ju s t o u t ▼ d e c c m b o r 1 0 , 1 9 9 4 ▼ 3 world briefs AUSTRALIA Sydney’s famed annual gay Mardi Gras and Sleaze Ball parties have been overrun by fun seeking heterosexuals and gay men are fed up with it, reported Capital Q. More than 1,000 gay men have signed a peti tion calling on the Mardi Gras leadership to create a male-only dance space at the 1995 Mardi Gras party. “With the increasing number of strai hts at our parties, they are be-*, coming gay and les-y bian u nfriendly,’*; said petition orga nizer Edmund Milts. “That’s really sad.” Mardi Gras pre viously tried to fix the problem by be coming a member ship organization, quizzing applicants about their sexuality, and allowing only members to attend the event, but a lot of straight people apparently said they were gay to gain admittance. “It’s a big issue, and we’re taking it very seriously,” said Mardi Gras president Rob Patmore. “Men-only and women-only spaces could be a possible solution.” T T ▼ Melbourne’s Multicultural Gay and Lesbian Support Group has sent gay and lesbian clubs in the state of Victoria a “Code of Practice” to sign, to “guarantee the safety and freedom from harass ment of patrons of gay venues.” The group said it had received several com plaints of drag performers making offensive com ments to Asian bar patrons. The code requires venue owners to ban biased remarks based on age, nationality, immigration status, country of origin, race, color or transgenderism. CANADA Sixty-two gay and lesbian Canadians have brought their foreign lovers to live in Canada since the government’s 1993 decision that same-sex partners could be processed for landed-immigrant status on “humanitarian and compassionate grounds,” reported London’s Capital Gay. “ H um anitarian and com passionate grounds...include the existence of a stable rela tionship with a Canadian citizen or permanent resident,” the regulations state. “Missions [consu lates] should recognize that undue hardship would often result from separating or continuing separa tion of a bona fide same-sex or common-law couple.” One of the most recent cases involved Yukon Territory lesbian Andrea Underwood and her Brit ish lover Anna Carrott. They now plan to sue the Yukon over its refusal to give them a marriage license. ▼ Y Y Canadian Justice Minister Allan Rock con firmed Nov. 17 that the government plans to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to outlaw dis crimination based on sexual orientation. “Our intention remains...to introduce legisla tion in that regard before the Christmas break,” Rock told Parliament when questioned by MP Réal Ménard, one of two openly gay members of the House of Commons. The exchange came during debate on amend ing Canada’s criminal code to increase penalties for hate crimes against gay men and lesbians. GERMANY Germany bestowed one of its highest honors on two gay activists in October, according to This Week in Germany. Civil-rights lawyer Manfred Bruns and activist Markus Commercon received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for their work championing the rights of gay men, lesbians, and people with HIV and AIDS, and for improving SERIOUS INJURY& DEATH C LA IM S resulting from: awareness of discrimination based on sexual ori entation. Commercon, 30, is the first person under 40 to receive the Order of Merit. He has lectured exten sively in schools on gay issues and wrote the book AIDS: My Path in Life. Bruns, a retired Federal Court of Justice pros ecutor, is a longtime gay leader and was a member of parliament’s AIDS panel. NETHERLANDS Dutch immigration officers Nov. 14 deported around 90 male-to-female transsexual prostitutes to Ecuador, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Brazil, according to the Internet Euro-Queer mailing list. Amsterdam police blamed the prostitutes for a rash of fights, thefts and disturbances of the peace. “We do not want this sort here just at the time we are trying to make prostitution into an ordinary business,” a police media spokesman said. “There have been many complaints about fights breaking out when a customer finds out he’s dealing with a man. The transsexuals are also aggressive to fe male prostitutes.” The transsexuals are believed to have relocated to Amsterdam after having been driven out of Paris’ Bois de Boulogne park, a popular French cruising spot. Police said the 90 individuals were in various stages of becoming female. SERBIA On Nov. 16 Lepa Mladjenovic, of the sexual minority group Arkadia, became the first lesbian or gay man to discuss queer issues on Serbian television. She appeared, along with a British lesbian, on the hour-long program Incidentals on the arts channel. “So far, the reaction to the show has been positive,” Arkadia said in a news release. TURKEY A 22-year-old Turkish man living in Arlington, Va., was granted asylum in the United States on Oct. 18 because he was persecuted and raped by Turkish police due to his homosexuality. “It has been determined you have established a well-founded fear of persecution were you to re turn to Turkey,” the government wrote to Serkan Altan. Altan is the second foreign gay or lesbian to win asylum in the U.S. since Attorney General Janet Reno declared in June that gay men and lesbians are a “particular social group” that is persecuted in some nations, according to The Wash ington Blade. ZIMBABWE Members of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe are raising money to sue the national daily newspa per, the Daily Gazette, over its refusal to run a GALZ advertisement. “Our advert simply advertises our counseling service,” a GALZ spokesman said. “The newspa per has said that it is a ‘family’ newspaper and will not carry our advertisement. “There are many isolated and lonely gay people in Zimbabwe who we would reach via this advert.” In related news, members of GALZ are raising money to fight censorship laws that, according to the group, deem all gay and lesbian material porno graphic. “We once suffered a raid by the police, who were searching [unsuccessfully] for the GALZ library,” the group said in a press release. The Censor Board and the attorney general refuse to discuss the laws with GALZ, a spokes man said. 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