just out ▼ juno 1992 T 5
world briefs
AUSTRALIA
Gay flight attendants have taken airlines to
state anti-discrimination boards demanding spou
sal travel benefits for their lovers.
Actions were launched in New South Wales,
Queensland and Victoria.
Australian Airlines quickly gave in, announc
ing that gay employees’ lovers are eligible for 95-
percent-off tickets.
BAHAMAS
An employee of a British cruise line who
allegedly had sex on a dark beach with a Baha
mian man faces a possible 20 years in prison.
Malcolm Chapman is the first person charged
under Article 16.2 of the 1991 Sexual Offenses
and Domestic Violence Act, which states, “Any
adult male who has sexual intercourse in a public
place with another male is guilty of a sexual
offense and liable to imprisonment for 20 years.”
Bail was set at $15,000 for him and $10,000
for the Bahamian man. Chapman’s relatives were
unable to make the bail and he was sent to Fox Hill
Prison to await a May 4 court appearance. ILGA
said “conditions are notoriously bad” at Fox Hill.
The Bahamas, population 251,000, are lo
cated in the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida. The
country is an “independent commonwealth.” It
has a prime minister, Lynden Oscar Pindling, and
a governor general, Henry Taylor, who represents
the British queen.
CANADA
A man who twice bashed gays in Toronto has
been banned by a judge from entering the city.
COSTA RICA
The Fénix University Gay Collective has
formed at the University of Costa Rica to combat
“the stigmatization that produces low self-esteem
in the gay community, which has been condemned
to silence imposed over the centuries by the male
heterosexual power system.”
T T Y
Gay, lesbian and AIDS groups came together
in February for the first annual Friendship Fair,
reported Confidencial. The groups set up stands
to distribute literature, rubbers and sell arts and
crafts produced by gays and lesbians.
“I’m speechless,” said one woman. “We are
taking off. We are strong. If we are capable of this
[fair] we can do anything.” “I nevei thought
something like this would occur in Costa Rica,”
said José Díaz. “Something good and historic is
afoot in this country.”
DENMARK
The world’s only gay-marriage country has
un-banned a safe-sex TV ad that shows two men
kissing. The “Remember Your Condom” spot
was axed by the state Advertising Commission in
late 1989 because the gay kiss was “unseemly.”
The National Association of Gays and Lesbians
(LBL), which produced the ad, appealed to the
Minister of Communications who finally lifted
the ban last month.
During the censorship battle, the ad was shown
many times on news programs. ‘T he best thing
that can happen [is] to get your ad banned. Then
everyone sees it,” noted LBL Secretariat Bent
Hansen.
Pan Bladet
ENGLAND
Chris Smith, the only openly gay member of
Parliament, won re-election in April by a margin
o f 10,652 votes, up from 805 in the previous
election.
▼ T ▼
Thirteen members of the direct-action group
OutRage dropped their pants outside the House of
Commons last month and displayed the phrase,
“EQUALITY NOW!” printed letter-by-letter on
their underwear. The demonstration targeted the
gay male age of consent, which is 21, compared
with 16 for heterosexuals.
The protest caused a “stir” among tourists in
Parliament Square, said Capital Gay.
ESTONIA
Parliament passed a motion April 21 support
ing legalization of male-male sex, reported the
newspaper Rahva Hadi in Tallinn, the capital.
Parliament also passed a measure authorizing
installation of condom machines in major cities.
Y V Y
Following the lead of the Estonian Lesbian
Union, gay men have formed the Estonian Gay
Association (Eesti Gayliit). The two groups may
merge at a later date.
FINLAND
Finland is the latest country to consider legal
izing an equivalent of marriage for gays and
lesbians. Netherlands, Norway and Sweden are
expected to follow this year or next. A Finnish
Parliamentary committee endorsed “registered
partnership” for gays in a report to Justice Minis
ter Hannele Pokka.
Pokka responded that “the attitudes” of the
Finnish people will determine whether the law is
enacted.
Reporter
GHANA
The Afro Lesbian and Gay Club has applied
for membership in the International Lesbian and
Gay Association (ILGA). ILGA Information
Secretary Micha Ramakers said the club “is very
discreetly trying to establish links between all
gays and lesbians to improve awareness of AIDS,
and is seeking the release of all those imprisoned
for being gay.”
Gay sex is illegal in Ghana.
HOLLAND
A new Dutch government study of 102 HIV
positive gays found that four insisted they’d only
had oral sex (sucking). It was not determined if
the four ingested semen or merely pre-cum.
A few other recent studies have suggested that
sucking is not as safe as Canadian and European
safe-sex educators previously suggested.
However, further explanation of many of the
cases revealed that the danger often emerges
when orally receptive men (suckers) have chronic
gum/dental problems and/or have sucked off thou
sands of men.
Still, a consensus is emerging that sucking
poses a small risk of HI V transmission because all
people routinely have small abrasions in or around
their mouths, providing a door for HIV to enter
the bloodstream.
IRELAND
Four years ago the European Court of Human
Rights told Ireland to repeal its male sodomy law,
but the country has not done so.
Last month, Dublin’s Gay and Lesbian Equal
ity Network lodged a new complaint charging
that failure to implement the ruling is a further
violation of the European Convention on Human
Rights.
