Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
China’s pre-olympic<br />
gay crackdown<br />
Gays have been included in the current<br />
wave of repression and intimidation in<br />
China ahead of the Beijing Olympics, says<br />
Dr Wan Yanhai, former government<br />
offi cial and gay activist.<br />
According to Dr Yanhai, who has<br />
received an award from the Human<br />
Rights Watch for his activism, police<br />
activity has included the interrogation of<br />
gays arrested in cruising spots and bath<br />
houses, a mass arrest of gay sex workers,<br />
and the harassment of gays and lesbians<br />
whose signatures were found on a samesex<br />
marriage petition. The crackdown is<br />
part of a nation-wide attempt to quash<br />
gay visibility before the world’s media<br />
turns its focus towards China this<br />
summer. It started on March 9, when<br />
police allegedly invaded a popular gay<br />
Beijing nightclub and turfed out foreigners<br />
before interrogating the Chinese clientele.<br />
Gay rights church<br />
bans weddings<br />
A 300-year-old church in Islington has<br />
banned all weddings because civill<br />
partnerships cannot be performed there<br />
too. In a protest at the unjust treatment of<br />
gays in the legal partnership arena,<br />
Andrew Pakula, minister of Newington<br />
Green Unitarian Church, said that when<br />
its committee “realised the injustice in the<br />
existing civil partnership law which<br />
prohibits any connection between<br />
religion and civil partnerships, we decided<br />
it wasn’t something we could take part<br />
in.” The committee voted unanimously in<br />
favour of the ban. The church, which<br />
describes itself as an “inclusive, liberal<br />
religious community welcoming people<br />
from all traditions and perspectives,” will<br />
continue to bless newlyweds of any<br />
orientation, provided the legal ceremony<br />
has been conducted elsewhere.<br />
tit bits<br />
news<br />
Ex-Hollyoaks and I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of<br />
Here star Gemma Atkinson claims she had to<br />
indulge in a bit of Dutch courage in order to go<br />
through with her lesbian sex scenes in upcoming<br />
fi lm Boogie Woogie. “The director came up to us<br />
with a bottle of vodka”, says Atkinson, “and said<br />
‘Do what you have to do’.”<br />
Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon revealed for the<br />
fi rst time that she is a breast cancer survivor. The<br />
actress told US talk show Good Morning America<br />
about her battle with the disease, which she was<br />
diagnosed with 18 months ago. Nixon also<br />
discussed the impact her illness had on her<br />
girlfriend, Christine Marinoni, in her fi rst public<br />
comment about their relationship.<br />
Clips from a porn fi lm<br />
featuring the gorgeous Dita<br />
Von Teese cavorting with other<br />
women have recently appeared<br />
on the internet. The clips show<br />
the burlesque beauty and<br />
Wonderbra model playing with<br />
sex toys and being spanked by<br />
co-stars. Wonderbra have<br />
yet to comment...<br />
65
Change language