January 7 Smell of scandal: It is revealed that a porn festival in Athens featuring performances of bareback gay sex, was subsidised by …the greek Centre for Disease Control! (KEELPNO)
January 7 Portugal is shocked by the atrocious murder and mutilation of a beloved gay TV presenter by a 20-year-old model he was dating.
January 13 The first museum of GLBT history on american soil opens its doors in San Francisco.
January 18 A british court awards compensation to a gay couple that a hotel refused to accomodate.
January 27 International outcry over the savage murder of an activist in Uganda. His name was included in an outing list of 100 homosexuals published by a local newspaper under the title “Hang them!”
January 27 TV presenter Fotis Sergoulopoulos comes out in a television interview.
February 2 The “Mona Lisa” is really the portrait of a young apprentice and possible lover of Leonardo da Vinci in female drag, according to an italian art historian.
February 17 An anthem against homophobia and prejudice, Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” becomes the 1000th number one in the history of the U.S. Billboard Hot100.
February 24 The U.S. administration will no longer defend the “Defence of Marriage Act” in the courts as president Obama thinks it is uncostitutional. The legislation bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages performed in any U.S. state.
March 2 The greek-orthodox bishop of Pireaus says that homosexuality is no different from pedophilia or necrophilia…
March 9 20-year-old Anton Hysén, son of veteran swedish soccer legend Glenn Hysén, becomes Europe’s only openly gay professional footballer.
March 17 The director of the Bolshoi ballet Gennadi Yanin resigns after a video showing him in bed with another man is leaked on the internet…
March 20 Barcelona unveils a monument dedicated to gays and lesbians persecuted around the world.
March 23 One of Hollywood’s most glamorous stars and the woman who founded the “American Foundation for Aids Research”, Elizabeth Taylor dies at the age of 79.
March 25 A catholic priest who publicly applauded the violent attacks against gay Pride marchers in Croatia, is sentenced to three months in prison with parole.
March 27 India’s Mahatma Ghandi was bisexual and in love with a german architect, according to a new biography.
April 7 Archeologists in the Czech Republic discover the tomb of a neolithic man who was buried according to the burial costumes his tribe used for women.
April 7 3,8% of americans describe themselves as LGBT while 8% have had at least one homosexual experience in their lifetime according to research published by the University of California.
April 13 The NBA forces Kobe Bryant to pay an $100ths fine for a homophobic slur he uttered at a referee.
April 22 Hungary’s new constitution bans same-sex marriage.
April 24 Another horrific crime in the dark continent: a lesbian activist is gang-raped and brutally murdered in a south-african township.
May 5 Brazil’s Supreme Court rules that same-sex couples should enjoy the same rights as married heterosexuals.
May 5 Androgynous model Andrej Pejic is voted among the world’s 100 hottest women by the readers of british men’s magazine FHM, provoking a trans-phobic editorial by the magazine’s editors.
May 23 The former neofascist mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno welcomes Europride celebrations in the italian capital featuring a surprise performance by Lady Gaga.
May 28 In what has become an annual ritual for the Putin regime, gay demonstrators who try to march in Moscow are swiftly arrested by the police…
June 5 The municipality of Athens becomes one of the official sponsors of the seventh Athens Pride, but the mayor fails to show up.
June 12 It is revealed that Amina Araf, a lesbian blogger who was supposedly kidnapped by syrian authorities sparking an online campaign for her release, was in fact a fictional personality created by an american academic…
June 14 “We don’t support them, we don’t defend them, we don’t condemn them”: Greece’s deputy minister of Culture responds to a parliamentary question on whether public funds for the promotion of tourism in Athens supported LGBT festivities…
June 17 At the initiative of South Africa, the majority of the U.N. Human Rights Council votes for the first time to condemn discrimination and violence against LGBTs around the world.
June 25 42 years after the Stonewall riots, New York becomes the sixth and largest U.S. state to recognize same-sex marriage.
