On June 23, Google honored the late gay World War II mathematician/code-breaker Alan Turing with an animated "Turing machine" Google doodle, according to Advocate.com . In related news, Turing expert Jack Copeland said at an Oxford, England, conference that Turing's 1954 death was not a suicide. Turing, who was British, died of cyanide poisoning, and a half-eaten apple was found near his bed. However, Copeland said that Turing ate an apple every night, and that he had even made a to-do list for the following week.
Gad Beck, the last known gay Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, died June 24 in a German senior citizens' home at age 88, according to the Huffington Post. The gay activist is reported to have once worn a Hitler Youth uniform to rescue then-lover Manfred Lewin from a deportation center. He is reportedly survived by his partner of 35 years, Julius Laufer.
In the United Kingdom, it turns out that a Border Force officer stopped a gay man at Gatwick Airport last yearsuspecting him of pedophilia because he had a camera and a boyfriend, according to Pink News. The incident was recorded during observations of staff behavior as part of an inspection. John Vine, independent chief inspector of Borders and Immigration, said he was "very concerned to learn of discriminatory practice in the conduct of detection activity."
In Australia, the state of Queensland will remove same-sex couples' ability to have children through surrogacy, and will downgrade civil partnerships to the class of "registered relationships," Pink News reported. The Legislative Assembly in Brisbane agreed to significantly alter the provisions of the Civil Partnerships Act 2011, which came into force earlier this year after control of the house swung to the right. However, the conservative Liberal National Party took control of the Parliament from the Labor Party in March.
Gay-rights charity Stonewall has updated its guide to the gay-friendly credentials of the United Kingdom's 150 universities, according to Pink News. Gay By Degree 2013, available online, allows LGBT students to choosing a university, finance, accommodation and the application process. Current students can also register to share information about their experiences. Gay By Degree uses 10 factors to identify how well universities support LGBT people.
One of Italy's top soccer players stated anti-gay views recently, according to the Washington Post. Italian striker Antonio Cassano was asked about reports that there were two metrosexual and two gay plays on the Italian national team. "What's a metrosexual?" Cassano asked. He then added, "Queers in the national team? That's their business. But I hope not. ... But I don't know."
However, Italian national soccer coach Cesare Prandelli wants gay soccer players to come out; in the foreward to his book The Champion in Love. The Banned Games of Sport, he wrote, "In the world of football and of sport in general there is still a taboo around homosexuality. Everyone ought to live freely with themselves, their desires and their sentiments."
A Danish newspaper editor has been criticized after saying he will not publish any articles about the country's new marriage-equality law because he thinks it is "wrong," according to IceNews. Preben Eskildsenwho owns and edits the Vesthimmerlands Folkeblad newspaper in Jutlandresponded to a diocese vicar's complaint by writing, "I can write whatever the hell I want to about gay marriage, but it is wrong and I will not waste space on it." Aalborg diocese vicar Christian Roar Pedersenwho was the one who urged Eskildsen to write about marriage equalityposted, "t is a problem for democracy that he will not write about what he disagrees with."
In Australia, Major Andrew Craibea senior official with the Salvation Armysaid that non-celibate LGBT individuals should be put to death, according to a Truth Wins Out release. In response so criticism from singer Darren Hayes, Craibe (the Army's media-relations director for the southern territory of Victoria) appeared on the radio show Salt and Pepper. He then told LGBT journalists Serena Ryan and Pete Dillon that a passage in the Army's handbook that calls for the execution of LGBT people is "part of our belief system." Truth Wins Out reported that the Army later apologized to the LGBT community, saying that Craibe's answers were a "miscommunication."