Australian opposition leader vows he won't turn gay

Front runner in the up-coming Australian elections, Kevin Rudd, agreed to answer a question about who he would turn gay for on a TV show last week.

The Labour leader became the first political leader to brave the popular youth variety show Rove Live.

During the programme Mr Rudd admitted to being a "nerd" and also said he could beat current Prime Minister John Howard in a bar fight.

After knocking back suggestions put to him, including those from Dame Edna and Kel from Kath and Kim he appeared to have confessed the only person he would turn gay for was his wife Therese.

According to news.co.au, Mr Rudd's staff admitted he hadn't delivered the answer as well as he had planned to, even though he knew it would be coming.

The opposition Leader was meant to have said, “Not for anyone, because of my wife Therese.”

Rudd has come under attack from gay activists and the Green party for rejecting same-sex marriage. During several recent interviews he has stood by his party line that marriage is between a man and woman, but admitted it was not a popular view in some circles.

Earlier this month John Howard was asked by a shop worker in a mall in New South Wales "Who would you turn gay for?"

The PM laughed off the question, but his consistent refusal to grant equal rights for gay and lesbian Australians has been less easy to avoid.

He has been accused of pandering to homophobia to win votes, and despite opinion polls showing 71% of Australians favouring equal rights for gay people, he is still opposed.

In 2004 he passed federal legislation banning same-sex marriage and earlier this year said that HIV positive immigrants should not be allowed into the country.

Last month Mr Howard, the Prime Minister since 1996, called a general election, which will take place on 24th November.

Rudd still has a winning lead in opinion polls, but with Howard narrowing the gap.

The latest Newspoll of voter opinion showed former diplomat Rudd dropping one point to 54 percent of the vote and Howard gaining one to 46 percent.

If this swing away from the government was uniform across the nation in Saturday's election it would result in Labour gaining the 16 extra seats it needs for victory, The Australian newspaper said.

But the Newspoll survey of some 1,700 voters found Howard is still considered the leader best able to handle the economy, beating Rudd 51 percent to 35 percent.

As the election draws closer, fifteen gay and lesbian couples declared their love for one another in a mass ceremony in Adelaide last week , drawing attention to Australia's "backward" same-sex marriage laws.

The ceremony, entitled Loved Up, was held as part of the state's gay and lesbian cultural festival - Feast Festival.

The 12 female couples and three male couples declared their love before hundreds of family and friends who gathered on the city's Montefiore Hill. The hour-long ceremony was performed by three celebrants.

"What we wanted to do as a festival was celebrate diverse love and put it out to the wider public so that it can be recognised as equal to straight marriage," Mr Clarke, the Feast Festival's artistic director, told AAP before the ceremony.

"Of course it's political, but it's a very personal day and it's going to be a very, very moving day."

Mr Clarke and his partner Nick Pelomis were married last year in the UK, establishing what that country calls a civil partnership with the same rights as marriage.

"It's just backward that it hasn't happened here yet," Mr Clarke said.

The couple chose to renew their vows because very few family and friends were able to celebrate with them in the UK.

The Feast Festival runs until November 25 and is the largest cultural event of its kind in Australia, with 151 different events held over two weeks.

Peer collapses during gay parents debate

A Lords debate on a proposed new law that would make gay and lesbian parenting easier was adjourned after a peer collapsed in the House yesterday.

The move was aimed at making the need for a father at IVF children unnecessary.

Some peers however said it should uphold the importance of both parents.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill contains new rules that will allow gay and lesbian couples to become the legal parents of a child conceived through donated sperm, eggs or embryos.

According to the BBC, Lord Darzi had said earlier that it was important to change the law to make sure it "was reflective of modern society."

"The Bill includes clear recognition of same-sex couples as legal parents of children conceived through use of donated sperm, eggs or embryos," Lord Dazi added.

Lib Dem peer Baroness Tonge said children could be brought up "very well indeed without either parent in some circumstances."

She added: "My party has never discriminated against gay people – which this debate is really about – and we will therefore support the removal of these words."

Labour Peer Lord Brennan, 65, collapsed and required heart massage before the second hearing of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill was adjourned to a later date.

Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader of the Tory party, said on Sunday that the proposals remove the need for a father and therefore threaten society.

Forty-five MPs have signed a motion saying the bill is "profoundly misinformed and clearly undermine the best interests of the child" and the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, has said the bill is "profoundly wrong."

Gay hate crime on the rise in US

Hate crime incidents in the US rose by nearly 8 per cent last year, according to an FBI report.

There were 7,722 reported cases targeting victims or their property as a result of bias against sexual orientation, race, religion,national origin or physical or mental disability.

