Sunday, December 18, 2011

Out Spotlight

Today's Out Spotlight is one of Europe's leading advocates of LGBT rights. He is member of Germany's parliament, the Bundestag,and is known as the father of the German Registered Partnership Act. Today's Out Spotlight is Volker Beck.

Volker Beck born December 12 1960 in Stuttgart Germany on December 12, 1960. Prior to becoming politically active in the peace movement in the 1980's, Volker Beck studied at the University of Stuttgart. In 1985, he joined the Green Party. In 1987, he became responsible for LGBT issues in the Green Party caucus in the Bundestag.

From 1991 to 2004, Beck was spokesman for the Lesbian and Gay Association in Germany (LSVD). He is credited with placing the issue of same-gender partnerships and a LGBT anti-discrimination law on the parliamentary agenda.

Beck has represented Cologne in the Bundestag since 1994. He is Green Party Whip for the Alliance 90/Greens caucus, a member of the Greens' party council, and human rights spokesman for the parliamentary group. He was legal affairs spokesman for the Alliance 90/Greens parliamentary group (1994-2002) and political coordinator of the Working Group on Internal and Legal Affairs, Women and Youth within the parliamentary group's executive committee (1998-2002).

He is a supporter of gay marriage and has been referred to as the Father of the German Registered Partnership Act.

Between 2001 and 2004 he was chief negotiator for his party on the new immigration law coming into to force in 2005. He is known publicly for being a very tough negotiator.

In 2006, he sponsored an anti-discrimination act in civil law and at the workplace, outlawing discrimination based on race, ethnic origin, sex, sexual identity, religion, age, and disability.

Beck believes that Germans must assume responsibility for their history before they can shape a future. He has sought compensation for victims of National Socialism, including financial reparations for persons subjected to slave labor under the Nazi regime negotiating for the foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (slave labor recompensation).

Beck serves as a trustee of several foundations that remembers victims.

In 2003, the German Bundestag decided on the initiative he presented for the Federal Republic of Germany erecting a national memorial in the center of Berlin for homosexuals persecuted by the Nazi Party.

Not looking to the past, he looks at the present and future as well.

In May of 2006, Beck was attacked and injured during a Gay Rights demonstration in Moscow, called Moscow Pride. His attack as well as his participation at the Moscow Pride Festival is featured in the documentary Moscow Pride '06.

On May 2007 he was arrested and put in a bus in front of the Moscow City Hall by the police. He had wanted to hand over a petition signed by several Members of Parliament at Moscow City Hall. He was attacked and had eggs thrown on his head. Attacked before, his partner Jacques Teyssier tried to protect him from attacks by anti-gay protesters.

In 2008, he spoke out saying the German Parliament should raise more money to fight against right wing extremists rising in Germany.

Beck has been honored over the years for his dedication to the issues he has championed. In 2001 INGLO honored his work for the gay and lesbian civil rights movement in Germany with the Like-a-rock Award.

That same year the Berlin Gay Pride festival honored him with the Rainbow Award.

On October 3, 2002, he was honored by the then German President Johannes Rau on the advice of Jewish organizations (the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Jewish Claims Conference) as Knight of the Distinguished Service Cross.

And Equality Forum honored Beck in May of 2005 as one of forty heroes for his extraordinary contributions toward LGBT equality. He is the only non-North American who was honored.

Beck lived in a long-term partnership with Jacques Teyssier until Teyssier's death from cancer in Berlin on July 25, 2009. The couple had officially registered their partnership in 2008, after 16 years together.

"Human rights that do not apply to everyone are not human rights at all."

26 comments:

  1. How bout those Chiefs.

    Lets go Eagles. Kick Cowgirl butt.

    Lets go Jets. Eli must go down.


    No place like home for the holidays. So it seems:-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. @liaoshenyi
    Bought APC jeans that barely fit (new standard) and saw Jake Gyllenhall at Blue in Green. #whathaveibecome

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh yeah about The Chiefs! My Pops called me after they won. And hey how about those Patriots?!?! YESSSSS.

    ReplyDelete
  4. danashak Dana :)
    Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow!!! Jake Gyllenhaal's birthday!!! He's 31 years old!!!( he can be my grandpa ) but he's so cute! ;))
    3 hours ago

    ReplyDelete
  5. Could be your grandfather at 31? Dana are you an amoeba?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great quote about human rights at the end of the post.
    Can't believe Chiefs won, but sadly can believe Jets lost.

