USA: Actors gays are going to be parents of twins soon

Actor Neil Patrick Harris, from "How I Met Your Mother, and her boyfriend, actor David Burtka and chef, will soon be parents of twins. According to the website E! News, the couple will receive the children in October this year. The woman who serves as a surrogate name was not revealed.

Harris, who this year is up for three Emmys (Oscar American TV) this year, will have one more reason to celebrate the good period in his life and career staff.

Source: Terra

Gay boyfriend died just hours after marrying in Argentina

A gay marriage in Mar del Plata, a coastal city in Argentina, ended in tragedy this Thursday, August 12. The hairdresser Berchot Argentine Nestor, 45, fell ill shortly after celebrating her union with her partner Adrian Garcia, 42. Immediately taken to hospital, Berchot died hours later due to a hypertensive crisis, as disclosure of local newspapers.

The marriage of Argentina was the first conducted between same-sex in the city, located 400 km away from Buenos Aires, and is one of the most popular holiday spots for gays in the summer. Berchot's death was confirmed on Friday, August 13, Marplatense by the Association for Human Rights.

"It was just happiness. I went away as soon as they danced the waltz. A few minutes ago called me giving this sad news. It's incredible, "said Karina Freire, director of the association who was a guest of the event.
Argentina became the first Latin American country to legalize marriage between same-sex on July 14. According to Argentine non-governmental organizations in support of LGBT rights, provided the permission of the union, more than 500 couples from all over the world have sought information regarding the possibility of contracting marriage in the country.

Source: Perfil.com

Married cabinet minister reported to be considering legal action over gay rumours

The Daily Telegraph has today reported that a married cabinet minister is considering taking action to prevent allegations that he has had gay affairs with a Whitehall official and a journalist. The claims follow the announcement yesterday that the prisons minister Crispin Blunt is to divorce his wife to allow him to "come to terms with his homosexuality."

The newspaper claims that the minister in question has become the victim of innuendo laced and proactive blogs, which have not in themselves outed him. The Daily Telegraph claims that they have received details of two alleged lovers of the minister; a journalist and a Whitehall official.

PinkNews.co.uk editorial staff have been told by one highly influential blogger to "get up early on Sunday", suggesting that a Sunday newspaper will be publishing revelations relating to a cabinet minister. Further emails from the blogger link to photographs of a particular Conservative cabinet minister who has been the subject of rumours relating to his sexuality in the past.

Friends of the minister told the Daily Telegraph that the minister will take legal action if the rumours should be published in the mainstream media."He is happily married and is not gay, it is as simple as that," one source told the newspaper.
"He will not hesitate before taking the necessary action should someone overstep the mark and suggest something which is not true."

A source close to a journalist rumoured to have been in a relationship with the minister told the Daily Telegraph: "He has never met the minister. As someone who works in the media, he has never even been in the same room as him."

The source added: "If he was asked about an affair and it was true, he’d say publicly that he didn’t want to comment on a personal relationship. But in this case he doesn’t want to give the claims any credibility by publicly refuting them."

South London newspaper News Shopper rewards anti-gay letter with a prize

News Shopper, a south London newspaper, has awarded one of their readers with a prize for an anti-gay missive, which was published as their "Star Letter".

The letter, which was sent by a resident of Lewisham, south-east London, was written in response to a headline carried by the News Shopper on 11 August, which read: "Hospital on Sex Website".

The correspondent, signing herself Mrs S. [Susan] Fitzsimons, wrote: "This is meant to be a family newspaper and not some sleazy sex advertiser for the perverted."

Above the letter is a pledge stating that the News Shopper awards prizes to all star letter writers. The prize is a pen from Webster's Pen Shop, which has local branches.

Mrs Fitzsimons also said in her letter that "marriage is the the thing that makes society work", and that if it were not promoted, she believed "we shall answer on judgement day for it."

She continued: "Please stop advertising lesbian, gay and bisexual clubs. You are giving our young teenagers the wrong message and promoting perversity. Just before you mention equality, there is no equality today due to everything being biased towards homosexuality."

She wrote:" Marriage is the thing which makes society work. This is why we have the holy family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – to show us man, woman and child what God asks us to follow.

"God gave homosexuals up in the lust of the hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator.

"For this reason God gave them up to dishonourable passions. Their women exchanged their natural relations for unnatural and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.

"If we promote anything other than marriage then we shall answer on Judgement Day for it."

Websters, the shop that provided the prize for the letter in a statement said: "It has come to our attention that the star letter featured in this weeks [sic] News Shopper (Greenwich & Lewisham edition) has caused offence to readers.

"Webster's Pen Shop would like to reiterate that the views expressed in this week's News shopper does not reflect the opinions of Webster's Pen Shop or its staff.

"Webster's has no influence on the content that is published, and is simply a corporate sponsor."

News Shopper, on their official Twitter feed, seemed to revel in the attention the letter has drawn: "Well, the letter in the Greenwich edition this week seems to have hit the spot for getting lots of attention and sparking a strong reaction."

But a later feed added: "By the way, just because a letter wins the pen, it's in no way an endorsement from us of the author's views." News Shopper then posted: "In fact, it's surprising so many people are having a go about it instead of responding to the author and what she thinks."

Mrs Fitzsimons's letter included her full street address in Lambeth. She could not be reached by PinkNews.co.uk for comment.

Breaking news: Tory minister Crispin Blunt reveals he is gay

Tory MP and prisons minister Crispin Blunt has come out as gay and has separated from his wife. Mr Blunt has a mixed voting record on gay rights, including voting against equalising the age of consent.

