Names and faces
During a speech on same-sex marriage Monday, Australian lawmaker Tim Wilson proposed to his gay partner during a Parliament debate on a bill that, if passed, would legalize marriage equality across the country. Wilson, a 37-year-old lawmaker in the conservative coalition government, was among the first lawmakers to join the House of Representatives debate in the capital, Canberra. Toward the end of his speech, he popped the question to his domestic partner of seven years, Ryan Bolger, who was watching from the public gallery. “In my first speech I defined our bond by the ring that sits on both of our left hands, and they are the answer to a question we cannot ask,” an emotional Wilson said, referring to the first time he addressed the Parliament last year. “There’s only one thing left to do: Ryan Patrick Bolger, will you marry me?” Wilson added to applause. The 33-year-old primary school teacher responded “yes,” which was recorded in the official parliamentary record. The country’s House of Representatives is holding its final twoweek session of the year, and it is giving priority to lifting the ban on same-sex marriage in Australia. The major parties want the legislation passed this week after a majority of Australians endorsed change in a postal ballot last month. In approving the bill last week, the Senate rejected all proposed amendments that would have increased legal protections for those who would discriminate against gay couples on religious grounds.
A Moscow court on Monday ruled that Kirill Serebrennikov, one of Russia’s best known theater and film directors who is being investigated for fraud, must remain under house arrest. Serebrennikov was detained in August in a criminal case that raised fears of a return to Soviet-style censorship. Serebrennikov’s plays have often been targeted by conservative circles, which dismiss his work as decadent and unpatriotic. The court ruled that Serebrennikov should stay under house arrest at least until late January, rejecting a plea for bail. Investigators have accused him of scheming to embezzle about $1.1 million in government funds allocated for one of his productions and the projects he directed between 2011 and 2014. Serebrennikov has dismissed the accusations as absurd. Serebrennikov’s lawyer, Dmitry Kharitonov, told Russian news agencies that his client had petitioned the investigators to allow him to attend the premiere of the ballet Nureyev at the Bolshoi that he had directed. But the chances that Serebrennikov will be allowed to go to the Bolshoi are “negligible,” Kharitonov said. Tickets for Nureyev, which premieres later this month, went on sale last month and were sold out in a matter of hours.