FEBRUARY

Feb 29:  UK:  UK Gay Website Triumphs in ‘Cyber Squatting’ Case.  In what will be seen as refreshing news for the internet community, a ‘cyber squatter’ has not only relinquished a domain name he has been sitting on for four years, but has also been refused payment of the $12,000 fee he was demanding for it by the official escrow-holding intermediaries.
Feb 28:  UK:  Lesbian Magazine Cover ‘Censored’ by UK’s Leading Newsagent.  Commentary.  While it is perfectly acceptable for tabloid newspapers in the UK to titillate their readers with female breasts and nipples galore without a murmur from the nation’s largest newsagent with branches in every high street, when a lesbian magazine produces a cover that shows part of one breast, sans nipple, all hell lets loose.
Feb 27:  UK:  London School Apologises to Gay Teacher Subjected to Homophobia.  A school governing body yesterday apologised, unreservedly, for the homophobic comments made by a head teacher which forced a young gay teacher to resign from his job at an inner city school in London.
Feb 27:  UK:  Plight of Gays in Belarus, Iraq and Uganda to be Highlighted at IDAHO 2008 Launch.  Government ministers, mayoral candidates, students and academics, national and international LGBT campaigners, a lesbian singer/songwriter, who according to one reviewer performs like “Mary Poppins on acid” are all gearing up for the IDAHO-UK 2008 launch event at the London College of Fashion, which will take place, on the evening of March 13.
Feb 27:  UK:  South Wales Police Fly Rainbow Flag Alongside Their Own.  South Wales Police is flying the Gay Pride Flag at police headquarters in Bridgend to celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month’ in the UK.
Feb 25:  Ireland:  Students Slam Health Service Executive Over Services for Transgender People.  The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has slammed the Irish Health Service Executive over an “appalling lack of services” for people diagnosed with gender identity disorder.
Feb 25:  UK:  Campaign Launched to Combat the Ban on Gays Becoming Blood Donors.  A new group has been set-up to protest the ban on gay blood donors within the UK.  The group, Blood Ban, has today launched a website.
Feb 25:  New Zealand:  Gay Safe Sex Poster Boy Allegation Untrue: “I Did It To Be Spiteful”.  The young man at the centre of an unsafe sex allegation involving one of the Gay Men’s Health Safe Sex Poster Boys has admitted to New Zealand AIDS Foundation staff that the allegation he made was done in spite – and is not true.  
Feb 24:  UK:  Let Gay Men Give Blood, Say Welsh Lib Dem Youth.  Gay men in Wales should be allowed to give blood, the youth wing of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Party (Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru) are suggesting to the party’s conference this weekend.  They point out that because of the shortage of blood un the UK’s National Blood Service, the Welsh NHS is have to use blood imported from Australia where gay men are permitted to donate blood.
Feb 23:  UK:  Swansea to Stage Its First Gay Pride in September.  Swansea is to stage its first-ever Gay Pride later this year.  The announcement came days after Cardiff announced that its Mardi Gras this year has been cancelled.
Feb 22:  Russia:  Anti-Gay Is Representative of Communist Presidential Candidate in Russia.  Young homophobic communist Pavel Tarasov, who 18 months ago infamously said that a “good faggot is a dead faggot”, has surfaced as a staffer for Communist presidential candidate Gennady Zyuganov.
Feb 22:  New Zealand:  HIV Data Collection Must Be Secured – NZ Aids Foundation.  Adding HIV to the Ministry of Health’s list of notifiable conditions will help create an “HIV census”, ensuring that anonymous data collection on New Zealand’s HIV and AIDS epidemic is secured for the future, says the New Zealand AIDS Foundation (NZAF).
Feb 21:  Iran:  Another ‘Cry for Help’ from a Gay Iranian Refugee – in Malaysia.  My name is Sepehr [alias used]. I was born and raised in Iran, a country that kills people for falling in love. My government kills homosexuals by asserting we are an enemy of GOD.  My president denies us even our existence as human beings when he claimed there are no homosexuals in Iran during his speech at Columbia University.
Feb 18:  Netherlands/UK:  Gay Iranian Teen Asylum Seeker Goes on Hunger Strike As He Faces Return to UK.  Mehdi, the 19-years-old gay Iranian who fled the United Kingdom last year when the Home Office ordered his deportation, is expected to go on hunger strike in the Rotterdam detention centre where he is being held, his supporters in the UK said this afternoon.
Feb 18:  Ireland/Iran:  Irish Students Call on Iranian Government to Halt Executions of Two ‘Gay’ Men.  The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has today called on the Iranian Government to halt the planned executions of Tayyeb Karimi and Yazdan who are both thought to be gay.
Feb 15:  Four Suspected Gays Arrested, Chained to Hospital Beds for Having HIV.  Cairo police have arrested four more men suspected of having HIV, signalling a wider crackdown that endangers public health and violates basic human rights in Egypt, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today in a joint statement.
Feb 14:  Russia:  Second Moscow Gay Pride Ban Appealed to the European Human Rights Court.  Compensation of 36 million roubles sought for breach of rights.  Organisers of Moscow Gay Pride have today sent the case that their human rights were breached when the Mayor of Moscow banned the Pride march last May to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Feb 7:  UK:  Gay Couple Live in Fear After Home Attacked Twice in Week.  The home of a gay couple in Greggan, Northern Ireland, has been attacked for the second time in a week.  The attacks are said to be part of a homophobic hate campaign that has been ongoing for three years.
Feb 5:  Egypt:  Stop Criminalising HIV, Gay Section of Human Rights Group Tells Egypt.  A series of arrests in Cairo, sparked by one man’s admission to police that he was HIV-positive, endangers public health as well as human rights, Human Rights Watch said today.  In Arabic/
Feb 2:  Jamaica:  Human Rights Watch: Shield Gays from Mob Attacks.  A homophobic mob attack in Jamaica that left one man severely injured and another missing and feared dead shows yet again that authorities must take urgent action against violence and hatred, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.