Gay Wrestler Anthony Bowens Lays the Smackdown on Christian Homophobes with Defiant Kiss

Anthony Bowens kisses boyfriend in front of crowd of homophobic protesters (Anthony Bowens/Instagram)
PINK NEWS: Pro-wrestler Anthony Bowens has received a flood of love and support after kissing his boyfriend in front of a crowd of homophobic protesters.

The All Elite Wrestling star posted a photo where he can be seen kissing his boyfriend, YouTube star Michael Pavano, in front of people holding signs bearing pro-Trump messages and anti-gay slurs.

Posting the photo to Instagram, Bowens said: “Stand up against hate” with the rainbow emoji.

Bowens, who came out as gay in 2019 after previously identifying as bisexual, shared the photo on Monday (6 December) and quickly received several supportive messages.

Fellow wrestling star and Olympic boxer Anthony Ogogo sent several emojis, including the rainbow flag, while producer Anthony Ramos wrote, “That’s right!!!”

Since coming out in 2017, Bowens has campaigned for LGBT+ visibility in sports. » | Emily Chudy | Tuesday, Dece,ber 7, 2021

Hamilton Says He's 'Not Comfortable' Racing, Calls Out Saudi Arabia's LGBTQ+ Laws

dpa/SIPA
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: Lewis Hamilton continues to take a stand on human-rights issues and condemned Saudi Arabia's "terrifying" LGBTQ+ laws ahead of Sunday's Grand Prix.

"Do I feel comfortable here? I wouldn't say I do," the 36-year-old driver for Mercedes told reporters Thursday, per CNN. "But this was not my choice. Our sport has chosen to be here and whether it's fair or not, I think that, while we're here, it's still important to do some work on raising awareness."

Similarly to the Qatar Grand Prix, Hamilton will again wear a helmet with the Pride Progress Flag with the words "We Stand Together" during the Saudi Arabia Grand.

"A lot of change needs to take place and our sport needs to do more," Hamilton said.

This penultimate race marks the first in Saudi Arabia for Formula One, which will be held at the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. The country has been widely criticized for its human-rights record, and per The Guardian, multiple groups wrote to the league, criticizing their decision to compete there. » | Madeline Coleman | Friday, December 3, 2021

Qatari Women Prepare for Olympic Début
Competing at the Olympics may almost be taken for granted by athletes in some countries, but for others they simply have not had the chance to get there before. That is now changing in Qatar, which will send female athletes to the London Games for the very first time. Al Jazeera's Rhodri Davies met one of them, Nada Arakji, a member of the Gulf state's national swimming team.

Prayer Rooms to Be Set Up at Aussie Rules Stadiums
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Prayer rooms will be set up at all Aussie Rules stadiums following a request by a devout Muslim player to ensure fans do not have to pray in the car park.

The move prompted claims of "political correctness gone mad" but was largely met with amusement by fans who began issuing prayers for their teams on websites and a newly-created prayer room app for mobile phones.

The sporting code decided last week to introduce the multi-faith rooms as a "demonstration of our inclusiveness" following a request by Bachar Houli, believed to be the first observant Muslim player, who said it would lure more Muslims to the game.

"I speak for the Muslim community, I get complaints [that] there is nowhere to pray other than the car park," said Mr Houli, who plays for the Richmond club. "It can be quite disturbing [to pray] with people walking through to the game."

Some Christian and Jewish leaders also backed the rooms, saying they were already common in airports and hospitals.

However the move caused a backlash led by former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett, now president of the Hawthorn club, who said the rooms were "absolute rubbish". » | Jonathan Pearlman in Sydney | Thursday, April 26, 2012

Saudi Arabian Girls' School Defies Sports Ban with Basketball Court
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A girls' school in Saudi Arabia has defied a religious ban on female sports by erecting basketball hoops and letting pupils play at break-time, the daily al-Watan reported on Wednesday.

Powerful clerics in the conservative Islamic kingdom have long spoken against allowing girls to play sports.

Saudi Arabia's austere interpretation of Islamic law prevents women from working, opening bank accounts or having some elective surgery without the permission of a male relative. They are not allowed to drive.

King Abdullah has pushed for women to have better opportunities in education and employment and last year said they could vote and run for office in future municipal elections, the only official polls in the monarchy. » | Source: Reuters | Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Bahrain Grand Prix: Riot Squads, Teargas and Petrol Bombs as Protesters Claim Police Beat Shia Activist to Death
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: As drivers prepared for the Bahrain Grand Prix, parts of the desert kingdom looked more like a war zone and one protester was discovered dead. Colin Freeman reports.

Built very much for strength rather than speed, they were not the kind of vehicles normally seen at the world's premiere motor racing event. Stretched along the desert highway leading to the Bahrain's Formula One race track were dozens of armoured personnel carriers - ready to use all means necessary to ensure the event went ahead.

