Jul 08, 2005   | COMMENTS     

JERUSALEM (AP) — An ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed and wounded two marchers in the annual Jerusalem Gay Pride parade last week, the most serious in a series of incidents involving opponents of the gay and lesbian gathering. Opponents tried to stop the march by throwing a stink bomb at the starting point, but several thousand marchers paraded through the center of Jerusalem anyway, braving shouts and insults from protesters, mostly young ultra-Orthodox Jews. “Homo sex is immoral,” read a sign carried by one protester. The march proceeded despite the violence. “It took many years for Jerusalem to have the Gay Pride parade,” said one participant, 39-year-old Moshik Toledano, “but once it happens, it makes no difference if the ultra-Orthodox come here and try to stop it.” Organizers called off an international gay festival set for late summer because of Israel’s planned pullout from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank around the same time. But they decided to go ahead with the annual local march, despite opposition from Orthodox Jews, who have a strong presence in the city.

London borough refuses to offer ceremonies for gay couples
LONDON — Ken Livingstone, mayor of London, last week joined gay rights advocates in denouncing officials in the city’s Bromley borough for saying they won’t perform ceremonies for same-sex couples who register under the Civil Partnership Act, the Bromley Express reported. In a letter, Livingstone urged the Bromley council to reconsider its opposition and “discriminatory” policy. “As Bromley allows marriage ceremonies between men and women as a matter of course, they are discriminatory when they refuse to allow same-sex couples to hold ceremonies when they register their relationship under the Civil Partnership Act,” Livingstone said in the letter, the Express reported. “The Department of Trade & Industry has issued guidance on civil partnerships encouraging gay couples to hold ceremonies as part of their registrations. It is extraordinary that a London council should be so mean-spirited as to deny couples such a ceremony on what should be one of the happiest days of their lives.”

Geldof urges London Gay Pride marchers to support Live 8
LONDON (AP) — Bob Geldof took time out Saturday from preparations for the Live 8 concert in London’s Hyde Park to urge Gay Pride marchers in the capital to support initiatives to end poverty. “Between what you people are doing and the people in the park are doing and the people around the world, we are going to stop one vast oppression of a vast minority,” Geldof told marchers gathered in London’s Pall Mall. “When you walk around London today, think of them, think of the people in Africa.” Some 30,000 people were expected to join the march. Among those in the crowd was Tris Reid-Smith, 30, editor of the Pink Paper, a popular gay publication. “I think it’s really nice that as the gay community wins more of its own struggles, we can look beyond ourselves and try to think how we can help other people around the world, both gay and straight,” he said.

More than half of Belgians oppose adoption by gays
BRUSSELS — A new poll finds that many adults in Belgium think that gay and lesbian couples should not raise children, Angus Reid Global Scan reported. In its poll, La Libre Belgique found that 54 percent of respondents oppose allowing gay couples to adopt children, while 46 percent support such a proposal. Belgium legalized same-sex marriage in 2003, and a Federal Parliament justice committee began to analyze proposals on adding legislation to allow same-sex partners to receive second-parent adoptions. Kathleen van Brempt, Flemish equal opportunities minister, said earlier this year in an op-ed piece that “12 percent of [Belgian] children grow up in gay, lesbian or bisexual families already” via in-vitro fertilization and women who are mothers before marrying a same-sex partner. The La Libre Belgique study surveyed 2,000 adults.

Boston Gay Men’s Chorus performs in Prague to support gay partnerships
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) — An American gay men’s chorus planned a concert in Prague in support of legislation that would legalize same-sex partnerships in the Czech Republic. Jiri Hromada of the Gay Initiative said the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus would give a concert ...