By Nathan James

The survey, carried out at the beginning of last month, sampled the responses of 1,504 adults from across the country.  The polling firm noted that for the first time since they stated exploring the issue, over half of all Americans–51%–support gay marriage.  ”We see this as a significant change in public attitudes towards the LGBT community,” statistician Thom Adler told GBM News.  ”That so many people think gays and lesbians will be able to marry, says something about our shifting popular culture.  it’s a welcome sign.”

Although twelve states, and the District of Columbia have enacted laws permitting gay marriage, thirty states still expressly define marriage as “solely between a man and a woman” in their constitutions, and the Clinton-era Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA) prohibits federal recognition of gay marriages performed in states where it is legal.  DOMA is one of the legal issues being reviewed by the Supreme Court, along with California’s Proposition 8, which repealed, by referendum, gay marriage in that state.

A parallel Gallup poll examining the “perceived moral acceptability’ of homosexuality also yielded interesting results, particularly among those age 55 or older.  51% of these older Americans said they found gays and lesbians “morally acceptable”, nearly double the number of those saying so in 2002.  The highest approval rate of LGBTs was in the 18 to 34 age bracket, with 72% of those surveyed saying they accepted the presence of homosexuality in our world.  Observers in both polls felt that those opposing gay marriage, or homosexuality itself, had their views rooted in religion, or the idea that being gay was morally wrong.

Decisions in the two Supreme Court cases are expected June 15.

Bronx Pride Center president Tym Moss

Moss, an online radio personality, was joined by political leaders such as Borough President Ruben Diaz, and State Senator Jose Serrano, as well as local advocacy groups like the NYC Anti-Violence Project (AVP), and the Bronx Pride Coalition.

Six outreach measures were announced, beginning with bringing the AVP’s “Friday Community Safety Night’ programs to the borough, holding monthly town hall meetings, hosting SCAN-NY’s Over The Rainbow panel talks, operating the LGBTQ Pride & Health Fair on July 20 in Crotona Park, co-sponsoring  City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s self-defense courses for LGBTs, and partnering with “other programs and sponsors”.

Borough President Diaz declared, “Enough is enough.  We need to put a stop to these senseless acts of violence against our brothers and sisters in the LGBT community.”  The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force reports a sharp increase in anti-gay violence this year, even as the city assigned more police officers to Greenwich Village, the site of several of last month’s attacks, including Carson’s murder, through June 30.

Two of these assaults occurred within hours of a huge rally against homophobic violence that was organized by Quinn’s office on May 20, through tht neighborhood’s streets.  ”Unfortunately, these crimes are underreported,” said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, who urged anyone who is the victim of a bias incident to notify police immediately. “This is not the Police Department of fifty years ago,” Kelly noted.  

Quinn, the city’s first openly lesbian mayoral candidate, stated, “Like many New Yorkers, I am outraged and appalled by attacks against members of our community.”

A planned helpline operated by the Bronx LGBTQ Pride Center will launch in the near future, and can be reached at (347) LGBT-HLP.

Leonardo and his mothers Yohana Llanes (right) and Támara Amaral, at one of the May 2013 anti-homophobia events in Havana. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

“It is very hard…and even frustrating that I have no legal rights over my boy. I am not his biological father, but I’ve held him in my arms since his birth. There is nothing legal to define or protect our relationship,” said Junior del Toro, holding three-year-old Adrián on his lap.

Del Toro, a state company employee in Havana, and his partner decided to have a son “as an important part of family happiness” after 15 years of being in a relationship, he said. “We talked to different people until a woman friend of ours selflessly agreed to be part of helping us to have a child,” he said in an interview with IPS.

“My partner is the biological father and the mother shares in the child-raising with us. But I am the one who is most affected by the issue of rights, including in everyday life. For example, if the baby has to go to hospital and I am alone in dealing with the situation, I have no legal authority to decide anything about his illness,” he said, with visible distress.

Del Toro’s story is just one of many among the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, which has been waiting for years for the legislature to discuss draft reforms of the 1975 Family Code, which would recognise same-sex unions, for example.

