Ugandans Hold Anti-Gay Demonstration

By KATY POWNALL




KAMPALA, Uganda - Hundreds of people held an anti-gay protest in Uganda's capital Tuesday, denouncing what they called an "immoral" lifestyle and demanding the deportation of an American journalist writing about gay rights in the deeply conservative country.

Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda, like in most African states, and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Tuesday's demonstration was the latest in a series of showdowns between religious conservatives and a small, but growing gay rights movement across the continent.

The protesters gathered at a Kampala sports ground holding banners with anti-gay messages and posters demanding the deportation of 22-year-old Katherine Roubos.

Roubos, from Minnetonka, Minn., was assigned to cover gay issues in Uganda as part of a three-month internship with the Daily Monitor newspaper, which is owned by the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of 20 million Ismaili Muslims. The Ismailis are a part of the Shiite community.

Last week, Roubos covered a news conference in Kampala where Uganda's gay community spoke out publicly for the first time. The participants wore masks to hide their identities for fear of recrimination, but asked for Ugandans to respect their rights and allow them to live in dignity.

Demonstrators at Tuesday's event, organized by a coalition of Christian, Muslim and Bahai groups, accused Roubos of advocating for gay rights in the country. The coalition said it was writing a protest letter to the Aga Khan.

The Ugandan Minister of Ethics and Integrity, Nsaba Buturo, also attended the protest and said the government supported the enforcement of existing anti-gay laws.

"We people of Uganda have values. If this lady cannot respect them then she had better be deported," said Eddie Semakula, a member of the coalition. "She is advocating for the rights of homosexuals in a paper that is read by children even. We must protect our children."

The Monitor defended Roubos' "reliable and enterprising" reporting. Her editor, Moses Sserwanga, said the issue of gay rights was tied in with larger debates over traditional culture, individual freedoms and human rights in Uganda.

"On the one hand the constitution forbids homosexual behavior and yet on the other it promotes individual freedoms," he said. "Our society is very conservative so we knew this reaction would come out. I wanted the story to address the contradictions in our constitution."

Roubos said she has been impartial in her reporting, although she has worked with numerous advocacy groups in the U.S., including on gay rights issues. She declined to give details.

"I was given this assignment by my editor, I didn't ask for it," the Stanford university student told the Associated Press. "I just present facts. None of my personal opinions are in the stories."

Gay rights activists are becoming slightly more visible in some parts of Africa. In Nigeria, activists are quietly trying to mobilize against a law that would jail two gay people for five years for even talking to each other. In South Africa last year, gays won the right to have civil unions recognized as marriages, although priests may also opt out of performing such ceremonies.


Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Racist Manhunt in Small-Town Germany

The victims were all from India -- their attackers, possible neo-Nazis. A small town in Saxony confronts the possibility of right-wing extremists in their midst.
It's so peaceful in Mügeln, so damn peaceful. Following a strong summer rain, a postcard sunset has basked the cobblestone pavement on the market square in golden light on this Monday evening. Then night falls on the small town in the Döllnitz Valley in the Eastern German state of Saxony. As daylight wanes, the streets quickly become vacant. Mügeln, it seems, has become a ghost town.

Four or five teenagers are still sitting on a bench. They giggle, drink beer and brave a few raindrops. A couple kisses in a car parked in front of the local savings bank. Every now and again, a jazzed-up compact roars by, the music turned up so loud the whole auto body rattles. "Come on now," an old lady hisses at her poodle, tugging the leash. Behind her, the lights go out in the last of the city center's pubs, the Räuberkeller. It's not even 9:00 p.m.

Only the police car parked under a tree in a dark corner of the town square looks out of place on this quiet evening. What could be worthy of surveillance around here?

"The police have said they want to keep their eyes peeled for a bit here," says 35-year-old Kulvir Singh, whose restaurant the officers are watching from their car not far away. Singh is standing behind the wood-panel counter in his pizzeria Picobello on the main road of Mügeln. Saxony Governor Georg Milbradt, a conservative Christian Democrat, came by earlier in the day to comfort him.

A Regular Manhunt

The Indian's friendly face seems tired now. He ignores the two flies that buzz persistently around his head. Singh has hardly slept during the past 40 hours -- ever since the events of Sunday which led to Milbradt's visit and the cop car out front. Events that are hardly imaginable given the peacefulness and the calm that Mügeln exudes.

Early on Sunday morning following the annual Mügeln municipal festival, Singh and seven of his compatriots were pursued across town -- a regular manhunt -- following an apparently harmless jostle on the dance floor. An angry mob made up of dozens of festival-goers chased down the Indians before severely beating them -- shouting racist insults all the while. Six of the pursued made it into Singh's pizzeria and locked themselves in. The rioters kicked in the front and back doors. Windows were smashed and Singh's car was demolished. Only a large squad of 70 policemen was able to force the romping crowd back, although the policemen were themselves attacked using bottles, glasses and benches. The violent rampage left 14 wounded, including four of the attackers, two policemen and all eight Indians.

Singh has no visible injuries, no cuts, scrapes, or black eyes like some of his friends. But he is concerned about further attacks. "I'm afraid," he says. "I'm now the chief reference point for them, after all."

Them -- the rowdies. The neo-Nazis? "I don't know," says Singh. "It all happened so quickly."

A Neo-Nazi Attack?

Singh, though, is certain that a group of young men on the market place was lying in wait for him and his companions to leave the tent on Saturday night. He says he and the other seven wanted to avoid a confrontation after one fair visitor, an acquaintance of Singh's, warned him of possible "trouble." Asked whether he would say the young rowdies were members of Germany's far-right subculture, Singh shrugs his shoulders.

One eye-witness saw a compact mob of young men walking past his apartment and towards the fair shortly before the attack. In his view, the men were neo-Nazis, judging by their appearance. There was also an e-mail warning about an organized neo-Nazi attack on Mügeln's youth club. The club forwarded the warning to the mayor.

The mayor is now concerned about his little town's reputation. "We have no far-right scene here," Gotthard Deuse of the Liberal Free Democrats (FDP) emphasized repeatedly. If neo-Nazis were to blame for the attack, they must have come from elsewhere -- that much, the mayor says, is certain.

And the mayor has a point. While the state of Saxony is a stronghold of Germany's neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD), the area around Mügeln has not so far attracted attention as a hotbed of far-right activities. But one doesn't have to travel far to find neo-Nazis. The now illegal right-extremist group "Sturm 34" terrorized the nearby town of Mittweida, for example, and there have repeatedly been right-wing attacks in Wurzen in the neighboring Muldental district: Young men bellowed anti-Semitic insults during a children's league soccer game (more...) there in May. Masked neo-Nazis also beat the visitors of a town fair in Breitenborn on Whit Sunday of last year. None of these places is more than 45 minutes away from Mügeln by car.

And even if the instigators of the attack came from outside the town, there is still cause for concern in Mayor Deuse's peaceful hamlet. Locals, it would seem, weren't entirely innocent. Singh, the owner of the pizzeria, says he was threatened by one of his customers shortly before the attack. Another eyewitness claims to have recognized some familiar faces in the angry mob.

Spiral Of Violence

Even worse, several fair visitors are said to have watched the brutal manhunt -- and done nothing to stop it. Some may also have cheered on the attackers while others might have joined in. Was the attack the "will of the people?" It has happened before, albeit on a much more horrifying scale. Fifteen years ago almost to the day, neo-Nazis set fire to a home for asylum seekers in the Eastern German city of Rostock -- and were cheered on by "average citizens." One does not want to imagine what would have happened if the attackers in Mügeln had been armed with Molotov cocktails.

