The Week in Gay: Uganda, Roberta Achtenberg, and Aloha civil unions in Hawaii

by Cupcake

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

You guys, there just was not a lot of happy gay news this week.

Bad sad news

Gay rights activist David Kato, one of the most outspoken LGBT rights advocates in the country, was beaten to death in his home on Wednesday. Kato was one of the people outed in Rolling Stone newspaper last year. US Sec of State Clinton and President Obama have released statements. The BBC has an obituary and the New York Times has a piece from back in April on the involvement of American evangelicals and ex-gays. Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality bill was tabled last year following a conference featuring three American speakers, all of whom had some pretty nasty things to say about gay people.

Better news

In case this makes you feel better, Brenda Namiggade, a Ugandan woman who is seeking asylum in the UK on the basis of her lesbianism, has been granted temporary leave to remain in the UK while her case undergoes judicial review. Brenda’s claim had been rejected because officials decided they didn’t believe she was gay.

I LOVE older lesbians who are also public servants!

President Obama has appointed one of the co-founders of the National Centre for Lesbian Rights, Roberta Achtenberg, to a seat on the US Commission on Civil Rights.

But I am le pissed off:

The French Constitutional Court has ruled that the country’s ban on gay marriage is not unconstitutional, deferring to parliament to legislate a shift in the law. Meh.

Two misinformed douchebags break the law probs without knowing it:

Two men in the UK have been charged under laws brought in last year to prohibit incitement to homophobic violence after distributing leaflets around Derby that called for the death penalty for gays.

Religious boycott:

A Dublin meeting of heads of 38 Anglican churches from around the world is being boycotted by about a third of those invited because Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will be in attendance. Bishop Schori presides over the Episcopal Church in the US, and what’s her crime? She ordained a lesbian bishop omg and let gays get married in her church omg.

Political boycott:

A huge number of organizations, whose names I will not name because I do not wish to give them any publicity, will be boycotting the annual Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) because GOProud (gay Republicans) will be there. I don’t get GOProud’s deal. We should about this

Diversity sure makes for some weird math problems:

UK schools will now be including LGBT issues in subjects like math and science. Laura has two ovaries. Lorie has a monthly subscription to a sperm bank. Laura and Lorie get married, and x is the number of tries will it take, on average, to conceive, considering the current state of reproductive technologies. Find x.

Gay tourism is such a thing lately:

Thai airline PC Air is recruiting transgender/third gender staff. The CEO says “I think these people can have many careers – not just in the entertainment business – and many of them have a dream to be an air hostess.”

Aloha, will you CP me?

Civil unions are a thing now in Hawaii!