This is the most recurrent demand among LGBT people in Cuba and would be the first step in giving recognition to other sexual rights, according to the state-run National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX), which has been carrying out a systematic campaign to win respect for free sexual orientation and gender identity.

Every May since 2008 marks the high point of that drive: the Cuban Campaign against Homophobia. The schedule of activities is organised around May 17th, the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia, and includes educational, academic and — for the first time this year — sports activities.

The Sixth National Campaign, which lasted throughout May, focused on the family, “because it is the space, along with the workplace, where the rights of LGBT persons are most violated,” according to CENESEX legal consultants. In the discussions that were part of the month’s events, one of the topics was this population group’s right to form families.

The question of non-heterosexuals adopting children “is a concern, although it is not one of the central concerns” brought to the attention of CENESEX experts, said Manuel Vázquez, a lawyer who oversees the institution’s legal consultation services.

However, Cuban activists are adding more demands as they wait for same-sex civil unions to be legalised and observe the progress that has been made on LGBT rights in other Latin American countries.

Argentina, Uruguay and the Mexican capital allow the adoption of children by same-sex married couples. But in the Caribbean, where homosexuality is punishable in a number of nations, only Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles recognise overseas adoptions.

In a May 12, 2012 joint statement, the Men for Diversity (HxD) organisation and CENESEX urged the Raúl Castro government to allow “all possibilities of union between same-sex couples, including marriage, as well as adoption and reproduction for homosexual persons.”

Dr. Alberto Roque, an activist who founded HxD, advocates the extension of assisted reproduction services to single women and lesbian couples in Cuba. “In these cases, the techniques for assisted reproduction used have a low degree of technological complexity, because it is not a case of infertile persons,” he said in a post on his blog, HOMOsapiens.

Lesbian groups such as Oremi in Havana; Las Isabelas in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba; Fénix in Cienfuegos; and Atenea, which was created this year in the central city of Ciego de Ávila, are discussing matters related to lesbian maternity and seeking mechanisms for raising awareness about the subject among the general public.

“Some women look for a man who is interested in being a father or a donor and they self-inseminate using crude methods, sometimes even endangering their health,” said psychologist Norma Guillard. “We should all have the right to have children, either our own or adopted,” she told IPS.

However, the issue of legalising adoption by homosexual couples is a controversial, taboo subject in Cuba, where “public displays of homosexuality” were penalised until the 1990s.

“I agree with homosexuals getting married, but not with them adopting children, who always suffer the trauma of social rejection. For me, the emotional stability of a child is more important than the right of an adult,” said Rosario F. in a post on the Café 108 interactive section of the IPS Cuba web site.

Activist Camilo García posted that “there is still a very deep-rooted prejudice that homosexual people are not capable of bringing up children as well as heterosexuals. People continue to view them as ‘sick,’ and believe they might pass on their ‘sickness’ to children,” he said.

“Most of us came from heterosexual families. If it was logical that homosexuality was something that you could catch or learn at home, we would have been like our parents. This argument is not viable, and it must be fought,” transvestite Riuber Alarcón told IPS.

A study by the Autonomous University of Yucatán in Mexico, published in 2011 by an online psychology magazine, Iztacala, found in a survey of 100 respondents between the ages of 18 and 63 that “this generation of young people displays more positive attitudes and beliefs toward adoption by same-sex couples.”

In Cuba, experts say that more studies are needed regarding same-sex couples and their families.

Source: Inter Press Service

Hague expressed “sincere regret” that the abuses had taken place and told parliament the government would pay a total of 30.8 million dollar to 5,228 clients represented by a British law firm.

A lawyer for the victims said on Wednesday the settlement had been agreed without disclosing the sum.

“(The negotiations) have included everybody with sufficient evidence of torture. And that number is about 5,200,” Kenyan lawyer Paul Muite said.

