Chris Birch and Jak Powell

WALES – A 226 pound rugby player from South Wales, who went into a coma after suffering from a stroke and broken neck during a freak training accident, has “woken up gay.”

The Medical Daily reported that before the stroke, Chris Birch had been a beefy, beer-drinking athlete working at a bank and loved motorbikes and his girlfriend and he was engaged to be married. But since the accident, a year ago, the now 27-year-old has quit his bank job, slimmed down 72 pounds, become a hairdresser and moved out of his home in the Welsh valleys and started dating men.

“It was a weird experience,” he said in a BBC3 documentary, reporting his attempt over the past few months to grapple with his new identity. “You walk into somewhere and you go from liking that girl to liking that boy.”

He admitted that he found the changes traumatic and said that he struggled with a period of loneliness when he was afraid to tell anybody about his changed sexual orientation.

“It was quite a scary process. Being with the first guy was a very odd experience. I didn’t know what I was doing,” he told the film crew.

Within a few months of moving out from home he met his then boyfriend and now fiancé Jak Powell.

Powell believes that Birch has always been gay and the accident just helped him to realize it.

“People grow up not knowing they are gay and have families and then they realize they are gay, but they don’t have a stroke to realize it,” Powell said.

However, Birch said he wouldn’t want to alter back again.

“I’m happier now that I ever have been; why would I want to change?” he asked.

COPENHAGEN – A gay bar in Copenhagen, Denmark has banned straight couples from kissing and recently threw out a couple for doing just that, the Web site homotropolis.com reported.

Jobbe Joller, the founder of the Danish LGBT organization Homosocialt Fællesskab, arrived at the Never Mind bar in Copenhagen with his boyfriend and two straight female friends and their boyfriends. They all entered the bar without a problem. Later in the evening when Joller came back into the bar after making a phone call outside, he met one of the girls who was being ejected after being told that it was not allowed for her, as a straight person, to kiss her boyfriend in the club.

“I told the bouncer that it had to be discrimination against heterosexuals to say that they were not allowed to kiss,” Joller says, when he ask the bouncer to explain his version of the story.

He continued, “The bouncer replied that it was unacceptable to conduct that kind of behavior at a gay place and that Never Mind receives a lot of emails from its gay guests concerning the high number of straight guests that visit the bar. I asked him if it was not the same as saying that black people are not allowed to kiss in Never Mind, but he disagreed and told me that the owner of Never Mind may decide who can kiss and who can’t kiss in the bar.”

Anthony Wong

HONG KONG – Anthony Wong, a Hong Kong based pop star, came out at the end of his concert last week. According to The Wall Street Journal, Wong told the crowd, “People don’t need to guess whether or not I’m a tongzhi [Chinese slang for homosexual] anymore,” he said on the last night of his concert series at the Hong Kong Coliseum. “I’m saying I’m gay. I’m a homosexual. G-A-Y.”

The crowd greeted Wong’s announcement with cheers as the singer and producer followed his admission with a jab at the city’s paparazzi. “I’m sorry, members of the media. For the next 20 years, I’ll keep singing songs, but you don’t need to ask me this question any longer,” he said.

The WSJ reported that Wong’s announcement might not have shocked Hong Kong’s entertainment industry, which has long speculated about the singer’s sexual orientation, but the boldness of his announcement was still unusual. Mr. Wong, who first gained popularity in the ’80s as a music icon as part of the duo Tat Ming Pair, is only the second high-profile Hong Kong performer to publicly come out. The first, actor and singer Leslie Cheung, jumped to his death from the 24th floor of Hong Kong’s Mandarin Hotel, during a bout of severe depression.

Commenting on Wong’s announcement, Waiwai Yeo of the nonprofit gay-rights organization Women’s Coalition of Hong Kong said, “It’s been nine years since we’ve seen a singer announce publicly that he’s openly gay or openly bisexual. So Mr. Wong’s announcement is a good sign.”