July 15 California becomes the first U.S. state to make teaching the historical contributions of homosexuals mandatory in the curriculum of all state schools.
July 23 A married female couple in a boat save 40 people from the bullets of a right-wing mass murderer in Norway’s Utoya island.
July 27 Once again, deputies in the italian parliament refuse to uphold a bill that would treat attacks against gays and lesbians as hate crimes.
August 4 The last known “pink triangle” dies at the age of 98. Rudolf Brazda was among the 15 thousand gay men who were sent to nazi concentration camps.
August 23 Greece is not included in the top ten list of countries preferred by gay and lesbian travellers due to the prevailing homophobia and prejudice, according to a report by a dutch consultancy firm.
September 4 Three men are executed for the crime of homosexuality in Iran, according to an iranian dissident group.
September 9 During a parliamentary debate, the greek minister of Labour makes it clear that the government will not extend widowers’ pensions to same-sex couples due to fiscal considerations…
September 16 The UK government announces it will begin consultations to extend civil marriage to same-sex couples by 2015.
September 18 The openly gay mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit is comfortably re-elected for a third term.
September 19 Cher’s transgender son Chaz Bono makes his debut in the american version of Dancing with the stars.
September 23 The mass outing of parliamentarians on a foreign internet site provokes a controversy in Italy.
October 3 The European Commission condemns the serbian government’s decision to ban the Belgrade Pride in order to avoid a repetition of last year’s attacks by right-wing extremists.
October 9 57-year-old Anna Grodzka becomes Poland’s first transgender MP.
October 16 Honduran authorities decide to ban under-15s from a Ricky Martin concert, citing the latin star’s homosexuality as a possible “bad influence” on the young…
October 17 A couple of lesbian inmates go on hunger strike after greek prison authorities decide to put them in different wards in order to “punish” them…
October 30 A court in Poland allows a far-right party to register a homophobic graphic as their official symbol…
October 31 British prime-minister David Cameron threatens to withhold UK aid from countries that violate the rights of LGBT individuals.
November 1 Audiences in Athens are treated to a retrospective of legendary american photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
November 3 A serbian politician is convicted for inciting hatred against gays and lesbians. He called homosexuality “a disease”.
November 16 Clothing manufacturer Benetton removes an ad portraying a kiss between the pope and an egyptian imam after the Vatican complains.
November 17 A greek-cypriot former minister who was arrested for breaking the law that bans gay sex in turkish-occupied northern Cyprus does not appear in court. He had been released on bail.
November 21 Fifteen hijras or “eunuchs” are killed during a fire in India. They had gathered to celebrate a traditional religious festival.
November 23 In Cameroon, three men are sentenced to five years in prison for having gay sex.
December 1 “The Christmas Tango”, the movie version of a celebrated greek novel recounting the suggestively homoerotic story of a soldier who teaches his captain to dance, becomes the surprise box-office hit of the holidays.
December 6 Belgium’s 60-year-old Elio di Rupo is sworn-in as prime-minister of Belgium. He becomes the first openly gay man to hold that post anywhere in the world.
December 6 During a historic speech to the UN, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launches a new diplomatic drive regarding LGBT rights around the world, calling them “one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time.”
December 16 The health statistics of gay men have greatly improved in the states that have recognized same-sex marriage according to a report published in the american Journal of Public Health.
December 26 Former spanish prime-minister José Zapatero calls the passing of legislation recognizing same-sex marriage “his proudest achievement”.
12 months, 58 events from 27 different countries. It was the year that the UK and US governments took global initiatives regarding the respect of LGBT rtights around the world, while the European Union’s human rights advocacy was paralysed by the euro crisis. For LGBTs in Greece it was the year they had to fend for themselves amid the economic meltdown, receiving indifference and cynicism instead of solidarity from both officials and the public.
I hope that 2012 will be the year that the darkness surrounding public life in this country will start to recede. I wish you all a very happy, optimistic and productive new year!
translated to english from the gay super hero blog