BY DANNY GLENWRIGHT – New leaked WikiLeaks documents have revealed that the United States government is worried about the Catholic Church fomenting homophobia in Poland. 

(David Walberg photo)

LifeSite News has reported that the cables, from the US embassy in Warsaw, cite the Church as “central” in the promotion of homophobia in the European country.

“The Catholic Church plays a significant role in the formation and propagation of anti-gay attitudes in Polish society, especially in rural areas,” states one cable from August 2009.  

Poland has a population similar to Canada's, and more than 85 percent of citizens are members of the Catholic Church.
 
This is not the first time the country has been in the news for homophobia; in 2006 then-Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynsky was publicly rebuked by the European Parliament over the Polish government’s homophobic tendencies.  

At that time the rightwing League of Polish Families party was part of the government. Members of the party have previously attacked those marching in feminist and queer parades in Poland.

Pride marches were illegal in Poland until 2007, when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that banning parades violates the right to freedom of assembly and association.

Warsaw, the country’s capital, played host to EuroPride in 2010, the first time the event was held in Eastern or Central Europe.  

At the time the BBC reported that eggs were hurled at marchers and a petition with more than 50,000 signatures was submitted on behalf of anti-gay organizations calling for the cancellation of the event.

The most recent WikiLeaks dump also revealed that US ambassadors in Sierra Leone have been looking at ways to temper African attitudes toward gays and lesbians.  

Check out our video clip from Pride in Warsaw:

For more on Pride in Warsaw, see Courage and joy prevail at EuroPride in Warsaw.

Tuesday, April 5, marks the opening day of Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children and Youth.

Jitters, one of the films showing, is an Icelandic coming-out and coming-of-age story. It’s quite compelling, it's beautifully shot and written, and it's a very sophisticated, adult and modern portrayal of human sexuality.   

From the Sprockets page at the TIFF website:

A refreshingly realistic take on teenage life, Jitters follows Icelandic teenager Gabriel on a trip to England, where he has a life-changing encounter with the rebellious and freethinking Marcus. As Gabriel reconnects with his tight-knit circle of friends back home, his confusion about his sexual identity is brought to the fore when tragedy befalls the group, forcing them to re-evaluate their fragile relationships to each other and to their families.

Director Baldvin Zophoniasson, actors Atli Oskar Fjalarson and Birna Run Eiriksdotitr and other members of the Jitters film crew will be in attendance April 7th, 8th and 9th!

Sprockets runs April 5 to 17 at the gorgeous Bell Lightbox, 350 King St W in Toronto. Jitters runs four times, starting on Thursday, April 7. Check dates and times here.

Adrian Lomaga announced earlier today that he is withdrawing his lawsuit against Héma-Québec. The case was to head to court on Monday, April 4. Lomaga writes in a statement that he anticipates the deferral period imposed on men who have sex with men will be reduced to five years. As it stands now, if you have had sex with another man even once since 1977, you are banned from donating blood in Canada. 

We'll have more on this story as details emerge.

For now, check out some of Xtra's previous work on the ban against gay blood. 

Read the text of Lomaga's statement below.

 
Dear Friends,
 
A development has taken place which warrants a delay in my lawsuit against Héma-Québec.
 
The Canadian Standards Association, an independent body which consults with leading experts, is considering making a change to the lifetime deferral imposed on men who have sex with men from the blood donor pool.
 
The experts who were going to give evidence at my trial on my behalf and on behalf of Héma-Québec both agreed that a 5 year deferral period is likely reasonable and would not increase the risk of a disease being passed from a blood donor to a blood recipient. Further, they each agreed that if the deferral period were 1 year, that there would be some increased risk of HIV being transfused. Depending on which expert you ask, that risk is 1 additional unit of HIV being transfused once every 16 years or once every 328 years in Canada.  
 
The Ontario Superior Court recently ruled that the lifetime deferral of men who have sex with men was reasonable and not discriminatory. Given this negative precedent, my lawyers were concerned that if we were unsuccessful in the Quebec Superior Court, that there would be two bad precedents. Worse, if the blood banks changed the deferral period from the time that the Quebec Superior Court gave its reasons but before it was heard on appeal at the Quebec Court of Appeal, the Quebec Court of Appeal may choose not to hear the appeal because the issue could become irrelevant, or moot. There would then be two bad decisions for equality rights in Canada.
 
Since it seems that change is likely going to take place within a year, I have agreed to withdraw my action for the time being. The lawyers for Health Canada proposed this resolution and I agreed. Rest assured, however, that if change does not take place, a new action will be started and the litigation will resume.
 