Ireland is one of the last countries in Europe to
criminalize gay sex. Others include Cyprus,
Romania, all former Soviet republics except Latvia
and Ukraine, and Britain’s Gibraltar.
ITALY
An open gay was elected to Parliament in
April, according to Rome Gay News. Niki Vendóla
o f the Rifondazione Comunista party will repre
sent an area “in the South” o f Italy, the magazine
said.
Meanwhile, RGN reported that a pro-gay can
didate elected in Rome, Bruno Landi, promised to
introduce legislation establishing a Gay Commu
nity Affairs Department in the Ministry of Social
Affairs.
KENYA
The Know AIDS Society has applied for mem -
bership in the International Lesbian and Gay
Association. The group, founded in 1990 in
Nairobi, operates a phone line and an AIDS-
advice and counseling center. Spokesman Joe
Muninki told ILGA, “We wish to exchange
inforamtion, empowerment, knowledge, love and
travel.”
LATVIA
By a unanimous vote, the Latvian Parliament
abolished the male sodomy law, Penal Code Para
graph 124.1, on March 1. Members of the Latvian
Association for Sexual Equality had lobbied ex
tensively for the repeal.
The vote was announced in the official gov
ernment newspaper, Diena, merely by the num
ber of the repealed paragraph, which was likely
unknown to most readers. Parliament set the age
of consent for gay sex at 18.
Elmars Borins, LASE President, said the group
will lobby to lower the age to 16. Encouraged by
its success, LASE also is launching a campaign
for a Danish-style registered-partnership law.
Another former Soviet republic, Ukraine, also
repealed its sodomy law late last year.
And the latest official draft of Russia’s pro
posed new Legal Code does not contain the infa
mous Article 121.1, the male sodomy law under
which hundreds of gays have been imprisoned
yearly.
LITHUANIA
Independent Lithuania continues to jail gays
for the crime of making love. Arunas Dainauskas,
head of the Lithuanian Gay and Lesbian Informa
tion Bureau, says prosecutors sometimes obtain
convictions by granting immunity to one defen
dant in exchange for testimony against the other,
who is then charged with homosexual rape.
Meanwhile, LGLIB says the government is
spying on the group. Public meetings of homo
sexuals are considered “incitement of illegal be
havior,” Dainauskas said.
Gays and lesbians also are under assault from
the Catholic Church, which has repeatedly in
voked “morality” and “Biblical injunctions” to
thwart government action in support of homo
sexuals.
M ÉXICO
Under pressure from the Baja California State
Attorney’s Office for Human Rights, Tijuana
Mayor Carlos Montejo Favela has launched an
investigation of November’s gay-bar raids. Sev
enty persons were arrested in Los Equípales and
El Ranchero for allegedly engaging in acts against
public morals.
Gay activists and the Human Rights Office
say the police lied. If so, the persons responsible
for the arrests will be punished under the Law of
Civil Responsibility for Public Officials. Tijuana’s
Gay Community Defense Committee called the
investigation “the greatest achievement in favor
of different lifestyles in Tijuana.” “There are
profound changes in the individual and collective
spirit of the city’s gay community,” said spokes
man Max Mejia.
NICARAGUA
Latin American gays and lesbians met in
Managua last month to begin organizing the First
Congress of Latina Lesbians and Homosexual
Men from the American Continent and the Carib
bean, which is set for November 1993 in Managua.
The gathering will be staged by The Lesbian/
Homosexual Network of Latinas and Latinos
from America and the Caribbean, which was
formed at the 1991 International Lesbian and Gay
Association conference in México.
According to a press release, the network
hopes to “organize continental solidarity and po
litical action to guarantee the human and civil
rights of lesbians and gay men throughout Latin
America, the Caribbean, and the Latino enclaves
in the United States and Canada.”
The next planning meeting for the ‘93 confer
ence will be in Brazil in November.
PUERTO RICO
Activists have begun to push for repeal of the
island’s sodomy law. Members of Friends of
Human Rights testified before the Senate Special
Commission on Criminality, which held hearings
on sweeping changes proposed for the the penal
code.
RUSSIA
U.S. Sprint is the first American telephone
company to offer direct dialing to all locations in
the former U.S.S.R.
The development was applauded by the Ameri
cans who network with the mushrooming gay
movement in the Commonwealth of Independent
States and the Baltic national-and by the produc
ers of this news roundup.
SCOTLAND
More than 500 anti-gay attacks have been
reported to the Glasgow gay hotline since Sep
tember. The victims were beaten, mugged or
threatened. “We believe the same people are
carrying out the attacks,” said a Glasgow City
Liaison Group spokesman.
SINGAPORE
Undercover police arrested four men for "out
raging modesty” after they allegedly sought sex
with the cops in separate incidents at Marina East,
the gay beach, reported Singapore’s New Paper.
The cruisers face up to two years in jail, a fine,
caning, or a combination of two of the three
penalties.
Undercover officers walked the beach carry
ing mineral water in their right hands and wearing
knapsacks to indicate they were seeking sex. New
Paper's front-page story revealed. The newspa
per said this is a well-known code among local
gays.
“We will continue conducting ambushes until
the problem is eradicated,” promised Chan Soo
Wah of Geylang Police Division Headquarters.
Compiled by Rex Wockner, copyrighted Out
lines
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