just out ▼ august 1992 ▼ 5
world briefs
ARGENTINA
Argentina’s first gay and lesbian pride week
featured a parade through Buenos Aires the
evening of July 3.
Three hundred activists marched from the
Government Palace to Congress carrying pink
placards demanding equal rights and chanting,
“Respect for the gays and lesbians marching the
streets of Argentina!”
Other events as well-attended included a gay
rights forum, an art show at the city cultural center
and a film festival.
A parallel exhibit of AIDS education material
from 50 countries attracted 130,000 people over
15 days and featured screenings of the film Long­
time Companion.
AUSTRALIA
At the request of the Tasmanian Gay and
Lesbian Rights Group,
United National Hu­
man Rights Committee asked the Australian gov­
ernment to encourage legalization of gay sex in
the state o f Tasmania.
T G L g p has filed a complaint with the com­
mittee against the state government, charging the
ban on male-male sex violates gays’ rights to
privacy, equal treatment and freedom from dis­
crimination based on sexual orientation as guar­
anteed by the U.N. International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, to which Australia is a
signatory.
Tasmania is the only state in Australia where
gay sex is illegal.
▼ ▼ ▼
A 23-year-old man who stabbed to death and
tried to decapitate a 65-year-old man he claimed
made a sexual advance was acquitted of murder
and manslaughter by a Victoria state Supreme
Court.
Robert Murley met Joe Godfrey in a bar in
Mordialloc, and the two went to Godfrey’s apart­
ment. There, Murley said, Godfrey tried to hug
him, so Murley stabbed Godfrey 17 times, crushed
his rib cage with a chair, tried to cut off his head,
set the apartment on fire and left.
The court ruled this was an acceptable re­
sponse to an unwanted homosexual advance.
Melbourne Star Observer, Outrage
BRA ZIL
A gay man or lesbian is murdered in Brazil
every five days, says Luiz Mott, president of
Grupo Gay de Bahia, one of the most active gay
groups there.
By monitoring the media, Mott has docu­
mented 1,200 murders in the past 10 years. He
calls it “genocide.”
The murders are often committed by hustlers
who rob their victims and then kill them, Mott
said. In the few cases in which charges are fried,
the killers go free or receive very light sentences
after arguing they were defending their honor
against a gay advance, he said.
GGB has also documented the existence o f 12
paramilitary groups dedicated to exterminating
homosexuals and transvestites. One group,
Comando de Ca$a aso Gays, has claimed respon­
sibility for killing and mutilating several Rio de
Janeiro transvestites.
CANADA
The British Columbia legislature, on June 12,
passed amendments to the British Columbia Hu­
man Rights Act prohibiting discrimination against
lesbians and gay men.
Lesbians, gay men and other human rights
activists had been demanding the changes, both
through conventional lobbying and through dem­
onstrations at the legislature and at party conven­
tions.
Ken Smith, a lawyer active in human rights
issues says that after working for over 20 years to
have sexual o rie n ta tio n added to B ritish
Columbia’s Human Rights Act, the amendment is
a good first step. He feels that the amendment is
limited and a comprehensive review of the entire
act is needed.
▼ ▼ ▼
The United Church o f Canada has ordained its
first openly gay minister, four years after passing
a controversial resolution that O K ’d gay preach­
ers.
Tim Stevenson, 46, o f Vancouver, was or­
dained by the church’s British Columbia branch.
Meanwhile, delegates to the annual meeting
of the UCC’s Saskatchewan branch resolved to
fill 10 pulpits with open gays within three years.
And the UCC’s Manitoba branch voted to
develop a liturgy for gay and lesbian unions. That
decision will be discussed by the UCC’s national
governing body when it meets later this month.
Perceptions, Xtra!
▼ ▼ ▼
The Metro Toronto Council voted 18-15 June
3 to extend the Metro government’s employee
spousal benefits package to gay and lesbian work­
ers.
Five employees, including M etro’s human
rights director, had lodged complaints with the
Ontario Human Rights Commission after their
lovers were denied benefits.
Ontario and the city o f Toronto already offer
benefits to gay and lesbian employees’ partners.
Metro Toronto is a federation of six boroughs and
cities, smaller than but similar to a U.S. county.
Xtra!, Toronto Star
CH IN A
The first AIDS hotline received 160 calls in its
first six weeks of operation, mostly from men
aged between 20 and 44 who asked about preven­
tion, testing and symptoms.
China has 708 HIV-positive people, the gov­
ernment says.
D ENM ARK
Since OcL 1, 1989, when Denmark became
the only country to allow lesbian and gay mar­
riages, 663 gay or lesbian couples have gotten
married. Two-thirds o f the weddings have been
between men.