Negotiations began after a London court ruled in October that three elderly Kenyans, who suffered castration, rape and beatings while in detention during a crackdown by British forces and their Kenyan allies in the 1950s, could sue Britain.

The torture took place during the so-called Kenyan Emergency of 1952-1960, when fighters from the Mau Mau movement attacked British targets, causing panic among white settlers.

Al Jazeera’s Peter Greste, reporting from the Kenyan capital Nairobi, said Britain would also pay for a special memorial to be erected at the site where the abuses took place.

He said that since the case was settled out of court, it would not set a legal precedent for future claims of compensation for abuses during colonial rule. But he added that it could set a “moral precedent” for other victims to step up.

British Troops severely tortured Kenyan independance seekers including President Obama’s grandfather.

‘Pain and grievance’

The 30.8 million dollars in compensation would work out at 5,891 dollars per claimant in a country where average national income per capita is 821 dollars.

The foreign office said in last month’s statement that “there should be a debate about the past”.

“It is an enduring feature of our democracy that we are willing to learn from our history,” the statement said.

“We understand the pain and grievance felt by those, on all sides, who were involved in the divisive and bloody events of the Emergency period in Kenya.”

In a test case, claimants Paulo Muoka Nzili, Wambugu Wa Nyingi and Jane Muthoni Mara last year told Britain’s High Court how they were subjected to torture and sexual mutilation.

Lawyers said that Nzili was castrated, Nyingi severely beaten and Mara subjected to appalling sexual abuse in detention camps during the Mau Mau rebellion.

A fourth claimant, Susan Ngondi, has died since legal proceedings began.

The Mau Mau nationalist movement originated in the 1950s among the Kikuyu people of Kenya. Its loyalists advocated violent resistance to British domination of the country.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission has estimated 90,000 Kenyans were killed or maimed and 160,000 detained during the uprising.

‘Triumph’

London tried for three years to block the Mau Mau veterans’ legal action in the courts, drawing condemnation from the elderly torture victims who accused Kenya’s former colonial master of using legal technicalities to fight the case.

Caroline Elkins, a Harvard history professor who acted as an expert witness in the case launched in 2009, said the settlement would be the first of its kind for the former British Empire.

“(It) should be seen as a triumph,” Elkins told Reuters during a visit to Nairobi for the British announcement.

Elkins wrote the book Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya which served as the basis for the Mau Mau case.

Britain had first said that responsibility for events during the Mau Mau uprising passed to Kenya upon its independence in 1963, an argument which London courts rejected.

Source: Inter Press Service & Al Jazeera

An international team reviewed different causes of malnutrition in pregnancy and childhood.

They say the first 1,000 days of life – from conception to two years – have lasting consequences for health.

Malnutrition – which includes being overweight or obese as well as under-nourished – also has an economic impact.

According to a recent United Nations report, malnutrition is estimated to cost the world $3.5tn (£2.3tn) – or $500 for every person – in healthcare and lost productivity

A team led by Prof Robert Black, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, US, reviewed evidence on maternal and child under-nutrition and obesity in low-income and middle-income countries since 2008.

The team also assessed national and international progress on nutrition programmes.

Prof Black and colleagues say while some progress has been made in recent years, they estimate that more than 165 million children were affected by stunting (low height for age) and 50 million by wasting (low weight for height) in 2011.

An estimated 900,000 lives could be saved in 34 countries if 10 proven nutritional interventions were scaled-up to 90% of the world, they say.

“The nutritional consequences of the months during pregnancy and the conditions during the first two years of life have very important consequences for mortality and for adult chronic disease,” Prof Black told BBC News.

“The early nutritional deficit results in developmental consequences for the individual and that has implications for their ability to succeed in school and ultimately in society to have the most productive jobs.”

The researchers warn that countries will not break out of poverty unless nutrition becomes a global priority.

Dr Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of the Lancet, said: “If maternal and child nutrition can be optimised, the benefits will accrue and extend over generations, which is why we must work together now to seize this opportunity.”

Experts working in development are gathering in London this weekend for a summit on nutrition hosted by the UK and Brazilian governments.

