Gay News

Stranger by the Lake (L'inconnu du lac) is a 2013 France gay drama by Alain Guiraudie.
With Pierre de Ladonchamps, Christophe Paou, Patrick d'Assumçao.

Summary:

Summertime. A cruising spot for men, tucked away on the shores of a lake. Franck falls in love with Michel. An attractive, potent and lethally dangerous man. Franck knows this, but wants to live out his passion anyway.

This is surely the most explicit film to flush down the Croisette in some time, and its controversial nature is liable to make it a hot ticket at the festival, at least before audiences become aware of quite how affected the rather self-ingratiating explicitness is. Full-frontal male nudity aside, the various liaisons between the film's characters are depicted in sub-pornographic style, with shots of ejaculation and seemingly real oral sex adding little to the narrative while appearing to exist solely to shock (though they do cement a sense of place rather aptly).

Stranger by the Lake is a slow burn thriller about sex, desire and murder among a group of gay men.  As provocative for the ideas about desire, transgression and narcissism that it examines as for its graphic scenes of man-on-man coupling, Stranger by the Lake earned Guiraudie the Best Director prize in the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes.

It has also stirred controversy in France: on Monday, two Paris suburbs removed posters for the film that displayed an illustration of two men kissing after residents complained the image was inappropriate.

France 24 interviewed filmmaker Alain Guiraudie about the controversies. Read the  interview .

Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma, has passed a law imposing heavy fines for providing information about homosexuality to people under 18.

The measure was passed unanimously and will become law when approved by the upper house and President Vladimir Putin, a virtual formality.

Under the new law, private individuals promoting homosexual behaviour among minors face fines of up to 5,000 roubles (£100; $155) while officials risk paying 10 times that amount. Businesses and schools could be fined up to 500,000 roubles.

A recent poll found that nearly half of Russians believe that the gay and lesbian community should not enjoy the same rights as other citizens.

Update: Signed into law

1st July 2013. See  article from  guardian.co.uk

Russia s president, Vladimir Putin , has signed into law a measure that stigmatises gay people and bans giving children any information about homosexuality.

Russian police pounced on gay campaigners after they unfurled banners and rainbow-coloured flags outside the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament.

Several protesters were attacked by Orthodox 'Christian' vigilantes.

Police patrolling outside the Duma shouted from megaphones: Your rally is not sanctioned, you're disrupting passers-by while police trucks fitted with metal cages waited nearby.

Moscow authorities had refused permission for the rally for the eighth year in a row, claiming it would interfere with students out celebrating the last day of term.

Police also arrested several nationalists and Orthodox Christians, who sang hymns and crossed themselves as if to ward off evil spirits. Konstantin Kostin, a member of the Holy Rus movement spouted:

Gay people need medical treatment. It's simply disgusting to look at them. Russia used to be a great superpower. Now look what's become of us. Marriage is a sacred union between man and woman, and this lot want to defile the sanctitude of our country.

Bahrain MPs have voted to ban pork as part of a new tranche of sharia laws.

They approved amendments to the Penal Code that including:

• Criminalising the sale, import, export, production and possession of all pork products. Anyone who defied the pork ban would face up to two months in jail or a fine of up to BD300 ( £ 530), or both.
• three-month jail sentences or fines of up to BD300, or both, for anyone caught gambling. If the offence was repeated within 12 months, the sentence would be up to a year in jail or a fine of BD500, or both.
• Offering gambling would be punished with up to six months in jail or a fine of up to BD500, or both, and if repeated within 12 months the sentence would be no less than a year in jail or a fine of no less than BD1,000, or both.
• Those found drunk in public places or cause disruption while drunk would be sentenced to up to three months in jail or fined up to BD300, or both. If the offence is repeated, the punishment would be no less than three months or a fine of between BD200 and BD1,000, or both.
• Prostitution, sodomy and adultery could be punished with up to five years in jail for those aged over 21.
• Meanwhile, those who publicly say, shout or speak profanity or send messages or broadcasts through any means could be jailed for up to two years or fined up to BD200, or both.
• Those who encouraged prostitution would be jailed for up to a year. Encouraging prostitution in public places could carry up to two years in jail or a fine not exceeding BD1,000, or both.

The amendments will now go to the Shura Council for review after the summer recess.

A charities board says it made a decision to remove Family First New Zealand from the national Charities Register because it no longer meets the requirements of a charity.

It seems that the issue is the campaigners' obsessive rant against anything to do with gay marriage. The general manager of Charities Services, Brendon Ward said that at a recent meeting of the board:

The members determined that Family First's purpose did not meet the charitable purpose recognised in New Zealand law and set out in the Charities Act 2005.

The Board's position is that Family First's main purpose is to promote particular points of view about family life. Under the Act promotion of a controversial point of view is a political purpose.

Family First does not advance religion or education, nor promote a benefit to all New Zealanders as determined by the Act.

Family First maintains that it is beneficial to the public that it promotes debate and discussion of different points of view on family life. However, the current legal position is that promoting debate on particular points of view is not a charitable purpose.

Family First now has 20 working days to appeal the board's decision to the High Court.

Gay men and women living in Indonesia's Aceh province are facing being publicly lashed 100 times under a proposed bylaw backed by politicians.

Illiza Sa'aduddin Djamal, the Banda Aceh Deputy Mayor, is calling for brutal bylaws against gay people city adherence to sharia law. Djamal, who has called homosexuality a social disease that should be eradicated, has complained police are unable to punish gay people under current rules.

Gay rights advocates have slammed the proposed bylaw, calling it a move backward for civilization . We're living in 2013, not in the Middle Ages, said Hartoyo, secretary-general for Our Voice, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy group. Hartoyo said:

People are born as transgenders and homosexuals. What's the reason to punish them? Punishing them means she could not appreciate God's creations.

A Greek television advert is being withdrawn after both the country's truckers and the gay community took easy offence.

The ad for AirFastTickets shows a hitchhiker boarding a truck for Turin. As soon as the door shuts, the driver flicks a switch, a neon-lit pink divan with bears and pillows appears in the cabin, and he blows the passenger a suggestive kiss. The punch line is:

Do you want to travel cheaply, and end up paying for it dearly? 

The Hauliers Association whinged:

You have ridiculed Greek truckers brutally and without provocation

Greece's main gay association, OLKE, whinged that the ad typecasts gay men:

Gay men are presented as devious and sex-obsessed people trying to seduce unsuspecting youths. Once again, the easy road of homophobia and stereotypes is chosen to advertise products.

AirFastTickets produced a new version of the ad, in which the driver keeps a skull and electric candles in the back of the cabin and wants to take a detour through the Carpathian mountains. But the truck drivers was still 'outraged':

The new ad presents us as necrophilliacs. We will file a complaint about this one too.