On Monday evening, those few residents of Mügeln who are out and about are tight-lipped. Yes, pretty much the entire town attended the festival. Most say they are appalled. But hardly anyone admits to having seen anything. The older people say they went to bed long before the attack, while younger people ward off the questions they are asked. They have no idea what exactly happened, they say. Neo-Nazis? No, I don't think so. The same remark is made again and again, with minor variations: "We're just a little one-horse town."

Now, the one-horse town has achieved fame all across the country literally overnight. The police do not want to give a definite assessment of the motive behind the orgy of violence for as long as the 15 members of the special investigative team are investigating. The police say they have not yet settled on a xenophobic motivation for the attack.

They have, however, confirmed that attackers chanted "Foreigners Out!" and "The national resistance rules here!" So far though, there have been no arrests. Two suspects were briefly brought in for questioning on Sunday morning following the attack. They were quickly released.

Jewish Group Condemns Estonia for Glorification of Nazi Past

Efraim Zuroff, the Jerusalem-based Israel director of the Simon Weisenthal Center, strongly criticized a recent celebration in Estonia, meant to mark a key battle between pro-Nazi Estonian forces and the Soviet Army during World War II.

In a letter to Estonia’s ambassador to Israel, Aino Lepik von Wiren, Zuroff, also the Center's chief nazi hunter, was scathing in his condemnation.

“We view these events as a glorification of those who fought alongside the forces of Nazi Germany, the regime which planned, initiated and implemented the Holocaust and is responsible for the mass murder of millions of innocent civilians," Zuroff wrote. "Thus glorifying those who fought for a victory of the Third Reich is an unpardonable insult to that regime’s many victims and those who fought to save Europe from its tyrannical rule."

The event, attended by Estonian Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo and Estonian lawmaker Trivimi Velliste, drew dozens of foreign neo-Nazis, according to a report in the European Jewish Press.


“Given these circumstances," Zuroff wrote, "we find the participation of Estonian Defense Minister Jak Aaviksoo and MP Trivimi Velliste in these events incomprehensible and worthy of condemnation.”


ww.jta.org

Nightclubs are hell. What's cool or fun about a thumping, sweaty dungeon full of posing idiots?

I went to a fashionable London nightclub on Saturday. Not the sort of sentence I get to write very often, because I enjoy nightclubs less than I enjoy eating wool. But a glamorous friend of mine was there to "do a PA", and she'd invited me and some curious friends along because we wanted to see precisely what "doing a PA" consists of. Turns out doing a public appearance largely entails sitting around drinking free champagne and generally just "being there".

Obviously, at 36, I was more than a decade older than almost everyone else, and subsequently may as well have been smeared head to toe with pus. People regarded me with a combination of pity and disgust. To complete the circuit, I spent the night wearing the expression of a man waking up to Christmas in a prison cell.

"I'm too old to enjoy this," I thought. And then remembered I've always felt this way about clubs. And I mean all clubs - from the cheesiest downmarket sickbucket to the coolest cutting-edge hark-at-us poncehole. I hated them when I was 19 and I hate them today. I just don't have to pretend any more.

I'm convinced no one actually likes clubs. It's a conspiracy. We've been told they're cool and fun; that only "saddoes" dislike them. And no one in our pathetic little pre-apocalyptic timebubble wants to be labelled "sad" - it's like being officially declared worthless by the state. So we muster a grin and go out on the town in our millions.

Clubs are despicable. Cramped, overpriced furnaces with sticky walls and the latest idiot theme tunes thumping through the humid air so loud you can't hold a conversation, just bellow inanities at megaphone-level. And since the smoking ban, the masking aroma of cigarette smoke has been replaced by the overbearing stench of crotch sweat and hair wax.

Clubs are such insufferable dungeons of misery, the inmates have to take mood-altering substances to make their ordeal seem halfway tolerable. This leads them to believe they "enjoy" clubbing. They don't. No one does. They just enjoy drugs.

Drugs render location meaningless. Neck enough ketamine and you could have the best night of your life squatting in a shed rolling corks across the floor. And no one's going to search you on the way in. Why bother with clubs?

"Because you might get a shag," is the usual response. Really? If that's the only way you can find a partner - preening and jigging about like a desperate animal - you shouldn't be attempting to breed in the first place. What's your next trick? Inventing fire? People like you are going to spin civilisation into reverse. You're a moron, and so is that haircut you're trying to impress. Any offspring you eventually blast out should be drowned in a pan before they can do any harm. Or open any more nightclubs.

Even if you somehow avoid reproducing, isn't it a lot of hard work for very little reward? Seven hours hopping about in a hellish, reverberating bunker in exchange for sharing 64 febrile, panting pelvic thrusts with someone who'll snore and dribble into your pillow till 11 o'clock in the morning, before waking up beside you with their hair in a mess, blinking like a dizzy cat and smelling vaguely like a ham baguette? Really, why bother? Why not just stay at home punching yourself in the face? Invite a few friends round and make a night of it. It'll be more fun than a club.

Anyway, back to Saturday night, and apart from the age gap, two other things stuck me. Firstly, everyone had clearly spent far too long perfecting their appearance. I used to feel intimidated by people like this; now I see them as walking insecurity beacons, slaves to the perceived judgment of others, trapped within a self- perpetuating circle of crushing status anxiety. I'd still secretly like to be them, of course, but at least these days I can temporarily erect a veneer of defensive, sneering superiority. I've progressed that far.

The second thing that struck me was frightening. They were all photographing themselves. In fact, that's all they seemed to be doing. Standing around in expensive clothes, snapping away with phones and cameras. One pose after another, as though they needed to prove their own existence, right there, in the moment. Crucially, this seemed to be the reason they were there in the first place. There was very little dancing. Just pouting and flashbulbs.

Surely this is a new development. Clubs have always been vapid and awful and boring and blah - but I can't remember clubbers documenting their every moment before. Not to this demented extent. It's not enough to pretend you're having fun in the club any more - you've got to pretend you're having fun in your Flickr gallery, and your friends' Flickr galleries. An unending exhibition in which a million terrified, try-too-hard imbeciles attempt to out-cool each other.

Mind you, since in about 20 years' time these same people will be standing waist-deep in skeletons, in an arid post-nuclear wasteland, clubbing each other to death in a fight for the last remaining glass of water, perhaps they're wise to enjoy these carefree moments while they last. Even if they're only pretending.

The peerless Charlie Brooker

Neo-Nazi admits distributing execution video

Russian police have questioned a young neo-Nazi who claimed to be the internet distributor of a video that apparently shows the execution of two non-Slavs.

The video purports to show the brutal execution of a Tadjik national and an ethnic Dagestani man against the backdrop of a Nazi flag. One victim is beheaded and the other shot while kneeling by a readymade grave, to shouts of “Glory to Russia”.

The 24-year-old man, a student from the southern Russian town of Maikop, turned himself in to the police after a public scandal over the video. Police said that he claimed to have spent two years uploading material intended to incite ethnic hatred to the internet.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said: “This man has declared his devotion to National Socialist ideas. According to preliminary information, he has been distributing this video over the internet but he is not the author of it. Experts are still working to establish the authenticity of the video.”

Police searched the man’s home and confiscated his computer, along with some extremist literature. He was not held but was under orders not to leave town, said Echo radio station.

Police were going through the three-minute video frame by frame to determine whether it was staged or depicted an actual execution, the radio station said. “They will compare light and shade, changes in the background image, details of clothing and other parameters.”

Human rights activists, concerned at the exponential growth of racist violence in Russia over recent years, said that the video was among the nastiest they had come across.

“I’ve never seen anything so blatant,” said Alexander Verkhovsky, head of the Sova centre, which monitors hate crime.

Svetlana Gannushkina of Memorial, an organisation monitoring torture in the Northern Caucasus, said: “It is an absolute nightmare. I have looked through the site and unfortunately there were mainly positive comments on the video. Actually, this has nothing to do with virtual life; this is our real life.”

