Switzerland is due to return a Cameroonian teenager to his home country, where he could face imprisonment and physical punishment.

Anatole Zali arrived in Switzerland from Cameroon on 3rd February 2008 and claimed asylum on the grounds that he had been threatened because he is gay.

In Cameroon, Zali, who is 18, claims to have received threats from the police, where he stayed with his cousin for protection.

His cousin was later arrested by the police on suspicion of being gay, and an arrest warrant on the same grounds was issued for Mr Zali.

In the wake of the warrant, he fled to Switzerland to escape arrest.

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Corrective rape, where a male pupil rapes a female lesbian pupil to "make her heterosexual", was a growing phenomenon in schools, the SA Human Rights Commission said in a report released today.

A gay and lesbian rights group told the commission during public hearings that homosexual pupils experienced "high levels of prejudice" at school resulting in "exclusion, marginalisation and victimisation"

"There is a growing phenomenon of corrective rape. This refers to an instance where a male learner rapes a lesbian female learner in the belief that after such a sexual attack the learner will no longer be lesbian," the report said.

It said heterosexism and homophobia fuelled discrimination against gay and lesbian pupils in South African schools.

"Within the school environment there is a clear need to place the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] issues within a human rights framework and to engage religious values."

OUT, a gay and lesbian rights NGO, was involved in training programmes and policy development to curb violence against homosexual pupils.

The organisation told the commission there were high drop-out rates among LGBT pupils and discrimination against them often led to suicide and substance abuse.

During public hearings the commission was informed that xenophobia also contributed toward violent incidents in South African schools.

"... [in] particularly those schools that attract non-national learners. In these schools, discrimination on the grounds of ethnic, racial or social origin may well be a contributing factor to the violence."

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By Rajeev Syal

A gay Iranian teenager faces deportation from Britain and execution in his home country after a Dutch court refused to hear his asylum claim.

Mehdi Kazemi, who faces being returned to Iran

Mehdi Kazemi, 19, will be forced to return to Britain, where his asylum application was rejected last year. He is then expected to be “removed” to Iran where his boyfriend was hanged two years ago for sodomy.

The ruling will put the Home Office under renewed pressure to reassess his case — or face the possibility of sending a young man to his death. The department’s own guidance concedes that Iran executes homosexuals but rejects the claim that there is a systematic repression of gay men and lesbians.

The Times uncovered Foreign and Commonwealth Office papers in November that showed that the British Government regularly challenges Iran about its gay hangings

One gay Labour peer said yesterday that he could not understand the Home Office’s refusal to recognise that homosexuals are routinely persecuted in Iran. Lord Alli told the House of Lords: “Homosexuality is illegal in Iran and is punishable by death. This young man’s partner was hanged at an early age for simply being gay.

“The Home Office’s position is that gay people can return to Iran safely providing they are ‘discreet’. Heaven knows what that means,” he said.

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Former lover who was foreced to name him, already hanged

By Tony Grew

A gay teenager from Iran who fled the UK for the Netherlands last year after his appeal for asylum was refused is expected to be returned to the UK today by Dutch authorities.

London Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford has written to the Home Secretary to request her to urgently review the case of 19-year-old Medhi Kazemi, who faces possible execution by stoning if he returns to Iran.

Baroness Ludford, who is the Liberal Democrat European justice spokesperson and a member of the European Parliament's Gay and Lesbian Rights Intergroup, said:

"Jacqui Smith must recognise and act on the real threat of persecution and even execution which Mr Kazemi would face if he was to be deported to Iran.

"As with Ms Pegah Emambakhsh, an Iranian lesbian who was granted a reassessment of her own asylum case after I and other parliamentarians intervened, we need the Home Office to accept the facts and genuinely consider the risks of deportation.

"We cannot on the one hand claim that we live in a modern and liberal society if on the other hand we are willing to send asylum seekers back to face stoning purely because of their sexuality."

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By James Angelos

IT was a slow weeknight at the Comfort Zone, a meeting place for men that is in a drab office building amid the Broadway musicals on West 49th Street. Although snow and sleet fell in the streets, several men endured the frigid weather to make their way to the club’s spacious second-floor suite, eager to indulge the yearnings that had driven them out into the stormy night.

