Gay activists in Moldova protest outside City Hall in the capital city of Chisinau on April 27 against a city ban on any gay pride activities in public. The Supreme Court had ruled that an identical ban last year was illegal. Pride organizers have vowed t

Gay pride didn’t go well in Moldova for the third year in a row. Authorities in the capital, Chisinau, banned all public pride activities again, despite a Supreme Court ruling that last year’s ban was illegal. The city says pride events threaten public order, offend Christian values and promote sexual propaganda.

Despite the ban, gay activists attempted to lay flowers April 27 at a monument to victims of repression. They were stopped by police, who said a permit was required for the action. The flowers were then deposited at the officers’ feet, said Boris Balanetkii, head of the pride organizing group GenderDoc-M.

“Police [said] GenderDoc-M has to have official permission of the City Hall to hold this event [but] later a representative of City Hall commented in an interview ... that the actions of the police were not correct and in order to lay flowers there is no need for any permission,” Balanetkii said.

Later in the day, about 20 activists went to City Hall and stood in front of it for 15 minutes with their mouths taped shut with rainbow stickers. Police allowed the protest and protected the activists from about 30 counterdemonstrators from an extremist youth organization, Balanetkii said. “This event showed that the public disorder, of which the members of the City Hall [are] so afraid, did not take place, and the majority of the people who were witnesses of the event were peaceful.

“We consider it was the first small victory in the fight of the LGBT community for the freedom of assembly in Moldova. [We will] do our best that next year a public manifestation of the LGBT community will take place not only as protest action but as a pride parade,” Balanetkii said.

Activists from the Netherlands, Sweden (including Member of the European Parliament Maria Carlshamre), Romania, Canada and Ukraine traveled to Chisinau to participate in the pride activities, which also included cultural events, concerts, forums, a soccer match and the Moldovan premiere of The Vagina Monologues.

Euro Parliament Blasts Poland on Gay Issues 
The European Parliament passed a resolution April 26 criticizing government-sponsored legislation in Poland that would ban discussion of gay topics in schools and punish teachers and principals who violate the proposed law with firing and a fine or jail time. The vote was 325 to 124 with 150 abstentions.
“These kinds of people cannot work with children,” Polish Deputy Minister of Education Miroslaw Orzechowski told local radio in March. “These activities need to be acted upon ... before it’s too late to make a difference.”

Minister of Education and Deputy Prime Minister Roman Giertych also has spoken in favor of the legislation, saying, “Homosexual propaganda must ... be limited so children will have the correct view of the family. ... If we will not use all our power to strengthen the family, then as a continent there is no future for us. We will be a continent settled by representatives of the Islamic world who care for the family.”

The Euro resolution also calls for a gay fact-finding mission to be sent to Poland, for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality, and for the European Commission to launch court actions against European Union member states that breach EU obligations.

Following the parliament’s vote, Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski claimed that “nobody is limiting gay rights in Poland.” But he added: “If we’re talking about not having homosexual propaganda in Polish schools, I fully agree with those who feel this way. Such propaganda should not be in schools; it definitely doesn’t serve youth well. It’s not in the interest of any society to increase the number of homosexuals — that’s obvious.”"

Kaczynski previously has called gays “perverse,” and his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, has warned that if homosexuality “were to be promoted on a grand scale, the human race would disappear.”

In response to the Euro resolution, Patricia Prendiville, executive director of the European branch of the International Lesbian and Gay Association, said, “Homophobia is, unfortunately, alive and well across Europe and the firm stance of the European Parliament is crucial for furthering the fight against discrimination and prejudice which LGBT people in Europe face on a daily basis.”

Early Gay-Rights Writings Found
University of Manchester academic Dr. Hal Gladfelder has discovered pro-gay writings from 1749 in the National Archives in Kew, England. The five-foot-long handwritten scroll is a legal indictment of the printer of a book by Thomas Cannon called “Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify’d.”

The book—which contained stories and philosophical texts in defense of male homosexuality—disappeared immediately after it was published, but the indictment reproduces many passages from it. One surviving extract states: “Unnatural desire is a contradiction in terms; downright nonsense. Desire is an amatory impulse of the inmost human parts."

Gladfelder said the book “must be the first substantial treatment of homosexuality ever in English. The only other discussions of homosexuality were contained in violently moralistic and homophobic attacks or in trial reports for the crime of sodomy up to and beyond 1750.”

Gladfelder “came across the scroll in a box of uncatalogued legal documents from 1750…. [T]he 18th-century courts—who were trying to suppress this—unwittingly helped publicize it 258 years later,” he said.

Little is known about Cannon, but Gladfelder said he had to leave England to avoid indictment. “Interestingly, his father was dean of Lincoln Cathedral and his grandfather was bishop of Norwich and Ely,” he said. “It’s a fair assumption that Cannon was writing for a gay subculture at the time,” Gladfelder added. “Though he lived in anonymity—possibly because of the notoriety of his pamphlet—I certainly regard him as a martyr. His life has many parallels with Oscar Wilde, who was persecuted by the law, forced into exile, and effectively silenced for being an apologist and advocate of same-sex love.”."

Outgames to Hand Creditors CrumbsThe financially disastrous 1st World Outgames, held last summer in Montreal, will pay its biggest creditors 15 or 20 cents of each dollar owed them. Creditors voted to accept the settlement April 25 rather than see the Outgames declare bankruptcy, which would have made it difficult for the Outgames to collect money it is still owed, leaving its creditors in a worse situation.

The Outgames lost more than $5 million Canadian. Some $3 million of that has been written off by governments that loaned the organization money.

There are 308 creditors remaining who are owed about $2.3 million. Of those, 121 who are owed $500 or less will get all their money, said the Montreal Gazette. More than 100 who are owed more than $500 have agreed to accept a flat settlement of $500.

That will leave about 80 larger creditors who will receive pennies on the dollar. The Canadian dollar is worth about 90 cents U.S.

BP CEO Outed, Resigns
The chief executive officer of BP (formerly called British Petroleum) resigned May 1 after London newspapers reported that he had a four-year relationship with a 27-year-old man he met through an escort service. The media also reported allegations that CEO John Browne, 59, had misused company funds, facilities and staff to support ex-boyfriend Jeff Chevalier’s cell-phone ring-tone business.

It also emerged that Browne had lied to a court about how he and Chevalier met, as Browne fought a months-long behind-the-scenes court battle to block publication of a story about the relationship by Associated Newspapers, publisher of The Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday and the Evening Standard.

Browne had claimed the two met by chance while he was exercising in a public park. Browne also allegedly lied to the court, medical tests reportedly confirmed, in claiming that Chevalier was hooked on alcohol and drugs.

“For the past 41 years of my career at BP I have kept my private life separate from my business life,” Browne said in a statement announcing his departure. “I have always regarded my sexuality as a personal matter, to be kept private. It is a matter of personal disappointment that a newspaper group has now decided that allegations about my personal life should be made public.

“I wish to acknowledge that I did formerly have a four-year relationship with Jeff Chevalier. ... I deny categorically any allegations of improper conduct relating to BP.

“My initial witness statements, however, contained an untruthful account about how I first met Jeff. This account, prompted by my embarrassment and shock at the revelations, is a matter of deep regret.

“These allegations will result inevitably in considerable media attention for both myself and BP. ... I have therefore informed the board of BP that I intend to stand down as group chief executive with immediate effect.”

-Assistance: Bill Kelley