SEPTEMBER

Sept 29:  UK:  Growing Up in Scottish Borders Not a Positive Experience for Lesbian, Gay Youngsters.  Growing up in the Scottish Borders is not always a positive experience for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people, a recent survey shows.
Sept 27:  USA:  Matthew Shepard Foundation Applauds US Senate for Passing Anti-Gay Hate Legislation.  The Matthew Shepard Foundation has applauded today’s passage of the historic Matthew Shepard Act – inclusive federal hate crimes legislation.
Sept 27:  USA:  Hate Crime Bill Signifies Major Victory Toward Equality for Gay Community.  In an historic step toward equality for gay and bisexual American men and women, the U.S. Senate voted today to pass the ‘Matthew Shepard Act’, which updates and expands the federal hate crimes laws to include bias motivated violence based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender identity, gender, and disability, and provides new resources and tools to assist local law enforcement in prosecuting vicious crimes.
Sept 27:  Poland:  Cashman Welcomes Euro Court Ruling on Gay Rights in Poland.  Euro MP Michael Cashman has welcomed the decision of the European Court of Human Rights to uphold its previous verdicts against the Polish Government and the ban by the Warsaw city authorities of the city’s Gay Pride in 2005.
Sept 26:  Iran/Netherlands:  Nineteen Year Old Says ‘I Am an Iranian Gay’.  The following email has been received by the IRanian Queer Organisation in Toronto from a young gay man who was studying at school in UK and, after difficulties with the UK Home Office over asylum managed to flee England, ending up in the Netherlands.  The letter is published here as written.
Sept 26:  UK:  Stroud to Host First Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Trust Forum.   A Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Trust Forum is being held by the Gloucestershire Constabulary next month as part of their commitment to  embracing the needs of local communities.
Sept 26:  Russia:  Moscow Court Fines Six Russian Gay Activists for Taking Part in Blood Donor Ban Protest.  The six gay activists who were arrested when they demonstrated against the ban in Russia against gays donating blood have been fined by a Moscow court.
Sept 25:  Iran:  Iranian President’s Official Website Deletes His Columbia University Comments About Gays.  The reference to there being no gays in Iran, made by Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Columbia University, has been removed from the Persian language part of the president’s official website.
Sept 25:  Gibraltar:  Gibraltar Gay Group Hosts Visit by Peter Tatchell.  Peter Tatchell, human rights spokesperson for the Green Party of England and Wales, and lesbian and gay activist with Outrage!, arrives on the Rock today on a fact-finding tour, starting Thursday 27 September 2007, as a guest of Equality Rights Group GGR.
Sept 25:  Iran:  Iran Has No Gays, Ahmadinejad Says.  Commentary by Charlie Hinton.  Iran has no gays, Ahmadinejad says.  But who are those queers protesting in Toronto? Why does Pegah Emambakhsh fear she will be killed if she returns home? ...
Sept 24:  USA/Iran:  International Gay Human Rights Group Deplores Ahmadinejad’s ‘No Gays’ Statement.  Today, during a controversial talk at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum, Iranian President Dr. Mahmood Ahmadinejad categorically denied the existence of homosexuality in Iran.
Sept 24:  Poland:  Gay Europride 2010 Awarded to Warsaw.  Europride 2010 has been awarded to Warsaw.  The bold – and unanimous – decision was taken at the European Pride Organisers Association at their weekend meeting in Stockholm.
Sept 24:  UK/Iraq:  UK Must Do More to Ease Iraqi Refugee Crisis, Says Amnesty Report.  The Iraqi refugee crisis is reaching breaking point, says a new Amnesty International report today (24 September) following a research mission to Syria and Jordan which host the bulk of Iraq’s refugees.: 
Sept 22:  USA:  Almost 15,000 Gay Marriage Petitions Delivered to Gov. Schwarzenegger.  Equality California delivered nearly 15,000 petitions to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday, calling on him to sign legislation that would give same-sex couples the option to marry.
Sept 22:  Moldova:  Gays Encouraged by Prime Minister’s Support for Antidiscrimination Coalition Plans.  The gay community in Moldova is encouraged that the Prime Minister, Vasile Tarlev, has welcomed proposals of the Antidiscrimination Coalition to promote an anti-discrimination legislative framework for the country.
Sept 21:  UK:  Safe to Learn: Combating the Bullying of Gay Children in Schools.  The launch today of the new anti-bullying, web-based resource for schools, Safe to Learn, has been widely welcomed by both the education sector and the gay community.
Sept 21:  UK:  Greens Call for Specific Hate Crimes Legislation After Further Homophobic Murder in London.  The Green Party has again called for the rapid introduction of specific legislation for homophobic and transphobic hate crime following the murder two weeks ago of Tony Hoare.
Sept 20:  UK:  Two Gay Victims of Iraqi Terror Win UK Asylum.  Two gay victims of attempted assassinations by Shia Islamist death squads in Iraq have been granted asylum in the UK.
