Thousands March in Glasgow, Scotland

Jimmy Somerville, gay disco singer, and Heather White, editor of ScotsGay magazine's ScotsDyke section at Pride Scotland.
Photo: John Hein

Thousands of gays and lesbians marched through Glasgow, Scotland, June 13 in the nation's fourth annual pride parade.

Singer Jimmy Somerville headlined a festival on Glasgow Green afterward.

Two days earlier, the City Council hosted a pride reception and flew the rainbow flag over the City Chambers.

Spanish Groups Denounce Author

Spanish gay groups have denounced Nobel Prize-winning novelist Camilo Jose Cela, 82, for saying, "I would prefer that any homage paid to me after my death be without the support of gay groups."

In a later interview with reporters, Cela added: "I don't care one way or the other [about gays], I just don't take it up the ass."

Cela's original remarks came at a mid-June tribute to famed poet Frederico Garcia Lorca in the city of Santiago de Compostela. Lorca, who was gay, died in Spain's civil war in 1936.

"Who is he to say he doesn't want gays at his own tributes," said Jordi Petit, Barcelona-based secretary general of the International Lesbian and Gay Association. "It is logical that gays should be involved in tributes to Lorca. He is an international figure who contributes to the normalization and acceptance of homosexuality."

Well-known journalist and writer Maruja Torres weighed in with the comment, "It's much more dignified to take it up the ass than to lick the ass of power" -- a reference to Cela's work as a censor during the rule of dictator Francisco Franco.

Israeli Lesbian Website Comes Online

KLAF, the Israeli Community of Lesbian Feminists, has a new Web site at http://www.aquanet.co.il/vip/klaf.

It is in Hebrew and English. For further information, e-mail ayelet@main.aquanet.co.il.

Contributing to this week's report: John Hein, Kent Sproule.

Rex Wockner's weekly international news reports dating back to May 1994 can be searched at http://www.wockner.com. The reports in their original form are archived at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/wockner.html, which also archives Wockner's Quote Unquote column and some of his longer gay-press articles.