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The Associated Press reports that the Italian government was ordered to pay euro100,000 to a gay man who received a driver’s license for the disabled after he declared his sexual orientation on an official form, the man and a gay-rights group said Monday.

Danilo Giuffrida, 27, said he told officials about his homosexuality when he took a physical after being called up in 2000 for Italy’s mandatory year of military service, which has since been abolished. Giuffrida told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his hometown, Catania, that he had hoped to avoid service and keep working to help support his family. Giuffrida was disqualified for psychological reasons.

“It’s the old assumption that if one is homosexual then he is also psychologically disturbed,” said Aurelio Mancuso, president the main Italian gay rights group, Arcigay. 

Giuffrida’s lawyer, Giuseppe Lipera, said a military official sent his client’s paperwork to motor-vehicle officials in Catania, who changed his standard driver’s license to one for the disabled. Giuffrida said the disabled license must be renewed every year instead of every 10 years, as is the case for standard licenses.

“Some overzealous officer took upon himself the task of sending the paperwork” to the motor vehicle office, Lipera said. “Evidently, they thought that his sexual preferences were a mental disorder.”

A judge in Catania, Sicily, ordered the transport and defense ministries to pay damages to Giuffrida in a ruling handed down last week. The ministries issued no immediate comment Monday and the court that issued the ruling was closed.

Arcigay praised the court ruling and said it hoped the case would raise awareness about discrimination. ”In Italy, we still need to understand that differences among people make a country richer, not poorer,” Giuffrida said. He did not say if his standard license had been restored.

He said that he will use some of the money to buy a car.

Alan Harper

Church of Ireland primate Alan Harper has controversially acknowledged that a time may come when homosexual unions are officially sanctioned within his denomination, according to the Belfast Telegraph. The Archbishop of Armagh also called for Anglicans over the world to return to the core principles of the faith in order to resolve the ongoing controversy over gay marriages.

Addressing the Anglicans in World Mission conference in Swanwick, England, Archbishop Harper said if evidence came to light that homosexuality is biologically predetermined then the church would have to reflect that fact.

“It has not yet been conclusively shown that for some males and some females homosexuality and homosexual acts are natural rather than unnatural,” the Archbishop told the conference.

“If such comes to be shown, it will be necessary to acknowledge the full implications of that new aspect of the truth, and that insight applied to establish and acknowledge what may be a new status for homosexual relationships within the life of the Church.”

The Church of Ireland leader’s remarks come in the wake of the recent controversial comments by the Assembly’s health committee chair and born again Christian Iris Robinson who claimed that gay sex was a sin and an abomination.

In recent years the Anglican church has been riven with division on the issue of gay marriage and the ordination of women priests.

One in five lesbian and gay people have been victims of homophobic aggression over the past three years, a survey of hate crime revealed today. Experiences ranged from beatings and sexual assault to persistent harassment and insults, often from neighbours and colleagues, according to The Guardian.

The gay rights charity Stonewall said the lives of Britain’s 3.6 million lesbian and gay people were overshadowed by the fear of homophobic crime. It commissioned YouGov to carry out the first comprehensive national survey into the problem, questioning more than 1,700 lesbian, gay and bisexual people. The poll found a homophobic crime or incident had been experienced by 12.5% over the past year and 20% over the past three years.

One in six of the victims had been physically assaulted and one in eight had been subjected to unwanted sexual contact. Almost nine in 10 had experienced homophobic insults and harassment.

Three-quarters of the victims had not reported the incident to the police, often because they did not think the complaint would be investigated. Only 1% of hate crimes that were reported to the police resulted in a conviction. Two-thirds of victims who reported incidents to the police were not offered advice or referred to support services.

Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, congratulated the charity for undertaking “this timely research”.

She said: “We are determined that lesbian and gay people should have the confidence to report crimes to the police knowing they will be taken seriously, the crime investigated and their privacy respected.”

She said the findings of the poll would be considered by the ministerial action group on violence, which is investigating further action on hate crimes.

The charity was prompted to commission the poll by the murder of Jody Dobrowski, a 24-year-old assistant bar manager who was beaten to death in a homophobic assault on Clapham Common, south London, in 2005.

Almost half the lesbian and gay people in the survey thought they were at greater risk of being physically assaulted than a heterosexual. One third said they altered their behaviour so as not to appear lesbian or gay in an attempt to avoid becoming a victim of crime.