The customers paid a $10 entrance fee before stripping to their underwear and placing their clothing and belongings in cardboard boxes near the front desk for safekeeping. After being handed a washcloth and a condom, each man then entered a maze of corridors and bedrooms where silent shadows moved slowly among dim red lights.

“They don’t want to do parks and they don’t want to do public bathrooms and get caught like that senator from Idaho,” E. J. Parker, assistant manager of the Comfort Zone, said of the clientele. He refers to activities at the club, which take place around the clock every day except Sunday, as “underwear parties” for “men on the down-low.”

Citing a 33 percent rise in H.I.V. diagnoses from 2001 to 2006 among New York men under 30 who have sex with men, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene began a review last fall of its policy on establishments like gay bathhouses and sex clubs. The review also includes activities like “sex parties” that charge an admission fee and have regular locations and hours of operation.

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Mehdi, in detention in Rotterdam, is put on suicide watch

LONDON, February 18, 2008 – Mehdi, the 19-years-old gay Iranian who fled the United Kingdom last year when the Home Office ordered his deportation to Iran, is expected to go on hunger strike in the Rotterdam detention centre where he is being held, his supporters in the UK said this afternoon.

They Hang Gay Teenagers, Don’t They?  A gay Iranian teenager whose asylum claim was denied in the UK fled to the Netherlands, and then to Germany. The Germans returned him to the Dutch, who are now threatening to return him to the Brits, who have already decided to return the gay teenager to Iran.  And you know what they do to gay teenagers in Iran, right? (Seattle Stranger - USA, December 20)

Following the loss of an appeal in a Netherlands court not to be returned to the UK, Mehdi was arrested on Tuesday of last week.

His uncle, who has lived and worked in the UK for more than 30 years, has been in regular telephone contact with him. But now the only telephone calls Mehdi permitted is with his legal representative in Amsterdam.

“He told me he was to be deported on Tuesday February 26 on a flight from Amsterdam to London Heathrow,” the uncle said.

“Mehdi told me he is going on hunger strike – he is very depressed and is on suicide watch.

“I am very worried,” he admitted.

Mehdi was in England for two years completing his education on a student visa. While in this country he learned that his former boyfriend had been executed for being gay. Before execution, he revealed Mehdi’s identity, it is thought under torture.

It was after he learned of the execution he decided to apply to the UK authorities for asylum, saying that his life would be in danger if he returned to Iran.

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The owner of the Bronx has offered to apologise to the Belgian tourist who claims he was denied entry to the gay club because he was black.

Bruno Bronn said he and his club were "far from racist" and has invited Aridi Amipi, 31, to join him for a drink to show him "the inside of the club rather than the outside".

Bronn, who was not at Bronx when the incident happened last week, said his doorman and manager, both of whom are black, took the decision to bar Amipi because he had arrived with an "attitude" and had given staff a hard time.

"If he feels wrongly treated I will apologise, but I know in my heart that it was a misunderstanding that was blown out of proportion."

Amipi was earlier quoted as saying his white friend from England was admitted but he wasn't, and that he was considering suing the bar.

Bronn denied his club had a race policy, saying he had a number of black and coloured regulars.

He said he was putting together an affidavit after the Commission for Gender Equality indicated it would be referring Amipi's application to the Equality Court for submission

In a joint statement the commission, the Triangle Project and Good Hope Metropolitan Community Churches, expressed "dismay and outrage" at what they said was yet another alleged racial incident at a gay establishment in Cape Town.

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By Andrew Heavens
Editing by Andrew Dobbie and Sara Ledwith

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - When Ali started blogging that he was Sudanese and gay, he did not realize he was joining a band of African and Middle Eastern gays and lesbians who, in the face of hostility and repression, have come out online.

But within days the messages started coming in to black-gay-arab.blogspot.com.

"Keep up the good work," wrote Dubai-based Weblogger 'Gay by nature'. "Be proud and blog the way you like," wrote Kuwait's gayboyweekly. Close behind came comments, posts and links purporting to be from almost half the countries in the Arab League, including Egypt, Algeria, Bahrain and Morocco.

