Controversial Military Policy still on President's Agenda - At a Human Rights Campaign 13th Annual Dinner, guest speaker, President Barack Obama, reiterated his promise to end the US military's controversial 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' policy.   He further stressed his unwavering commitment to ending discrimination in the workplace and against loving couples and families.  He encouraged the LGBT communities to continue with their activism and their voices even though there is concern about the speed of change.  To read more about this and to see the video of his speech, click here.

Obama to send Gay Ambassador to NZ - President Obama confrimed on the 8th October that he would be nominating Shanghai-based former Californian lawyer David Huebner to be the next Unisted States Ambassaor to New Zealand.  Huebner is the first openly gay man President Obama has nominated for such a position.  He will replace restaurant chain owner Bill McCormich who relinquished his post at the end of the Bush administration last December.  Huebner will be the Ambassador to NZ and to Samoa.  Huebner has had an extensive career including being the general counsel for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation.  Click here to read more about this appointment.

AIDS Foundation seeks new candidates for Board - There are two vacancies in the upcoming elections for the Board of the NZ AIDS Foundation and will be elected at the AGM on 28th November.  The current board members can seek re-election.  Only current members of the NZ AIDS Foundation are eligible to stand and nominations close next Monday (19th October) so if you are interested, you need to get your nomination in quickly.  Nomination forms are available on the NZ AIDS Foundation website.

Pink Flight to Mardi Gras will return - Air New Zealand has confirmed that it will put on its Pink Flight from Auckland to Sydney for Mardi Gras next year.  Tickets and more detail will become available from mid October.  It will feature drag queen flight crew, cocktails, special gifts and prizes.  For the first time the Parade and the Party are scheduled on different weekends with the parade on the 27th February and the iconic Mardi Gras party scheduled for the following weekCleveland chosen to host 2014 Gay Games - Cleveland, Ohio is to host the 2014 Gay Games with 15,000 athletes and 28 events expected.  Boston and Washington also bid gor the games but Cleveland's LGBT community has been very active in rallying support for the games with the City Council approving $700,000 grant to help host the event.  Read all about it here.

New research focuses on rainbow families - The Families Commission research into rainbow families finds that gay men and lesbians can face significant challenges as they seek to create and maintain families that include children but, in most cases, they overcome these challenges with considerable success.  The authors of the report "We're Family:  a study of how lesbians and gay men are creating and maintaining family in New Zealand" spoke to couples who had children by assistant reproduction and to some who were bringing children into a "rainbow family" from a previous heterosexual relationship.  Just click here to read more about this research.

Teacher jailed for lesbian sex with student - Music Teacher Helen Goddard, 26, pleased guilty to six counts of sexual activity with a female minor.  Goddard worked in a central London school and apparently had been having a relationship with the 15-year old girl for a few months before rumours reached the school principal who called the police.  The 15-year old woman involved acknowledged that she had initiated the relationship and that it was completely consensual but, like New Zealand, it is illegal to have a sexual relationship with a person under 16 years of age. Goddard has been jailed for 15 months and the young woman has stated that she intends to continue her relationship upon Goddard's release next year.  More information is available here.

Gays 'morally wrong" say 39% of Kiwis - A UMR survey of 750 kiwis from all over the country found that only 61% believed that "homosexual relations are morally acceptable."  However there were some interesting demographics with this report - 72% of those under 44 years of age thought it was morally acceptable whereas only 41% of those over 60 agreed.  Women were also more accepting with 69% of women compared to only 53% of men.  Click here to read more about this.

Cash Crisis hits OUTLine - The LGBT telephone line service is in desperate straits as it tries to fund the $40,000 shortfall due to cuts in grants because of the recession.  Couple this with the loss of free space previously enjoyed from OUT! the prognosis is really bad for its continual survival.  GABA has donated $1,000 but the situation is critical.  They have had to make some tough decisions, including not renewing the General Manager's contraxt when it expires on 2 October and the advocacy walk they do will probably have to stop as they focus on keeping the telephone lines open.  To read more about this, click here.

