Let's talk about gay penguins: Munich zoo joins Pride week

MUNICH, Germany - Organizers of this year's Gay Pride week in Munich have a group of rather wild partners -- penguins, giraffes and lions at the city zoo where tours are being run about same-sex love in the animal kingdom. 

The Munich zoo has joined Pride week with an unusual look into the intimate lives of all creatures great and small, seeking to boost tolerance among humans.

"It is important for us to talk about" homosexuality in the animal kingdom and show that same-sex love has its place in nature, said Munich zoo spokesman Dennis Spaeth.

"Because unfortunately in Germany we see more and more people from the reactionary right attacking LGBTQI rights."

While even mostly Catholic Bavaria has grown more accepting and lawmakers legalized gay marriage in 2017, non-heterosexuals are sometimes still a target for violence.

Police recorded 91 attacks based on the victim's sexual orientation last year.

In the safe confines of the zoo, the first stop on the Pride tour is the giraffes. The blotchy animals spare visitors only occasional curious glances from behind their long eyelashes as they enjoy a meal of hay.

"Giraffes are bisexual. In some groups, 90 percent of the acts observed are in fact homosexual in nature," explained biologist Guenter Strauss.

A few enclosures down, there is little to distinguish a male-male couple of black-faced Humboldt penguins squatting together from other, mixed pairs.

That is until the guide points out that with no egg to care for, the pair has taken to brooding a rock instead.

This is no one-off fling, as "penguins conduct homosexual relationships that can last a whole lifetime, something very rare in the animal kingdom," said Strauss.

SCIENTIFIC TABOO

In fact, hundreds of animal species, from elephants to snakes and birds, display homosexual behavior.

But unlike most humans, the sexual preference of our four-legged or feathered friends is often quite fluid.

"Among people, we grow up with a specific sexual orientation. That's often not true for animals," said Strauss.

"They are in fact bisexual. They adopt certain sexual behavior at specific moments."

One case in point are lions, and the zoo's male big cat greets the group with a loud roar.

"Servus!" responded Strauss in a regional greeting redolent of traditional, conservative Bavarian culture.

"Eight percent of sex acts among lions are homosexual. As for lionesses, they only show lesbian behavior when they're kept in captivity," he explained.

While same-sex love among animals is commonplace, the topic was long a taboo for scientists of more hidebound eras.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Millions celebrate LGBTQ pride in New York amid global fight for equality

NEW YORK - Millions lined the streets of New York on Sunday to wave rainbow flags, celebrate the movement toward LGBTQ equality and renew calls for action in what organizers billed as the largest gay pride celebration in history.

Some 150,000 parade marchers and an estimated 4 million spectators commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising that triggered the modern LGBTQ movement, with corporate sponsorship and police protection that would have been unthinkable half a century ago.

Similar parades were being held around the world, with celebratory events in liberal democracies and growing fights for equality in other places.

North Macedonia held its first gay pride march on Saturday. In Singapore, marchers called for scrapping a law banning gay sex. In Turkey, members of Istanbul's gay and transgender community gathered for a small rally that ended with tear gas and rubber bullets on Sunday after their annual march was banned for the fifth consecutive year.

"It's hard for us today, but can you even imagine what some of these people went through in the past? There's no way to thank them," said Josh Greenblatt, 25, an actor wearing red sunglasses, a white crop top, ripped jeans and gold-heeled boots at the New York event.

Greenblatt said he found his outlandish outfit "empowering," and he had plenty of competition from revelers stripping down to the barest of essentials and celebrating New York's legalization of toplessness for women.

One woman wore a skintight rainbow dress with a rainbow afro about 2 feet (60 cm) high. A shirtless man sporting rainbow-colored wings and high white platform shoes strutted up Broadway. Rainbow onesie leotards were popular, and there were plenty of colorful wigs, patent leather, fishnets and bright makeup.

The festivities were set to conclude on Sunday night with closing ceremonies at Times Square and a waterfront concert by Madonna.

ANTI-CORPORATE DISSIDENTS

The world's marquee gay pride parade was preceded on Sunday by a protest march by thousands of anti-corporate dissidents who rejected a uniformed police presence and commercial sponsorship, while demanding LGBTQ equality.

The Queer Liberation March aimed to call attention to the killing of black trans women, protest U.S. detentions of migrant children and oppose actions by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to curtail the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other queer people.

In San Francisco, companies such as Alphabet Inc's Google, Facebook Inc, T-Mobile and Netflix Inc lent the parade a corporate flavor. Dissidents opposing corporate sponsorship blocked an intersection of the parade route, shouting: "Stonewall was a riot."

"The system of policing upholds white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, gender binaries and capitalist rule," one San Francisco protester said over a megaphone.

Some during the events also paused to consider the state of LGBTQ rights under Trump, who has banned transgender people in the military, cut HIV/AIDS research and supported so-called religious freedom initiatives to curb LGBTQ protections.

The White House says Trump has long advocated LGBTQ equality and noted that he backed a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality.

"They could turn back gay marriage. Don't ever fool yourself," said Christopher Edward Andrew, 53. "Elections matter. Votes matter." The U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in a landmark ruling in 2015.

In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, police raided New York's Stonewall Inn, ostensibly to shut down a Mafia-owned establishment selling watered-down liquor without a license. But the raid followed a series of others at gay bars in the Greenwich Village neighborhood, and the patrons fought back, forcing police to barricade themselves inside.

