Northern Ireland Rejects Marriage Equality

The Telegraph reports:

A bid to legalise same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland has failed.
Unionists voted down a motion at Stormont’s Assembly which called on the power-sharing ministerial Executive to legislate.
Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK without marriage rights for gay couples.
The issue sparked impassioned debate, with protests outside the legislature and verbal clashes between campaigners in favour of or opposed to the change. Amnesty International has warned of a likely legal challenge.
Sinn Fein South Down MLA Caitriona Ruane said: “Attitudes in Ireland are changing because people do not want to see people discriminated against.
“The gay community has said enough is enough, they are standing up for themselves and their communities.”
She claimed young people were turning to suicide by because of the taunts.
“If they don’t have an alternative voice to the vitriolic gay bashing they will internalise it,” she said.
“There is no room for sitting on the fence on this, this is about fighting for all our children’s rights.”
Church leaders had urged Assembly members to vote against the legislation, with the Catholic church asserting marriage was between a man and a woman.
However, Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty’s orthern Ireland programme director, said: “States may not discriminate with regards to the right to marry and found a family, on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Yesterday’s petition of concern at the Assembly tabled by the largest unionist party, the Democratic Unionists, ensured Sinn Fein’s motion would be defeated after a majority of unionists failed to back the change.
John O’Doherty, director of the Rainbow Project health organisation for gay men and a rights campaigner, said he would continue to press for change.
“This will be won slowly so we appreciate every vote that we got. We are disappointed with the outcome. It has always been a difficult march towards equality here but we will continue to fight the good fight.”

Clintons: We’re Proud Of Jason Collins

NBA Player Jason Collins Comes Out

Joe.My.God. reports:

America finally has its first openly gay and still-playing male major professional sports athlete.  Jason Collins writes today for Sports Illustrated: 

• I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.
•  
• I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn’t the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, “I’m different.” If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I’m raising my hand.
•  
• My journey of self-discovery and self-acknowledgement began in my hometown of Los Angeles and has taken me through two state high school championships, the NCAA Final Four and the Elite Eight, and nine playoffs in 12 NBA seasons. 
•  
• I’ve played for six pro teams and have appeared in two NBA Finals. Ever heard of a parlor game called Three Degrees of Jason Collins? If you’re in the league, and I haven’t been your teammate, I surely have been one of your teammates’ teammates. Or one of your teammates’ teammates’ teammates.
•  
• Now I’m a free agent, literally and figuratively. I’ve reached that enviable state in life in which I can do pretty much what I want. And what I want is to continue to play basketball. I still love the game, and I still have something to offer. My coaches and teammates recognize that. At the same time, I want to be genuine and authentic and truthful.

He says he wears the #98 on his uniform as a tribute to Matthew Shepard:

The parents of Matthew Shepard say they are floored at the news that Jason Collins secretly chose 98 as his uniform number as a tribute to Matthew Shepard and the Trevor Project, which was founded in August 1998 two months before Shepard was murdered. 

“It made me cry,” Judy Shepard told FOXSports.com during an interview Monday afternoon. “It was really quite a tribute, and I was very honored. And I know Matt would be thrilled.” And the Shepards hope, someday, to be able to thank Collins personally for his bravery in opening himself up to the world and honoring their son’s name in the process.   “I would really love to speak to him, because I know Judy and I would just like to thank him,” Dennis Shepard said. “Because, No. 1, he had the courage to come out, period, and No. 2 that he wore 98 in honor of Matt, the year that he died. “(Collins) couldn’t have been that old (when it happened), so it must have had a tremendous impact on him, the story behind Matt, for him to want to do that. And then to wear it all this time without telling people why until today, that’s incredible.”

The head of the Trevor Project says they plan to reach out to Collins about working together.

Denmark: Possible HIV Cure Soon?

Joe.My.God. reports:

Danish researchers say they are on the brink of curing HIVvia a treatment that seeks out the elusive reservoirs of the virus unreachable by traditional anti-retroviral medications.  Via Britain’s Telegraph:

Danish scientists are expecting results that will show that “finding a mass-distributable and affordable cure to HIV is possible.” They are conducting clinical trials to test a “novel strategy” in which the HIV virus is stripped from human DNA and destroyed permanently by the immune system.

The move would represent a dramatic step forward in the attempt to find a cure for the virus, which causes AIDS. The scientists are currently conducting human trials using their treatment, in the hope of proving that it is effective. It has already been found to work in laboratory tests.