One in 10 said being a victim of crime was their biggest worry, more than being ill or having financial debts.

The survey showed lesbian and gay people were more likely to report crimes in areas where the police were gay-friendly employers. Hampshire, South Wales and Lothian were praised for taking homophobic hate crimes seriously.

Stonewall said all police officers should be trained to recognise homophobic hate crimes. Other recommendations included stronger action against homophobic bullying in schools and a zero-tolerance policy against bullying in the workplace.

It’s over … Matt Lucas, one half of the Little Britain comedy duo has filed for the world’s first gay celebrity divorce!

The couple was “married” in a civil partnership ceremony 18 months ago with a lavish, pantomime-themed reception with Lucas dressed as Aladdin and McGee as Prince Charming. His partner, TV producer Kevin McGee, 31, can now expect a big chunk of the comedian’s $31 million fortune. In the past few years, Lucas’ career has taken off while Kevin has stayed in the same place. It is not known if Lucas and McGee signed a pre-nup.

“Their separation is amicable. They ask the press to respect their privacy at this time and to exercise restraint in any reporting of this matter.”

(Matt) hopes Kevin will take a swift out-of-court settlement. He hopes the details of the break-up remain private.

Lucas has already employed Heather Mills’s divorce lawyer Mishcon de Reya. Source said McGee can expect a house, financial maintenance and a substantial sum of cash, having lived with Lucas for four years before they wed and supported Lucas before his career took off.

A friend of Lucas said: “Matt is really concerned it does not do much for the image of gay civil partnerships. “But he thinks you can’t live in a loveless marriage and if it’s over, then it’s over.”

“They have grown apart and fallen out of love. It happens in gay relationships just the same as in straight ones.”

source: BCC news

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Britain’s military says soldiers and airmen will be allowed to wear their uniforms to this year’s Gay Pride march in London, according to the Canadian Press. The military said Saturday it would permit British Army and Royal Air Force personnel to show off their military affiliation in the July 5 parade.

The decision brings the forces in line with the Royal Navy, which already allows sailors to participate in uniform. Britain began allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the military in 2000. While military personnel have been able to participate in the pride march since then, soldiers and airmen have had to do so in civilian clothes.

Gay rights groups welcomed the decision. The military said it still expected its personnel to display “behaviour of the highest order” while in uniform.

Same sex partners will now be able marry as the Norwegian parliament passed a new marriage law on Wednesday. The new law was passed by two-thirds of Parliament.

“I am extremely pleased that we managed to get this last stage passed. Now we have to tackle the prejudice which still exists in society,” Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen, also leads the Socialist Left Party, told news bureau NTB.

Norway is the sixth country to adopt same sex marriage laws. Holland was first in 2001. Norway has had a Registered Partner law since 1993. The most controversial aspect of the new law is offering state funded fertility treatment to lesbian couples. Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Great Britain already provides this service. Up to now, Norwegian lesbian couples have gone to Denmark for this procedure.

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Mike Du Pree

Pink News reports that model Mike Du Pree was the victim of a public gay bashing in Amsterdam. While taking part in a fashion show to promote tolerance towards gay people, Du Pree was attacked by a gang of ten youths that dragged him from the catwalk and beat him. Mr Du Pree’s nose was broken in the attack, which was motivated by homophobia.

The fashion event was held on a public holiday marking the birth of Holland’s late Queen Julianna. Newspaper Gay Krant reports that a bystander intervened as the model was being beaten and a fight erupted. Fashion show organiser Jennifer Delano told the paper that the atmosphere at the event was tense, and that the violence shows Amsterdam is no longer a tolerant city.

“Mike got dragged down by his arm,” she said. ”They pinched him, he defended himself and then the guys of immigrant background started to hit him.”

Police arrived on the scene but it is unclear whether the ten homophobic Muslim youths were arrested or charged.

MPs have raised the incident in Parliament. A right wing Dutch MP has called for the youths to be deported.  ”This shows how strong the Islamic gay bashers feel they are,” said Party of Freedom MP Martin Bosma.

“Even at daylight, on Queen’s Day, in the heart of Amsterdam, they strike. Only the hardest measures could turn this sick trend. The Dutch nationality of the gay bashers of Rembrandt Square should immediately be taken from them and they should be expelled from the country today. The Netherlands can show no mercy for these people who damage our society in this way. Either they will win, or we will win.”

