Mugabe fuels 'Reformation' against gays
TREVOR GRUNDY


MORE than 30 million African Anglicans are set to form a breakaway church in the biggest schism since the Reformation prompted by a backlash against liberal attitudes to gays and lesbians in the west.

The church is taking its cue from the unlikeliest champion of family values, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who in 1993 flamboyantly but infamously branded gay people as "worse than dogs and pigs".

Nigerians clerics, who are led by the fearfully homophobic Archbishop Peter Akinola, say they are linking up with Evangelicals who not only support Mugabe, but also President George W Bush and the Republican Party in the US, Ben Mkapa in Tanzania and Sam Nujoma in Namibia, to wipe clean the "evil stain" of homosexuality from the face of Africa.

"This could be the biggest split since the Reformation," said Richard Kirker, General Secretary of the small but vocal Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. "Personally, I’d rather see a split within the ranks of the Anglican community than for people of principle to bow to the demands of homophobic Africans."


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The campaign of hate set to oust gay Tory
Homophobia clouds deselection vote for Howard's candidate in Cornwall
Mark Townsend
The Observer


The caller stayed on Pat's line long enough to denounce her son as a 'queer who should be put in a dustbin and pissed on'.

When the phone rang she had hoped for another Tory well-wisher offering support for Ashley Crossley, the gay Conservative candidate seeking to secure a winnable seat in west Cornwall. She was half right: the voice did belong to a staunch Tory.

But it was one hellbent on destroying the political career of Crossley, hailed as the fresh-faced future of the Tories and one of Michael Howard's brightest prospects, before it has barely begun.

In three days, the Conservative Association of Falmouth and Camborne will vote on whether to deselect the 31-year-old barrister amid a backdrop of homophobic bullying. The Observer has uncovered a campaign of systematic anti-gay abuse, allegedly involving Conservative supporters, that has divided the fishing town of Falmouth.


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Pope Attacks Canadian Gay Marriage 
by Canadian Press


(Vatican City) Pope John Paul II kept up his campaign against gay marriage Saturday, telling the ambassador from Canada -- where some provinces allow same-sex couples to wed -- that such unions create a "false understanding" of marriage.

In past months, the pope urged authorities to stop approving gay marriages, saying that they degrade the true sense of marriage.

The pope spoke Saturday to the new Canadian Ambassador to the Holy See, Donald Smith.

"The institution of marriage necessarily entails the complementarity of husbands and wives who participate in God's creative activity through the raising of children," said the pontiff, according to the text of the speech released by the Vatican.m


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Indian activists to challenge anti-gay ruling

NEW DELHI: Gay activists in India on Saturday vowed to challenge a High Court decision to dismiss a petition seeking to legalise homosexuality.

The petition, filed in December 2001, sought to overturn laws which make homosexuality between consenting adults punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

“After three years of going back and forth the High Court has thrown out our petition on the flimsiest and most baffling grounds,” Shaleen Rakesh from the Naz Foundation told AFP.

“But we are not prepared to sit back and accept what the court is throwing at us. We are studying legal options in front of us and will file a review petition in the High Court or take the matter to the Supreme Court,” he said.


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Would voter 'I do' ban gay marriage or undo gains?
By Ted Roelofs
The Grand Rapids Press


Conventional wisdom says the amendment to ban gay marriage in Michigan has a better-than-even chance of passing.

The Rev. Doug VanDoren believes that underestimates voters.

"People like to paint Michigan and particularly West Michigan as far more reactionary than it is," he said. "I think there is a good chance it will not pass."

The proposal, cleared Friday by the Michigan Court of Appeals to appear on the Nov. 2 ballot, would enshrine in the state constitution the definition of marriage as "the union of one man and one woman."