By Christopher Cappiello

Bomb Threat and Protests Can’t Stop Jerusalem Pride

In spite of violent protests from ultra-Orthodox groups, an estimated 2,000 participants marched along a heavily guarded route in Jerusalem’s controversial Gay Pride parade on June 21.

“I am demanding my civil rights, including the right to get married and have children,” Guy Frishman told the Israeli news agency Haaretz. “I want to have rights like every other person.”

Moments before the parade began, police arrested a 32-year-old man carrying a homemade explosive device in the ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood. “He admitted he planned on planting it on the route of the parade today,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told BBC News.

The night before the parade, violent protests resulted in the arrests of 23 demonstrators who were hurling rocks and firebombs at police. Two officers were injured and two police cars damaged, including one set on fire. Haaretz reports that police used water cannons to disperse the crowds.

Sa’ar Netanel, an openly gay member of the Jerusalem City Council, received dozens of death threats in the week before the parade after the Council gave the final go-ahead for the march. Conservative Christian, Islamic and Jewish leaders called for the parade’s cancellation in what all three religions consider a holy city.

“The question ‘why in Jerusalem’ is not a question,” said Dana Olmert, the lesbian daughter of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, to the BBC. “It is the same question as letting women vote.”

Officials deployed 7,000 police officers to protect the 2,000 marchers along a carefully circumscribed parade route that was only several hundred yards long.

Polish Gays Fleeing to U.K.

In the face of growing persecution from a right-wing government, Polish gays are leaving the country in alarming numbers, according to activists.

“It is incredible. The Polish gay community has just moved away because of the climate of fear and persecution,” Robert Biedron, head of the Polish Foundation Against Homophobia, told England’s Daily Mail.

“It’s impossible for gays to be themselves in Poland,” he continued. “Around 2 million Poles have left the country seeking work and thousands of gays are joining them.”

The Daily Mail reports that the government of President Lech Kaczynski, a conservative Catholic, has created a committee to explore “curing” gays. Deputy Health Minister Marek Grabowski admitted that the ministry is trying to determine how many homosexuals are in Poland. It is also developing guidelines for parents and teachers to identify early warning signs of “gay behavior.”

“Most of the people I know are now in England,” Biedron said, “because of the current political situation. Not for economic reasons, but because of the persecution of homosexuals going on here.”

In early June, 5,000 marchers participated in the first officially sanctioned Pride parade in Warsaw, the Polish capital.

Conservatives Kill Colombia Gay Rights Bill

An unexpected parliamentary maneuver by a conservative senator resulted in the shelving of a landmark Colombian bill that would have granted same-sex couples a number of the same rights as married couples in terms of health insurance, inheritance and social security.

The bill had passed both houses of the Legislature and a final joint measure was expected to pass easily in the Senate. Conservative President Alvaro Uribe has endorsed the bill.

Sen. Manuel Virguez Piraquive, a member of a small party with close ties to a socially conservative Colombian church, took the unusual measure of calling for a floor vote on the bill, breaking from the standard procedure of party-line votes on reconciled bills.

With many of the bill’s supporters absent, and members faced with making individual votes, enough conservatives were convinced to break ranks with the president and vote against the measure. The 34-29 defeat excluded more than a third of the 102-member Senate.

The bill’s sponsors were disappointed that Uribe did not defend the measure within his own party.

“He said he supported the bill during his presidential campaign,” Sen. Armando Benedetti told The Associated Press, “but since then he’s been silent.” Supporters are expected to bring the measure back for consideration after the Legislature’s summer break.

Although some states and cities in Latin America have legalized same-sex unions, including the Mexican state of Coahuila and the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sol, no country in the heavily Roman Catholic region has extended such rights at the national level.

Reggae DJs Sign ‘Compassionate Act’

After increasing pressure and protest from the Stop Murder Music campaign, three of the biggest reggae artists signed the Reggae Compassionate Act, officially agreeing to not sing homophobic lyrics or make public statements inciting violence against the LGBT community.

“The singers’ rejection of homophobia and sexism is an important milestone,” said Peter Tatchell, head of the London-based Outrage and one of the principal leaders of the Stop Murder Music campaign, in a statement. “We rejoice at their new commitment to music without prejudice.”

Beenie Man, Capleton and Sizzla Kalonji signed the act after Eddie Brown of Pride Music brokered an agreement. The campaign, which includes more than 60 groups in the Caribbean, North America and Europe, has protested at dancehall concerts and pressured concert promoters to cancel performances by artists who have used homophobic hate speech in songs and statements.

“If these singers abide by their signed statements to avoid homophobic words and lyrics worldwide, we have no objections to their concerts going ahead,” Tatchell said. “We will call off the campaign to cancel their concerts and advise all our constituent and allied groups around the world to do the same.”

The campaign will now focus on five dancehall artists who have refused to sign the agreement, Buju Banton, Elephant Man, TOK, Vybz Kartel and Bounty Killer.