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• January 23. 2004
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replaces the terms ‘husband,’ ‘wife’ and ‘de facto’
with ‘partner’ throughout Tasmania law.”
In addition, many of the spousal entitlements
and responsibilities flow automatically to people in
such relationships, even if they choose not to for
mally register with the state. Activists will contin
ue to push for legalization of full marriage for same-
sex couples, but Croome said, “In the absence of
gay marriage, registration is the clearest way for
society and government to show they acknowl
edge and approve of same-sex relationships.”
CANADA
ou could call it Queer Try for the Straight
Guy. Police recruits in Edmonton, Alberta,
are being sent for strolls on busy city streets hold
ing hands with another recruit of the same gen
der to better understand the experiences of gay
people, The Edmonton Journal reported Jan. 2.
“One guy said the avenue seemed to close in
on him,” said Constable Steve Camp, who works
with the department’s hate-and-bias-crimes initia
tive. “He felt a heightened awareness of security—
very aware of the people around him. He felt
intimidated. A group of construction workers was
working on a wall, and they shut down their work
to see this, when these guys walked by. I think
that’s when the intimidation hit. Another guy said
he felt angry because one man gave him a dirty
look and then said something to his wife. They
can intellectualize the process, b u t.. .what we tried
to accomplish here [is] to give them the emotion
al response that a lot of people they’re going to be
dealing with as police officers are going to have.”
Y
Aussie activist Rodney Croome (center)
congratulates newly registered couples
Rebecca Wealands and Lee H yland (left) and
Jason Kemp and M ark W hite (right) Jan. 2
in H obart, Tasmania
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A U S TR A L IA
asmania became the first Australian state
to offer a broad range of spousal rights to
same-sex couples Jan. 1.
In a span of 15 years, the state has gone from
being seemingly Australia’s most homophobic
to possibly its most gay-friendly, in no small part
due to the work of the Tasmanian Gay and Les
bian Rights Group.
Michael Carnes and Bob Lavis were the first
couple to register their relationship Jan. 2,
acquiring marriage rights in areas such as health
care, parenting, adoption, kinship and super
annuation. Rebecca Wealands and Lee Hyland and
Jason Kemp and Mark White also tied the knot.
“W hat these changes do is send absolute alarm
bells to all those who have been discriminatory in
the past that those days are well and truly gone,”
Carnes told The Australian. “Tasmania now has it
all— the natural beauty, the fantastic people and
now reforms that show we are no longer a back
water, but a wonderful, open society."
The Relationships Act also covers nonsexual
relationships as well as sexual relationships where
the parties do not live together. It “creates a sta
tus of ‘significant relationship’ applicable to
unmarried adult couples, including same-sex cou
ples, and creates a status of ‘caring relationship’
between two adults, one or both of whom provide
personal care and domestic support to the other,"
state Attorney General Judy Jackson said.
Rodney Croome of the Tasmanian Gay and
Lesbian Rights Group boasted: “As well as being
the first registration scheme in Australia for
same-sex couples, the Tasmanian partnership reg
istry is the first in the world for other types of sig
nificant personal relationships like older compan
ions and [caregivers] and the people they care for.
The act gives a wide range of personal unions,
including same-sex relationships, equal status to
married couples in virtually all Tasmanian laws. It
T
S IN G A P O R E
ingapore is considering decriminalization of
oral sex, but only for opposite-sex couples.
T he move follows the arrest and jailing of a
27-year-old policeman for receiving fellatio from
a 15-year-old girl. Ho Peng Kee, senior minister
of state for law and home affairs, said Penal
Code Section 377 may be revised w ithin three
months to permit heterosexual oral sex between
people 16 and older.
Current law criminalizes “whoever voluntar
ily has carnal intercourse against the order of
nature with any man, woman or animals.” The
punishment is up to life in prison.
A nother law, Penal Code Section 377A,
specifically bans sex between men. It states,
“Any male person who, in public or private,
commits or abets the commission of, or procures
or attempts to procure the commission by any
male person of, any gross indecency with anoth
er male person, shall be punished with imprison
m ent for a term which may extend to two years.”
Ho said that law, too, is being looked at, but
gave no details.
M eanwhile, Singaporean Deputy Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Jan. 6 that the
nation might lift its ban on gay activist groups.
The remark came during a speech to the local
Harvard Club.
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