This will be followed by the annual summit of leaders from the G8 countries.

The Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign is calling for $1bn per year in additional aid money to be spent on malnutrition by 2015.

Enough Food for Everyone IF spokesperson Anita Tiessen said:

“These new figures confirm our worst fears – that hundreds of thousands more children are dying from malnutrition than we previously thought.

“We have made incredible progress in tackling child deaths around the world, but malnutrition remains the Achilles’ heel in our efforts to prevent millions of needless deaths each year. We must urgently prioritise tackling hunger if we are to continue the progress we have made.”

Source: BBC

South Sudan has introduced new textbooks for school children, shown here sitting an exam in a school on March 20, 2013,. (VOA/Hou Akot Hou)

The books are the first to be written and published under South Sudan’s new national curriculum, and cover the core subjects of English, science, mathematics, history and religious studies.

Tandu Emmanuel, a teacher at Yambio Primary School, said that up until the new books arrived, he followed the Sudanese curriculum and used Sudanese textbooks in Arabic, along with an assortment of workbooks and textbooks from other East African countries. There were never enough of the latter for all of his students, he said. And there were other problems with the books in Arabic.

“We could not understand Arabic. Writing from right to left was a problem. Now that English is on, we shall use the books properly with the same writing. We know that our children will understand very well,” he said.

The new books follow a national curriculum that was rolled out last year. They were printed under a partnership with the British Department for International Development (DFID) and the South Sudanese government.

The first textbooks were distributed elsewhere in South Sudan last year but Elizabeth Carriere, the head of the DFID office in South Sudan, said the books destined for Western Equatoria were delayed because of printing problems.

So far, only half of the books for Western Equatoria have arrived, but Carriere said the remainder should be coming within the next few weeks.

She hailed the fact that, finally, South Sudanese schools will not have a book shortage.

“This is the first time in history that this state and indeed the country of South Sudan will have enough textbooks in its schoosl, for both learners and teachers,” Carriere said.

“We are proud through our support to be able to contribute to your vision of building an educated and informed nation by 2040.”

The DFID has estimated that 15 percent of students who drop out of school in South Sudan do so because they don’t have textbooks.

The DFID is also launching a pilot programin Western Equatoria state to keep girls in school in South Sudan, Carriere said.

Many girls leave school to get married, often against their will. Human Rights Watch called in a report released in March for the South Sudanese government to set the minimum age for marriage at 18 and provide training to public officials to protect girls from forced marriage.

It also called for a stepped-up effort to educate South Sudanese on the impact of child marriage on girls and the country as a whole, and for legislation on marriage, separation and divorce.

According to the most recent government statistics, only nine percent of girls in South Sudan who start primary school complete it.

The DFID-backed program to push for girls to stay in school is due to be launched in two months. It will engage students and teachers in discussions about why girls drop out and identify possible solutions.

Western Equatoria Education Minister Pia Philip Michael noted that the Girls Education Act, which is before the state assembly, would set the minimum marriage age at 18 in order to encourage more girls to finish school.

Source: VOA

Bishops in the Church of England, who had strenuously opposed a bid to allow same-sex marriage, signaled that they won’t try to derail the bill after an overwhelming vote of support in the House of Lords.

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey

Church of England spokesman Steve Jenkins said that in the same way the church will eventually allow women bishops, England will eventually allow same-sex marriage.

“It doesn’t mean the Church of England is happy, but that’s where our government is going,” Jenkins said. “Now it’s about safeguarding people’s right to hold religious beliefs.”

The Right Rev. Tim Stevens, the Bishop of Leicester who leads the bishops in the House of Lords, issued a statement on Wednesday (June 5), one day after the parliament’s upper house voted 390-148 against an amendment to kill the gay marriage bill.

“Both houses of Parliament have now expressed a clear view by large majorities on the principle that there should be legislation to enable same-sex marriages to take place in England and Wales,” Stevens said.

