Baja California gay couple finally marries
Fourth time’s a charm. After being rejected three times at Mexicali City Hall, two Baja California men were finally married Jan 17 when their protest against the city turned into an impromptu wedding celebration. Victor Fernando Urias Amparo and Victor Manuel Aguirre Espinoza received a special order from the Mexican Supreme Court allowing their marriage, but they were blocked again and again by officials, including by one woman who said they could not be married because they were insane.
Irish health minister comes out
Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s minister of health, has come out as gay. Ireland is preparing for a referendum on gay marriage and adoption in the spring. In an interview on RTÉ Radio, Varadkar said, “I’d like the referendum to pass because I’d like to be an equal citizen in my own country, the country in which I happen to be a member of government, and at the moment I’m not.”
Stephen Fry gets married
Prolific British comedian, actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry married his boyfriend, Elliot Spencer, at an unexpected ceremony Jan 17. Later he tweeted, “Gosh. @ElliottGSpencer and I go into a room as two people, sign a book and leave as one. Amazing.”
Kentucky legislator proposes suing schools for trans students in wrong bathrooms
Kentucky legislator CB Embry has introduced legislation that would allow parents to sue schools for $2,500 each time a transgender student is allowed into a bathroom that does not correspond to their biological sex. The law would prevent administrators from allowing trans students access to the bathrooms of their choice. In a new manoeuvre, Embry argued that the law would protect gay people: “I have a friend, and we can all say these things, who is a homosexual and she agrees that she doesn’t want men in her bathroom.”
Read more at The Washington Post.
Egyptian editor: Government wants us to cover gay stories
The editor of liberal Egyptian newspaper Tahrir News says the government is pressuring the media to cover “silly” stories such as the arrests of gay people to distract from larger political issues. In December, 26 men were arrested on debauchery charges at a bathhouse. The men were acquitted, but many Egyptian media outlets used the case to encourage anti-gay sentiment.
“San Francisco as we know it is dying”
At The Daily Dot, Samantha Allen writes how the Silicon Valley tech boom is destroying gay San Francisco, as queer people are priced out of their old neighbourhoods. The closing of the lesbian bar The Lexington, she writes, is just the last straw in the gay community’s losing battle against gentrification.
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