LGBT cartoons

*source: LGBT cartoons (thanks to lgbtusa.net & lgbtuniverse.net for the link)

PINK Armenia launches "Masculinity: breaking stereotypes" project at their new office in downtown Yerevan

PINK Armenia LGBT NGO launches "Masculinity: breaking stereotypes" project at their new office in downtown Yerevan.

On June 27 “Public Information and Need of Knowledge” NGO organized an event on the occasion of new “Information, Education, Communication” (IEC) office opening and “Masculinity: breaking stereotypes” program starting. The event was organized with the help of NGO’s staff, members, volunteers and friends. [...]

Within the framework of this NGO’s activities we organize trainings, group discussions, film watching and other events. You can get information about these activities from PINK calendar. And every Wednesday visitors can get psychosocial support and confidential and anonymous counseling concerning sexual health.

Main objectives “Masculinity: breaking stereotypes” of the program are to break stereotypes and spread tolerance. PINK IEC’s basic steps will be toward gender identity. Organization also continues its main and primary program implementation which is prevention of sexually transmitted infections and human rights protection.

PINK Armenia is now located at 2 Pushkin street. They work Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 19:00, and the office is open from 14:00 to 19:00 for anyone who is interested.

Congrats to PINK!! Their previous office was shut down due to financial reasons. However, they never stopped their activities, and continued working in the field with the help of friends and other NGOs. Along with blogging and being active via social networking sites, they also launched the official website of their organisation: pinkarmenia.org

London Gay Pride 2009 (video)

London Gay Pride parade (march), 4 July 2009

In this video: armed forces, police, fire brigade, National Health Service (NHS), Transport for London (tfl), British Airways (BA), sex workers, drag acts, Calvin Klein underwear models, swimmers, football players, Russian flags...



*Here is link to my Photostory

The Armenian Reporter on gay Armenians

Abused, mistreated, and stigmatized: Yet there is still hope for gay Armenians

by Yelena Osipova

Published: Saturday June 20, 2009

Yerevan - Last year 21-year-old Khachik, a university student from Yerevan, was thrown out of his home when his parents found out he has a "nontraditional" sexual orientation. Khachik told the Institute on War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) earlier this year that his parents said he was no longer their son and that he had to leave the house.

Khachik is far from being the only one in Armenia to face such an attitude, even from close relatives and friends. The same IWPR article quotes psychologist Davit Galstyan, who, throughout his career, has come across cases such as a mother rejecting her own children and sending them to an orphanage after learning that their father, her husband, is gay; or a father throwing out of the house his 14-year-old gay son, who then turned to street prostitution.

Social outcasts

On a social level, homophobia seems to be deeply ingrained in the Armenian psyche.

At least some representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church have taken the view that homosexuality is a grave sin. In an online program "My Priest," where the Araratian Patriarchal Diocese provided answers to about a thousand questions regarding the stance of the Church on various issues, Deacon Tigran Baghumian wrote, "homosexuality is a spiritual vice and sin" and, since such relations are "unnatural," they should be condemned. He cited various chapters from the Bible to support his view.

Interviewed in 2003 by GayArmenia.com, chairperson of the Armenian Helsinki Association Mikael Danielyan said, "Our society is either illiterate and believes that homosexuality is a disease to be treated, or people simply do not wish to accept something which is different from their traditional understanding of morality and family."

Predictably, fringe groups like the "Armenian Aryan Order" have proposed sending gay Armenians to Europe, "as homosexuality is a part of the European values." But the attitude is not limited to the right wing.

A prominent environmental activist, Karine Danielyan, has described homosexuality as a national security problem, citing demographic decline in Armenia.

Legal matters

In 1922, homosexuality ceased to be a criminal offense in the newly formed Soviet Union. However, as Soviet mores grew socially conservative, it was later reintroduced into penal codes. Article 116 of the Armenian Penal Code (1961) said: "Sexual intercourse of a man with another man (sodomy) is punishable by confinement for up to five years."

The article was repealed in 2003, after the Council of Europe set decriminalization of homosexuality in Armenia as one of the requirements for joining the organization. What is more, in December 2008, the Armenian government endorsed a UN statement against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. That move caused a public outcry from some parts of the society.

The UN statement is just a declaration, however, and does not have the power of other legally binding documents.

