Several bills will come before the Australian parliament in August that propose same-sex marriage be legalized, BBC News reported. Ahead of any votes, two prominent government MPs have engaged in a live debate on the issue. Opposition Labor Senator Penny Wong, a practicing Christian from the state of South Australia who has two children with her partner, argued for marriage equality; Conservative government MP Senator Cory Bernardi, also from South Australia, argued against legalizing same-sex marriage.
GLAAD's Omar Sharif Jr. appeared recently on an Arabic TV news program—in what is being hailed as the first time many people in the Arab world have heard directly from a gay person, Out.com reported. "I think the best thing that I could do in life is to live openly and authentically and happily, and if I'm doing that, I know I'm making them happy because that's all they would want for me," he recently said on the program. The interview took place on presenter Jaafar Abdul Karim's Arabic news program Shabab Talk, and Sharif Jr. told Out that he was impressed by how the program turned out.
Authorities said a bomb hoax that forced England's Brighton and Hove Pride parade to drop its new high-profile route was deliberately designed to disrupt the event, Messenger Newspapers reported. Specialist officers carried out a controlled explosion on the "suspect package," discovered on Brighton seafront shortly before the parade was due to start. Participants were forced to go along the parade's former route.
Outspoken Scottish trans activist Danielle Robins, 21, was found dead in her apartment after friends expressed their concern when they failed to hear from her, according to PinkNews. In an interview with the Evening Telegraph, she spoke of Abertay University's LGBT Society, of which she was president, and the upcoming education campaigns she planned to lead.
Angela Brown-Burke, the mayor of the Jamaican capital of Kingston, told The Washington Blade she has "a responsibility" to represent all of her city's residents, including those who are LGBT. She was scheduled to speak at the opening ceremony of the country's first-ever LGBT Pride celebration, which will be happening in Kingston through Aug. 8. A symposium about coming out, an art exhibit and a number of parties and performances are scheduled to take place.
Moved to action by the attack at Jerusalem Gay Pride that resulted in six people stabbed, MK Itzik Shmuli of the Zionist Union Party came out of the closet as gay in a column for the daily Hebrew-language publication Yedioth Ahronoth, Queerty noted. The lawmaker wrote, "We cannot be silent any longer. The knife is raised on my community." Yishai Schlissel, an "ultra-Orthodox" Jew, stabbed six people at Jerusalem Gay Pride—three weeks after being released from prison for committing a similar crime at the same parade in 2005.
A journalist in Senegal has been sentenced to six months in prison for "acts of homosexuality," PinkNews reported. Tamsir Jupiter Ndiaye, who has previously been convicted of homosexuality, was arrested in June and was accused of attempted rape. In 2012, Ndiaye was sentenced to four years in prison for homosexual acts, illegal possession of arms and battery; his sentence was reduced to two years, and he received parole in 2013.
The Russian government has fined the founder of an online LGBT community for teens for violating the anti-gay propaganda law, PinkNews reported. A court fined Yelena Klimova 50,000 roubles on the charge that her website, Deti-404, spread LGBT propaganda to minors. Deti-404, which translates to Children-404, acts as an online support system for LGBT teens in Russia.
In England, a monk who argued with a lesbian couple after posting an anti-gay leaflet through their door has pled guilty to harassment, according to PinkNews. Damon Kelly, of the Black Hermits Catholic group, told the lesbians, who were also witches, "We used to burn people like you." The confrontation took place in October 2014, when the monk was leafleting in Clarendon Park, Leicester, and one of the women stopped the monk and attempted to hand back the leaflet.
Tokyo's Setagaya Ward said it will start issuing certificates recognizing same-sex partnerships as early as November to support the rights of sexual minorities, becoming the second municipal government in Japan to take such a step, The Japan Times reported. The certificates will not be legally binding, but a Setagaya official said the measure is expected to "help eliminate disadvantages" against gay couples. ( In March, Shibuya Ward in Tokyo became Japan's first municipality to adopt an ordinance to certify same-sex partnerships as equivalent to legal marriages. ) Same-sex marriage has not been legalized in Japan.
A gay couple say they are in hiding in Thailand as they fight a custody battle with the surrogate mother of a seven-month-old baby girl, BBC News reported. U.S. resident Gordon Lake and his Spanish husband, Manuel Valero, say the surrogate, who is not the biological mother, is refusing to sign the papers they need to take the child out of the country. A change in Thailand's surrogacy law following last year's military coup has made leaving the country even harder.
In Australia, angry students and families across the region have taken to social media to slam local schools and the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta for sending out what many called an "anti-gay" booklet, The Daily Telegraph reported. An 18-page document called "Don't Mess With Marriage" details the church's stance on same-sex marriage. A diocese spokesman said the letter "specifically calls for understanding and directs Catholics to the Catechism, which teaches that people with same-sex attraction 'must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity."
The principality of Monaco has announced its membership in the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association, according to a press release. The release also promoted the area's attractions, such as Belle Epoque-style Hotel Hermitage, the newly renovated Thermes Marins Monte-Carlo spa and the gourmet Blue Bay restaurant.
In Brazil, a same-sex couple stripped off in the streets to protest against homophobia and discrimination against the LGBT community, PinkNews noted. Felippe and Marlon—a young, gay Brazilian couple—stripped naked for the photo shoot in the middle of the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil, to protest homophobia and to celebrate LGBT activism in the country. Although homosexuality is not a crime in Brazil, it is notorious for having one of the highest murder rates for LGBT people—in particular, transgender individuals—in the world.
In Sweden, Jan Sjunnesson ( former editor-in-chief of Samtiden, the newspaper of the right-wing Sweden Democrats ) organized the unofficial gay-pride parade Pride Jarva, which went through Stockholm districts that are largely Muslim, Youth Ki Awaaz reported. In his statement, Sjunnesson said that "it's good to be provocative and have an element of surprise." Gay-rights group RFSL distanced itself from the pride march, accusing it of promoting racism and white privilege, while some activists are even calling for the organizers to be arrested for "hate speech," Breitbart noted.
Out gay Australian bobsledder Simon Dunn has beaten out a host of Hollywood hunks to be voted number one in British gay magazine Attitude's annual HOT 100, The Daily Mail noted. Dunn toppled UK Olympian Tom Daley from his two-year stint at the top of the list, also beating Channing Tatum, One Direction's Liam Payne, David Beckham and Zac Efron. Dunn said he wanted to use the win as a platform to further discussion around sexual diversity in sports.
China has its first gay sitcom—and it's proving to be hugely popular, Fusion.net reported. The first season of Rainbow Family, an Internet-exclusive sitcom, has had more than 24 million views since its release last year. Rainbow Family tells the story of a group of friends who share an apartment in downtown Beijing. The main character, Xie Kezan, is a 24-year old graduate student who is out to friends but closeted to his parents.
Some Chinese Internet users seem to think that "The Snow and Ice Dance"—one of the 10 official songs Beijing used as a candidate city for the 2022 Winter Olympics Games—eerily similar to "Let It Go," CNN noted. The allegations of plagiarism first surfaced last weekend in a web story published by leading Chinese business magazine Caijing ( that has since been removed ). Quoting music fans, the Caijing report included a chart showing that the two songs—especially in their prelude sections—share almost the same tune, length, tempo and instrument arrangement.
