Cameron Apologises to Gays
MAIL Online: David Cameron has issued an extraordinary apology on behalf of the Conservative Party for legislation banning the promotion of homosexuality in schools.

He said the party had 'got it wrong' when it introduced Section 28 in the late 1980s.

It is one of a series of apologies Mr Cameron has made for his party's actions in government.

The Scots received one in 2006 for having the poll tax imposed on them a year before it was introduced in England.

The Tory leader's latest remarks, during an appearance at a Gay Pride event, were attacked last night by traditionalists on the Right of his party.

They pointed out that as recently as 2003, when Tony Blair axed the clause, Mr Cameron voted for a Tory amendment described by gay rights groups as 'Section 28 by the back door'.

Former party chairman Lord Tebbit said he suspected the apology had been driven by 'focus group findings'.

The gay vote - estimated at 2.65 million people - will be a key political battleground ahead of an election expected next May.
Gordon Brown is hosting a gathering of leading gay and lesbian figures in Downing Street on Saturday, and his wife Sarah is joining a Gay Pride march.

Section 28 was introduced by Margaret Thatcher's government in response to evidence of Left-wing councils promoting gay relationships in schools.

It prevented councils and schools from intentionally promoting homosexuality, but became a focal point for anger for gay rights campaigners.

Mr Cameron insisted he was making his apology because the legislation had been ' offensive to gay people'.

'I'm sorry for Section 28. We got it wrong. It was an emotional issue. We have got to move on and we have moved on,' he said.

He insisted that under his leadership the party was embracing gay rights and predicted it would produce Britain's first gay Prime Minister. Cameron apologises to gays for Section 28: Law to ban promotion of homosexuality in schools was wrong, says Tory leader >>> James Chapman | Thursday, July 02, 2009

India's Gay Community Fights for Dignity
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: The cop strode up to Rajiv M., gave him a shove and demanded to look in his backpack. Rajiv handed it over and the cop pulled out a condom, and asked why Rajiv had it. “I said it was for sex,” Rajiv recalls, a bold if obvious answer that he knew was going to irritate the cop. But he wasn't feeling deferential.

The police officer demanded Rajiv's money, and his cellphone. “I said, ‘Why should I give it to you?'“ The cop grew more menacing: Next he demanded oral sex. Rajiv refused that, too, so the cop hauled the slight 21-year-old to a nearby police station and began the motions of charging him with the crime of homosexuality. When eventually he realized that Rajiv's dad was also a police officer, he let the young man go.

This nasty little piece of attempted extortion took place not in a gay bar, not in an alleyway late at night, but in the middle of a hot spring afternoon in Delhi last year, when Rajiv was standing at a crowded bus stop. “It's India,” Rajiv said with a shrug full of bravado. “So he could do something like this in the open.”

Rajiv, tousle-haired and deliberately camp, told this story a few weeks ago at a Delhi drop-in centre for gay and transgendered men, where he goes a couple times a week. Everyone had a similar story, except most had gorier endings. All the men had been harassed and detained by police who demanded money and, with no trace of irony, also often wanted sex, with the threat of charging and exposing the victim as a homosexual.

The police invoke Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, the law that criminalizes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature,” including homosexual acts between consenting adults, with a possible sentence of life imprisonment. The law is almost never used for actual prosecutions: Men would have to be caught fully engaged in a sex act to hold up a case. No one has been convicted under 377 in 20 years. But few police officers are interested in actually enforcing the law. They prefer it as a blackmail tool.

Now, however, a fledgling gay community is waiting on tenterhooks for a verdict from the Delhi High Court, expected soon, on a public-interest litigation aimed at decriminalizing same-sex activity – and ending a plague of state-sanctioned homophobia that has led to rape, extortion, suicide and the spread of HIV-AIDS.

If they win – if the law is struck down, and many legal experts believe it will be – it will be a big shift in a still deeply conservative culture. There will be huge ramifications for India – where the courts seem to be out ahead of most of the population – and for the rest of South Asia and the developing world, where only a handful of countries have legally enshrined gay rights. >>> Stephanie Nolen, New Delhi | Friday, June 19, 2009

India's First and Only Gay Magazine Tests Taboos by Making a Comeback
Image courtesy of Bombay Dost
TIMES ONLINE: India’s first and only gay magazine is back on news stands for the first time in seven years amid hopes that taboos may finally be fading in a country where homosexuality remains illegal.

Bombay Dost (Bombay Friends) is being relaunched after going out of print in 2002 when the then underground publication ran out of money.

The English-language magazine’s publishers say that much has changed in India during the intervening years — even if a British colonial-era law banning sex “against the order of nature” remains firmly in place.

“India’s gay community is still illegal, but it is more confident and happier than ever before,” Nitin Karani, the editor-at-large, said. “We’re not constantly beating our breasts over discrimination and marginalisation. The new magazine reflects that.” >>> Rhys Blakely, Mumbai | Thursday, May 28, 2009