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NEWS & LETTERS, June - July 2008
Queer Notes
by Elise
Students from a record-breaking 6,000 schools participated in this year's Day of Silence, supporting and bringing awareness of the many LGBT students who keep silent to protect their lives. A backlash against the Day is gaining some ground. The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that a teenager who had been banned from wearing an anti-gay t-shirt could wear it on this year's Day of Silence. The opposition is also organizing counteractions, including a so-called "Day of Truth."
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Two women in Kingston, UK, have been convicted of harassing and terrorizing their gay neighbors, partners Michael Harris and Shires Crichton. Karen Reeves and her 22-year-old daughter Christie Myles are banned from having any contact with and living in the same village as Mr. Harris and Mr. Crichton, to whom the women made homophobic gestures and remarks for several months earlier this year. Reeves even drove her car at one of the men. She was also sentenced to five months in prison for her lack of remorse and for "leading" her daughter. Myles will pay court costs.
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Moscow's GLBT activists went ahead with a pride parade, defying yet one more "official" ban on such activities. In 2006 and 2007, Mayor Yuri Luzhkov banned pride demonstrations and parades. ''Rights For Gays and Lesbians!'' and ''Take Mayor Luzhkov's Homophobia to Court'' were just two of the banners that were displayed. Most recently, parade organizers filed suit against Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for not replying within 30 days to their appeal of Luzhkov's ban and requested the European Court of Human Rights to order Moscow to compensate organizers for last year's parade.
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The Third Civil Court of First Instance in the Boyo lu district of Istanbul, Turkey, closed the offices of the gay rights advocacy group Lambda Istanbul. Its vague ruling was based on Lambda's failure to "remedy errors and deficiencies" in its statutes, part of Turkey's Law on Associations. The ruling puts Turkey in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the international Human Rights Watch group is calling for the European Union to deny Turkey entrance into the EU.
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