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England's first
NGLTF targets crackdown on Soviet gays
Queen dubs first openly gay knight
by Rex Wockner
by Rex Wockner
his apartment. Government newspapers blamed
he National Gay and Lesbian Task
the murder on a jealous teenaged lover. MGLU
Force has sent what it calls “ a series
blamed it on the KGB.
o f hard-hitting com m uniques” to
•In the past year, MGLU activists have been
government officials in Leningrad,
beaten
by police during AIDS demonstrations,
Moscow and Washington, condemn
MGLU
ing the recent increased harassment o f Soviet
gay documents were stolen from Kalinin’s
apartment, activists were taken into custody as
activists and demanding intervention by Soviet
ACT UP/Chicago members delivered condoms
and American authorities.
to them, the KGB demanded that MGLU cease
The news o f escalating police and bureau
publishing it’s newspaper, Tema, and police vio
cratic attacks on the Soviet gay movement was
lently raided a gay cafe in the Black Sea resort of
reported in the Jan. Just Out. The crackdown has
Sochi.
included:
Several members o f Congress have joined
•In mid-December, Moscow Gay and Lesbian
NGLTF in responding to reports of the escalat
Union founder Roman Kalinin and other activists
ing crackdown on the Soviet Union’s fledgling
were summoned to police headquarters where
gay movem ent, sending telegram s to the
their finances were scrutinized.
Moscow and Leningrad City Councils. NGLTF
•The same week, police visited K alinin’s
is also lobbying Amnesty International to inter
parents and ordered them to silence him.
vene in the crisis.
•At the same time, Kalinin was evicted from
NGLTF and the International Lesbian and
his apartment because of his political activities.
Gay Association urge protest telegrams to (1)
•Meanwhile, Olga Zhuk, a Leningrad lesbian
The Commission for Social and Political Organi
leader, was charged with violation o f the male-
zations, dom 6, Isakovskaya Ploshad, Lensovet,
sodomy law when she tried to register the city’s
Leningrad, USSR. (2) Mr. Gavriil Popov, Moss-
new gay group with the City Council. The
ovet, Moscow, USSR. Telegrams are necessary
charges were later dropped. Lesbian sex is not
because the mail is too slow.
illegal in the USSR. Zhuk says police subse
Copies of all telegrams and letters should be
quently harassed her on the street and stole her
sent to (1) John Healey, Executive Director,
organization’s papers from her apartment.
Amnesty Intcmational-USA, 322 8th Ave., New
•A short time earlier, in November, Moscow
York, NY 10001. (2) International Secretariat,
gay activist Alexander Lukcshev, publisher of
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London
the independent democratic newspaper New Life,
WC1X 8DJ, England.
was brutally murdered and his body set on fire in
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amed Shakespearean actor Ian McKel-
lan, who is openly gay, was knighted
on New Y ear’s Eve by B ritain’s
Queen Elizabeth II.
F
British gay and lesbian activists
were shocked at the news, coming as it did in the
midst of a rapidly deteriorating atmosphere for
the gay movement (see World Briefs: England).
McKellen was chosen for the honor by for
mer Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s admini
stration shortly before she left office. Knights
are selected because of their service to the coun
try, pre-eminence in the arts or, sometimes, be
cause of political connections.
The response from the gay community has
been mixed. Filmmaker Derek Jarman, who is
openly gay and an open person with AIDS, wrote
an article for the Guardian, a major daily news
paper, saying that McKellen should reject his
knighthood because the Tory administration that
bestowed it is anti-gay.
The next day, 18 gay and lesbian actors, di
rectors, producers, playwrights and others-only
seven o f whom were previously out of the
closet-wrote a letter to the Guardian, mass-out
ing themselves. The group called McKellen’s
knighthood “a significant landmark in the history
of the British Gay Movement.”
“Never again will public figures be able to
claim that they have to keep secret their homo
sexuality in fear of it damaging their careers,” the
group wrote. “Ian McKellen provides an inspi
ration to us all, not only as an artist of extraordi
nary gifts, but as a public figure of remarkable
honesty and dignity.”
McKellen is currently on a world tour, per
forming Shakespeare’s King Lear and Richard
111 .
world briefs
BRAZIL: The Costa Rican gay newspaper
Confidencial reports that the county of Rio de
Janeiro has banned discrimination based on sex
ual orientation. Reports say Brazil faces an epi
demic of anti-gay murders and that transvestites
are required to carry official ID ’s confirming
their choice to dress as women.
CANADA: The Ontario government Jan. 1
extended life, medical and dental insurance to
lovers of gay/lesbian provincial employees-a
first for Canada. At the same time, officials
announced plans to alter provincial laws and the
Ontario Human Rights Act so that the definition
o f “family” includes gay/lesbian partners; this
would extend benefits into the civil sector.
And, the gay city councilors in Montreal and
Vancouver, Raymond Blain and Gordon Price,
were both re-elected in Nov., Go Info said.
CHILE: The group Ayuquelén is organizing
Chile s first lesbian conference, according to
Confidencial. Spokeswoman Lilian Inostroza
said. We re going to organize our conference—to
break the isolation and get together with our sis
ters who are working in the interior of the na
tion."
COSTA RICA: Police have stepped up har
assment of gay bars in this peaceful Central
American nation. The bar raids coincide with the
birth of the nation’s first gay newspaper, Confi
dencial, but there is no immediate evidence that
the events are related. The emerging gay and
lesbian community in San Jose, the capital, has
also announced plans for the country’s first gay-
pride parade this June. "The event will be an
nounced to the international press so that they
will be present to secure our physical safety ”
reported Confidencial.
ENGLAND: A judge effectively criminal
ized all sadomasochistic sex. even among con
senting adults in their own homes, sending 15
gay men to prison for up to four-and-one-half
years each after Scotland Yard confiscated
homemade S/M-sex videos from their homes.
•The new Crim inal Justice Bill, currently
working its way through parliament, will punish
men caught having sex in public lavatories and
similar places with penalties equal to those for
rape.
•New foster-parenting guidelines from the
Department of Health state that “equal rights and
gay rights have no place in fostering services.”
NEW ZEA LA N D : An AGN-McNair sur
vey of 1,786 voters found that 75 percent believe
discrimination based on sexual orientation should
be illegal.
NORW AY: O slo’s Gay Health Committee
has installed bird feeders full o f condoms in the
recreation areas o f Lake Sognsvann and Huk
Woods-home to a popular nude beach. Another
dispenser was hung at Hercules, the gay sauna.
“They have to be refilled every day,” said
spokesman Geir Lindal. (Fritt From)
SOUTH A FR IC A : The African National
Congress has included a gay-rights law in its
draft bill o f rights for the new South African
constitution.
The ANC is one o f the nation’s largest black
political parties, headed by anti-apartheid leader
Nelson Mandela.
The move followed heavy lobbying from
Cape Town’s Organisation o f Lesbian and Gay
Activists. “We are very excited and consider this
a major victory for the lesbian and gay move
ment," said OLGA spokesman Derrick Fine.
THAILAND: The W orld Health Organiza
tion pulled out o f a major AIDS conference in
Bangkok in late December in protest of a Thai
law that denies travel visas to persons with
AIDS.
Compiled by Rex Wockner