The Lesbian News Stack 2011 - February 9

By maxime68 on Wednesday, February 9, 2011 - 17:44

Get ready for another fresh pile of political news with a focus on European LGBT content, with news from Belgium, Poland, Russia, France, the UK, and more.

Belgium

Had we to believe Anne Delbaere, responsible for the fertility services department of hospital Erasmus in Brussels, then we should be afraid for Belgium for it is running out of (donor-) sperm because of too many French lesBians coming to them to ask for IVF. The hospital already went that far as to restrict the number of requests by lesBian foreigners handled per week.

A new anonymous online survey aims to look into insecurities of LGBT persons.

Denmark

A Danish national LGBT organisation filed a complaint with a local TV station after it aired a section in which a journalist repeatedly referred to a transsexual woman as a man and called her a freak show. To make matters even worse, TV channel TV2 refuses to apologize for the show and the journalist's statements and added even more fuel to the fire by a failed attempt to explain the use of 'freak show'.

France

SOS Homophobie published a hands-on anti-homophobia guide (guide pratique contre l’homophobie) based on testimonials they received over the course of the last year. It is available as PDF download but will also be updated regularly on the website.

Hélène Mandroux, mayor of Montpellier and pro-gay marriage, kept her word and married the French-Portuguese gay couple, who were refused a marriage license in Portugal following a French directive, in a symbolic ceremony.

An article on Senioractu.com elaborates on the question if French retirement homes are ready to accept gay couples and what needs to be changed to make them more gay-friendly.

‘Solidarité avec Cathy’ is a petition to support Cathy, a lesBian teacher from Strasbourg, whose lay-off was the end of a series of homophobic discriminations she had to endure after being spotted in a gay pride march several years ago; the list of signatures will be handed to the Minister of Education.

Germany

Will a group of German Catholic theologians start a revolution within the church? The group of 150 called upon the church to put an end to the necessary celibacy vow, to accept women and gay couples. So far these requests won’t have any impact, the Vatican has kept mum, but they will be discussed at the next German bishop’s conference in March.

Due to violation of human rights the German government decided to put restraints on financial aids to Malawi, the USA followed this decision.

LSVD (national lesbian and gay organisation) plans joined activities with other LGBT groups to protest the upcoming papal visit. The first meeting is scheduled for February 17th.

The 18th national conference for lesbian teachers will take place the first weekend of June. The program includes workshops on varied topics and leaves enough room for the exchange with other participants.

‘Acceptance of sexual diversity’ is a national, anonymous survey launched this month (February) and open to all German or in Germany living LGBT persons. While an article on Queer.de claims that all the survey concentrates on are interactions or problems with persons of Muslim faith, we hope for your personal thoughts of this survey.

A conservative church group from Unna requested sanctions against a (protestant) female pastor who had blessed the union of a lesbian couple. The group doesn’t accept the word of the responsible regional church, that stands behind the pastor.

Out lesbian Susanne Baer started her term as Judge with the first Senate of the German Constitutional Court.

Renate Künast, a high profile politician with the Green Party, is running for mayor of Berlin (yes, the Berlin with gay mayor Klaus Wowereit) and presented her campaign last week. Her program speaks of transforming Berlin into a city for all, never forgetting to mention minorities and always including LGBTs.