A report, Forced Out: LGBT People in Armenia, released in February 2009 by the ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Inter-sex Association) Europe chapter and the Centre for Culture and Leisure (COC), states that the protection of human rights in Armenia is very limited in practice. The report notes that "failure to respect, protect, and fulfill the rights of the LGBT people pervades all levels of society," be it the government, the community, or the family.

What is more, harassment and abuse by law-enforcement agents, along with institutional discrimination, still persist. Mr. Danielyan of the Armenian Helsinki Association, who has dealt with LGBT issues, has reported frequent cases of attempted extortion and blackmail by the police. In an IWPR article published in 2004, he said that the police have often taken advantage of gay men who would prefer to pay bribes rather than let the officers inform their families and employers about their sexual orientation. Furthermore, gay people can be arbitrarily detained, which is usually accompanied by verbal and physical abuse.

There have also been many reported cases of discrimination and abuse in the armed forces. Since homosexuality is regarded as an illness or pathology, most gays are barred from serving in the military. Those who are drafted, Mr. Danielyan says, can be later "diagnosed" with homosexuality, and sent to mental institutions for "special treatment."

If they get to perform their service, gay conscripts face humiliation, harassment, and violence.

Most gay Armenians live in fear and few dare to come out and stand up for their rights.

Problem with the media?

There is very little publicity for gay people in Armenia. Although the ILGA-Europe/COC report suggests that to date there are no publications, radio, or TV programs about the LGBT issues in Armenia, as well as no visible movement or community activities, there has been a lot going on over the Internet. Many social networking sites and blogs (GayArmenia.com; Unzipped: Gay Armenia Blogspot; Yesoudo.com) have become LGBT venues for making new acquaintances, participating in discussions, sharing news and information, and providing mutual support. Overall, since decriminalization, the situation seems to have improved at least for some of Armenian gays.

Micha Meroujean is the founder and president of the former Armenian Gay and Lesbian Association (AGLA) in Paris. He is originally from Armenia. He said in an interview with this author that despite several attempts at creating an openly LGBT organization since 2003, PINK Armenia (Public Information and Need for Knowledge) NGO is the closest so far. Although PINK primarily focuses on HIV/AIDS-related issues, it also promotes equality for LGBT people in Armenia. "You may say that the organization is there, but it is still very fragile," he added.

When these issues are addressed by the media, they are often treated with mockery and ridicule. What is more, references to gays often occur in news related to crime, HIV/AIDS, drug addiction, or commercial sex.

Aravot daily is one of the most popular and also one of the more independent newspapers in Armenia. In one place, it resorts to stereotyping: "As a rule, homosexuals work as hair-dressers, actors, singers, reporters, and models." In another, in writes: "Apparently, homosexuality is already regarded as normal even in Armenia; so normal, that we have even endorsed a UN statement against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation."

Representing sexual minorities in a fair, accurate, and balanced way would not only help to promote the rights of these groups, but could also promote the awareness necessary for breaking that vicious circle of victimization.

Mr. Meroujean said, "Armenian society needs to see, listen to, and discuss [the people it has considered] outcasts. When there is no public debate or contradictory information, the old clichés and prejudices persist and continue dominating public opinion."

Action needed!

Laws, by themselves, cannot change the situation, unless there is a proper climate to help progress. LGBT Armenians need changes beyond simple legislative reforms: the process of change is related to many cultural and educational factors, Mr. Meroujean said. He suggested, for example, that the government should introduce special awareness programs for university students and schoolchildren. "This needs to be done now. And the changes will come later," he added.

Other means can include more LGBT visibility, both, in terms of activism and public involvement; greater media coverage; public awareness campaigns; and, most certainly, lobbying the political and cultural leaders within Armenia.

Dziunik Aghajanyan, Head of the Department for International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in an interview, "We need to advance the human rights protection with an emphasis on respect and tolerance toward another human being, irrespective of political or any other orientation that he or she might have."

Society should overcome its own stereotypes, and should try getting over the idea of accepting "European-imposed" human rights. After all, Europe is where Armenia is striving to get one day, isn't it?

*Thanks to O.K. for the link.

Google celebrates Gay Pride 2009

It's not the first time Google is voicing its support for LGBT rights and equality. My respects to Google!

*The Official Google Blog

Celebrating Gay Pride 2009

All around Google, we're proud of our work, our culture and, most importantly, our people. In the spirit of celebration, this spring and summer Googlers have participated in Pride celebrations in Tel Aviv, New York, Zürich, San Francisco and many other cities around the world. Pride is a time for the LGBT* community along with families, friends and supporters to stand up for equality, and to honor those who paved the way for us to express sexual orientation and gender identity openly.

