The Lesbian News Stack 2011 - January 19th

By maxime68 on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 - 16:35

Who would have thought? I guess we can finally declare the political season 2011 open and effective. Find out by reading our round-up of European LGBT news.

World

Just when you have come to the conclusion that no matter what news comes from the Vatican, they do something that makes you halt in your steps and for once that even has a positive sound. Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, an outspoken defender of gay rights, was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and while we like this, ‘Catholics’ don’t seem to be happy with this decision and scream that the Pope was tricked into this appointment.

Europe

A speech by Hungarian president Orban this morning prompted the following tweet by Dutch D66 European Parliamentarian Sophie in ‘t Veld:

("Orban calls for European family policy. And he's probably not talking about gay married couples or cohabitants...")

The European Parliament will vote later today (Jan. 19th) on a resolution on Lithuania and its homophobic law. The according debate took place yesterday and can be viewed on the European Parliament’s website. (Select Previous Plenary Sessions on the left side.)

Belgium

Organisation çavaria announced the more or less happy recipients of their pro- and anti-LGBT awards on January 16th. The gay-friendly award went to the father of a gay So You Think You Can Dance participant and the homophobia award to Archbishop Léonard.

LGBT organizations started an awareness campaign for a more gay-friendly school environment and to help teenagers who are not sure of their sexual orientation.

France

Jacques Myard, UMP politician and member of the French Parliament, was invited to a radio show last week where he explained his anti-PACS (anti civil union) position and also compared homosexuality with zoophilia, including a repetitive misspelling as 'zoofolia'. For a moment I wondered why he was getting that much press coverage, after all he is an ordinary parliamentarian  and we shouldn’t reinforce their discriminating actions and thoughts by extended coverage. This estray is a politician for department Yvelines (78), which belongs to the region called Île-de-France, though it is more important to know that its capital is the city Versailles. And a court of Versailles ruled last week that it was in the interest of the child that his mother's lesbian partner received parental rights.

The French Constitutional Court accepted a case on the ban of marriage for same-sex couples yesterday (January 18th), and the decision is expected for January 28th.