The technique involves releasing the HIV virus from “reservoirs” it forms in DNA cells, and bringing it to the surface of the cells. Once it comes to the surface, the body’s natural immune system can kill the virus through being boosted by a “vaccine.”

Only fifteen patients are currently being tested with the new method. Should they be considered to have been cured, the study will widen. The above-linked article notes that research is proceeding faster in Denmark because they have “streamlined the process of putting the latest basic science discoveries into clinical testing.”

France Holds First Gay Wedding Fair

South Africa: Gay Teens Starved, Tortured, Killed At Camp

Gay Star News reports:

Three ‘gay and effeminate’ teens have died after being starved, tortured and killed at a camp that promised to turn them into ‘men’.
A picture of Raymond Buys, 15, taken in April 2011 showed a skeletal, emaciated figure fighting for his life.
Just 10 weeks before, the teen’s parents signed him up to the Echo Wild Game Rangers training course in South Africa in perfect health.
In hospital, Buys was severely malnourished, dehydrated, his arm was broken in two places and there were burns and wounds all over his body. He lay in intensive care for four weeks until he died.
And now, the course ‘general’ Alex De Koker, 49, and employee Michael Erasmus, 20, are on trial for charges of murder, child abuse and neglect, along with two cases of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm in relation to Buys’ death.
The teen’s death is alleged to have been the third among the Afrikaans children who attended the R22,000 ($2,400, €1,900) courses, which have been advertized since 2006.
‘I sent my son on this course to make him a better man, to give him a better future,’ Buys’ mother told The Daily Telegraph. ‘I trusted Alex De Koker with his life.’
Last week, the Vereeniging District Court heard the testimony of a boy who had shared a tent with Buys, the Daily Maverick reports.
Gerhard Oostuizen, 19, claims Buys was chained to his bed every night, was refused permission to visit the toilet and on one occasion was forced to eat his own faeces.
He also said he would be beaten with planks, hosepipes and sticks when he failed to carry out manual labor tasks.
Oostuizen alleged further he saw De Koker tied Buys to a chair naked with his head covered in a pillowcase, and would electrocute him with a stun gun.
Gender activist Melanie Nathan has said the three young men were all perceived as ‘gay and clearly effeminate’.
In reference to ‘gay conversion camps’, Nathan writes: ‘With a little bit of digging [into the story], the gay reparative undertones start to emerge.’
Eric Calitz, 18, and Nicolaas Van Der Walt, 19, had both died after being enrolled at the Echo Wild Game Rangers camp four years earlier.
When Calitz requested to leave, De Koker reportedly told him he ‘wasn’t a moffie [gay] and he would make a man out of him’.
Calitz’s family was informed of his death via text message, saying he had died of a heart attack.
Afterwards, doctors said the cause of death was from a seizure, dehydration and found bleeding from the brain.
Van Der Walt was also claimed to have died from a heart attack, but doctors said he had appeared to have been choked with a seatbelt.  
Both De Koker and Erasmus have pleaded not guilty to the charges. The case continues.

ccindecision:

Flying 58 combat missions over Pacific gets you to certain privileges. Number one of these? Rocking pink socks without shame.

AUSTRALIA: Premier Of New South Wales Backs Same-Sex Marriage

Gay Star News reports:

