Here are our top gay news picks from December 14th to December 21st.
Gay Vancouver News
- Happy hour among B.C. liquor policy changes: The government is recommending that minors be allowed to dine with their families in pubs, legions, and membership clubs, and that restaurant patrons no longer be required to order food with their beverage in food-primary establishments. Diners will also be allowed to move freely with a beverage from one licensed area to another.
- Vancouver pub doesn’t plan on opening doors to minors: The Fountainhead Pub says that particular change to BC’s liquor laws doesn't fit their demographic.
- Gay Vancouver councillor meets with Russian Honorary Consul: Immediately after city council unanimously voted to send Coun. Tim Stevenson, who is gay, to the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the Honorary Consul of the Russian Federation called him to ask for a meeting.
- Qmunity's Dara Parker tackles homophobia against gay tenant in Vancouver: The issue was raised in response to the recent news story about 25-year-old Jonathan Pretty, who went public about how he signed a lease to rent a Kitsilano suite but the landlord later told him that he didn't want Pretty as a tenant when he found out Pretty was gay.
Gay World News
- Ugandan parliament passes antigay law: While homosexuality was already illegal in Uganda, the maximum penalty for the new offence of "aggravated homosexuality" is life imprisonment. The death penalty clause, originally included when the bill was introduced in 2010, was removed from the final version adopted by Uganda's parliament.
- ‘Duck Dynasty’ Star Suspended Over Remarks About Gay People: “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson has been suspended from filming the A&E reality series following his remarks about gay people where he called homosexuality illogical in a recent interview with GQ magazine.
- Gay couples rejoice with weddings in Utah after federal court ruling: It was an unlikely scene that unfolded in one of the most conservative states in the U.S. as same-sex couples rushed to get married at the Salt Lake County Clerk’s office immediately after learning that a federal judge had overturned Utah’s ban on gay marriage.