Brian Burke Monday, in Toronto, at an event timed to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, helped launch MyGSA.ca – a new website that is the first national resource dedicated to supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth, run by EGALE Canada. Burke, who is a Grand Marshal at the 2010 Pride Toronto Parade, “asked media to shut off their cameras before he broke down during his speech on gay rights and anti-bullying in front of hundreds of parents, educators and students.” Brian, whose son Brendan was killed in a car crash in Indiana this past February only three months after coming out publically, said “We have to get a point where you can go to school free of fear. Fear is a horrible emotion to feel and smaller kids get picked on and gay kids get picked on. It’s got to stop.”
A new United Nations report released Monday says that 90-percent of gay men in the Asian Pacific area do not have access to HIV care or education as levels of the disease rise to “alarming levels.” The study confirms the long suspected – that discriminatory laws in many countries worsen what is an already critical situation, with abuse, anti-gay violence, and human rights violations the norm. 19 of the 48 countries in the Asia Pacific region continue to criminalise homosexual acts, and according to the study those laws “often take on the force of vigilantism, often leading to abuse and human rights violations. In a statement, Mandeep Dhaliwal, of the United Nations Development Programme, said “The effectiveness of the HIV response will depend not just on the sustained scale up of HIV prevention, treatment and care, but on whether the legal and social environment support or hinder programmes for those who are most vulnerable.”
Monday, in Minsk, a court found seven gay activists arrested and held in custody since Saturday guilty of participating in an unsanctioned mass gathering, fining them an estimated $6.00 each. Thirty or so people participated in an attempted gay pride parade in the capital city of Belarus before police violently broke up the march.
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty vetoed a bill Saturday that would have afforded same sex partners the right to determine what to do with the body of their partner should they die. Pawlenty said that the bill was unnecessary because same sex partners can draw up a legal living will.
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