ABC News, Posted: 1/26/2010, 12:19 PM
Moscow's openly homophobic mayor has once again pledged to prevent his city from holding gay pride parades, calling homosexuality a "social plague."  For several years, Moscow has experienced unprecedented pressure to conduct a gay pride parade, which cannot be called anything but a satanic act," Mayor Yury Luzhkov said Monday, according to the Interfax news agency. "We have prevented such a parade and we will not allow it in the future. Everyone needs to accept that as an axiom." Luzhkov compared "same-sex so-called love" to other "social plagues" like drug abuse and xenophobia, saying, "it is high time to crack down on them with all the power and justice of the law instead of talking about human rights. We need a social whip or something like that, not a liberal ginger cake," he added.

Wockner, Posted: 6/8/2009, 1:44 PM
The executive director of San Diego LGBT Pride, Ron deHarte, was attacked and beaten June 6 while waiving a large rainbow flag on Main Street in the San Diego working-class suburb of Lemon Grove. DeHarte was participating in the "Equality Torch Relay," a daylong effort that saw an "equality torch" travel through and from all 18 incorporated towns and cities in San Diego County. "I was waiting for the Equality Torch Relay to come by Main and Broadway and standing in front of the famous overly life-size lemon (statue), and with a rainbow flag big as day ... and someone decided to remove me from Lemon Grove," deHarte said. "He started wailing on me and tried to take the flag away and made it very clear he didn't think I should be there: 'Get out of here. What do you think you're doing? You need to get the fuck out of here. Get that out of here. There's no place for you here.' All the while, he was grabbing at the rainbow flag and trying to take it away from me. And he was kicking me and slapping." The incident ended when the attacker, who was later taken into custody, realized a TV cameraman had begun taping.

Posted: 2/18/2009, 8:58 AM
A jury found four San Diego firefighters who sued the city were sexually harassed after being ordered to participate in a gay pride parade. They also determined the group must split $34,300 in damages. Jurors deliberated for about two-and-a-half days before reaching the verdict Tuesday in the case brought by firefighters John Ghiotto, Jason Hewitt, Alex Kane and Chad Allison. The firemen said they were subjected to sexually charged conduct and lewd comments while riding a fire engine in the July 2007 parade. City attorneys said they will appeal the verdict. Jurors were required to determine if the firefighters faced pervasive or severe harassment from spectators and participants. Nancy Chiquete, the jury foreperson, said reaching the decision was “not easy,” particularly because she said she lives in the city and knows its financial situation is not good.

San Diego Union-Tribune, Posted: 2/9/2009, 7:20 PM
The sexual harassment case brought by four San Diego firefighters against the city should be in the jury's hands Wednesday, when a dozen men and women likely will struggle to answer a central question: Did the four firefighters, who were ordered to drive a city fire engine in the 2007 gay pride parade, encounter pervasive or severe harassment from parade spectators and participants? City attorneys suggested that the men are homophobic and painted them as money-hungry opportunists who were uncomfortable but not victims of sexual harassment. The defense also said most of the firefighters'problems stemmed from taking their case to the news media and filing the lawsuit.

Pink News (U.K.), Posted: 2/2/2009, 1:54 PM
Police in Moscow have been forced into action after a news magazine published an interview with a man who boasted about beating up a gay German MP in the city in May 2006. More than 120 people were arrested in Moscow after campaigners attempted to hold the capital's first gay rights rally. Volker Beck, a Green member of the German parliament and veteran gay rights activist, was attacked by 20 religious protesters and punched in the face while he was giving a television interview. Despite the number of arrests, no-one was charged with assualting Mr Beck, who had asked the Moscow authorities for a full investigation of the attack, as did the Gay Pride organisers. An investigation was denied and the case was closed.

Reuters-U.S., Posted: 9/26/2008, 6:56 PM
Bosnia's first gay festival will close early after hooded men, some shouting Islamic slogans, attacked visitors on its opening night, injuring eight people, organisers said on Thursday. About 70 men, some shouting "God is greatest" in Arabic, dragged festival-goers from their cars and beat others in the streets of the Bosnian capital on Wednesday. Sarajevo, known for centuries for the peaceful coexistence of its Muslims, Christians and Jews, became a majority Muslim city after the 1992-95 war. "We cannot guarantee the safety of visitors," said organiser Svetlana Djurkovic. "The festival is closing down." Djurkovic heads a group that promotes the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual groups. About 250 people attended the opening of the festival of art, film and workshops about sexual minorities, which was due to last four days. Police clashed with the attackers and said they would press charges against five men.

Agence France Presse (AFP), Posted: 9/23/2008, 11:37 PM
Bosnia's journalists' association have warned that local media supporting organisers of the country's first-ever gay festival were being threatened and called on police to investigate the cases. Three radio stations and an independent weekly magazine were receiving threat letters for offering "unbiased and ethical" reports about the four-day Sarajevo Queer festival which is to open on Wednesday, an association statement said. "Letters containing open and very serious threats are an attack on personal safety of the employees of these media outlets as well as safety of their family members and their property," it said. The association requested that police identify the persons behind letters sent to IFM Student Radio, BH Radio 1, Radio Sarajevo and the Dani magazine and publish their names.

San Diego Union-Tribune, Posted: 9/23/2008, 7:20 PM
One of the firefighters suing San Diego over their forced participation in last year's gay pride parade in Hillcrest testified Tuesday that he suffered emotional distress from the event. Alex Kane and three other firemen from Station 5 in Hillcrest were ordered to ride a fire engine for the three-hour parade because another fire team dropped out at the last minute. Since they filed suit, the city has made employee participation in all parades voluntary. During questioning by his lawyer, Charles LiMandri, Kane said he saw sexually suggestive acts and heard lewd remarks directed at the firefighters during the procession. Kane, who has worked as a firefighter for six years, testified that he became the butt of jokes at the fire station. He also said the parade experience adversely affected his family life. “I felt confused, embarrassed, used, abandoned by my leadership,” Kane said. “I had to fight through it.”

Ynet News (Israel), Posted: 8/25/2008, 11:33 AM
Jerusalem mayoral candidate, Israeli-Russian businessman Arcadi Gaydamak, is determined to cancel the annual gay pride parade in the capital. "When I'm elected mayor, I would die before allowing the pride parade to be held in Jerusalem," he said Monday during a conference held by the Bikur Holim hospital owned by him. Jerusalem is a city holy to the three main religions, he explained, and therefore it is unsuitable for a pride parade. "They want to be proud? They're allowed to. They want to demonstrate? Fine. But the streets of Jerusalem are a symbol, and parading on them would be an aggressive act against our tradition, against our values and against our morale. I would lie on the ground in order to block the march and would even die before I approve the pride parade in the city."

Telegraph.co.uk, Posted: 8/23/2008, 10:05 AM
About 3,000 former and current servicemen and women who served in wars ranging from World War Two to Afghanistan proudly marched through Doncaster town centre last August on the town's inaugural Veterans' Day. But this year the local Royal British Legion branch claims it has been shunned by the council, and told the event could not be staged because of a "lack of amenities." Yet Doncaster staged its first gay pride parade last Sunday, and a few weeks before hosted a civic parade in which dignitaries, community workers and the public took part.
Ken Wood, 46, a Coldstream Guards gunner who served in the Gulf War and is the district secretary of the Royal British Legion said: "I am not homophobic but the council supported both Doncaster Pride and the Mayor's civic parade."