'mews
A
Spanish sailor who declared himself trans
sexual will be allowed to return to work as
a woman. A military medical tribunal declared
helicopter mechanic José A ntonio Gordo Pan
toja, 30, fit for service March 25.
“1 am so happy I have screamed for joy,” he
told reporters. Gordo Pantoja has served for
eight years and is taking hormones in advance of
gender-reassignment surgery.
S A U D I A R A B IA
audi Arabia lifted its bans on GayMid-
v J dleEast.com and 365Gay.com on March 30,
Reporters W ithout Borders said.
GayMiddleEast.com posts gay-related news
from Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan,
Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Neither it nor 365Gay.com publishes pornography.
“Officially [Saudi] filtering is only supposed to
be applied to pornographic publications or those
directly harming Islam. In fact, the Saudi Inter
net blacklist extends to other areas, from politi
cal sites to nonrecognized Islamist sites.... We
condemn this extension of censorship, which is
in the process of reducing the country’s network
to an Intranet, as in Burma or Cuba,” Reporters
W ithout Borders said March 22.
Responding to an appeal from the group, the
head of Saudi Arabia’s Internet Services Unit,
Eyas Al-Hajery, said: "After receiving your let
ter, we carried out a new examination of these
sites. Since no pornographic content was found,
the ban has been lifted.”
The government is reportedly also blocking
access to Gay.com, which allows users to post nude
photos of themselves in their personal profiles.
The Reporters Without Borders press release did
not indicate whether it remains blocked.
Gay sex is punished in Saudi Arabia with
imprisonment or flogging.
FITNESS
bia, C anada’s two other most populous
provinces. In those provinces, couples can buy a
license and marry the same day. Quebec has a
20-day waiting period, though it can be waived
if advance arrangements are made with the per
son who will conduct the marriage.
The federal government has said it supports
last summer’s rulings that legalized same-sex mar
riage in Ontario and British Columbia and will
introduce legislation to open up marriage nation
wide, but it has yet to act except for sending pro
cedural questions and a brief supporting its posi
tion to the Canadian Supreme Court.
T he newest question, which was added
Feb. 20, had the effect of delaying the Supreme
C ourt’s consideration of the matter until O cto
ber. No parliamentary action is expected until
the court answers the questions.
*5*
ays can marry in British Columbia, but the
* province still doesn’t like them reading
smutty books. As its 20-year battle against Cus
toms seizures drags on, Vancouver’s gay bcxiLstore,
Little Sister’s B<x)k and Art Emporium, is feeling
so beaten down by the fight that it has applied for
government funding to continue the struggle.
T he store’s Mark Macdonald says the owners
have spent a half-million dollars fighting Cus
toms through the years and probably need
another million to push on. The latest skirmish
concerns The Meatmen gay S/M comic books.
“It boils down to freedom of expression for all
Canadians, and in the hands of Customs, it’s
been handled badly for decades,” Macdonald
told the Canadian Press.
M
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JA P A N
he city assembly of Yame, in Fukuoka Pre
fecture, passed a draft anti-discrimination
ordinance March 22 but refused to include gays,
Japan Today and Kyodo News reported.
A rejected clause banned discrimination
“related to sexual identity disorder and other gen- -
der issues," which city officials said was meant to
cover same-sex relationships. Assembly members
said the language was too ambiguous and could
have been used to protect pedophiles.
T
e n v iro n m e n t-frie n d ly p ro d u c ts u sed
Have You Ever Considered
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M E X IC O
ay soccer players in Mexico City have
formed their own league, Falcons. Five
teams— T he C lan, Fashion, T he Fuckers,
G Force and Your Mama— will play weekly in
Chapultepec Park.
League president Aaron Rojas said the group .
has not encountered any opposition except from
some gay people. “We have distributed advertis
ing in the Zona Rosa [gay neighborhood], and
when we inform them that we’re interested in
building our soccer team, they break out laugh
ing and say to us in a mocking way, ‘Don’t tear
your hose or break your nails.’ ”
G
Michael H endricks (left) and René LeBoeuf
seal Q uebec’s first same-sex marriage with a
long kiss April 1
T A N Z A N IA
CANADA
ay men and lesbians began getting married
*
April 1 in Quebec. It is the third C anadi
an province to open up ordinary marriage to
same-sex couples.
The first pair to tie the knot were Michael
Hendricks, 62, and René LeBoeuf, 48, the plain
tiffs in the lawsuit that led the province’s high
est court to strike down the ban on same-sex
marriage as unconstitutional. They have been
together for 31 years.
The ceremony at M ontreal’s courthouse
ended with several French kisses, reports said.
“Everything changes,” Hendricks told the
Canadian Press wire service. “We’re now recog
nized as a couple— socially and even to our
selves. It’s a commitment th a t’s unbreakable."
Same-sex couples, including foreigners, also
can get married in O ntario and British Colum-
he government of the Indian Ocean island
of Zanzibar, which is part of the nation of
Tanzania, has drafted a bill to ban same-sex
marriage and punish gay sex with life in prison.
An existing national law punishes gay sex with
14 years in prison, but it is rarely enforced.
The Zanzibari proposal also would punish
men who marry men with a 25-year sentence
and women who marry women with a seven-
year sentence. "We have heard that same-sex
marriages have taken place here, and we want to
guard against this trend,” Deputy Attorney
General Omar Makungu told the British Broad
casting Corp. j n
Compiled by REX WOCKNER, who has reported
for the gay press since 1985. He has a bachelor's
degree m journalism from Drake University and
started his career as a radio reporter.
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