Labour considers cut-price condoms - At the Labour Party Conference over the weekend of 11th - 13th September the 'Rainbow Sector' of the party put forward a remit to make basic condoms cheaper at supermarkets anhd dairies as a way of making condoms more accessible to people thereby cutting down on unwanted pregnancies and STIs.  To read more about this, just click here.

Concern over "Hitler" HIV ads - British HIV/AIDS support groups have expressed dismay at a series of German HIV prevention aids which feature Hitler, Stalin and Hussein with the message that "HIV is a mass murderer".  The German ad company responsible for the campaign states it is about shaking people up and making them think about their behaviour but British groups belief that this type of advertising will increase the stigma already attached to those with HIV and make people unwilling to test for the virus in case they have it.  To read more about the campaign and the reaction to it, just click here.

One Third HIV positive "unaware" - The Burnet Institute conducted a study in June 2008 called "Suck It and See" where 745 men took part through gay venues, sex on premises venues, and sexual health clinics throughout Melbourne.  The findings revealed that one third of men who tested positive via a saliva test in social venues were unaware thay had the virus.  The head of the study, Dr Mark Stoove, said that this shows the needs for sexually active gay men to have regularly testing for HIV.  Click here to read more about this.

HIV study revives hope - Researchers in the United States have announced that they have found two antibiodies that may protect against strains of HIV currently circulating worldwide.  The two immune-system antibodies were found in the blood of an African patient who has HIV.  This is the first new discovery i the area for over a decade and may isolate a HIV organelle that is accessible and "conserved", meaning it does not mutate as the virus reproduces.  To read more about this discovery, just click here.

Nurse who asked Obama to rid the world of gays is suspended - Matthew George Price, from the Sunshine Coast, wrote a latter to a New South Wales school alumni newsletter in April stating he had written to the President of United States, Barack Obama asking for his help to rid the world of homosexuals.  Price described himself as a 'cured homosexual' and said he had written to the President because the United States needs as much help as possible at the moment.  The Queensland Nursing Council has suspended his nursing licence until such time as he is deemed to be fit and competent for practice.   He was suspended under Section 68 of the Nurses Act 1992 which allows for the suspension if there are questions about the nurse's health, conduct or competence.  Click here to read more about this case.

Georgina Beyer to launch Hamilton Pride - Hamilton Pride will be opened on Sunday 13th September by Transgender Icon and former MP and former Mayor Georgina Beyer.  Pride Week will not only focus on social events and parties but will also call attention to political issues affecting New Zealand's LGBT communities.  One of the topics that has had intense public discussion is the partial defence of provocation so Pride Week will also have a screening on Saturday 19th September of the award-winning local short documentary An Ordinary Person followed by a panel discussion.  To read more about Georgina's launch and Hamilton Pride, just click here.

Three tried for 'corrective' rape/murder - In South Africa the trial has begun for three men accused of raping and murdering former star of the national female soccer squad.  As well as being soccer star Eudy Simalene was also a highly visible equality rights campaigner and was one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in the suburb where she was attacked.  The judge has ruled her sexuality is not an issue in the case whereas the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project believes the use of 'corrective rape" is part of a campaign to eliminate gays and lesbians.  Click here for more information.

Fast response to anti-gay poem - Progressive Enterprises has reacted quickly and positively to complaints about one of their products that includes a homophobic poem on its cover.  The product, laminating pouches, shows a poem that, although in small print, is readable and states:  It's a beautiful day, and its good to play, then I met a gay, suddenly the clouds turn grey.  Progressive Enterprises acknowledged that there is no place for this in today's society and apologised for it slipping through.  It was sourced from their Hong Kong distributor.  To read more about their response, click here.

