January 23.2004^
vu
news
U N ITE D K IN G D O M
he European Court of Justice said Jan. 7
that transsexuals must have equal access to
marriage and pension rights. The court was
responding to a request for advice from Britain’s
Court of Appeal in a case where a woman is
contesting her partner’s ineligibility to apply for
a widower’s pension.
The case now faces further consideration in
England hut could soon become irrelevant
there, because legislation to allow transsexuals
to change their birth certificates and marry is
moving through the House of Lords. The Euro
court’s opinion applies to the other 14 European
Union nations as well.
In 2002, the European Court of Human
Rights— the court of final appeal for citizens of the
45 nations that make up the Council of Europe—
also ruled in favor of transsexuals’ right to marry.
T
ritain’s Sky T V will reportedly pay about
$925,000 each to six men who threatened
to sue over their participation in a reality show
in which they did not know the woman they
were courting was a transsexual.
The program, There’s Something About Miri
am, was postponed after the men issued their
threat but now reportedly will he aired. The
suitors said they were traumatized and devastat
ed upon learning they had kissed and cuddled a
woman who used to be a man.
They alleged breach of contract, deceit, per
sonal injury and sexual assault.
B
he chairman of the United Kingdom’s Gay
Police Association, Inspector Paul Cahill,
was named a Member of the Order of the British
Empire in Queen Elizabeth IPs new year’s honors
list. The award recognizes his “services to diver
sity in the police and the wider community.”
Another M BE went to A nne Patrizio, 63,
who runs the Parents Enquiry Scotland hot
line for people with gay, lesbian, bi or trans
children.
T
TH E N E TH E R L A N D S
his return is based on his sex, gender or sexual
preference,” according to the official notes
attached to it. The bill now moves to the Senate.
w ig s
M ilitary M eat
Stories by Tanner
R U S S IA
i ussia has a
i new gay mag
azine, Kvir (Queer).
It launched in
August and distrib
utes 15,000 copies
in clubs, saunas and
bookstores
from
Moscow to Vladi
vostok. All of Rus
sia’s other gay mag
azines had gone out
Russia’s new gay magazine, of business.
Advertisers in
Kvir (Queer), Ls struggling
clude
dentists as
financially
well as travel, hair-
removal and security companies, but the publi
cation is still losing money, The Moscow Times
reported. Surveys indicate that the typical Kvir
reader is between 30 and 35, has an above-
average income and is 20 percent more likely
than the average Russian to have a car, apart
ment and credit card.
The magazine emerged from the Gay.ru Web
site founded by Ed Mishin, who also has set up a
small gay center.
“When people come to {the center’s) support
group, they often say in the feedback session that
the most important thing that they got out of the
group was the realization that it’s possible to be
gay and normal,” he told the Times. “They say, ‘I
saw normal people, and it just astounded me.’ ”
R
C H IN A
he first person in China to have a sex-
reassignment operation was legally married
Dec. 30.
“A-gang,” 29, who used to be a woman but is
now a man, married “Xiaoli” in the southwest
ern city of Chengdu, The Chengdu Commercial
Daily reported.
The couple have lived together for three
years, and A-gang underwent surgery last May
in Shenzhen. He received a new identity card
and residence record, reflecting his new gender,
shortly thereafter.
“All these years, I’ve
yearned for love but never
imagined I would taste it,” he
told the Daily. “And when I
finally met Xiaoli, I didn’t
dare think about marriage.
I’m at a loss for words now
that I’ve finally fulfilled both
my wishes.”
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T
he Netherlands’ national gay organization,
C O C , says police and local officials have
stepped up harassment of
men who frequent public
cruising areas, Expatica.com
reported Jan. 7. Some have
been fined for various viola
tions of the law.
“The police are no longer
your best friend,” C O C
chairman Henk Beerten
said. He suggested the crack
down will make men who
IN D O N E S IA
have sex with men in parks
movie that shows oral
and nature areas less likely to
sex in a public toilet
report anti-gay attacks in
and a passionate gay kiss
those locations.
Dutch activist Henk Beerten fears a made it past Indonesian cen
sors and has become a box
T R IN ID A D
cruising crackdown will discourage
office
hit. Ansan! is a satirical
A N D TO B A G O
gay men from reporting hate crimes
comedy that mocks the
he Caribbean nation of
lifestyles of Jakarta’s rich professionals.
Trinidad and Tobago, which bans male-
“It is a breakthrough,” gay activist Dede
male sex, has nonetheless passed a bill that pro
Oetomo said in interviews with The Associated
tects gay and transgender people, Trinidad 6?
Press and Reuters. “The urban young are now
Tobago Newsday reported Jan. 11.
willing to accept gays. There is a sense of free
TTe House of Representatives included “gen
dom to talk about it now.”
der or sexual preference” among the protected
Director Nia diNata confessed: “I was a bit
categories in a measure that restricts when some
nervous
but was elated when the censor boards
one can be extradited to another nation to face
lOK’d the kiss]. I and my friends wanted to
criminal charges. The law would apply to crimes
break new ground.” JH
in other nations that are punished with death or
imprisonment for more than one year.
Compiled by R ex WOCKNER, who has reported
The measure amends the Extradition Act "to
prevent an accused person’s return to a declared for the gay press since 1985. He has a bachelor’s
degree in journalism from Drake University and
commonwealth territory or a declared foreign
started his career as a radio reporter.
territory if it is determined that the request for
T
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