Bayern Munich's Philipp Lahm reacts before their German Bundesliga soccer match against 1.FC Kaiserslautern in Kaiserslautern August 27, 2011.
Homosexual professional soccer players should not come out because the repercussions could be too devastating, according to Germany captain Philipp Lahm.
"I would not advise any gay professional footballer to come out," Lahm wrote in his autobiography "The Subtle Difference".
Police in Spain on Thursday shielded Pope Benedict XVI from a planned gay kiss-in protest. A similar protest last November during the pontiff's last visit to the Roman Catholic stronghold included roughly 200 gay men, lesbians and allies embracing as the Holy Fatherwas being driven to celebrate mass at Barcelona's La Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) basilica. The protesters, however, were drowned out by thousands of cheering, flag-waving supporters of the pontiff.
An ageing Catholic bishop and a noisy gay rights group spoke up for children last week. And each did so in the name of the family.
There has long been one excuse or another for not delivering on political promises to protect children's rights better in the Irish Constitution. "Unless we do it, to my mind all the rest is just talk", said Mary O'Rourke, former chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children, at the Merriman Summer School last Thursday.
A survey of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) suggests that as many as 40% of its gay and lesbian service members have suffered some form of abuse relating to their sexual orientation.
For months, it looked like Prague Pride, the very first LGBT festival hosted here, would barely raise an eyebrow. Religious resistance in the Czech Republic, where as much as 70 per cent of the population claims to be atheist or agnostic, is close to non-existent.
Tens of thousands of revellers turned out for the annual Stockholm Pride on Saturday as the weeklong celebrations of music, debates and performances peaked with a colourful parade and a lively after party.
Italy’s parliament has rejected a bill to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people from discrimination. The Chamber of Deputies voted yesterday 293 votes to 250 not to approve the legislation.
By Kristina Rizga.
The last time I flew to see my father in Latvia, he didn't get up to greet me. It was the spring of 2008, and he was battling cancer. His hair had lost all of its pepper. His chest and shoulder muscles had evaporated. He sat by a walker surrounded by local newspapers and countless political magazines. "Did you hear we had a gay pride parade again this year?" he said as we sipped black tea. "I don't care what these people do in bed, but why do they have to parade it in front of everyone?"
A new step forward in reporting discrimination in Hungary was taken this week as Háttér society launches a new online reporting system.
A positive boost for the gay community of Serbia has been the launch of the country’s first gay magazine. The Gay Lesbian Info Centre in Belgrade has officially launched ‘Optimism’ a full colour magazine with 64 pages.
The mag is going to be distributed free at gay bars, clubs, cultural and drop-in centres. It’s also going to be left at other, gay-friendly venues in Belgrade, making it even more widely available.
In the first issue there are features on legislative and legal situation of LGBT Serbians, which favours single persons as gay couples and transgender people seem not to be recognized under law, according to the editors.
GLIC needs funding to help keep the the magazine in print - www.gayecho.com.
News reports are coming in of a savage beating with metal batons on a gay British policeman in the capitol of Slovenia.
According to reports, Oliver McNally was out enjoying a stag do with various straight friends in the capital Ljubljana. However the was an ‘encounter’ with some anti-gay revellers in a nightclub.
“We were in a kebab shop when a vehicle stopped and a group of men got out. I remembered one from an encounter in a club earlier on. All three of us were attacked with batons by six or seven men,” he told local newspaper Narobe.
“I was hit 10 times all over my body and head and I was terrified. The attack just went on and on and the next thing I knew was coming round on the floor covered in blood. We’re all covered in stitches and bruises,” he added.
Police in Slovenia are now investigating the alleged homophobic attack which was made with Police Like batons!
Thousands of Greeks took to the streets of Athens on Saturday to protest against anti-gay prejudice.
Organisers said about 10,000 people took part in this year?s Athens Pride parade, the city's seventh -- twice as many participants as last year.
"As time passes, more and more people are liberated," spokesman Dimitris Tsampouris told AFP, explaining the increase.
"Kiss me everywhere," was the slogan of this year?s colorful gay pride parade.
"We chose this slogan because the Greek National Council for Radio and Television (an independent supervising authority) repeatedly penalises stations that show people of the same gender kissing," Tsampouris said.
"You have to fight for your right in a society that rejects it," 19-year-old student chef and Pride participant, Nikolas Kokkonis, told AFP.
A lesbian couple in France are celebrating now after a twist to the truth has enabled them to get married yes. the two French women have successfully found a loophole to twist France’s same-sex marriage ban on Saturday owing to the fact that one half of the couple is still classed as a man – in the legal sense only.
Officials who perform marriage ceremonies in Amsterdam’s New West (Nieuw-West) district will have to undergo an evaluation each year to ascertain their stand on marrying same-sex partners.
Elena Kostyuchenko was struck on the head during the unauthorised parade, which was attacked by right wing protestors and stamped out by the police. She has since received treatment to her ear.
The banned Moscow gay pride took place yesterday, at least for a little while before it was cut short as violence erupted.
There were shouts from gangs of men and threats of beatings and more, police officers arrested over a dozen gay rights activists who ignored the ban to march. There was a number of foreigners, gay rights activists who attempted to hold a rally in Moscow, whoi were also arrested.
