GERMANY: Catholic Doctors Group Selling Homeopathic "Treatment" For Gayness

Germany's Union of Catholic Doctors is selling a homeopathic "treatment" for gayness on their website.

The religious association, which calls itself the "voice of the Catholic medical community," writes on its website that while "homosexuality is not an illness," a host of treatments are available to keep such "inclinations" at bay. Possibilities include "constitutional treatments with homeopathic tools … such as homeopathic dilutions like Platinum," "psychotherapy," and "religious counseling." Among homeopathy's controversial treatments are the prescription of "Globuli," tiny pills that consisting mostly of sugar. "We know about a number of people with homosexual feelings who find themselves in a spiritual and psychological emergency and suffer greatly," UCP head Gero Winkelmann told SPIEGEL in a written statement. "If someone is unhappy, ill or feels they are in an emergency, they should be able to find options for help with us."

Homeopathy and religion, two crazy ideas meant to be together!

Germany To Shut All Nuclear Plants

Germany has announced plans to close all its nuclear power plants by 2022.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition endorsed a blueprint to shut its nuclear-power plants by 2022, repealing the law she pushed to extend the life of the reactors to become the biggest nation to exit atomic power. The decision in the early morning hours today by coalition leaders in Berlin underscored Merkel’s flip-flop from a 2009 re- election promise to extend the life of nuclear reactors. She did her about-face after the March meltdown in Japan as the anti- nuclear Green Party gained in polls. Her party lost control of Baden-Wuerttemberg state to the Greens in March and finished behind them in a state election for the first time on May 22.

New Book: Germans Invented Gay Rights

According to a coming book by historian Robert Beachy, the genesis of the modern gay rights movement came in 19th century Germany.

Modern conceptions of homosexuality began, ironically, with an anti-sodomy law. When the German empire was unified in 1871, the Imperial Criminal Code included a law prohibiting sexual penetration of one man by another. Questions about what types of activity should fall under the law spurred a sustained public inquiry into the nature of same-sex eroticism and sexuality in general. [snip] This new view of same-sex love was pioneered by German doctors who published early case studies of homosexuals in the 1850s. German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing released the first edition of his hugely influential Psychopathia Sexualis in 1886, which included multiple case studies of homosexuals that supported this new position. Through his work, Krafft-Ebing became a vocal opponent of the German anti-sodomy law, stating that homosexuality "should not be viewed as a psychic depravity or even sickness."

Beachy claims the world's first gay rights group, the Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee (Scientific-Humanitarian Committee) came into being at that time to gather petition signatures to repeal the anti-sodomy law. His book, The German Invention Of Homosexuality, is due out next year.

ATB - Twisted Love

German trance king ATB (Andre Tanneberger) is back with a new track that is very much Robert Miles meets Chicane. Derivative, but me like. ATB's first and biggest hit was 1999's 9PM (Till I Come), which sort of defined San Francisco for me that summer. It was inescapable and we grew to loathe it almost as much as Darude's Sandstorm, which played every ten minutes in every gay bar that year, usually followed by 9PM (Till I Come).

(Via - Pop In Stereo)

Claudia Brücken - Thank You

Pop In Stereo directs us to the new single from Claudia Brücken, which is "co-written with and produced by Stephen Hague (New Order, Blur, Pet Shop Boys)." The single is from the forthcoming career retrospective Combined, which is due on February 7th and includes three Propaganda tracks. (But not the classic version of P-Machinery, for some reason.)

GERMANY: 2010 Pop Music Mashup

While we await DJ Earworm's annual pop mashup, here's a similar entry (and DJ Earworm tribute) out of Germany. And thanks to a week of listening to pop radio in Key West, I'm now actually familiar with most the songs here.

Gay-Themed Coffins On Sale On Germany

And here you thought that rainbow Xmas tree was the most horrible thing you'd see today.

Funeral directors in Germany are bidding for the pink pound - by launching coffins specially designed for gay customers. The caskets feature homoerotic artwork on the outside and come with a series of tastefully luxurious plush designer interiors, say makers Mike Konigsfeld and Tom Brandl in Cologne, Germany. The designers - who have lived together for more than 10 years - say the images of muscular young men in classical poses are the perfect way to send off a loved one. "Naturally there were some people who threw their hands up in horror when we had them on display in the window but they are tasteful and beautiful - like our customers," explained Mike.

Aaand cue the Freepers.

