In my web travels I often collect stories that I intend to share, but then become distracted by newer, shinier stories—or feel too lazy to illustrate them. This is what becomes of those stories: A Pile o’ Sla… Hugs? The Town of Truro, Nova Scotia—which made national news last year after some bizarre homophobic comments by its mayor—has finally reached an agreement with a local gay rights group, amending its employment equity policy to include sexual orientation. A strange outcome, considering the dispute was over a flag-flying policy. For the first time ever, Canada’s Armed Forces marched in ...

Magnum, a gay sauna in Budapest, Hungary, was the target of four petrol bombs early today. This is the second bombing in a week. In both cases, the perpetrators called first to make sure people were inside. "We are doubtful if the police are really protecting the gay establishments as they promised," says Gabor Kuszing of the Hungarian gay-rights group Patent Association. Two female students were arraigned on charges of aggravated assault after videotaping their beating of a lesbian classmate whose PDAs were said to upset them. All of Big Sur, California, was ordered evacuated as an ...

Things are heating up in Budapest. And not in a good way. In the early hours of Wednesday, the Magnum gay sauna was was attacked. And the gay rights group Patent is worried that the police are not providing adequate protection to gay establishments and the LGBT Festival as promised earlier. Four petrol bombs were thrown into the sauna. The perpetrators are said to have called the sauna before the attack, just as in the case of the gay bar that had been bombed last Friday, to check if there were people inside, a Patent spokesperson said.. Well, at least they were ...

Some additional information out of Havana on what went down before yesterday's planned gay rights march there. The Miami Herald, reports on a conference call from gay Cuban activists in Havana to Miami: "'The march was not able to take place because the government stopped our leaders,' said Ron Brenesky, a Miami Cuban who heads the Unity Coalition, South Florida's largest Latin gay rights group. 'Our brothers and sisters in Cuba, they are not alone,' said Brenesky, who spoke with gay activists in Cuba by cellphone Wednesday evening. Unity Coalition members gathered for the phone call at Club Azucar ...

(London) Heinz Co. said viewer complaints prompted it to pull a British television advertisement for mayonnaise that showed two men kissing. British gay rights group Stonewall said it was shocked that Heinz had yanked what it called an “innocuous” ad and urged gay consumers to boycott the company. The ad, which was launched on British television just over a week ago and was meant to run for five weeks, was taken off the air Friday, Heinz said in a statement released Monday. Time to boycott Heinz? Or maybe we should give them credit for trying, even though they have no backbone. -Rashid ...

According to The Guardian, UK gay rights group Stonewall had the group YouGov carry out the survey, which polled over 1,700 lesbian, gay and bisexual people. They're calling it the first comprehensive national survey of its kind: "The poll found that 12.5% had been the victims of a homophobic crime or incident over the past year, and 20% over the past three years. One in six of the victims had been physically assaulted and one in eight had been subjected to unwanted sexual contact. Almost nine in 10 had experienced homophobic insults and harassment. Three-quarters of the victims had ...

As of this posting, 6,346 people had signed the petition to reinstate the Heinz Deli Mayo ad. Yesterday, the UK gay rights group Stonewall launched a boycott of Heinz products. Truth Wins Out's Wayne Besen and the American Family Association's Randy Sharp debated the ad on CNN's Headline News. Dan Hill, a business marketing analyst, chimed in as well. Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP... ...

As gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people prepare to celebrate gay pride in San Francisco this weekend, many of them also are organizing a boycott and protest of the country's largest gay rights organization. Activists plan to be on the streets during the festivities to inform people of the boycott and protest of the Human Rights Campaign's annual fundraising dinner in San Francisco next month, a major event that raises tens of thousands of dollars for the organization. Similar actions took place at fundraising dinners in Philadelphia and New York City earlier this year. The controversy stems from the ...

Ben Summerskill, head of UK gay rights group Stonewall, has slammed Heinz for pulling its Deli Mayo advertisement, saying the company has insulted a broad base of gay consumers to appease a few vocal right-wing Christians. Writes Summerskill, in the Guardian: "Any nod at all to the very existence of homosexuality might be enough to have Mary Whitehouse twitching in her celestial bathchair, but the Heinz peck broadcast last week had not even been shown in front of the children the ad is claimed to have upset. (The Deli Mayo it promotes is so unhealthy that Heinz is not ...

Details of a letter sent from UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to Lord Roberts of Llandudno, a Liberal Democrat peer, published by The Independent, have angered gay activists. The letter followed Smith's rejection of a call for the immediate halt of deportation for gay and lesbian asylum seekers whose safety might be threatened by return to Iran, following the granting of asylum to gay Iranian teen Mehdi Kazemi. Said Smith in the letter: "We recognise that the conditions for gay and lesbian people in Iran – and many other countries – are such that some individuals are able ...