A Georgian TV cameraman who was among dozens of journalists attacked by a right-wing mob during chaos aimed at pro-LGBTQ campaigners has died, RFERL.org reported. Co-workers of Lekso Lashkarava, 37, said July 11 that he had died, apparently of injuries suffered during the violence July 5, when hundreds of people took to the streets of the Georgia capital of Tbilisi to block a planned LGBTQ parade. However, Georgian police seized Lashkarava's corpse from his Tbilisi apartment. The police took the action despite his family's refusal of a state-led forensic autopsy and examination.
Europe's top human-rights court has ordered Russia to recognize same-sex unions, The Moscow Times reported. The European Court of Human Rights' (ECHR's) ruling came in response to complaints filed in 2010 by three Russian same-sex couples whose attempts to register their marriages in Russia were rejected. The judges unanimously ruled that Russia violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights—the right to respect for private and family life—by not granting legal status to the couples' unions, the court said in a press release. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reaffirmed that same-sex marriages are "not allowed" under Russia's constitution, according to euronews.
A prominent French priest and psychotherapist who was once an influential Vatican adviser on matters regarding human sexuality will face trial in a church court over accusations of inappropriate sexual relationships with male clients, per the National Catholic Reporter. The charges against Msgr. Tony Anatrella, 80, have not been announced; neither has a date for the beginning of the proceedings been given. (Catholic Church canonical proceedings are often held with strict secrecy requirements.) Anatrella has vigorously denied the claims against him.
The Paul Verhoeven movie Benedetta—described as a lesbian love story set in a convent—stunned the audience at France's Cannes Film Festival with several scenes, including one in which an effigy of the Virgin Mary is used as a sex toy, Variety and NME noted. However, the period drama was showered with a five-minute standing ovation. The Dutch/French film—loosely adapted from the book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy—stars Belgian actress Virginie Efira as Benedetta Carlini, an 1800s French nun who believes she is possessed by Jesus Christ; as she wrestles with that revelation, she falls in love with her caretaker, a young nun named Bartolomea (Daphne Patakia). The film co-stars Lambert Wilson and Charlotte Rampling.
Thousands of people took to the streets in Cuba on July 11 to demand, among other things, the government improve people's quality of life and guarantee citizens' rights—and LGBTQ individuals were among the marchers, The Washington Blade noted. "I came because I am tired of the repression that the police inflict upon trans people," one transgender woman told Tremenda Nota. "They don't allow us to go out on the streets, they ask us for our ID cards, they take us in for prostitution."
In England, authorities arrested two men for a brutal attack on a gay university student that took place in Liverpool, according to out.com . Aodhan Benson, 24, originally from Belfast, Ireland, but attending Liverpool Hope University, was brutally assaulted by three men July 10; his attackers quickly fled the scene. "'Faggot gay cunt' was what I heard before four men assaulted me in Liverpool not far from where someone died in a similar attack," Benson tweeted. A 43-year-old man from Liverpool and a 33-year-old man from Sefton were arrested on assault charges; the Sefton man was also arrested on a drug charge as well.
In France, a gay couple said they were beaten by a mob of young men last night after they were confronted on the dance floor at a bar for being "against nature," according to LGBTQ Nation. Mickael told the French LGBTQ publication TETU that he and his boyfriend Benoit were in the town of Luri, Corsica visiting Benoit's family for the July 14th national holiday of Bastille Day. According to both of the men, a teenager and around 20 other people who came out of the bar started beating them to the ground in between some cars that were parked in the street.
A Cameroon minister-counselor said World Athletics is imposing a kind of apartheid on women with intersex variations by requiring them to reduce high testosterone levels with medication to participate in the female category, according to Reuters. World Athletics said the comments by Come Damien Georges Awoumou, minister-counselor at the Cameroon mission to the United Nations, showed a "complete lack of understanding" of their female eligibility regulations and the "need to protect" the category.
In Brazil, lawyer and country-club president Wagner Cardeal Oganauskas is being accused of hiring a hitman to kill his ex-wife after she came out as a lesbian and left him, LGBTQ Nation noted. Video, police say, showed the hitman shooting her 14 times and the ex-husband had been sending her threatening messages. Oganauskas was arrested and is facing murder charges in connection to the shooting death of his ex-wife Ana Paula Campestrini in the city of Curitiba in late June.
European soccer's governing body ordered the Hungarian Football Federation to play its next three home matches "behind closed doors" and to pay a 100,000-euro fine over recent homophobic and racist behavior by its fans, The New York Daily News noted. UEFA's Control Ethics and Disciplinary Body announced in a statement that it had concluded investigations on allegations of "discriminatory behavior" by its supporters during three Euro 2020 group stage matches: against Portugal, on June 15; France, on June 19; and Germany, on June 23. Also, for the next three games, the federation will be required to display a banner with the hashtag "#EqualGame" and the UEFA logo.
Singer-songwriter Melovin came out at the end of a performance at a music festival that was being broadcast live on network television, according to LGBTQ Nation. After kissing a man and a woman he had just performed with, Melovin then grabbed a Pride flag and waved it while yelling, "Yeah!" Footage of the double kisses was instantly shared online, but Melovin later learned that it wasn't included in the television broadcast. M1—the Ukrainian music channel that was airing the festival—had apparently cut the feed away from his set (unintentionally, the channel stated) when the coming-out commenced.
After calling out the racism which stemmed from the Euro 2020 Final, the Duke of Cambridge is under fire for hypocrisy, according to Elite Daily. Prince William's remarks came just four months after the royal palace faced scrutiny for inaction in response to the racism Meghan Markle said she faced as a working royal and regarding Meghan and Harry's son, Archie.
History was made at the recent Wimbledon men's championship match. According to USA Today, Marija Cicak became the first woman to serve as chair umpire at a men's singles final in the 144-year history of the championships. She previously officiated the women's singles finals in 2014 and the women's doubles final in 2017. Novak Djokovic won this year's final, beating Matteo Berrettini 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-4, 6-3—and securing his 20th Grand Slam title, tying him with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Production company World of Wonder is set to produce the first season of Drag Race Italia this year on Discovery+ Italia and WOW Presents Plus, EW.com noted. Drag Race Italia joins the ever-growing list of the Emmy-winning reality competition series' international editions, including Drag Race Thailand, Chile's The Switch Drag Race, RuPaul's Drag Race UK, Canada's Drag Race, Drag Race Holland, Drag Race Down Under, Drag Race España, and the U.S. original.
An unidentified person tested positive for COVID-19 at the village where Olympic athletes will be housed in Tokyo, according to Deadline. So far, more than 40 people involved in the Games have tested positive, including foreign and domestic attendees. But the outbreak at the athletes village is a first and strikes at the heart of the games; approximately 11,000 people are housed at the athletes' village. Already postponed a year by the pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics are being held largely without spectators and under strict rules.
A printer in Russia turned away work celebrating the Korean boy band BTS, saying it had enough "normal" clients and didn't want to help turn children into "perverts," out.com noted, citing the Russian Times. The PinkyPop cafe, in Ekaterinburg, had sent an order to a local print shop featuring images of the popular K-pop group. However, among other things, the printer responding by asking PinkyPop if it wanted their "children to become perverts" and stating it was "stupid to support something that may leave you with no grandchildren."
Netflix halted Bridgerton's season-two shoot for the second time in a week after another positive COVID test hit the wildly popular Regency-era drama, Deadline noted. Netflix has paused production for an indefinite period of time as the streamer and producers at Shondaland establish a timetable for a safe return amid the Delta variant of coronavirus surging across the United Kingdom.