That touched off several nights of riots and the birth of a movement.

New York was designated the site of World Pride this year, drawing an estimated 4 million people to the city, where straight allies joined LGBTQ people in defending civil rights.

Mary Glasspool, assistant bishop of the New York Diocese of the U.S. Episcopal Church, said all its churches in Manhattan opened their doors for visitors from across the world.

"We want to show them this is a safe space and God loves everyone," Glasspool said. "Today, it is about love."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Lady Gaga fires up LGBTQ rally for Stonewall anniversary

NEW YORK - Lady Gaga electrified thousands of revelers who gathered in New York on Friday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the LGBTQ rights movement, exhorting the crowd to honor the past by using its "power" to extend and defend a half-century of progress.

Her warm-up speech and a subsequent rally, part of a series of World Pride events in New York this week, commemorated the so-called Stonewall uprising of June 28, 1969.

Early that morning, patrons of a Greenwich Village gay bar called the Stonewall Inn rose up in defiance of police harassment, triggering days of rioting. Their resistance gave birth to the national and global movement for equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other queer people.

Lady Gaga, a Grammy Award-winner whose signature song "Born This Way" has become an LGBTQ anthem, fired up the crowd, which began gathering in the park and public square outside the Stonewall hours earlier.

Appearing with a rainbow-colored jacket and thigh-high boots, she declared that Stonewall was the moment when LGBTQ people said "enough is enough."

"I may not, to some people, be considered a part of this community, even though I like girls sometimes. I would never degrade the fight you have endured," she told the cheering crowd. "You have the power. You are so, so powerful, and I hope you feel that power today."

Later the rally alternated between political speeches and block-party gaiety. Musical performances and rhythmic dancing rattled windows in the low-slung neighborhood. Drag queens sang '80s hits like "I'm So Excited" in between speeches by activists from countries such as Uganda and Chechnya.

US politicians including presidential hopefuls Kirsten Gillibrand, one of New York state's 2 US senators, and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio also took the stage ahead of what organizers are calling the largest gay pride parade in history set for Sunday, when some 150,000 marchers and 4 million spectators are expected.

In between featured speakers, impromptu rallies formed and dispersed outside the bar, with people waving homemade signs such as "Closets are for Clothes!" and "Gay Liberation Front," paying homage to the radical group that formed immediately after Stonewall.

"Get laid, get drunk, and have a party," said Martha Shelley, one of the Gay Liberation Front founders. "And then go home, roll up your sleeves, and fight."

While the anniversary has a celebratory air, activists see the occasion as a way to protest US President Donald Trump's record, which many consider hostile to LGBTQ people. They also want to highlight the still-precarious position of LGBTQ people in many parts of the world.

Police raided the Stonewall, a Mafia-owned gay bar, ostensibly to crack down on organized crime. But their mistreatment of the patrons, part of a pattern of abuse against LGBTQ people, touched off the uprising.

While celebrating 50 years of progress, many LGBTQ activists are sounding the alarm about Trump administration initiatives, including a ban on transgender people in the military, cuts in HIV/AIDS research and support for so-called religious freedom initiatives that eliminate LGBTQ protections.

The White House claims Trump has long advocated LGBTQ equality, noting that he has backed a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality.

"President Trump has never considered LGBT Americans second-class citizens," White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.

The message has been lost on many LGBTQ people, as the Trump administration opposes extending anti-discrimination protection to gay or transgender workers under federal employment law, a legal issue currently before the US Supreme Court, with a ruling due within a year.

In nearby Washington Square Park, some 500 pro-transgender activists staged a Trans Day of Action, where some held up "Black trans lives matter" signs, lamenting that 10 transgender people have been murdered in the United States in 2019 after 26 were killed in 2018 and 29 in 2017, according to the LGBTQ advocacy right Human Rights Campaign.

"Trump has really proliferated this hate towards us," said Qweenb. Amor, 30, a trans Latina. "It's something we're going to have to face every single day for the next 20 years, despite who wins the next election because these people who put Trump in power are people we have to work with every day of our lives."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trans woman crowned Miss Universe Spain 2018

MANILA - A 25-year-old trans woman was crowned Miss Universe-Spain on Saturday in a historic moment for the country.

Angela Ponce is the first transsexual to win the prestigious crown in Spain and will represent her country in the Miss Universe 2018 pageant.

Her victory coincides with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community's celebration of Pride Month.

According to pageant website Missosology, Ponce, who underwent surgery for sexual reassignment, previously represented Cadiz in Miss Spain World 2015 but failed to get the crown. 

In 2012, the Miss Universe Organization allowed transgender contestants to compete in the international pageant.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

LOOK: Canadian PM Trudeau to join Toronto Pride parade

MANILA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada announced Monday that he will be attending the Toronto Pride parade.

The parade is scheduled on July 3.

 

Very much looking forward to being there again, this time as PM. #PrideTO J’ai très hâte d’y participer à nouveau, cette fois en tant que PM.

Posted by Justin Trudeau on Monday, February 22, 2016

"Very much looking forward to being there again, this time as PM. ?#?PrideTO," said Trudeau in his official Facebook page.

Toronto's first-ever Pride Month launches June 1, featuring a theme of belonging and inclusion.

According to Pride Toronto, Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Toronto Mayor John Tory are also expected to take part in the festivities, along with Trudeau.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com