Kathleen Webster, co-president of the Chicago-based Federation of Gay Games, said that Cologne, Germany, will host the games in 2010.
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Friday, November 18, 2005
CHICAGO — The Federation of Gay Games announced this week that Cologne, Germany, will host the Gay Games VIII in 2010. Other finalists to host the games included Johannesburg, South Africa, and Paris. The games are held every four years and offer athletic competition and cultural festivities. “Cologne will be a great place for the LGBT athletes from around the world to compete in 2010 at Gay Games VIII,” said Kathleen Webster, co-president of the federation, in the news release. The federation originally awarded the 2006 Gay Games VII to Montreal, but local organizers withdrew their bid after a negotiating dispute with the federation. The 2006 Gay Games are now set to be in Chicago, just one week apart from the Outgames, put on by Montreal organizers. A new federation, the Gay & Lesbian International Sport Association, has announced that the next Outgames will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009, one year before the Gay Games planned for Cologne.
LONDON — The threat of legal action helped prompt the Tory-controlled Medway Council to reverse its ban on civil partnership ceremonies, according to news reports. Protesters from the local gay rights group OutRage! Kent gathered at the council’s meeting last week before officials decided in an executive cabinet session to allow civil partnership registration ceremonies when the new U.K. law becomes effective on Dec. 5. Up to this point, Medway had refused to allow the ceremonies or even discuss the ban, news outlets reported. The city is believed to be the last holdout in England against allowing gay couples to have civil partnership ceremonies included in the registration process. OutRage! activist Ian Farmer threatened to take the council to court if it did not allow the ceremonies, arguing that the city was discriminating against him and other gay residents.
SUVA, Fiji — The nation’s Methodist Church last week was refused permission to hold a protest march against gays by government authorities, the Australian Associated Press reported. A government official rejected the application saying that it would encourage bias against gays. The church planned the rally in response to Fiji’s high court ruling that agreed to overturn on constitutional grounds an appeal by an Australian tourist and a Fiji man convicted for gay sex. Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase is supporting an appeal of the court’s decision by the nation’s public prosecutor. Qarase says homosexuality is sinful. The Fiji Human Rights Commission threatened to take legal action against the government if the church’s anti-gay rally was allowed. “They have already been given the opportunity to express their wishes on June 26 via a protest march and to hold another one would be unconstitutional,” Commissioner Central Inoke Devo said.
QUEBEC — André Boisclair’s party boy past is already being highlighted by his opponents after the gay Canadian won election to lead Parti Québécois, a political party that advocates Quebec separating from the rest of Canada. Boisclair admitted that he used cocaine while serving in government during his campaign for leadership of his party, according to the Canadian Press. “Could Mr. Boisclair be minister of public security tomorrow morning?” asked Economic Development Minister Claude Béchard, a member of the Liberal Party. “Could he be minister of justice? The answer is no, so at the end of the line can he be premier of Quebec? It’s the same answer: We don’t think so. It was up to PQ members to look at it. Now it will be up to all Quebeckers to look at it.” Several local and federal Liberal politicians joined in the attack on Boisclair, challenging his moral authority less than 12 hours after he won the election over former cabinet minister Pauline Marois and six other candidates.
ABUJA, Nigeria — Gay rights advocates are pressuring Nigeria to revise its laws after six girls were sentenced to brutal canings because of their sexual orientation, according to news reports. The girls, one of whom is 12, each were sentenced to 90 strokes of the cane after being accused of having sex with each other. A local group known as Twon-Brass in the Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta sentenced the girls, media reports indicate. The South African Press Association said the girls admitted to “unspecified same-sex behavior,” resulting in the punishment. A girl who allegedly instigated the sex is “still at large,” said those who handed down the punishment.
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