Harvey Milk to be inducted into California Hall of Fame - Gay Icon Harvey Milk has been chosen by the Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver as one of the 13 inducted into the state's Hall of Fame.  Harvey Milk was shot and killed in 1978 by Dan White, a former city supervisor, just one year into Harvey Milk's term as City Supervisor.  Milk was elected as the firstly openly gay man in 1977.  The movie of his life won two Oscars, including Best Actor for Sean Penn who played Milk.  To find out more about this and the other inductees, just click here.

Scottish police force holds gay and trans recruitment day - On Saturday 22nd August Strathclyde Police, Scotland's largest police force, held a special recruitmen day in an effort to attract new lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans offices.  As well as the poolice organisations such as Gay Police Association and National Trans Police Association were also in attendance.  Strathclyde Police's diversity department stated that they wanted to ecnourage people from all walks of live and diverse background to join the police.  Just click here to read more.

Workplace discrimination plagues Utah transgenders - Candice Metzler wore mascara, eyeliner and white-tipped acrylic nails to a company barbecueto let her work colleages see the transition she had already begun in her working life.  Three months later she had lost her job and her home.  Her boss was supportive but clients stopped using the struggling business so they had to let her go.  Discrimination continued for the next year as she was turned down for job after job, losing her house and having to live on the streets.  She finally found a job as a receptionist.  Her experience is not unusual for Utah as there are no laws protecting LGBTI people from workplace discrimination. Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker is crafting a citywide ordinance to change this.   Click here to read more about this.

Anti-Gay Bullying Campaign his UK streets in time for term  - A new stonewall campaign against homophobic bullying has been relaunched in the UK to coincide with back-to-school time.  It will be shown on 500 display panels and in 20 makor railway stations across the UK.  It was orignally used on posters, stickers and postcards distributed to 5,000 secondary schools.  The message was devised by school pupils and states:  Some People Are Gay, Get Over It!.  The relaunching was timed with the start of a new school term to encourage the idea that it's eeryone'e responsibility to tackle homophobic bullying.  The campaign will run for two weeks from Monday 24th August.  If you want to read more about it, then just click here.  

Kiwis win 14 medals at World Outgames - Kiwis who travelled to the World Outgames in Copenhagen grabbed six gold, six silver and two bronze medals across a range of swimming and running races.  The Wellington Team won the majority of these in swimming with Eve Treegerthan winning 3 gold medals, Karen Moses a gold, a silver and a bronze, and Martin Kaulback a gold and a bronze.  The Wellington Team also won a gold, and two silvers in relay events.  In the running, Nigel Jeffcoat won 1 silver and Anthony Paltridge won 2.  To read more about this click right here.

Gay School Principal says he was harassed - Barry Bloomfield, former principal of Huntly West Primary School claims he was harrased by the School Board for being gay and has gone to the Human Rights Commission.  The Board's chair is disputing this, stating that he was dismissed from his role after he pleaded guilty to fraud and theft from the school and that his sexuality was not known during his employment and it is all about making the school look bad.  To read about this, just click here.

Family Court Calls for same-sex adoption - New Zealand's highest-ranking Family Court judge says the 1955 Adoption Act was left out of the legislative changes that occured in 2004/05 that saw the introduction of the Civil Union Act and the changes to the property legislation.  Judge Von Dadelszen believes this position is outdated and unjustly discriminatory and calls for the law to be changed to allow same-sex and de-facto couples to adopt children.  After this call was made Kevin Hague announced that there was already a Private Member's Bill in the ballot in Parliament just waiting to be selected,  To read more about what the judge had to say, just click here.

The parties' stance on 'loathsome' bill -  The Crimes (Provocation Repeal) Amendment Bill has passed its first hurdle and is heading off to the selection committee stage after receiving unanimous support.  However, that is not necessarily going to be the case for the next two readings after the submission stage.  Whilst both National (Simon Power) and Labour (Lianne Dalziel) agreed with Kevin Hague's view that this loathsome defence has to go, David Garret stated that Act was not entirely convinced at this stage on the merits of abolishing the defence entirely and will wait to see what the select committee has to say.  Click here to read more about what the MPs had to say.

