Cynthia marries

Tuesday 29th May

One of the stars of Sex and the City, Cynthia Nixon, has married her partner of eight years in a quiet ceremony in New York, US media organisations report.

Ms Nixon, who played the cynical character Miranda in the series, met her partner, Christine Marinoni, in 2004, and have been engaged since 2009. Since announcing their engagement, the couple have been vocal in the campaign for equal marriage in New York.

The Tony-award winning actress was previously married to the photographer Danny Mozes, with whom she had two children. Last year, Ms Marinoni gave birth to a son, their first child together.

Ms Nixon caused some controversy earlier this year, when she claimed her homosexuality was a choice. She later clarified her statement by saying that while her bisexuality was a fact and by no means a choice, what she did ‘choose’ was to be in a gay relationship. She spoke strictly of herself, not about the LGBT community at large, she said.
 

Pink News

'Gay Propaganda'

Tuesday 29th May

Critics, who include high-profile stars such as Madonna, say the law - already active in St Petersburg - discriminates against gays.
For the seventh year in a row the gay pride parade has been banned in Moscow but activists challenge the authorities by taking to the streets anyway.
The inevitable arrests have become almost routine. Many are detained for wearing badges bearing pink triangles.
One woman was arrested for holding a packet of coloured felt tip pens, a replacement for the banned rainbow symbol of gay pride.
In Russia's second city of St Petersburg it is now illegal to "make public actions among minors for the propaganda of homosexuality".
Gay rights activists like former teacher, Grigory Zaritovsky, have called for a veto of the law.
He lost his teaching job when his employers discovered he was gay. They said it was inappropriate for him to work with children.
"Most people in Russia are sane and don't equal homosexuality with paedophilia," he said.
"But there is a part of society that is radically minded, they protest against the gay community - promoting the idea that a gay person is always a paedophile. In their minds it is intrinsically linked."
Some people who hold that view also hold positions of power and influence.
United Russia member Vitaly Milonov introduced the law in St Petersburg - he says to protect the city's children.
"They should not kiss in kindergartens," he says. "They should not come close to a school and kiss each other."
Asked if he thinks gay people would really be interested in doing that, he replies he says: "They are doing this. An activist from one of the Russian homosexual organisations tried to show his posters only near schools, children's libraries or kindergartens."
Madonna, whose upcoming concert in St Petersburg is promoted with posters around the city, has promised to speak out against the law, which she calls a "ridiculous atrocity".
So far it has been used against activists carrying banners that read things like "Homosexuality is not a Perversion".
The interpretation seems to be that promotion of gay rights equals propaganda.
St Petersburg's gay community has expressed its outrage, with many feeling they are simply victims of a crackdown on gays.
Now, any expression of homosexuality has to be confined to gay clubs.
Being homosexual in Russia has never been easy - the future looks set to be even more of a challenge.

X Men gay wedding

Thursday 24th May

The New York-based publisher said Canadian character Jean-Paul Beaubier would marry his lover Kyle Jinadu in the pages of Astonishing X-Men No 51. The issue is due out on 20th June.

Northstar revealed he was gay in the pages of Alpha Flight No. 106 in 1992, one of Marvel Entertainment's first characters to do so. Ten years later, in 2002, Apollo and the Midnighter were married in the pages of The Authority, published by WildStorm, which is owned by DC. Since then, numerous comic book heroes and villains have been written as gay, lesbian or transgender.

These include DC Comics' Kate Kane, aka Batwoman, and the characters Hulkling and Wiccan in the pages of Young Avengers. Comics, as a medium, have embraced gay, lesbian and transgender characters, and comic strips have done likewise. This month, cartoonist Tom Batiuk is writing about a gay couple trying to attend their high school prom in Funky Winkerbean, a move that has divided the fictional community.

"As I sit in on the classes at my old high school, I see how the younger generation's attitude toward gays is more open and accepting than that of their predecessors," Batiuk said.

For Marvel, the upcoming wedding is a way to further embed same-sex issues in its contemporary universe.
"Whenever you tell a story that touches upon an issue people are passionate about, you open yourself up to controversy and some very heated comments," said Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso.

"But as long as we continue to tell good stories, with nuanced characters from different walks of life, we feel that we're making our comics accessible to the widest possible audience."

President Barack Obama recently came out in support of gay marriage, but Marvel's views evolved a while ago. Alonso said the writers started thinking about such a storyline after New York legalised same-sex marriage last June. "Most of our characters reside in New York, and our stories always work best when we reconcile them against the real world, so it raised some questions," he explained.