Michael Johnson sentenced to 30 years
American college wrestler Michael Johnson, also known as “Tiger Mandingo,” has been sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison for knowingly transmitting HIV to one man and exposing at least five others. Johnson became a public face of the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure after filming himself having condomless sex with men while he knew he had HIV.
Ireland prepares to vote
As Ireland prepares to vote in a referendum on same-sex marriage Friday, May 22, campaigners against same-sex marriage are buying a final advertising push, bankrolled by rich American evangelical donors. Meanwhile, Irish TV journalist Ursula Halligan has come out as lesbian, and told her story of overcoming self-directed homophobia in the Irish Times.
This homophobic world
Human Rights Watch created a map of all the countries that still criminalize same-sex relations, from Russia, where publicly discussing homosexuality could get you fined, to Qatar, where it could get you killed.
Luxembourg PM marries same-sex partner
Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel married Gauthier Destenay May 15, making him the second world leader to marry a same-sex partner after Iceland’s Johanna Sigurdardottir in 2010. Bettel took advantage of a change to Luxembourg’s marriage laws permitting same-sex marriages last year.
Two hermits and a wedding
The New York Times this week published two charming portraits of gay couples. The first, two gay men who set up an 18th-century recreationist commune in Pennsylvania where they intended to live in log cabins and work the land. Unfortunately, nobody joined them. The second, a profile of an American gay couple who were turned down for marriage by the US Supreme Court in 1970, but managed to get married anyway by subterfuge.
Image Credit:
Michael Johnson/Facebook
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