Nigeria Bans Gay Marriage: Setting Prison Sentences Of Up To 14 Years

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — May 30, 2013: Nigeria's House of Representatives voted Thursday to ban gay marriage and outlaw any groups actively supporting gay rights, endorsing a measure that also calls for 10-year prison sentences for any "public show" of affection by a same-sex couple. Under the proposed law, Nigeria would ban any same-sex marriage from being conducted in either a church or a mosque. Gay or lesbian couples who marry could face up to 14 years each in prison. Witnesses or anyone who helps couples marry could be sentenced to 10 years behind bars. Anyone taking part in a group advocating for gay rights or anyone caught in a "public show" of affection also would face 10 years in prison if convicted by a criminal court.  Read more at Washington Post.

Priest-Led Mob Attacks Gay Rights Marchers in Georgia

MOSCOW — A throng of thousands led by priests in black robes surged through police cordons in downtown Tbilisi, Georgia, on Friday and attacked a group of about 50 gay rights demonstrators. Carrying banners reading “No to mental genocide” and “No to gays,” the masses of mostly young men began by hurling rocks and eggs at the gay rights demonstrators. The police pushed most of the demonstrators onto yellow minibuses to evacuate them from the scene, but, the attackers swarmed the buses, trying to break the windows with metal gratings, trash cans, rocks and even fists. At least 12 people were reported hospitalized, including three police officers and eight or nine of the gay rights marchers. “They wanted to kill all of us,” said Irakli Vacharadze, the head of Identoba, the Tbilisi-based gay rights advocacy group that organized the rally. Nino Bolkvadze, 35, a lawyer for the group who was among the marchers, said that if they had not been close to the buses when the violence began, “we would all have been corpses.”  Read more at NYT.

Third U.S. State In Three Weeks Legalizes Gay Marriage

UNITED STATES ― Gay marriage continues its sweep across the U.S. Crowds cheered on Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday evening after he signed a bill making Minnesota the 12th state in the nation, and the third in three weeks, to allow same-sex marriage. "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness certainly includes the right to marry the person you love," Dayton said before signing the bill at the steps of the state Capitol in St. Paul. The move came after the Democrat-controlled Senate passed the legislation on a 37-30 vote. Before the vote, same-sex marriage opponents protested at the Capitol. A paper tombstone on the Capitol lawn read, "RIP MARRIAGE, 2013." Two years earlier, the Legislature put a referendum on the ballot that would have banned same-sex marriage. Minnesotans voted down the proposal in November. Gay marriage will become legal in Minnesota on Aug. 1. However, churches are not required to perform the unions. Minnesota is just the latest in a string of states to allow gay marriage. Delaware became the 11th state to approve such unions last week -- and Rhode Island took similar action a week before that. Washington, Maryland and Maine voters approved same-sex marriage in November. The District of Columbia and the states of Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York also allow gay marriage. 

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Moscow Won’t Allow a Gay Rights Parade

MOSCOW — Moscow officials rejected on Wednesday an application by gay rights advocates to hold a parade later this month, saying the event could undermine a campaign to instill patriotic values in the city’s youth. The refusal emphasized the Russian government’s support for a wave of legislation in cities across the country banning “homosexual propaganda.” The Moscow decision was issued just days after a man was killed in a savage attack that investigators said was motivated by homophobia in the city of Volgograd in southern Russia. “According to Russian legislation, we must work clearly and consistently on maintaining morality, oriented toward the teaching of patriotism in the growing generation, and not toward incomprehensible aspirations,” said Aleksei Mayorov, the director of regional safety for the city administration, in a statement carried by the Interfax news agency. “In our opinion,” Mr. Mayorov continued, “there is no demand for these kinds of events in the city.” Critics of a proposed federal ban on “homosexual propaganda,” an umbrella term for rallies and other public demonstrations by gay rights advocates, say the local laws are already encouraging hate crimes against gay men. The murder in Volgograd last week of a 23-year-old man, who investigators said had been sodomized with beer bottles and beaten to death with a concrete block, was reported on the national television news and evoked an outcry from Russia’s gay community.  From New York Times.

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil's Biographical Film and Mission

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