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64<br />
news<br />
WORLD<br />
NEWS...<br />
Denmark/Cemetery<br />
to have gay section<br />
Denmark’s Regnbuen (Rainbow) Association has<br />
rented a space in a Copenhagen cemetery for<br />
gays. The area, which will hold up to 45 urns, is<br />
demarcated by a rock triangle draped with a<br />
rainbow fl ag. Regnbuen’s Ivan Larsen said: “We<br />
don’t want to isolate ourselves but we also feel a<br />
need to be together.”<br />
Egypt/HIV-positive<br />
men imprisoned for<br />
debauchery<br />
Over 100 human rights groups have<br />
condemned a Cairo trial which has sentenced<br />
four gay men with HIV to three years in prison.<br />
The men were found guilty of sodomy, illegal in<br />
Egypt, but groups have slammed the trial for<br />
being fuelled by ignorance and fear of Aids.<br />
New Zealand/The first<br />
lesbian museum opens<br />
The Charlotte Museum, claiming to be the fi rst<br />
truly lesbian museum, has opened in Auckland.<br />
As well as holding events, the trust collects and<br />
preserves artefacts of lesbian culture, and<br />
houses a collection of 1700 books and early<br />
magazines from around the world.<br />
USA/Organisation<br />
‘cures’ homosexuality<br />
Exodus International, a Christian organisation<br />
claiming to cure homosexuals of their unwanted<br />
same-sex desire, held a weekend conference in<br />
California where speakers included the mother<br />
of bisexual actress Anne Heche. Perhaps<br />
unsurprisingly, the weekend was besieged by<br />
protests from activist groups.<br />
UK/ No public show<br />
of affection<br />
Enjoying a drink in the Nuthouse karaoke bar,<br />
Eastbourne, couple Nikki Elliot and Sarah<br />
Johnson were told they would be banned if they<br />
were seen touching or kissing each other in the<br />
bar after complaints from locals that there<br />
were too many lesbians in the pub. Owner<br />
Colin Roll denies discrimination.<br />
Downing Street saw over 120<br />
protesters demand that gay<br />
Iranian asylum seeker, Mehdi<br />
Kazemi and Iranian lesbian refugee,<br />
Pegah Emambakhsh be granted<br />
refuge in the UK.<br />
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Ellen Page, star of Juno, in a Saturday<br />
Night Live sketch poking fun at<br />
recent rumours that she is a lesbian.<br />
BEN’S<br />
BITS<br />
“A poisonous,<br />
off ensive<br />
piece of<br />
legislation,<br />
deliberately<br />
designed to<br />
stigmatise<br />
millions of<br />
lesbian and<br />
gay people.”<br />
This year is a year of important<br />
anniversaries for me. It was three<br />
decades ago that I read, as a 15-year<br />
old schoolboy, that someone called<br />
Harvey Milk had been elected to the<br />
City Council of San Francisco. He<br />
wasn’t a light entertainer, or a bloke in<br />
a dirty mac, or a ballet dancer. He<br />
didn’t satisfy any of the prejudices<br />
created to demean us all over so<br />
many centuries. Harvey Milk was just<br />
an ordinary guy who owned a camera<br />
shop and said to the voters in San<br />
Francisco that he thought lesbian and<br />
gay people had a right to sit at the top<br />
table too. But 11 months later, just<br />
days after my 16th birthday, Harvey<br />
Milk was assassinated for being gay.<br />
Even though I’d heard that news from<br />
halfway around the world, I then went<br />
back to being a young man with no<br />
one to look up to. It’s a fi rm reminder<br />
to me every day of the importance of<br />
Stonewall’s Education for All<br />
programme, providing support and<br />
encouragement to young people still<br />
being bullied in our schools just<br />
because they were born lesbian or gay.<br />
Another inportant anniversary falling<br />
this year is that of the introduction of<br />
Section 28 in 1988. Section 28, which<br />
prevented schools from tackling<br />
homophobic bullying for so many<br />
years, was a poisonous offensive piece<br />
of legislation deliberately designed to<br />
stigmatise millions of lesbian and gay<br />
people in this country. The founding of<br />
Stonewall a year later was one of our<br />
community’s most lasting responses.<br />
One of our jobs is to be vigilant every<br />
day to help ensure that no politician<br />
ever again dares to try to introduce<br />
another Section 28.<br />
The result of the election to be <strong>May</strong>or<br />
of London turned out to be a surprise<br />
to many after all. Perhaps it was the<br />
fi rst time in which the capital’s lesbian<br />
and gay vote of more than a million<br />
really did infl uence the outcome. But<br />
it’s a reminder to all politicians that,<br />
however confi dent you are, you can<br />
end up disappointed. Who could<br />
forget that famous Opportunity<br />
Knocks fi nal? When a somewhat<br />
over-confi dent Su Pollard was<br />
defeated - by a singing dog.<br />
Ben Summerskill is Chief<br />
Executive of Stonewall.<br />
To support Stonewall’s vital<br />
campaigning work, visit:<br />
www.stonewall.org.uk
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