    Did anyone catch the Christmas music spoof on SNL? Very funny imitations of all kinds of singers, the Swift parody was especially funny, and GaGa.

    ReplyDelete
  7. More tweets the rest of the group on the trip to Israel.

    rajskub mary lynn rajskub
    I'm not sure who put this on the cactus in front of our house but I like it pic.twitter.com/YzwLKSmb
    14 Dec

    rajskub mary lynn rajskub
    It's finally winter in LA. Brrrr
    15 Dec

    rajskub mary lynn rajskub
    Me in one of the first synagogues. Thanks #amiisrael pic.twitter.com/P2cExMqJ
    15 Dec

    rajskub mary lynn rajskub
    you.... Are very observant. Just got back. “@steveagee: @rajskub are you complaining about the weather in LA while you're in Israel?”
    15 Dec

    rajskub mary lynn rajskub
    sometimes I say I'm in Nevada when I'm actually in Arizona! “@ZubairBR: Did you actually know the Dead Sea is btwn Palestine and Jordan ?”
    15 Dec

    rajskub mary lynn rajskub
    New Vlog: Israel Arrival youtube.com/watch?v=zsY6kv…

    SSIPOS
    SHAUN SIPOS
    @IsraeliPM @aus10nichols @rajskub @justingchatwin thank you!!
    3 hours ago
    16 Dec

    greggrunberg Greg Grunberg
    Hey #SesameStreet, @jonmedved just reminded me, I CAN DO THIS NOW! bit.ly/vE9dR6
    11 hours ago

    greggrunberg Greg Grunberg
    To fall asleep in #Israel I stopped counting sheep and started counting THESE: pic.twitter.com/bzJq2ip3
    51 minutes ago

    ReplyDelete
  8. I saw it Destiny the duets had me rolling. I liked the Beethoven sketch too. Great to see everyone back on Weekend Update. And of course the Boston teens -- NOMAH!!

    BTW did you see Jimmy do The Doors covering the theme to Reading Rainbow. OMG that was incredible.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jake looks like he zig zaggged back to NY. Funny how he got out of LA and there and no saw him unlike last week, when it seemed like he wanted everyone to know he was in LA. Hmmmm....

    HannahFuss Hannah F Baby
    Jake gyllenhaal's shoes yfrog.com/nu8i4cij
    1 hour ago

    kathenning Kat Henning
    jake gyllenhaal interrupted my afternoon snack today and we had ourselves a nice long talk #likeafamousbrothertome #yesthisreallyhappened
    1 hour ago

    lydialagarde2 Lydia Lagarde
    First day in new york was amaaazzingg. Saw jake gylenhall and shoppingg. Now hot wings #yess
    2 hours ago

    ReplyDelete
  10. I was at the mall when I overheard a lady on her cellphone say that the Chiefs had beaten Green Bay. What is the big deal about that? Was G.B. unbeaten?

    The mall was so crowded today. What a pain!! Thank goodness I have tomorrow off because my room is just TRASHED!!! It's a total mess.

    I'm coming down with a cold today! My throat is sore. I haven't had a cold in at least 2+ years. Already took a Zicam - hope that helps.

    Jake has got to be tired from all of his flying. Flying is tiring. I'm tired just reading about it. Don't know if Austin went with him or stayed behind in L.A. Austin has got to still be a bit jet lagged, wouldn't you think?

    Well, Twitter certainly is interesting. Amazing what you see on Twitter. It's really not such a useless tool at all.Sometimes it can be a small - very small world.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Here is Fallon doing the Doors covering Reading Rainbow.

    Jimmy Fallon "The Doors" Reading Rainbow

    Austin would totally love it. Remember his tweets about about Reading Rainbow and LeVar Burton?

    ReplyDelete
  12. LOL - I got on my laptop today and after being on my IPad so much, I tried to scroll with my finger on the laptop screen. LOLLLLLL!!! What a moron. I got confused for a minute.

    And what is cool on the IPad is that you don't have to hit Control + to enlarge. You just take two fingers and you just kind of "pinch" the screen wider. And voila!! So, so cool.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yes PG - Green Bay was undefeated until The Chiefs.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Well, wherever the guys go, I'm flexible. No biggie. We'll see what happens next.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Really? Wow! And the Chiefs beat them. lol. The Packer fans must hate K.C. right now. lol

    ReplyDelete
  16. It's the birthday boy!

