Dec 19, 2008   | COMMENTS     

ROME (AP) — Italian state television cut a gay sex scene from Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” as well as a sequence showing the lead characters kissing when it aired the movie, drawing allegations of censorship from gay rights groups.

Activists protested that RAI TV would never have dropped similar scenes had they involved a straight couple, and politicians called for the incident to be discussed in parliament. RAI said it had aired the cut version by mistake.

“Brokeback Mountain” is a cowboy romance about two ranch-hand buddies who start an affair when they meet on the fictional mountain in the 1960s. The 2005 movie won three Oscars, including the best director award for Lee.

RAI’s second channel aired the film late Dec. 8. Gay groups and Italian media said the movie was missing a passionate sex scene in a tent as well as a sequence showing a kiss between the lead characters, played by the late Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.

“I don’t believe it was an oversight, I believe it was preventive censorship,” said gay rights advocate and former lawmaker Vladimir Luxuria. In an interview with La Repubblica daily, Luxuria said cutting the key scenes was “like showing the Mona Lisa without its head.”

RAI said in a statement the film had arrived from the distributor already cut so that it could be shown in prime time. When it was decided to air it late at night, no one checked for the uncut version, it said. RAI pledged to show the complete movie soon.

Ex-Brazilian cop questioned in deaths of 13 gays

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) — A retired police officer has been detained in connection with the murders of 13 gay men in a low-income suburb of Sao Paulo, police said last week.

Retired state police Sgt. Jairo Francisco Franco was taken into custody Dec. 10 after a witness identified him as the killer of a gay man Aug. 19, said police inspector Paulo Fortunato. Franco is suspected of acting alone in all of the 13 killings between February 2007 and August 2008 at Paturis Park, a meeting point for gay men, Fortunato said.

The suspect, who worked as a private security guard in a supermarket, has denied the charges, Fortunato said. He added that Franco did not yet have a lawyer.

“We have a credible witness who says he saw Franco pump 12 bullets into a black gay man inside the park,” Fortunato said in a telephone interview. A second witness said Franco visited the park frequently, “apparently cruising for gay men and victims,” Fortunato said.

Iraq reporter jailed for homosexuality story freed

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — A freelance journalist imprisoned in northern Iraq for violating a public decency law by writing a story about homosexuality has been pardoned and released, the writer and officials said last week.

Adel Hussein said he was pardoned Dec. 7 by Massoud Barzani, the president of the self-ruled Kurdish region in the country’s north. Hussein, a medical doctor, was sentenced Nov. 24 to six months in prison and ordered to pay a $106 fine over an article he wrote about the physical effects of homosexuality.

“I am a doctor and a specialist as well as a journalist. I was not supposed to be put in prison. It was too much to endure,” Hussein said.

Amsterdam gays organizing ‘Pink Christmas’

AMSTERDAM (AP) — A Dutch gay group said last week it has planned a “Pink Christmas” festival for the first time in Amsterdam, featuring a manger stall with two Josephs and two Marys.
Other attractions in the 10-day festival include parties, an open-air market, gay-themed films, an ice skating rink and religious services on Dec. 25. ProGay group chair Frank van Dalen said the event is intended to increase the choices for gay men and women during the Christmas holiday. The festival will also encourage people to think about homosexuality and religion, Van Dalen added.