22 J a a t M t « aprii 19.2002
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V IET N A M
gay fashion show and dance at a hotel in
Long Hai attracted hundreds of homosex
uals in late March, the newspaper Thanh Nien
reported April 1. The official youth daily called
the event a “highly frenzied...monstrosity,” n o t
ing most of the models had been “partially
turned into women” at sex-change clinics in
neighboring Thailand.
“It was an abnormal phenomenon in the
activities of the youth [that] is foreign to our
country’s cultural tradition,” the newspaper said.
“This monstrosity poses a headache for officials
in charge of culture and education.”
Very little gay news emerges from Vietnam.
In 1998, Agence-France Presse reported that
the National Assembly banned gay marriage in
response to ceremonies that had taken place.
In 1999, San Francisco activists spread word
of an AIDS organization in Ho Chi M inh City.
They said the group— called Information, Edu
cation, Communication— had 40 members who
dispensed condoms, advice and crudely dupli
cated pamphlets to the estimated 20,000 men
who visit local gay pickup spots.
Also in 1999, Vietnam’s Labor Ministry
reportedly banned HIV carriers from working in
hotels, kindergartens, restaurants, health care
facilities, beauty shops, vaccine production labs
and cosmetic surgery facilities. The agency said
that there would he no mass-testing pn>gram hut
that people already known to he infected would
have to leave their jobs.
A
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Dutch Defense Secretary Henk Van Hoof
says soldiers will march in uniform during
Amsterdam’s Gay Pride
TH E N E T H E R L A N D S
ay members of the Dutch military will par-
.1 ticipate in Amsterdam’s Gay Pride parade
wearing their uniforms this year.
They previously had to wear civilian cloth
ing. Sailors plan to ride on a float shaped like a
warship.
“The Dutch armed forces are an organization
for all races, natures and religions,” Defense Sec
retary Henk Van Hoof said. "By taking part in
the parade it’s a good way to show this.”
Z IM B A B W E
he head of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation resigned April 3 after police
began investigating his sexuality. Alum Mpofu is
alleged to have been caught “in a compromising
situation” with another man March - 28 at a
Harare nightclub.
“Sexual perverts need to he told once again
that homosexuality is unnatural,” Information
M inister Jonathan Moyo told the Herald news
paper. “T he only people who accept homosex
uality are liberals who think it is a way of get
ting votes."
T
T im e f o r a n e w h o m e
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i
EC U A D O R
mnesty International issued a report
April 3 blasting Ecuador for mistreatment
of sexual minorities.
“It is a sad irony that, while Ecuador is one of
the few countries in the world whose constitu
tion explicitly includes ‘sexual orientation’ in its
anti-discrimination provisions...LGBT people
in the country continue to suffer human rights
violations," the organization said. T he group
cited arbitrary detentions, torture and ill treat
m ent in custody, and harassment of activists.
“Eight months ago in Quito we launched a
comprehensive report on homophobic harassment
and violence in Ecuador,” Amnesty said. “Sadly,
these abuses continue, and the Ecuadorian author
ities have taken no action to put an end to them.”
Most of the cases described in the report
took place in Q uito and Guayaquil.
“In recent months, Guayaquil has seen a
sharp increase in police roundups, often ending
with arbitrary arrests of LGBT people,” the or
ganization said. “In a worrying development, the
new chief of police for the Guayas and Galapagos
Province, who was appointed in September 2001,
recently has declared his homophobic views.
“It is time,” Amnesty said, “for Ecuador to
live up to the promise of equality made in its
constitution and to break the vicious circle of
impunity and abuses based on sexual identity.”
A
SD U TH A F R IC A
outh Africa’s blockade of AIDS drugs has
been ended by the nation’s highest court.
The Constitutional Court ordered the govern
ment April 4 to give nevirapine to HIV-positive
mothers and their newborn babies to prevent
mother-to-child transmission. The order did not
extend to other HIV drugs or other categories of
patients, hut AIDS activists said it was a begin
ning nonetheless.
T he South African governm ent steadfastly
has refused to provide any anti-H IV medica
tion and even has fired doctors who bucked the
ban. President Thabo Mbeki has said that the
drugs are too dangerous for hum an consum p
tion and that h e ’s no t sure AIDS really is
caused by HIV.
AIDS is caused by HIV, experts agree. And
the drugs— while having many side effects, some
of them serious— suppress HIV replication to
such an extent that hundreds of thousands of
people have seen their immune systems
rebound, staving off impending death.
S
PO LAN D
he Roman Catholic bishop of Poznan, who
has been accused of sexually harassing sem
inarians and priests, resigned March 28.
Monsignor Juliusz Paetz, 67, denied the alle
gations hut said, “T he church in Poznan needs
peace and unity, so for the good of the church I
asked the Holy Father to accept my resigna
tio n .” He was
outed Feb. 23 by
the daily newspa
per Rzeczpospolita,
which said the
incidents occurred
so frequently that
the rector of the
n atio n ’s seminary
banned him from
the property.
In his resigna
tion
ann o u n ce
ment, which came
juliusz Paetz
at the end of a
Mass, Paetz said: “My kindness and spontaneity
have been abused. My words, gestures and acts
have been twisted and misinterpreted.”
Poland’s leading news agency, PAP, said
young seminarians sitting in the congregation
snickered as Paetz spoke.
T