the whole piece here.
Here in the U.S., the primaries for the presidential elections in November are heating up. The  candidates for the Republican nomination are all battling it out and while Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have all won primaries, no one is the clear winner. What is clear is that none of them have us LGBT folks’ best interests at heart. This is old, but it gives you an idea of the views each of the candidates have on gay rights issues.
Rick Perry has since bowed out of the race, but back in December he enraged liberals across the country with an ad that asked why gays could openly serve in the military when children couldn’t openly celebrate Christmas. The video went on to receive more dislikes on YouTube than Rebecca Black’s Friday music video. You know you have tanked your campaign when.. smile See it (and a great parody) below.

 

 

 

This opinion piece from the Huffington Post blooger Domenick Scudera is also old, but HILARIOUS. It runs through the blogger’s daily routine. For example: “7:00 a.m. I wake up, and just as I have done every morning since puberty, I choose to be gay today. This will come as a great relief to my gay, homosexual, male lover who lies beside me. Because being gay is a choice, our relationship is a gamble day to day. Even though we have both chosen to remain gay and to be together every day for the past 16 years, we never take anything for granted. One of us just might throw in the towel one day and give up the lifestyle.” Read “My Gay Lifestyle” here.

 

The Swedish government have announced that they will maintain a law instituted in the 1970s that refuses official recognition of a transgender identity without sterilisation. According to Pink News, the majority of Swedish parliament is in favour of the change, but bill was blocked by a small conservative party. The law may violate the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights which demands “the right to respect for [everyone’s] physical and mental integrity”.

 

December 1st was the 23rd annual World AIDS Day, an international observance in support of those living with HIV/AIDS and in memory of the lives lost in the epidemic so far. 2011 was the 30th year of the epidemic, and saw an amazing outpouring of support for ending the epidemic by 2015, one of the UN’s goals. I wrote a lot about this day, so I’m not going to go on and on, but if you’re interested in how media coverage about AIDS in the USA has changed over these past three decades, I encourage you to check out my blog post “World AIDS Day: Acknowledging Progress” on the Gay and Lesbian Advocates Against Defamation’s website. And if you’re interested in AIDS at my university, I also wrote an op-ed called “We are not untouchable”.

 

Cuba is considering legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples this year, according to the daughter of the Cuban president. She stated that she is “confident that the party conference [scheduled to take place in January 2012] will help explicitly define a policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, which in turn will help to dismantle prejudices that hinder its adoption.”

 

That’s all for this month, folks. See you in February and enjoy that sunshine! smile

 

 

Posted by Editor on 01/31 at 07:42pm
Interns!, Comments (166), Permalink


Comments

166 comments

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Great article, thanks a lot.
beauty tips

Posted by savageorgiev on 21 Apr at 04:12 am

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