J u s t o u t T O ic tm b tr 1900 T 7
world briefs
CANADA: Gay and lesbian partners of
Toronto city employees are eligible for city
medical and dental insurance following an Octo
ber vote by the City Council. Activists had ar
gued that failure to extend the benefits would
have violated the Ontario Human Rights Code,
which bans discrimination based on sexual orien
tation. (Xtra!)
CANADA: The Saskatchewan Human Rights
commission has accepted a complaint against
Regina police chief Ernie Reimer by the Lesbian
and Gay Pride Committee. Reimer refused to
issue a permit for July’s gay-pride parade be
cause he felt not enough people would show up
to make a police escort necessary. The com
plaint against the police falls under laws guaran
teeing freedom of expression and assembly.
(Perceptions)
CANADA: The Nova Scotia Human Rights
Commission got tired of waiting for the province
to pass a gay-rights law and in September an
nounced that henceforth every provincial non
discrimination statement that includes the word
“sex” will be interpreted as including “sexual
orientation.” (Perceptions)
CANADA: Craig Russell, star of the semi-
autobiographical films Outrageous and Too Out
rageous, died in late October of AIDS complica
tions; he was 42.
CHINA: A report in the Belgian newspaper
Liberation, says that Canton and Shanghai are
“paradise for gays.” But don’t get caught in
paradise. Gays in China are still “treated” with
electroshock and forced vomiting, according to
The New York Times.
COSTA RICA: Central America has its sec
ond gay and lesbian newspaper. Volume 1,
number 1 of Confidencial may only be two
pages, but so was The Advocate once.
C Z E C H O SL O V A K IA : ILGA Secretary
General John Clark addressed the First Congress
of the HelsinkiCitizens’ Assembly in Prague in
late October and, as a result, the group added dis
crimination protections for gays and lesbians to
its human-rights agenda for Europe.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Members of the na
tional gay-rights group Lambda Union have se
cured the promise of a meeting with top govern
ment ministers, following lobbying by British
activists at October’s Helsinki Citizens’ Assem
bly conference in Prague.
DENMARK: As Danish gays and lesbians
celebrated the first anniversary of their first-in-
the-world gay marriage law in October, govern
ment figures showed that 700 couples tied the
knot in the first year — 125 female and 575
male.
June 28, a government lawyer and a Copen
hagen police officer were married at City Hall.
As the couple exited the ceremony onto
Copenhagen’s central square, eight city police
officers removed their hats and created a canopy
for the grooms to walk under. “It is guaranteed,”
said Police Inspector Jens Bocscn, “that this was
the first time in world history that uniformed
police officers have paid the same attention to the
commitment of a registered partnership between
two people of the same sex.”
ENGLAND: Justin Fashanu, the first British
soccer player ever to be paid one million pounds
($1.92 million), has come out of the closet — the
first professional British sports figure to do so.
ENGLAND: Following union pressure, the
British Library in October extended spousal
benefits to staffers’ gay/lesbian domestic part
ners.
ENGLAND: ACT UP/London has called a
boycott of the Texaco oil company to protest the
corporation’s policy of testing all job applicants
for HIV and refusing to hire anyone who tests
positive.
ENGLAND: The British Film Institute has
awarded its highest honor, a fellowship, to gay
Filmmaker Derek Jarman. Only 20 people have
received the coveted award, which honors “out
standing personalities from the worlds of film
and television [for] their unique contributions to
the moving-image culture.” Jarman, who has
AIDS, told the audience that he suspected he
received the award because “they’re not sure if
I’ll be around next year.”
GERM A NY: Half of the gay bars in Co
logne have stopped selling Marlboro cigarettes at
the request of ACT UP/Kfiln, which is pushing
the Marlboro boycott in solidarity with ACT UP
chapters in the U.S.
GERM ANY: A recent survey by the Uni
versity of Frankfurt am Main for the Ministry of
Health found that half of 903 West German gay
men said they use condoms. A 1981 survey
showed that only two percent of gay men used
condoms.
ITALY: Film actor Ugo Tognazzi, 68, who
starred in La Cages AuxFolles, died of a cerebral
hemorrhage in late October in Rome. Tognazzi
was considered one of Italy’s leading comic ac
tors..
NETH ER LA N D S: The Dutch parliament
will eventually vote on a national gay-rights law,
following recent preliminary agreement between
the Socialist and Christian Democrat parties. At
present, negotiations are hung up on the Chris
tians’ request that churches which do not want to
hire gay teachers be exem pted from the law.
(Tels Quels)
NORW AY: As Americans begin planning
for 1994’s 25th anniversary of the Stonewall
Riots, the Norwegian national gay organization
and the Swedish national gay organization are
wrapping up their 40th anniversary celebrations.
Denmark’s national gay organization is 42 years
old, and Holland’s national organization is 43
years old. The very first modem-style gay activ
ism probably took place in Berlin. According to
historians, gay pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld’s
Scientific Humanitarian Committee, founded in
1987, canvassed political parties, staged public
debates and published books and pamphlets in
defense o f the rights o f “U ranians.” Adolph
Hitler’s forces burned the Committee’s library
and academic institute 35 years later, wiping out
gay activism in Germany for the next 15 years.
PERU: The Maoist Shining Path guerrillas
were responsible for 30 anti-gay murders in
1989, according to human-rights organizations
interviewed by Gai Pied. The guerrillas are most
active in Peru’s rural High Plains. All village
shamans are gay, Gai Pied reported, "and every
one accepts it.” The gay witch doctors are be
lieved to be able to bring rain and cure illness.
The guerrilla’s anti-gay campaign coincides with
passage of a new law mandating HIV testing of
all people at high risk for AIDS. The law takes
effect Jan. 1.
SO UTH A FRICA : The African continent
saw its first gay-pride parade OcL 13 when about
800 gays and lesbians marched through neigh
borhoods o f Johannesburg. The marchers were
70 percent white and 30 percent people of color,
Nkoli said. As the parade stepped off, rain be
gan. “But it was so exciting, we just marched
through the rain— blowing whistles, chanting
slogans, and we had these big puppets for the
march,” Nkoli said.
SOUTH AFRICA: Winnie Mandela and her
bodyguards from the Mandela United Football
Club have been charged in a 1988 gay-bashing
attack on four boys, one of whom died, accord
ing to Gai Pied. Mrs. Mandela “is said” to have
helped with the beatings, Gai Pied reported.
USSR: An estimated 800 men are im pris
oned yearly under Russia’s male sodomy law,
says Moscow gay activist Roman Kalinin, who
visited the U.S. in November. Kalinin also re
ported that the Soviet Union produces and im
ports only enough condoms for each sexually
active male to purchase four per year, and that
the condoms often break. Returning home in
early December, Kalinin said his first priority
was the formation of ACT UP/Moscow. Next
July, about 100 American gay and lesbian activ
ists will travel to Moscow and Leningrad to help
stage the Soviet Union’s first gay-pride parades.
USSR: The Moscow Gay and Lesbian Union
has managed to register its newspaper, Tema.
This is a watershed event, as it will now have
access to typographic equipment and other scarce
resources.
ZIM BABW E: The Health Ministry has or
dered 5,000 wooden peruses as props for condom
demonstrations, reports Gai Pied.
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