But gay and lesbian couples are still fighting
for equality on three fronts. They cannot adopt
children or demand their wedding be performed
by the state Lutheran church (as opposed to city
officials). And lesbians do not have access to
artificial insemination.
In other news, PAN Bladet, Denmark's only
gay and lesbian newspaper, is preparing to cel­
ebrate its 40th birthday. It is published by the
National Association for Gays and Lesbians, which
formed in 1948.
ENGLAND
More than 100,000 people turned out for
“ EuroPride” in London. About 30,000 stepped
off from the Embankment, and another 70,000
joined post-parade festivities in Brockwell Park.
The Pink Paper called the day “the Pride of a
lifetime.”
▼ ▼ ▼
Anti-Semitism is flourishing in the 1990s, fed
by rising nationalism in the former East bloc and
growing popularity of far-right parties in the
West, according to a 50-nation study by the Lon-
don-based Institute o f Jewish Affairs. The report
noted that Russia has “probably the most dynamic
anti-Semitic movement anywhere in the world,”
and in the West pointed to “a new breed of
electorally successful far-right leaders” with anti-
Semitic leanings, among them Jean-Marie le Pen
of France and David Duke of the United States.
LITH U A N IA
The Ministry of Justice is preparing “the draft
o f the law providing for the abolishment of Ar­
ticle 122 o f the Criminal Code for consensual
homosexual relations,” Deputy Justice Minister
S. Sedbaras wrote to a U.S. activist this month.
Neighboring Estonia and Latvia, along with
the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, have al­
ready decriminalized gay male sex. Lesbianism
was not illegal in the U.S.S.R.
M EX IC O
A leader of Mexico City's AIDS movement
and two other gay men were murdered in a Mexico
City apartment July 12. The killings follow at
least four other anti-gay murders in the city in
recent weeks.
According to Mexican newspapers, Francisco
Estrada Valle, founder and president o f the AIDS
organization A ve de Mexico, and two friends were
tied up, tortured, stabbed and strangled.
There are no suspects and gay groups charge
that police "are more interested in the particulars
o f the victims's sexual lifestyles than in clarifying
the facts of the crime," as one activist put it.
Police and press have reported extraneous
inform ation such as that dildos, cockrings,
sadomasochistic paraphernalia and women's cloth­
ing were discovered in the apartment where the
murders happened.
The murders happened as the 14th annual
conference o f the International Lesbian and Gay
Association opened in Paris.
Two hundred ILGA delegates quickly pro­
tested at the Mexican embassy and reported they
were "brutally" attacked by 1,200 officers o f the
French riot police, CRS. Nine demonstrators
were injured.
Police barricaded the street with squad cars
and began beating protestors without asking them
to disperse or leaving an opening through which
they could depart.
ILGA lodged a protest with the Minister o f the
Interior, who is responsible for the police.
NEW ZEALAND
The Broadcasting Standards Authority added
“sexual orientation” to the anti-discrimination
provisions of the Television Code of Broadcast­
ing Practice, at the request of the New Zealand
AIDS Foundation.
Portrayals of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and
straights that denigrate their sexual orientations
are now banned.
Out!
NICARAGUA
There was “a grand display” of lesbianism at
the Central American Feminist Conference March
23-28 in Managua, according to the Costa Rican
gay and lesbian magazine Confidencial.
“It was a topic of considerable importance that
was approached in a serious and responsible man­
ner by the participants," the magazine reported.
"This was useful to once again smash stereotypes
and taboos....”
NORW AY
Gay Pride Week offered a parade, a lesbian
handball tournament, dance and theater perfor­
mances, church services, sadomasochism parties
and a film festival, among other events.
The parade through downtown Oslo was lead
by Dykes on Bikes and a male pom-pom troupe.
The pride slogan was, “All Homosexuals-Come
Forth afld Be Proud and Visible.”
Blikk
SOUTH AFRICA
The Advocate will remain banned here follow­
ing a citizen’s appeal to the slate attorney in
Pretoria.
An appeals board determined: “This publica­
tion is aimed at homosexual/Iesbian readers and
co n tain s ex p lic it le tte rs, ad v ice and
information., .which are of such a repulsive nature
that it certainly would exceed the tolerance level
of the reasonable South African reader.
"This publication is both indecent, obscene,
offensive and harmful to public morals,” the board
ruled.
ZIM BABW E
The ground-breaking organization Gays and
Lesbians o f Zimbabwe celebrated its first anni­
versary with a Gay Pride Week.
Activists organized a video festival, an AIDS
workshop for youth and a bicycle tour o f the
capital, Harare, among other events.
Compiled by Rex Wockner,
copyright Outlines.
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