The Week in Gay: Delhi is Proud, lesbian ballerinas, and World AIDS Day

by Cupcake

The Most Cake’s weekly round-up of lesbian-ish/gay lady/queer grrrl news from around the world…

Hello lay-deez! This week’s column comes to you after a two-and-a-bit-week hiatus, from a land of shattered promises, internet connections, and hearts. Baby please just give me one last chance.

Haterz:

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a brilliant organization, has released its annual list of gay-bashing haterz groups in the US of A. Their definition is simple: if you knowingly lie about gay people, like about how many sexual partners they have, how long they live, or whether or not they abuse children or are Nazis, you are a hate group. Groups like Family Research Council and Liberty Counsel think this is SO unfair, but they would prefer not to address the accusations made in the report about them lying and whatnot.

Delhi Pride:

The Indian capital had its first Pride Parade since homosexuality became a legal thing to be/do last year! Whooo!

This week in uncalled for:

Willow Palin, aunt to Levi Johnston’s offspring and daughter to former VP candidate/governor and current Mama Grizzly Sarah, called someone a homophobic slur on the Facebook. Who’s surprised that this is the way the Palin kids have been raised?

Lesbians in film:

Natalie Portman stars in a new lesbian ballerina thriller that opens this week, you should check it out. Also, The Kids Are Alright is nominated for all kinds of Indie Spirit Awards and potentially could have ended with the sperm donor guy becoming part of the family. Discuss.

Being gay in countries other than South Africa:

Kenya’s PM Odinga said that homogays should be locked up but has now revised his statement to a clarification of the country’s new constitution and its stance on gay marriage.

But what if the stranger feeling me up is securitychecksexual:

Airport security in America has been ramped up, so basically you either have to let personnel take a nude photograph of you or submit to an “enhanced” pat down. There has been much homophobia about what if teh gays pat me down and get turned on, and HuffPo has an interesting article on how this dilemma may bring home the experience of transgender individuals to many cisgender people.

Please, keep your fabulous under wraps:

Pope Benedict, in his eternal infallibility, which allows him to sporadically change his mind about things but still be right both before and after this happens, has decided that maybe gay people are born gay. However, if you are gay, you should still not act gay, because even though God doesn’t make mistakes, let’s pretend He did. Also male hustlers can use condoms now.

It Gets Better Today:

This country’s PM has recorded an It Gets Better vid, which is blowing Americans’ minds. Also, can I just say that at least in the States, advising a queer kid to confide in their parents can be, in some cases, a bad idea.

DOMA:

The BBC has a piece on the Defense of Marriage Act, the law that withholds federal benefits from married gay couples. In particular, this focuses on the effect DOMA has on the non-US-citizen spouses of US nationals, since they, unlike the opposite-sex husbands and wives of Americans, have no legal recognition under federal law and can be thrown out of the country at any time. You should read it, it’s informative and could be a real issue for you one day if you date a hot American, some day I might be single again jus’ sayin’.

This makes no sense:

Sir Ian McKellen, most amazing of human beings, went to Bristol to talk to school kids about being gay, and a Tory councilor declared that this was a bad idea because what if gay kids came out and then got bullied. What? Anyway, he realizes this is kinda shady logic, and has suspended himself.

File under: WTF

Joe Rehansky reckons he has this whole DADT thing covered – we should exclude gay men from the military, yes, because they are very scary for the American soldier. Lesbians, however, are okay, because they are not so hypersexed and tend towards monogamy oh and also their straight male compatriots can turn them straight. I kid you not, grrrls, this is the final paragraph of his article, which has now been redacted: “My solution would get the distaff part of our homosexual population off our collective ‘Broke Back,’ thus giving straight male GIs a fair shot at converting lesbians and bringing them into the mainstream.” As Autostraddle points out, this assumption that gay women lack the capacity for informed choice in matters of their own sexuality, combined with the notion of isolating them so they are more susceptible to ‘conversion’ is kinda creepy, like saying lesbian soldiers just haven’t met the right corrective rapist yet. Who’s angry? I’m f***ing angry.

Antiretroviral:

A new drug trialed by the pharmaceutical company Gilead could reduce the transmission rate of HIV in men who have sex with men by 44%. When taken meticulously, protection can rise up to 90%.

It’s World AIDS Day, everyone! Please remember that women who have sex with women are at risk for seroconversion, too, so get tested, get informed, and get involved!