A statement released by his office said: "Crispin Blunt wishes to make it known that he has separated from his wife, Victoria. He decided to come to terms with his homosexuality and explained the position to his family. The consequence is this separation.

"There is no third-party involvement but this is difficult for his immediate and wider family and he hopes for understanding and support for them. The family do not wish to make any further public comment and hope that their privacy will be respected as they deal with these difficult private issues."

In 2001, Mr Blunt voted against not only the equal age of consent, but also against gay couples adopting. He also voted in favour of the bill designed to make it harder for lesbian couples to have equal access to IVF treatment.

He did not vote on the repeal of Section 28 as he was absent at the time. However, Mr Blunt did vote in favour of civil partnerships and the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation Regulation) which prevents discrimination against LGB people in the provision of goods and services.

Mr Blunt, 50 is the Conservative MP for Reigate constituency. He and his wife have been married for 20 years and have a son and daughter.

Police investigate possibility that murdered British spy may have died at hands of gay lover

The private life of Gareth Williams, the British MI6 operative found dead in his Pimlico apartment in London this week, is currently being investigated by detectives who are attempting to discover whether he was murdered by a male lover.

Mr Williams' body was found on Monday inside a bag which had been placed in his bathtub at his home. Police believe he may have lain undiscovered for a fortnight.

Mr Williams was on a year-long posting to MI6 and was set to return to his regular job at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) listening station in Cheltenham at the beginning of September.

According to the Sun, the 31-year-old was a regular face around the capital's popular gay neighbourhoods of Vauxhall Cross, where the MI6 headquarters are also based, and Soho in the West End.

Now detectives have reportedly said they believe he might have had a violent row with a lover over his decision to return to GCHQ. They also said they hadn't ruled out the possibility that the Mr Williams' murder could be linked to his secret intelligence work.

Security services fear that his murderer could have taken classified material, possibly stored on a laptop.

There was no sign of a break-in at Mr Williams' apartment and nothing had been stolen. His mobile phone was however found, accompanied by several SIM cards.

Detectives are now studying whether Mr Williams' death was the result of strangulation, asphyxiation or drugs.

Trans woman's employment tribunal to begin next month

Rachel Millington was fired from her job last year after she revealed to bosses that she was starting the process of gender re-assignment. The case, which is coming before a Nottingham employment tribunal in September, may not necessarily create any startling legal precedents – but its reporting demonstrates just how far trans rights have come in the media over the last few years.

Until 11 September 2009, Rachel worked on contract for private company Housing And Support Solutions Limited, which specialises in caring for people with learning difficulties and challenging behaviour. In an appraisal interview one week before she was fired, Rachel was informed her work was satisfactory, and that her contract would be renewed at least until the end of November.

So why the abrupt turnaround? Rachel is sure – and will seek to demonstrate as much to an employment tribunal next month – that the company's attitude towards her changed dramatically after she told them, in July, that she intended to transition and would henceforth be living as female, and coming to work dressed as such.

The initial reaction, according to Rachel, was hostile. She told us: "They did not take me seriously and suggested it was possibly a phase I was going through which we should talk about later.

"One of the support managers even told me it was best kept private and outside of work."

Rachel was unimpressed. A day later, she sent her employers an e-mail stating that she had a right to come to work as female, and for the next month, she did so.

On August 14, her employers organised a team meeting from which she was excluded. Again, Rachel says they were hostile towards her and comments were made by her co-workers to the effect that it was wrong for "such people" to be working with individuals with learning difficulties and it would "ruin the reputation of the company".

Rachel says there has never been an issue with her clients. One she fondly remembers telling her: "You're a girly now".

In the following weeks, Rachel endured what she considers to have been a fairly abusive atmosphere: several staff members effectively sent her to Coventry, and this was not discouraged by senior managers.

At her appraisal, the management response was to suggest that Rachel apologise to her co-workers for the distress she had caused them. This she absolutely refused to do, suggesting instead that they should apologise to her.

Rachel commenced proceedings in November 2009.

This is not a legally significant story. The Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) was amended in May 1999 to protect trans people against discrimination in employment and vocational training. There have been a number of cases involving discrimination in employment since, and, on the whole, they have had positive outcomes for the individuals involved.

On the basis of facts provided by Ms Millington, this does appear to be an open and shut case: her lawyers are seeking compensation for unfair dismissal, sexual discrimination and loss of earnings.

When we asked her former employers for a comment, an individual there said: "We are not in a position to make any comment right now. We can’t comment."

Today, they also attempted to silence further reporting of this case by threatening to sue Ms Millington for slander.

If the legal changes are not significant, then the reporting of the case has been. A fairly full report was provided by the Daily Mail earlier this week and unlike previous cases, the tone was mostly respectful, with no hint of misgendering (i.e. still writing about the subject as a man). This is in sharp contrast to a Mail piece two years ago reporting on discrimination against Vikki-Marie Gaynor by her employer Blue Arrow, in which she was persistently referred to as "he" and "Mr".

Rachel is pleased with the support she has received from friends, but less than happy at the attitude of the NHS, to who she has turned for support in respect of her gender re-assignment. At a recent meeting with the Nottingham Gender Clinic, she was informed that her real-life experience of living as a woman did not count unless it was supervised by the Gender Identity Clinic, and so for purposes of treatment, the clock begins now.

She is thus in the odd position of living sufficiently in role to create significant issues in the workplace, but not enough to count for the NHS.