HBO cancels Looking
HBO has announced it will not renew the show Looking, which follows a group of gay men in San Francisco, for a third season. Instead, the series will end on an upcoming special. Looking’s demise is likely due to weak ratings.
The Dumbledore smackdown
Harry Potter author JK Rowling responded sharply to a fan who criticized Dumbledore’s gay identity in a tweet. “I wonder why you said that Dumbledore is gay because I can’t see him that way,” the fan asked. “Maybe because gay people just look like . . . people?” Rowling replied, to much applause from the internet.
Thousands gather to defend Irish cake bakery
Thousands of Northern Irish Christians packed into a Belfast auditorium in a rally to support a bakery that refused to make a cake with a slogan supporting gay marriage. The bakery’s owners are going to court to defend themselves against Northern Ireland’s Equality Commission, which says the bakers cannot discriminate against gay people. The case could be an important precedent for equality protections in the UK.
Read more at the Belfast Telegraph.
Sweden officially adds gender neutral pronoun
Swedish dictionaries will now include a gender neutral pronoun, “hen”, as well as the male “han” and female “hon.” The word has existed since the 1960s, but has only gained consistent usage after adoption by the Swedish transgender community. According to the Swedish Academy, the word can be used for a transgender person, or when gender is unknown or superfluous.
A gay Muslim’s pilgrimage
In 2011, gay Muslim filmmaker Parvez Sharma completed a pilgrimage to Mecca, hiding his homosexuality and the iPhone he used to film the trip. In his documentary A Sinner in Mecca, Sharma struggles with his faith, and risks death at the hands of the Saudis.
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