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2009
Trans Woman joins Welsh Police to tackle transphobia - Michelle Douglas has been employed by the Dyfed Powys Police in Wales to help train 48 new recruits to the newly formed Hates Division on transphobia. She has found the experience "a real buzz". Part of the training is to show the police officers pictures of people and have them guess which ones are transgendered which has had some very interesting results. To read more about Michelle and her work with the Welsh police, just click here. Topp Twins The Movie Untouchable Girls - This movie premiered on Tuesday 7th April to a capacity crowd at the Auckland Sky City Theatre. Campbell Stodart has a very moving review of this incredible movie and sums it up for us all when he says: "We do get caught up in our day-to-day world and all that is directly in front of us - Untouchable Girls provides a strong and genuine reminder of where we have come from, and the importance of our history in where we go, not only as gays and lesbians but as New Zealanders". To read the complete review click here. The movie opens nationwide at Rialto Cinemas from Thursday 9th April. Double Murderers appeal turned down - A former white supremacist, Hayden McKenzie, has had his appeal against his 21 year non-parole sentence turned down. He was found guilty of murdering gay Westport man, James Bamborough and Korean backpacker, Jae Kim. The judge, when orginally sentencing him to the 21-year non-parole period had stated that both of these murders were Hate Crimes based on their ethnicity and sexuality. When rejecting the appeal, the Court of Appeal statated that "Each of these killings was callous, wanton and despicable. The total effective sentence was no more than was needed to reflect the total culpability." If you want to read more on this then click here.
Chauvel is a former chairman of the Aids Foundation and is a member of the Pacific Caucus within the Labour Party. If you want to read more then click here.
 Tamati wins "for gays around New Zealand" – Tamati Coffey has won the grand final of Dancing with the Stars with scores of 38, 40 and 35, which included a perfect round of 40. Barbara Kendall outscored him with the judges by 3 but he won the hearts of the public who voted him the best in what was, according to Jason Gunn, one of the closest races yet. When Tamati Coffey (TV1's proudly gay weather announcer) was announced as this year's winner 200 Rainbow Youth supporters erupted in cheers and shouting at Auckland's plush Langham Hotel where they had gathered to watch the grand final. After the shock of being announced the winner, Tamati announced that it wasn't about him, that this win was about Rainbow Youth and for "gays all around New Zealand". Click here to read more about this win. Tamati's chosen charity, Rainbow Youth, will get thousands of dollars to help with their ongoingn campaigns. To read more about Rainbow Youth, just click here.
Prager Speaks Up Against Super City – Lisa Prager, lesbian activist, made her opposition to the proposed Auckland Super City on Thursday 16th April by donning her famous cowboy hat again and being very vocal outside the meeting about the plans. Prager believes that the "supercity will be a super rip-off for the public majority." With only 20 councillors and the majority of these elected at large, she strongly believes that big business will take hold of Auckland and, once this occurs, there will be no going back. A hikoi is planned for Monday 25th May that will start from Bastoon Point and march to the Auckland Town Hall. To read more, just click here.  Flight Attendant Speaks Up ... and Wigs Out - Pierre Godquin, a Flight Attendant employed by Zeal 320, was suspended on Thursday 2nd April for wearing a wig, pink scarf, and carrying a yellow handbag at work. Pierre is part of the action being undertaken by EPMU members to get pay parity with their Air NZ counterparts. As Pierre explained to Community "When I applied for this job a bit more than a year ago, I did it through the Air New Zealand website, had my interview at Air NZ head offices, and did my training at the Air NZ training centre with all the rest of the Air NZ people. Then I started work in my Air NZ uniform on Air NZ branded aircraft so I thought I was part of a big family I already had friends in. After a couple of months I realised that wasn't the case. I was actually part of a cheap labour force resulting from the incorporation of Freedom Air into Air NZ but not linked directly to Air NZ." To read Pierre's full article published by GayNZ just click here To read more about the Zeal 320 dispute just click here  Airline 'refused to hire male air stewards in case they were gay' – Alexandria Proud was employed by Gama Aviation in Farnborough, Hampshire. She told an employment tribunal in early April that the airline refused to hire male stewards because it would be assumed they were gay. When employing staff she was told to ensure that they were young females and no larger than a size 12. She went on to state: "I was also specifically informed that if there was a male flight attendant it would be thought that he was gay and the owner would not tolerate such an individual on the aircraft." Click here to read about her ongoing case at the employment tribunal.