Ali, who lists his home town as Khartoum but lives in Qatar, had plugged into a small, self-supporting network of people who have launched Web sites about their sexuality, while keeping their full identity secret. Caution is crucial - homosexual acts are illegal in most countries in Africa and the Middle East, with penalties ranging from long-term imprisonment to execution.

"The whole idea started as a diary. I wanted to write what's on my mind and mainly about homosexuality," he told Reuters in an e-mail. "To tell you the truth, I didn't expect this much response."

In the current climate, bloggers say they are achieving a lot just by stating their nationality and sexual orientation.

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By Caryn Dolley

The owner of the Bronx gay club says a black tourist was refused admission over the weekend not because of his skin colour, but because he had "caused trouble" there before.

But Aridi Amipi, from Belgium, confirmed he had visited Bronx before, but said he had not caused trouble. This was "a lie" and he intended suing the bar.

Amipi has said he was turned away from the bar at the weekend without being given a reason, while his white friend from England was allowed in.

On Thursday, Bronx owner Bruno Bronn said he had initially thought Amipi had been turned away as he had been mistaken for someone else.

It had emerged from talking to the doorman and security guard who had been on duty, however, that the pair had been there before and had "caused a scene". They had also sworn at the doorman, he said.

"So, this time around ... neither was allowed in."

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Atlanta, January 3, 2008- The Board of In The Life Atlanta, Inc. has voted to take legal action against its former treasurer, Michael Slaughter, for his embezzlement of organization funds.

The action comes after an investigation into ITLA's bank statements and records found that Slaughter abused his privileges as treasurer. Upon Slaughter's own admittance to financial impropriety and the discovery of missing funds from ITLA's treasury, the board assigned an independent external auditor to review and strengthen its internal controls to ensure that funds entrusted with the group are properly used.

The board voted to press charges against Michael Slaughter to send a clear message that In the Life Atlanta, Inc. will not tolerate such behavior from its board members or volunteers. It should be noted that Slaughter is in the process of making restitution payments to the organization.

ITLA board members are currently working with vendors to pay off invoices generated during its successful 2007 Black Pride celebration while continuing to implement a strategic restructuring plan that will increase efficiency and produce viable programming options that meet its mission to promote pride, unity and self-empowerment among the city's Black LGBT community.

This has been a trying time for ITLA, and we thank all of our community supporters for their patience and understanding. The current Board and Planning Committee is looking forward to moving past this challenge to plan events for Black Pride 2008. We look forward to working with other community leaders, organizations, volunteers, and sponsors in this new year.

By Caryn Dolley

A Belgian tourist barred from a gay bar in Green Point, allegedly because of his skin colour, says he is thinking of suing, but the bar's owner says it may have been a case of mistaken identity.

The owner of popular gay bar Bronx, Bruno Bronn, says the tourist was "definitely not turned away because of his race" and it was "becoming fashionable to slate" the bar.

He said it was not the first time Bronx had faced racism allegations.

On Monday Aridi Amipi, 31, said he still felt "very bad" about being denied entry.

"On Saturday we went to Bronx. My white friend from England was admitted, but I wasn't. The doorman wouldn't tell me why. I showed my ID, but still I wasn't let in.

"A security guard said if I felt discriminated against, then I must sue the club. He was first to mention discrimination."

The next day, Amipi went to the Cape Town Central police station and officers took statements about the incident.

"I've never been made to feel so out of place. I may actually sue the bar. I'll first wait and see what explanation, if any, I get from the owners, though," he said.

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By Hamadou Tidiane Sy

Dakar - Police in Senegal have arrested at least seven people allegedly involved in the celebration of a gay marriage in a restaurant in the outskirts of Dakar, raising again debate about morality and individual freedom in a country caught between conservatism and the desire to project a tolerant image.

The identities of the people, who are under police custody but not charged yet, were not revealed except for one Pape Mbaye who is unknown to the public but whose name has been given by one newspaper with no further details about his profile.

The arrest took place on Sunday following the publication by a glossy magazine of pictures allegedly taken during the celebration of the alleged same sex marriage.

