Tim Farron has once again refused to answer on whether he thinks being gay is a sin.
Speaking on Nick Ferrari’s LBC morning show, Tim Farron once again refused to answer whether he thought being gay was a sin.
A caller, Brian, from Highgate asked the Lib Dem leader whether he thought that homosexuality was a sin to which he answered, “I dealt with that weeks ago.”
Ferarri asked Farron to remind the listeners what his position was, to which Farron answered, “Do you know what, we’re not going there. My personal faith is my personal faith.”
When pushed again by Ferrari, Farron answered,
“…to be honest with you, a person who is a leader of a political party, it’s their job as someone who is passionate about LGBT rights, prove it with your actions, not by your words.
“My actions, absolutely, are 100% about defending LGBT rights. And as a party, you look what we’ve done, my colleague Lynne Featherstone introduced equal marriage, I’m very proud of that.”
In April, Farron answered the question in April during an interview with the BBC where he said,
in a BBC interview this week, again Mr Farron’s opinion was sought on the subject. He replied,
“I don’t believe that gay sex is a sin.
“I take the view though, that as a political leader, my job is not to pontificate on theological matters.
“It seems to me that there is a general election on at the moment, we need to be talking about big issues.”
The general election will take place on Thursday 8th June 2017.
Brian Canchola’s trial has been delayed until October after witness illness cancels a court hearing.
The family of Stephen Sylvester will have to wait until October to learn the outcome of court proceedings against Brian Canchola, who stands accused of killing his boyfriend. The 18-year-old victim was found unconscious by police at his home, but died later from injuries sustained in an attack.
Kxan.com reports that a witness illness caused the delay after a hearing on Friday was cancelled. The judge pushed the trial until October 16th 2017.
Canchola was charged with first-degree murder after allegedly beating his 18-year-old boyfriend, Stephen Sylvester, to death. According to Canchola’s co-workers, the pair had been dating for two months.
In 2015, a roommate told police that he had heard fighting between the two boyfriends after he arrived home in the early morning and it was then that Canchola accused Sylvester of cheating. An alleged fight apparently escalated with the roommate hearing “banging and violent crashing”.
According to an affidavit, supplied by the roommate, the roommate also heard Sylvester’s pet dog crying out in pain after Canchola reportedly threatened to kill it.
The roommate found Sylvester after the fight, conscious but with bleeding coming from the back of his head and transported him to University Medical Center Brackenridge. However, Sylvester left the hospital before receiving medical treatment. He returned back to his apartment, where he lost consciousness, was transported back to a hospital and later died.
Canchola, who is now 22, is currently out on bond.
Singer Ariana Grande is returning to the UK for a concert which will raise money for the victims of the Manchester bombing last week.
Ariana Grande will be joined by Justin Bieber, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Pharrell Williams, Usher, Take That and Niall Horan to perform in Manchester in aid of the victims of last Monday’s terrorist attack in Manchester, in which 22 people were killed and over 100 others injured.
The concert is called the One Love Manchester benefit concert and it will take place on the 4th June. The concert will take place at the Emirates Old Trafford Cricket Ground. General admission and hospitality tickets will be on sale through Ticketmaster (ticketmaster.co.uk/arianagrandemanchester) fromThursday 1 June 2017 at 10:00 AM
Ariana Grande called on the biggest international names in music to join her for the evening, including Justin Bieber, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Pharrell Williams, Usher, Take That, Niall Horan, and others. The concert will be broadcast on BBC Television, and on BBC Radio and Capital Radio Networks. The BBC will be the host broadcaster for international television networks.
All net ticket proceeds of the show will go directly to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund which was set up by the Manchester City Council in partnership with the British Red Cross, in aid of grieving families and victims of the horrific attack.
Ariana Grande said, in an open letter posted on her social media accounts:
“My heart, prayers and condolences are with the victims of the Manchester Attack and their loved ones. There is nothing I or anyone can do to take away the pain you are feeling or to make this better. However, I extend my hand and heart and everything I possibly can give to you and yours, should you want or need my help in any way.”
“We will not quit or operate in fear. We won’t let this divide us. We won’t let hate win… Our response to this violence must be to come closer together, to help each other, to love more, to sing louder and to live more kindly and generously than we did before.”
“Music is meant to heal us, to bring us together, to make us happy. So that is what it will continue to do for us. We will continue to honour the ones we lost, their loved ones, my fans and all affected by this tragedy. They will be on my mind and in my heart everyday and I will think of them with everything I do for the rest of my life.”
The attack – which took place after Ariana’s Dangerous Woman concert at Manchester Arena on Monday 22 May – killed 22 people, seven of whom were children, and injured hundreds of others.
Hundreds of people turned up to a memorial held in the memory Martyn Hett, who died along with 21 others during the Manchester bombing last week.
