Straight UK Couple Wants Gay Civil Partnership as Protest

A heterosexual UK couple have given only their initials to the council registrars at Islington Town Hall in hopes that they'll be able to enter into a civil parttnership, the Daily Mail reports:

"Tom Freeman and Katherine Doyle, both 25, are determined to become the first straight couple to wed in a civil partnership. The pair last night branded marriage 'an apartheid' that segregates straight and gay people. The civil servants, who live in Holloway, north London, and have been together nearly four years, said they want the same legal rights as a husband and wife. But they do not want to enter an institution that is closed to homosexuals. So, in the interests of equality, they are demanding that they be allowed to enter a civil partnership. Mr Freeman said: 'Ideally we'd have the option of a civil partnership or a marriage, regardless of whether we were straight or gay. 'Effectively marriage and civil partnerships are exactly the same - it's a duplicate law. The effects and legal processes are identical. The rights and obligations are identical.' He added: 'Civil partnerships are equality in all but name - so why not just have equality?"

UK activist Peter Tatchell is on board: "The ban on heterosexual civil partnerships is heterophobic. It is discriminatory and offensive. I want to see it ended so that straight couples like Tom and Katherine can have the option of a civil partnership. I applaud their challenge to this unjust law."

Civil Partnerships Fell in UK by 18 Percent Last Year

The UK saw civil partnership registrations decline by a fifth last year, the Guardian reports:

"A total of 33,956 partnerships between gay couples have been formed since the law first allowed them in December 2005. The fall in England and Wales, where 6,588 partnerships were formed last year, was 17%; in Scotland 24% and in Northern Ireland 23%, the provisional figures reveal. In 2008, men made up 53% of those forming civil partnerships, down from 55%, with the largest numbers being registered in the London borough of Westminster (234 between men and 48 between women) and Brighton and Hove (158 involving men and 116 women). The figures also show that 180 civil partnerships were dissolved last year, compared with 42 the year before. Most involved female couples."

Said activist Peter Tatchell: "After civil parternships were legislated there was a huge surge of couples who had been together for decades who suddenly wished to take advantage of the legal recognition. Now we've settled into a pattern of civil partnership take-up which reflects people who have recently fallen in love for the first time. He added that other couples are now waiting in the hope the law will change regarding same-sex marriage. Initially most were ready to settle for civil partnerships. After years of no legal rights they were desperate to get something. Now the mood is shifting in favour of full legal equality - the right to get married in a registry office on the same level as heterosexual couples."

PM Brown Snubs UK's Most Famous Activist from Gay Pride Event

Well-known British activist Peter Tatchell says he was scratched from a list of invitees to a gay event at Downing Street at Prime Minister Gordon Brown's request.

Said Tatchell "I have been campaigning for LGBT human rights for 40 years. I was one of the group of people who helped organise Britain's first gay pride parade in 1972. An insider tipped me off that my name had been removed from the invite list, at Gordon Brown's personal request. He was apparently still angry that I had heckled him over his government's erosion of civil liberties, when he opened the Taking Liberties exhibition at the British Library late last year...He [Brown] claims to support gay equality but his government actually endorses some aspects of homophobic discrimination. It supports the ban on same-sex marriage. Civil partnerships are not equality. They are a form of sexual apartheid, with different laws for gay and straight couples. I don't do my human rights work to win awards, honours or invites. It doesn't matter to me that I haven't been invited. What angers me is the principle - the way the Prime Minister invites and fetes mostly tame pro-Labour loyalists in the LGBT community. It is a manipulative tactic by an insecure government that knows its record on LGBT human rights is not as glorious as it claims."

Downing Street denies the claim: "It's not a reception, it's a very small meeting. The prime minister and Sarah Brown will meet organisers of Pride and others who have contributed to the event. You could fill number 10 with people who have been involved in gay rights."

Dozens Arrested at Gay Rights Demonstration in Moscow

A gay rights demonstration in Moscow on Saturday to coincide with the Eurovision Song Contest finals was broken up by police who arrested between 20 and 40 people.

The L.A. Times reports: "Shortly after noon, about a dozen activists stood on a nearby lawn of thick grass and blossoming lilac bushes and began to shout slogans. 'Homophobia is a shame!' they chanted. The demonstration lasted for about a minute before the police set upon them from all sides, clambering through the shrubs and knocking news cameramen out of the way to seize the demonstrators, pin their arms behind their backs and drag them off into waiting buses and patrol wagons. They knew it would be a struggle. The city government has repeatedly denied their permit requests. Police in the past have stood aside while ultranationalist skinheads beat gay activists bloody -- then arrested the activists, not the skinheads. (Skinheads, unlike gays, have been permitted to march in Moscow.) This year, the government seemed particularly incensed. Eurovision should have been a proud moment for the Russian authorities, a lighthearted celebration badly needed after bitter conflict with Europe over the war in Georgia and natural gas shut-offs."

A second wave of demonstrators arrived shortly after the first group was arrested. They too, were hauled away by police.

Among those arrested were British activist Peter Tatchell of the group Outrage, Russian activist Nikolai Alexeyev, and Chicago-based activist Andy Thayer of the gay liberation network.

