9-11 April 2015

Weekend
GAY BUSINESS Aetna insurance targets LGBT community
	as insurers seek ways to market more to individual customers usnews.com  11 Apr 15
O-M-G Vatican silent over French gay ambassador
	The Vatican has declined to comment on reports that it has not accepted a new French ambassador because he is gay bbc.co.uk  11 Apr 15
GAY HISTORY Were Lincoln and Nixon gay? The 'history' book that is dividing America
	Award-winning author and gay-rights activist Larry Kramer's new book, The American People: Volume 1, aims to counter the exclusion of homosexuality from history theguardian.com  11 Apr 15 Buy Book

Friday
UK The Conservative Party is winning over some gay voters
	Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron decided to champion same-sex marriage in 2011 ... When, in 2014, the act passed into law, 133 Conservatives voted against it and many disgruntled activists left the party. But, as he seeks re-election, Mr Cameron's gamble may gradually be paying off economist.com  9 Apr 15
SHOW BIZ Sue Perkins denies she will replace Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear
	Despite being 2nd favourite the 45-year-old TV presenter - who fronts The Great British Bake Off alongside Mel Giedroyc - took to Twitter to shoot down speculation she is in line to takeover from the sacked former host mirror.co.uk  9 Apr 15

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Tuesday 24 February 2015

GAY BUSINESS 'Intolerant activists' vandalise Auckland police stations, ANZ branches
	Queers Against Injustice has accused ANZ of commercialising gay rights after it renamed its ATM machines to 'GAY TMs' and decorated them with multi-coloured rhinestones. "Pinkwashing... describes the way that institutions co-opt LGBT struggles to distract from and disguise unethical behaviour." an anonymous post on the website hashtag500words.com said tvnz.co.nz  24 Feb 15
U.S. appoints first-ever Special Envoy for LGBT Rights
	Secretary of State John Kerry said Randy Berry's job will be to "reaffirm the universal human rights of all persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity." npr.org  24 Feb 15
O-M-G Father Anthony McSweeney breaks down over gay and sadomasochistic porn collection
	The Catholic priest, 68, denies molesting three teenage boys at Grafton Close children's home in Hounslow, west London, between 1979 and 1981. But he admitted being shown a child sex porn film by his close friend, the care home manager John Stingemore bbc.co.uk  24 Feb 15
GAY MARRIAGE Heterosexual couple given green light to challenge civil partnership rule
	A Jewish couple who launched a legal challenge against the ban on heterosexual civil partnerships has been granted permission to continue with their claim by a High Court judge thejc.com  24 Feb 15
GAY HISTORY Dirtiest, most violent and homophobic election in Britain
	32 years ago, a now top Liberal Democrat politician was involved in a secret Liberal Party dirty tricks unit that organised an anonymous, illegal smear campaign against the Labour candidate in the 1983 Bermondsey by-election, Peter Tatchell petertatchell.net  24 Feb 15 LGBT History Month UK

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Thursday 19 February 2015

UK Scottish Tory leader introduces her same-sex partner in election ad
	Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader and MSP for Glasgow, has broken new ground with a party election broadcast featuring her partner Jen Wilson stv.tv  19 Feb 15
GAY HISTORY LGBT History Month Magazine 2015
	Featuring lengthy articles by Chair Sue Sanders and Promotions Officer Andrew Dobbin, and other LGBT rights and cause groups History Month Magazine 19 Feb 15 History month makes history - with first National Festival of LGBT History in Manchester LGBT History Month
SEX - LIFE Sex redefined
	The idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that ... if you want to know whether someone is male or female, it may be best just to ask nature.com  19 Feb 15
TRANS The financial penalty for being transgender in America
	Transgender people struggle to find work and safe housing, face challenges updating critical identity documents, make less on the job, and have higher medical costs than their non-transgender peers lgbtmap.org  19 Feb 15

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Saturday 14 February 2015

GAY BARS Camden's Black Cap saved from plans to redevelop as flats
	The iconic London gay pub and cabaret venue the Black Cap has been saved from a drastic downsizing after proposed redevelopments were rejected pinknews.co.uk  14 Feb 15
SEX - LIFE Five ways gay culture influenced 50 Shades Of Grey
	What few fans of the book (and now movie) may realize is that even though 50 Shades of Grey features a young heterosexual couple, it's actually a very gay-inspired story huffingtonpost.com  14 Feb 15 Backlash - defending freedom of sexual expression backlash-uk.org.uk
O-M-G LGBT Christians move their office to Nottinghamshire After 25 years at Oxford House, the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement will be closing their London office and relocating to a new office at Newark in Nottinghamshire LGCM Newsletter  14 Feb 15 Grace and Disagreement in the Church of England
	Resource booklets are now available for particpants in the Church's programme of Shared Conversations on Scripture, Mission and Sexuality churchofengland.org  14 Feb 15 Download
GAY HISTORY Simon Callow: in praise of Gay Sweatshop
	On the theatre company's 40th anniversary, Simon Callow explains how it has transformed his and others' lives theguardian.com  14 Feb 15 LGBT History Month UK

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Wednesday 11 February 2015

GAY HISTORY Victorians were more relaxed about homosexuality than in the 'swinging sixties'
	Manchester historian Jeff Evans said the supposedly prudish Victorians were far more relaxed about sex between men, having studied court cases relating to the criminalisation of gay men. Outside London, the criminal justice system in regions such as Lancashire seemed largely uninterested in prosecuting gay men manchestereveningnews  11 Feb 15 LGBT History Month UK
UK Gay Village club-goer avoids jail after leaving homophobic bigot with a fractured skull
	Andrew Duncan barged the 29-year-old victim in the chest with his head, causing him to fall and bang his head outside the Rembrandt pub on Sackville Street manchestereveningnews 11 Feb 15
GAY MARRIAGE Seek legal advice before dissolving civil partnership warns Law Society
	As the number of dissolved civil partnerships rises by 20%, legal experts at the Law Society are advising same-sex couples to seek legal advice before breaking up. It may not be labelled as a 'divorce' but dissolving a civil partnership has the same legal ramifications as ending a marriage Find a solicitor  11 Feb 15
Top Italian court finds no constitutional right to same-sex marriage
	The Court of Cassation ruled that nothing in Italy's constitution requires government recognition of same-sex marriage. The court said, however, that same-sex couples have a right to the same protection of law as other unmarried couples catholicculture.org 11 Feb 15
SHOW BIZ Jon Stewart is leaving The Daily Show
	When former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a social conservative, tried to defend his opposition to same-sex marriage, Stewart said: "I think it's the difference between what you believe gay people are and what I do. Religion is far more of a choice than homosexuality, and the protections that we have for religion -- we protect religion, and talk about a lifestyle choice, that is absolutely a choice. Gay people don't choose to be gay." cnn.com 11 Feb 15
O-M-G Christian Voice 'supports' pardons for gay men
	Christian Voice director Stephen Green believes if we follow the argument to its logical conclusion we should include abortionists and pornographers in the pardons christianvoice.org.uk  11 Feb 15

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