world briefs
AFRICA
Drought continues to ravage large sections of
eastern and southern Africa. Millions of people
are expected to be starving by August, with an
estimated 30 million people already affected.
Large-scale humanitarian efforts are needed to
avert the worst disaster in this century.
BAHAMAS
The British cruise-line employee who faced
20 years in jail for allegedly having sex on a dark
beach with a local man plea-bargained a reduced
charge of gross indecency, was sentenced to six
months conditional discharge, paid $8,000 and
returned home.
International Lesbian and Gay Alliance spokes
man Micha Ramakers called the new law “totally
monstrous considering the harmless and victim
less nature of the offense.”
Carnival Cruise Lines fired Chapman. Their
toll-free telephone number is (800) 327-9501.
BRAZIL
Officials in Aracaju, Sergipe, renamed a street
“Rua 28 de Junho" (June 28 Street) in memory of
the Stonewall Revolt.
Lobbying for the move came from the 11-
year-old group Dialogay.
The dedication ceremony was hosted by famed
actress Elke Maravilha, leading journalist Leao
Lobo, and the head of the Metal Workers Union,
Brazil’s largest union.
Ex-Brazilian President José Samey and the
president of the Workers Party faxed messages of
congratulation.
The Town Council paid for the stage for the
event.
CANADA
New Brunswick is the sixth province or terri
tory to enact a gay-rights law, following Manitoba,
Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and theYukonTer-
ritory.
The Legislature voted 34-8 May 13 to ban
sexual-orientation-based discrimination and Gov
ernor General Gilbert Flinn signed the law May
21. British Columbia and Saskatchewan are ex
pected to follow suit soon.
▼ ▼ ▼
Toronto Mayor June Rowlands boycotted the
kickoff of the Salvation Army’s annual fundraising
campaign because the Army violates the city gay-
rights law.
CHINA
Officials in Wuwei County, Anhwei province,
dropped charges of “unruly behavior” against two
lesbians and released them from jail after the
Ministry of Public Security informed the Wuwei
County Public Security Bureau that the women
were not breaking any laws by living together.
The couple’s distraught parents sought police
assistance after failing to persuade the women to
break up, according to the daily newspaper
Guizhou.
CYPRUS
The European Commission on Human Rights
unanimously ruled that Cyprus’ ban on anal sex
between men violates the European Convention
on Human Rights and sent the case brought by
Cypriot gay activist Alexander Modinos to the
European Court of Human Rights for a final
determination.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
The new gay movements of Latvia, Lithuania,
Romania and Serbia made their first international
appearances in May at the International Lesbian
and Gay Association’s annual Regional Confer
ence for Eastern and Southeastern Europe, held in
Bratislava.
Delegates also attended from Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, former East Germany, Hungary,
Poland, Russia and 11 Western nations. Among
former-Communist countries, only Albania and a
few republics of the ex-U.S.S.R. now lack a gay
movement.
The conference was hosted by the Slovak gay
group Ganymcdes, one of 14 gay organizations in
Czechoslovakia. Delegates staged an anti
homophobia demonstration in Bratislava’s Free
dom Square and a party on the banks of the
Danube River.
Hot topics included gay parenting, outreach to
rural gays, homosexuals and the church, network
ing with mainstream human-rights organizations,
capitalism/commercialization, and AIDS.
All former East Bloc countries still lack qual
ity condoms and water-based lubricant is all but
unavailable.
Poland’s gay-owned Softpress unveiled a Gay
Guide to Eastern Europe and delegates from
every country but Romania showed off new gay
and lesbian magazines. The conference was.cov-
ered on local and national TV and in seven Czecho
slovakian newspapers.
“With this conference, the lesbian and gay
movement in...post-Communist countries has
continued its rapid development and increasing
visibility,” said ILGA Co-Secretary General John
Clark.
ENGLAND
Members of OutRage paraded outside the
Conservative Party Central Office and the House
of Commons last month “promoting homosexu
ality and offering politicians ‘a free trial sample.’”
They were protesting Section 28 of the Local
Government Act which prohibits cities from “in
tentionally promoting] homosexuality” and bans
teaching “the acceptability of homosexuality as a
pretended family relationship” in schools.
“People who were once straight told amazing
stories of how they turned on to queemess and
were saved from the hetero hell of marriage,
children and a mortgage in suburbia.”
ESTONIA
The new Criminal Code, which took effect
June 1, does not contain the law that criminalized
male sodomy.
A law prohibiting “encouragement to homo
sexuality” was also deleted.
The code also lowers the age of consent to 14
for women and 16 for men, with no distinction
juat out f juty 1902 ▼ 7
between gay and heterosexual sex.
Parliament passed a motion April 21 support
ing the legalization of male-male sex, with sup
porters saying a better climate for gays would
help fight AIDS.
The former Soviet republics of Latvia and
Ukraine have also decriminalized gay sex, while
Lithuania and Russia confirmed this year that
they still enforce their sodomy laws.
FRANCE
Fifty-five ACT UPers were arrested during
April’s “Day of Despair.”
