31 December 2010

2010: Gay and lesbian review


8 January  Portugal becomes the eighth country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage – but that doesn’t include adoption rights for same-sex couples.

gay wedding 7

14 January Authorities ban what was to be China’s first ever gay beauty contest.

gay asian3

14 January In his first ever official trip abroad, Germany’s foreign minister Guido Westerwelle is accompanied by his male partner.

Mronz-Westerwelle-Japan

4 February Barack Obama condemns a bill that would impose the death penalty on homosexuals in Uganda.

-barack obama  
11 February Celebrated fashion designer Alexander McQueen is found dead in his London appartment.

alexander mcqueen - sarah jessica parker

12 February France becomes the first country in the world to remove transexuality from the list of pshychiatric disorders.

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17 Φεβρουαρίου "In my eyes Jesus was a super intelligent, compassionate gay man. He preached love and forgiveness in a world filled with hate” The Gospel according to Sir Elton John.

Elton_John

18 February A London exhibition presents the drawings inspired by Michelangelo’s greatest love,  the young roman aristocrat Tommaso dei Cavalieri.

michelangelo-the-dream  
22 February Actress Zeta Douka plays a transexual in a popular greek evening soap. 

zetadouka

22 February Lesbian speed skater Ireen Wüst wins a gold medal for the Netherlands in the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

ireen wust


7 March
Oxford classical scholar and author of “Greek Homosexuality” Sir Kenneth Dover dies at 89.

greek homosexuality

  
12 March South african archbishop and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu condemns the persecutions of homosexuals in african countries, calling  them “un-christian”.

tutu

19 March The claims of a former NATO general that Dutch soldiers failed to prevent the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia partly because their ranks included openly gay soldiers are “complete nonsense” according to the dutch government.

gay military

23 March The UK passes a bill that makes incitement to hatred against homosexuals a punishable offence.

no h8 

30 March
“I am a fortunate homosexual man” : Ricky Martin comes out on his website.
rickymartin
  
5  April It is revealed that Count Almasi, the hungarian aristocrat whose story inspired the “English Patient” novel and film, was in fact gay and in love with a german soldier.

english patient 
12 April Not clerical celibacy but homosexual priests are to blame for the pedophilia scandals rocking the Catholic Church, according  to the Vatican’s spokesman.

couplepraying 
17 April Australia’s four-time Olympic champion Daniel Kowalski reveals that he is gay.

daniel kowalski

27 April  The greek broadcasting watchdog comes under fire for  imposing fines on two tv stations that presented LGBT-themed films and interviews.

ΕΣΡ 
3 May “Strella”, an unusual love story starring a transexual girl, wins four Greek Film Academy awards, including Best Actress for the film’s star Mina Orfanou.

strella5

29 May The president of Malawi bows to international pressure and releases a gay couple that was sentenced to 14 years in jail…

malawi

1 June Tony Kushner’s classic AIDS-themed play “Angels in America” and a concert by Rufus Wainwright open this year’s Athens Festival.

angelsinamerica3

5 June 2005 Eurovision Song Contest winner Elena Paparizou is the star of this year’s Athens Pride.

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7 June The children of lesbian couples are better adjusted  than their peers according to a new US survey.
 lesbian pregnancy1 
11 Ιουνίου Iceland becomes the ninth country in the world to recognise same-sex marriage. A few days later, the country’s prime-minister marries her female partner.

iceland lesbian couple

15 June Authorities in Cyprus start  a campaign against homophobia.

cyprus anti-homophobia campaign 
24 June The house of celebrated author and director Jean Cocteau in Milly-La-Forêt, France opens to the public as a museum.

cocteau-marais1

25 June Austria did not violate european human rights  conventions when it banned a gay couple from marriage, according to the European Court of Human Rights.

7 July The british High Court  rules that UK authorities can not expel gay refugees originating from countries where homosexuality is punished.

