WORLD NEWS: Violence Ends Ukraine Pride, Surrogates In Israel ...

On Sunday, the first-even Pride parade in The Ukraine was canceled when police claimed 500 right-wing soccer hooligans had gathered to block the march, held in Kiev. After attendees were evacuated by authorities, two LGBT activists still on the scene were tear gassed and beaten and by a dozen youths. ?It has been clear from the start that the Kyiv police department did not want this march to go ahead. Their reluctance to commit to the event and to put adequate security measures in place to protect demonstrators left organizers fearing for their safety,? said Max Tucker, Ukraine campaigner at Amnesty International. [AI]

New French Prime Minister?Jean-Marc Ayrault (right) announced on Thursday that he is backing? President Francois Hollande?s same-sex-marriage pledge: ?The Government is determined to challenge prejudice and to put an end to discrimination and violence. It will implement the commitment of the President of the Republic to the right to marriage and adoption to gay couples,? Ayrault said in a statement. [Pink News]

Israel?s Health Ministry announced on Sunday that?gay men and single women would be allowed to conceive children through surrogacy, provided it was voluntary and not compensated. It?s a bittersweet victory for the country?s LGBT community after the Knesset voted down a marriage-equality bill put forth by the Meretz Party?s Nitzan Horowitz. [All Voices]

President Joyce Banda of Malawi announced she wants to overturn her country?s ban on same-sex acts. ?Some laws which were duly passed by the august house? will be repealed as a matter of urgency. These include the provisions regarding indecent practices and unnatural acts.? Malawi is highly dependent on foreign assistance and insiders say Banda all too aware that world leaders like Hilary Clinton and David Cameron are connecting humanitarian aid to LGBT rights. [BBC]

Also on Sunday: The government in Queensland, Australia cut nearly $2.5 million in U.S. dollars from Queensland Association for Healthy Communities, an LGBT health and HIV awareness organization, saying its efforts to stem the epidemic weren?t working and the group was shifting its activities ?away from AIDS/HIV to more general, political issues.? Healthy Communities director Paul Martin, who has to let 26 of his 35 employees go, says his group was only tasked with combating HIV among gay men, a group that has seen its numbers decrease. ?It is unfair to blame Healthy Communities for the rise in HIV over the past 10 years, when we are only a relatively small player.? [9 News]

An anonymous gay Asian man living in New York has recounted his story of marrying a woman to stay in the United States to the New York Daily News, as part of a series on immigration. ?We got married at City Hall. We had plenty of photos to show, people dressed up like a real wedding, we had a cake and everything? People brought gifts but they were just empty boxes.? [NYDN]

Photos: Amnesty International, jmayrault, QAHC

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