The bill will now go into committee where bishops — who hold 26 seats in the upper chamber — will attempt to insert amendments to add protections for teachers or other workers who object on religious grounds. The bill passed the House of Commons on a vote of 366 to 161.

Other observers cautioned against reading too much into the Church of England’s move, saying it is just part of the political process.

“I think it’s been over reported that the church has given in,” said Chris Sugden, an Anglican minister and secretary of the traditionalist group Anglican Mainstream. “It’s as if the church is saying, ‘We don’t approve of gambling, but if there are going to be betting shops, they would put an amendment to say they should not be near schools.’”

The statement by Stevens still notes the redefinition of marriage. “If this bill is to become law, it is crucial that marriage as newly defined is equipped to carry within it as many as possible of the virtues of the understanding of marriage it will replace,” Stevens said.

The bishop’s statement is subtle enough that the bishops could end up voting against the bill once it comes out of committee, says the Rev. Peter Ould, a commentator and Anglican priest.

“I wouldn’t put it past the bishops to say we didn’t get what we wanted so we are going to vote no,” Ould said. “The underlying tone of the statement is that this bill isn’t good. It needs to be improved.”

The bishop’s move comes a few days after the head of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, said the redefinition of marriage would undermine a cornerstone of society.

The current legislation bans the established Church of England from conducting gay marriage ceremonies.

Source: Religious News Service

Jacksonville Black Pride

What started out in Washington D.C. in 1990 as the only Black Gay Pride event in the country has grown to over 35 gatherings nationwide. Each year celebrations start in April and continue to October. Over 300,000 LGBTQ people of African descent rev up for a weekend of social and cultural events celebrating their queer uniqueness.

By Rev. Irene Monroe

In 2007 alone over 350,000 attended Black Gay Pride events throughout the U.S. The largest events are held in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Atlanta, and smaller Black Pride events (like Boston’s) provide an important sense of identity and cultural heritage.

Sunday gospel brunches, Saturday night Poetry slams, Friday evening fashion shows, bid whist tournaments, house parties, the smell of soul food and Caribbean cuisine, and the beautiful display of African art and clothing are just a few of the cultural markers that make Black Pride distinct from the dominant queer culture.

Just like in the mainstream of American society, cultural acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQ communities of color in larger Pride events is hard to come by. Many can experience social exclusion and invisibility in the big events. Segments of our population will attend separate Black, Asian, and Latino Gay Pride events in search of the unity that is the hallmark of Pride.

The themes and focus of Black, Asian, and Latino Pride events are different from the larger Pride events. Prides of communities of color focus on issues not solely pertaining to the LGBTQ community, but rather on social, economic, and health issues impacting their entire community. The growing distance between our larger and white LGBTQ community and these LGBTQ communities of color is shown by how, for an example, a health issue like HIV/AIDS that was once an entire LGBTQ community problem is now predominately a challenge for communities of color.

Also, with advances such as hate crime laws, the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the legalization of same-sex marriage in many states, and with homophobia viewed as a national concern, the LGBTQ movement has come a long way since the first Pride marches four plus decades ago. Many note the perceived distance the LGBTQ community has traveled in such a short historic time—from a disenfranchised group on the fringe of America’s mainstream to a community now on the verge of equality. But not all members of our community have crossed the finish line. Some are waving the cautionary finger that within our community to note that not all are equal.

Pride events can be public displays of those disparities.

Mainstream Prides have themes focused on marriage equality for the larger community where Prides organized by and for LGBTQ people of African descent have focused not only on HIV/AIDS but also unemployment, housing, gang violence, and LGBTQ youth homelessness. After decades of Pride events where many LGBTQ people of African descent asked to be included and weren’t, Boston Black Pride was born. Boston Black Pride this year will neither be a formal gathering of folks nor will there be a display of scheduled festivities. But it will groove on as it always has for the community, with more individual and impromptu events.

