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they haven’t left us
alone. They sent the
cops in to check the
smoking. They sent the
water guys in to check
our meters. They just
don’t leave us alone.
They obviously want us
out of the area.”
City officials deny
they are anti-gay and say
the 1979 Johannesburg
Town Planning Scheme
zoned the block “Busi
ness 1,” which allows
shops or restaurants but Ian Thorpe (second from
not nightclubs. Grant
was given until mid-November to remove dis
cotheque equipment, pool tables, video monitors
and other items that make the buildings “places of
amusement.”
IN DIA
I
ndian transsexuals blocked intercity trains
Nov. 1 near Calcutta to protest a new policy
banning them from traveling in women’s com
partments. Some of the protesters removed gar
ments to prove they don’t have male sex organs.
Railway officials argued that the transsexuals
are not women and said biological women com
plain when the transsexuals are allowed to ride
in women’s coaches. The protest ended when
police dispersed the demonstrators.
TURKEY
urkey’s gay activist groups held their ninth
national meeting from Oct. 26 to 29 in Istan
bul to discuss “What Do Gays and Lesbians Want?”
They denounced “obscure statements in laws
such as ‘general morals’ and ‘shameful crimes’
[that] are used against us” and said anti-gay dis
crimination in housing and employment is ram
pant. “We are subject to humiliation, exclusion,
threats and violence in the houses, streets,
schools, workplaces, hospitals, public and pri
vate institutions,” the conferees declared.
They demanded that “sexual orientation" be
added to the article of the nation’s constitution
prohibiting discrimination. The attendees cited
other ongoing problems: Lesbians who divorce
their husbands are denied custody of their children;
trans people regularly are beaten and murdered;
sch(X)ls, the military and the medical profession are
routinely hostile to gays; and the media treat trans
people as freaks or sex objects and caricature gays.
T
AUSTRALIA
t’s perfectly fine if people think he’s gay even
though he’s not, Australian swimmer lan
Thorpe says.
“I think it’s because when 1 speak at engage
ments I try to speak as well as 1 possibly can,” the
Olympic gold medalist told the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation on Nov. 17. “I try to
be articulate, I don’t put on a slang, I don’t try
and sound macho, with an Australian accent,
just for the sake of having it. I have an interest
in fashion, I have interests in things most people
don’t label as being part of the macho male
thing. It’s the most flattering thing that anyone
can ever say [that I’m gay] because if someone
wants to label you or claim you as part of a
minority group, it means you must have some
strength in your character or in what you do.”
I
C
''1 ay couples in the isolated state of Tasmania
T will gain the right to register their relation
ships and adopt children next year, the govern
ment said Oct. 31. No other Australian state
offers gay registered partnership, and only West
Australia allows gay adoption.
“If we consider adoptions are appropriate for
heterosexuals, then it is appropriate for gays,”
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right) loves his teammates dearly but not queerly
state Attorney General Judy Jackson said.
“Some heterosexual couples choose not to
marry, but they have the choice. This move will
give gay couples the choice to register their rela
tionship if they wish; it will be a contract.”
Meanwhile, gay couples in the state of
Queensland, whose largest city is Brisbane,
learned Nov. 6 they will gain access to spousal
rights. The government introduced reforms into
Parliament granting same-sex couples nearly
every right of marriage that can be conferred on
the state level, in areas such as health care, death
benefits, workers’ com-
pensation and superan
nuation schemes, the
Queensland Pride news
paper reported.
T he reforms also
will ban discrimination
against trans people
and prohibit vilifica
tion based on sexual
orientation or gender
identity'. “The sexuali
ty of a person is simply Judy Jackson
not a reason for them
to be harassed or assaulted,” state Attorney
General Rod Welford said.
10541 SE Cherry Blossom Dr., Portland (by Mall 205)
Phone
503 274-9936
Fax
503 274-2660
KAREN M. SWEIGERT, MD
O bstetrics and Gynecology
cw
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Q m c a / c
1130 N.W. 22nd, Suit« 320, Portland, OR 97210
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MILGARD
CANADA
r J P he Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly
JL protected gays and trans people Nov. 1. The
act created a human rights commission and banned
discrimination based on sexual orientation and gen
der identity, among other factors.
All Canadian provinces and territories
except Nunavut now ban discrimination against
gay, lesbian and bi people. Nunavut, created in
a split from the Northwest Territories in 1999, is
considering human rights legislation.
www.ocom.edu
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SPAIN
P
artners of gay people in Spain’s paramilitary
national police force, the Guardia Civil,
now can live with them in barracks.
The determination followed a request from
an officer stationed in Palma de Mallorca in
Spain’s Balearic Islands. He is now on medical
leave to recover from “psychological problems”
caused by media interest in his request, accord
ing to the Spanish news wire service EFE.
VIETNAM
A
total of 30 men in Ho Chi Mihn City were
arrested and sent to an “education center”
Nov. 6 for having sex in the sauna of a fitness
center.
“Such mass homosexual conduct breaches
administration regulations and is harmful to social
order," a police spokesman told news agencies. “We
have sent them to an education school to warn
them against further similar infringements.” JH
Compiled by R ex WOCKNER, who has reported
for the gay press since 1985. He has a bachelor's
degree in journalism from Drake University and
started his career as a radio reporter.
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