Gay News

Last December, an HIV-awareness billboard commissioned from gay artist Poko Murata appeared in the Tokyo gay district of Shinjuku Ni-chome. The billboard, advertising the AIDS pharmaceutical company Viiv Healthcare, featured a ring of Japanese men alongside the text, There are people living with and without HIV and we're all already living together.

In January, Murata received a complaint from the Shinjuku district office that his billboard was contrary to public order and morality because of one of the men in his ad was wearing only underwear. After re-drawing the man in a slightly unzipped pair of shorts, the office continued to complain because the man's underwear was still visible.

The artist himself considers the complaint an obvious prejudice and discrimination against gays, especially considering that the district has numerous advertisements for straight bars featuring real-life women in skimpy underclothes.

A clothed version of Murata's sign was placed over the original earlier this week.

Perennial moral campaigners of One Million Moms have their latest whinge against a US cereal advert:

Nabisco should be ashamed of themselves for their latest Honey Maid and Teddy Graham cracker commercial where they attempt to normalize sin. Right away it shows two men with a baby, followed by other families, and ends with different families pictured including the one with two dads. This commercial not only promotes homosexuality, but then calls the scene in the advertisement wholesome. The ad states, Everyday wholesome snacks for every wholesome family. This is wholesome.

One Million Moms stands up for Biblical truth which is very clear in Romans 1:26-27 about this particular type of sexual perversion.

Honey Maid is also using the hashtag #thisiswholesome. There is concern about the way this ad is pushing the LGBT agenda, but an even greater concern is the way that they are changing the meaning of the word wholesome.

This is truly sad. If this is what Honey Maid thinks is wholesome, then my family will no longer purchase Honey Maid or Nabisco products.

The BBC has controversially dropped a debate on homosexuality from a live panel discussion show because of objections from Birmingham Central Mosque in which the programme was being filmed.

As first reported by Breitbart London, the BBC Three live debate and discussion show aimed at young people, Free Speech , had intended to ask the question, When will it be accepted to be Muslim and gay? However the show's host Rick Edwards, announced that the debate would not take place as planned. He told the audience:

We were going to debate that question today, but after speaking to the Mosque, they have expressed deep concerns with having that discussion here.

The producers of the show, Mentorn Media say the debate will happen on its next show on 25 March.

Stephen Evans, campaigns manager at the National Secular Society said:

After agreeing to allow a programme called Free Speech to be filmed at the Mosque, it is absurd and counterproductive to then censor the topic being discussed.

It is unfortunate that the BBC allowed itself to be censored on this occasion by reactionary imams, but this was a place of worship, and perhaps the BBC would do well to choose religiously neutral venues to hold such debates in future.

Update: Censored by threats violence

15th March 2013. See  article from  bbc.co.uk

Around 100 viewers complained to Ofcom with many furious that a gay kissing scene was aired in Coronation Street before 8pm when children are watching.

Todd (Bruno Langley) locked lips with Marcus (Charlie Condou). After the full-on snog, the pair were shown heading semi-naked to the bedroom.

Most of the complainants say the gay kiss should not have been shown so early in the evening because it was too sexually suggestive , while others claim it had no place being broadcast at all.

Viewers inevitably took to Twitter to express their 'outrage', but the examples are too trivial to bother repeating.

Update: Inevitable Ofcom tells the whingers to bugger off

28th February 2013. See  article from  digitalspy.co.uk

TV censor Ofcom received over 100 complaints about the scene but an Ofcom spokesperson said:

Ofcom can confirm that it is not investigating the scene in Coronation Street as it was not in breach of generally accepted standards. Our rules do not discriminate between scenes involving opposite sex and same sex couples.

An advertising poster of two men in a passionate embrace has been censored by Brisbane City Council'.

Lifestyle chairman Krista Adams has deemed the image too confronting and banned it, pending a review by the Advertising Standards Board.

The image in question, a parody of Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr's passionate beach embrace in the 1953 film From Here to Eternity , was designed as a publicity poster for the Brisbane Queer Film Festival which begins at the Powerhouse on March 28.

The ban could potentially expose the council to liability under the anti-discrimination act, by anybody who feels aggrieved by this decision.

While many in Brisbane's gay community are 'outraged', Powerhouse artistic director Kris Stewart played down council's decision.

We got word from Krista there were reservations about one of the three images we had planned. My sense was it is a very sexualised image and the decision would have been the same whether it was two men or a man and a woman.

A Russian court has fined a newspaper editor for publishing an interview with a gay school teacher who was quoted as saying homosexuality is normal.

Alexander Suturin, editor of the Molodoi Dalnevostochnik, a weekly published in the city of Khabarovsk, was ordered to pay a fine of 50,000 rubles (£870) for supposedly publishing gay propaganda .

