Death threat hits Northern Ireland gay couple
Ben Townley, Gay.com UK


The spate of homophobic attacks in Northern Ireland took a sinister turn this week, when a gay couple woke to find a death threat daubed in graffiti on their house.

The couple woke to find their home covered in slogans, which included "get out gay bastards" and "2 weeks or bang bang".

The threat was also repeated in a letter left on the doorstep of the unnamed couple, who have been at the forefront of abuse before, according to the Rainbow Project support network.

They live in the Waterside area of Londonderry, which has seen a rise in the ferocity of gay attacks.


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Scottish National Trust gives gay wedding support for first time
Ben Townley, Gay.com UK


The National Trust for Scotland is to allow some of its buildings to be used for gay commitment ceremonies for the first time.

The Trust will work with gay wedding specialists Pink Weddings for the project, which will officially allow same-sex couples to conduct ceremonies in some of the organisation's listed buildings for the first time.

Pink Weddings founder Gino Merriano says the company did not encounter any negativity from the National Trust as the two organisations began working together.

"There wasn't even an issue," he told Gay.com UK today, adding that there was "no difference" to the previous work done south of the border.


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Nepal gay group threatened with closure
Ben Townley, Gay.com UK


An international human rights body has called on Nepal's government to dismiss an attempt to shut down the country's leading gay rights groups.

Human Rights Watch says the threatened closure of the Blue Diamond Society (BDS) would go against the right to freedom of association and expression, and could harm LGBT people in Nepal who rely on the support network.

The BDS offers advice and information for LGBT people on HIV/AIDS and the right to the acceptance of a sexually diverse community.

It is also attempting to pressurise the government into decriminalising homosexuality. Although there is no law against homosexuality in the country, legislation banning "unnatural sex" is often used to arrest members of the LGBT community.


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Va. Law Spurs Gays To Activism
Contract Prohibition Energizes Community
By Chris L. Jenkins
Washington Post Staff Writer


Kevin Adler, a gay man living with his partner in Arlington County, has never been one to organize rallies or raise a cry on behalf of gay causes.

"I tended to keep these things to myself and in private," said Adler, 36.

Then he took a look at the Old Dominion's new law that reaffirms the state's ban on same-sex marriages and prohibits all contractual rights between same-sex partners, and he got to wondering: What's the law's point? The state already had passed a law banning civil unions in 1997. It was obvious that gay men and lesbians had limited rights in the commonwealth. Something in this new law, he thought, went beyond the pale


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Grass-roots efforts to shape battle over gay marriage
La. voters to take up amendment Sept. 18
By Ed Anderson
Capital bureau


BATON ROUGE -- The debate about a proposal to lock a ban on same-sex marriage into the state Constitution will be waged in low-budget media campaigns and heavy grass-roots efforts to inform voters before the Sept. 18 ballot, activists on both sides of the issue said Monday.

The Rev. Gene Mills, executive director of the Louisiana Family Forum, said he hopes to be able to raise "$250,000 . . . between now and the fall election" and tap into a network of at least 500 churches and faith-based organizations to encourage members to register and turn out to vote for the measure.

Chris Daigle, director of governmental and community affairs with Equality Louisiana, said opponents of the proposed constitutional amendments are still organizing and mapping strategy.

"We need to raise money to get the message out that the amendment should be voted down," he said. "I think we will be hard-pressed to get more than $50,000."


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SHHH! KEEP IT IN THE CLOSET
By IAN BISHOP


BOSTON — Speakers at the podium of the Democratic National Convention are being gagged when it comes to gay marriage.

Top party officials and campaign aides said yesterday that not only has gay marriage been yanked from the party's official platform, but speakers will be vetted to make sure they steer clear of pro-gay-marriage rhetoric.

"You don't have to have a platform that itemizes issue after issue like a New York telephone book," explained national party secretary Alice Germond.

The more than 200 homosexuals taking part in the gay, lesbian and transgender caucus here prior to the convention kickoff took the news in stride — acknowledging the risk fiery rhetoric on the topic could have in sending social moderates scurrying to President Bush's camp.


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Anglican boycott threat for liberal bishops
Ben Townley, Gay.com UK


A conservative Church of England group has drawn up plans to boycott senior members of the faith if they seem to back gay clergy, and plan to include the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the worldwide faith, in the stand against sexual diversity.

Reform, which has already threatened to withhold funds from bishops that have backed clergy such as the newly installed Dean of St Albans Jeffrey John, will vote on the idea at its upcoming conference in the autumn.

According to an article in The Times, the evangelical group says the views on sexual diversity held by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, are "problematic".