Giorgio Armani on gay fashion: ‘A man has to be a man’
Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani criticized the way some gay men dress in an interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, saying, “A homosexual man is a man 100 percent. He does not need to dress homosexual . . . When homosexuality is exhibited to the extreme — to say: ‘Ah, you know I’m homosexual,’ — that has nothing to do with me. A man has to be a man.” Needless to say, Twitter was not impressed.
Japanese actresses hold symbolic lesbian wedding
Japanese celebrity actresses Ayaka Ichinose and Akane Sugimori were symbolically married in Tokyo April 19, despite same-sex marriage still being illegal. “We held the wedding ceremony so that it might become easier for others to do the same in the future,” Sugimori said.
Read more at the Straits Times.
Vatican scraps takeover of American nuns
The Vatican has ended its confrontation with American nuns, in which it threatened to take over the leadership of nuns’ groups. The previous pope, Benedict XVI, took issue with the nuns’ accepting attitudes towards social issues such as abortion and homosexuality. Pope Francis has partly reversed tack, however, and met with the nuns at the Vatican before scrapping the attack on their organization.
Read more at the New York Times.
How to win a country to gay rights
What’s the best way to convince a country that gay rights are a good thing? At Reuters, Evan Wolfson says the trick is to go for the heartstrings, not the head. The attorney and gay rights advocate believes the strategy that shifted opinion on gay rights in the United States was to drop focus on rights and benefits, and instead focus on emotion and family.
Tonga moves to ban same-sex marriage
The Polynesian island nation of Tonga plans to explicitly ban same-sex marriage. Gay people already can’t marry in Tonga, but church leaders are worried that if the country ratifies the United Nation’s Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination against Women, women could accidentally be allowed to marry whom they choose.
Read more at Radio New Zealand.
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