|uly 7.2000
i'i'j H q iin e w s
marchers in the city of Moncton on June 17.
Organizers said most of the city’s gay men and
lesbians did not participate for fear of workplace
discrimination.
• France: More than 200,000 people turned
out for a pride march in Paris on June 24. The
parade, which ended at the Place de la Bastille,
featured 60 floats and demands for laws to ban
anti-gay discrimination and legalize gay adop
tion.
• Germany: About 400,000 people attended
Berlin’s Christopher Street Day parade June 24,
demanding passage of a comprehensive regis
tered-partnership law.
• Israel: Thousands of people marched in Tel
Aviv’s pride parade through Rabin Square on
June 23.
• Mexico: Ten thousand people marched in
Mexico City’s 22nd parade June 17, from the
Zona Rosa down Paseo de la Reforma to the
presidential palace in the Zocalo plaza, Mexico’s
political center.
In Tijuana, about 150 people marched in the
sixth pride parade June 17. The parade was fol
lowed by political speeches in a city park and
parties at some of the city’s eight gay bars.
NAMIBIA
he gay and lesbian community of Namibia
has opened an office in Windhoek, the
Panafrican News Agency reported June 1.
The National Society for Human Rights will
attempt to persuade anti-gays to he more toler
ant, a spokeswoman said.
“We have to start in schools,” said the
group’s Rianne Selle.
Activist Sam Nakata added: “Top govern
ment officials who are lashing out against the
gay and lesbian community should not forget
their promise to uphold the constitution,
because human rights do not divide gays and les
bians from other people who are regarded as
straight.”
In May 1999, Deputy Home Affairs Minis
ter Jeremiah Nambinga said: “Homosexuality
is evil. Homosexuality
is
anti-social
and |
should not only be |
condemned hut should *
also
he
legislated $
n
O
against.
g
In November 1998, fe
Home Affairs Minister
Jerry Ekandjo told Par
liam ent: “Gay rights
can never qualify as
human rights.... They
should he classified as
human wrongs which
must rank as sin against
society and God.”
President Sam Nu-
joma has said, “Homos-
X
exu.ils must be con
demned and rejected in
„ 1
our society.
here have been 759 gay marriages in Nor
way since the nation’s comprehensive reg
istered-partnership law took effect in 1993.
The law grants more than 99 percent of the
rights and obligations of heterosexual matri
mony. Only adoption and church weddings are
withheld from gay couples.
Seventeen percent of the gay weddings
have been between a Norwegian and a foreign
er, often from the U.S., Thailand or Sweden.
Sixty-five percent of the partnerships are
between men.
Males tied the knot at an average age of
37.3 and women at 38.5, several years later, in
both cases, than the average for married het
erosexuals.
T
PANAMA
he International Gay & Lesbian Human
Rights Commission is asking activists to
write protest letters to Panama’s government
over its refusal to register the nation’s first gay
group, the New Men and Women Association
of Panama.
The Ministry of Government and Justice
ruled that the association contradicts “moral
and good habits.”
Without legal registration, the group cannot
own property, pay salaries or take part in legal
disputes.
To receive sample protest letters, send an e-
mail to sydney@iglhrc.org.
T
•
•
^ *
•
1
he nation’s Press Council ruled June 2 that
a letter published in a daily newspaper that
called for convicted rapists to he unleashed on
lesbians did not breach media ethics.
Gay activist Sherman de Rose of the organi
zation Companions on a Journey had filed a
complaint against the paper for publishing the
letter. The council rejected the case and ordered
de Rose to pay $28 in costs.
The council said: “Lesbianism itself is an act
of sadism, and salacious publication of any opin
ion against such activities does not amount to a
promotion of sadism or salacity. Therefore the
complainant is the one who is eager to promote
salacity and sadism and not The Island newspa-
per.
De Rose called the mling “a clear indication
of the strength of discrimination against gays
and lesbians in this country.”
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UNITED KINGDOM
cotland’s year-old Parliament voted June 21
to locally repeal Section 28, a 10-year-old
UK law that prohibits cities from “intentionally
promoting] homosexuality” or teaching “the
acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended
family relationship” in schools.
The vote was 99-17, with two abstentions.
S
Congratulations to Richard Bracke
of Portland for winning the
Get Away for Two Drawing!
Campaigners outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh say
,r , c
io
i
n
goodbye to Section 28 on June 21
NORWAY
INTED
GONE
Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National
Party comm ented: "A discriminatory and
shameful piece of legislation that was imposed
on Scotland by Westminster will today he
repealed by the Scottish Parliament ahead of
other parts of the UK. That says something
about the state of Scotland that we can all he
proud of.”
Legislation to scrap Section 28 in England
has been stonewalled by the Conservative-
dominated House of Lords.
■ Compiled by REX WtXXNER, who has report
ed for the gay press since 1985. He has a bache
lor’s degree in journalism from Drake University
and started his career as a radio reporter.
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