The day began at 7 am with Fauré’s “Re
quiem” blasting from a sound truck at the home of
the head of the agency responsible for blood
transfusions. ACT UP charges the agency distrib
uted a flyer in 1985 saying unheated hemophilia
treatments were AIDS-safe when it knew other
wise. Upstairs neighbors dumped buckets of
water on the protestors.
At 8 am, 50 demonstrators invaded the (depar
tures for) Lyon Train Station with banners and
megaphones while another group targeted a nearby
subway stop. They set up a coffin surrounded by
candles and distributed pamphlets and rubbers.
At 9:30 am, 100 protestors carrying a cross
and flinging fake blood erected a mock tomb at
Pére Lachaise Cemetery and collapsed in a “die-
in” for the TV cameras.
At 11:30 am, activists chained themselves to
the Châtelet metro stop to protest the transit
system’s refusal to display safe-sex ads.
At 3 pm, 1,000 protestors descended on St.
Lazare Train Station and set up 10 caskets. They
dyed the fountains on Avenue de l’Opéra red,
threw fake blood on themselves and everything
else, and “died.”
The day ended with a sit-in at the Louvre
museum followed by a march that was supposed
to end at the Deportation Memorial.
But police intercepted the protestors at Louis-
Phillippe Bridge and herded 55 into wagons,
charging the approved route for the protests had
changed twice.
▼ ▼ T
France Telecom is threatening to disconnect
gay computer bulletin board systems over lan
guage that is “offensive to good morals.”
GERMANY
Christina Schenk, the only openly gay mem
ber of the Bundestag, the national parliament, has
come out as a sadomasochist.
Schenk, a 39-year-old physicist from former
East Germany, also considers herself “a radical
feminist-separatist,” yet she is happy that east
German lesbians “are less preoccupied with
whether something is politically correct.”
JAPAN
More than 170 lesbians from 13 countries
attended the four-day Asian Lesbian Network
conference in Tokyo in May.
It featured workshops, sports, concerts and
films. Hot topics included lesbian literature,
lesbian families and feminism.
The first ALN conference was in Bangkok in
1990.
NETHERLANDS
Police are threatening to close the highway
rest area between Hoogeveen and Ommen if gays
rushing to the cruisy woods don’t start parking
between the lines, said De Gay Krant.
The authorities told a local newspaper they
don’t care if men bonk in the bushes but errant
parking habits wreak traffic havoc.
The paper dutifully urged hot-to-trot homo
sexuals to park properly en route to their trysts.
NICARAGUA
Nicaragua’s National Assembly June 11 voted
43-39 to criminalize “sodomy” that is“practicefd]
in a scandalous manner.”
The confusing measure also bans
“promotion]” and “inducement]” of sodomy
(which is defined as “same-sex...cohabitation”)
as well as pro-sodomy “propogand[a].” And
persons who violate the statute, “even in private,”
with someone over whom they have “the influ
ence of authority or moral direction” will face
additional charges of “illegitimate seduction.”
To become law, the measure must be signed
by Nicaraguan President Violeta Chamorro by
July 11. She is a conservative Catholic who has
spoken out against homosexuality.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast saw its second gay pride parade June
20. Marchers wound from the University of Ul
ster to the Botanic Gardens.
A weekof activities included discos, readings,
contests, dance performances and the British Film
Institute’s Sixth Lesbian and Gay Film Festival,
“On a Queer Day You Can See Forever.”
RUSSIA
The Russian Ministry of Justice reported in
May that 959 men were sent to labor camps in the
past two years for having male-male anal sex, a
violation of Penal Code ARticle 121.1.
Gay activist Valery Klimov, who is in contact
with 150 such prisoners, says the men report they
are regularly beaten and raped.
An official draft of Russia’s proposed new
Penal Code eliminates Article 121.1. It is un
known when the new code may be enacted.
SWITZERLAND
Women’s International League for Peace and
Freedom’s International Secretariat in Geneva is
working with the International Lesbian and Gay
Association and others to get the human rights of
gay men, lesbians and bisexuals included in the
‘93 World Conference on Human Rights and the
Sub-Commission, which will meet in August.
Right now, the work is in the informal planning
stages. WILPF is seeking ideas, contacts, infor
mation, etc. in Geneva or elsewhere.
Information should be directed to: Alison
Marks, Human Rights Intern, Women’s Interna
tional League for Peace and Freedom, Interna
tional Secretariat, 1, rue de Varembe, C.P. 28,
1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland.
Compiled by Rex Wockner, copyright 1992,
Getting involved is very rewarding for me ... everyone can do something
Volunteering on a hotline is just
J
one way to get involved in the
I
effort to fight H IV and AIDS.
1
Doing outreach in a bar. participating in a w a l k - a - l h o n ^ J J ^ J » |
or working in a care facility are other ways. Everyone
|
can become involved— gay or straight, male or female.
h g b young or old. black or white. If you re H IV positive, you can
B f surround yourself with the support you need to live a long and
K
l healthy life. To find out more about what you can do.
call CAP s Hotline ^
at 223-2437 V flD D .