OCTOBER 2009

Oct 30:  USA:  HIV Travel Ban on Visitors to US to be Lifted Early Next Year, Obama Says.   The Obama Administration will be publishing a final “rule” on Monday (November 2) that will, from early next year, eliminate the travel ban on those with HIV/Aids wishing to enter the United States, the President said this morning.
Oct 30:  UK:  Foreign Office Celebrates 500 Gay ‘Civil Partnerships’ Registered in British Consulates Worldwide.   Europe Minister Chris Bryant today announced that almost 500 civil partnerships have so far been celebrated in British consulates around the world.
Oct 30:  USA:  Irene Monroe: Child Witches and Gay, Transgender Youth.  A Commentary for Hallowe’en by Rev. Irene Monroe.  This Hallowe’en many American children will dress up as witches.  And we’ll hear their laughter and see their smiles as they joyfully go from door-to-door trick-or-treating.
Oct 28:  USA:  Hate Crimes Prevention Act: History in the Making.  Commentary .  As President Obama today signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, 30 organisations issued this joint statement ...
Oct 28:  USA:  Hate Crime Prevention Act Signed by President.  After a decade of debate, persistent advocacy and 14 separate congressional floor votes, President Barack Obama today signed into law the ‘Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr.’ Hate Crimes Prevention Act in a White House ceremony attended by both the Shepard and Byrd families.
Oct 28:  Australia:  Tasmanian Upper House Approves Same-Sex Family Law.  The Tasmanian Upper House has today passed a new law giving equal recognition and protection to families headed by same-sex couples.
Oct 27:  Malta:  President of Malta Condemns Discrimination During Meeting With Euro Gay Group.  The President of Malta, Dr George Abela, today condemned discrimination and stressed the importance of anti-discrimination legislation.
Oct 23:  USA:  Irene Monroe: Non-Tolerance for Gays at Morehouse.  Commentary by Irene Monroe.   These dress-code offenders wear baggy pants, du-rags, flash their “bling bling” like gold chains, and “decorative orthodontic appliances” like gold teeth, and tattoos, bringing too much of black urban ghetto life to an elite college that fashions itself as the paragon of black manhood.
October 22: UK/Italy:  Gay Humanists: The Vatican and Italian Government Might Have Blood on Their Hands.  The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) said today that they strongly support the demonstrations held in Rome last weekend, protesting against the refusal of the Italian Parliament to pass laws protecting people physically victimised because of their sexual orientation.
Oct 19:  UK:  Peter Tatchell to Speak at SHOUT Gay Festival in Birmingham.   Human Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell is to give a key note speech on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights as part of Birmingham’s new SHOUT festival next month.
Oct 13:  Lithuania:  Lithuanian Conservatives Seek Abolishment of European Parliament Resolution on Anti-Gay Law. A major confrontation beteen Lithuania and the European Union could be the result of a draft resolution presented to the Lithuanian Seimas (parliament) by the ruling conservative Christian Democrats.
Oct 12:  Russia:  Hillary Clinton and Yuri Luzhkov to Pay Tribute to Gay US Poet in Moscow.  US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to inaugurate a monument to the gay American poet Walter Whitman in Moscow on Wednesday during her short European tour, GayRussia learned today.
Oct 11:  Russia:  Moscow Gays Launch Campaign Against Closing of Oldest Moscow Gay Dance Club.   The Moscow gay community is fighting to prevent the closure of the oldest and most popular gay club in the Russian capital – Club Chance.
Oct 9:  USA:  Screen Actors to March in Washington for Gay Equality.  Members of the Screen Actors Guild – SAG – will be joining thousands of fair-minded Americans in Washington this weekend for Equality Across America’s National Equality March.
Oct 9:  USA:  Gay Rights March: Out of My Black Church, Into the Streets.  Commentary by Rev. Irene Monroe.   I will not be in church this Sunday, but I will be in a place where my spiritual self will be fed.   I will be participating in the National Equality March (NEM) this Sunday, carrying the banner of Faith in America, an organization that is working to stop bigotry disguised as religious truth.
Oct 8:  Poland:  Polish Gays Cite Homophobic Remarks by PiS Party Politicians.  This morning, the gay advocacy group in Poland, Kampania Przeciw Homofobii (Campaign Against Homophobia), released a letter pointing out that the UK Conservative Party was misinformed when they say that their new political allies in the European Parliament, the Polish Law and Justice Party, were not homophobic.
Oct 8:  Poland/UK:  Warsaw Gay Group and the Homophobia of Law and Justice Party.  Letter from the President of Kampania Przeciw Homofobii (Campaign Against Homophobia)
Oct 7:  Russia:  European Court of Human Rights Gives Russia Four Months to Answer Moscow Gay Prides Bans.  The European Court of Human Rights has given Russia until January 20 to answer the cases of the bans of the Moscow Pride marches and pickets in 2006, 2007 and 2008.  “We hope to have a decision before the fifth Moscow Pride scheduled for May 29, 2010” said a delighted Nikolai Alekseev, chief organiser of Moscow Pride and plaintiff in the case, Alekseyev v. Russia.
Oct 7:  UK:  Anti-Gay ‘Murder Music’ and Buju Banton’s Violations of the Reggae Compassionate Act.  By Peter Tatchell.  Jamaican reggae and dancehall singer Buju Banton is currently on a major US concert tour.  Already many of his concerts have been axed as a result of LGBT protests.  Our congratulations and thanks to US activists.
Oct 6:  UK:  Openly Gay Stephen Fry and Other Entertainers Put Pressure on Cameron and the Tories.  Pressure on Conservative leader David Cameron over the Tory ‘alliance’ with the Polish Law and Justice Party (PiS) in the European Parliament continued today with the release of an ‘open letter’ signed by a number of entertainers, including Stephen Fry, Patrick Stewart and Eddie Izzard.
Oct 6:  USA:  Black Gays in US Are Tying the Knot.  Commentary by Rev. Irene Monroe.  More and more lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people of African descent are marrying.  An idea that was once thought of as an anathema to black queer identity, marriage, in our LGBTQ communities, is being celebrated and on the rise.  And many of us are now proudly walking down the aisle to tie the knot.
Oct 6:  UK:  Happy (Gay) Days Are Here Again – in Gloucester.  Pink* started with a bang.  That was the verdict last night of Sarrah Macey of the Gloucester City Council’s Guildhall arts and entertainment centre.  Almost 100 turned up for the launch 
Oct 5:  UK:  Tatchell: What Gay Rights Policies Will a Tory Government Deliver?   Conservative Party leader David Cameron is all talk and no action on gay rights, Peter Tatchell said this morning as the Tory party annual conference got underway in Manchester.