A substantial increase in homophobic attacks in the capital has been reported over the last few years. More than half of Dutch gays feel less safe than they did a year ago, a survey carried out in August by current affairs programme EenVandaag revealed. Sixty-four per cent of anti-gay incidents were verbal but 12 per cent resulted in physical abuse.

Island of Tilos

The Greek Minister of Justice Tuesday quickly condemned as legally “non-existent” the first same-sex marriages performed in the country by the mayor of a small Greek island, according to The Jurist. Sotiris Hatzigakis said in a statement that Tilos Mayor Anastassios Alferis had overstepped his authority.

The ceremonies united two gay and lesbian couples despite preliminary warnings from top Greek prosecutor Giorgos Sanidas that such marriages are not permissible under Article 21 of the Greek constitution and that charges would be brought if the mayor allowed the wedding. Alferis has refused to nullify the marriages, which Greek gay rights activists insist are valid because of language in the 1982 Greek civil marriage law simply saying that marriages must be between two “persons” without specifying that one party must be a man and the other a woman. Greek gay rights organization OLKE has vowed to defend the marriages.

Earlier this year the Ministry of Justice established a group to investigate recognizing same-sex marriages after the Greek National Commission for Human Rights proposed legislation to allow same-sex marriage, but no further action has been taken in Greece on the national level. The influential Greek Orthodox Church is strongly opposed to same-sex marriage.

The first ever Greek gay weddings happened on Tuesday, June 3, in the tiny Dodecanese island of Tilos, despite strong opposition by a supreme court prosecutor that such civil ceremonies are illegal, according to Deutsche Welle.

Tilos Mayor Tasos Aliferis performed two early morning civil ceremonies, between two men and two women, before hundreds of witnesses, including members of the country’s gay and lesbian community, journalists and Tilos residents. About two dozen individuals were part of the actual ceremony.

 One of the women involved, Evangelia Vlami, was bubbling with excitement as she told the BBC she was “so happy. From this day, discrimination against gays in Greece is on the decline. We did this to encourage other gay people to take a stand.” 

Last week, Supreme Court Prosecutor Giorgos Sanides sought to stop the marriage from taking place and issued a directive stating that marriage between same-sex couples will be “automatically annulled and considered illegal.”

A lesbian organization in Greece said it had discovered a loophole in a 26-year-old civil marriage law that would allow gays to marry legally. The group, OLKE, said a 1982 law legalizing weddings and civil ceremonies refers only to participating “persons,” without specifying gender. Theofanou Papzisi, a law professor at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, said that the “civil marriage law does not specify gender, thus no one can be breaking the law if such marriage ceremonies are performed.”

Protesters waving flags in Moscow

Russian gay rights activists held a small, scattered protest in Moscow on Sunday, defying repeated refusals by the city authorities to permit parades or demonstrations, according to the International Herald Tribune.

Activists repeatedly have tried to hold parades and rallies in the Russian capital in support of gay rights. Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who has called homosexuality “satanic,” has rejected all requests for permits. On Sunday, about 20 protesters gathered outside the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, chanting “No to Homophobia” and other slogans. Many held rainbow flags.

“We have gathered in a very symbolic place to pay tribute to a person who was gay himself and at the same time had to conceal it because of repressive laws and disapproval in society,” said Nikolai Alekseyev, a protest organizer. Many of Tchaikovsky’s biographers have believed that he was a homosexual.

Meanwhile, just a few blocks away, hundreds of riot police officers, journalists and onlookers thronged a square in front of City Hall in anticipation of a larger, planned protest that never materialized. Several people brandished icons and crosses and at least one gay rights supporter was assaulted while uniformed police officers stood by. Activists unfurled a banner from a building by the square reading “Rights for Gays and Lesbians!” and “Take Mayor Luzhkov’s Homophobia to Court” before the police pulled it down.

An Associated Press photographer saw several people detained by the police. The photographer, Ekho Moskvy, said as many as 15 people had been detained and the Interfax news agency said all were nationalists. A city police duty officer, however, said that 13 people had been detained in all but that they had been held for jaywalking, not in connection with the protest. He refused to give his name because he said he was not authorized to speak to the media.

For two years, gay activists have sought permission to mark publicly the date in 1993 when homosexuality was decriminalized, but officials repeatedly have refused.

Watch part of the protest here: