Gay news...

Roundup of things in the papers I read but didn't have time to write about.

• Read in the papers two weeks ago that the Dutch are 'leaders' in the support for same-sex marriage and legalisation of sof drugs. Thus whereas only 44% of Europeans support same-sex marriage, in the Netherlands this is 82%. On legalisation of soft drugs, 49% in the Netherlands are for, compared to only 25% in the rest of the European Union. Go Holland~
  

• Shocking news carried by the Sunday Times, that scientists in the US are trying to ‘straighten’ gay sheep. By injecting hormones into male rams that have a preference for same-sex rams, the scientists at the University of Oregon report “considerable success”. Potentially this could be used on human embryos to alter the sexuality of the unborn child.

Martina Navratilova, the lesbian tennis player who won Wimbledon nine times, and scientists and gay rights campaigners in Britain have called for the project to be abandoned.

Navratilova defended the “right” of sheep to be gay. She said: “How can it be that in the year 2006 a major university would host such homophobic and cruel experiments?” She said gay men and lesbians would be “deeply offended” by the social implications of the tests.

• A Belgium paper reports that the end of Saddam’s regime doesn’t mean the end of persecution of gays in Iraq. According to the Internal Ministry of Iraq, as many as 50 homosexuals are abducted every day, while ho-le-bi interest groups are continually being threatened. September last year, a transsexual was burnt to death by a gang; in January a 27 year gay was killed by militia on the streets; in May a 14 year homosexual was shot dead by a policeman. Since ayatollah called on the public to murder homosexuals in March, some 350 people have been killed. Who said the American-led invasion and regime-change was supposed to bring about greater freedom…

• Apparently, among the Navajo Indians in the USA, being gay is considered 'sacred'.
  Navajos live in preserves, and have their own separate nation, as well as laws. They believe that homosexuals have two souls, one female, one male. Native American anthropolgists believe that the tradition that men could, if they wished, wear a woman's clothes, died out through the influence of Christian missionaries. See here for more on the row on the ban on same-sex marriage last year that was vetoed by the Navajo Nation president.
  
  
• Switzerland became the first country in the world to hold a referendum on same-sex partnership in 2005, and the law came into effect this week.