By Christopher Cappiello

Brazil Protests Over Cancelled TV Gay Kiss

Hundreds of gay Brazilians gathered in front of the country's Congress in Brasilia to participate in a kiss-in Nov. 8 to protest the perceived censorship of a gay kiss on the country's popular evening soap opera, America, according to Australia's The Age newspaper. "Of course we're disappointed," said Roberto Kaiser of the Brazilian Gay Association to The Age. "They used gays to boost ratings and then they didn't show something completely natural to us."

In what was either a case of corporate cold feet or a marketing ploy that would make Madonna blush, creators of America had hinted for weeks that the growing relationship between two young gay characters, Junior and Zeca, would lead to an onscreen lip lock in the Nov. 4 season finale. Several media outlets reported that the country came to a virtual standstill that Friday evening, as more than 80 percent of viewers tuned in to the Globo TV telenovela, only to discover that the kiss never came.

"Even heterosexual men, who tend to be more conservative, wanted the kiss," explained Gloria Lopez, the program's principal writer, to the BBC. "Everyone wanted it. I was very happy about it because it showed things were changing in Brazil."

So what happened? Lopez claims that Globo TV cut the kiss. But the network claims it broadcast the episode as it was delivered, according to the Diario de Sao Paulo. "Marcos Schechtman [director of America] and I made the scene. It was recorded," Lopez claims. "We fought for it and I cannot deny that I was frustrated it wasn't shown The actors were [also frustrated] ... It is an injustice to say that I didn't want to show the kiss."

"Just like Will & Grace had an influence in Mexico, the kiss on the telenovela could have an influence across Latin America," said James Green, a Brown University professor of Brazilian history and culture, to the Associated Press (AP) in the week before the rumored kiss episode.

While the Portugese-speaking Brazil tends to be more open about sexuality than many of its Spanish-speaking Latin America neighbors, homosexuality remains a difficult topic in popular culture. While Globo TV may have balked at the gay kiss, programs like America frequently feature explicit heterosexual love scenes that would never make it past American network censors. According to the AP, a study conducted by the Candido Mendes University reported that 60 percent of Rio de Janeiro's gay and lesbian population had experienced some kind of harassment because of their sexual orientation.

LGBT Religious Groups Sponsor Global Week of Prayer

Three American LGBT religious organizations -- Soulforce, Dignity USA, and Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) -- joined forces to sponsor a Global Week of Prayer Nov. 6-12 in response to what they consider the Vatican's scapegoating of gay priests. The event was scheduled for the week leading up to the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C.

"By calling people to prayer, we are calling them to action," said Rev. Elder Nori Rost of MCC, a Christian LGBT church with more than 250 congregations in 23 countries. "We believe that by doing so we can ultimately drown out the clamor of homophobia and bigotry that has too long been the song the Vatican sings."

Last November, Soulforce, an interfaith organization working for the end of religious intolerance against LGBT people of faith, organized a National Day of Prayer and Vigils to end the inequality and injustice faced by LGBT people within the Catholic Church. Given the success of that event, with vigils held in many cities across the country, the Washington, D.C.-based group sought to broaden their efforts by collaborating with MCC and Dignity. "As activists, we too often use prayer as a last resort, rather than our first strategy, in the face of bigotry," said Kara Speltz, chair of Soulforce Catholic Action, in a press statement. "This is a very exciting moment for us in Soulforce to have MCC and Dignity join us in calling their membership to prayer."

The organizers encouraged local chapters and communities to sponsor vigils and other awareness-raising events, including workshops on nonviolent protest, educational forums, and letter-writing campaigns to Catholic bishops and news outlets.

Gay Episcopal Bishop Blasts Vatican in London

The first openly-gay Episcopal bishop in the United States, Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, called the Vatican's treatment of gays "an act of violence that needs to be confronted," according to BBC reports of his Nov. 5 speech to a gathering of LGBT Anglicans in London.

Robinson was in London to mark the 10th anniversary of Changing Attitude, an organization of LGBT Anglicans working for full inclusion in the Anglican Communion, which includes the American Episcopal Church.

"I find it so vile that they think they are going to end the child abuse scandal by throwing out homosexuals from seminaries," Robinson told the crowd assembled at the historic St. Martin in the Fields church in Trafalgar Square, according to the BBC. The bishop was referring to widespread reports that the Vatican will soon issue a document limiting the admission of seminarians with a homosexual orientation. "I am not here to talk about a social agenda, I am not here to grind any axes, I am here to do the thing that Christians do, that is to witness to the good of God."

Robinson's 2003 ordination sparked a worldwide conflict within the Anglican Communion, prompting almost two dozen provinces to break from the Episcopal Church in America. In spite of the simmering controversy surrounding Robinson, including widespread condemnation of his trip to London by evangelical members of the church, the gay bishop was granted a meeting with Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on Nov. 3. A spokesman for Williams told the BBC that the meeting was "part of the archbishop's commitment to listening to the voices of all concerned in the current challenges facing the Anglican Communion."