An alliance of ten of the leading South African HIV/AIDS organizations said Saturday they are condemning a ban implemented by the governing body of soccer, FIFA, on the distribution of both condoms and health information on the prevention of the virus. Mark Heywood, a spokesperson for the alliance, said that FIFA, while allowing commercial vendors to sell alcohol, will not permit civic organizations to set up booths and/or small wellness centers at FIFA controlled venues. He added that the tournament, which begins next week, represents an unprecedented opportunity to raise awareness to countless individuals during an event likely to make soccer fans “behave in a way that will place them at greater risk for infection.” Heywood added, that despite insistence by FIFA that has partnered with host cities to launch its own HIV campaign, FIFA is failing to either acknowledge or comprehend the targeted group of the majority of fans inside each venue. “It is disgraceful conduct,” he said. We are being denied a massive opportunity.”
In Athens, thousands of gay and lesbian Greeks marched through the centre of the capital celebrating gay pride and protesting discrimination Saturday. Greece approved civil unions in 2008, but gay activists are appealing for the approval of gay marriages.
An estimated 100 gay rights activists assembled in the La Fiesta Azteca, in Alsip, Chicago – just outside the city – and staged a kiss-in to protest what two gay men contend was homophobia, when the two, Frank Nielsen, 22 years old and his boyfriend Danny Hankes, 19 years old, were asked by the owner to stop kissing. The protesters, gay and straight, male and female, entered the restaurant peacefully, “clinked water glasses, kissed and applauded.” The owner, Jamie Esparaza, who admits asking the two to stop kissing, said” they have their opinion and I have mine. I don’t feel like I did anything wrong when I told them to leave.” He said that at time, May 7th, he was never hostile towards the couple, and did not refuse them service. He says he would ask couple – gay or straight – to respect the restaurant and the patrons and leave displays of affection outside. “They are saying I kicked them out, but I didn’t,” says Esparaza. “I asked them, really polite, I said, ‘I know you guys are in love, and you’re young. It’s okay. But don’t do it here.’” Andy Thayer, a co-founder of the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network, who organized the demonstration, said “we have a law that guarantees gay people equal access to accommodations. The fact is, proprietors have no problem with differently sexed couples embracing or kissing in a nonsexual manner. Yet when Frankie and Dannie did it, the manager stormed up to them and made a scene.”
Mount Sinai High School in the Snoqualmie Valley of Washington state may be ground zero in the battle over anti-gay bullying, the school in 2008 the site of clash between hundreds of protestors and counter-protestors over the National Day of Silence, the annual event sponsored by GLSEN that calls attention to the harassment and victimization of gay students. Now, details of a brutal assault in November, 2009 precipitated by weeks of taunting by students over the perceived sexual orientation of a freshman boy, and the reactions of the friend of the targeted student, a 14 year boy who was assaulted in a locker room because he stood up for the boy, consequently suffering a broken eye socket, two broken teeth, and a concussion. His attacker, a 16 year boy who knew neither of the victims, has been charged with second-degree assault and has been removed from the school, but the reports outlining the school’s spectacular failure to deal in effective manner with what lead up to the attack and its grotesquely negligence in handling the actual assault is sickening.
Photographs from backstage at Thursday’s amFAR Gala honouring Ricky Martin, including pictures of the smoking sexy Noah Mills and a handful of shirtless male model hotness.
Broadway Bares XX: Strip-ology, a benefit for Broadway Cares, takes place in New York City June 20th, a preview of some of the show’s dancers.
The cast of the Real World XXIV: New Orleans has been revealed, and it includes the usual suspects of gay, gayer, and gayest, of which make me wonder – hasn’t New Orleans and Louisiana suffered enough?
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