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Note that only articles originated by UK Gay News are archived

Listings of UK, Ireland and Europe LGBT Events

JULY 2005

July 31:  UK:  The Heritage Trail – Recognising Manchester’s Gay History.  While the City of Westminster in London takes a dim view of the gay-iconic ‘rainbow flag,’ attitudes of officialdom are very different ‘north of Watford’!
July 31:  UK:  THT Launches LGV Campaign as UK Diagnoses Pass 100.  Terrence Higgins Trust has launched campaign today to raise awareness of LGV (Lymphogranuloma venereum), a previously rare sexually transmitted infection, as diagnoses approach the 100 mark in London alone.  
July 31:  UK Sports:  Steelers Host Multi-Sports ‘Fun Day’ for Gays.  Often considered a minority within a minority, there are still dozens and dozens of gays sports teams to support or play for all around the country.  What is more, gay sports fans often play or support several gay teams.
July 30:  Russia:  Moscow Mayor Says 'Nyet' to Gay Pride in Russian Capital.  Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said today that he will not allow  a Gay Pride in the Russian capital.  The planned event for next year would be the first-ever in the city.
July 29:  Sports:  Gay World Football Championships in Copenhagen.  The IGLFA (International Gay and Lesbian Football Association) gets their World Championship 2005 underway in Copenhagen this weekend (Sunday July 31).
July 29:  Sports:  Fledgling Gay World Sports Body Not Resting On Laurels.  Their vision was to reach out to the world – and reach out they did.  But the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association (GLISA) refuses to sit back and pat themselves on the back.
July 29:  UK:  Gay Discrimination Case Highlights Need to Challenge Homophobia in Northern Ireland.  A gay man in Northern Ireland has won his case against his former employer over discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.
July 28:  Iran:  Flaws In Blade Report of 'Gay' Executions in Iran, Outrage! Says.  News reports in the US Washington Blade and New York Blade newspapers on the execution of two teens in Iran are flawed, according to the British LGBT human rights group OutRage!, which helped break the story to the international media and human rights groups.
July 28:  UK:  Rural County To Offer Full Ceremonies for Gay Civil Partnerships.  The Registration Service in Gloucestershire – a largely rural area of England which includes the picturesque Cotswold Hills – will be offering full ceremonies to same-sex couples when civil partnerships come into effect in December.
July 27:  Iran/USA:  Iran and USA Account for 78% of World’s Child Executions.  The use of the death penalty against child offenders – people under 18 at the time of the crime – is prohibited under international law, yet a handful of countries still persist with child executions, says Amnesty International.  
July 27:  Iran:   Executed Gay Iranian Teens: London Embassy Protest Set.  A London protest over the execution of two gay teenagers in Iran has been arranged by gay human rights group Outrage! for Thursday August 11 outside the Iranian Embassy in Prince’s Gate, SW7.  Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni were publicly executed by hanging last week in Mashhad, north east Iran on, July 19.
July 26:  Iran:   Despite Executions, There Is Hope For Gays in Iran.  Gay Iranians speak from inside Iran to Nikolai Alekseev, head of GayRussia.ru, about life in their country in the wake of the horrific execution of two gay teens last week.  [This is a "reposting" of the GayRussia.ru originally published yesterday]
July 26:  USA:  Gay Tennessee Teen: Give Zach Space, Says PFLAG.  As Zach Stark, the Tennessee teen who recently gained national attention after blogging his fears of being sent to Love in Action, is released from the program this week, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) calls for an ongoing and substantive discussion about the effects of "reparative therapy" on young people and their families.
July 26:  UK:  Gays To Protest Same-Sex Ceremonies Ban in Bromley.  Bromley’s Gay and Lesbian community in Kent, is gearing up for this Saturday’s march through the town centre to demonstrate against Bromley Council’s refusal to allow same sex ceremonies in their municipal buildings – including the register office, where, from December, Civil Partnerships will be registered.
July 26:  Iran:  Activists Condemn Execution of Gay Teens.  Human rights groups the world over have strongly condemned the recent execution of two gay teenagers in northeastern Iran.
July 24:  UK:  Gay Pride Parades: Belfast on the Brink of Joining Chisinau, Bucharest, Warsaw and Riga.  Problems with Gay Prides from officialdom in Europe have been experienced this year in Chisinau (Moldova), Bucharest (Romania), Warsaw (Poland) and Riga (Latvia).  But by the end of this week, it is possible – and perhaps unthinkable – that Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, will be added to this list.