Lesbian couple win sex discrimination claim - Beth Moules and Sharleen Amos have won their sex discrimination claim against Aquatech Rainsoft a the employment tribunal in Bristol. They both worked as saleswomen and they had been ridiculed and humiliated by comments from colleagues over their relationship. When they complained to their manager he had told them to stop complaining because "lesbians had never and would never suffer in the way that Jews had". They have been awarded £5,000 for injury to feelings with the sex discrimination award still to come that could be as high as £138,000. If you want to read more on this then click here.
Amnesty to protest gay killings in Iraq - Urgent and concerted action by the US-backed Iraqi Government is to be demanded by Amnesty International as a result of the killing of an estimated 25 young gay men. The accusation has been made that Iraq's leaders are turning a blind eye to the deaths that are being undertaken by death squads and by the relatives of the victims who are being stirred up by religious leaders calling for the eliminination of homosexuality from Iraq. If you want to read more on this and other related stored, then click here
The reason Tamati chose Rainbow Youth was reported in an interview held with GayNZ back in March. "I wanted to choose a charity that worked with young people, and wanted them to tackle issues that I think are big issues with youth, such as bullying, youth suicide and homophobia." To read the full article on GayNZ just click here. But not everybody is happy about this new piece of legislation, Christopher Biggins (gay actor pictured left) told the Daily Mail earlier in March "The road to hell is paved with good intentions. New laws so often have unintended consequences, especially when they are introduced not to combat a genuine crime, but to establist the state's view of orthodox thinking." He goes on to argue that he felt this law would suppress gay rights, a point also made by Rowan Atkinson. However, others argue that the law requires such a high threshold that this will not occur and that there needs to be more law in place about hate speech and hate crimes. To read more about this Pink Pages article and the arguments from both sides just click here. Union Movement mourns the passing of Luci Highfield - Luci died early morning on Friday 6th March. Luci was one of the main people behind the formation of the Out@Work network and represented the Service and Food Workers Union on the Council for a number of years. As Eileen Brown so accurately put it - "We are all the better for her contribution, her amazing talents, and her having worked and walked with us. Luci's spirit and her achievements live on. We acknowledged Rob - her adored partner". Our thoughts are very much with the SFWU and the NZ Nurses Organisation who supported Luci and her partner Rob during the course of her illness.  Tim Barnett heading to Cape Town to Take Up New Position – Tim Barnett was briefly in Christchurch at the beginning of March before taking up his new poisition as the Global Programmes Manager of the World AIDS Campaign. Tim talked to a very enthusiastic crowd at the Christchurch Women's Club about his upcoming job on Wednesday 4th March. Tim will be managing an existing programme working in Six African countries and leading expansion in the Caribbean, Latin America, Middle East/North Africa and Eastern Europe/Central Asia. He spoke about the real feminisation of AIDS that is occurring and about the problems in controlling the spread in some Eastern European and Middle East countries because homosexuality is still outlawed and punishable. People won't come forward to be tested in case they are labelled and punished. He flew out early Friday morning to take up his position, with his partner Ramon following him on Thursday 19th March Gay Fears in Iraq Bloodbath Plan - A report from Amnesty International states that Iraq Authorities are planning to execute 128 prisoners this week and many of these are believed to being imprisoned solely because they were gay. This reasoning is because there have been police raids on a number of gay parties recently and at least 5 of those on the execution list are LGBT equality campaigners according to UK's Pink Paper. It is understood that the Iraqi authorities are planning to kill prisoners in batches of 20 but Gay campaigners in the UK are hoping that the British troops stationed in Iraq will intervene to stop the planned execution.
Other Archived Articles |
Chauvell to promote Global Fund in Pacific - Pacific Friends of the Global Fund have appointed Gay Labour MP Charles Chauvel to their Board. He has been appointed to promote a unique global partnership dedicated to attractiing and disbursing resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, turberculosis and malaria. Pacific Friends was launched in February in Sydney. It was founded to create and sustain visibility and awareness for the global fund across the Pacific region. 
Tamati Coffey Dancing with the Stars for Rainbow Youth is in the Grand Finals – Tamati Coffey has made the grand final of Dancing with the Stars with two scores of 37 our of 40 for his Jive and his Rumba in the semi-finals. The Grand Final will be a two-hour extravaganza on Television One Tuesday 21st April at 8.30pm with both pairs of dancers having to dance 3 dances. Tamati's chosen charity organisation is Rainbow Youth and they are encouraging everyone to vote for Tamati. The expected pay out could be as high as a five figures just for making the final. 
That joke isn't funny anymore? On Tuesday 30th March the British Government the Coroners and Justice Bill was introduced into Parliament. This bill equalises hate-speech protections across religious groups, racial communities and homosexuals. This means that people who invice violence of hatred against gays now face prosecution. There was a move to exclude homosexuality from this legislation but that was defeated 328-174. 