Gay Pride Soweto, South Africa

By 1999 Black Pride events have grown into the International Federation of Black Prides, Inc. (IFBP). The IFBP is a coalition of twenty-nine Black Pride organizations across the country. It formed to promote an African diasporic multicultural and multinational network of LGBTQ/ Same Gender Loving Pride events and community based organizations dedicated to building solidarity, health, and wellness and promoting unity throughout our communities.
Also in understanding the need to network and build coalitions beyond its immediate communities, IFBP created the formation of the Black/Brown Coalition.

Black Pride is an invitation for community. Like the larger Pride events that go on during the month of June throughout the country, Black Pride need not be viewed as either a political statement or a senseless non-stop orgy of drinking, drugging and sex. Such an “either-or” viewpoint creates a dichotomy, which lessens our understanding of the integral connection of political action and celebratory acts of songs and dance for our fight for our civil rights.

While Pride events are still fraught with divisions, they, nonetheless, bind us to a common struggle for LGBTQ equality.

Black Pride contributes to that struggle for equality, demonstrating an African diasporic aspect of joy and celebration that symbolizes not only our uniqueness, but it also affirms our commonality as an expression of LGBTQ life in America.

Happy Pride!

Despite much popular and political support that extended even to the White House, marriage equality in Illinois will have to wait at least until this fall, as the state’s House Of Representatives declined to vote on the pending legislation.


By Nathan James

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), speaking on the House floor last night, said he would not ask for a vote, because his colleagues wanted more time to consider the bill. “I’ve never been sadder,” Harris said, as the bill’s supporters, expecting its passage, made angry shouts. “I apologize to the families who were hoping to wake up tomorrow as full and equal citizens of this state,”

Harris’ decision not to call his bill means it will not come up again until November, although the Illinois Senate had passed the measure, 34-21, last Valentine’s Day. Had the lawmakers approved the issue last night, Illinois would have become the thirteenth state to legalize gay marriage. President Obama was an outspoken advocate of marriage equality in his home state.

“I just want to say–for the record–that [gay marriage] is something I deeply support,” Obama stated, “I am absolutely convinced it is the right thing to do.”

Meanwhile, decisions are expected later this month on two gay marriage cases now before the Supreme Court, one dealing with the federal Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA), the other on California’s Proposition 8 referendum, which repealed marriage equality in that state. The high court’s ruling in these cases will have far-reaching implications on LGBT rights in the United States.

Illinois legislators closed their session last night, without further comment on the bill.

About 300 Africans who fled the 2011 conflict in Libya are now stranded in the northern German city of Hamburg, where many of them are sleeping rough.

Angry German officials allege that Italy – where the Africans first arrived – gave them some cash and visas so that they could move on to Germany.

The Hamburg authorities say they are struggling to find shelter for the men and women from Libya, Ghana and Togo.

Many African refugees fled to Italy in small, overcrowded boats in 2011.

The Hamburg senator for social and family welfare issues, Detlef Scheele, said “we’re trying to establish currently how the ones whose visas have expired can be sent back to Italy”, German media reported.

Mr Scheele, a Social Democrat (SPD) politician, said “it would be irresponsible to arouse false expectations; a return trip is the only option”.

He said the Africans had no right to seek work or social welfare in Germany.

Struggle for shelter

Last week the refugees staged a demonstration outside Hamburg city hall with a banner that read: “We didn’t survive Nato war in Libya to die in the streets of Hamburg”.

The Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper reports that the welfare authorities and church groups are working together to help the Africans, many of whom are sleeping on the port city’s streets, on park benches or under trees.

But the city’s homeless shelters are full and Mr Scheele has refused to erect temporary tents for the Africans, the newspaper reports.

According to a German interior ministry message, quoted by German media, they were given up to 500 euros (£428; $647) each in Italy to persuade them to leave the country, as well as Schengen zone visas enabling them to travel to other EU countries.

A German lower house (Bundestag) MP, Johannes Kahrs of the SPD, described Italy’s actions as “incomprehensible”. “I don’t know what legal basis the Italians are using for doing this,” he said.

Under EU rules, the country where refugees first arrive in the EU is supposed to look after them and process their asylum applications.

Source: BBC