The gay wedding mural at St John’s Church

EDINBURGH, Scotland – An Episcopal church located on one of Edinburgh’s busiest streets, Princes St., has unveiled a gay wedding mural.

St John’s Church chose the topic for the mural which shows two men with one about to place a ring on the other’s finger under the words “God is love.”

Associate Rector of the church, Donald Reid, told PinkNews.co.uk it was on the “progressive end of the spectrum.”

Displayed in full view to passers-by, Reid said that many people had taken photographs of the mural but there had not been any negative feedback.

The mural will remain on the side of the church for two weeks.

GERMANY – The German Rainbow Open, Europe’s largest gay and lesbian golf tournament will return for an eighth year this September to WINSTONgolf, near Schwerin.

The tournament has become established in the international gay golf calendar and will be played over 2 days, with 18 holes each, one gross and four net classes, with golfers from across Europe and the U.S. competing.

The Rainbow Open’s official Web site describes the tournament as, “An event that attracts lesbians and gays at the same time to play golf and party together … mixed flights, mixed age groups, mixed playing abilities … this combination enables togetherness and communication within this heterogeneous group of homosexual golfers of both sexes.”

To encourage more gay people to the sport the Rainbow Open is featuring a beginner’s class entitled “Golfing 101.” The class consists of a 3-hour lesson on the first day of the tournament.

For more information on the German-Rainbow-Open visit german-rainbow-open.com.

Prague Pride 2011

PRAGUE – The Czech Republic’s capital, Prague, will hold its second Pride event 13 to 19 Aug. organizers have announced.

Prague Pride took place for the first time last year. Czech president, Václav Klaus openly criticized the event and far-right groups attended to protest the march, but it still drew more than 25,000 visitors. This year, organizers aim to attract even greater numbers with seven days filled with entertainment, debates, concerts, exhibitions, theater and more.

Director of the festival Czeslaw Walek said, “We want to show the Czech society as well as visitors from abroad that we will continue to put Prague on the map as Central and Eastern Europe’s capital of diversity and as one of Europe’s main LGBT travel destinations. By giving Prague Pride 2012 his auspices, the mayor of Prague acknowledges the significance of its LGBT community, with Prague Pride becoming a tradition in Europe’s LGBT summer season.”

The theme of this year’s festival is “Bringing our colors together” with the aim to introduce the general public to the LGBT communities that are usually hidden from the public eye.

Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli

QOM, Iran – Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, an Islamic scholar based in Iran’s holy city of Qom, has said in a speech among his followers that homosexuals are inferior to dogs and pigs, according to The Guardian.

The Iranian cleric, who is entitled to issue juristic rulings according to the Sharia law, was condemning western lawmakers involved in the decriminalization of homosexuality.

“If a society commits a new sin, it will face a new punishment,” he said while interpreting Qur’an verses about the prophet Lot whose tribe Islamic scholars say was punished by God for sodomy. “Problems like AIDS did not exist before.”

Citing the Qur’an, Javadi-Amoli said politicians who pass laws in favor of homosexuals are lower than animals. “Even animals … dogs and pigs don’t engage in this disgusting act [homosexuality] but yet they [western politicians] pass laws in favor of them in their parliaments.”

In Iran homosexuality is punishable by death. But according to The Guardian, under new amendments approved recently in the Iranian parliament the person who played an active role will be flogged 100 times if the sex was consensual and he was not married, but the one who played a passive role will still be put to death regardless of his marriage status.

Despite the horrific punishment for homosexuals in Iran, the gay community in the country is alive underground and has won some recognition by coming out in defiance of the regime.

Budapest Pride

BUDAPEST, Hungary – The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Budapest police to immediately revoke their decision to refuse planners of the 2012 Pride march permission to pursue their chosen route. In a news release on their Web site, HRW said that the march, scheduled for July 7, should be allowed to go ahead as planned stating the police have an obligation to facilitate the peaceful passage of the march, protect the safety of the participants and ensure that anti-gay protesters are not allowed to disrupt or interfere with the march.