In the U.S., this year's celebration is historically important: it's the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, a response to what was then routine police harassment of LGBT people. Some 75 Googlers, family members and friends marched with several hundred members of New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center. Hundreds of Googlers also joined other U.S. celebrations in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and San Francisco.

Earlier this month, around 50 Googlers and friends gathered to celebrate at Europride, Europe's best-known Gay Pride celebration. This year it was in Zürich, Switzerland. After weeks of sunshine, on the morning of the parade it began to storm, but that didn't deter our intrepid Googlers from being out at 6:30am turning a 28-ton truck into a rainbow-colored nightclub on wheels. Hundreds of nuts, bolts and gallons of helium later, the truck was transformed, the sun came out and we were ready to march through the city streets, cheered on by a crowd of 50,000.

Google is a company that supports its LGBT employees, taking a public stand stand on issues that are important to our community. This is not the first year that Google has supported Pride, and it will certainly not be the last. We hope you enjoy this photo album of our global celebrations.

UK PM wife Sarah Brown is to march at Gay Pride in London this Sat as a show of her solidarity with the LGBT community

PinkNews reports that Sarah Brown, wife of UK PM Gordon Brown, will march at Pride London as a show of solidarity with the LGBT community. She will join the main Pride event after the reception at No. 1o Downing street early in the morning.

The wife of the Prime Minister is to show her solidarity with the LGBT community this Saturday when she will march in the Pride London parade.

On Saturday morning Gordon and Sarah Brown will host a small reception at 10 Downing St for Pride organisers, gay rights campaigners and representatives of the pink press.

A Downing St spokesman told PinkNews.co.uk:

"Because of security considerations, the Prime Minister will not be able to march himself, but Sarah wanted to show her continued solidarity for the gay community by taking part.

"The Prime Minister will be showing his support at the reception on the morning of Pride."

It is thought to be the first time a Prime Minister's spouse has taken part in Pride but it is not the first time Gordon and Sarah Brown have demonstrated their support for gay equality.

*photo - via PinkNews

Proud Armenians march at New York Gay Pride

As Tweeted by president of the Armenian gay rights group in New York - AGLA NY (below, with related thread):

Marching in NYC's Pride Parade with proud Armenians!
http://twitter.com/veken/status/2373398019

!! RT @veken Marching in NYC's Pride Parade with proud Armenians! #armenia #diaspora #gay
http://twitter.com/unzippedblog/status/2373585379

Soon in Erevan ? RT @unzippedblog: !! RT @veken Marching in NYC's Pride Parade with proud Armenians! #armenia #diaspora #gay
http://twitter.com/w2YDAvid/status/2373853096

@w2YDAvid I wish! But... Let's hope and work towards that ;)
http://twitter.com/unzippedblog/status/2375643792

*picture - via AGLA NY

Liza Minnelli at Paris Gay Pride

Liza Minnelli joins openly gay Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe at Gay Pride in Paris on Saturday 27 June 2009.

*photo - by prominent Russian gay rights activist Nikolai Alekseev blog. Nikolai participated at Paris Gay Pride too.

"Play Me, I'm Yours", Soho sq., London

New blog – Gay Armenian Lounge Room

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

"Its Fashion Darling!" (by British Armenian photographer Edmond Terakopian)

Its Fashion Darling! from Edmond Terakopian on Vimeo. (via photo this & that)

Photo slideshow of several years of work from London Fashion Week.

London and England rugby players pose naked to raise awareness of male cancer

*Harlequins and England rugby players Gonzalo Tiesi, Will Skinner, David Strettle and Jordan Turner-Hall pose naked for Cosmopolitan’s annual Naked Centrefold special, on sale 11th June, to raise awareness of male cancer for the Everyman campaign (via Telegraph)

**For more photos and videos - see Cosmopolitan

Open letter by Homosexual Students of Universities in Iran to the international community

Via comment left on my previous post, below is an Open letter by Homosexual Students of Universities in Iran to the international community.


Distress and Despair in the Streets of Iran today:

Open letter By the Network of Homosexual University Students of Iran

To The International Community

The painful incidents of the past few days reached their peak today. On Saturday June 20, the Islamic regime carried its violations of human rights of the past 30 years even further. The People’s desire to choose their government peacefully in a fair election was frustrated by the Regime and the Supreme Leader with deception and imposition of force. This led to a silent protest after the election results shocked the whole country. In the streets of Tehran, miles and miles of tolerant, calm, and resolved masses, about 3 million strong, confronted the rigged election. This peaceful yet determined protest was met with brutal force by the regime’s strongmen, shooting from rooftops and windows.

