4 ▼ aprii 2 1 . 1 9 0 5 ▼ ju st out
D iscover the F ine A rt
of A merican C raft
world briefs
BRAZIL
A box of 12 condoms in Brazil costs more than
the monthly minimum wage of $70, The Chicago
Tribune reported March 5.
The newspaper blamed the price on "efforts
by Brazil’s rubber industry to keep out foreign-
made latex products.”
Brazil has recorded 59,000 AIDS cases, rank­
ing it third worldwide. Health officials believe 1
million Brazilians are HIV positive, out of a
population of 158 million.
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The Real Mother Goose
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Recent surveys in the Brazilian state capitals
of Salvador, Curitiba and Aracaju found that 60 to
80 percent of Brazilians believe gay men and
lesbians must have the same rights as heterosexu­
als, and 50 to 65 percent think gay and lesbian
couples should be able to get married, correspon­
dent Luiz Mott reports from Salvador, Bahia.
Seventy-three Brazilian cities and towns—
including S3o Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia—
ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Legislation to create civil-union contracts for
same-sex couples was recently introduced na­
tionally by Worker’s Party Deputy Marta Suplicy,
Mott said.
Mott and his lover were united in a religious
ceremony in the Pacifist Christian Church, and
Mott has demanded that the Justice Department
recognize the marriage under civil law. He is
waiting for a response.
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Washington Square
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BRITAIN
A network of 60 dissident Church of England
priests performs clandestine gay weddings in
1 9 3 5 0 N W Cornell Road • just off 185th in H illsboro
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GERMANY
Those cutting-edge Lesbian Avengers in Ber­
lin have wowed the gay Internet community by
establishing their own World Wide Web site.
Point your W eb bro w ser at h ttp://
www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/students/zcacsst/LA.html.
The World Wide Web allows one to point-
and-click her way around the globe at the speed of
light, following topical links on thousands of
computers in scores of countries.
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In his inaugural speech as an openly gay
member of the German parliament, Volker Beck
blasted the Liberal Democrat Party for breaking a
promise to pursue legal recognition of same-sex
partnerships.
The pledge appeared in campaign ads run in
lesbian and gay newspapers.
Beck said he will now have to take the matter
into his own hands, by introducing a bill to legal­
ize same-sex marriage.
INDIA
In five years India will be the world’s most
AIDS-stricken country, said a researcher who
spoke at the recent conference of Australians for
an Ecologically Sustainable Population.
Biology professor Roger Short of Monash
University said theepidemic’sepicenter will move
from Africa to India and that India will probably
have more AIDS cases than the rest of the world
combined.
India’s National AIDS Control Organization
estimates that 1.62 million of the country’s 850
million citizens are HIV positive, up 60 percent
since 1993, according to Reuters.
G A R D E N - S T O R E
African Blue Basil has unique flavor and texture to rec­
ommend it, even were it not so lovely to look at. Give it
a sunny spot, then watch it grow huge and magnificent!
to slow HIV transmission.
The ruling came in the case of a U.S. man,
Henry Halm, who fled to Canada to avoid pros­
ecution for having had sex with teenage boys in
New York. Halm thought he’d be safe because he
thought Canada’s age of consent was 14, and
because Canada does not deport people if the
crime they committed elsewhere is not also a
crime in Canada. But, in fact, Canada’s age of
consent is 14 for oral and vaginal sex, but 18 for
anal sex.
Anglican churches across Britain, London’s Swrc-
day Times reported March 12.
“They have ushered hundreds of homosexuals
up the aisle in services that could lead to their
dismissal if discovered by bishops,” the report
said.
The secret ceremonies reportedly are arranged
by the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement,
which acts as a go-between for gay lovebirds and
sympathetic vicars.
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Former Royal Air Force nurse Jeanette Smith,
kicked out in December for being a lesbian, is the
first person to challenge the British military’s ban
on lesbians and gay men.
Smith filed suit before a London High Court
judge alleging her dismissal was unlawful. On
March 14, the court ruled she could proceed with
her case because the ban may violate European
Union anti-discrimination laws.
Around 300 lesbians and gay men have been
kicked out of the British military in the past five
years, according to Stonewall, Britain’s main
sexual minority lobbying organization.
CANADA
Canadian Federal Court Justice Barbara Reed
ruled last month that the higher age of consent for
anal sex between men was unconstitutional be­
cause it discriminated against gay men, reported
Toronto’s Xtra!
The government claimed the law was needed
ISRAEL
Tel Aviv University has settled out of court
and granted full spousal benefits to the lover of
gay chemistry professor Uzi Even, reports Israel’s
Society for the Protection of Personal Rights.
The benefits include tuition exemption, use of
university facilities, air tickets for sabbaticals,
and a pension.
More than 150 professors and 1,200 students
signed petitions supporting Even’s lawsuit.
JAPAN
Seven percent of Japanese companies that
responded to a Tokyo Chamber of Commerce
survey would ask an employee to quit if he or she
tested HIV positive, the Kyodo news service
reported March 14.
Twenty-six percent of companies plan to treat
AIDS like any other disease, while 21 percent
don’t know what they will do when confronted
with the issue.
Nine percent of the companies plan to test all
employees for HIV and two percent plan to test
job applicants.
Meanwhile, Nikkei Weekly reports that 114
Japanese gay men got HIV through sex in 1994, a
97 percent increase over 1993, according to the
government’s AIDS Surveillance Committee.
Japan has seen 3,637 HIV/AIDS cases, of
which 1,845 resulted from sex. The others were
from blood transfusions.
Compiled by Rex Wockner. Translated by
Mario Inchiosa, Guido Gaietta and Peter Rauber.