Despite the fact that the Pride march would use one of the most commonly used routes for marches in Budapest, the local police department refused permission for the march, April 6, to proceed stating that it would be impossible to redirect traffic.

“Traffic hasn’t stopped other marches from going ahead on the same route,” said Lydia Gall, Eastern Europe and Balkans researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This is a flimsy pretext to stop LGBT people from exercising the same rights as everyone else.”

The organizers, the Rainbow Mission Foundation and a local human rights organization have appealed the police decision to the Budapest Metropolitan Court.

This is not the first time Hungarian police have tried to interfere with the Pride march. In 2011, when the Rainbow Mission Foundation requested an extension to the planned march route, Budapest police denied their request, stating that the extended route would unduly obstruct traffic. A court overturned the police decision.

LONDON – Ads, which suggested gay people could be cured, that were due to appear on the side of some of London’s iconic red double-decker buses have been banned.

The Press Association reported that the campaign was due to run for two weeks on the side of vehicles serving five routes in the capital, including top tourist destinations such as St Paul’s Cathedral, Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus.

The campaign was produced by Christian group Core Issues Trust, who describe themselves as, “… a non-profit Christian initiative seeking to support men and women with homosexual issues who voluntarily seek change in sexual preference and expression.”

The posters carried the message, “Not gay! Post-gay, ex-gay and proud. Get over it!” and were believed to mock pro-gay group Stonewall’s recent campaign which featured ads saying, “Some people are gay. Get over it.”

But following a huge public outcry which labeled the Core Issues’ campaign homophobic, London Mayor Boris Johnson, who chairs Transport for London (TfL), London’s transport regulatory body, has ordered the ads to be pulled.

Johnson, who is standing for re-election next month, said, “London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance. It is clearly offensive to suggest being gay is an illness someone recovers from and I am not prepared to have that suggestion driven around London on our buses.”

The doomed campaign was cleared by industry regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority.

But Stonewall spokesman Andy Wasley welcomed the move, saying, “We are delighted by TfL’s clear commitment to diversity. It is fantastic that no adverts will be promoting voodoo, gay-cure therapy in London.”

Chris Birch | Photo Credit: BBC News

A Rugby player in the United Kingdom says he suffered a stroke during a freak accident and woke up gay as a result of the catastrophe.

Chris Birch, 26, attempted a forward roll down a hill in 2006 when his brain suffered trauma, causing a stroke which required extensive medical care. When he regained consciousness, he realized that he was gay – despite being engaged to his girlfriend at the time.

“I was doing a forward roll down a grass bank one day and cut off the blood supply to my brain which caused a stroke to happen. It was from there, while I was recovering, that I realised I’d changed,” says Birch, from Caerphilly.

“The Chris I knew had gone and a new Chris sort of came along. I came to the realisation that the stroke had turned me gay,” he said.

During a stroke, certain areas of the brain experience starvation of oxygen leading to brain cell death and some forms of brain damage. However, a stroke can also introduce new neural connections which can lead to new personality, skill, or changes in sexual orientation.

“It was a weird experience,” he said. “You walk into somewhere and you go from liking that girl to liking that boy.”

Upon recovery from the stroke, Birch quit his job at the bank and became a hairdresser, moved out of his childhood home, and began dating men.

“It was quite a scary process. Being with the first guy was a very odd experience. I didn’t know what I was doing,” he said.

Birch is engaged to fiancée Jak Powell, who believes his partner was always gay and that the accident only helped him realize it later.

“People grow up not knowing they are gay and have families and then they realise they are gay, but they don’t have a stroke to realise it,” Powell said. “I think eventually if you hadn’t had the stroke it would have happened anyway.”

Birch explains he is content with his new sexual orientation and glad he came to the realization that he is gay. “I’m happier now that I ever have been, why would I want to change?”

Birch will document his experience in the new series “I Woke Up Gay” which premiered this week April 17 on BBC.