The numbers are thought to be higher than reported however, due to only 12,600 of the US's 17,000 local, county, state and federal police agencies participating in the report.

Joe Solomonese, president of the civil rights ground Human Rights Campaign told the St Louis Post: "This FBI report confirms that hate crime protections for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community are long overdue."

He also called on Congress to pass legislation that would expand hate crime statute to include crimes motivated by sexual orientation.

Number of AIDS cases lower than previously estimated

Global numbers of people with AIDS may have been over exaggerated, according to news reports.

The number in 2006, estimated to be 40 million people, may have been 6.2 million over the real amount.

The decline is largely just on paper -- the new numbers are the result of improved methodology, which shows the spread of AIDS has been losing momentum for almost a decade.

Speaking to The Australian Kevin De Cock, director of the World Health Organisation's AIDS department, welcomed the fall in deaths: "For the first time, we are seeing a decline in global AIDS deaths."

Much of the global drop in AIDS cases is due to revised estimates from India, which this year slashed its numbers in half, from about six million cases to about three million, and to new data from countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Despite the report, huge regional differences remain and Africa still remains the centre of the epidemic.

AIDS is still the leading cause of death across the continent, affecting men, women and children and according to africaaidswatch.org, 13000 people a day died from the disease in 2005.

Dr Jim Chin, a clinical professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley, told the Australian that it was hard to tell if the lowered numbers were evidence that AIDS treatment and prevention strategies were working, or if the decrease was because of a correction of previous overestimates

Banning Gay Pride march was illegal, Supreme Court rules

Latvian authorities have ruled that a ban on a Gay Pride march in 2006 was illegal.

The event was was banned amid threats of violence from extremist groups.

The municipal authorities in the Latvian capital Riga were told that the event would be cancelled to avoid public disorder after Christians, nationalists and neo-Nazis threatened the parade with violence and a counter march.

Riga City Council appealed a decision earlier this year by the Administrative Court that the ban was unlawful, but the Supreme Court has now confirmed the ruling.

Mozaika, the Easter European countries LGBT organisation, has said that a decision to appeal by the City Council has set an important precedent for Latvia's court systems and on any similar future rulings.

As the country is now part of the EU it is bound by Human Rights Conventions allowing for the right of assembly and to "demonstrate" on issues.

Although the pride festival was allowed to go ahead this year it was confined to a park in the centre of the capital with a limited march.

MEP Raьl Romeva, vice president of the European Parliament's 'Intergroup' for gay and lesbian rights, said at the time: "It is a good start."

"Perhaps in the future Riga Pride will be through the streets of the city."

Arizona city vows to protect LGBT people

A city in Arizona's Personnel Board has voted unanimously to recommend the city protects gays and transgender people from discrimination.

This is the first of Scottsdale's three part ordinance, including a proposal requiring all of the cities businesses to offer protection for the LGBT community.

There were a few objections to the board's approval.

According to AP, one resident called the situation "abominable" and called that such behaviour was "deviant" and that such a "choice" did not deserve legal protection.

However, board chairwoman Eula Dean said: "I can recall when it was not popular to use people of colour.

"I look to the policy to protect all people at all times in order to make a safe community for all people at all times."

Rick Kidder, president of the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce, said many businesses already protect gay and transgender people who work for them but businesses would object if they had to spend a lot of money to offer equal protection.

Some businesses have voiced concerns that they may have to alter their toilets and rest rooms.

Arizona is relatively liberal on the map of states of the US and their treatment of homosexuality.

In November 2006 voters rejected a change in the constitution that would have banned gay marriage and civil partnership laws completely.

Over 30 US states have state law or constitutional banning of civil unions with only Massachusetts allowing full gay marriage.

Police offficer cautioned in cruising crackdown

A total of 32 people, including a police officer, have been cautioned as a result of a crackdown on cruising in a toilet block in Wallasey, Liverpool.

Six people were charged under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for the alleged sexual activity that happened in the toilets on Harrison Drive in the New Brighton area of the city earlier this year.

The police officer involved, who has not been named, was fined 13 days pay for the incident through the forces own disciplinary proceedings.

However the arrests have drawn criticism from the gay community, who claim that correct policy and procedure was not carried out.

Speaking to the Liverpool Daily Post and EchoMike Homfray, chairman of the Gay and Lesbian Police Liaison Group, an independent group funded by Merseyside Police, said: "There is a lot of unhappiness and I feel it did a lot of harm.

"Usually there are warnings put up by police for operations. This was not done. We have been following this quite closely. Policy and procedure was seemingly ignored."

Merseyside Police have defended their actions saying it is standard practice to ask those arrested to identify people they engaged in the offences with.

Two of the six people arrested have pleased guilty to the offences, four are still awaiting trial.