Joan Y. Psmith,

First published at eurOut.

Emma Donoghue tackles the topic of desire between women in literature in her new book Inseperable: Desire Between Women in Literature.

( Read more about Emma Donoghue's new book... )

First published at eurOut.

1858. The Tanzimat Era of the Ottoman Emprire. Almost 100 years before England and Germany did, the country that we now know as Turkey decriminalises homosexuality.


Detail of ILGA Europe's Rainbow Europe Country Map

( Fast forward 152 years... )

First published at eurOut.

Pride time is in full swing all around Europe. With the Opening Party tomorrow, Saturday June 5, Vienna is joining in. There's a lot happening prior to the actual Pride Parade, the 15th Regenbogenparade. Like every year various tramlines around Vienna will fly rainbow flags, there will be talks, concerts, parties and many other ways to get together with with your fellow lgbt people. Here I'll give an overview of upcoming events. You can find all events at the official Vienna Pride website.



( A selection of parties, workshops, guided walks and more. )

First published at eurOut.

Would you think someone who has a record of consistently voting against lgbt rights (10 against, 8 absent, 1 pro) has a good chance of becoming Minister for Equality? No? Well, think again!

The only case in which Theresa May (Conservative) voted pro-gay was her voting in favour of the Civil Partnership Bill in 2004. Other than that she has, for example, voted against lowering the age of consent for homosexuals and against the right for same-sex couples to adopt. Yet, Theresa May is the new Minister for Women and Equality in the UK.

( Read more about the UK's new Minister for Equality... )

Look at how productive I am! It only took me three whole months to post another little story. :D


night rises [200 words]
summary: night doesn't fall; night rises. it starts on the ground, in the corners. it creeps out from under stones, oozes out of cracks in the wall, slides along tree trunks until it reaches the remotest branches.

First published at eurOut.

Last week Gwen already wrote about the difficulties that arise for gays and lesbians, who seek asylum in the UK because of their sexual orientation. But the UK isn't the only European country guilty of forcing people to return to places where they aren't safe at all.

According to Amnesty International's recent report Iraq: Civilians Under Fire Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden also breached UNHCR guidelines and forcibly returned many Iraqis to unsafe parts of the country.

This report also talks specifically about attacks on gay men and violence against women and girls, which further underlines the importance of protecting lgbt asylum seekers.


Iraq: Civilians Under Fire

( Read more about the 'Iraq: Civilians Under Fire' report )

First published at eurOut

A beautiful woman is smoking, her face covered in glittering body paint and illuminated by undulating lights. Who is she?

The first name that you think of will most probably not be Romy Schneider. Excusable, but still wrong as you can see in the embedded clip from the movie L'Enfer.



( Read more... (and watch embedded vid) )

A while ago I posted a couple of t-shirt designs that I'd uploaded to mysoti. I thought you might be interested to know that if you like them but don't want to order them from mysoti you can download these designs from my deviantart page, change them, print them out and iron them on, whatever you want. I added the download links to the original post.

Plus, there's a new one. :)

myself & colin

	I know who I'm quoting, you know who I'm quoting. And if you really don't, then what do you want with that shirt anyway? Not that I'd be stopping you wearing it. ;) - You can also download the design to do whatever you want with it here.

Disclaimer: These are rather obscure fan shirts that I doubt infringe any copyright. But just to be on the safe side I want to point out that I do not make any money of this. If you buy the shirts from mysoti I do not get any commission whatsoever!

First published at eurOut.

In the current issue of their journal German history teacher's platform Lernen aus der Geschichte (Learning from History) focuses on the situation of homosexuals in National Socialist Germany.

The issue, titled Homophobe Traditionen (Homophobe Traditions) summarises previous work on the subject and recommends teaching material, all of which is equally educational even if you aren't a history teacher.

( Read more... )

Who can honestly say they've never dreamt about exploring space, about setting foot on other planets? I know that I can't. Being outside the protective atmosphere of our planet, a space suit the only thing separating us from space - I imagine life can't get much more exciting than that. The woman I want to write about for this year's Ada Lovelace Day makes these space explorations possible for humankind in the first place.


original picture credit: NASA

( Finding Ada 2010: Amy Ross: Space Suit Engineer )