-"Discount for friends of the deceased who were infected by him with AIDS?"
-"I think the high-end one comes with an eternal flaming."
-"That will give archaeologists something to chuckle over in 1,000 years. ‘Don’t open that one George, no telling what they died of."
-"Most gay men only live to about age 40 or so. This article is telling us that gay men are not living long and that 'gay coffins' are in big demand. This is not good news for the gay community. This means their deathstyle is bringing their numbers lower. They are planning their funeral, when just a year ago they were planning their 'gay wedding'."

GERMANY: Top Footballer Mario Gomez Urges Gay Players To Come Out

Mario Gomez, one of Germany's most famous soccer stars, has urged gay players to come out, saying it would not only improve their game, it would better the sport.

Gomez, who has not said whether he is gay, told a German magazine that being honest about their sexuality would improve gay players' performance. "They would play as if they had been liberated," Gomez said. "Being gay should no longer be a taboo topic." The 25-year-old, who was voted German footballer of the year in 2006-7, added that there were plenty of role models in the rest of German society to give gay players the courage to come out. "We've got a gay vice-chancellor [Guido Westerwelle]; the Berlin mayor [Klaus Wowereit] is gay. So professional footballers should own up to their preference," he said. There are no openly gay players in Germany's Bundesliga, reflecting the situation across the football world, although it is estimated that about 10% of players are gay.

The German soccer federation has warned gay players not to come out, saying it would ruin their careers.

(Tipped by JMG reader Connie)

Pink Triangles: Last Known Gay Survivor Of The Concentration Camps Speaks

Subtitled by JMG reader Maxime of Yagg.com. This may not be easy to watch, but I recommend you do. Harrowing.

CNN Recaps LGBT Rights Worldwide

AIDS Quilt Ceremony At Gay Games

Like much of what the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence do, this ceremony manages to be simultaneously silly and moving. I believe this is the local Cologne order.

Gay Games 2010 Open In Germany

The Love Parade Is No More

Organizers of Germany's Love Parade techno dance party have announced that the 21 year-old annual event is permanently canceled "out of respect to those killed and injured" on Saturday. Nineteen attendees were killed and hundreds were injured during a mass panic in the sole entrance tunnel to the event. Fearing further chaos, police instructed the DJs to continue playing for several hours, since most of those already inside had no idea what had occurred. I'd always wanted to attend the Love Parade, having only gotten a small taste at San Francisco's version of the party in 2006. Below is the 2001 remix of Da Hool's 1997 classic, Meet Her At The Love Parade.

GERMANY: Tunnel Stampede Kills 18 At Love Parade Techno Dance Party

All Hail Paul, The Psychic Octopus

After he accurately predicted the winner in six straight matches, Spain's Minister of Fisheries says he will ask the German government to ensure that Paul The Octopus is never eaten and will be allowed to die naturally of boredom during the next World Cup.

For When The Escalator Is Too Slow

The entrance to a subway station in Berlin has been outfitted with a temporary slide, much to the delight and puzzlement of commuters. Man, I'd love to see this next to that horrid six-story monster at Lex and 53rd. (Or at DC's Dupont Circle.) But you know, America. Lawsuits. The Berlin installation is a promotion for Volkswagen.

Germany Wins Eurovision 2010

I sort of called it back on March 28th, although I really wanted Lithuania to win.

Germany: Abuse Hotline Set Up By Catholic Church Melts Down On First Day

Catholic Church officials in Germany set up an abuse hotline for parishioners wishing to report their priests. The line "melted down" on the first day with thousands of calls.

The numbers were far more than the handful of therapists assigned to deal with them could cope with. In the end only 162 out of 4,459 callers were given advice before the system was shut down. Andreas Zimmer, head of the project in the Bishopric of Trier, admitted that he wasn't prepared for "that kind of an onslaught'. The hotline is the Church's attempt to win back trust in the face of an escalating abuse scandal that threatens the papacy of German-born Pontiff Benedict XVI in Rome. Earlier this week it was alleged that an ally of the Pope, Bishop Mixa, beat children - a charge he has subsequently denied. Former girls and boys testified that he beat them with fists and a carpet beater which screaming; 'The devil is in you and I will drive him out!' Also, the bishopric of Trier reported that 20 priests are suspected of having sexually abused children between the 1950s and 1990s. Bishop Stephan Ackermann, who was appointed last year, said on Monday that three of the cases had been passed on to public prosecutors, with two more soon to follow. German media are calling the scandal 'the hour of the children'. Silent, often for decades after pressure was applied to both them and their families by the Church, they are now finding the courage to speak out.