More reminiscent of a war zone than a spectator sport, this was the extraordinary scene on Saturday as the Bahraini authorities launched a massive security clampdown to prevent pro-democracy supporters disrupting Sunday's Grand Prix. Yet their efforts to keep things peaceful proved fruitless: by late afternoon, demonstrators around the capital, Manama, were once again fighting running street battles with police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

"This is not way to deal with peaceful protests," said demonstrator Hussein Mohammed, 25, looking down a street to where clouds of tear gas were drifting. "The government should not be hosting racing contests when people are denied basic rights."

Last night, it was claimed that one activist had already paid the ultimate price. The body of Salah Habib Abbas, 37, a municipal gardener, was found lying in a pool of blood on the roof of an allotment shed close to Shakhura village, where anti-government protesters had played a cat-and-mouse game with police the night before.

Fellow demonstrators said that after being chased through allotments, he had last been seen being arrested by police, who they alleged then beat him to death. » | Colin Freeman, Manama | Saturday, April 21, 2012

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Leading Article: No Credit to Bahrain or Formula One
THE INDEPENDENT: The Formula One Grand Prix should not be happening in Bahrain this weekend. That is the long and the short of it. Although the security situation is evidently better than it was last season, when the race was first postponed and then cancelled, this is largely a result of the repression exerted by the authorities.

It does not mean there has been any serious accommodation with the opposition, still less that the regime has become any more democratic. Several dozen people have been killed in protests since the start of the year and a leading opposition activist, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, is on hunger strike in prison. Even John Yates, formerly of Scotland Yard, who is currently advising the Bahrain government, has said that the security of the race cannot be guaranteed. » | Leading article | Saturday, April 21, 2012

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Robert Fisk: This Is Politics Not Sport. If Drivers Can't See That, They Are the Pits
THE INDEPENDENT: Supposing it was Assad shelling out £40m for a race. Would Ecclestone be happy to give him a soft sporting cover for his repression?

When the Foreign Office urges British motor racing fans to stay away from Bahrain, this ain't no sporting event, folks, it's a political one. The Bahraini authorities prove it by welcoming sports reporters but refusing visas to other correspondents who want to tell the world what's going on in this minority-run, Saudi-dominated kingdom.

But what do our lads tell us from the circuit, 25 miles from the Bahraini capital, Manama? Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton are only in it for sport. Bahraini repression of its democratic majority? Nothing to do with us, governor. And Sebastian Vettel? "I think it's a lot of hype." Hype? HYPE? The Arab Awakening came to Bahrain a year ago, a majority Shia people demanding a democratically elected government – with a minority Sunni monarch still at its head, for heaven's sake, as generous an Arab Spring as you could find – and it's met with police gunfire, torture and death. And Master Vettel – is there anything left of the old cliché "moral compass"? – claims "it's a lot of hype". What a disgraceful man. » | Robert Fisk | Saturday, April 21, 2012

Related here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Gespannte Lage in Bahrain
Das Video hier abspielen | Freitag, 20. April 2012
Verwandt »

Bahrain Grand Prix: Protester Found Dead after Clashes with Authorities

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Anti-government protesters in Bahrain have claimed a man has been found dead after a night of violent clashes with police ahead of the Formula One Grand Prix.

Opposition leaders in Bahrain said the man's body was found at a site where protesters had clashed violently with security forces during the night.

Protesters had flooded a main highway in a march stretching for miles while the authorities deployed armoured vehicles on to the streets of the country's capital and the main road heading to the race track.

Security forces fired tear gas into the crowds as the country's leaders struggle to contain opposition anger ahead of the Grand Prix.

The government allowed the massive Friday demonstration in an apparent bid to avoid the hit-and-run street battles that are the hallmark of the Gulf nation's 14-month uprising – and an embarrassing spectacle for Bahrain's Western-backed rulers as F1 teams prepare for Sunday's race.

But violence flared as small groups in the march peeled away from the route to challenge riot police, who answered with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades.

Some protesters sought refuge in a shopping mall and nearby shops about 12 miles north of the Formula One track, where practice runs took place and Bahrain's crown prince vowed the country's premier international event would go ahead. » | Saturday, April 21, 2012

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Bahrain Grand Prix: Crown Prince Backs Race Despite Protests
BBC: Bahrain Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa says the weekend's grand prix will go ahead despite protests.

"Cancelling the race just [em]powers extremists. Having it allows us to build bridges and celebrate our nation as an idea that's positive," he said.

Unrest in the Gulf state has led to calls for the race to be cancelled for the second year running.

On Friday, thousands attended a protest in Budaiya, demanding an end to the crackdown on dissent.

