just out ▼ o cto b «r 2 1 , 1994 ▼ 5
world briefs
ALBANIA
The Gay Albanian Society, which formed this
year in what had been the w orld’s most closed
Com m unist society, now has 10 members, fax
access and an e-mail address. But, according to the
Bulletin of the International Lesbian and Gay A s
sociation, all is far from well.
"Gay men in Albania have suffered from ex
treme isolation, the product of the repression and
fear engendered by the Hoxha regim e,” an uniden
tified writer reported. “W hile there is one informal
meeting place [in the park across from Hotel Dajti],
very few men dare to go there. None o f the gay men
I spoke to knew o f more than 15 or 20 other gays
in A lbania.”
The report continued: “When, in March, the
president [of the gay group] gave an anonymous
interview to a newspaper, he was asked, ‘Are there
many hom osexuals in A lbania?’
‘Very many,’ he replied, ‘maybe even dozens.’ ”
for a national law banning discrimination based on
sexuality.
“This attitude [from the ruling Institutional
Revolutionary Party] has never been seen before,”
said Max Mejia, editor of the Tijuana newspaper
Frontera Gay. “We were invited by a PRI candi
date. This is change.”
Mejia said, “Now, it is up to gay activists to
insist on a further response to this meeting. It will
depend on us overcoming our small numbers and
our divisions.... There is a huge population o f [gay
and lesbian] people waiting for us to offer them
something realistic and simple to join.”
Mejia noted that in recent years lesbians and
gay men have been accepted in government posts,
within the confines o f an unwritten “d on’t ask,
don’t tell” policy.
“The PRI [officials] d on’t ever say the words
‘gay’ or ‘lesbian,’ ” he said. “ It’s like in Mexican
families— everything is allowed as long as you
don’t talk about it.”
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CANADA
Marion Best, chair of a United Church of Canada
committee that in 1988 recom m ended ordaining
gay men and lesbians, has been chosen the new
leader, or “m oderator,” o f the church, Canada’s
largest.
The 1988 recommendation created deep divi
sions in the church that have not yet healed, ac
cording to Gaezette, a gay magazine in Nova
Scotia.
T
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The Canadian government will spend $800,000
to bring 1,000 HIV-positive people from Canada
and under-represented countries to the 11th Inter
national Conference on AIDS in Vancouver in
19% , reported Xtra!
“ My idea is to bring in the actual people af
fected— it’s the way to gain the most insight,” said
Health M inister Diane Marleau.
ENGLAND
According to legend, Britain’s 19th-century
anti-hom osexuality laws do not apply to lesbians
because no one dared tell Queen Victoria that such
“ perverts” existed.
PAKISTAN
A gay Pakistani man who lives with his U.S.
lover, and works at a fast-food restaurant in Kansas
City, Mo., was granted asylum in the United States
on Aug. 31, because o f Pakistan’s persecution of
gay men.
The decision, by immigration Judge Gabriel
Vidella, was the first ruling o f its kind since U.S.
Attorney General Janet Reno said in June that, for
immigration purposes, lesbians and gay men are a
“particular social group” that is persecuted in some
countries.
If he were deported “I would be a dead man,”
the 27-year-old man, using the name “Ali,” told
Judge Vidella.
Pakistani civil law punishes those who have
same-sex relations with two years to life in prison.
Islamic law, which can be enforced legally, calls
for up to 100 lashes or death by stoning.
According to The Washington Blade, in 1990
Ali was in a private home with three straight
friends when police broke in, saying they had been
told the men were having sex. The four were taken
to the police station and beaten. A li’s father report
edly told the police when he came to pick him up
that if it were true that his son was gay, he would
kill him.
A few months later, Ali was expelled from the
Pakistani Cricket Association for being gay, and,
shortly thereafter, he received a letter from the
local Lahore Cricket Association dismissing him
from the team for being a “ faggot.” That letter was
presented as evidence in the U.S. immigration
hearing.
SOUTH AFRICA
The new London chapter of the Lesbian Aveng
ers is not amused by this legend, so it staged its
first-ever demonstration recently at Victoria’s statue
outside o f Buckingham Palace.
Said London’s Capital Gay, “A posse of stroppy
d y k es...struck a blow for visibility and laid siege
to the statue.”
ISRAEL
The K nesset, Israel’s parliament, has passed on
first reading a measure that would extend routine
governm ent pensions to domestic partners of gay
men and lesbians.
The bill, introduced by labor M P Yael Dayan,
is supported by both the Justice and Finance M in
istries. It must clear two more readings to become
law.
MEXICO
Newly elected M exican President Ernesto
Zedillo arranged an unprecedented meeting be
tween low-level aides and gay and lesbian leaders
in M exico C ity on July 3, during the presidential
campaign.
About 30 gay and lesbian leaders from some 15
organizations attended. The focus was on lobbying
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South Africa this year became the first nation in
the world to write a ban against sexual orientation
discrimination into its constitution. But activists
say there is a real chance the ban will be deleted in
coming years, as the new interim constitution is
reworked into a permanent document.
T he G ay and L e sb ian O rg a n iz a tio n o f
W itwatersrand and the Association of Bisexuals,
Gays and Lesbians in Cape Town say defending
the clause will be one of their top priorities for the
next few years.
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THAILAND
The “gay town” announced earlier this year in
Thailand is under construction and already 40-
percent sold.
The W achira Royal Valley company is build
ing the 800-home, 80-acre “Flora Tow n” in the
mountains near the town of Khorat, 90 miles north
east o f Bangkok.
“We are addressing ourselves to homosexual
yuppies— clean-cut, good-looking and charming,”
said developer Dejdeow Srichai.
A brochure for the village shows smiling and
lusty young men lying beside a turquoise swim
ming pool.
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