A gay union at Aeroflot?

 Gay Rights  No Responses »
Jun 282011
 

Quick, I have to go serve the lesbian menu! ©Aeroflot.ru.

(Blogmensgo, June 28, 2011) An LGBT trade union has been created within the Russian airline Aeroflot. But the company states that they are not aware of any such organisation.

The six members of the union in the making, whose founder is the flight attendant Maxime Koupreïev, want the Aeroflot charter to explicitly prohibit sexual discrimination. They also want to claim the same benefits as heterosexuals, particularly in terms of preferential tariffs enjoyed by spouses and relatives of heterosexual employees.

Russia does not allow same-sex civil unions, let alone gay marriage. In this country with a high level of homphobia, the LGBT community is highly stigmatised. In fact, Aeroflot does not recognize the existence to date of any LGBT organization within it, whether officially or in the process of creation

In any case, few airlines have unions or representative bodies of the LGBT community. This is the case of Air France – KLM, but their union Personn’ailes fosters secrecy to the point of lacking even a web address (http://www.personnailes.asso.fr) at the time of writing this article.

To our knowledge, only the Scandinavian airline SAS and Thai Air PC carry out gay-friendly recruitment campaigns.

This article has been translated from the French side of our blog, you can read the original article in French here.

Via Romandie News (in French) 21/06/2011

Matt & Philca / MensGo

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Gay Pride calm in Zagreb, but a lasting impression left in Split!

 Gay Rights, Pride  No Responses »
Jun 202011
 

A bogoss is the best medicine against homophobia! ... © Photoxpress.com / MaxFX.

(BlogMensGo 20th June 2011) About 4,000 people, took part in a peaceful, June 18, 2011, at the 10th Gay Pride in Zagreb. This year’s event had the slogan “The future is ours too.”

The procession moved freely through Zagreb, before stopping in a place downtown, when finished the crowds moved on to attend an outdoor concert. The police were able to prevent any homophobic overflow. Onlookers and the curious showed no particular hostility, and demonstrators were even able to stop and greet them.

It is far from the violence that had marred the previous week’s Pride of Split, where a pack of 10,000 homophobic revelers threw themselves at the 400 participants in the Gay Pride, hospitalising 12 people. “Split, next year there will be a test of catching up,” announced one banner in Zagreb.

The Pride of Split was marked by the reading of a letter from the President of Croatia Ivo Josipović Welcoming the participants for their courage and their struggle for the right to be different.

Note also that the next weekend, specifically June 25, 2011, it will be Gay Pride in Paris (or Marche des fiertés according to the local jargon). With a generic slogan very political for presidential election: “For equality, in 2011 I walk, I vote in 2012.”

Croatian Priders attendend a concert by artists known to them; whereas the Europride gatherers enjoyed a world-class performance from the star (Lady Gaga) who symbolises the future of LGBT (see our article June 20, 2011); whereas the French Pride chose Arielle Dombasle, who is almost unknown outside of France (except in Mexico) and is not exactly an up and coming star but a blast from the past.  France seems to be taking a backwards turn with LGBT relations as seen in the following article.

This article is a translation and adaptation of an article written on our French Blog.  Please click here to visit the original version.

Philca & Matt / MensGo

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French MPs reject gay marriage

 Gay Rights  No Responses »
Jun 202011
 

Gay marriage, a major theme for the 2012 presidential elections? © Photoxpress.com/Richard Villalon.

(BlogMensGo 20th June 2011) The French National Assembly on June 14, 2011, rejected a socialist bill to legalize gay marriage, by 293 votes against 222. Several MPs opposed to gay marriage have argued, during the parliamentary discussion of the text last week that a marriage between same sex was comparable to bestiality or polygamy, or even that it was an “aberration anthropological.”

The bill came among others from the Socialist MP Patrick Bloche, initiator of the legalization of civil solidarity pact (PACS) in 1999. The text of 2011 was only about gay marriage (“homoconjugalité”) and not same-sex parents. Political parties were not given specific voting instructions, but members from the left – four abstentions – voted for the text and most of those on the right voted against. The Socialist Party had indicated its support for the bill, while the Union for Presidential Majority (UMP, in power), the government and the New Centre (NC) showed their clear hostility to the text.

Only two members of the 313 UMP’s (Franck Riester and Henriette Martinez) had indicated before the election they would vote in favor of the text. In fact, nine UMP (including the former minister Jean-Louis Borloo, possible presidential candidate in 2012) and a NC member validated the text, while nine other UMP deputies – whose pediatrician Edwige Antier, which did not want to hear about same-sex parents – chose to abstain.

The Socialist Party’s Francois Hollande – primary socialist candidate for the presidential election – immediately reiterated their support for marriage between couples of the same sex, promising to make that a possible stake in their election campaign, one of which would have immediate priority action if elected.

It is necessary that for the French Parliament to re-enter the case, the Constitutional Council considers that such advance is essential to any legitimization of gay marriage.

France continues consequently in a hypocrisy of State, claiming the cradle of human rights while remaining behind in civilization. Seven countries of the European Union have already legalized gay marriage, but not France. As for the voting rights granted to women, France resolved – in 1944 – after countries such as Albania, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Myanmar and El Salvador. Such an attitude does not distinguish much of France against a banana republic.

Via the world press along with Pink Paper of 20th June and AP of 14th June (in English)

This article is a translation of an original article on our French Blog.  You can read the article here.  Please note that the above links are in French unless stated otherwise.

Philca & Matt / MensGo

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