The video, which appeared on a blog on Livejournal.com, showed the two men bound and gagged in a forest with a pair of masked captors. The caption said that one was from the mainly Muslim region of Dagestan - part of the Russian Federation - while the other was from the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan. A heavy-metal backing track accompanies their execution.

A previously unknown group calling itself “the military wing of the National-Socialist Society” claimed responsibility for the video, circulating an online statement on Tuesday which proclaimed “the start of our party’s armed struggle against coloured colonists and the Russian bureaucrats who support them".

The National-Socialist Society, whose site covers the activities of neo-Nazis around Russia, denied that it had such a wing. But it added: We acknowledge that any autonomous national-socialist group could certainly have committed the execution shown in the video. It would be an entirely predictable reaction to continuing pressure from the authorities.”

Far from putting pressure on neo-fascists, who have murdered and wounded dozens of immigrants in street attacks, the Russian authorities have seemingly turned a blind eye to race hate or even encourage it, according to Amnesty International.

However, President Vladimir Putin has spoken out against the scourge of neo-Nazism amid an increasing number of criminal prosecutions. Last week in St Petersburg a young neo-Nazi was sentenced to 12 years in prison for stabbing an anti-fascist activist to death outside a bookshop.

Those from the Caucasus and Central Asia, who make up an army of guest workers in Russia, are most vulnerable to racist attacks, along with dark-skinned students from the developing world.


From Times Online

Church Refuses to Hold Funeral for Homosexual Man because it Would Include Gay Propaganda

The decision is "not based on hate, or discrimination, but upon principle and policy"

ARLINGTON, August 14, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Christian Church in Texas has refused to hold a funeral for a homosexual man because the family wanted to display a multimedia memorial presentation that condoned his actively homosexual lifestyle.

High Point Church is a large, non-denominational parish that believes that active homosexuality is a sin, Dallas News Morning Reports. When 46-year old Navy veteran Cecil Sinclair died on Monday, High Point initially agreed to hold a service for him because his brother was a member of the church. Sinclair himself was not affiliated with any church.

As Sinclair was dying of a heart condition, the church community prayed for him. After he died, High Point responded by sending a member to visit and minister to the family.

The Church also agreed to provide a large memorial service complete with a meal and a multimedia presentation in honor of the late Mr. Sinclair. However, when the church ministry saw some of the photos beforehand, they were shocked to find that they explicitly portrayed Sinclair as being in a homosexual relationship.

Upon discovering that Sinclair had been an active homosexual, the church realized that a funeral in which these pictures were displayed would be a public statement in support of the homosexual lifestyle. Basing its decision on these moral grounds, the church decided that it could not go ahead with the service.

"Some of those photos had very strong homosexual images of kissing and hugging," said Pastor Gary Simons. "My ministry associates were taken aback."

During his Sunday sermon, Simons firmly explained his rejection of the homosexual man's funeral amidst the applause of the church community. He said that the family "requested an open-microphone format to allow anyone in attendance to speak." In addition, the service would be presided over by someone who was not a member at High Point Church. "It appeared to the church staff that the family was requesting an openly homosexual service at High Point Church, which is not our policy to allow," he said. In addition, an openly gay choir, the Turtle Creek Chorale, was also set to perform at the service.

Sinclair's mother Ms. Bowers was upset by the decision, saying that a compromise could have been reached that might have enabled the memorial service to proceed. Nevertheless, Pastor Simons asked, "Can you hold the event and condone the sin and compromise our principles?" he said. "We can't."

Causing outrage among Sinclair's friends and family as well as many homosexual activists, Simons stated that he did not object to having a funeral for a homosexual man. Rather, he objected to the blatant condoning of the man's homosexual lifestyle. He made the analogy that while the church would not object to having a funeral service for a murderer whose mother was a member of the parish, the church could not allow photos of his crimes to be nostalgically displayed during the service.

In spite of High Point's moral objections to the Sinclair's lifestyle, the church made every effort to show the family that it was loved and cared for. They offered to pay for the service at another facility, and when the family refused, they sent food and representatives to the funeral.

Read former Dallas Morning News coverage: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/s...

Alcohol is blamed for racist outburst

A TEENAGER who racially abused a kebab shop worker and called a police officer a paedophile has blamed alcohol for her out-burst.

Lauren McDonagh, of Stagelands, Langley Green, pleaded guilty to assaulting Evelyn Bunny and disorderly behaviour causing racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress.

Crawley Magistrates' Court heard how the 18-year-old went to Troy Kebab in High Street, after a night out on July 6.

Prosecuting, Richard Lynn said McDonagh was rowdy and abusive and refused to pay for a kebab she had ordered.

A staff member escorted her off the premises and told her to go home but she replied with a racial insult.

She waved her arms around and knocked a kebab out of the hands of another customer before hitting Ms Bunny who was remonstrating with her.

McDonagh continued to be abusive to police after she was arrested, calling one officer a "paedophile".

Defending at Monday's court hearing, Adrian Dagger said McDonagh was very drunk and later had no recollection of the incidents.

He added: "She tells me she does not hold racist views and it was simply the drink talking."

Magistrates ordered probation reports and deferred sentencing to September 14. McDonagh, who is unemployed, was given unconditional bail.

Surreyonline.co.uk

We are victims of racist mindset: Indian doctors

LONDON: Indian doctors working in Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), on Friday, said they were victims of a “racist mindset” after a report found that more overseas doctors were likely to face disciplinary action over allegations of professional misconduct or incompetence than their British-trained peers.

Last year, the number of foreign doctors struck off the medical register was three times more than the number of domestic colleagues. Of the 54 doctors struck off the rolls, 35 were foreign-trained.

Official figures for Indian doctors, reported for alleged incompetence, were not available but sources close to Indian medical circles acknowledged that the number was “pretty high”. Out of every 10 complaints, six were likely to relate to Indian doctors.

However, Dr. Ramesh Mehta, president of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), attributed the trend to “racism” arguing that most of the complaints tended to be of a “minor” nature. Overseas doctors were often picked for mistakes which were overlooked when committed by British doctors, he said.

The General Medical Council (GMC) is to investigate why foreign doctors are more prone to being disciplined. It has launched a series of research projects to look into the causes.

Extra responsibilities

“What we are doing is looking at where the issues might be,” said a spokesperson adding: “We regulate all doctors, not just overseas-trained doctors, and we are also looking at what happens when doctors who qualify in the UK move into their first clinical jobs in the UK, or when they are ‘promoted’ and take on extra responsibilities.”

Dr. Mehta welcomed the research and pointed out that it was in fact his organisation which had “encouraged” the GMC to look into the issue as it believed that the figures were deceptive. Most of the complaints, he pointed out, came not from patients but from hospital managements.

“The Government itself has admitted that the NHS is institutionally racist. We believe that managers in hospitals have a mindset that overseas doctors are inferior to British doctors and they often report them for trivial mistakes such as minor communication problems. They overlook them when similar mistakes are made by British doctors,” Dr. Mehta said.

He said the BAPIO would “fully cooperate” with GMC’s research.

In the past, GMC has been accused of racially discriminating against doctors of ethnic origin but a study by the Policy Studies Institute cleared it of the charge. The study followed concern amid foreign doctors that complaints against them were pursued by GMC with greater vigour than those against their home-grown colleagues.

Foreign doctors have been at the centre of damaging headlines in the wake of the attempted London-Glasgow terror plot involving several overseas doctors including two from India. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has ordered tougher security checks for foreign medical personnel before they are employed.



© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu

18 face death sentence for homosexual activities in Nigeria

Eighteen men have been arrested in northern Nigeria for alleged sodomy, which carries the death sentence under Bauchi state's Islamic sharia law, the official NAN news agency reported Thursday.

Judge Malam Tanimu ordered the 18 remanded in prison until a further hearing on August 21 following their arrest on Sunday in a hotel in Bauchi city.

