Italy’s Cabinet minister for Italians who live overseas called gays “faggots” in mid-October.

“Poor Europe: the faggots [culattoni] are in the majority,” said Mirko Tremaglia.

He made the remark after a European Parliament committee urged that the Italian nominee for European Union justice commissioner, Rocco Buttiglione, be rejected for having called homosexuality a “sin.”

On Oct. 13, in an interview with La Repubblica, Tremaglia refused to back down.

“I called them faggots and I repeat it,” he said. “I’m a Bergamo man and I don’t go around there saying ‘gays’, I say ‘faggots’ because that’s what we call them where I’m from. ... There’s no point in philosophizing about it; I’m against [homosexuality] and those that aren’t – well, that’s their business.”

The city government of Taipei, Taiwan will not fund the Pride parade. The city did fund last year’s parade as well as a Pride festival in 2000.

“Because the government has the responsibility to instruct the next generation that homosexual conduct is wrong, it follows that it is inappropriate to subsidize the GLBT Pride parade event,” the city reportedly said.

The parade will go ahead as planned Nov. 6, stepping off from the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial and winding through the 228 Peace Park to the Red Theater in Ximending.

“Displaying our rich diversity, we will carry forth the call for a more tolerant and more progressive future for our capital city, our republic and our country,” organizers said.

A commission of the worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the U.S. Episcopal Church is the American branch, called on the Episcopal hierarchy to apologize Oct. 17 for approving the election of openly gay and non-celibate Gene Robinson as bishop of the New Hampshire diocese.

Until the apology is offered, the commission said, the 51 Episcopalian bishops who participated in Robinson’s consecration – including U.S. Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold – should consider withdrawing from functions of the Anglican Communion.

Britain’s Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association denounced the development.

“The Anglican Church is creating a fantasy world in which gay people are either evil or unworthy of participation as full citizens,” the group said.

“Platitudes about ‘hating the sin but loving the sinner’ are no longer acceptable,” said George Broadhead, the group’s secretary. “They can no longer expect gay men and women to live lives of loneliness and isolation.”

Members of the London gay direct-action group OutRage! zapped the commission’s chair, Archbishop Robin Eames, Oct. 18 as he exited a press conference on the matter at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

“We are disappointed that you failed to unambiguously defend gay human rights,” shouted OutRage!’s Peter Tatchell. “You had an opportunity to challenge Anglican homophobia and you failed.”

Tatchell said Eames was startled by the “ambush.”

On Oct. 19, the New Hampshire diocese responded: “We acknowledge and regret the pain and confusion caused by the election and consecration of our bishop. We now realize more fully that our action, in response to a sincere understanding of God’s calling, has caused deep distress for many in our communion.”

But, the diocese added, “We affirm the ministry of our bishop and applaud his efforts at reaching out in ways that are sensitive and caring, especially to those who are deeply distressed by his election and consecration.”

The 17-year-old London gay magazine Pink Paper, shut down Oct. 1 due to money problems, has been rescued.

The title was bought up by Millivres Prowler Group, which publishes the glossy monthlies Gay Times and Diva.

While Gay Times and Diva are sold at bookshops and newsstands, the Pink Paper will continue to be free. Some 40,000 copies will be distributed nationwide biweekly. The publication previously had appeared weekly.

“Everyone was shocked and disappointed by the Pink Paper’s closure,” said returning Editor Tris Reid-Smith. “It is as popular as ever – all the copies we printed were picked up and people often complained there weren’t enough available. ... This buy-up is the best possible outcome for the Pink Paper.”

An organization in Lebanon is pushing for decriminalization of gay sex – a first in the Arab world, Middle East Online reported Oct. 19.

The group Hurriyyat Khassa (Private Liberties) launched its campaign with a screening of the British film Victim, which is credited with helping end Britain’s gay-sex ban in the 1960s. The movie was shown at American University in Beirut.

The activists say Article 534 of Lebanon’s penal code, which punishes “sexual intercourse against nature” with one year in prison, violates the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

A gay novel, The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, won Britain’s most prestigious literary award, the Man Booker Prize, Oct. 19.

The book chronicles the sexual and drug-filled adventures of gay Nick Guest, an Oxford graduate living with the family of a conservative parliamentarian in London during the Thatcher era.

Hollinghurst, 50, pocketed £50,000 or $90,000 for his win.