Nepal stages its 1st international gay parade
Hundreds of LGBTs and their supporters danced through the Nepalese capital of Katmandu Aug. 25 in the country’s first international gay parade. Sunil Pant, a member of Nepal’s parliament and the nation’s most prominent gay activist, organized the parade to campaign for greater rights for sexual minorities. Gay rights have improved dramatically in Nepal, where just five years ago police were beating gays and transsexuals in the streets .
Lutherans split over gay pastors, Bible beliefs
Critics of the country’s largest Lutheran denomination and its more open stance toward gay clergy have formed a new group at a meeting of a conservative activist group in Grove City, Ohio. Members of Lutheran CORE voted overwhelmingly to approve the creation of the North American Lutheran Church on Aug. 27. The new denomination will consist largely of congregations leaving the Chicago-headquartered Evangelical Lutheran Church in America over issues of adhering to scriptural authority, particularly the acceptance of openly gay pastors.
Adoption charity can’t ban gay couples
Britain’s charity regulator says a Catholic adoption advisory service that refuses to help gay couples has lost an appeal against a ban on its policy. Catholic Care, a charity in northern England, had argued that as a religious group it should be allowed to offer its adoption-support services only to heterosexuals, but Britain’s Charity Commission has ruled that the policy was discriminatory and breached European human rights laws. The commission said Catholic Care must either stop offering adoption services or change its policy on gay couples.
