BY NATASHA BARSOTTI - If gay flight attendant Maxim Kupreev was going to continue flying the friendly skies with Russian airline Aeroflot, he had to get hitched -- the heterosexual way, Gay Russia reports.

Kupreev was allegedly forced into a union with a former school friend at the end of last year after he went public with his intention to form a group within the airline to fight for the rights of gay employees, according to the Gay Russia website.

It gets more bizarre.

Kupreev ended up marrying Sofia Mikhailova, who -- get this -- had to divorce her husband, Grigoriy Andreykin, so she could tie the knot with the 25-year-old flight attendant.

Gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev told Xtra by email Jan 31 that Kupreev has known his new wife "since the age of 6 as a schoolmate" and that she "had to divorce her husband in Siberia to enter into this marriage to help him. He basically faced an ultimatum."

"Aeroflot effectively broke a real marriage and created a sham one," Alexeyev alleges.

He told Xtra it was "a deal" for the couple. "She live in far away Siberia and now she can travel to Moscow for very very cheap by Aeroflot as much as she wants. He got the chance to continue his work and Aeroflot is happy cause they will not have to answer questions about the LGBT group anymore," Alexeyev wrote.

"The creation of an LGBT group in Aeroflot was announced on June 20, 2011," Gay Russia states. Kupreev, the founder of the group, said it would "fight for the direct inclusion of discrimination ban on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity into internal documents of Aeroflot," as well as "for the recognition of same sex partners of the employees," the report indicates.

A spokesperson for the airline reportedly denied the existence of the group.

Alexeyev says the group has now been put on ice. In the meantime, there is a call to boycott Aeroflot.

"We applied for the rally in front of Aeroflot office in downtown Moscow," he says. "We haven't got the answer from the authorities yet. But I expect a denial this week. With high probability they will ban the whole protest. Then we will go and organize without the permit. We already have a terrific plan."

 

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI - An Xtra Vancouver report about a glitter shower Dan Savage received at the hands of queer activists inspired a spirited Queerty response.

The Jan 21 "serenade," the third sparkly salvo with which the sex columnist and It Gets Better co-creator has been targeted, was the work of a group calling itself the Homomilitia.

Speaking with Xtra after the glitter bombing, activist Fister Limp Wrist accused Savage of "ableist, racist, transphobic, fat-phobic, sero-phobic and rape-apologist attitudes and views." Activists handed audience members bright pink pamphlets outlining their accusations as they entered the Vogue Theatre in downtown Vancouver.

Among the accusations listed: Savage has "repeatedly placed blame on Black and Latino communities for the success of homophobic legislation"; he has "repeatedly made derogatory and pathologizing remarks about fat people"; described HIV-positive people who have unprotected sex with HIV-negative people as "deadbeat infectors"; and he is part of a "broader trend of privileged cis-gendered gays who routinely ignore trans issues and transphobia."

But Queerty editor Dan Avery says Savage is not "anything-phobic," even as he's not a fan of Savage's anti-Santorum shtick or his attempts to get Family Research Council's Gary Bauer sick by licking doorknobs.

 

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI - Sixteen-year-old Amy (not her real name) and her girlfriend were sitting on a bench in a public square in the Maltese town of Hamrun when two teenaged brothers allegedly called them "twisted" and "lesbians," according to a report in the Times of Malta.

The verbal harassment morphed into physical violence. The two brothers descended from a balcony from which they were reportedly hurling their insults, approached Amy and her girlfriend and began to hit and push them. The older of the brothers picked Amy up, punched her and dragged her by the hair in an attack that lasted 10 minutes before the police were called, the Times reported.

In the end, Amy suffered a fractured nose from a head butt and bruises to her face and breasts, while her girlfriend had scratches on her wrists and a bruise on her head.

"It was a horrible experience," Amy told the Times.

The Jan 13 incident was not the first time the couple had encountered the two brothers, 17 and 19, who are now charged with assault causing injury, the Times states. Previously, the brothers had allegedly thrown eggs at the two women, who brushed off the incident.

In the aftermath of the latest attack, the Malta Gay Rights Movement (MGRM) and several NGOs have condemned the violence and called for an expansion of hate crime legislation to include incidents involving homophobia and transphobia.

"In many countries, such an assault would be investigated as a hate crime, but Malta has yet to extend hate crime legislation to include the grounds of homophobia and transphobia," a joint statement by MGRM and the human rights group Aditus said. 

People need to trust that police will take reports of violence seriously, the groups added. As things stand, attacks against queer people are common but most aren't reported to the police or in the media.

Since the incident, a few hundred people have registered their support of a Facebook group called The Amy Initiative that calls for hate crime based on sexual orientation to be recognized in Malta.

Landing image: timesofmalta.com

 

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI - Gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev is seen vehemently arguing with police officials in Red Square before being taken away by car in a Jan 20 YouTube video posted by Vladimir Ivanov.