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 9 July Ireland passes a civil partnership bill that includes same-sex couples.

ireland pride   
15 July Argentina becomes the tenth country in the world and the first in Latin America to recognize same-sex marriage.

lesbian wedding9  
17 July Warsaw’s Europride is the first ever to be held in eastern Europe.

europride poland

23 July A  magazine owned by prime-minister Silvio Berlusconi comes under fire for outing gay catholic priests.

panorama-pretres-gays

4 August 19 people convicted for transvestism are  lashed in public  in Sudan

sudan

14 August The Pride parade comes back to Tokyo after three years.

tokyo pride6 
19 August British authorities decide that catholic child care agencies can not exclude adoption applications from same-sex couples. 

gay adoption1 
21 August Gay male employees earn 6% less on average than their straight counterparts according to a study published in France.

gay office

27 August Hunky greek pop star Sakis Rouvas is the star of an international gay festival held in Mykonos.

sakis rouvas 4 
31 August Fidel Castro claims responsibility for the persecution of homosexuals in 1960’s Cuba.

fidel castro 
1 September Spanish police uncovers a prostitution ring that trafficks young men from Brazil.

male prostitute

12 September In the MTV awards ceremony Lady Gaga is accompanied by four soldiers who were discharged from the US army because they are gay.

lady gaga vma2

12 September A gay diplomat from Saudi Arabia applies for asylum in the US.

arab

17 September The UN Secretary General calls on member states to stop discrimination based on sexual orientation.

ban ki moon  
19 September Two gay students from New Jersey enter the Guiness Book of Records for the world’s longest kiss after locking lips for 33 hours!

matty-bobby-longest-gay-kiss 
23 September An exhibition of Stone Age artefacts in Spain includes representations of same-sex couplings.

prehistoric gay sex

30 September The U.S. is shocked by the suicides of five gay teenagers in less than a month…

bullying2

10 October Violent clashes between the police and far-right extremists during Pride celebrations in Belgrade, Serbia.

belgrade pride 
21 October The European Court of Human Rights imposes a fine on the russian government for banning gay pride demonstrations in Moscow. 

moscow-gay-pride

2 November “Being passionate about women is better than being gay”: Silvio Berlusconi’s response to the charges that he corrupted a 17-year-old…

berlusconi

7 November The mayor of Tilos island who came into the spotlight  by marrying two same-sex couples in 2008 is re-elected with 64% of the vote.aliferis2 
8 November Gay couples welcome pope Benedict with public kissing in Barcelona. The pontiff responds that homosexuality is “contrary to the will of God”.

barcelona gay kiss-in

12 November Bollywood’s first gay romance hits the big screen in India.

dunno y

23 November Drug trials by US scientists show that a new pill can reduce the chances of gay men contracting the HIV virus.

gay doctor

30 November Czech authorities are accused of subjecting refugees who claim to be gay to humiliating “arousal tests” while exposing them to porn material.

phallometric test
6 December Scandinavian Airlines offer the first “marriages in the air” to a gay couple from Germany and a lesbian couple from Poland.

marriage in the air 
14 December Gays “should quit sex” if they want to watch the 2022 World Cup in Qatar -a country where homosexuality is illegal- according to FIFA’s president….  
 
gay footballers
16 December Greek activists claim that a contestant who was found HIV-positive was excluded from a TV cooking show.

gay chef 
18 December Better late than ever: the U.S. Senate finally decides to let gay and lesbian soldiers serve openly in the U.S. Army.

gay soldier    
21 December African governments  fail to exclude homosexuals from a UN resolution condemning arbitrary executions.

UN rainbow flag 
25 December Elton John and partner David Furnish become parents of a baby boy through a surrogate mother.

Baby_boy


12 months, 60 events in 32 countries. In 2010, four countries that became victims of economic hardship (Argentina, Portugal, Iceland and Ireland) moved towards equality for same-sex couples, realising that the crisis can be overcome  only by putting an end to exclusions. Will Greece learn their lesson? We will know the answer in 2011…

 

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