MONTH IN A MINUTE

I don’t think it is a good example for kids to watch that on TV.

Justice – in just 33 years! Victorian men found guilty under “buggery” and “gross indecency” laws prior to the 1981 decriminalisation of homosexuality have their criminal records expunged. Other Australian states look to follow suit. The Boy Scouts Of America lift their ban on gay youths. The organisation still prohibits adult gay members or leaders, so not to worry – discrimination only begins at age 18. Ageing is a gay old time? The John Anderson Apartments, a gay senior housing centre, opens in downtown Philadelphia. Los Angeles and Minneapolis are the only other US cities with designated gay-friendly, affordable housing for gay seniors – a population estimated to double by 2030. A gay prisoner at a Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, prison has both eyes gouged out by a cellmate for allegedly masturbating. Jonathan Franco Hector Martinez is reportedly left in a pool of his own blood for over an hour while the prison doctor ate breakfast. In Nigeria, a man is given 20 strokes of a cane after being convicted of homosexual acts. In northern Nigeria, Islamic courts punish such acts with stoning to death, but Mubarak Ibrahim was given a lighter sentence because he quit being gay seven years ago. Phew! “We want the Russian people to develop and have a future history. Everything that stands in our way in this regard, we must clean up but do so in modern and humane ways, without offending anyone and without turning anyone into secondrate humans. It seems to me that the law we have adopted does not hurt anyone,” says Vladimir Putin. Pigs do fly in Mormon country! Federal judge Robert Shelby declares Utah’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional and “demeans the dignity of same-sex couples for no rational reason.” Over 1,000 gay couples in Utah marry before the Supreme Court grants a stay pending the state’s appeal. In a similar decision that also cites the US Constitution’s equal protection clause, federal judge Terence Kern strikes down Oklahoma’s voter approved same-sex marriage ban but puts weddings on hold pending that state’s appeal. Falcon Studios, a leader for condom advocacy in the industry, has announced it will feature “digitally removed condoms” in the upcoming film, California Dreamin’ 1. Ex-gay “reparative” therapy is banned by members of a leading body of Christian counselors in the UK. The Association Of Christian Counsellors (ACC) instructs its members to stop the practice in the interests of public safety.