The premier of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has come out in support of same-sex marriage.
‘As a Liberal who believes that commitment and family units are one of the best ways in which society is organized, I support the concept of same-sex marriage,’ said Barry O’Farrell to Fairfax Media, dismissing the argument that gay marriage would damage traditional marriage as ‘utterly ridiculous’.
O’Farrell urged Liberal party leader Tony Abbott to allow a conscience vote on the issue, as Liberal MPs and senators being told to tow the party line against same-sex marriage is a significant obstacle to passing legislation in Australia.
Shadow education minister Christopher Pyne said today that the Liberal party may allow a conscience vote in the next parliament. ‘The party room will get to decide that,’ he said. ‘We might well end up with some recognition of same-sex couples.’
O’Farrell was inspired by this week’s passage of marriage equality legislation in New Zealand.
‘It was NZ that in 1893 first gave votes to women; it took us another nine years to do it,’ said O’Farrell. ‘It shouldn’t have to take us another nine years to get the lead of our cousin across the ditch.’
The NSW state leader said it would be better for the federal government to pass legislation, but if necessary states could go ahead themselves.
The five lawmakers (The Nationals Trevor Kahn, Liberal Bruce Notely-Smith, Greens Cate Faehrmann, Labor Penny Sharpe and independent Alex Greenwich) who make up cross-party working group on bringing marriage equality to NSW, welcomed the Premier’s support.
‘NSW now has the same political setting that lead to the successful NZ vote, with both leaders supporting the reform, all parties having a conscience vote, and all sides of politics working together to progress the reform,’ said a statement from the group.
The Labor oppostion leader in NSW John Robertson, who’s son is gay, also supports marriage equality.
Campaign group Australian Marriage Equality (AME) said that O’Farrell’s support shows that same-sex marriage is ‘no longer a left/right issue but one that conservatives can support because it’s about equality, individual freedom and family values’.
‘With strong support from such a prominent Liberal we can see the light at the end of the tunnel on this important and urgent issue,’ said AME national director Rodney Croome.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Abbott both reiterated their opposition to marriage equality this week.
Bills legislating for same-sex marriage were voted down Australia’s House of Representatives and Senate last September.
Australia will go to the polls in a general election in 14 September this year. Australian Greens are the only party to include same-sex marriage as a policy. 

MONTANA: Sodomy No Longer Illegal

Joe.My.God. reports:

Montana’s governor has signed the bill repealing the state’s ban on sodomy. 

When Montana Gov. Steve Bullock signed Senate Bill 107 decriminalizing gay sex, cheers erupted in the Capitol’s Rotunda. It had been 16 years after the state Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional and 24 years after gay rights activists began their fight to take government out of the bedroom. “I am not going to speak too long because, frankly, the longer I talk, the longer this embarrassing and unconstitutional law stays on the books,” Bullock said.

The victory, though a powerful one for the gay community in Montana, is highly symbolic with no tangible benefits aside from striking the obsolete law condemning gay sex from Montana code. The outdated code has not been used to prosecute individuals for years. And previous efforts to offer gays and lesbians protection under the law, including a push to prohibit civil discrimination, have been thwarted by a GOP-controlled Legislature.

Towleroad tips us to this clip.

Boston Bombing Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Liked To RT Homophobic Tweets

Queerty reports:

Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was “as American as anybody,” according to one of his high school friends.
So it comes as no surprise that his Twitter account reflects the usual ramblings of a 19 year old, along with a few homophobic touches.
Tsarnaev’s tweets make it clear that he’s straight and likes women (and weed), but he can’t resist a few swipes at gays along the way.
“Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet, probably the gayest thing I ever heard but don’t mind me I obviously just get wet,” Tsarnaev writes in one tweet.
In other cases, he liked to retweet not particularly funny jokes.

• “Oh, you’re gay? That must be a real pain in the ass.”
• “In a Grammar class : Teacher:- “HE does not like girls.” What is ‘He’ in this sentence. . ?? … . . Student :- Gay… . !!””Oh, you’re gay? That must be a real pain in the ass.”
• “If you were sleeping between a beautiful girl and a gay man, who’s side would you turn your back to?”

Compared to what Tsarnaev is accused of, these are incredibly mild. There are no death threats against gays or invocations about the wrath of God on homosexuals. Instead, what they highlight are the average, casually homophobic beliefs of a young straight American male. In that sense, Tsarnaev was depressingly a lot like everyone else.

Dan Savage’s Husband Terry Miller Lands New Gig: Swimsuit Model

Out Magazine reports:

T’was a time not too long ago that Terry Miller, Dan Savage’s main squeeze (who isNo. 45 on Out’s Power List this year), was too shy to have his photo taken.Seriously, there were nearly no photos of the cute guy and dad to the couple’s adolescent son.
But lately Dan Savage has been tweeting all sorts of pics of his husband (and co-founder of the It Gets Better project). Now it seems Mr. Miller has posed for fashion label Mr. Turk. And Dan Savage has tweeted out the evidence for all of us to enjoy.
Oh it CERTAINLY gets better. Lucky guys.

Read here the exclusive interview The Underwear Expert has with Terry.

New Zealand: MP Maurice Williamson Delivers Great Speech During Debate

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon: LGBT Rights Are Human Rights

New Zealand: Gay Marriage Passes

And thus, becoming the 13th nation in the world where gay marriage is legal. 

UPDATE: The song is Pokarekare Ana, a “traditional New Zealand Maori love song” and the nation’s unofficial national anthem.

Derren Brown On Personal Responsibility Without God