The court on Wednesday heard that the men, who were wearing female clothing, had come to the city from five neighbouring states to celebrate a gay "marriage".

Prosecuting police officer Tadius Boboi said the men's actions had contravened the sharia penal code adopted in Bauchi and other states in Muslim northern Nigeria eight years ago following the end of military rule.

In June an agency tasked with implementing sharia law in Bauchi called on the new state governor to approve three sentences of death by stoning and 40 of amputation passed since 2002 which his predecessor had refused to ratify.

The death sentences were passed for sexual offences, including one for sodomy.

In a Nigerian sharia state the governor must give his approval before punishments like death and amputation passed by sharia courts are actually carried out

Whites becoming a minority in urban US

Whites are now in the minority in one third of America's most populous counties and, overall, outnumbered in nearly one in 10 of the nation's 3,141 counties, according to new analysis of census data.

The Arizona Rangers, a group of volunteer police officers set up to patrol the US/Mexico border for illegal immigrants
The shift reflects the increasing diversity of the US, the result of immigration particularly from Central and South America and the higher birth rate among blacks and Hispanics.

In 2000, according to the Census Bureau, whites were in a minority in 262 US counties, up from 183 in 1990.

Nationally, the number of minorities topped 100 million for the first time in 2006, to make up about one third of the population.

By 2050, minorities will account for half of all US residents, the Census Bureau predicts.

The results will fuel the intense debate over immigration, one of the most contentious and pressing issues in many US communities, which have witnessed backlashes against immigrants, vigilante efforts such as border controls and a flood of state level laws borne of frustration with federal government inaction on the issue.

According to the census data, some of the most notable changes include Chicago, which, in the year to July 1 2006, overtook Honolulu in its percentage of Asian population while Washington inched ahead of the Texas border town of El Paso in the number of Hispanic residents.

advertisementHouston, meanwhile, overtook Los Angeles in terms of its black population.

The figures mark the first population estimates by race and ethnicity since Hurricane Katrina tore across the Gulf Coast in 2005, scattering hundreds of thousands nationwide.

Many residents, for example, moved to Houston, which is witnessing the nation's most rapid changes to its ethnic makeup.

Harris County, which includes the city, gained 121,400 minority residents between 2005 and 2006, resulting in a minority population of 63 per cent.

Large changes were also witnessed in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, home to New Orleans, where the percentage of whites grew from 27 per cent in 2005 to 34 per cent in 2006 while the share of blacks dropped from about 68 per cent to 59 per cent.

The black population also fell in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and New York, but rose in Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Miami and Washington.

The largest numerical increases in minority residents were registered in metropolitan Los Angeles, Riverside, in California, Dallas, Houston and New York.

The highest growth rates among Asian populations were in metropolitan Napa, in California, and Ocala, Naples, Cape Coral and Port St. Lucie, in Florida.

Numerically, the greatest increases were in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, San Francisco and Chicago.

Many of the nation's biggest counties have long had large minority populations.

But the data shows how diversity is spreading to the suburbs and beyond, as people move to take up jobs created by whites gravitating away from metropolitan centres.

In some areas the changes are causing resentment with local authorities introducing measures such as barring landlords from renting property to illegal immigrants.

In northern Virginia, Teresita Jacinto said she feels less welcome today than when she first arrived 30 years ago and was one of few Hispanics in the area.

"Not only are we feeling less welcome, we are feeling threatened," said Ms Jacinto, a teacher in Woodbridge, an area 20 miles southwest of Washington in Prince William County, which recently passed a resolution seeking to deny public services to illegal immigrants.

Such restrictions are becoming increasingly common, says the National Conference of State Legislatures, which reports that this year state legislators have introduced more than 1,400 measures related to immigration.

Supporters say the local laws are necessary because Congress has failed to crack down on the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the US.

But many Hispanics legally in the US say they feel targeted, too.

"I think across the board all of us feel like we're not welcome," said Ms Jacinto, who was born in the US.

Prince William County has seen its Hispanic population more than double since 2000, to nearly 70,000 last year.

Whites account for a little more than half the population, down from about two-thirds in 2000. Greg Letiecq recently helped form a group to fight illegal immigration in northern Virginia.

He complained that many newcomers failed to integrate, eschewing American culture in favour of their Latino heritage.

But he said: "I don't think Latinos or any other so-called minority group are seeking to make white people a minority. It's just a reality."



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Circumcision Message Could Confuse Gay Community

Experts are warning Senegalese men who have sex with men not to get caught up in the hype about male circumcision after recent research indicated that the procedure could offer some protection against HIV, and are urging them to keep using other means of protection.

In 2006, the results of three studies, one each in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, showed that the risk of HIV infection was up to 60 percent lower among circumcised men. However, these studies were specific to heterosexual interaction.

The HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Senegal is an estimated 21.5 percent, according to the French Institute for Applied Medicine and Epidemiology (IMEA), compared to a national average of 0.7 percent. AIDS campaigners worry that the preliminary data on male circumcision could lead to reckless sex and an even higher HIV prevalence.

In a 2003 study on stigma, violence and HIV among MSM by Dr Cheikh Niang of the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, only 23 percent of MSM said they had used a condom during their last sexual encounter.

"Within Senegal's cultural context ... where homosexuality remains a taboo subject, we do not want to encourage people to hide behind the idea that circumcision completely prevents the transmission of HIV," Jean-Louis Rodriguez, former executive secretary of And Ligeey, a Senegalese association working to protect the rights of gay men, told IRIN/PlusNews.

He said the hidden nature of homosexuality in Senegal meant gay men often married or had girlfriends in order to fit into society, but still engaged in clandestine homosexual activity, putting many people at risk. In the IMEA study, 94 percent of participants also had sexual relations with women.

The results of observational research, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases in 1993, suggested that the risk of circumcised homosexuals contracting HIV during sex could be halved; another study in 2005 in the United States reached the same conclusion.

However, neither of these was as extensive as the three African studies that prompted the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) to recommend male circumcision as a tool in the fight against the AIDS pandemic.

"We know nothing; [these] are observational studies; therefore, they prove nothing," Bertran Auvert, one of the authors of the South African study, said in an interview published on a gay rights website called 'The Warning'. "We can merely suppose that there is a certain level of protection."

The only thing the medical profession is sure of is that MSM run a considerable risk of HIV infection, especially since intercourse is often unprotected.

Vigilance in prevention must be maintained

"Prevention must always be targeted, so that the message can be better understood and conveyed in the correct manner. When I hear all the media hype about circumcision, I get scared that people will get confused," said Rodriguez.

"We have not yet worked on a specific statement to raise awareness, even if it were merely to tell people that condoms are the only thing that can offer protection."

Khoudia Sow, the HIV/AIDS focal point for the WHO in Senegal, commented that "It is certainly not a question of revising all our prevention techniques; circumcision could play a part in the range of existing measures, but in no instance would it substitute them."

The university's Dr Niang agreed. "MSM have to deal with many situations where they are excluded. Their lives are unstable, they are rejected by society and the health services, they do not have much control over negotiating their sexual relations, and drug use can also be an issue," he said. "These factors increase the risk of HIV infection a great deal more than whether or not they are circumcised."

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

Singapore Bans Gay Picnic

No fun run for Singapore’s queers. The government banned gay group, People Like Us from hosting their pride picnic in the city-state’s Botanical Gardens.

The National Park Board’s decision comes right on the heels of a scrapped gay forum and a shuttered photo show.

The Board apparently objected to the “politicization” of the public park, saying,

The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a premier botanical institution. We do not want it to be used as a venue for interest groups to politicize their cause. Let’s keep our green space as areas for relaxation and recreation. It is our policy to keep such activities out of our parks and gardens. Let’s keep our green space as areas for relaxation and recreation.
Outspoken activist Alex Au claims the event never had a political tone, just good old fashioned fun, of which the government apparently does not approve.

