Archives for July 2015

Legislation enacting Irish gay marriage vote delayed

01/07/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Legislation allowing same-sex couples to marry in Ireland will be delayed until later this year following a legal challenge against last month’s gay marriage referendum, a government minister was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

The government had planned to enact the required laws before parliament goes into recess at the end of July.
However two men who unsuccessfully sought to challenge the result in the High Court will have their case heard by Ireland’s Court of Appeal on July 30, local media reported. According to one of the them, the outcome had been unfairly influenced by government parties that had not been impartial in campaigning for a ‘Yes’ vote.
“If the courts are going to hear a case, we can’t proceed with legislation until that case is decided,” Health Minister Leo Varadkar was quotes as saying in the Irish Times newspaper.
“It is disappointing but we have to respect the division of powers and separation of powers that exists between the courts and the government.”
Results of referendums in Ireland are often challenged in the courts, causing delays in the formality of passing the relevant legislation but not threatening the result.
Same-sex marriage was backed by 62 percent of voters in one of the largest turnouts ever in a referendum in Ireland, marking a dramatic shift in a traditionally Catholic country that only decriminalised homosexuality two decades ago.
“We are most concerned that these appeals are frustrating the overwhelming will of the people as expressed in the referendum,” Kieran Rose, chairman of Ireland’s Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, said in a statement.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Digital Campaign Launches To Remind Gay Men To Test For HIV Regularly

01/07/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

By The Gay UK, Jun 30 2015 09:58AM

A new digital campaign was launched yesterday by the Terrence Higgins Trust to remind gay men and MSM (men who have sex with men) to get tested for HIV regularly.

A feel-good video has been launched by THT as part of the charity’s mission to get more gay men and MSMs to test for HIV more regularly.

The launch is part of its continuing efforts with the It Starts With Me campaign. Figures show that gay and bisexual men are still the most affected by HIV in England.
There is an estimated 43,500 gay and bisexual men living with HIV in the UK, one in six of whom don’t know they are positive, so could pass it on without knowing.
The summery video features a male couple who get together at a BBQ.
Cary James, Head of Programmes at Terrence Higgins Trust said:
“The fight against HIV will not only be won by large organisations or governments, but by the actions of individuals in the most personal and intimate moments of their lives.
“At this time of the year when the LGBT community comes together to celebrate Pride, we hope this video will inspire all of us to play a part in stopping HIV by regular testing and protecting each other by using condoms.“
The #TogetherSummer video and social media activity will direct people to the It Starts With Me website which offers a tool to find the nearest testing clinic, a the perfect condom, and a tool to tell you whether or not you need a HIV test.
HIV Prevention England’s It Starts with Me campaign launched in April 2013, and is co-ordinated by Terrence Higgins Trust, funded by Public Health England.
The campaign speaks directly to gay and bisexual men, chiefly about the importance of HIV testing and using condoms.

LGBT: Bletchley Park included on interactive map dedicated to buildings with LGBT histories

01/07/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

LGBT: Bletchley Park included on interactive map dedicated to buildings with LGBT histories

By MKWeb | Posted: June 30, 2015

Bletchley Park included on interactive map dedicated to buildings with LGBT histories

The former Crown Inn in Shenley Brook End, where Alan Turing lodged whilst working at Bletchley Park has also been.. Read more: http://www.mkweb.co.uk/LGBT-Bletchley-Park-included-interactive-map/story-26806016-detail/story.html#ixzz3ecTr1yA3 Follow us: @YourMKWeb on Twitter | mymkweb on Facebook