At the end of a one minute’s silence, Martyn’s friend, Rob – sung an emotional, heartbreaking tribute of “Till The End Of Time” a Mariah Carey track from her second album, Emotions.
A minutes silence broken by a phenomenal rendition of a Mariah Carey track by Martyn Hett's friend, Rob. pic.twitter.com/J7AJByS4xL
— Hits Radio News | Manchester (@hitsmcrnews) May 28, 2017
Martyn Hett was 29 when he was killed by a suicide bomber at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena last week. He was one of 22 fatalities.
Speaking at the memorial his mother called Martyn an “iconic diva” and thank everyone for their messages of love and support since his death. She also called the family’s liaison officers “absolute angels”.
She said that she was never going to go down the route of hate or anger for whoever was responsible and the goodness that she’s seen since his death had “by far outweighed the darkness”.
Oh my. Cristiano Ronaldo has given us ultimate leg goals.
Pro-footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has reminded us how important it is not to skip leg day at the gym – and given us a view of Football’s most powerful and possibly most expensive legs.
Taking to Instagram the 32-year-old footballer uploaded a rather delish picture of his perfectly sculpted legs, whilst lying on a sun lounger. He added the simple caption, Fresh… and well, we disagree the word we’d use is moist. Very moist.
Ariana Grande has told fans she will return and told her fans she will do what for them – whatever they need.
Ariana Grande has broken her silence since her initial tweet after Monday night’s bombing of her concert in Manchester. Taking to Twitter she wrote to her 46 million fans that she was going to return to Manchester to perform a special fundraising concert for the victims of the suicide bombing.
She said that although there was nothing she could do to take away the pain her fans were feeling, she would “extend her hand and heart” and give whatever she could possibly give should they need her help.
In the letter to her fans she praised their diversity and beauty. She vowed not to be cowed by the attack and said that her fans should not let the action of the bomber divide them.
Twenty-two people were killed after a blast ripped through Manchester Arena during the end of her concert on Monday night. Up to 21,000 fans were in attendance of the concert.
At around 10:3o/33 PM as the singer, who was on a world tour had finished her concert and thousands of people were streaming out of the concert venue when a bomb was detonated.
Witnesses say that the bomb went off outside the auditorium.
In the wake of the attack in Manchester, the UK’s threat level has been raised from severe to critical – the first time this has happened since June 2007.
But the nation doesn’t seem to be bothered, instead, getting into the spirit of the times by pointing out just what constitutes an actual threat to the British way of life. #BritishThreatLevels has been the top trending topic on UK Twitter for most of Wednesday, and the responses are bloody brill.
I’m a political nerd, so I immediately went to check out what the politicians and journalists were saying – and I wasn’t disappointed:
Here is the most marvellously British response to terrorism. #BritishThreatLevels
Originally I thought this was an ingenious idea. I was going to push each column back a day until we reached Thursday, 8 June – election day. So this one was meant to be sent to my editor on Monday night, for publication on Tuesday.
I can’t put into words how utterly devastated I am – how utterly devastated all of us at THEGAYUK are – about what happened at Manchester Evening News Arena on Monday night. 22 beautiful, young lights were snuffed out far too early by a hateful “loser,” as US President Donald Trump rightly called him. Twenty-two young girls and boys, women and men, lost their lives because some twisted soul bought into an ideology of hate.
Speaking only for myself, I have wept uncontrollably for those we lost in Manchester – those beautiful, precious children and their equally precious parents who just wanted to see a pop idol sing. I pray to God that anyone and everyone responsible is brought not only to justice, but to His wrath. I hope they burn in Hell.
In the wake of the horrific attack in Manchester, the parties have halted campaigning until at least the weekend. Some have criticised this decision, but I think it wholly right. At the end of the day, we’re all British (except me; I’m American – but I desperately wish I were British). This is a national tragedy, the likes of which we haven’t seen in twelve years, since the 7/7 attacks in 2005. Politics suddenly seems much less important when our children are being killed by terrorist thugs as end leave what was meant to be one of the happiest nights of their lives.
As the contributing political editor for THEGAYUK, I had a decision to make: do I write in defiance of the terrorists, or do I follow suit with our political parties and cease political coverage for the next few days? I’ve grappled with this question all day, and I don’t know that I have the right answer. But I arrived at my answer.
I’m not going to write about politics today.
Instead, I’m going to talk about the victims who have been publicly identified, talk about their lives, and talk about what it is I think makes Britain so goddamn special.
I hope you’ll understand.
Saffie-Rose Roussos was 8. She became separated from her sister and mum – who at the time I’m writing this is still in hospital and unaware her daughter has died – and was killed in the terrorist attack. According to the Telegraph, her headteacher, Chris Upton said “Saffie was simply a beautiful little girl in every aspect of the word. She was loved by everyone.” She was “unassuming, with a creative flair,” he said, and “she was loved by everyone and her warmth and kindness will be remembered fondly.”