While Au and his peers fight for their gay pride rights, a one Dr Alan Chin Yew Liang penned a piece taking on the “dangerous gay lifestyle,” which allegedly spread AIDS with the greatest of ease. His conclusion?

I feel that not enough has been done to warn our youth that leading a ‘gay lifestyle’ is not cool. On the contrary, it is very unhealthy. There is a very high risk of contracting not only HIV but also a slew of other sexually transmitted disease.
And, judging from Liang’s statements, homophobic straight people have a higher incidence of terminal idiocy.

Bush Pledges to Veto Homosexual Hate-Crimes Legislation

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 8, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As the contentious "hate crime" legislation that would add sexual orientation as a specially protected class is put before the Senate, after being passed in the House of Representatives, Bush has promised to veto the proposed bill should the Senate vote in its favor, the Washington Times reports

Democratic Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Republican Oregan Senator Gordon Smith reintroduced the "hate crime" bill, also known as the "Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act" into the Senate this July, buried as one of many amendments to the Defense Reauthorization bill. The bill's inclusion in the Defense Reauthorization bill forces Bush to choose between denying extra resources to his soldiers overseas or allowing the list of "hate-crimes" to include "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" (see http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jul/07071305.html).

Referring to the proposed legislation, White House spokesman Trony Fratto recently told the Times, "The qualifications (in the bill) are so broad that virtually any crime involving a homosexual individual has potential to have hate-crimes elements."

He continued, "The proposals they're talking about are not sufficiently narrow."

Bush promised earlier this May to veto the House of Representatives version of the bill H.R. 1592. The White House issued a statement condemning the bill as "unnecessary" and "constitutionally questionable", noting that it fails to mention any other minority groups that also need protection. Referring to the fact that the bill gave the federal government control over local enforcement, the statement also noted, "There has been no persuasive demonstration of any need to federalize such a potentially large range of violent crime enforcement."

Ashley Horne, Focus on the Family Action federal policy analyst, commented on the hate-crimes bill, saying, "This legislation is unnecessary, creates second-class victims and paves the way for prosecution of religious speech."

"Virtually everywhere 'hate-crime' laws have passed, prosecutions for speech have followed. In Sweden, Canada and Great Britain, 'hate-crime' laws have been used to prosecute Christians speaking their disapproval of homosexual behavior, posing a serious threat to religious liberty and free speech."

The Canadian version homosexual "hate-crime" legislation, Bill C-250, that was given royal support on April 29, 2004, has proved true many of the fears and predictions of concerned Canadians. While attempting to prevent crimes against homosexuals, the bill has in effect opened the door to countless forms of legal action against other groups. Canadians have seen it being used to actively discriminate against religious leaders such as Pastor Stephen Boissoin who publicly denounced homosexuality based on his moral convictions, or companies that have refused to offer their services to homosexuals and has limited the freedom of the press.

LifeSiteNews

Racist pamphlet targets Africans

A DEROGATORY pamphlet that vilifies Sudanese and Somali refugees has been letterbox-dropped in Sydney's west, raising concerns about intimidation by nationalists of the new African communities.

The pamphlet - titled "African 'refugees' today, gangsters and drug-addled welfare parasites tomorrow" and targeting Somali and Sudanese youth - was distributed in Hoxton Park yesterday by supporters of the Australia First Party.

It claims the Africans do not assimilate well and are violent, and sets out so-called "well-known facts" about their intelligence.

"They have absolutely no respect for the laws of the land, let alone human life," the leaflet claims. It criticises "bleeding-heart government-funded" social agencies such as the Blacktown Migrant Resource Centre and church groups.

Jim Saleam, the chairman of the NSW branch of the far-right party, said the pamphlet had not been created by him, but refused to distance himself from the claims made in it.

The leaflet gives telephone, postal and web details for the party. "A lot of people are starting to do homemade pamphlets and associate themselves with us," Dr Saleam said.

Debbie Wojak, 44, of Hoxton Park said it was the first time she had received racist literature since arriving in Australia five years ago, and she found it "quite disturbing".

"We have Arab and Indian neighbours and we all got a pamphlet in the letterbox," she said. "We have an Aboriginal daughter and it makes me a little uneasy."

Mrs Wojak said when she first saw the pamphlet she was not sure if her family had been singled out for intimidation, but later found the leaflet had been delivered along the street.

A spokeswoman for Liverpool City Council said it was not aware of the Australia First literature being circulated in the area and, after seeing it, said it was not something the council wanted to comment on.

"We have campaigned for a policy of total exclusion, we have called for repatriation," Dr Saleam said. He thought the "facts" cited in the leaflet echoed the words of the controversial academic Andrew Fraser.


Brisbane Times

'Lesbian' soldiers dismissed from Nepalese army

Two female personnel have been kicked out of the army of Nepal on suspicion of being lesbians.

The Kathmandu Post reports that the pair were court-martialled after being found in bed with eachother.

They said that nothing sexual had occurred, but that charges of lesbianism were brought against them by their superiors.

Nepalese army spokesman Brigadier-General Ramindra Chhetri told the Post the women were dismissed because they "lacked discipline" and refused to comment on the lesbian allegations.

The position of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Nepal has worsened in recent months.

LGBT people had joined Maoist rebels and others to protest in a democracy movement against the king last year, demanding a freely elected, secular government.

When King Gyanendra finally relinquished sovereign power to the civilian government, it was hoped that gay and lesbian Nepalese would be granted human rights and legal protection.

The Maoist insurgents, who fought a ten-year guerrilla war against monarchist forces at a cost of over 12,000 lives, finally signed a peace agreement with the new democratic government in November last year.

No longer regarded as terrorists, the Maoists have turned their attention to ridding the country of "social pollutants," such as pornography, infidelity, drunkenness and homosexuality, which they claim are products of capitalism.

In the most recent known example of discriminatory attacks, Maoist soldiers detained a woman and a teenage girl accused of having a sexual relationship and tried to force them to become Maoist soldiers.

This is a critical time in the fight for LGBT rights in Nepal.

Elections are due to be held in November, when a new constitution will be voted on. Gay rights activists are demanding they be protected

Tony Grew (Pink News)

Russia: Seven Sentenced In Killing Of Antiracism Campaigner

The St. Petersburg City Court has sentenced seven teenagers to prison sentences of up to 12 years for murdering an antiracism campaigner.


Timur Kacharava, a 20-year-old antiracism activist, and his friend Maksim Zgibai were attacked outside a St. Petersburg bookstore in November 2005 by a group of teenagers.

Kacharava was stabbed to death and died on the scene. Zgibai survived the attack despite multiple knife wounds and severe brain damage.

Today, the St. Petersburg City Court sentenced seven teenagers to prison for the attack. The main defendant, who is now 14 years old, was sentenced to 12 years for murder and attempted murder.

The other defendants received prison sentences ranging from two to three years -- some of them suspended -- on charges of hooliganism and inciting ethnic hatred.

'Tough Response' Needed

For Aleksandr Brod, the president of the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, the verdict is a step in the right direction.

"On the whole, it's a fair verdict," Brod says. "Judges are progressively awakening to the danger of growing fascist tendencies in Russia. In our view, a tough response from prosecutors and judges is one of the best ways to fight xenophobia and neofascism."

While critics say Putin's recent promise to crack down on extremism has allowed a crackdown on all forms of dissent, a number of rights activists argue that such public pledges may be encouraging judges to take tougher action against racist offenders.

'Organized, Group Murders'

Today's verdict has also met with criticism. Human-rights lawyer Olga Tseitlina, who represents the Kacharava family, told RFE/RL's Russian Service that the crime's organizer remains unpunished.

"Only one defendant has been sentenced for murder. The organizer, the ideological mastermind of this crime, is still wanted by the police," Tseitlina says.