Riot police initially showed restraint, but when a group of about 100 protesters broke away and attempted to reach the site of the former Pearl Roundabout - the focus of last year's pro-democracy demonstrations - they fired stun grenades and tear gas.

The overnight demonstrations called for the "overthrow of the regime" and the release of the human rights and political activist, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has been on hunger strike in prison for more than 70 days in protest at the life sentence he received from a military tribunal in June. (+ video) » | Friday, April 20, 2012

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Euro 2012: Anti-Semitic Football Merchandise On Sale in Poland
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Football merchandise bearing anti-Semitic slogans and calling for attacks on visiting fans is on sale in Poland just weeks before hundreds of thousands of football fans descend on the country for the 2012 European championships.

At one outlet in the shadow of the stadium belonging to Widzew Lodz, one of Poland's biggest clubs, fans can buy scarves and stickers with the motto "Jews forbidden" and T-shirts with slogans extolling violence against Poland's opponents in the tournament the Czech Republic and Greece.

"Burn the Czechs" and "Beat the Greeks" read some of the shirts while another calls for "no mercy" to be shown to "visitors".

An employee at the shop is quoted by the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza as saying the shop stocked the materials "because they sell well and they're in demand".

Anti-racism campaigners also claim "To My Kibice", a popular fan magazine sold in high-street shops, often carries advertisements for racist and xenophobic material. » | Matthew Day, Warsaw | Thursday, April 12, 2012

'Patronising' Sensitivity Quiz for Olympic Volunteers
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: More than 70,000 Olympic volunteers will be given sensitivity training ahead of the London games, including how to give directions to toilets if they cannot tell the difference between a man and woman.

Members of the public will be taught how to properly describe minority ethnic athletes and how to cope when faced with remarks about a Muslim headscarf.

They will even be tested on what to do if faced with a male couple holding hands, and taught how to speak to disabled visitors.

The unusual questions are all part of a “diversity and inclusion” questionnaire given to volunteers, to find out how they would respond to “sensitive” issues. » | Hannah Furness | Tuesday, March 06, 2012

FIFA Unpins Hijab Ban
Football's international rule makers have agreed to overturn the controversial ban on the wearing of hijabs in matches. The issue had reached the level of the United Nations, who wrote to FIFA to ask for the law to be scrapped Al Jazeera's Lee Wellings reports from Surrey, England.

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FIFA to Vote on Lifting Hijab Ban, Prince Ali Says Scarf Poses No Danger

TORONTO STAR: Sprained ankles. Pulled hamstrings. Bloodied knees.

The 350 girls in the Islamic Soccer League are not afraid of a little rough stuff on Toronto’s east-end pitches, logging trophy wounds and earning bragging rights playing the game they love.

But not one girl has been on the DL because of hijab injury – despite insistence by FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, that headscarves are a danger to Islamic women who want to bend it like Beckham.

“We’ve never had an incident where hijab was an issue,” says Majied Ali, president of the 1,600-member ISL, whose female players – aged 5 to 18 –play with or without hijab. He estimates about 75 per cent of the girls wear it.

“Most of our girls tie hijab round their heads, not around their necks, somewhat similar to how a bandana is tied. Some other girls have invested in the Velcro-type of (tear-away) hijab.” » | Mary Ormsby | Feature Writer | Saturday, March 03, 2012

Olympic Outrage at Saudi Ban on Women Athletes

THE OBSERVER: Ex-Olympics minister Tessa Jowell voices anger after report reveals discrimination against women in sport

Saudi Arabia has been accused of breaching the spirit of the Olympic movement by discriminating against women in sport and failing to bring a female team to the 2012 London Games.

Tessa Jowell, the former culture secretary and Olympics minister – who is now a member of the Olympic Board – said the Saudis were "clearly breaking the spirit of the Olympic Charter's pledge to equality" with their attitude to women in sport and the Games.

The Saudi government, which closed private gyms for women in 2009 and 2010 and severely limits their ability to undertake physical activity, is under mounting international pressure to adopt a more liberal approach.

Jowell spoke out after a report by Human Rights Watch highlighted the way in which Saudi Arabian women and girls are denied the right to sport.

The report found that, despite pledges to open up more sporting opportunity to women, "the Saudi government continues to flagrantly deny women and girls their right to practise physical education in schools and to practise recreational and competitive sport more generally".

Based on telephone interviews with Saudi women, the report says that, having introduced schooling for girls in the early 1960s, the country "never added physical education classes to the girls' curriculum".

Those fighting for change have faced opposition at every turn. "Opponents of sports for women and girls put forward the 'slippery slope' argument that, once women start to exercise, they will shed modest clothing, spend 'unnecessary' time out of the house and have increased possibilities for mingling with men," the report says.

