15
Don’t Buy a C a r from
Some Straight Guy!
A U S T R A LIA
eventy gay men and lesbians who attended
Mass wearing rainbow sashes at Melbourne’s
Roman Catholic Cathedral were refused com
munion Nov. 29.
Priests withheld wafers from those who made
it to the front of the church and blocked others
from getting to the front.
T he protesters plan to continue their chal
lenge to the church’s ban on giving the
Eucharist to noncelibate gay men and lesbians.
"T h e official line is homosexuality is
ordained to be intrinsically, morally evil, which
is a polite way of saying we’re disgusting per
verts, and that leads to a culture of fear and
loathing and to significant levels of suicide
among young gay people,” said protester David
Barker.
S
G ER M A N Y
n Nov. 29, the residents of Quellendorf
voted 482-235 to oust Mayor Norbert Lin
der, who has stated publicly he plans to undergo
gender reassignment surgery.
Linder, 40, was elected to a seven-year term
in 1996 but shocked many villagers this past
summer when he began wearing women’s
clothes and calling him self M ichaela. He
recently started taking female hormones and
plans to undergo gender reassignment surgery in
the year 2000.
According to a Nov. 29 Associated Press
report, transsexuals from Germany and France
converged on the village of 1,048 inhabitants
right before the vote to show support for the
mayor, who appealed for tolerance.
“1 think society as a whole has some catching
up to do,” Linder told reporters.
T he vote was denounced by Linder’s party,
the Democratic Socialists, as “degrading dis
crimination.”
O
P H IL IP P IN E S
74-year-old gay man in Manila is seeking
reparations from Japan for being kept as a
sex slave during World War II.
Walter Dempster says he and five of his drag-
queen friends were kidnapped, taken to a garri
son in suburban Manila, and forced to service
Japanese soldiers for several months.
“We were mauled, punched, kicked, slapped,
pinched with cigarette butts and hit with bayo
nets until we bled,” Dempster told the M anila
Standard newspaper. “Then we were pushed on
the table face down where a long queue of
Japanese soldiers waited their turn.”
Dempster is receiving assistance in his court
case from a Manila city councilor.
A
SOUTH A F R IC A
imon Tseko Nkoli, South Africa’s most well-
known gay activist,
died Nov. 30 of com
plications related to
AIDS. Nkoli, 41, died
at Johannesburg G en
eral Hospital.
In a jo in t state
ment, the Gay and
Lesbian Organisation
of Witwatersrand and
the National Coalition
for Gay and Lesbian
Equality— both
of
which Nkoli helped
Simon Tseko Nkoli
found— said: “We mourn the loss of an impor
tant anti-apartheid activist, gay and lesbian
rights activist and H1V/AIDS activist. Simon
was a courageous person who dared to declare
his sexual orientation and his HIV status at a
time when few were prepared to do so. Through
these acts he defied the notion that being gay is
un-African.
“As a founding member of both G LO W and
the N CG LE, Simon played an important role in
ensuring that equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual
and transgender persons has been entrenched in
the South African constitution as an unalien
able right. Simon played an important role in
putting lesbian and gay issues on the agenda of
the African National Congress.”
A t the time of his death, Nkoli was president
of GLOW, a board member of the International
Lesbian and Gay Association, a member of the
1999 ILG A World Conference Organising
Com m ittee and a member of the African
National Congress.
Nkoli was jailed for treason for three years in
the mid-1980s. In a 1989 press interview, he
explained: “It was because of my previous polit
ical involvement. I was involved in anti
apartheid organizations and demonstrated
against unjust laws such as detention without
trial, inferior education and the increasement of
rent.”
Nkoli is survived by his partner, Roderick
Sharp.
W EST ER N EU R O P E
IDS-related deaths have dropped 84 per
cent in Western Europe since 1995,
according to a new study published in The
Lancet.
From March to September 1995, 25 percent
of all A ID S patients died, whereas 4 percent
died during the same period in 1998.
Researchers credit the new combination
antiviral drug treatments.
T he study tracked 4,270 HIV patients at 50
medical facilities across the continent.
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Z IM B A R W E
'ormer president Canaan Banana was found
guilty Nov. 26 of sodomy and sexual assault
against 11 of his bodyguards, cooks and garden
ers between 1980 and 1987.
Just before the verdict was announced,
Banana fled to neighboring Botswana and
requested political asylum. He had been free on
bail. He faces a prison sentence of up to 22 years.
During his trial, Banana, 62, said the charges
were fabricated to destroy his character follow
ing rumors he was planning a political come
back that would challenge the rule of President
Robert Mugabe.
Banana was brought to trial after a police
man shot to death a colleague who had taunted
him as “Banana’s wife.” T he policeman, Jefta
Dube, testified that Banana forced him into a
three-year sexual relationship from 1984
through 1986. In the first assault, Dube said, he
was drugged and woke up naked with a smiling
Banana saying, "W e helped ourselves.” When
Dube finally ended the relationship, Banana
had him jailed, he said.
Other victims described a scenario in which
Banana would ask them to play cards, offer them
a drink, put on music, insist on teaching them to
dance, then kiss and fondle them while dancing.
Following the verdict, Keith Goddard, direc
tor of the group Gays and Lesbians of Zimbab
we, commented: “I can’t see the logic in asking
for political asylum from a gay-sex conviction in
Botswana, which is almost as homophobic as
Zimbabwe. But Banana’s case has always been
more about abuse of power and rape than about
consensual sex.”
F
■ Com piled R ex WOCKNER
io a os oro stress ,
co /w e rt it to stea m
a n d re ta rti i t ' ta c/ '
to a die re it
c a m e fr o m .
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