Honduran Gay Activist Assassinated, Gordon Brown Fights For Gay Rights, Christian Register Loses Appeal, HIV/AIDS Rates Rise In Seattle

Walter Trochez, a 25 year old Honduran gay activist, was assassinated Sunday, December 13th. Trochez, according to a report from Direland, was a member of the National Resistance Front, and had been active in not only protesting against a recent government coup d’état, but “had been very active recently in documenting and publicizing homophobic killings and crimes committed by the forces behind the coup, which is believed to have been the motive for his murder. He had been trailed for weeks before his murder by thugs believed to be members of the state security forces.” According to the report, Amnesty International is calling for an investigation into the killing.

According to the BBC, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in an interview with gay magazine Attitude, said he is working with France and Spain to have those European countries recognize British civil partnerships, but that he aimed to “go further than that,” having all of Eastern Europe formally recognize gay unions stating that the time to show “respect for gay people was due” in both “Eastern Europe as well as Western Europe.”

The United Kingdom Press Association is reporting that a Court of Appeal ruling Tuesday that a London council was entitled by law to compel a Christian registrar, Lillian Ladele, to conduct same sex civil partnership ceremonies despite her objections to officiating at such registrations “as a matter of religious conscience.” Ladele has since resigned from the council, leaving her position in September, but she had sought restitution. Justice Lord Neuberger, in rendering the decision, said that “however much sympathy one may have with someone such as Ms Ladele, who is faced with choosing between giving up a post she plainly appreciates or officiating at events which she considers to be contrary to her religious beliefs, the legislature has decided that the requirements of a modern liberal democracy ... include outlawing discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services on grounds of sexual orientation, subject only to very limited exceptions.”

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer says that “despite education and outreach efforts, the number of gay men contracting HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases has been increasing for much of this decade” in the Seattle, Washington area. More troubling, according to the article, is that “King County health officials worry that an anticipated 70 percent cut in the amount of state money allocated for HIV/AIDS programs could complicate prevention and treatment efforts.”