Reviewer Brent Ko in 365Gay.com (3-13) gives us yet another reason to go see the sprightly new flic Bend It Like Beckham. Ko says the English movie about an Indian girl who has to sneak out in London to play soccer against her parent’s wishes, is also about proto-dykes. Ko says that while the two teens in the movie are virtually on the edge of figuring out their sexuality, the whole obvious point may be lost on the movie’s director Gurinder Chadha. Hmmm.
The BBC News (3-12) reports that one Lloyd Jenkins, a Conservative candidate for the Welsh Assembly election, has been forced to resign over homophobic remarks. Jenkins has stated that gayness is a mental condition, gay people shouldn’t be allowed to marry or adopt children. The Conservative Party, rather like the U.S. Republicans has come to the point where it is at least ill-advised to make such statements.
PlanetOut (3-11) has the story of a gay Holocaust denier—Minnesota State Rep. Arlon Lindner, a Republican, claims gays were not exterminated or sent to concentration camps by Nazis. Lindner, in what apparently is no coincidence, has introduced legislation to repeal that portion of the State Human Rights Amendment that protects gay Minnesotans. Lindner has refused to apologize or visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. which has a current major exhibit on the atrocities against gays in the Nazi era.
From the ‘About-Time’ file-PlanetOut (3-10) says Paul Howard, a Georgia District Attorney is ‘launching a national battle to stop the use of the so-called ‘gay panic’ defense.’ This defense in which a person claims terror at a homosexual come-on may have led to acquittal in the murder of one of Howard’s assistants, Ahmed Dabarran. This defense has been used in many notorious murder and assualt cases where gay people were victims.
From the ‘Nasty-Is-Nasty’ file, The New Yorker (3-17) commenting on the resurrection of ‘liberal’ TV talk show host Bill Maher says that he’s still not especially funny and still prone to make comments that irritate even those inclined to be on his side: sample-shown a picture of (straight) architect of the World Trade Center area, Daniel Libeskind, Maher said ‘He just broke up with Elton John.’
PlanetOut (3-10) reports that Sweden is preparing to offer same-sex domestic-partner ceremonies at two dozen of its embassies. France, Israel and Portugal will probably house the first of these, but the Swedes say they’ll skip Saudi Arabia where one can receive the death penalty for being gay.