"This is part of a tendency. Why would the authorities want to show that organized, group murders exist here? It's easier to say that some teenager got it into his head to kill someone," she adds.

Human-rights campaigners have long accused the authorities of turning a blind eye to rising hate crimes by convicting assailants of hooliganism, a charge that carries lighter sentences.

Veteran human-rights activist Yuly Rybakov also regrets that the other six defendants got away with relatively lenient sentences.

"Once more we're dealing with a case where all the responsibility is shifted to one of the weakest participants selected from a group of obvious criminals," Rybakov says. "Organized groups and those who are behind them remain unpunished or are handed minor sentences."

Russia's Racist Crime Wave

Nonetheless, rights activists hope the verdict will deter further attacks and help curb the surge in racially motivated violence across Russia.

According to Sova, a Russian organization that monitors hate crimes, 37 people have been killed so far this year in racist attacks -- 22 percent more than for the same period last year.

The mounting racist violence is causing deep concern among ethnic minorities in Russia.

The Russian Council of Muftis last week issued a statement calling on Russian authorities to do more to combat racism.

In an interview with RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service, the council's head, Ravil Gainutdin, said ethnic minorities in Russia are living in fear.

He was speaking after meeting with the mother of Damir Zainullin, a Tatar student who was killed in a racist attack in St. Petersburg in June.

Claire Bigg

Neo-Nazi given lists of Coast Guard names

The Swedish Coast Guard is the latest organization found to have provided a list of its employees' names to a 33-year-old man reported to be the leader of a right wing extremist group.

Two weeks ago, the man - using his actual name - sent a request to the Coast Guard via e-mail. He claimed he was working on a project to ascertain the gender breakdown within the organization, Metro reports. It took just one day before he received a list of all 750 employees names in alphabetical order as well as their job descriptions.

It has also emerged that the police authority in Kronoberg supplied the man with a list of names, although their job titles were not included.

The 33-year-old is known to have been the leader of a neo-Nazi organization in Västerås two years ago. The group has previously been charged with terrorist crimes and has stated in its manifesto that it views the police as military enemies deserving of death.

Metro reported on Monday that the man had managed to obtain a list of all 3,700 people employed with the police authority in Västra Götaland. The administrative official responsible for releasing the information has been reported to an internal disciplinary board for breach of confidentiality.

TT/The Local

Singapore bans photo exhibition on gays, lesbians kissing

SINGAPORE: Singapore's censors have banned an exhibition of photographs depicting gay men and women kissing, a gay rights activist said Wednesday, calling the move "absurd."

The city-state's Media Development Authority denied the exhibition's organizers a license on the grounds that the photographs "promote a homosexual lifestyle," Alex Au, founder of a Singapore gay rights group, People Like Us, told The Associated Press.

The exhibition, entitled "Kissing," is a selection of 80 posed shots of same-sex kissing between fully clothed models, said Au, who shot the photographs.

"Kissing" was canceled after organizers received a letter from the Media Development Authority on Monday saying it was rejecting their application for a license to hold the exhibition, Au said.

The media regulator confirmed in an e-mailed statement it rejected Au's application for a license to hold the exhibition.

"Presently, homosexual content is allowed in the appropriate context but it should not be of a promotional or exploitative nature," Amy Tsang, deputy director of media content, said in the statement.

"The proposed exhibition ... which focuses mainly on homosexual kissing is deemed to promote a homosexual lifestyle, and cannot be allowed."

Tsang said, however, that authorities have previously allowed "brief same-sex kissing" in stage plays and adult-rated films.

The exhibition was part of "Indignation," a two-week gay pride series of forums, film screenings, lectures and other events that was scheduled to start later Wednesday.

"It's absurd to think that gay people do not also kiss, and that representation of such a reality would be subversive," Au said. "There is a very stereotypical representation of gays and lesbians as deviants and I think it is important to correct the stereotype."

Au added that in place of the canceled exhibition, organizers have planned a talk to be accompanied by a slideshow of the photographs. Indoor gatherings do not require police permits.

Under Singapore law, gay sex is deemed "an act of gross indecency," punishable by a maximum of two years in jail. Authorities have banned gay festivals and censored gay films, saying homosexuality should not be advocated as a lifestyle choice. Despite the official ban on gay sex, there have been few prosecutions.

Iran bans paper for 'interviewing homosexual'

Tehran - Iran on Monday shut down a leading moderate daily for the second time in less than a year after the paper published an interview with a woman accused of being a "counter-revolutionary" homosexual.

The ban on Shargh (East), the favourite newspaper of Iranian liberals, comes amid growing pressure on the press in Iran and follows the closure of fellow moderate daily Ham Mihan last month.

"The main reason for the ban was an interview with a counter-revolutionary who promotes immorality," Alireza Malekian, the director of press in the culture ministry, told the state-run IRNA news agency.

Shargh on Saturday published a full-page interview with Saghi Ghahreman, an expatriate Iranian poet who lives in Canada, under the headline "Feminine Language."

"We had an article which was an interview with an expatriate writer. They said she had moral problems, they say she is homosexual and promotes that in her weblog," Mehdi Rahmanian, Shargh's licence holder and managing director, told AFP.

"But we talked to her as a poet," he added.

Malekian said it was now up to the judiciary to decide in court whether the ban should be permanent and take any other necessary decisions.

"The press watchdog voted for the ban by examining an article which involves a counter-revolutionary person who promotes immorality. This person is a known element who even promotes immorality in her cyber publication," he said.

Ghahreman is the editor of a website called "Cheragh" (Lantern) which focuses on Iranian lesbian and gay issues.

But Shargh's lawyer Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai said: "Interviewing an individual cannot be a reason for closure when there is no vice in that interview.

"The reason for the ban is unlawful because the judiciary has not protested against the individual who was interviewed," he said, according to the ISNA news agency.

The hardline daily Kayhan, known for its repeated attacks on the moderate press, said in its Monday edition that Ghahreman was head "of the Iranian homosexuals organisation" and a "counter-revolutionary fugitive."

"Media observers believe that Shargh has interviewed this homosexual while aware of her sick sexual identity, dissident views and porno-personality," it added.

Homosexuality is strictly illegal in the Islamic republic and homosexual sex is theoretically punishable by death. However the extent to which gays are pursued in practice is highly debatable.

Shargh had only returned to the news-stands in May after serving a nine-month ban for publishing a cartoon deemed offensive to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The paper on Monday published a front-page apology for the interview, saying it had been "unaware of this person's personal traits" and would in future "avoid such people and movements."

Ghahreman made no explicit reference to homosexuality in the interview, but said that "sexual boundaries must be flexible... The immoral is imposed by culture on the body."

Iran's moderate press enjoyed a brief flowering during the rule of reformist President Mohammad Khatami which was stunted by a spate of closures, a trend that has continued under his successor Ahmadinejad.

Ham Mihan, directed by former Tehran mayor Gholam Hossein Karbaschi, was shut down on July 3 less than two months after the authorities allowed it to reappear after a seven-year ban.

Culture Minister Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi has also denounced a "creeping coup in the press" while the authorities last month banned the moderate labour news agency ILNA.

Shargh's closure leaves the dailies Etemad Melli (National Confidence), Etemad (Confidence) and the economic daily Sarmayeh (Capital) as the chief remaining voices of moderates in the press.

Rome opens first 'Gay Street'

The Italian gay community were celebrating on a cobbled street in Rome this week, after a decree by the city council marked it as the city's first 'Gay Street.'

The 300 metre zone in the centre of the city, which is populated with shops, restaurants and bars, has been designated as a 'gay-friendly' area where homosexual people can 'feel at ease'.

Leading up to the Colosseum, the route will be closed to traffic from 9pm to 2am from Thursday to Sunday to allow for crowds outside the bars and restaurants, as well as the occasional street party.

