Ed Balls tells conference of fight against homophobic bullying

By Tony Grew
Pink News UK

The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families told the Labour party conference yesterday that new steps would be taken to stamp out bullying and give every child in Britain "a fair chance in life."

Ed Balls, who is likely to remain in post in the imminent Cabinet reshuffle, said that all incidents of bullying should be properly recorded in every school.

"No child should be bullied or held back because of their race, their disability or their sexuality," he said.

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UK: HIV sufferer is beaten up in Brighton

By Ben Parsons, Crime Reporter
The Argus

One of the Britain’s long surviving HIV sufferers has been brutally beaten up in a random attack.
John Percy, of Grand Parade, Brighton, was attacked in Camelford Street, Kemp Town, Brighton, at about 9pm on Monday.

The 48-year-old was punched to the floor, repeatedly kicked in the ribs, legs and head before the two attackers ran off.

He staggered to Legends bar in Marine Parade where he was taken by ambulance to the Royal Sussex County Hospital for treatment.

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Gay Britains celebrate the 4th also

Sept. 4th marks the 50-year anniversary of the publication of the Wolfenden report on homosexual offences and prostitution. It emerged at a time of great sexual ignorance. In the 1950s there were no manuals for the young, and we had to do our best with baffling encyclopaedia entries. Our elders wanted to re-establish the imagined values of Britain's lost empire. They were full of warnings about VD and how Rome fell because of its tolerance of homosexuality. So as well as the disastrous Suez campaign of 1956, there was a tripling of prosecutions for homosexual offences after 1945.

At that time, according to Dr Alfred Kinsey, who had recently published his report on male sexuality, the West End of London had more street-walkers than Havana, and the government was wondering what to do. A royal commission was proposed into prostitution, and liberals in the Home Office suggested that it should investigate homosexuality as well.

I, who grew up when gayness seemed like a life sentence to secrecy and shame, am amazed it ever happened at all.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2161142,00.html