24 J « * « M a t • aprii 18.2003
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M EX IC O
bout 1,500 women
turned out March 21
for Mexico C ity’s First
Lesbian March. They
walked from the Monu
ment to the Revolution to
the Zócalo, the nation’s
political epicenter, chant
ing, “We aren’t five, we
aren’t 10, fucking govern
ment, count us right!”
At the end “we started
running towards the Zóca
lo and tcxik over almost
the entire magnificent
plaza,” said marcher Mon
ica Taher of the Gay and
Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation. “We hugged,
screamed and listened to A couple ride their bike toward the Zocalo during Mexico City’s
the organizers speak.”
First Lesbian March
Activists said M exi
can lesbians and feminists need to create
“How could ‘support democracy in Iraq’
autonomous spaces where they can work with become to mean ‘bomb the hell out of Iraq’ ?”
out compromising their ethics to build a society
he wrote. “Nobody minded an undemocratic
that is critical of heterosexism, neoliberalism
Iraq for a very long time, now people have
and other fundamentalisms.
decided to bomb us to democracy? Well, thank
you! How thoughtful.”
LEBAN O N
In another entry, he stated: “There are no
olice raided the Beirut gay club Acid on
waving masses o f people welcoming the Amer
March 29. Some patrons reported being
icans nor are they surrendering by the thou
beaten with plastic whips.
sands. People are...sitting in their homes hop
About 10 people were arrested— effeminate
ing that a bomb doesn’t fall on them.”
men and people whose clothing, tattoos or
piercings signaled to cops that they were devil
U N ITED K IN G D O M
worshippers, according to kx:al reports. Anoth
ritish police let gay activist Peter Tatchell
er 30 individuals had their state IDs confiscated
off the hook April 2. He was arrested
and had to retrieve them from a police station.
March 12 for blocking and damaging Prime
Minister Tony Blair’s limousine in a one-man
TONGA
protest of the war in Iraq.
I
ing
Taufa’ahau
“The police must have viewed the televi
I . \ . Tupou IV banned
sion footage and decided there was no case to
The Times of Tonga
answer,” Tatchell said. “Yet again I walk away a
because it reported
free man. It is amazing that after nearly 1,500
that the nation’s lead-
, . ^
human rights protests over the last 38 years I
ers practice sodomy,
,
have only one conviction.”
Police Minister Clive
j||
S ig n a t u r e
P r o p e r t ie s !
Supreme Court in late
v -------
March. The king pro- Taufa’ahau Tupou IV
hihited the paper from
publishing and forbade Tongans from possess
ing it, saying it was seditious and promoted vio
lence and disorder.
“They are saying that the leaders of this
country are sodomites and poofters, that the
leaders are sodomizing each other...without
mentioning any names.. .which means that peo
ple might think that any of the leaders could be
doing that,” Edwards shouted. The newspaper is
seeking an interim injunction to lift the ban.
THE N E T H E R L A N D S
he man who murdered gay Dutch politician
Pirn Fortuyn told a court March 27 that he
did it for the sake of the Netherlands’ Muslim
population. Fortuyn, who founded a popular
grassroots political party, called for an end to fur
ther Muslim immigration because he believed the
foreigners had not integrated into Dutch society,
which is arguably the world’s most liberal.
Confessed killer Volker van der Graaf, 33,
told the court Fortuyn was attacking “the weak
groups in society to score points with the elec
torate” and “scapegoating” Muslims. “I could see
no other option than to do what I did,” he said.
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IDAQ
gay atheist in Baghdad has acquired a
worldwide following via his Web log.
Salam Pax, a 28-year-old architect, is receiving
tens of thousands of hits daily at www.
dearraed.hlogspot.com.
A
he partners of gay British soldiers killed in
the war with Iraq will be the first same-sex
spouses to receive military pensions, The Lon -
don Times reported March 20.
“The government is aware of the concerns
of service personnel whose unmarried partners
are currently ineligible for pension benefits,”
Junior Defense Minister Lewis Moonie said.
“We have concluded that it would be appropri
ate to address now the particular risks associat
ed with conflict.”
The surviving partner can prove the rela
tionship existed by producing joint leases,
mortgages, wills, children or other evidence of
financial interdependence.
T
T H A ILA N D
he Thai military no longer will draft gay
men and transvestites, officials said
March 25.
“The military has to keep them out, which
is not because we are prejudiced hut because we
fear that the military will collapse,” said Som-
dhat Attanand, Royal Thai Army commander
in chief. Thai males older than 20 must com
plete two years of military service.
T
SO U TH A F R IC A
O outh Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled
v 1 March 28 that a lesbian couple who utilized
artificial insemination are the “legitimate” par
ents of their 18-month-old twins.
The court said Section 5 of the Children’s
Status Act was unconstitutional in not recogniz
ing same-sex couples as legitimate parents. South
PHOTO BY GLAAD/MONICA TAHER
It’s a you parade.