iwirm news
aprii 21. 2000 • J u s t o u t
Gay Friendly Travel
and Entertainment Licensing Authority’s ban
ning of the movie’s promotional poster.
TELA ruled that the poster— which shows
two women embracing, with one woman’s hare
hack and the top of her buttocks visible—is
obscene.
The protest took place at Cine-Art House.
Anthony Yeung Ki-man of the activist group
Gaystation, told the Hong Kong Standard: “They
have approved many posters...that depict
bloodshed and indecency much more upsetting
than gay and lesbian movies. But whenever they
examine gay and lesbian movies, the censorship
has suddenly become much tighter even though
no private parts were exposed in the posters. If
that’s not double standards, what is?”
IN TER NATIO NAL
Swissair
flight from New York City to
À '
Geneva was delayed 12 hours March 23
after police arrested its captain for masturbating
in a public men’s room, Nene Zürcher Zeitung
reported March 30.
The pilot was
detained by New y;
York City police W s
for 18 hours. The
plane final-
ly departed
after a replacement
pilot was flown in from
Switzerland.
he European Union Parliament adopted a
resolution March 17 urging its 15 member
nations to extend marriage rights to same-sex
couples.
The vote was 265-125 with 33 abstentions.
T
It is unlikely supporters of the ban will
muster enough votes in Parliament to overrule
the veto.
S O U T H A F R IC A
Making Vacation
Dreams Come
True!
RE/MAX
S ig n a t u r e
P r o p e r t ie s !
/■' -I ■ he South African Human Rights Commis
sion struck
down the nation’s
prohibition against
gay male blood
donors March 23,
saying the highest
risk group for HIV
infection is now
people in their 20s,
regardless of sexual
orientation.
The case stemmed from a complaint filed
against the Western Province Blood Transfusion
Service by Andrew Barnes, the openly gay news
editor of Radio KFM in Cape Town.
THAILAND
ron Ladies, a Thai movie about a real-life gay
volleyball team that won a gold medal in the
1996 National Games, has become the
nation’s second-highest-grossing film ever.
But gay activists are not exactly thrilled.
1-3 For one thing, all but one of the key actors
in the slapstick comedy are straight-iden
tified.
■vv “If they had cast real gay people,
people would not have gone to
see the movie as they do not
want to support gays,” said gay
academic Seri Wongmontha.
The film also relies heavily on
stereotypes.
“Society is changing now and gays
are changing along with it,” activist
Pakom Pimthon told Agence France-Presse.
“We do not overtly express ourselves in an out
rageous way anymore."
I
T e riL y n n L e u
T r a v e l A d v is o r
503 - 313-2002
g a y f r ie n d ly t r a v e l. c o m
DO YOU THINK YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS
BEING TREATED UNFAIRLY BECAUSE OF BEING
GAY/LESBIAN/BISEXUAL OR TRANSGENDERED?
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For more information,
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NORWAY
n mid-March, Norway’s new prime minister,
Jens Stoltenberg, appointed openly gay
Anders Homslien to fill the seat Stoltenberg
vacated in Parliament, and then, on March 24,
Stoltenberg appointed Hornslien’s partner,
Vidar Ovesen, to the position of deputy finance
minister.
Ovesen and Homslien are married under
Norway’s same-sex-partnership law, which
grants more than 99 percent of the rights and
obligations of matrimony.
I
POLAND
he country’s nascent gay press breathed a
sigh of relief March 27 when President
Aleksander Kwasniewski vetoed a law that
would have banned all pornography. The mea
sure had passed both houses of Parliament.
T
Meanwhile, the real-world team is having
trouble finding sponsors for the 2002 Gay
Games in Sydney, Australia.
U M IT E D K I N G D O M
en Livingstone, the front-runner for Lon
don mayor, said March 30 that, if elected
on May 4, he will support registration of same-
sex partnerships and will withhold city business
from homophobic companies.
“I will not tolerate companies which are
commercially involved with the GLA [Greater
London Authority] if they display any homo
phobia,” he said.
He added: "I want gay people to have the
right to register their relationships to stop dis
crimination. It would help to ensure that if a gay
person in a relationship dies there will not be a
dispute over entitlement to pension rights, for
instance, because the relationship has been for
mally recognized.”
K
Poland’s gay publications mix news and fea
tures with erotica and pornography in order to
be commercially viable.
Kwasniewski said the law would have been
impossible to enforce, because the Internet and
satellite television transcend national borders.
■ Compiled by R ex WOCKNER, who has reported
for the gay press since 1985. He has a bachelor's
degree m journalism from Drake University and
started his career as a radio reporter.
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