No Evidence Sexuality Change Works  - The American Psychological Association (APA) has stated that GLBT people should be supported into accepting their real sexual orientation rather than attending futile programmes designed to make them heterosexual.  The APA believes that clients should not be told that they can change their sexual orientation and is encouraging mental health professions and therapists to help them accept their orientation.  For the full story, just click here.

Massive Dancing Donation to Rainbow Youth - Being the charity of Dancing with the Stars winner, Tamati Coffey, has resulted in a massive donation for Rainbow Youth.  This morning (August 11th) the announcement was made live by Tamati that Rainbow Youth will receive over a quarter of a million dollars.  This is the highest amount raised since the shows inception 5 years ago and Rainbow Youth Director, Thomas Hamilton, said they were absolutely stunned when they heard the news.  To read more about this fantastic news, just click here.  Rainbow Youth, however, is refusing to be drawn into the donations row after the Sunday News on 16th August highlighted that Telecom, Vodafone and a vote-tallying company between them absorbed 40% of the money generated by people voting for Tamati Coffey.  Click here to read the full story.

Gays Have a Place in Israel

- Shimon Peres, Prime Minister of Israel, stated that there was a place for gays in Israel, to a crowd of around from 70,000 people.  Other National Political Leaders joined with Peres to mourn the loss of a 26 year old man and a 16 year old woman who lost their lives in a Gay Youth Club at the beginning of August when a masked gunman opened fire.  Thirteen other people were injured in the attack. Click here to read more about this.

Gay Killings surge to decade high in USA - In 2008, the number of lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgendered people murdered in 'bias-motivated' incidents increased by 28% from 2007.  The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programmes just released the figures that showed 29 people were killed in American in 2008, the highest since 1999.  Read more about this here.

Major HIV study now available - After 5 years of in-depth research projects and diagnosis date from 1985 to 2006, this PhD thesis is one of the most far-ranging studies within this area.  Dr Peter Sacton, the author, a senior researcher at the NZ AIDS Foundation, looked at the factors behind the rise in new HIV diagnoses amongst gay and bi New Zealand men and is now making this available for previewing by people with an interest and involvement in gay men's health.  The full article is available here.

Unison Supports the Equality Bill - Unison, the Public Service Union in the UK, has come out in support of the UK Government's Equality Bill.  Whilst acknowledging that there are improvements which could be made, it is vital that this bill is passed as they see the existing laws in desperate need of reform.  Unison is urging everyone to write to their local MP to show that there is strong support for the bill to counter the business and christian communities that are running well-organised writing campaigns against.  To read more, just click here.

UK Quakers Call for Same-Sex Marriage - Civil partnerships have been legal in England since 2004 but the United Kingdom arm of the highly influential Christian religious group, the Quakers, are calling on the British Government to step up the "civil unions" status available to gay and lesbian families to full-fledged marriage equality.  Just click here to read about this.

Statistics NZ seeking submissions on Culture and Identity - Statistics NZ is currently reviewing culture and identity statistics and is seeking submissions from data users and people with an interest in culture and identity.  The submissions are due in by 14th August and it is recommended that people interested in submitting should look at the consultation paper on their website.  Just click here to access this paper.

Anti-Provocation Bill cautiously welcomed - Rainbow Labour MP Charles Chauvel says he and his colleagues will study the text of the anti-provocation bill to be introduced mid August closely.  If it is based on the 2007 Law Commission Report then they will support.  Lianne Dalziel's private member's bill (that Charles Chauvel had drafted) was drawn out of the ballot but the Government wasn't prepared to support that bill and the main concern was ensuring that this bill passed quickly through parliament.  If you wish to read more about this, just click here.