The outpouring of support from across the country has been tremendous. Thank you. The fight for equality, however, is not over. I encourage you all to speak out about this injustice and to keep the pressure on both Canadian Blood Services and Hema-Quebec. For those who can afford to make a donation to EGALE Canada, that too would be helpful in paying for legal costs associated with this litigation. You can donate at www.egale.ca/donate <http://www.egale.ca/donate>. Please mark your donation to “Adrian.” 
Once again, thank you to all of you. We could not have gotten this far without your support.
 
Yours very truly,
 
Adrian Lomaga

   

 

I came across this piece on Towleroad that includes video of a lesson on homosexuality from an Indiana Catholic School:

Brr. If you listen carefully you can actually hear my skin crawl... Check out more video installments on the Towleroad link above.

The sum total of classroom time devoted to homosexuality I experienced as a student at an Ontario public school in the 1980s was precisely 20 seconds. My Grade 10 gym teacher – with beads of sweat on his upper lip and a nervous tremor in his voice – told us during our human sexuality unit that some of us boys might masturbate to climax eventually, and that some of us might even feel a little attracted to other boys. "But don't worry," he said. "You'll grow out of both quickly." By then I was already climaxing all over the place and thinking about boys every second I wasn't thinking about food. I never really did grow out of either. Outside of class, homosexuality seemed just about all everyone talked about... "faggot" this and "homo" that. 

Anyway, check out Xtra's current work on GSAs in Ontario's Catholic schools. 

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Speaking of homosexuality, check out this little essay from salon.com about straight men fingering the erotic pleasures of their own back passages. I’m not sure I believe that anal sex is more fashionable than it used to be, but there’s something lovely about the idea of straight guys figuring out how to play with their bums because all the cool kids are doing it.

* * *

Lady Gaga has released a nifty countrified/easy-listening version of "Born This Way."

And a cutie dyke uses another Gaga tune to win the Danish edition of X Factor...

And from now on every time I write about Lady Gaga I think I’ll include mention of her appearance in Xtra's Toronto sister, fab magazine, just before she got too big for us.

A week after that vid and the below fab cover image was shot, Gaga performed in New York's Times Square on New Year's Eve and that was it. I like to think fab pushed her over the top ;-) Perhaps you'll chat with us again one day, m'lady.

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Kd lang is going to tour in the land of Aus. And she’s got a few Canadian dates this summer for Winnipeg, Kelowna and Burnaby.

BY MATT MILLS – Scientists in China say they can turn mice gay by lowering serotonin levels in mouse brains. Straight guys at Hooters have found that chicken wings fortify hetero-normative conceptions of masculinity, while celery stalks can lead to sexy gay kissing.

I suddenly have the urge for something healthy and crunchy.

* * *

Got a few xtra bucks and looking for something to do in Toronto this Sunday evening? Well, it's time for the AIDS Committee of Toronto's (ACT) 10th annual SNAP! photographic fundraiser. It includes a live auction, silent auction and photo competition. It will be held at the National Ballet School, one of the niftiest venues in Toronto for this kind of event. ACT needs you. 

This piece from the event's online gallery caught my eye...

 

 

 

It's called Mindtrap and it's by Patrick Lightheart.  It's big too: 40 X 40. *Sigh*

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The horrifying anti-gay Ugandan bill was shelved before it reached a vote. 

Check out some of Xtra's past work on Uganda...

US evangelicals and Uganda's anti-gay bill.

David Kato memorial in Vancouver

Xtra reports from Uganda

One man's adventures in Uganda

 * * *

I noticed this piece from The Guardian last night about novelist, producer and movie and television star Dirk Bogarde.

Bogarde has been dead for years, but he became a huge star in the UK in the early 1940s. He was a prominent actor there as Western Europe recovered from World War II, entered the Cold War and the masses embraced television. He was a hot, creative man, and he was also a sister with an amazing moral compass.

I first laid eyes on Bogarde in Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s 1996 documentary film, The Celluloid Closet. One of the films profiled in that doc is Bogarde’s 1961 film, Victim. In it Bogarde plays a handsome, successful married solicitor who becomes enmeshed in a blackmail scandal after a young male friend commits suicide. The film is about gay men living in the shadows, afraid of being outed, subject to all kinds of victimization because gay sex is criminal and taboo.

Dum-dum-daaaa! C'mon, give it a chance, it was a different time.

Victim is a complicated story in which all is not as it initially seems. It is one of earliest mass-market films that refers openly and directly to homosexuality. And it changed social mores in the UK, contributing partly to the success of the movement to decriminalize gay sex in that country and opening the way for the same here in Canada.

The DVD release of Victim includes a 1961 press interview Bogarde gave about the film and his life. It’s fascinating.

Wow, here's the whole thing…

Sometimes I think I was born 50 years late.

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From the Toronto Star on Friday: High school clerk gets spanked for porn video.