"Others propose endless conditions for women and girls practising sport (for example that they must wear modest clothing and engage in sports away from the prying eyes of men)." » | Toby Helm | Saturday, February 25, 2012

Laura Robson's Gay Rights Stance Reignites Equality Controversy
THE GUARDIAN: British tennis player wears rainbow-coloured hairband in Australian Open match in Margaret Court arena

The British tennis player Laura Robson walked unwittingly into a political row in Melbourne on Monday when she wore a rainbow-coloured hairband in support of gay and lesbian rights during her match at the Australian Open. It was a gesture of solidarity that turned an otherwise disappointing day for British tennis into a wildly controversial one.

The London teenager was playing a first-round match on the court named after Australia's most decorated female player, Margaret Court, an evangelical Christian who has created widespread controversy, especially over the past month, with her provocative views on homosexuality.

Robson, 18 next Saturday, was one of five British players who lost on the first day of the tournament but her trickiest assignment was fielding questions afterwards about her hairband. She claimed not to be making a political statement, and said she was unaware of a call by gay rights activists to take rainbow-coloured flags into the Margaret Court Arena.

"It was just a rainbow-coloured hairband," Robson said. "I didn't see anything about a protest today. I wore it because I believe in equal rights for everyone. That's it."

She did, however, know of the recent comments Court had made, which were reported here and internationally because of her standing in the game. Her stand will be seen in a favourable light by those critics of Court astounded by her insensitivity on a subject that is regularly an issue in women's tennis. » | Kevin Mitchell in Melbourne | Monday, January 16, 2012

Saudi Bans Footballers with Tattoos: Report
EMIRATES 24/7: Religious police tells foreign players to cover ink on field

Saudi Arabia’s religious police have told foreign players with tattoos on their arms to cover such drawings while on the field, saying they are adversely affecting young Saudis, a newspaper reported on Monday.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice sent a letter to the Higher Youth Committee asking it to warn all foreign players in the conservative Muslim Gulf kingdom to cover their tattoos before going into the field during matches, Sabq Arabic language daily said.

The letter cited Columbian player at Al Nasr Club, Juan Pablo Pino, whose hands and shoulders are covered with tattoos “in violation of existing rules.” » | Staff | Monday, October 10, 2011

HT: Marisol @ Jihad Watch »

Formula One: Bahrain Grand Prix Cancelled after Team Protests
THE GUARDIAN: Race circuit chairman says it 'has been made clear that this fixture cannot progress and we fully respect that decision'

The Bahrain Grand Prix has finally been cancelled after Formula Oneteams complained about competing in the country, which has been racked by months of popular uprisings against the regime.

Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone had already announced the race was now "not on" after a complaint from teams at the rescheduling of the event, which was initially put back to 30 October amid condemnation from human rights groups.

The Bahrain International Circuit chairman, Zayed Alzayani, said: "While Bahrain would have been delighted to see the grand prix progress on 30 October in line with the World Motor Sport Council's decision, it has been made clear that this fixture cannot progress and we fully respect that decision.

"We want our role in Formula One to continue to be as positive and constructive as it has always been; therefore, in the best interest of the sport, we will not pursue the rescheduling of a race this season." » | David Batty | Friday, June 10, 2011

Formula One: Bernie Ecclestone Urges Rethink on Bahrain Grand Prix after Human Rights Group Condemns FIA Report

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: In a dramatic about-turn, Bernie Ecclestone was last night trying to reverse the governing body’s decision over the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Formula One's chief executive was part of the World Motor Sport Council which passed a 'unanimous' vote last Friday to reschedule the race for Oct 30, pushing the Indian Grand Prix back to an unspecified date in December, but The Daily Telegraph understands that the 80 year-old has had a change of heart and written to Formula One's 12 teams urging them to express their discontent and demand a re-vote.

That will have come as a surprise to FIA president Jean Todt who spent yesterday conducting a PR offensive in Paris, claiming that everything in Bahrain was "back to normal" and defending the decision to reinstate the race.

Todt’s argument backfired somewhat when the report on which the WMSC's vote was based was dismissed as "blinkered" by a human rights group who said the member who compiled it only consulted with persons and organisations sympathetic to Bahrain's ruling Al Khalifa family.

During the two-day trip last week, FIA vice-president Carlos Gracia met Sheikh Abdulla bin Isa Al-Khalifa, the president of ASN, Sheikh Mai bint Mohammed Al-Khalifa, the Minister of Culture, Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al-Khalifa, the Minister of the Interior and Sheikh Salman bin Essa Al-Khalifa, the CEO of the Bahrain International Circuit.

Gracia also met Tariq Al Saffar, of the National Institute of Human Rights, who he quoted as saying "inaccurate information has been very bad for the country and does not help to improve the situation". Alex Wilks, campaign director for Avaaz, a web-based human rights group, called the report a "whitewash". » | Tom Cary, F1 Correspondent in Paris | Tuesday, June 07, 2011