Gay Aussies Call Day of Protest on Aug 13
Gay activists in Australia have called for protests and rallies nationwide a year after the country passed the Marriage Amendment Act which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
"Our families contribute to the nation like every other family yet they are still being denied the right to marry or the ability to form federal de facto relationships," says a spokesman for Australian Marriage Equity.
According to the Australian Marriage Equality web site, the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group will hold a mock same-sex wedding on the lawns of Parliament House in Hobart at 1pm while gays in Sydney will march down Oxford Street to Hyde Park. In Melbourne, a rally has been scheduled to start at 2pm at the Town Hall and going down to Federation Square. A similar rally will be held in Brisbane at the end of Goodwill Bridge, near the Queensland University of Technology.
Same-sex marriage is legal in The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada.
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Australian Marriage Equality
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Aussie MP leaves politics after gay affair revealed
South Australian MP Mark Brindal has officially withdrawn as the Liberal candidate for the March state election after it was revealed he was secretly bisexual and was being blackmailed by a former male lover's foster father.
Australian Liberal MP Mark Brindal, 57, withdraws from politics after it was revealed he was secretly bisexual and was being blackmailed by a former male lover's foster father.
According to local press reports, the young man is understood to have his financial affairs administered by the Public Trustee under an administrative order from the Guardianship Board as the result of a "mental incapacity." Public Advocate John Harley however added that people who were under the protection of the Guardianship Board were not necessarily vulnerable.
An MP since 1996 and once touted as a possible state Liberal leader, the 57-year-old former school teacher is married and has four adult stepchildren.
Two months ago, Liberal leader Rob Kerin and Brindal were contacted by the 24-year-old's foster father, who said he knew about the relationship between his foster son and Brindal; and allegedly asked for money.
Brindal says he has broken no law and that the sex with Graham was consensual. He will serve out his parliamentary term as the Member for Unley.
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Mark Brindal
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US Military Continues to Discharge Service Members 'Outed' Online
The United States Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) has issued a warning that the US Military is using online profiles to find and discharge GLBT personnel under the controversial "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
The United States Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is a watchdog and policy organisation, dedicated to ending discrimination against and harassment of military personnel.
The SLDN has assisted ten people facing discharge for maintaining online profiles at LGBT community websites since January 2005. The ten additional cases reported today include a Farsi linguist, a doctor, an intelligence analyst and a communications officer. Three of the ten have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, including Jeff Howe, an Army artilleryman who served two tours of duty in Iraq before being outed by a profile posted at Connexion.org, an online GLBT community site.
Warnings have been posted on major US gay web sites including Gay.com and PlanetOut.com to any military personnel using online services which might out them. The warning states that service members should not access GLBT sites using a military computer, post photos in online profiles, or use any suggestion that the profile belongs to a service member. According to a SLDN spokesperson, being identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual in an online profile is telling.
"Being identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual in an online profile is 'telling,'" said SLDN executive director C. Dixon Osburn. "Many service members assume they are safe by using online sites, but that unfortunately is not true. Being out to anyone, at anytime, and anywhere - including online - can mean the end of a military career."
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Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
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Nigerian men face death by stoning for having gay sex
An Islamic court in Nigeria granted bail last Wednesday to two men accused of having gay sex. Sodomy is punishable by death under northern Nigeria's interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.
The case has attracted the attention of human rights lobbyists in France, Democratic lawmakers in the United States, and a senior United Nations envoy, all of whom have called for Nigeria to show tolerance toward gays.
Judge Mustapha Sani Saulawa of the Upper Sharia Court in the northern city of Katsina allowed the defendants, 50-year-old Yusuf Kabir and 18-year-old Usman Sani, to go free until the next hearing on August 24.
The pair was arrested by police in June after witnesses alleged that they had been having sex in a public toilet.
"The prosecution has not brought its witnesses before this court today; I therefore grant bail to you both on the condition that each of you bring adults to stand as sureties," Saulawa told the court.
"African lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people confront harassment from police; abuse by our neighbours and our families; and violence and brutality - sometimes punitive rape - on the streets," read a statement issued by Human Rights Watch.
"Our intimate and private lives are made criminal. Political leaders say these laws defend African 'cultural traditions' - even though, without a single exception, these laws are foreign imports, brought by the injustice of colonialism."
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