Fabrizio Marrazzo, leader of Italy's Arcigay gay rights movement, told news sources: 'This will be an area where people can feel at ease and it is also meant to be a bridge between the citizens and the homosexual community.

'We hope this will become a contact point for us to make our differences known to others and create a climate for peaceful coexistence.'

Opodo is a leading online travel company offering flights, hotels, rental cars and holidays worldwide.

Armenia’s Animosity Towards Gays

20-year old Ruben (the names of our interviewees have been changed to protect their privacy) is a bartender at the only gay bar in Yerevan and also one of only three men employed as strip dancers in the capital's nightclubs. Ruben has not told his family about the nature of his work, only a few of his friends know. And those few friends are also aware of the fact that Ruben is in love with a boy.

“My parents were suspicious of my sexual orientation during my last years of school, and we had many fights about it at home. Now we don't talk about it anymore; they think I've changed. As for my work, they know that I'm a bartender in a club, but they don't know that it's for gays. The mere mention of the striptease job is out of the question,” said Ruben.

Ruben is a student and future economist. He said that he hardly made any money dancing, because male strip shows were organized very rarely. But he also said that making money was not the biggest problem he faced. His greatest problem has been to overcome the period of dispute with his parents and resigning himself to his current situation.

“When my parents found out, they isolated me. They wouldn't talk to me, kept being hard on me and I was in a very bad state psychologically. I was aggressive and behaved badly – imagine what you would do if the world you lived in did not accept you,” Ruben said.

Mistreatment and intolerance of homosexuals, which often then turns into animosity, are typical in Armenian society. A survey we conducted among 100 people of different ages in the center of Yerevan offered further support to this fact.

According to the results, 53 percent of the respondents felt animosity towards homosexuals, 40 percent were tolerant, 4 percent treated them well, and 3 percent were undecided. When asked, “What would you do if your child were a homosexual?” 73 of the respondents said that they would disown the child.


Psychologist Davit Amiryan believes that this attitude in Armenian society is actually typical of all former Soviet countries. “Ignorance and misperceptions about homosexual relations have led to its association in people's minds with perversion, which is why many people don't consider that it has a place in Armenian society,” said the psychologist. He also said that homosexual tendencies could arise at different ages and that it was necessary to have correct information about homosexuality in general in order to understand the homosexual population.

The Armenian Apostolic Church has a categorical position on homosexuality. According to Deacon Suren Nersisyan, the Church views homosexuals as people with an illness and does not allow them to partake of the Communion during mass because they are considered to be in sin. Even if they confess, they are considered to be in a period of repentance and are not given Communion then either (all this, of course, “if the church knows about their homosexual tendencies”). “These people are not unclean, but there is an impurity in them, perhaps even from birth. We recently wrote an email to a homosexual and asked him to bring himself closer to God and repent,” said Deacon Suren.

As Deacon Suren Nersisyan explained it, the whole Christian world has a similar position regarding homosexuals. The only exception is the Methodist Church in the USA, which performs same-sex marriages and where 40% of the community, gathered at an assembly held in 2000, had expressed approval for the ordainment of homosexuals.

51-year old Gevorg is a successful businessman. He said that now, in a relationship with a 17-year-old boy, he has had the same feelings that he once had for his wife. Gevorg discovered these tendencies within himself years ago, after living with his wife and children for many years.

“I think gay love is more natural, because we are both of the same sex, we understand each other better and act more naturally. I hope the girls who read this will forgive me for saying so, but they are never completely honest in a relationship,” said Gevorg. He agreed to an interview with us in his apartment where I was, he said, according to him, the first “straight” person to set foot.

He explained that he had always had homosexual tendencies but it all came to the surface when he grew tired of family quarrels and sexual dissatisfaction. Gevorg has not had a legal divorce from his wife, but they no longer live together. He sees his children every week. He said that his youngest probably remained oblivious, but the elder children were beginning to have suspicions about his sexual orientation, because they were close and spent a lot of time together.

“I would like to declare all this openly, because I don't think I am doing anything unusual. But there are issues of family, friends and work - I don't want to lose all that I've gained in business, and I can't confide in my old friends,” said Gevorg, adding that he often had parties at his apartment where they would gather together in small numbers and it would remain their secret.

Just five years ago, homosexuality was considered a criminal offense in Armenia and homosexuals were constantly targeted by the police, who made frequent arrests and demanded large sums of money. The police today no longer arrest homosexuals, but they continue to meet in secret and prefer to conceal their homosexuality.

Gevorg said that there were a few clubs where they can feel free, and that many gays got together outside, but in his opinion, these gatherings were not well-organized, so he and his friends preferred to stay away.

“Many are afraid to even go to clubs, they think they will be recognized as homosexuals. But I say that they can go and see the others for themselves. We have no problems in the clubs. We are also on good terms with lesbians,” said Gevorg.

Gay club bartender Ruben said that there would be 10-15 people in the club on a usual day. When there were parties or other special occasions, there would be 50 or more – there would sometimes not even be standing room. Interestingly, there are no officially registered gay clubs in the country, according to the State Registration Agency. They are not registered separately and usually serve a small clientele.

All the gay people who spoke with us said that the best means they had to interact was the Internet, where many of them had first established relationships. There are 1,764 homosexuals registered on a social network for Armenian gays – 1,306 of them are homosexuals, 342 are bisexual, 94 are lesbians and 22 are transvestites. They usually post notices looking for someone interested in sexual relations and often mention secrecy as a necessary condition.

We tried to contact a few of them through the posts and wrote them emails. They all replied, and an Armenian from the Diaspora, visiting Yerevan for two weeks, agreed to meet. He told us that his friend had been brutally beaten a few years ago while serving in the army, and then moved out of Armenia and in with him after completing his military service.

“I was called a bad word in the street the other day and pretended not to understand Armenian; it was a very unpleasant moment,” said Daron and added that military service was most difficult for Armenian gay men.

Gevorg also spoke about his friends in the army. He talked about how the problems his friend was facing came to an end when he openly declared his homosexuality and everyone, starting with the commanders, was then very careful to avoid any incidents with him so that they would not be held responsible. “The insulting thing was that they had separated his plate and cup from the rest and would not touch it, but would come to him when they wanted to satisfy their sexual urges,” said Gevorg. He also had friends who have not had problems in the army because nobody has known about their homosexuality.


Our interviewees gave different answers to the question “When will our society become tolerant towards homosexuals?”

“The problems faced by homosexuals will not be solved in Armenia anytime soon, because the authorities prefer the attitude currently held by most people,” thought Gevorg.

Ruben said that Armenia was more or less under the influence of Russia, and if Russia – relatively more developed than Armenia – still continued to be intolerant towards homosexuals and prohibit gay parades, then it was much too soon to think about a solution in Armenia. Daron said that the animosity he faced from his peers was very painful, but he did not care much about the intolerance shown by older people.

Psychologist Davit Amiryan thinks that negative feelings towards homosexuals will change years down the line. Meanwhile, he presented the results of a survey, wherein 86.5% of young Armenians said that they refused to live near or work with homosexuals.

Deacon Suren Nersisyan quoted the Bible to remind us that God punished the Romans for worshipping the created, instead of the Creator. He condemned them to vile passions –those vile passions were their unnatural sexual needs.

Shushan Harutyunyan

Sport dismisses Brazilian claim that football is hetrosexual

A Brazilian judge is facing legal action tonight after declaring the football is heterosexual.

Read the full story here

Bob Allen Isn’t Gay. He’s a Racist!

If gay panic makes people killers, black panic makes them cocksuckers. In Bob Allen’s world, at least.

The Florida state representative insists he wasn’t trolling for dick when arrested for solicitation last month. No, no, he was trolling a public bathroom for sex, he just wanted to take a leak. His urination plans were cut short, however, when he encountered - gasp!- a black man in the bathroom.