What the People of Iran want is democracy and free elections even if these are secured within the framework of an Islamic Republic. But apparently, an Islamic Republic is unlikely to give way to democracy. Reports of the dead and wounded in last week’s attacks on civilians vary, but facts are available through eyewitness accounts, images captured on cell phones and cameras, and messages typed online. Most significant is not our numbers, but the fact that we are being shot down in the streets in front of everyone, or being cut open in the detention centers where the protesters are being taken. Video clips and photos displaying killing and wounding, slitting of throats or tearing of bodies require no captions.

Strongmen and military forces are attacking civilians, using all sorts of weapons from boiling water to bullets. The basij, plain-cloths cultural police recruited to enforce religious morality, are now attacking people in their homes at night.

The People are still calm and determined; they have vowed to take back their stolen votes and to stop the government’s fraud with their bodies. Since the Supreme Leader announced the election results a ‌definitive victory this Friday and ordered the People off the streets, the demonstrations have been perceived as open war on the legitimacy of the Regime itself. Tehran was a bloodbath today. Other large cities report assaults and military attacks on civilians; there are many fatalities.

In the hands of the Government today, the citizenry’ lives are as subjected to horrible violence, as is their hope for democracy and a just society. Following the Islamic Regime’s crackdown on university dormitories on the first three nights, five student activists, Mobian Ehterami, Kasra Sharafi, Kambiz Sho’a’ee, Fatemeh Baratee, and Mohsen Eemani were killed. The rest of the students murdered and wounded have not yet been named. By now, all outside Iran have had a chance to see images of the People’s silent screams and the torn and bleeding bodies of the same protestors. Those who were arrested or kidnapped and released wrote accounts of the horrors they experienced. Still we fear the grave reality is not yet understood by outsiders. We know that our realities can sound like passages from an Eastern tale. For this reason, queer students in Iran feel compelled to tell of these tragic measures to the world and to stand witness. As we mourn the loss of innocent protesters and worry about the fate and whereabouts of those who have been arrested and not yet released, we are proud of the patient, determined long lines of people displaying the most amazing face of a society which remains refined in the presence of utterly brutal circumstances. We are united in this and we are one voice demanding democracy. Those of us who are alive today live by chance. This calm and refined crowed is devastated and distressed today. We live in fear and we anticipate the worst.

If Ahmadinejad backed by the Supreme Leader managed a coup against the elected president of Iran Mir Hosein Musavi, and seeks to divert the course of democracy, our hope and our goal is to not allow this to happen. Now that the Assembly of Guardians has turned down the People’s demand for new elections, the fear is that if the protests are crushed, the regime will oppress individual freedoms and civil rights much more harshly than before. The Islamic Regime of Iran, with its history of human rights violations, suppression of minorities and targeting of homosexuality by threat of execution, has chosen to repress democratic aspirations and demolish civil institutions in order to further its control of People’s lives in a widespread, veiled brutality. This will culminate in the wounding of Iranian society as whole and from there it will compromise human rights symbols around the world.

The Homosexual community of Iran has been living under harsh conditions of harassment and fear. We identify with the pain the People endured this last week; those who fought back tears and kept calm under attacks and assaults in which silence was the most effective or only shield. These days, the Government is dismissing demands for justice, opening fire on people, and calling them “less then dust,” “dirt,” “dirty” and “fags,” eliciting years of dual oppression in the mind of homosexual community. Iranian queers have been struggling with the merciless oppressive Regime for years; we know very well what it means to endure cruelty. In recent days, the Islamic Regime has been treating people in the same way it has treated the queer community over the past three decades. It is with this understanding in mind and with a hope for a fair and free future based on equality that we fight side by side, hand in hand against the dictator. We urge the international LGBT community to hear our voice and hear the People of Iran in their demand for new elections. We ask the international LGBT community to assist us in alerting the world of the cruelties and the killings taking place in Iran during these days. We fear that in the days to come, if the dictator wins, a generation -- our generation -- will simply be eliminated.