Kiwis Take Flight to Copenhagen Games - 18 countries from the Asia Pacific region will be competing in the Outgames in Copenhagen including some from New Zealand.  The Outgames are being held in conjunction with the Conference on Human Rights, where our own Georgina Beyer is a keynote speaker in the session about political allies.  She will be joined by Nepal's first openly gay minister as well as other speakers from Canada, Brazil and Belgium.  And our own Robin Duff, past president of the PPTA, will be presenting a paper on homophobia in schools and sex education.  To read more about our participants at the conference and the games, click here.

Successful Out Takes Festival pave way for 2010 - With the success of the Out Takes Festival in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch from May to June of this year, the committee has decided to run the festival again in 2010.   Some films were better attended than others but, overall, the event returned a profit which sees all systems go for next year.  The committee will be looking for more volunteers and sponsors for next year.  Click here to read more about this. 

Transgender Singer, 16, targets pop career - 16 year-old pop singer, Kim Petras, is already a hit on YouTube and now plans to launch her pop career in the UK.  What is different about Kim Petras is that she was born a male and is thought to be the youngest person to have undergone gender reassignment surgery.  Kim was born 'Tim' but from age 2 called herself a girl.  "There wasn't ever a moment when I decided not to be a boy anymore.  I was just always a girl".  Kim has the full support of her family and they were there for her when she started hormone treatment when she was 13 and when she underwent the challenging transition surgeries.  You can read more about this amazing young woman by clicking here. 

Prime Minister states 'Provocation Defense Must Go' - John Key announced on Friday 24th July that the Partial Provocation Defense must go and he believed that Justice Minister Simon Power would get sufficient support from Cabinet to make this announcement.  The Partial Provocation Defense has been used in two high profile cases over the last couple of months.  The jury accepted it in the first instance when Ferdinant Ambach killed gay man Ronald Brown when he argued that Brown had made a sexual advance at him and he was so horrified by this that he killed Ronald Brown.  As there was no-one else present at these events, nobody could put forward a defense on behalf of Ronald Brown.  In the second case, Clayton Weatherston stabbed Sophie Elliott 216 times with a knife and a pair of scissors.  He argued that she had provoked him but the jury still found him guilty of murder on Wednesday.  Charles Chauvel, high profile lawyer and gay MP, had already drafted a Private Members Bill tn line with the 2007 Law Commission report to remove this defence and Lianne Dalziel was to sponsor it.  In light of National's comments about their desire to remove this defense, she sought leave to table her Private Members Bill on Thursday 23rd July but, quite surprisingly, National challenged her right to do so, so leave was denied.  To read more about this, just click here.

Christchurch Gay Christians move with the times - The All Saints Metropolitan Community Church has changed it name to Crave MCC @ Christchurch and are embracing a more contemporary style of worship after linking up with a similar dynamic young parish in Sydney.   Still primarly aimed at the spiritual needs of gays, lesbians and others in the LGBTI community, they have broadened the message so everyone is welcome to worship at their church.  To find out more about Crave MCC just click here.

No Auckland City money for Gay Groups - Auckland City has given out over a quarter of a million dollars in grants but all 4 applications from LGBTI groups have been rejected.  The four groups (Charlotte Museum, Outline NZ, Body Positive and Rainbow Youth) only asked for $32,000 in total but they were told that they were "less of a priority for funding than other applications received this funding round".  Just click here to find out more about the applications.

Ambach Verdict:  Manslaughter nor Murder.  At 6.55pm on Thursday 9th July the jury found Hungarian tourist, Ferdinand Ambach guilty of manslaughter in the death of elderly gay Onehunga man, Ronald Brown.  Family of the elderly gentleman were disgusted with the verdict in which Ambach used the provocation defense which is very difficult to disprove when the only other person involved in the event has been killed.  They felt it was a stain on Brown's reputation and one that he could not defend.  To read more about this case, just click here.

 

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