30 December 2009

2009: A gay & lesbian review

January 7 What do you know. Tin Tin is gay, according to the Times of London!

TinTin


January 28 Colombia’s constitutional court rules that same-sex couples should have the same rights as married heterosexuals.

colombia



February 1 Iceland’s Johanna Sigurdardottir becomes the world’s first openly homosexual prime-minister.

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February 14
On Valentine’s Day, gay and lesbian couples stage mock weddings for the television crews in downtown Beijing.

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February 20
Oscar-winning comedian Roberto Benini makes a heartfelt plea against homophobia during the televised San Remo festival in Italy. The song “Luca was gay” about a “cured” homosexual takes second place at the contest.

benigni


February 22 At the Academy Awards Sean Penn wins Best Actor for “Milk” but the kudos go to the movie’s scriptwriter Dustin Lance Black for his memorable acceptance speech.

dustin black


February 25 In Paris 374 million euros are raised for AIDS research during the auction of Yves-Saint Laurent’ and his partner Pierre Bergé’s famous art collection.

yves saint laurent - pierre bergé

March 7
Clad in the national colours, Australia’s out olympic gold medallist Matthew Mitcham leads the Mardi Gras gay parade in Sydney.

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March 7 Activists storm the Athens Opera House protesting an attempt to censor a gay kiss during the staging of Dvořák's “Rusalka”.

Rusalka



March 8
The U.S. Showtime network screens the last episode of lesbian tv show “The L Word”.

theLword


March 17 Denmark lets same-sex couples adopt children.

danemarkadoption


March 18 The U.S. signs a U.N declaration calling for the international de-criminalisation of homosexuality.

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March 18
Greece’s highest court rules in favour of a company that fired an HIV-positive man at the behest of his colleagues…

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March 21 The storming of a gay-friendly bar in Athens’ unruly Exarchia district by a group of punkish thugs leads to widespread damage and injuries…

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March 23
The Pet Shop Boys return to center stage with their latest album “Yes”.

pet shop boys1



April 1
Not an April’s Fool joke! Sweden becomes the seventh country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage.

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April 2
The Homo-caust in Iraq charts its grimly course: six presumed homosexuals are found murdered in Baghdad in little less than a week.

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April 11
Neighboring Turkey is also hit by a wave of homophobic violence as three transexual women and a gay man are murdered in a single month.

Turkey flag


May 2 Zurich’s lesbian mayor Corine Mauch opens the celebrations for Europride.

Corine_Mauch_



May 5 A court in Rhodes rules that the weddings of two same-sex couples on the island of Tilos were null and void.

rhodes harbour


May 8
World premiere of the film “Little Ashes” about the passionate affair between celebrated spanish poet Frederico Garcia Lorca and surrealist painter Salvador Dali.

beltran&pattinson



May 16 40 protesters who try to stage a gay rights parade to coincide with the Eurovision Song Contest are arrested in Moscow.


alexander rybak 3


May 2 Two of gay porn’s most recognizable stars, Francesco Di Macho and Damien Crosse, get married in Madrid.


d_macho crosse


June 3 New Hampshire becomes the 5th U.S. state to recognize same-sex marriage – and the third to do so since the beginning of the year


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June 4 Harvard University inaugurates a department of LGBT studies.


harvard4


June 13 The organizers of Athens Pride spread a 31-meter-long rainbow flag in front of the House of Parliament.

athens pride flag


June 23 Openly gay writer and filmaker Frederic Mitterand becomes France’s minister of Culture.

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July 1 A court in India rules that banning gay sex is uncostitutional.

india



July 14
Michael Jackson was gay according to an unauthorised biography.

michael_jackson


July 15
Sponsored by the socialist opposition, a domestic partnership bill that includes same-sex couples is rejected by a greek parliamentary commitee.



July 24 “A Monstrous Masterpiece”, the homoerotic work of leftist greek poet Yannis Ritsos is presented at the Epidavros theatre.

Ritsos

July 27 The OutGames in Copenhagen are marred by two incidents of homophobic violence.