The local press and other web sites indicate that at least five of the people arrested appear in the pictures published in the latest issue by of glossy monthly magazine, Icone specialising in Dakar’s trends, night life and jet-setters.

Mr Mansour Dieng, the Publication Director of Icone told the local media: “When we published the story (of the gay marriage) in a previous issue, we were treated as liars and accused of fabricating the story, we have decided to publish the photos to give the public an evidence of what we reported”.

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HIV-positive Egyptian men are tortured and chained to hospital beds while awaiting unfair homosexuality trials, a human rights group has claimed.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) decried the "ignorance and injustice" of a case in which a group of arrested men were given HIV tests without their consent.

They were also subjected to anal tests to "prove" their homosexual conduct.

Two of the men tested HIV-positive and are now handcuffed to hospital beds for 23 hours a day, HRW said.

"These men have been subjected to anal examination without their consent which amounts to torture," Gasser Abdel-Razek, HRW's acting director of regional relations in the Middle East, told the BBC on Wednesday.

"Egypt should release the men unconditionally and put a system in place that does not deal with HIV-positive individuals as criminals but as patients who require medical care and attention."

Egypt's Interior Ministry had no immediate comment on the case.

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What staff at Pizza Hut allegedly told a group of gay men who turned up in mini-skirts and high heels

By Liz Hull

Even by the standards of Blackpool on a Saturday night, they must have been a sight to behold - nine gay men and transsexuals, several wearing women's clothing.

The men were, it seems safe to say, a broad-minded bunch. They are, however, unlikely to say the same of staff at Pizza Hut.

When the group asked for a table, they claim they found themselves rapidly back out on the street.

Michael Kemp, 48, who was wearing a miniskirt and other female attire, said: "When we arrived at the Pizza Hut, we noticed people were staring at us and laughing.

"A male member of staff approached us with a big smirk on his face and, when we asked for a table, he told us that the restaurant had run out of pizzas and told us to try somewhere else.

"We couldn't believe it. Who's ever heard of a Pizza Hut running out of pizzas? It was clear they were embarrassed by us, especially because some of us were wearing women's clothing, and didn't want us in the restaurant."

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Stirring emails are causing a lot of controversy in the Mt Calvary Holy Church. The notes expose more than 100 members of Mount Calvary Holy Church as gay/lesbian.

The woman who wrote them addressed them to the pastor, but forwarded them to over 300 other parishioners.

Supposedly there were as much as 6 pages that went through very specific detailed activities and allegations

This parishioner's main focus was to bring people out of the closet. In her e-mail she exposed married men, deacons, ushers, young adults and even teenagers.

In one of the e-mails it said, "they are ushering in a presence of sin, lies and a spirit of homosexuality."

Having stated that in the e-mail she said that the people listed in the e-mail should be monitored and under surveillance as long as they are members of the church.

All of the worshippers listed are members of the various Mount Calvary choirs and while nobody has publicly come forward, other members of the church are.

How do you think that GBMNews.com received this e-mail?

I, Justin B. Smith, received a phone call that was blocked this afternoon stating to check my e-mail. I asked, "Who is this?" There was no answer, except a dial tone. I checked my e-mail and there it was plan as day. I couldn't believe the hate filled correspondence that I was reading. The e-mail that I tried to reply back to was already undeliverable and had been deleted off its host.

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Ceremonies fall by 55 per cent after a boom year

By Denis Campbell

The number of gay weddings has plummeted by more than 50 per cent in the past year. Civil partnerships became legal for homosexuals in December 2005, allowing them to acquire the same sorts of tax and pension rights as straight married couples. Initially, thousands of gay and lesbian couples held ceremonies. However, a survey by the Local Government Association found that all the 40 councils across England they surveyed had experienced a fall in the number taking place - the figures show an average drop of 55 per cent in 2007 from 2006.

