homophobia

Gay community reeling after homophobic shooting

Ségolène Team Observers — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:36:54 +0200

Gathering in Haifa August 2. Published by "ayalanetzer".

Two people were killed and 13 injured on Saturday night when a masked man opened fire in a refuge for gay people in Tel Aviv. The attack has stunned the gay community there, leading to a mass movement both in the city and on the Net.

A 17-year-old girl and a 26-year-old counsellor were killed when the gunman opened fire. He then fled on foot and has yet to be identified by police. If he targeted the gay community specifically as is thought, the incident will be Israel's worst ever homophobic attack.

Hunting the homo – the game infuriating gay rights activists

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:40:31 +0200

A video game hosted by a Georgian website is causing outrage in the gay rights community. The idea of the online game - to shoot nudists, before they b**ger you, was created by a Frenchman. It's banned in France... but not in Georgia.

The game (available here), was initially picked up and slated by the Gay Caucasus blog, shortly followed by Gay Armenia. Global Voices quoted the latter as being "completely disgusted", finding it particularly shocking that the concept was adopted by "those religious-minded people in Tbilisi, Georgia, who swear in the name of Georgian patriarchy and constantly cite Bible to ‘justify' their homophobia and hatred. Is this their (un-)‘orthodox' way of bringing up children by creating an image of an enemy (= gays) and teaching how to deal with it (= kill them)?"

'Luca was gay', and then he realised his mistake

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:27:36 +0100

Italian singer Giuseppe Povia is causing outrage in Italy over "Luca era gay" (Luca was gay), a song about a gay man who goes straight. See the clip and read more...

Material for this post was compiled by our Observer in Milan, Alberto Celani.

Giuseppe Povia is launching the song at the famous Sanremo festival, something of an Italian Eurovision, which opens on Tuesday and is broadcast on state TV channel RAI. The somewhat ambiguous lyrics tell the tale of a young man, looking back on his past, who realises why he was gay: "I was too smothered by my mother", and decides to turn straight. It's not the first time the singer has caused offence over the subject. He was previously quoted in an interview saying "you're not born gay, you become gay through your social surroundings".

The president of a gay rights organisation, quoted by Ansa agency, said that the song is "an insult to all gay people fighting homophobia and ignorance in Italy". A good number of Italians are pushing for a similar message to be broadcast on public TV. The debate comes not long after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who's also been chided for homophobic notions, made sexist remarks about rape.

What about you, do you think the song's homophobic?

Gay witch-hunt in Ksar el Kébir

Julien — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:45:00 +0100

Rumours of a supposedly gay marriage, reported by the local press, lead to a modern-day witch-hunt in Ksar el Kébir, Morocco. At the heart of the scandal is a private party that took place at the end of last month. The organiser, according to the minister of interior, wanted to ‘act out a fantasy in which a woman asks him to dress like her and offer a present to saint Sayad Al Madloum'. It was the images below, shot at the party and posted on YouTube, that really stirred up the trouble. Thousands of Ksar el Kébir residents took to the streets to protest against the offence, clapping and chanting homophobic slogans. On 10 December, the party organiser was charged for ‘sexual perversion' and the ‘illegal sale of alcohol'. He was sentenced to ten months in jail.