OutGames1


July 27 Modern dance revolutionary Merce Cunningham dies at the age of 90.

merce cunningham


August 1 A masked man shoots and kils two people and injures a dozen at an lgbt youth center in Tel Aviv.


israel gay rally4


August 6 Researchers at the University of North Carolina announce they have mapped the genome of the HIV virus.

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August 7
The American Psychological Association rejects “reparative therapy” for homosexuals.

gay therapy 2



August 8 The israeli president talks at a 25.000-strong rally protesting Tel Aviv’s gay massacre.

israel gay rally

August 14 In a northern greek town domestic violence leads a 19-year-old gay man to take his own life.

gay suicide



August 16 President Obama awards posthumously the Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk.

HarveyMilk



September 5 New hopes for the development of an AIDS vaccine after researchers in California discover two antibodies that can fight the virus.

gay medical

September 9 Uruguay becomes the first country in Latin America to let same-sex couples adopt children.

lesbian family



September 11
The UK government posthumously apologises to Alan Turing. The father of computer science took his own life in 1954 after being convicted for same-sex relations.

Alan Turing 2

September 12 Colin Firth wins the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival for his potrayal of a gay professor in Tom Ford’s “A Single Man”.

Single Man2



September 20 Serbia’s Pride parade is called off after extremist groups threaten participants with violence.

serbia-homophobia



September 22
The Vatican’s UN envoy claims that homosexuals are to blame for pedophilia scandals in the Catholic Church.

catholicpriests4


September 23 In an interview for a dutch gay magazine pop star Mika reveals he is bisexual.

mika



September 24 10 thousand people take to the streets of Rome to protest a wave of homophobic violence in the Eternal City.


Omofobia2

October 11 Thousands of protesters -Lady Gaga among them- take to the streets of Washington, D.C. callling on president Obama not to renege on his promises for lgbt rights.


lady gaga4


October 13 Athens’ renovated National Theatre opens the new theatre season with the works of openly gay choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou and legendary gay writer Kostas Tachtsis.

papaioannou1



October 14
A muslim team is banned from France’s amateur soccer league after refusing a match with a gay team.

carton rouge


October 16 French president Nicola Sarkozy defends Frederic Mitterand from charges of sex tourism in Thailand insisting that “homosexuality cannot be mixed up with pedophilia”.

sarkozy


October 22 The Lutheran Church of Sweden votes to allow church weddings for same-sex couples.

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October 24
Guido Westerwelle, the openly gay leader of the Free Democrat party, becomes the new foreign minister of Germany.

westerwelle-mronz



October 28 Barack Obama signs a bill named after murdered gay student Matthew Shepard that qualifies homophobic attacks as federal hate crimes.

matthew shepard

October 30 Londoners protest homophobic violence after the murder of a 60-year-old man at Trafalgar Square.

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November 2 Authorities in the US lift the HIV travel ban.

statue of liberty

November 10 The man who killed TV star Nikos Sergianopoulos during an apparent sex transaction gets 20 years in prison.

sergianopoulos2

December 1
Sweden lifts the ban on blood donations for gay men provided they have abstained from sex for at least one year.

true blood


December 2 France becomes the first country in the world that officially calls on iranian authorities to stop the executions of homosexuals.

noose

December 4 Spain compensates a gay man who was imprisoned by the Franco regime.

gay prison1

December 10
The austrian parliament approves a domestic partnership scheme that offers limited rights to same-sex couples.

men in the alps


December 10 The depiction of sex and erotic love in ancient greek art is the subject of a landmark exhibition at Athens’ Museum of Cycladic Art.

greek phallus

December 17 After making its mark representing Greece on the gay festival circuit “Strella”, the story of a transexual girl facing some tough choices, starts its succesful run in Athens cinemas.

strella

December 17 The homoerotic works of legendary painter Yannis Tsarouchis are at the epicenter of a massive retrospective in the Benaki museum.

naftis ston ilio -  tsarouxis

December 21 Mexico’s capital becomes the first city in Latin America to recognize same-sex marriage….

lesbian wedding6



December 28
…but a couple in Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego makes it past the mexicans to become the first same-sex couple in the continent to actually tie the knot!


alejandro-jose maria