Witness gives first testimony in gay pride attack hearing


SAN DIEGO – A man who attended July's gay pride festival testified Thursday he was hit twice with a baseball bat by a member of a group that attacked two other men in Balboa Park while using a gay epithet.

Paul Mullins, 34, who moved to San Diego the day before, said he followed the attackers for more than 10 minutes toward the festival grounds while talking to a 911 dispatcher and saw them attack a man on a bench.

“They just beat him,” he said. “They just kept beating him.”


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Gay marriage opposers warned by cabinet


The cabinet has warned opponents of same-sex marriage legislation to be careful not to behave in a way that suggested they wanted to defy the decision of the Constitutional Court.

Government spokesperson Themba Maseko said yesterday that the cabinet had "noted the discourse on the Civil Unions Bill". 

"While every individual or group has the right to express their views, the cabinet emphasised the need for everyone to be reminded that the definition of marriage in the Marriage Act was unconstitutional," he said.

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Hong Kong court upholds rejection of gay sex ban




The Hong Kong Court of Appeal Wednesday upheld a 2005 ruling that laws prohibiting gay sex are unconstitutional and discriminatory and violate Hong Kong's Basic Law [text and background] and the Bill of Rights. The law in the former British colony, now a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, authorizes life sentences for men under 21 who engage in sodomy, while heterosexual and lesbian relationships are legal after the age of 16 and their sexual activity prior to age 16 only calls for a 5-year maximum jail sentence. Chief High Court Judge Geoffrey Ma ruled Wednesday that there was no justification for the different age limit for homosexual men.