A partial translation of the video's caption reads, "Activists took to the Red Square at midnight under a chiming clock on the Kremlin's Spassky Tower, when all the children in Russia need to sleep. They were holding characters in popular children's TV program "Good night, kids!" . . . Participants of the rally also carried signs "Give a gay pride parade in Red Square," "propaganda of homosexuality is not possible" . . . Earlier, the Moscow authorities have banned a gay activist . . . in Pushkin Square, with reference to the position of the federal law that public events can not be conducted between 23pm and 7am. Organisers have promised to appeal the ban by the Constitutional Court of Russia."

Queer activists have been protesting legislation that calls for the outlawing of "propaganda of homosexuality to minors." Gayrussia.eu notes that Arkhangelsk and Ryazan are two regions that already outlaw such "propaganda," and that "St Petersburg and Kostroma, where the Regional Parliaments have adopted similar laws in preliminary hearings, are the next to follow."

In St Petersburg, the legislation, introduced by Vladimir Putin's United Russia Party, passed first reading by 27 votes to 1 and introduces fines for "propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism and transgenderism to minors" and "propaganda of pedophilia." 

Moscow MPs have also expressed interest in drafting similar legislation. "If it continues like that, we expect that by the end of this year 20 [percent] of Russians, approximately 30 million people, will live in areas where advocating LGBT rights in the public place will be illegal," Alexeyev stated on Gay Russia. Alexeyev fears that all these moves could eventually lead to a federal law that further criminalizes queer lives. 

Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993 but has done nothing to address discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Earlier this month, Alexeyev, Alexey Kiselev and Kiril Nepomnyaschiy were arrested in Arkhangelsk as they picketed against the law in front of the regional children's library. According to Gay Russia, the three were holding various placards that read, "Russia takes first place in the world in suicides of adolescents. Among them, a large proportion are homosexuals," "Children have a right to know by virtue of Article 13 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Great men can also be gay. Gays also become great. Homosexuality is normal!" and "Homosexuality is a healthy form of sexuality. Both children and adults should be aware of that!"

Their arrest on Jan 11 was "the first application of the law prohibiting so-called promotion of homosexuality to minors in the Arkhangelsk region, a month after the ban came into force," Gay Russia reported.

 

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI - Jamaica's new prime minister wouldn't mind gays in her Cabinet (though she didn't reiterate that little tidbit in her post-election speech at the opening of Jamaica's Parliament on Jan 17).

Harper's Conservatives fell all over themselves last week after a Department of Justice lawyer told a court that same-sex marriages of non-residents are not really marriages if they can't get married in their home territories, so hey, you don't need to get a divorce, should you need one. But don't panic, said Justice Minister Rob Nicholson. We're not revising, revisiting, rejigging, re-anything, with anybody's same-sex marriage. Actually, now that you mention it, we'll make sure we close that "legislative gap," and voilà, all same-sex marriages performed here will be recognized, he assured. We like you, we really like you. Okay, so he didn't say that last part.

And now . . . the head of the German Football Association is joining the international queer love fest. He wants all gay players to come out, come out wherever they are, according to The Local, an English-language newspaper in Germany.

As far as Theo Zwanziger is concerned, the lay of the land for gay footballers is getting better, so why should they not declare their homosexuality for all to hear and see?

Certainly, Zwanziger's not alone in that opinion, which he aired at a public forum in Cologne that discussed sexuality in sports. 

The UK's Guardian newspaper ran a story in November 2010 noting that German national player Mario Gomez had broken ranks with the German football federation and encouraged gay players to be honest about their sexuality, a move that he feels would allow them to play with more abandon.

But then there's German national football team captain Philipp Lahm, who feels that society is still not on board with openly gay soccer stars.

"Football is like earlier gladiatorial combat. Sure, politicians can now come out as homosexuals. But they don't have to play in front of 60,000 spectators week after week," Lahm said, according to the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.

And Lahm, who has denied rumours that he is gay, seems to have his finger on that pulse. There are as yet no openly gay players in Germany's top league, and he has advised those who may be gay to remain in the closet, in his book A Subtle Difference.

The first professional player to declare his homosexuality in the UK, Justin Fashanu, killed himself in 1998, but not before speaking up about the sport's entrenched homophobia.

It doesn't help that in 2010, FIFA head Sepp Blatter - in response to a question about the potential fate of gay soccer fans in not-so-gay-friendly Qatar, which will host the 2022 World Cup - said they should put sex on hold. And then apologized for his quip. 

Or that Croatian soccer president Vladimir Markovic doesn't want gay players on the national team because "only healthy people" play the game. 

Or that Nigeria's women's soccer coach Eucharia Uche invoked religion to purge her team of lesbians as it prepared for the Women's World Cup in Germany last year.

And while some women footballers have come out, their well-being often depends on where they undertake that bold venture.

In 2008, South Africa's Eudy Simelane was gang raped and murdered after she came out.

It's more than time for FIFA to set a very public, very consistent policy and message that homophobia is a no-no, in the vein of the high-profile campaign they've been waging against racism in the sport over the last decade.

Maybe consult with that German Football Association guy.