The prosecutor claimed that the statement: My very existence is effective proof that homosexuality is normal, goes against logic. She said:

By offering it to underage readers, the author is misleading them about the normality of homosexuality.

Suturin is to appeal against the ruling.

The banning of a London bus advert suggesting people could get over homosexuality should be investigated, the appeal court has ruled.

Christian charity The Core Issues Trust accused mayor Boris Johnson of unlawfully using his position as chairman of Transport for London to obtain the ban to secure the gay vote.

The High Court had upheld the ban. But the Court of Appeal has now ruled a probe is needed to consider whether the mayor acted for an improper purpose .

The posters produced by the Christian charity reading Not Gay! Ex-Gay, Post-Gay and Proud. Get over it! were designed in response to adverts by gay rights group Stonewall, which said Some people are gay. Get over it! . Reveal all emails

Ruling on the charity's appeal, the Master of the Rolls Lord Dyson said evidence had been produced of an email which unequivocally states that the mayor 'instructed' TfL to pull the advertisement just before the 2012 mayoral elections. He said the need for examination of the role of the mayor was even greater because the email sent on 12 April 2012 shows that the mayor's office contacted the Guardian (newspaper) immediately, apparently in order to make political capital out of the story . Arrangements had also been made for the mayor to appear the following day at a hustings organised by Stonewall.

The judge said: This is a most unsatisfactory state of affairs.

India's supreme court has refused to review the ban on gay sex it reimposed last month , rejecting arguments from civil rights campaigners and the Indian government that the move was unconstitutional.

The court's decision in December to reinstate a ban on same-sex relationships overturned four years ago by a lower court provoked anger and shock in India and overseas.

The UN high commissioner on human rights, Navi Pillay, said the decision represented a significant step backwards for India and violated international law.

Gay rights activists say gay people in India face significant discrimination and police harassment, even if prosecutions have been rare. Criminalising gay sex also makes many people vulnerable to blackmail, they say, and causes misery for many who already face prejudice, even from close family members.

New legislation, which constitutional experts say is probably necessary to overturn the judgment, looks unlikely in the near term. It would be unusually bold for an administration widely seen as weak to take on such a controversial issue so close to a general election to be held by May.

Students from Trinity College in Dublin have banned the sale of Coca-Cola and all Procter & Gamble products at students' union campus shops over their sponsorship of the Winter Olympics in Russia.

Leanna Byrne from the students' union said:

We want to show solidarity to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Russia and banned the sale of the products on campus as a mark of respect,

Russia recently approved legislation banning gay information that Russia claims is homosexual propaganda .

Porn production is struggling in California. Since the passage of Measure B in 2012, which strictly imposes the use of condoms on all porn sets in Los Angeles, adult movie production has largely begun to move out of the San Fernando Valley. However, gay porn company Falcon Studios is now attempting to hearken back to the days before the measure was passed. In their latest release California Dreamin' 1 , the studio filmed all its scenes with condoms but managed to digitally remove the prophylactics in post-production.

Director Tony DiMarco stated on the Falcon Studio blog that the film is meant to tap into fantasies of bareback sex in the 1970s and 80s, while also aligning with the safe sex ethos that is currently being enforced in LA:

With this movie I really wanted to capture the essence of that time, when life seemed more carefree and spontaneous. In keeping with this concept, I felt that condoms need to be addressed. The decision to go with this technique appears to strike a middle ground between Measure B and the porn industry's belief that scenes without condoms are a better sell with consumers.

Nevertheless, while Falcon Studios seems committed to their new style of filming, it's unclear if it will catch on. The company doesn't make clear how expensive it is to painstakingly remove condoms during sex scenes.

The christian moralist campaign group, One Million Moms has called for sponsors to withdraw from the Disney Channel show, Good Luck Charlie . The group spews:

Alerting all parents! If Good Luck Charlie goes through with introducing LGBT content, then the floodgates will be opened for all programs on the Disney Channel - a trend that will be almost impossible to stop.

Disney Channel has very few sponsors and advertisers on its network. Care.com was the only Disney Channel sponsor that was promoted during the January 19, 2014, newest episode of Good Luck Charlie. Care.com often sponsors programs on the Disney network.

An upcoming episode in this last season of Good Luck Charlie will feature a family with two moms, a first for Disney Channel. Because Good Luck Charlie is coming to a close, the characters are only expected to appear in one episode. However, one episode is enough, especially since the network repeatedly airs reruns of all its programs.

One Million Moms launched an email campaign in 2013 that urged Disney officials to abandon their plans to corrupt the children's network with LGBT content. However, Disney officials have not responded to the thousands of emails protesting their plans. Disney has decided to be politically correct instead of providing family-friendly programming. Disney should stick to entertaining, not pushing an agenda.