LGBT-Bletchley-Park-included-interactive-map showing over 200 buildings and locations across the country deemed to have ‘untold lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) histories.’
Led by historians at Leeds Beckett University’s Centre for Culture and the Arts and experts from Historic England, the ‘Pride of Place’ project aims to chart the untold LGBT histories of buildings across the country and to encourage the public to help further map

the heritage of the LGBT community.
Alongside Bletchley Park, where Alan Turing broke the Enigma code during the Second World War before he was persecuted for his homosexuality in 1952, the map includes a Manchester temperance hall whose infamous cross-dressing ball was raided by the police in 1880 and a 14th-century bisexual prostitute’s lodgings.
The project covers sites from Roman Britain to the present day, including the homes of prominent members of the LGBT community, pubs, cultural spots and activist sites.
The former Crown Inn in Shenley Brook End, where Alan Turing lodged whilst working at Bletchley Park has also been outlined on the map.
A spokesperson from Bletchley Park said: “Alan Turing was one of the pre-eminent Bletchley Park Codebreakers, a visionary mathematician whose work contributed enormously both to the outcome of World War Two and the computer age.
“In the exhibition The Life and Works of Alan Turing, which features a signed copy of

the 2009 apology from the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, The Bletchley Park Trust celebrates Turing’s short but brilliant life and achievements, many of which are more relevant today than they were during his lifetime.”
Professor Alison Oram, lead researcher at Leeds Beckett University, said: “It’s really significant that LGBTQ history is being recognised and promoted by our national heritage body, Historic England, and I am delighted to be developing this project with them. It means that people all over England will have the opportunity to contribute to and learn about the LGBTQ heritage that exists in the streets and buildings all around us.”
You can plot your own LGBTQ heritage places on Historic England’s interactive

map and see what buildings and landscapes others are remembering here.
The news follows this year’s LGBT pride parade in London that took place last Saturday (June 27.)
The theme of this year’s event was Pride Heroes and Alan Turing was one of many LGBT figures celebrated.
Family members

including his great niece Clare Dowling joined tens of thousands on the streets of London to represent the legacy of the revolutionary computer scientist at the parade

Boris Dittrich: Gay City workers let down by UK business culture’s attittude to LGBT issues

01/07/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

ibtimes.co.uk

By Bauke Schram

June 30, 2015 15:42 BST

Boris Dittrich, the ‘founding father’ of gay marriage in Europe, with former PM of the Netherlands Jan-Peter Balkenende(Getty)

After the US Supreme Court ruled that same sex marriages should be legal across the nation, many companies drenched their logos in the colours of the rainbow. Although the UK’s equal marriage act passed in 2013, leading LGBT advocate Boris Dittrich says that the UK is behind in terms of equality and acceptance in its business life.
Dittrich, who is often dubbed the ‘founding father of gay marriage’ because of his work in the Dutch parliament, which made the Netherlands one of the leading countries in terms of protecting gay rights and equality, told IBTimes UK that many gay City workers still decide against coming out because of their career prospects.
He said: “I personally feel that this is a conversation that has just kicked off in London, whereas in the US, in New York, the conversation has developed a lot more.”
Dittrich found that, in London specifically, ambition sometimes prevents LGBT workers from being open about their identity. “They still feel like coming out as LGBT does not give them any advantages and might even limit their career options. This why it is so important for big directors and executives to come out and act as a role model in a sense.”
In the UK, the most prominent example of an openly gay executive was Lord Browne, who, after decades of business success and hiding his sexuality, stood down as CEO of oil giant BP when the Mail on Sunday found out about his former partner.

White House in rainbow colour — The White House was covered in the colours of the rainbow after the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage legal across the USA(Getty)

“When he was still CEO of BP, he was in the closet and was therefore tense and made decisions based on his fear people would find out about his sexuality and made decisions in his position that were not good for him and possibly even the company,” Dittrich said.
Browne is now travelling the world, approaching business leaders about sexuality and diversity. He has written a book called Glass Closet, which tells the story of his double life.
Dittrich also mentioned António Simões, the Portuguese chief executive UK of HSBC, who is openly gay and lives with his husband and their adopted children. Examples of successful business people like Simões are vital to show young City workers that members of the LGBT community can still be very successful.
For the US, the ruling of the Supreme Court will help propagate the ideas of acceptance and the importance of equality and diversity for big companies. “Images like the White House covered in rainbow colours are images people just remember, which eases the process of acceptance for the whole population. It makes it easier for sons or daughters to tell their parents ‘I am like that as well’,” Dittrich said.