These days, the queer movement of Iran is alongside the people’s movement. We are certain that the death of democracy in Iran will sooner or later mean the death of all humanity. We are certain that in the denial of civil and individual rights – as Ahamdinejad did in his first speech after his second round of his appointment to power, calling all protesters “thieves,” “ruffians”, and “fags” – all hopes for a civil society will be wiped out. Yet we live with the hope of rescuing Iran from the spread of fascism. On the fourth day of the Silent Resistance, one protester held a placard pronouncing: I’m not afraid of death, my fear is of life ... three days has passed already. Equality, social justice, respect for different ethnicities, religions, languages, and sexual minorities are indeed possible, if people are not denied their rights within the framework of democracy.

We ask the international community, the international LGBT community, and human rights organizations or the world to be watchful of the atrocities in the streets of Iran today, to respect the Iranian people’s vote and their wish to live in a democratic society, and to refuse to recognise Ahmadinejad as Iran’s elected president until a new election is held in the presence of UN monitors. We ask the UN to dispatch peacekeepers to safeguard the People’s lives.

We ask the international community to stand by us and to urge governments to respect the Iranian People and their vote, to refuse to recognise Ahmadinejad as Iran’s president until we have the opportunity to elect our president with our own votes. What we want is a new election. The People are resolved to take back their vote. For the people of Iran, particularly for the queer community and all other minorities, this is the only possible way forward.

Today the Iranian People are relying on their own capacity to resist and assert their quest for justice. This will not happen without the support of the international community.

Praised be the day when Iran is responsive and responsible for all its children and citizens.

In the name of freedom and social justice,

Homosexual Students of Universities in Iran

June 20, 2009

Azerbaijan and ILGA-Europe: first step to conducting strategic advocacy for LGBT rights

by Beth Fernandez, ILGA-Europe’s Programmes Officer

*via ILGA-Europe June 2009 newsletter

As part of the PRECIS project (Prevention and Empowerment in the CIS), ILGA-Europe organised a two and a half day advocacy planning session in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 2 to 4 June 2009 with our Azeri partner, Gender and Development. The session was attended by 7 staff members and volunteers of Gender and Development and its women’s initiative group Mehriban, plus 2 staff members from Za Ravnie Prava (For Equal Rights) from Kherson in Southern Ukraine.

The aim of such sessions is to build the capacity of our partner organizations to advocate effectively and strategically on LGBT issues on a national and international level so that they maximize the potential of their staff and existing resources.

The session provides the participants with a framework and tools to produce a basic advocacy plan with two or three advocacy objectives which they can use to structure the advocacy work of their organisation. During this session, participants selected the passing of national legislation protecting the rights of LGBT people and the promotion of tolerant attitudes in state structures and society at large as their two advocacy objectives.

The session covers the concepts of advocacy and advocacy planning, identification and prioritisation of problems to be solved by advocacy, analysis of those problems, formulation of advocacy objectives and specific objectives, identification of key audiences, allies and opponents and selection of suitable tactics to use in each case. Time is also allowed for discussion of activities, resources and realistic timeframe.

The training received a positive evaluation by participants and we are looking forward to supporting Gender and Development, Mehriban, and Za Ravnie Prava in their future advocacy work.

Gender and Development is the only LGBT organisation registered in Azerbaijan and has been working for three years. They run a community centre which now attracts 300 regular visitors and conduct outreach on HIV/ AIDS prevention and monitoring within Baku. They assist LGBT people on specific cases where their human rights have been violated, offer psychological counseling and social activities. They are currently producing a film with ILGA-Europe’s financial support documenting discrimination in Azerbaijan and in the future they intend to conduct strategic advocacy with national and international institutions and expand their outreach activities to other cities in Azerbaijan.

This training was one of a series of advocacy planning sessions held within the PRECIS project. Trainings were held with Inclusive Foundation (Georgia), LiGA (Ukraine) and Labrys (Kyrgyzstan) in 2008 and we will organise similar sessions with We For Civil Equality (Armenia) in December 2009 and in March 2010 with Amulet (Kazakhstan).

Azerbaijan Gender Information Centre

Useful website on women rights, gender related issues and relevant subject matters for Azerbaijan. Available in English, Russian, and Azeri. This project is funded by the Open Society - Azerbaijan Fund and involves a coalition of Azeri women organisations.

gender-az.org

*Thanks to O.K. for the link.

Armenia delegate at Council of Europe Zaruhi Postanjyan signs PACE declaration on Lithuanian discriminatory anti-gay law

Great to know that Armenian MP from parliamentary opposition Heritage party Zaruhi Postanjyan has principled position not only re Armenia related human rights issues in general which I always commended, but inclusive of gay rights too. My respects to Zaruhi.