Chicago-based activist Andy Thayer reports on the experience of his arrest and offers an update on the situation:

"Around mid-day today, Moscow Time, all of our people were finally released. Holding him and other key activists well past the mandated three hour time limit, the Russian authorities are trying to make an example of Moscow Pride’s foremost organizer, Nikolai Alekseev, by slapping multiple charges on him beyond the traditional “demonstrating without a permit” violation. Even though he is finally released following a hearing this morning, Alekseev’s attorney Dmitri Bartenev told me that the exact nature of the charges against Alekseev aren’t clear, except that since he has been released, he cannot now be sentenced to jail time. Bartenev and the public were barred from this morning’s hearing. Alekseev faces trial on May 26. Despite the violent attack by OMOH cops, the Russian equivalent of SWAT police, fortunately no one was seriously injured. Also, after some initial very worrying reports about threats to deport our Belorussian friends, who might in turn face incarceration by their country’s dictatorial regime, we’re happy to report that they have been released."

Here's CNN's report. And AfterElton wonders if out comedian and Eurovision Song Contest host Graham Norton, should have made more of the arrests than the single statement he made, during the show, without further explanation: "Heavy-handed policing has really marred what has been a fantastic Eurovision."

Seven videos regarding the arrest, including interviews with Peter Tatchell and Andy Thayer, AFTER THE JUMP....

Gay Activists in Moscow Thwarted [la times]

VIDEOS, AFTER THE JUMP...

UK Gay Activist: Prince Harry's Male Kiss 'Liberated and Enlightened'

Earlier in the week I posted about Prince Harry's home video, which recently surfaced and showed the third-in-line using racist terms for his fellow soldier, who is Pakistani. The video also contained references to gays, and while some thought it homophobic, the UK's leading gay activist Peter Tatchell is defending Prince Harry.

Tabloid News of the World reported on the video: "Later Harry, wielding the camera again, asks another member of the squad to talk through the exercise they have just done. He asks for 'your ups and downs in the exercise. Highs and lows. Good people, bad people. Good points, bad points.' Off camera, he adds: 'How do you feel? Gay? Queer on the side?' Then Harry asks another cadet: 'Anything you want to say? There’s no secrets here. Quickly just tell me what the f ** k is going on?' ... Other scenes in the video diary show Harry enjoying party nights out with his pals on manouevres. In one scene the Prince—now on the wagon—mockingly mouths to another soldier “I love you” before kissing him on the cheek and licking his face."

Said Tatchell: "For him to happily give his soldier friend a public kiss and lick his face strikes me as rather liberated and enlightened, for a straight man. If only more heterosexual men were relaxed about same-sex affection like Harry, the world would be a better place. The context and intention of words is crucial in deciding whether they are offensive or not. I don't find anything objectionable about the context in which Harry used the word queer."

News: Right Whales, Carrie Fisher, Adoption, Northampton

Travolta son Jett dies while vacationing with parents...

Black gay activists: Ebenezer Baptist should dump Warren as speaker for MLK Day service. Atlanta Black LGBT Coalition: "Rev. Warren’s hateful opposition to civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and reproductive rights for women, and his intolerance of diversity contradict the values of freedom and equality that this day represents...Bestowing Rev. Warren such a prominent role does not foster greater understanding between divided communities. Instead it drives more wedges between disenfranchised communities that are continually pitted against each other by the agents of racism and homophobia."

Scientists discover important endangered Right Whale breeding ground off coast of Maine: "In early December, surveyors counted 44 right whales in one day about 70 miles south of Bar Harbor, Maine, in an area known as Jordan Basin. On a day in mid-December, they counted 41 whales just west of Jordan Basin. Surveyors counted three right whales on Dec. 6 at Cashes Ledge, about 80 miles east of Gloucester. Surveyors in recent years have counted from three to five right whales each day prior to this, said National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration spokeswoman Shelley Dawicki."

Eternal bachelor George Clooney has found love for 2009.

Pride & Joy: Longstanding gay-themed shop in Northampton, Massachusetts to close.

Michigan's LGBT community center, Affirmations in Detroit, cuts back staff, hours as it struggles to survive: "Thompson said she's been running nonprofits for more than 20 years and 'I've never seen a year end as bad as this one,' she said."

FOX runs "magic negro" ticker on New Years Eve telecast.

Sources to AP: Kennedy likely pick by Paterson for Clinton Senate seat.

Activist Peter Tatchell condemns homophobic BBC program: "Within the programme, which was broadcast in two parts on BBC3 on 30th and 31st December, lesbians were described as 'munters' and viewers were told that female Hollywood superstars should be saved for heterosexuals."

Looking to start a photography hobby in the new year? Here's a brand new auction from an old Towleroad friend...

Cynthia Nixon and family end year on a roller coaster.

Boy Culture looks at Carrie Fisher's new memoir, Wishful Drinking.

114 World's new oldest person Gertrude Baines voted for Obama in November - VIDEO.

BUSHED: Medic attends to Beckham after Milan work-out...

Tampa-area couple with two foster daughters profiled as state waits on adoption laws...

Half of Roman Catholic adoption agencies in UK that said they would refuse to abide by laws forcing them to consider gay and lesbian couples as prospective adoptees now say they will comply: "he agencies were given an 21-month exemption from the anti-discrimination laws, which came into effect in 2007, but that expired on 1 January. They said the law, which makes it illegal to discriminate against gay applicants, went against their beliefs. Five of the 11 agencies will now comply with the rules, while one is to close...Another two of the agencies are seeking exemption from the law by having themselves registered as charities explicitly serving heterosexual and single people. The position of the remaining three agencies is not known."