“Gudmundur Steingrimsson has, ever since joining the Progressive Party, been gay. A Progressive Gay. He is in the party but not a Progressive Party man; he is a Social Democrat, if anything,” Jonsson told Icelandic radio. He went on to say that he believes Steingrimsson’s wish to set up his own new political party is doomed.

Many took his words as a personal, and distasteful, attack against Steingrimsson and Iceland’s gay and lesbian association, Samtokin ’78, asked Jonsson to clarify what ‘Progressive Gay’ really means — adding they were not offended…yet.

The chat show host has now responded, saying his words were perhaps poorly chosen.

Jonsson says he was not calling Steingrimsson’s sexuality or his masculinity into question, and neither was he trying to offend gay people.

“What I was trying to say is that Gudmundur has come out of the political closet, because he was not a Progressive Party man, he was always a Social Democrat,” Jonsson told Bylgjan radio. “I couldn’t give a damn who people love as long as they are good colleagues and good people.”

He added that it is probably long-overdue that he invites Samtokin ’78 onto his INN television show, Hrafnathing, to discuss the state of gay rights in Iceland.

The billboard, which has been rolled out across Europe, shows two men holding hands with the caption, “We are open to all families”.

In response to the campaign, Giovanardi said, “I think that many clients of Ikea will not find this pleasant”. He added that the Swedish furniture giant is free to address who it pleases, but that using the term ‘family’ in relation to a gay couple, “is in direct opposition to our constitution, which says that family is founded on a marriage”.

Aurelio Mancuso, a gay rights activist, branded the MP’s comments as “dangerous and aggressive”, and said they “risk fuelling the climate of homophobia that drives violence and insults against gays, lesbians and transsexuals.”

Fellow gay activist and lawmaker Franco Grillini, however, blamed the conflict on Italy’s anti-gay culture, pointing out that, “in the rest of Europe, they have adopted laws that recognise all forms of family”.

Italy has no law against homophobia and does not identify same sex marriages or civil partnerships.

Giovanardi was also criticised by fellow MP Ignazio Marino for “launching a crusade against an advertisement”.

“I have been [wondering] if they want to take revenge against the church, for liberal-minded people to leave the church and to turn against Christianity,” Roman-Lagerspetz said in a report by Helsingin Sanomat. “There is something of an air of revenge against this decision.”

Around 500 people a day have submitted resignations from the Finnish Evangelical Church via website Eroakirkosta.fi since the magazine drive was launched last week. This compares to the usual rate of around 50 resignations a day.

The last time such an exodus was seen in Finland was in autumn last year following a televised debate about gay issues featuring Christian Democratic Party MP Paivi Rasanen. More than 40,000 people said they left the church after this because of Rasanen’s strong views against homosexuality.

Oskar, who lives in Jonkoping, central Sweden, had previously complained to his parents that he was excluded by the other children, dragged from the school’s climbing frame and called names such as “gay” and “a girl” by his fellow playmates.

The six year-old’s parents have now removed their son from the school after claiming they were not informed about the latest clash, which teachers described as a “small incident”.

“I don’t want to have my child at a school which considers a stab with a knife to be a ‘small incident’,” Oskar’s mother told Jonkopings-Posten. The matter has also been reported to the country’s Schools Inspectorate.

A candidate test was carried out this week on the Church homepage in order to vet applicants for the upcoming elections. The survey, which enables voters to choose a suitable runner for their parish, jammed after opening on Monday due to unexpected demand.

In the online examination, 72 percent of respondents said they were in support of the Church holding prayer vigils for same sex couples. A further 48 percent said they were also in favour of blessing gay couples and gay marriage.

In total, 7,800 entrants were asked about the controversial issue which is thought to have drawn increased attention to the parish elections following a heated YLE TV debate about gay rights last week. A record number of Finns resigned from the church within 24 hours of the show’s airing.

Advanced voting begins next week before the election proper in three weeks’ time.

According to the Eroakirkosta website, which facilitates withdrawing from the church, a total of 2,633 turned their back on the institution in a single day. This figure was 1,500 higher than the previous daily record of quitters and more than the entire number of resignations for the whole of July. The previous daily record was set at 1,049 on December 31, 2008.