The largest fall was 90 per cent in Bracknell, Berkshire, and the smallest was 31 per cent in Barnet, north London. Brighton recently celebrated becoming the first place to host 1,000 civil partnerships. But while 636 gay couples tied the knot in Brighton and Hove in 2006, only 320 did so in 2007. 'The introduction of civil partnership legislation prompted an initial rush for couples who wanted to register as soon as possible,' said a council spokeswoman. 'Civil partnerships have become an accepted part of our society and we're very happy to have played a part helping couples to achieve this.' Singer Elton John, broadcaster Clare Balding and government ministers Ben Bradshaw and Angela Eagle are among those who have exercised their rights under the Civil Partnership Act.

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Police in Senegal have arrested several men following the publication of pictures claiming to depict a wedding ceremony between two men. The pictures were published in Icone magazine, whose editor, Mansour Dieng, has since received death threats.

Mr Dieng has also been questioned by police over the issue.

Homosexuality is illegal in Senegal but it is not clear whether the arrests were in connection with the ceremony or the death threats.

The BBC's Tidiane Sy in Senegal said that at least five of the men arrested appeared in the photographs.

According to pro-government newspaper Le Soleil, the arrested men were all seized in "a meeting house which could act as a brothel".

Police have not commented on the case but an official at the Department of Criminal Investigations told AFP news agency that an investigation was under way.

The ceremony is believed to have involved a Senegalese man and another from Ghana or the Ivory Coast, who has not yet been found.

Mr Dieng told Africa Global News that he published the pictures to dismiss accusations that an earlier article on homosexuality in Senegal was untrue.

Senegal is a predominantly Muslim country and gay men and women remain socially marginalised.

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(New York, Monday February 4, 2008)- In a letter to Senegalese Minister of Justice, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and PAN-Africa ILGA have demanded the immediate and unconditional release of up to 20 gay men believed to have been arrested on suspicion of homosexuality in Senegal in the past week.

At least 7 and perhaps as many as 20 gay men have been arrested in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, since the morning of Sunday 3 February after a popular local magazine, Icones, published photographs of a marriage ceremony between two Senegalese men. The wedding is believed to have taken place in a discrete location in Dakar more than a year-and-a-half ago. Sources report that the photographs were sold to the sensationalist magazine by the photographer for 1,500,000 ($3000) CFA francs. The arrests were reportedly undertaken upon the orders of Mr. Asane Ndoye, head of the Senegalese Police's Division of Criminal Investigation. It is unclear where the men and women are being held.

"Mass arrests of people simply because they are gay terrorize the entire community," said Paula Ettelbrick, IGLHRC's executive director. "The inhuman treatment of gay men and lesbians must stop. We call upon the world community to enforce international human rights law." The U.N. Human Rights Committee affirmed in its decision in Toonen v. Australia (1994) that existing protection against discrimination in Articles 2 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) incorporates sexual orientation as a protected status.

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Waddie Grant

I had found Waddie Grant AKA Professor GQ to be such an interesting person that I had to snag an interview. You will probably ask. Who is this person? Well let me shed a little light on this interesting individual. I’ve met Waddie several years ago through a group that was run by a mutual acquaintance. 

We keep in contact off and on then we meet up again through MySpace. But who is he? You might ask. He is a cultural critic, an event planner and entrepreneurial and the list goes on and on. So, I asked him for an interview so the general LGBT community can get a more in depth view of him and he graciously accepted.

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Bishop Alfred Owens Jr.

According to the Washington Blade, the Mt Calvary Holy Church was stunned by one of its own choir members. The choir member (unnamed female) sent e-mail messages to the churches pastor, Alfred Owens Jr, in December 2007 and January 2008. The e-mail was a malicious correspondence intended to out more than 100 members (mostly choir members) of the churches congregation.

There were already a large number of gay people from Washington DC and surrounding areas that go to the church to praise God. This intolerable act just added to the turmoil that gay members of the church already endure. The church has about 7000 members that attend church services regularly.

The unnamed female sent a copy of her e-mails to a Yahoo group that has more than 300 church members.

"I will be leaving the choir at the top of the year because 80 percent of the tenors are homosexuals and act more like a female in choir rehearsal than I do,” the church choir member said in one of her e-mails to Bishop Alfred Owens Jr., the church pastor.

The e-mail, sent in December, identifies about 45 fellow church members as gay. She sent a second e-mail to Owens on Jan. 2 identifying another 62 church members as gay.

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