Georgina Callander was 18. Her mother, Leslie, was the first to lay a flower at Tuesday’s vigil in Manchester’s Albert Square. A self-proclaimed “Arianator” (the nickname for those in the Ariana Grande fandom), Georgina was seeing her idol for at least the second time. She was also an avid fan of Once Upon a Time, a television show about fairy tale characters. Several of the cast members, including Rebecca Mader (who played the Wicked Witch of the West) and Emelie de Ravin (who played Belle) tweeted condolences, remembering Georgina. (As a fellow Oncer, Georgina holds a special place in my heart, and I tweeted at series creator Adam Horowitz asking that, as another fan requested, the first episode of series 7 be dedicated in her honour.)
Kelly Brewster was 32. She had just put the deposit on a house with her partner, intent on building a life with him and his daughter. According to the Daily Mail, she shielded her young niece, Hollie, from the shrapnel coming from the nail bomb. Hollie survived thanks to her aunt’s courage, as did Kelly’s sister – Hollie’s mum. The Daily Mail spoke to the father of Kelly’s partner, Ian, who said he is ‘absolutely distraught.’
Alison Howe and Leslie Lees were waiting for their daughters to come out of the concert when they were killed. Both were from Royton, Oldham according to the Mirror. “They took a caring beautiful mum and step mother away from us all she was amazing to us x love you loads Alison Howe xx,” her stepson Jordan Howe posted on Facebook – again, according to the Mirror, who also reports that around the same time Leslie’s brother said she was “gone, but never ever forgotten.” These two mums were trying to collect their daughters from a pop concert. That’s it.
These are the victims, as of 3:33 GMT on 24 May, I know of. More will surely be made known by the time this is published. (ed note: RIP to Martyn Hett)
Their stories are equally worth telling. All 22 (and, God forbid, counting) souls’ stories are worth telling. It would be my honour to write them all.
I may never get that chance, but what I have now is a chance to use my platform as a contributing editor of this magazine and a writer for other British outlets to say this: they will not have died in vain. Their stories will be told, and their loss will redouble our efforts to confront the scourge of extremism within our own borders and abroad – that evil ideology, irrespective of religion, that seeks to divide us. The terrorists won a battle; they will not win the war.
Britain is at its best when it is united. It is what I love most about this country – a country that, no matter who you are or where you’re from can come together over a cup of tea. If that sounds quaint, it is, but it’s also honest – as the assassinated Labour MP Jo Cox said, we have more that unites us than divides us.
Britain is a beautiful, resilient country that will not be cowed by terrorists. No matter our sexuality, our race, our religion – no matter anything – we will always come together. The Mancunians showed us that last night, offering their houses to strangers and their taxi rides free of charge. They took the stranger in. Why? Because they’re British, and their neighbours were in need. That’s what we do in this country.
And though I’m American, I know a thing or two about the British spirit. I know how unbreakable it is. Times are scary, and times are tough. We’ve suffered devastating losses. But as long as we stand together, united, we cannot be defeated.
I’ll get back to politics later this week. I have an interview with Labour MP Peter Kyle that’s not to be missed and my usual witty observations. In the meantime, I ask that you pray for Manchester – or, if you’re of no faith, keep them in your thoughts. After all…
Taiwan is the latest state to rule in favour of same-sex marriage.
A Taiwan court has issued a landmark ruling that gay marriage will become available to gay couples, making the island the first Asian place to allow same-sex marriages.
The court ruled that the country’s civil code “violated” the Taiwanese constitution which guarantees freedom of marriage and equality.
The notion of legalising same-sex marriage in Taiwan was first proposed in 2003, however, the bill received mass opposition and was not voted on.
This is a breaking story – please refresh to read more as the story develops.
The pair, aged 20 and 23 were found together in March and arrested. They have not been identified and were lashed whilst wearing a hood during their punishment.
A large crowd gathered to watch the brutal punished and reportedly cheered at each lash. According to the BBC, one of the men cried out “”Let this be a lesson to you,” whilst another shouted, “Do it harder”.
The men were supposed to receive 85 lashes, but it was reduced to 83 after they spent two months in prison.
Being gay is not illegal in Indonesia except in the province of Aceh and the city of Palembang in South Sumatra, where elements of Sharia law has been introduced since 1999. These rule could also be applied to non-Muslims in the region.
In 1999 the Province’s Governor moved to issue limited Sharia-based regulations. Sharia law expressly forbids homosexuality. In 2014 a law was introduced which punished anybody engaging and caught having gay sex with 100 lashes, 100 months in jail or a heavy fine.
The men were arrested at the end of March. They were taken to Wilayatul Hisbah, a Sharia police station. They both now face 100 lashes as punishment. The entire siege was filmed on a mobile phone.
This is the first time that anyone has been punished in this way for being gay in Aceh.