Eroakirkosta information officer, Heikki Orsila, put the spike down to a YLE current affairs programme, Ajankohtainen Kakkonen, which was aired the previous night. On the show, which was entitled Homoilta (Gay Night), a panel discussed gay rights issues, including the controversial question of whether same-sex couples should be allowed to marry in church.

The panel included Christian Democrat Paivi Rasanen, who was fiercely critical on the issue of gay marriages and same-sex couples’ adoption rights. According to the website, half of Tuesday’s 372 resignations were received during the programme.

The carrier is currently accepting entries, and the winning would-be-wedders will be chosen in an online vote. All going to plan, the successful couple will tie the knot mid-air on 6 December on a flight from Stockholm to New York. The ceremony itself will, however, have to take place in Swedish airspace where gay marriage is legal.

“It will be a very traditional wedding,” SAS spokesman Anders Lindstrom told AFP. “There will be wedding cake and dancing in the aisles.”

Lindstrom said SAS is following the lead of US airlines which have long been courting gay and lesbian passengers with targeted marketing campaigns. He added that the airline’s same-sex wedding would take place in a closed-off first-class section of the plane in case any other passengers disapprove of the mile-high matrimony.

“We don’t want to offend anyone. We hope we won’t offend anyone. It is the year 2010 after all,” said Lindstrom.

The Queer Culture Festival is one of the largest openly LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans-gendered) events in Russia. Last year, it attracted over 3,000 people and went on without any obstacles from the Russian authorities, right extremist groups, or any other interruptions.

This year’s Russian Festival of Queer Culture has already gained support from distinguished artists, politicians, journalists and other public figures. Among its supporters are Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, British actor Stephen Fry, Belgian singer Lara Fabian, American actor and filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell and others. The organisers are also said to be happy with the Russian support they are receiving this year; among them Vladimir Pozner, a famous Russian TV journalist and host, Artemiy Troickiy, one of the leading specialists in modern music in Russia and Valeriy Panyushkin, the well-known journalist and writer.

This year, the organisers hope to attract even more attention than last, peacefully and lawfully, to the issues that affect LGBT people. “We think the Festival is positive and valuable experience for all of St. Petersburg and Russia. Our goal is to make it happen. If it’s not allowed to proceed, it would be a loss for the
city. Our message is that of tolerance and respect for human rights and each other – that should not be too scary,” says Polina Savchenko, the Festival co-ordinator.

“When a question if I wanted to participate in the Festival came up, there was no hesitation. I definitely said yes directly,” says Jay-Jay Johanson, popular Swedish musician and guest star of the Festival. “I wish the Festival good luck and I hope their voice will be heard all over the world.”

You can find the Festival’s program on the website:

http://queerfest.ru/?lang=en

The organizer of the Festival is the St. Petersburg LGBT organisation
Coming Out (http://piter.lgbtnet.ru ) with the financial support by
the Swedish human rights organization Civil Rights Defenders
(http://www.civilrightsdefenders.org).

(from a press release)

The piece, by artist Svend Ahnstorm, has received at least three complaints from staff, according to reports. The exhibition, which has been installed in the town hall by the local art association, also features the popular children’s play figures in guises as Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler.

Henrik Kolind, spokesman for Roskilde Council, said there are no plans to remove the offending images. “We have freedom of expression in Denmark, and the association asked for my approval of the exhibition and got it,” he said in a report by The Copenhagen Post.

Ahnstorm said he was surprised by the controversy, adding that he didn’t think workers would have the same objections if the piece depicted heterosexual sex. “It’s hard to believe that something like this can offend people in today’s Denmark,” he added.

Organisers hope for a turn out of 70 to 80,000 people for the parade and the following outdoor concert on Arnarholl hill in the centre of the city. As always, the concert is headlined by Iceland’s biggest pop star, Pall Oskar.

Reykjavik Gay Pride has a full schedule of events from Thursday to Sunday and is one of Reykjavik’s biggest and most popular annual events.