just out ▼ nowsmbor 3, 1995 ▼ 3
Howie Baggadonutz presents
world briefs
S .F . D y k e C o m ic S e n s a t io n
From TV's “Out There III"
ARGENTINA
Members of Lesbianas a la Vista marched
through Buenos Aires on Sept. 16 to protest the
Argentine government’s anti-lesbian position at
the United Nations Fourth World Conference on
Women in Beijing, China.
The conference deleted a call for protection
from discrimination based on sexual orientation
from its “Platform for Action” when the del
egates, who came from 189 countries, could not
reach consensus on that point.
The demonstrators painted their faces white
and wore black “to symbolize mourning for the
exclusion of our rights from Beijing’s final state
ment” and to “denounce...w hat conservative
forces wish for lesbians: our invisibility and,
finally, our elimination,” said a press release.
They carried banners reading: “Lesbian Rights
Are Human Rights” and “Menem [Argentina’s
president], the Pope and the Ayatollah—Together
they stopped us.”
Many observers of the march “expressed soli
darity” with the action, the marchers reported.
AUSTRALIA
AIDS has peaked in Australia, Prime Minister
Paul Keating announced on Sept. 27.
“A decade of hard and unremitting effort in
this country has resulted in a welcome reduction
in the rates and incidence of both HIV and AIDS,”
Reuters quoted him as saying.
Keating said the nation will launch its third
five-year campaign in July, when the current
campaign wraps up, targeting research, treat
ment, education and prevention.
Australia has seen about 19,000 cases of HIV
infection. New infections have leveled out to
about 600 yearly.
▼ ▼ ▼
The attorney general of New South Wales,
Jeff Shaw, will present the State Cabinet with a
series of far-reaching legal reforms recognizing
same-sex couples and transsexuals, reported
Dominic O ’Grady in the gay newspaper Brother
Sister.
“I would like to see legislation which treats a
variety of stable relationships in a nondiscrimina-
tory way,” Shaw said. “That includes same-sex
relationships and other relationships, irrespective
of their sexuality.
“We want to treat all relationships in a way
which is not governed by the traditional hetero
sexual view,” Shaw said. “I think society has
changed, and the community is ready to accept
that relationships ought to be dealt with equitably,
whether they are based on marriage or other
wise.”
The most likely option for gay men and lesbi
ans is a “domestic-relations act” which would
give homosexual couples equal rights in such
areas as property rights, bail, compensation claims
and hospital decisions. Brother Sister said. Shaw
hopes to change other laws that discriminate
against same-sex couples, in areas such as wills
and probates, he said.
Shaw also will present two proposals support
ive of transsexuals. One would extend the protec
tions of the state Anti-Discrimination Act, and the
other would allow transsexuals to change their
gender on their birth certificates.
SA B R IH A
MATTHEWS
suffer, among other things, regular police harass
ment and serious media defamation.
The commission will refer the complaint to
the Costa Rican government for an exchange of
views prior to undertaking formal consideration
of the complaint’s substance and admissibility.
DENMARK
To prove a point, the male president and fe
male vice president of Denmark’s national gay
organization, Landsforeningen for Boesser og
Lesbiske, got married to each other Sept. 22 at the
Copenhagen Town Hall.
Unlike same-sex couples, who marry under
Denmark’s gay-marriage law, Soeren Laursen
and Birgitte Eckwald— even though they are a
homosexual couple—will be allowed to adopt
children and obtain artificial insemination through
the state health care system.
Denmark legalized same-sex marriage in 1989,
followed later by Greenland, Hungary (common-
law only), Norway and Sweden. The Norwegian
and Swedish laws contain the same restrictions as
in Denmark.
FRANCE
The mayors of six Paris arrondissements (dis
tricts) pledged on Sept. 20 to begin offering part
nership registration for gay and lesbian couples,
reported Agence France Presse.
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The officials, all Socialists or members of the
leftist Movement of Citizens, said they will issue
“certificates of cohabitation...to contribute to
equality between all citizens whatever their per
sonal situation may be.”
Applicants must have li ved together for a year.
The certificates do not confer the rights of mar
riage but lesbian and gay groups said they are a
step in the right direction, nonetheless.
NEW ZEALAND
Transsexual Georgina Beyer, a member of the
Caterton District Council, is now running for
mayor of the small Wiararapa township. Voting,
which was by mail, concluded on Oct. 14.
Beyer was the first transsexual elected to pub
lic office in New Zealand, beating five other
candidates in the process.
POLAND
The Polish Catholic Church’s attempt to get
the film Priest banned led a record 75,000 people
to see it the first week it played, in late September.
Pawel Dutkowski of Solopan distributors said
the church protest was “solely” responsible for
the huge turnout.
“Massive audiences have been attracted,” he
told Reuters. “We ourselves could not have af
forded such a large promotion campaign.”
COSTA RICA
The New Jersey-based Magnus Hirschfeld
SPAIN
Center for Human Rights has filed a complaint
Several Spanish gay groups have called for the
with the Inter-American Commission on Human
firing of Basque region Attorney General Jesus
Rights against Costa Rica, over its treatment of
Cardenal after he wrote that diversity, divorce,
gay men and lesbians.
abortion and homosexuality are corrupting the
The commission is the arm of the Organiza
natural order.
tion of American States charged with enforce
Cardenal made the comment in his annual
ment of the American Convention on Human
official report. The groups fear the remark will
Rights, an agreement among Western Hemisphere
lead to increased gay-bashing.
nations to which Costa Rica is a party.
The center's director, W illiam Codrsort, ,
charged that Costa Rican gay men and lesbians I *
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