Sept 20:  UK:  Archbishops to Include Gays in Inclusive Stand at Manchester Cathedral.  Two Archbishops are to speak at Manchester Cathedral, calling for the Church of England to be inclusive.  The Archbishop of Mexico and the leader of the Scottish Episcopal Church are taking part in a conference Celebrating Anglican Diversity, which will celebrate the long tradition of a diverse Church that welcomes all people.
Sept 18:  USA:    Record Attendance Expected at Annual Summit on Gay Workplace Equality.  More than 2,100 people are expected in the nation’s capital this month for the seventeenth annual Out & Equal Workplace Summit.
Sept 17:  USA:  No ‘Tax Breaks’ for Evangelical Group Following Ban on Gay Unions at Public Boardwalk.  The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has today denied the Christian evangelical Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association’s request under the state’s Green Acres programme for continued tax breaks for the public boardwalk pavilion area on which the Association has banned gay civil unions.
Sept 17:  UK:  Gay Youngsters: Every School Should Have a ‘Bullying Mentor’ – Williams.  Every school should have a ‘Bullying Mentor’, a trained member of staff to counsel children who are the victims of homophobic and other types of bullying, according to the Liberal Democrats.
Sept 17:  USA:  Unprecedented Growth in Employer Policies for Gay and Transgender Workers.  An unprecedented 41 per cent increase in major US businesses scoring a perfect 100 is revealed in the latest Corporate Equality Index published today by Human Rights Campaign.
Sept 17:  UK:  Councils Should Do More for Lesbian, Gay History Month.  Local councils in the UK should do more to celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Trans History Month, Sue Sanders, the co-chair of the organising group, said today.
Sept 15:  Iraq:  Cash Crisis Puts Doubt on Future of ‘Safe Houses’ for Gays in Iraq.  Iraqi LGBT is facing a cash crisis in their efforts to assist lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people in Iraq.  For over a year, Friends of Iraqi LGBT has been trying to help by funding safe houses in Iraq for those who have come to the attention of the death squads and who have consequently had to flee their homes.
Sept 14:  USA:  Gay Military Legal Group Names New Chief.  A former Army infantryman, who went on to become a senior Congressional staff leader, has been named as the news executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), it was announced yesterday (September 13).
Sept 13:  Ireland:  High Court “Required” to Find Against Government in Transgender Case, Say Students.  The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has said today it anticipates the High Court will tomorrow affirm the right of an individual who has undergone gender reassignment to be recognised as female on her birth certificate.
Sept 13:  European Union:  New Edition of Guide to European Employment Law for Gay Men and Women.  ILGA-Europe has published the second revised – and updated – edition of its report Going Beyond the Law: promoting equality in employment.
Sept 12:  Lithuania:  ILGA-Europe Welcomes Rights of Transgender Person Judgement in Euro Human Right Court.  The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled today that there was a gap in Lithuanian law on the rights of transsexuals.  The ruling was immediately welcomed by the International Lesbian and Gay Association Europe (ILGA-Europe), saying it was “a very positive judgement”.
Sept 12:  Nigeria:  Gay Rights: Wave of Repression On So-Called ‘Amoral’ Behaviour.  Human rights advocates in Nigeria are voicing alarm about recent arrests of cross-dressing men and of women allegedly wearing ‘indecent’ clothes, saying the arrests could signal a deterioration of civil rights.
Sept 12:  UK:  Iranian Lesbian Freed on Bail From UK Detention at Yarl’s Wood.  Pegah Emambakhsh, the 40-years-old Iranian lesbian who fled to the UK in 2005 seeking asylum, has been freed “on bail” from the Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire.  (19:00)
Sept 6:  European Union:  European Court of Justice Hands Down Favourable Opinion on Survivor Pensions for Gay Couples.  Ruiz-Jarabo Colomer Damaso, an Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg delivered today his opinion in a landmark case before the court which is favourable to same-sex partners (case of Tadao Maruko v. Versorgungswerk der deutschen Bühnen).
Sept 6:  USA:  Church Calls for Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Ban in US Military.  The call earlier this week by the moderator of the Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) for the repeal of the anti-gay Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy of the United State military has been welcomed by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN).
Sept 6:  Russia:  Moscow Mayor Rejected a Compromise Plan for Gay Pride from Russian Government.  A series of letters, leaked to the Russian daily newspaper Moskovskiy Komsomolets and published today, show that the Moscow Mayor, Yuri Luzhkov dismissed a request from the Russian government to reach a compromise over Moscow Gay Pride, and how he requested – and got – from the GUVD department of the Moscow Police what amounts to a justification for the banning of this year’s Pride weeks before the application was made.
Sept 1:  Belarus:  International Gay, Lesbian Youth Group Report on Belarus Visit.  “Only in Belarus will you feel as if the Cold War never ended.  Although getting a visa isn’t a problem, the government isn’t crazy about foreign influences and encourages xenophobia with all-pervasive propaganda,” writes Lonely Planet about the country.  I could have better left the book at home.  Reading it in the airplane in order to truly appear as a tourist – and not an IGLYO board member – the last sentence didn’t ease me: “Hide this book.”