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AUSTRALIA
ealth officials have instructed medical
clinics and health centers to hide the
nation’s official gay health guide in a cabinet
and show it only to selected individuals.
The 100-page booklet was produced with
Australian
Health
Department funds by,
among
others,
the
Australian Federation
of A ID S Organisations.
It offers descriptions of
anal and oral sex, and
tips on visiting tea
rooms and bathhouses.
A new policy from
health officials says the booklet should not be
displayed in waiting rooms or community
venues.
H
BRITAIN
n estimated 40 gay activists organized by
the group OutRage! zapped 800 Anglican
bishops at London’s Festival Pier July 28 as the
prelates boarded a boat to cruise the Thames.
T he bishops were attending the Anglican
Church’s decennial Lambeth Conference.
T he protesters castigated the bishops for sup
porting anti-gay discrimination and chanted,
“Church of hatred, church of fear, stop crucify
ing queers.”
Some protesters were dressed as bishops,
priests or nuns. Two OutRage! “bishops” kissed
each other while a gay male nun sprinkled the
real bishops with “homo w ater...to cleanse
them of the sin of homophobia,” a takeoff on
holy water used in the C atholic and Anglican
faiths.
“Dr. Carey (Archbishop of Canterbury, head
of the Church of England] and many of his bish
ops are acting like the leaders of the Affikaaner
Church in South Africa during apartheid,”
charged protester John Hunt. “They are oppos
ing equality and endorsing discrimination.”
A
ritish television stations will air a condom-
promotion advertisement that shows two
men kissing, hugging and undressing.
T he 60-second spot, produced by the gay
safer-sex group Rubberstuffers, will be permitted
to air after 11 p.m., the Broadcast Advertising
Clearance Centre ruled.
“We decided it was a good time to show that
having protected sex can be very seductive,”
says Rubberstuffers spokesman Greg Page. “This
advertisement certainly goes further than any
other has done. But it’s not gratuitous.
Authorities tend to rule against overt sex if it
tries to sell unrelated things, like yogurt.”
B
CANADA
he Nelson City Council, situated in British
Columbia, voted 4-3 to proclaim Gay Pride
Day and support a downtown pride banner for
the Sept. 5 parade.
Kootenay gay pride spokeswoman Catherine
Fisher says: “I’m personally very pleased that
City Council decided to go in this direction. I’m
disappointed that it was a four-to-three decision,
but you need time to let social change filter
through.”
Mayor Gary Exner voted against the procla
mation, saying, “O f all the letters and phone
calls I got, more than 90 percent were against
it.”
Nelson has an estimated population of
9,500. It is 412 miles east of Vancouver and 34
miles north of where Washington, Idaho and
British Columbia intersect.
T
ontreal’s sixth annual pride parade attract
ed 400,000 people to Avenue St. Denis
Aug. 3, police said.
“It doubles [in size] every single year,” orga
nizer Henri Labelle told the M ontreal G azette.
“W e’re a good parade, we’re a colorful parade.”
T he first march, in 1993, attracted 5,000
people.
M
ancouver’s 20th pride celebration drew
100,000 people to the streets of the West
End Aug. 2.
T he parade down Denman Street and Beach
Avenue was led by
Dykes on Bikes and
several queer Asian
groups.
Many
lesbian
marchers went top
less, while the queer
cops and correc
tions officers con
tingent grew to 27
people this year.
Politicians who
joined the parade
included provincial Svend Robinson
Member o f the Legislative Assembly Tim
Stevenson and federal Members of Parliament
Hedy Fry and Svend Robinson. Stevenson and
Robinson are openly gay.
“It’s a time to celebrate a sense of communi
ty— being out, being proud, being everywhere—
but also remembering those who are not able to
be here, in other countries,” said Robinson. “I
always remind people that we are a global move
ment, and in many countries this would be
unthinkable,”
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A
S
CROATIA
oldier Aldin Petrie is suing the Croatian
military, alleging he was fired because he is
gay-
W hen word of his homosexuality got
around, he says, he was forbidden to leave his
barracks “to avoid problems which might arise
from meetings with other soldiers.”
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INTERNATIONAL
he European Court of Human Rights ruled
July 30 that Britain did not discriminate
against two transsexuals by refusing to alter their
birth certificates to reflect their new genders.
The court also said Kristina Sheffield and
Rachel Horsham, both 52, do not have the right
to marry men. Nations may restrict matrimony
to one man and one woman “of biological ori
gin,” the court ruled.
“No one chooses to be like this," Sheffield
said after the ruling. “I didn’t suddenly wake up
one morning and say, ‘I wonder what it feels like
being a girl.’ I’m angry with the way I’ve been
treated and the way transsexuals have been
treated.”
T he European Court of Human Rights is the
judicial organ of the Council of Europe, a group
ing of 40 nations pledged to uphold human
rights and cooperate in a variety of activities.
T h e court enforces the 1952 European
C onvention for the Protection o f Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
British transgender activists say the only
other Council of Europe nations that do not rec
ognize gender switches are Albania, Andorra
and Ireland.
T
he EuroPride parade in Stockholm drew
15,000 marchers and 30,000 spectators July
25, reports correspondent Bjoem Skolander.
Motorcyclists led the three-hour procession,
followed by a contingent carrying the flag of
each European nation.
After the parade, the four-hour Rainbow
Music Extravaganza featured various gay and
lesbian artists and transsexual Israeli pop diva
Dana International, winner of this year’s
Eurovision song contest.
T
V
(Dave Opo/fe
Prudential
journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation in Edmonton, Alberta, won
spousal benefits for his partner in an Aug. 1 rul
ing by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Lionel
Jones.
“It’s a great victory,” says Denis-Martin
Chabot, who first filed an arbitration grievance
over the matter in 1994.
T he ruling seemingly removes any doubt
that an employer can withhold same-sex partner
benefits when union agreements ban discrimi
nation based on sexual orientation, activists say.
T hen, he claims, he was removed from his
job at the officers’ restaurant, and other enlisted
men started beating him up, sometimes in front
of officers who failed to come to his aid. Finally,
Petrie was fired.
He is seeking compensation for psychologi
cal abuse and physical pain.
FIJI
he new constitution of the South Pacific
nation bans discrimination based on sexual
orientation, the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation reported in late July.
T he sexual orientation clause has raised the
hackles of some politicians and church leaders,
who say it will increase homosexuality and per
mit same-sex marriages. The Methodist Church
and the Fiji Council of Churches petitioned
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka to overturn the
measure.
Rabuka responded by asking the attorney
general to try to amend the clause out o f the
constitution via action in the Parliamentary
Committee on Consequential Legislation.
T
NETHERLANDS
msterdam’s third annual gay Canal Parade,
held this year in conjunction with the
kickoff of the Gay Games, attracted 250,000
revelers to the city center Aug. 1, police said.
A
More than 100 boat floats took part in the
procession, which is organized by Amsterdam’s
Gay Business Association.
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