Allen released a statement Thursday explaining how he offered to blow an undercover officer lest he “become a statistic,” whatever that means.

"I certainly wasn’t there to have sex with anybody and certainly wasn’t there to exchange money for it… This was a pretty stocky black guy, and there was nothing but other black guys around in the park."

Thus, when the cop suggested they fool around, cracker ass Allen went along with the homosexual suggestion. The cop, however, is sticking to his story: Allen peered over a bathroom stall, said hello and said, “this is kind of a public place, isn’t it”. The cop suggested they go elsewhere, but told Allen he was “trying to make some money” and asked for $20. Allen agreed, but suggested they go somewhere more private. The officer again stipulated his price - and even allowed Allen to specify his kinks: “I wanna know what I gotta do for 20 bucks before we leave. I don’t know what you’re into.” Allen went on to suggest oral sex, “I was thinking you would want one,” he allegedly said. The officer concurred, began following Allen out of the bathroom and arrested him.

In a vain attempt to escape an embarrassing situation, Allen apparently tried to pull the politico card, asking whether his legislative status “would help”. The cop’s response? “No.” Now Allen’s trying to save his career by pulling the race card. Classy.

Intel apologises for 'racist' computer ad

From the Times, the chip-maker has pulled an advertisement which it acknowledged was 'culturally insensitive and insulting'

Read Matthew Syed today on racist cliches in sport

Intel, the computer chip maker, has been forced to apologise for an advertisement which has been widely criticised as racist.


Shot at 2007-08-04

The ad, which was for a new generation of micro-processors, showed six black sprinters crouched in the start position in front a white man wearing a shirt and chinos in an office.

Above the image was a slogan which read: "Multiply computer performance and maximise the power of your employees."

Blogs were quick to spot the connotation of a white master surveying a group of black workers apparently bowed at his feet.

In a statement on its website, Intel said: "We made a bad mistake. I know why and how, but that simply doesn't make it better."

It was intended that the advertisement "convey the performance capabilities of our processors through a number of visual metaphors," Don MacDonald, director of global marketing for the company, wrote.

"Unfortunately, this ad using African-American sprinters did not deliver our intended message, and in fact proved to be culturally insensitive and insulting."

Gizmodo, the technology blog which spotted the ad, said of the picture: "Lousy, barely subliminal, racist advertising, or just plain lousy advertising?"

The Register, a technology news site, said in its analysis: "While the white man's smug jubilation is apparently derived from choosing the Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, there are some pretty sinister undertones in the advertisement."

Intel said it had pulled the ad from hundreds of publications, but was unable to stop two which had already shipped.

The California-based company said it had identified "specific steps" in its ad reviewal process, and would rely on these, as well as "just more common sense", to guard against a similar incident in the future.

Intel, which recently reported second quarter revenues of $8.7 billion (£4.3 billion), is relying heavily on a new breed of 'multi-core processors' in the war with its long term rival, AMD.

Racist Crimes Continue to Increase
Published 31.07.2007, 10.30 (updated 31.07.2007, 10.31)


Racist crimes continue to increase in Finland. More than 700 racially-motivated crimes were reported to police last year. This may be just the tip of the iceberg, as experts say the vast majority of race crimes go unreported.

Racist crimes increased over the previous year, in which 699 crimes were reported. In earlier years, the number was fewer than 600.

Violent attacks or attempted assault has become the most common form of racist crime, accounting for over half of reported cases. Slander, threats, and vandalism are also on the rise.

Typically, racially motivated crimes occur at night, at bars and clubs. Most of the victims are actually Finnish citizens. Foreigners who come under threat are usually from Turkey, Somalia, or Iran. Three-fourths of victims are men.

The study, conducted by the Police College of Finland, considered racist crimes to be any illegal act which was at least partially motivated by the victim's ethnic background.

YLE


Is Resident Evil 5 Racist?
By: Avinash Bali | Aug 02,2007



Watching a white man slaughter hordes of black zombies may seem like harmless violent fun for most of us, but for conspiracy theorists it’s just another stupid conspiracy theory to sink their teeth in and here’s what one such blogger who writes for the Black Looks, a blog that deals with African women had to say:


The new Resident Evil video game depicts a white man in what appears to be Africa killing Black people. The Black people are supposed to be zombies and the white man’s job is to destroy them and save humanity. "I have a job to do and I’m gonna see it through."

This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young... fearing, hating, and destroying Black people.

So is Capcom racist on some level or is the author of that article smoking some seriously potent stuff?

Thanks to evil avatar for the heads up.


On music: Racist elitists? Tell that to the football crowd (From the Daily Telegrah)
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 02/08/2007



Why is classical music always taking the rap, asks Julian Lloyd Webber

'The main problem with classical music is its audience," complained Sean O'Hagan in The Observer. "Anyone who still thinks classical music is not elitist should take a look around them when they next take their seat at a live performance."

Citing the recent Prom when John Eliot Gardiner commandeered the services of the Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble to play alongside his English Baroque Soloists, O'Hagan continued: "Even in the case of the surreally wonderful Soweto String Quartet (sic) the number of black performers exceeded the number of black audience members."

But why is classical music always taking the rap when that dread word "elitism" rears its peculiarly ugly head? Maybe some people would have a problem sitting next to the white, middle class and - by his own reckoning since he's attending a classical concert - elitist O'Hagan. Especially as he obviously needs to get out more.

To Glastonbury, perhaps, where this year's attendees were by all accounts 97 per cent white. Or maybe to a football match, where he will find "the number of black performers" regularly exceeds "the number of black audience members".

The truth is that black people still feel uncomfortable in large crowds of white people and white people still feel uncomfortable in large crowds of black people. No one is to blame but then no one enjoys being racially abused.

advertisementOnly recently I was astonished when a Chinese friend was taunted when we went to a football match together. So perhaps football - with its notorious emphasis on prawn sandwiches, sky-high ticket prices and dubious business practices - should assume the white, middle-class, elitist tag. Either way, to dump this social dilemma on to classical music is ludicrous.

Meanwhile, I can reassure both my Chinese friend and O'Hagan that they are far less likely to be racially abused in a concert hall than virtually anywhere else.

The love of music has nothing to do with the colour of your skin or the colour of your money. Last month I was privileged to open a children's centre in South London. A few tiny cellos had been thoughtfully provided and I will never forget the look (and the giggles) of sheer delight on the face of one little girl when she drew her bow across the strings and made a fabulous sound.

She was black, by the way (I didn't start this, O'Hagan did) and was obviously very talented but the chances of her being able to develop her ability are bleak: her parents - like many others regardless of colour - can't afford to buy an instrument or pay for lessons. This is a tale that can be told up and down the land and it's another social dilemma that can hardly be dumped on the music itself. In fact I reckon Beethoven would have been appalled.


"Pop Goes the Planet" screamed the front page of the Independent on Sunday - and they weren't wrong. BBC1's summer orgy of pop began with Glastonbury, continued with Live Earth and took in the Diana tribute concert at Wembley which, we were told, was a reflection of the Princess's taste in music.

How odd, then, that only a few minutes out of a concert lasting many hours managed to escape the tyranny of the beat. For Diana was a keen classical pianist. She was good enough to be able to sit down and play part of Rachmaninov's Second Concerto to a group of Australian schoolchildren on a battered old upright - a moment memorably captured on many a TV news broadcast at the time.

The Princess herself told me that the Rachmaninov was one of her favourite pieces of music and, sure enough, a CD of the concerto showed up on the list of Diana's personal effects during the Paul Burrell trial. A young pianist like the Chinese showman Lang Lang would have wowed that Wembley audience.

What a missed opportunity to show the world that, to Diana, music meant a lot more than being the Princess of Pop.