UNITED KINGDOM – A top Cambridge University academic was blackmailed and forced to hand over ?6,0000 ($9,800) by a male prostitute who threatened to tell his wife that they had sex. Cambridge Crown Court was told that drop-out Philip Ellis, 26, met the academic at a gay cruising spot in the city’s Newnham area. The…
JAPAN – Taiga Ishikawa, 36, has become the first openly gay person to be elected to office in Japan. He recently won a seat in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward Assembly in the city’s local elections. He quickly drew attention to his victory’s significance for the nation’s LGBT community. In a statement to AFP, Ishikawa said, “I…
ZIMBABWE – President Robert Mugabe has condemned gay “filth” in Europe. The Zimbabwean leader, speaking at a recent funeral, hit out at Western powers for maintaining their asset freeze and travel ban on him and his inner circle. “We don’t worry ourselves about the goings-on in Europe,” he told thousands at the burial of deputy…
UNITED KINGDOM – Facebook has apologized for removing a photo of a gay kiss, that was posted to accompany a post in support of a gay couple that were kicked out of a pub. Facebook warned Richard Metzger who had posted the story, and subsequently removed the image. According to NYULocal.com, the photo was quickly…
In a historical motion, openly gay candidate Taiga Ishikawa has won a seat in Japanese politics – he will sit in the Toshima Ward Assembly as the country’s first openly gay elected official. Ishikawa has been a long-time advocate of the LGBT community, publishing books on the topic including “Where is My Boyfriend?” in 2002…
ITALY – Following his claims that homosexuality caused the fall of the Roman Empire, a leading Italian academic is facing calls for his resignation as vice president of the country’s Centre for National Research. Professor Roberto De Mattei, vice-president of Italy’s Centre for National Research, a devout Catholic who previously claimed that the Japanese earthquake…
CHINA – At least 60 people have been arrested by police after a raid on Q Bar in Shanghai. An Agence France-Presse report stated, “Police said ‘pornographic’ shows were taking place when they arrived at the Q Bar in the early hours of Sunday.” All those detained – DJs, customers and bar staff – were…
IRELAND – Barry Dignam and Hugh Walsh have become the public face of civil partnerships in Ireland as they became the first couple to be joined together under legislation which came into effect Jan. 1, reported the Irish Times. “We feel a certain amount of responsibility … that this is a big step which Ireland…
BELGIUM – Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, the head of Belgium’s Catholic Church, who said HIV is “justice” for gays was hit in the face with custard pies while speaking at a university near Brussels last week. YouTube footage shows him being hit with a pie while walking to the venue and inside it. According to Agence…
CZECH REPUBLIC – The skeleton of what researchers believe to be a transgender woman who lived 5,000 years ago has been discovered in a Prague suburb. Though anatomically male, the skeleton was buried in rituals and traditions generally provided for females in the Copper Age culture of the area. Men from the era were buried…
