International Briefs

GAGA GAGGED
MALAYSIA: GLBT-supportive lyrics in Lady Gaga’s single Born This Way have been censored in Malaysia. The line “No matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian, transgendered life” was considered “as offensive when viewed against Malaysia’s social and religious observances”, according to Malaysia’s top radio company Airtime Management and Programming Sdn Bhd. In Malaysia, anal and oral sex can still be punished with up to 20 years jail, fines, and if the culprit is Muslim, whippings.

GAY MEN ‘DANGER’
MEXICO: Human rights authorities have started an investigation into the arrest of five gay men by police in the city of Puebla in Mexico’s south. The men were stopped while crossing the road and charged with “being an annoyance and a danger to families” and told they were suspected of being prostitutes. There is no such offence as “being an annoyance and a danger to families” in the Mexican criminal code. The arrests came during a crackdown on street prostitution in the city.

CATHOLIC SUPPORT
USA: Most American Catholics support the legalisation of same-sex marriage despite the opposition of their church leaders. A poll commissioned by The Washington Post and ABC News found that 63 percent of white American Catholics believed same-sex marriage should be legal. The results mesh with a Gallup Poll in 2010 that showed 62 percent of Catholics, regardless of race, supported same-sex marriage. The Washington Post/ABC News poll also showed most men supported same-sex marriage for the first time.

SODOMY LAW STAYS
USA: Lawmakers in the US state of Kansas have blocked efforts to remove a redundant sodomy law from the state’s criminal code. In 2003 the US Supreme Court ruled that all state laws criminalising homosexuality were unenforceable. GLBT activists say keeping the law on the books stigmatises gay men. But the top Republican  on Kansas’ House Judicial Committee, Lance Kinzer, has called the issue “a tempest in a teacup”.