July 24:  Lativa:  Riga Gay Pride: “A Sad, Sad Day. Society Is Sick” – Juris Lavrikovs.  By Nikolai Alekseev (GayRussia.ru).  When I called Juris Lavrikovs on Saturday evening, the first words I heard in my phone were: “I am safe, I am at home now”. Juris was very annoyed by what happened during the first ever gay pride in the history of his native country
July 23:  Latvia:   Eggs and Abuse Hurled by Protesters at Riga Gay Pride Parade.  Anti-gay protesters have marred the first-ever Gay Pride Parade in Latvia.  The protesters hurled eggs and abuse as the parade wound through the streets of the capital, Riga.
July 23:  Russia/Iran:  Following Gay Executions, Putin Asked to Stop Diplomatic and Trade Relations With Iran.  Russian gay leaders have sent a letter to the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, asking him to condemn executions of teenage gays in Iran on July 19.
July 23:  Iran:  Nobel Peace Prize Winner Condemns Execution of Gay Iranian Teens.  Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, has condemned the execution of two teenagers in Iran earlier this week.
July 22:  USA/Iran: Condoleezza Rice Urged to Condemn Execution of Gay Iranian Teens.  The Human Rights Campaign sent a letter today to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking her to condemn the recent execution of two gay teens in Iran as well as other horrific human rights abuses against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people across the globe.
July 22:  Latvia:  Court Says Riga Gay Pride Can Go Ahead Tomorrow.  A Latvian court has reversed the ban imposed by city authorities on the country’s first ever Gay Pride Parade in Riga tomorrow (Saturday).
July 21:  Iran:  Iran Executes Two Gay Teens In Public Hanging.  Two gay teenagers were publicly executed in Iran on 19 July 2005 for the ‘crime’ of homosexuality.  The youths were hanged in Edalat (Justice) Square in the city of Mashhad, in north east Iran.  They were sentenced to death by Court No. 19.
July 20:  Latvia:  We Are Going Ahead, Riga Gay Pride Organisers Pledge.  Outraged organisers of Saturday’s Riga Pride have pledged that they will go ahead with their event – the first ever Pride in Latvia – despite the intervention of Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis and his pressure on the city authorities who withdrew permission this morning (Wednesday).  “(We have) decided not to obey and to go ahead with all planned events, including the Pride March,” said Gabriels Andrejs Strautins of the Pride organising committee in an e-mail.
July 20:  Latvia:  Saturday's Pride Parade in Riga Cancelled by City Authorities.  The Pride parade scheduled to be held in the Latvian capital, Riga, on Saturday (July 23) has been cancelled, according to Russian agency reports.  This has been confirmed by the Pride office is Riga.  And UK Gay News was told that they intend to defy the ban.
July 20:  UK:  Brighton Gay Community’s Voice at Risk in NHS Merger Plan, Warns Gay Councillor.  Frontline NHS services in Brighton and Hove such as working age mental health, addiction treatment and HIV services are facing large-scale reorganisation with serious implications for the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, warns Green city councillor Simon Williams.
July 18:  UK:  Gays Get Death Threats From Islamic Fundamentalists.  Three of leading members of Outrage! have received repeated death threats from Islamic fundamentalists in recent weeks and months, it was revealed today.
July 18:  USA:  Controversial Novelist Confronts Hollywood’s Gay Closet.  Novelist Michael Holloway Perronne, who made headlines in February for shipping a shovel and a copy of his gay themed debut novel, A Time Before Me, to conservative lawmaker Gerald Allen in response to proposed Alabama legislation that would ban all gay books, is making waves again with his latest novel, Starstruck: A Hollywood Saga.
July 17:  UK:  Gay Flag Will Fly on Oxford Town Hall for the First Civil Partnership Ceremonies.  The rainbow flag will be flying on the Oxford Town Hall on December 21, the first day of same-sex civil partnership ceremonies, the city’s Lord Mayor promised yesterday.
