Gay News

An Alabama appeals court has struck down a law banning consensual oral and anal sex between unmarried persons. All over the state, people celebrated by continuing to mind their own goddamn sex-business in the privacy of their own homes.

The now-vanquished statute mandated that a person is guilty of sexual misconduct if they engage in [a]ny act of sexual gratification between persons not married to each other involving the sex organs of one person and the mouth or anus of another . Under the statute, consent is no defense against prosecution -- if it involves a genital + mouth or anus combination, it's illegal no matter what.

Since gay couples can't wed in Alabama, then all gay sex would automatically fall under the ridiculous umbrella of sexual misconduct. And that was the point, of course: official commentary on the statute shows that it was specifically enacted to make all homosexual conduct criminal.

The appeals court pronounced the law unconstitutional because it contradicts the Supreme Court's 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision , which ruled that criminalizing private sexual activity between consenting adults violates the 14th Amendment.

Meanwhile, anti-sodomy laws remain on the books in eleven other states.

A children's puppet show has been banned from Russia's prime book festival over claims it promotes homosexuality, a news report said.

Colta.ru culture news website published an open letter from the Culture Ministry, demanding the organizers of the festival to pull The Soul of a Pillow by Olzhas Zhanaidarov from their program.

The play tells the story of a friendship between a pillow, and a boy in a kindergarten.

The ministry also condemned the adult play Herbivores by Maxim Kurochkin, citing its use of expletives. First Deputy Minister Vladimir Aristarkhov spouted: The content of both plays goes against the traditional moral values of Russian culture.

The ministry has no formal authority to ban the works, but said it would pull its name from the festival if the plays remain listed.

Both plays will be rebooked to run at an independent venue, said Colta.ru, organizer of the showings.

A postcard produced by Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, which featured a naked man sitting on the back of a woman, has been criticised as being exploitative, degrading and highly sexualised by Australia's Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB).

The postcard, which was available from cafes and restaurants around the time of Mardi Gras this year, was the work of photographer Elvis di Fazio and featured burlesque performer Lillian Starr.

The image featured a man raising his hand to strike the woman, dressed in fishnet stockings and heels, similar to the action of a jockey whipping a horse.

A complaint to the ASB claimed the advert sent:

a message that Australian society tolerates -- indeed promotes -- sexual domination of women and that the ideal female is one who is willing to go down on all fours to enable a man to ride her.

The ASB said the advert broke several sections of the Advertiser Code of Ethics including using exploitative sexual imagery. The advert censor explained that the advert had:

No clear connection to the Mardi Gras and that the depiction of someone on all fours in this manner is an image consistently considered by the community as a sexualised image suggestive of one person dominating another.

Responding to the ASB, Mardi Gras defended the postcard saying it was part of a broader series of three depicting a highly stylised party scene, and Starr was a key contributor in devising the image.

Councillors from the town of Pecq, in the suburbs of Paris, have censored a bus stop advert featuring 2 female models building up to a kiss.

The advert, which is for the high-end French jeweler Chaumet, is based on the famous Greek myth of Narcissus and features actress Marine Vacth who is depicted on the verge of a kiss with...herself.

The council claims that it was responding to pressure from locals, the town council then ordered the posters to be taken down from local bus stops. Quoted by French daily Le Parisien, Mayor Laurence Bernard claimed she had received many calls from parents about the advertising campaign:

They told us that it bothered them that their children were subjected to this image, that it shocked and annoyed them to respond to their children's comments on the subject.

Local gay activists are not impressed by the prudery. The co-president of the LGBT centre in Ile-de-France was quoted by TF1 television as saying:

Taking down these posters is a serious offence against homosexual people,  We are not going to eradicate our existence, our daily lives, under the pretext that it would frighten some parents.

Gay rights group SOS Homophobia described the council's actions as:

An unacceptable practice of censorship which shows and reinforces the organization into hierarchy of couples based on their sexual orientation. The concealment of the posters highlights a homophobia that dares not speak its name.

Mayor Bernard backpedalled in response to the criticism, and pinned the censorship on an attempt to patronise local prudes:

I am appalled and sorry for the controversy that this raises. I wanted to make things more calm. I thought that by removing them, I made a step towards these residents and that I could get them to accept the evolution of society without rushing them.

I think that those who asked for it to be taken down didn't even realize that it was an interpretation of the myth of Narcissus, Bernard said.

Moscow's security department denied an application for the Conchita Wurst March of Bearded Women and Men, which was due to have taken place to mark the 21st anniversary of homosexuality's legalisation in Russia.

Wurst, the drag queen persona of Austria's Thomas Neuwirth, has become an icon for Europe's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and a flashpoint for Russia's debate over gay rights.

Nikolay Alexeyev, founder of Moscow Pride told Pravda that they plan to urgently appeal the mayor's decision; even if unsuccessful, they will try to merge the event with a proposed gay pride parade on May 31. They face an uphill battle: in 2012, Moscow city government enacted a 100-year ban on pride marches.

Russia's anti-gay protesters have been campaigning against Eurovision for weeks, calling it a Europe-wide gay parade . The participation of the obvious transvestite and hermaphrodite Conchita Wurst on the same stage as Russian singers on live television is blatant propaganda of homosexuality and spiritual decay, said St Petersburg's notorious legislator Vitaly Milonov, who led the drive for Russia's anti-gay laws banning gay information from public speheres.

[Another example of BBFC discrimination and insult of porn viewers. The BBFC trust 'normal' viewers to watch Jackass stunts, Fast & Furious driving and as much torture as they can endure, without worrying about copying 'harm'. Yet the moment there is a one in a million chance of risk in a porn film, then the BBFC go into patronisation mode and decide that it should be banned in the name of infinitesimally small risk].

BelAmi have announced that they would be pulling their latest gay porn release Rebels from the UK due to mandatory cuts the BBFC demanded in order to give the film an R18 classification.

The source of contention revolves around a scene 45 mins into the movie where Jack Harrer is sick and the other Kinky Angels come over to help him get well. First things first so they decide to take Jack's temperature the old fashioned way by sticking a thermometer where the sun doesn't shine. Apparently this type of medical attention is not deemed viewable in the UK:

Luca Norcen, Head of BelAmi's global DVD operations says of the BBFC ruling:

This whole affair is so utterly ridiculous it borders on the absurd. The BBFC should begin treating UK viewers as responsible adults rather than children. Upon careful evaluation, we feel we cannot go ahead with the proposed cut. It will compromise the integrity of the scene, its unique flavor and its natural build up. As far as a thermometer constituting penetration with an object which may cause harm I find that hard to believe given every mom in the world of a certain age has done it a zillion times with her kids!

A senior adviser at the BBFC explained that there is potential for harm if someone were to copy the scene using the thermometer due to the fact that glass thermometers are apparently to be avoided as they could break!

Rebels complete with thermometer and all will be released on April 1st in the US via PULSE and at the end of the month in the EU via Millivres Prowler Group.