The Lesbian News Stack 2011 - February 23

By maxime68 on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 - 17:30

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

Worldwide
While we all, or at least some of us, are waiting for a broader release of Diaspora, an alternative to Facebook, the big old giant added 'civil union' and  'domestic partnership' to user profiles for selection of relationship statuses. While they started quietly with the update in the US, it has by now reached Europe and I personally confirm that the update has arrived in France, with descriptions adapted to the country’s legislation.

Recently murdered Ugandan LGBT activist David Kato received posthumous recognition of his work when the European Parliament condemned his murder and adopted a resolution that slams Uganda for failing to recognize human rights.

Europe
UK leader David Cameron must have thought himself in safe waters with all the positive press he and his government receive on LGBT topics. I hope that he has more than just second thoughts about the time when he led the Tories in the European Parliament into joining the parliamentary grouping of ‘Law and Justice’, which consists to a large chunk of Polish MEPs. An outspoken anti-gay rights politician is now set to become the leader of the group and being the author of a book entitled Why I Am Not Tolerant it is already obvious that he will make sure to get heard on his views.

Austria
'To Love Is Human' is the title of a photo award launched to campaign for more ‘tolerance and respect towards all shades of love’. The deadline is April 29th, 2011.

Belarus
A new group from Belarus (the last European country run by dictatorship) has joined the Slavic Pride movement.

France
Inter-LGBT sent out a questionnaire to all candidates for the upcoming regional elections end of March, enquiring about their stance on specific LGBT questions.

Germany

Hamburg
As one of Germany’s city-states, Hamburg inaugurated the election period of 2011 with elections for the Senate last week. It was not really a surprise that the outgoing governmental party CDU (Christ Democrats) suffered enormous losses and that SPD (Social Democrats) won this election by far. Sure, other parties also participated in these elections, though the result is that SPD won the majority of seats and will thus not depend on any coalition partners. While there was nothing LGBT-specific about the election, it is good to know that SDP is in general gay-friendly and this will have an impact on the votes in the Bundesrat (Upper House).

Baden-Württemberg 
The next election will take place in Baden-Württemberg and while the situation is not as obvious as in Hamburg, the chances for a turnover are still very high. With the state holding the red lantern in regards of LGBT rights, it comes as no surprise that well-known topics like higher fees for registered partnerships and not being allowed to ‘marry’ at civil registry offices are being picked up again by the press and some politicians too.

Ireland
glen (Irish gay and lesbian equality network) collected information from the major parties' programs for the upcoming national elections and made them available in an overview with three major topics: legal recognition, children/parenting and anti-bullying.

While the first civil unions where committed unnoticed by the press, a booklet with information that will help those considering a civil union and a general information leaflet (the latter one by glen), have been published.