She is the only delegate from a Council of Europe ex-Soviet country (if we not count one Latvian representative) to sign this PACE declaration about the Lithuanian discriminatory anti-gay law.
***

Doc. 11969
23 June 2009

Lithuanian Law on the protection of minors restricts publication of information on homosexual and bisexual relations

Written Declaration No 428

This written declaration commits only the members who have signed it
________________________________________

We, the undersigned members of the Assembly,

Note with concern the adoption by the Lithuanian Parliament of a law which:

- deems public information “agitating” for homosexual and bisexual relations detrimental to the “mental health, physical, intellectual or moral development of minors”;
- prohibits the publication of such information except in places or at times when such information would be inaccessible to minors,

Are shocked that such information has been classified with the promotion of drugs or suicide, and the portrayal of killings, mutilation or torture;

Believe that this legislation will serve only to perpetuate discrimination and intolerance and deny young lesbian, gay and bisexual persons access to information which they need in order to live in accordance with their sexual orientation;

Emphasise that these provisions violate both the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,

Call upon:
- the President of Lithuania to refer the law back to the Parliament for revision in the light of Lithuania’s international human rights obligations;
- the Parliament of Lithuania to eliminate all discriminatory references to homosexual and bisexual relationships in this law.

Signed:
• HÄGG Carina, Sweden, SOC
• JENSEN Mogens, Denmark, SOC
• BOSWELL Tim, United Kingdom, EDG
• CIRCENE Ingrida, Latvia, EPP/CD
• ČURDOVÁ Anna, Czech Republic, SOC
• ELZINGA Tuur, Netherlands, UEL
• ELZINGA Tuur, Netherlands, UEL
• FRAHM Pernille, Denmark, UEL
• GALE Anita, United Kingdom, SOC
• GARDETTO Jean-Charles, Monaco, EPP/CD
• HANCOCK Michael, United Kingdom, ALDE
• HUSS Jean, Luxembourg, SOC
• IVANJI Željko, Serbia, EPP/CD
• JENSEN Michael Aastrup, Denmark, ALDE
• JOHN-CALAME Francine, Switzerland, SOC
• JONKER Corien W.A., Netherlands, EPP/CD
• KELEMEN Attila Bela Ladislau, Romania, EPP/CD
• LAMBERT Geert, Belgium, SOC
• LEMPENS Paul, Netherlands, UEL
• LEUTHEUSSER-SCHNARRENBERGER Sabine, Germany, ALDE
• MAURY PASQUIER Liliane, Switzerland, SOC
• MONFILS Philippe, Belgium, ALDE
• MÓSESDÓTTIR Lilja, Iceland, UEL
• OHLSSON Carina, Sweden, SOC
• POSTANJYAN Zaruhi, Armenia, EPP/CD
• RACHOŃ Janusz, Poland, EPP/CD
• ROSOVÁ Tatiana, Slovak Republic, EPP/CD
• STOLFI Fiorenzo, Saint-Marin, SOC
• STUMP Doris, Switzerland, SOC
• von SYDOW Björn, Sweden, SOC
• De VRIES Klaas, Netherlands, SOC
• WILLE Paul, Belgium, ALDE

Total = 32

EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party
SOC: Socialist Group
EDG: European Democratic Group
ALDE: Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
UEL: Group of the Unified European Left
NR: not registered in a group

*Thanks to B.F. for the info.
**photo - by RFE/RL

About Manneken Pis

I knew that I could not expect much of the so called ‘symbol’ of Brussels – Manneken Pis. But the reality was even worse, much worse than I expected. Manneken Pis is beyond words unremarkable. So bad, in fact, that I was almost speechless when I first saw it.

The only use of Manneken Pis is for tourist industry and related services. Few examples – below.

Brussels (photostory)

*René Magritte, well known Belgian surrealist/impressionist/mixed style artist.

*This is a monument (in downtown Brussels) devoted to gay rights activists and gay icons.

Homoerotic statues at Arkhangelskoye Estate Museum, Moscow, Russia

Could not resist of posting these, shall we say, pretty something pictures of statues at Arkhangelskoye Estate Museum near Moscow. Photos via prominent Russian gay rights activist Nikolai Alekseev blog.

All-male Romeo & Juliet by Roman Viktyuk in Moscow

*via Gay.ru