    Happy 31st birthday, Jake Gyllenhaal!

    Our scruffy-looking Jakey-Poo spent his pre-bday weekend running errands around El Lay, including leaving a medical building in Beverly Hills on Friday.

    Hope everything's okay! You're looking hawt, so we don't see a problem!

    Hope your special day is extra special!

    To see more pics of Jake running his errands, look below!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Jake Gyllenhaal, we hope your birthday is filled with love amoungst other things on your birthday!

    America fell in love with you in Bubble Boy and than furthur in love with you in Brokeback Mountain and we can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store for you! Get all the details at Astrology.com.

    Happy birthday, Jake Gyllenhaal! You’ve built a great career for yourself by taking on a wide variety of roles, and the next year of your life will see you expanding on your fame. You have a major adventure film in your future, but it looks as if most of your fame for the next couple of years will actually be coming from comedy and lighter projects. Your finances will be newsworthy throughout the middle third of the year — watch for stories about your overspending.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I missed the Doors skit, will have to check it out.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Jake overspending? Does that mean he will buy himself a second pair of pants.

    PG, I've done the finger scroll in the wrong spot so many times now - amazing how quickly one gets used to the iPad. I saw a funny blurb somewhere about a little kid trying to scroll on a paper magazine. And to complicate things further I have the iPad, a windows based desktop and a mac desktop in different rooms, each of which reacts a little differently. Too much technology.

    ReplyDelete
  20. LiamMars L
    Do we think Jake Gyllenhaal (AKA Toothy Tile) will come out in 2012?
    37 minutes ago

    ReplyDelete
  21. Here's one I like:

    hollybasham Holly Basham
    happy birthday jake gyllenhaal you sexy son of a bitch
    12 minutes ago

    lol. There are so many Happy Birthday tweets out there for this guy, isn't funny. And they actually started last night due to time differences across the world. I'm going to save my birthday greeting for Special's new post.

    Well, I am going to head out for a bit. The Calendar Club is on my agenda today. If I don't find what I'm looking for there, it will be back here to order online and pay for Express Shipping!!! As Kevin McAllister said, "Another Christmas in the trenches."

    ReplyDelete
  22. m said:

    Jake overspending? Does that mean he will buy himself a second pair of pants.


    LOLLLL!! That was a good one, m. lol

    ReplyDelete
  23. Well we know where Jake will be for Valentine's Day.

    Jake Gyllenhaal is to join president Mike Leigh’s jury for the upcoming Berlin Film Festival, organizers announced Monday just after naming a handful of competition and out-of-competition titles. The rest of the judging panel is a diverse group that includes Control and The American director Anton Corbijn; Iranian director and writer Asghar Farhadi whose A Separation won the Golden Bear in Berlin earlier this year; Franco-British actress and Lars von Trier muse Charlotte Gainsbourg; French director François Ozon who has appeared several times in the fest; award-winning Algerian writer Boualem Sansal and veteran German actress Barbara Sukowa. British filmmaker Leigh was named jury president earlier this month. The festival’s 62nd edition runs Feb. 9-19, 2012

    Deadline Hollywood

    Will he say he's a jelly donut too?

    ReplyDelete
  24. :) Michael K

    Great Spotlight, as always.

    Nice to hear about Jake being on the panel for the Berlin Film Festival. :)

    ReplyDelete
  25. More favorite birthday tweets:

    AMeternal AMeternal
    Happy birthday to Jake Gyllenhaal and his sexy ass.
    1 hour ago

    TheJohnnyLopez Johnny Lopez
    31 years ago God created Jake Gyllenhaal ... buzzfeed.com/mjs538/every-s…
    2 hours ago

    BEAUTEZINE Jessica
    I'd pop out of a cake for you Jake… RT @InStyle: Happy birthday Jake Gyllenhaal! ht.ly/844G2
    1 hour ago

    vaderstrom Dr. Phibes
    Hello yoou, Jake Gyllenhaal! Happy Birthday :3
    33 minutes ago

    ReplyDelete
  26. It is so funny that I had just been thinking the Ice Maiden hadn't been seen for awhile.

    Well, and before what do my wondering eyes appear this morning...but a photo op on JJ of ol' Reese and her man, Dark Socks Jim Toth.

    Coincidence? Nope! Way to go, Reese. But at this point? It's such a weak shot.

    ReplyDelete