July 14:  UK:  Lesbian Activist Invited to Downing Street.  Sue Sanders, co-chair of Schools OUT, the organisation working for over thirty years for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender equality in education and initiator of LGBT History Month UK, has had her work honoured by an invitation to a reception at 10 Downing Street on the July 25 to meet the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
July 14:  Nepal:  Good News From Nepal: Gay Pride Set for Kathmandu Next Month.  Emails from Nepal usually bare bad tidings.  But today came good news from the Blue Diamond Society (BDS) – the fourth Gay Pride, or Gai Jatara BDS Pride Festival to give it its correct title, in Kathmandu is set for August 20.
July 13:  UK:  Gay Muslim Group Accepts Invitation To Be Part of London’s Remembrance of Bomb Victims.  Imaan, the Social Support group for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Muslims will observe a two-minute silence at Trafalgar Square tomorrow (Thursday) as guests of Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.
July 12:  Jamaica:  Tribute to Jamaica’s First Gay Hero.  By Jason Simmonds (The Jamaica OutPost).  The final interview that the late Brian Williamson did was for this newsletter; a newsletter for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens of Jamaica. This month, The Jamaica OutPost joins forces with members and friends of Jamaica’s GLBT community who have made themselves available to pay tribute to Brian Williamson, in recollection of his contributions to our ongoing struggle for equality in Jamaica.
July 9:  UK:  Sondheim OKs Use of Songs as Gay Chorus Takes Bold Step.  The award-winning London Gay Men’s Chorus takes a bold artistic step this summer when it presents the premiere of You’ll Do For Now, a new show specially devised for the chorus, exploring love, sex, cruising, AIDS, gay rights and what it means to be a gay man in 2005.
July 8:  USA: Gay Unions:  Oregon Senate Takes Historic Step Toward Equality.  The Oregon Senate made history today by passing S.B. 1000 – a bill that would grant critical rights and protections to same-sex couples and their children as well as banning discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
July 6:  Turkey:  Imprisoned Gay Turk Hunger Striker Wins Concessions.  Mehmet Tarhan, a Turkish gay activist and conscientious objector, has won major improvements in his prison conditions following a 28-day hunger strike and an international protest campaign by gay and anti-war groups worldwide – but he remains in detention following his refusal to be conscripted into the Turkish army.
July 5:  USA:  US Anti-Gay Group Spins CDC Statistics With Flawed Results. A Commentary.  According to the anti-gay Family Research Institute (FRI), being gay is more costly to United States society than smoking.  The headline on a press release says it all.  “Gays 6X More Expensive Than Smokers says Family Research Institute”, the headline screams.
July 5:  UK:  Manchester’s Gay Pride ‘Comes Together’ With City’s Arndale Centre.  In one of the first of a range of high profile business organisations to announce their partnership with Manchester Pride 2005, the leading city-centre shopping destination, Manchester Arndale, will sponsor the Lesbian and Gay Heritage Trail at this year’s celebrations, as well as sponsorship of official Pride T-shirts.
July 4:  UK:  Stop Deporting Gay Asylum Seekers Outrage! Tells Blair.  The placards told the world:  “Tony Blair deports gay asylum seekers. Shame!” and “Labour deports gays to face jail, torture and death”.  Bearing placards with these words, the OutRage! contingent at Saturday’s Pride London parade condemned the UK government’s abuse of LGBT asylum seekers.
July 4:  UK:  Age Concern Comes Out at Pride London to Support Elderly Gays.  Age Concern made a colourful appearance at this year’s London Pride parade in an effort to highlight the needs of the often hidden population of older lesbians, gay men and bisexuals (LGB).
July 3:  UK:  UK Government Minister Supports Gay, Lesbian Inclusion in Primary and Secondary Curricula.  Meg Munn, the Deputy Minister for Women and Equalities, has given her enthusiastic support to the of LGBT lives and achievements in both the primary and secondary school curricula.
July 2:  UK:  Gay Pride Meets Live 8 in London.  On one side of Park Lane, thousands of participants in the Pride London parade assembled ready for the noon start of the capital’s annual parade.  On the other side, thousands slowly made their way to Hyde Park for the Live 8 concert.
July 2:  UK:  Pride London in Pictures.  16 pictures from Pride London on three pages
July 1:  UK:  Activist Peter Tatchell Honoured by Gay Police Association.  Peter Tatchell, the gay human rights activist and founder of Outrage!, was named as the 2005 recipient of the Mathew Windibank Award at the 15^th anniversary gala dinner of the Gay Police Association (GPA) in London tonight.  Also: 240 Cops Expected to March in Tomorrow's Pride Parade in London