20TH OIA JOBURG OPENING
Constitutional Court Justice Edwin Cameron opened the 20th edition of the Out in Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in Johannesburg on Wednesday 16 October to a packed house. The event was attended by the who’s who from the city’s LGBT community.
CAMERON: OUR STRUGGLE’S NOT OVER
Constitutional Court Justice Edwin Cameron says that the struggle of gay and lesbian people in South Africa is far from over. The continent’s only openly gay and HIV positive judge opened the 20th edition of the Out in Africa (OIA) Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in Johannesburg on Wednesday night. In his speech, Cameron told […]
GAY SEX KILLERS SENTENCED
Two men found guilty last week of killing Barney Van Heerden during a group sexual encounter at his Johannesburg home in September 2011 learned their fate on Wednesday. Mthokozisi Ndlovu and Themba Maseko were each ordered to spend twenty years in jail for murder and ten years for robbery with aggravating circumstances, to run concurrently, […]
EMINEM BACK TO USING GAY SLURS
American hip hop superstar Eminem is once again under fire for a new track from his upcoming album The Marshall Mathers LP 2 in which he repeatedly uses anti-gay slurs. In the first verse of Rap God, the performer raps that he can “break a motherfucker’s table over the back of a couple faggots and […]
FRANCE VS SA ON GAY ISSUES
Monday’s meeting between France’s First Lady, Valerie Trierweiler, and South African LGBT groups in Johannesburg highlighted the different issues facing each country’s gay and lesbian communities, says an LGBT activist. Trierweiler was accompanied by French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, who played a key role in legalising same-sex marriage in France. The law led to months […]
TRADITIONAL COURTS BILL STILL ALIVE
Despite a majority of South African provinces rejecting the controversial and potentially homophobic Traditional Courts Bill, the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) refuses to dump it. SAPA reported on Tuesday that the bill has been rejected by the provincial legislatures of Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, North West, and Limpopo. However, the NCOP’s select committee […]
POPE MUST CONDEMN GAY HATE
While Pope Francis has been praised for his more conciliatory approach to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, it is not enough, says a human rights group. In a letter to the Holy See, Human Rights Watch called on the Pope to publicly condemn violence and discrimination against LGBT people. He was also urged […]
UK: LGBTS DON’T REPORT HATE CRIMES
A new study has found that a massive three out of four lesbian, gay and bisexual victims of hate crimes in Britain don’t report the incidents to police. The survey of 2,500 people, conducted by YouGov for LGBT rights groups Stonewall, shows that hate crime remains a serious issue across the country. It revealed that […]
WATCH: KELLAN LUTZ’ BOD WOWS
American actor Kellan Lutz puts on a traffic-stopping performance in the trailer for his new film Hercules: The Legend Begins. Well, at least his muscles do. The hunky Lutz (28) first found fame after playing Emmett Cullen in the hit film adaptations of the Twilight books. He also made a splash in the relatively minor […]
EGYPT: 14 ARRESTED FOR GAY SEX
There are reports that Egyptian police have arrested 14 men on charges of having gay sex at what has been described as a gym or sauna in Cairo. Scott Long’s Paper Bird blog translated an October 12 report by state newspaper Akhbar el-Youm about a raid on the venue. According to the article, police were informed of […]