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sex couples of foreign children. The measure was
passed by the House of Representatives but has
heen'delayed in the Senate via the maneuver of
sending it to a committee “inquiry.”
3 3 eports of homosexual harassment in the
Australian Defense Forces jumped from 12
cases in 2002 to 51 in 2003, The Australian
reported last month.
The paper obtained an internal report under
freedom-of-information haws. A total of 51,791
people are serving in the Australian military.
U N ITE D K IN G D O M
ritain’s highest court, the Law Lords, ruled
June 21 that gay partners
can take over a housing lease
that is in the name of a live-
in partner who passes away.
The 4-1 decision upheld a
2002 Court of Appeal ruling.
A nnouncing the ruling,
Baroness Hale said equal
treatm ent is “essential to D
u ,
democracy, straight partners
do not have to he married to inherit a lease.
•2*
ne of Jamaica’s top reggae and dance hall
music stars, Bcenie Man, was met hy police
when he arrived June 23 at London’s Heathrow
Airport to start a tour of the U nited Kingdom
and Ireland.
Acting on a complaint hy the gay group Out-
Rage!, Metropolitan Police questioned Beenie
Man about his lyrics, which promote violence
against homosexuals. A few hours later, London’s
Ocean nightclub canceled his June 24 concert
“due to concerns for public safety and following
discussions with the Metropolitan Police."
“This cancellation is a triumph over homo­
phobia,” said Peter Tatchell of OutRage! “Our
aim is to make Britain a no-go area for enter­
tainers who incite violence against gay people.”
Among Beenie Man’s lyrics are these from the
song “Bad Man Chi Chi Man”: “Some hwoy will
go a jail fi kill man tun bad man chi chi man!
[Some men are willing to go to jail for killing a
man who is queer!] ...Yuh see em to run off a
stage like a clown, kill dem DJ! [If you see the
queer run off the stage like a clown, kill that DJ!]"
f
former royal servant said June 13 that he
O
lied when he claimed he saw Britain’s
Prince Charles having sex with a male employ­
ee, The Sunday Telegraph reported. George Smith
sold the story to a newspaper last year for about
$109,000 but now says it was a fabrication.
“1 didn’t see him in a compromising posi­
tion,” Smith said. “T he reason I said that was
because I was angry with another royal servant.”
AIDS
C o n feren ce O
pen s t o a
ccess for All” to drug treatment for those
“ A who need it was the theme of the
XV International AIDS Conference held July 11
to 16 in Bangkok, Thailand. A trio of reports
released on the eve of the gathering made it clear
just how gargantuan a task that remains.
During the opening ceremonies hundreds
of activists dem onstrated outside against the
pharm aceutical industry for its pricing poli­
cies, th e Bush adm inistration and the T hai
governm ent for not doing more to provide
access to care.
Inside, U.N. Secretary General Kofi A nnan
said: “Here in Asia, HIV/AIDS is at a turning
point. How you will address this challenge will
impact on the very future of the region.” He
called for political leadership and the emancipa­
tion and empowerment of women throughout
the developing world to be able to protect them ­
selves from becoming infected with HIV.
Even Thailand— long held to be a shining
example of what a concerted effort can do to
control the spread of the virus— came in for
some lutTips in a U.N. report. A combination of
budget cuts and complacency has resulted in ris­
ing rates of new infections among the most sex­
ually active populations.
The World Health Organization has set the
goal of having 3 million people in the develop­
ing world on therapy by 2005, which means
starting 5,000 patients a day on combination
therapy. A nd that means testing a half million
people a day to first learn their HIV status and
then determine if those who are HIV-positive
F lurry
of
R epo rts
have disease so advanced as to recommend
beginning therapy.
“Solving the AIDS crisis will take more than
just inexpensive drugs. Success now hinges more
on having adequate infrastructures to distribute
therapies and sufficient numbers of trained
health care workers in developing countries,”
said Haile Debas of the Institute of Medicine,
which released the report Scaling Up Treatment
for the Global AID S Pandemic: Challenges and
Opportunities. Among its major recommenda­
tions is creation of a Peace Corps-like
“HIV/AIDS corps of technical specialists" to
assist in the short-term delivery of that care.
A report by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria warned that about 20
percent of its initial projects have failed to meet
their performance targets and are unlikely to
receive additional funding.
Joep Lange, outgoing chairman of the Inter­
national AIDS Society, which runs conference,
said: “There are countries in Africa that have
grants to put people on treatm ent and not a sin­
gle person has been put on treatment. If you
have a public sector that is not functioning, you
are not going to solve the problem by shoving
money at the public sector.”
AIDS advocates expressed concern that the
reports might undercut advances toward greater
access to treatment in developing countries and
provide an excuse for already reluctant donors
in the wealthy nations not to fund increased
access to care.
— Bob Roehr JH
A n o th er report from
Stockholm Pride will focus
last year said Princess
on pushing for access to
D iana’s “secret video
full marriage.
diary” from the early 1990s
The annual celebration
will be held from July 28 to
revealed she believed
Charles had an “unhealthy
Aug. 1. Like laws in some
relationship” with former
other European nations, the
Swedish partnership law
top aide Michael Fawcett.
grants more than 99 per­
“He is too close to Faw­
cent of the rights and oblig­
cett,” the princess said.
ations of marriage— but
“W hat can one do when
your husband is in an Princess Diana believed Prince Charles under a different name and
unhealthy relationship.7”
had an “ unhealthy relationship” with a a separate-but-almost-equal
framework.
Diana also said Charles former top aide
“T here is an intense
and Fawcett appeared
“uncomfortable” and “uneasy when disturbed
debate in mass media and in the governm ent
about gender-neutral marriage,” Pride president
while together in one of Charles’ private rooms.
Fawcett was forced to resign last year for bend­ H&kan Steenberg said. “Stockholm Pride wants
this year’s festival to proclaim [the] gay right to
ing palace rules forbidding staff from accepting
express love through marriage.”
perks, hospitality and gifts.
The videos, which Diana made hy herself,
TH E V A TIC A N
had been hidden in the loft of her former butler,
ope John Paul II called gays self-centered
Paul Burrell, until three years ago when police
during a June meeting with U.S. bishops at
took them as evidence in a theft trial against
the Vatican.
him. Burrell was cleared mid-trial when Queen
“Rights are at times reduced to self-centered
Elizabeth II said she had known
he was guarding some of Diana’s demands: the growth of prostitution and pornog­
raphy in the name of adult choice, the accep­
belongings.
tance of abortion in the name of women’s rights,
the approval of same-sex unions in the name of
PANAM A
1 l he gay rights group Associa­ homosexual rights,” he said. “In the face of such
erroneous yet pervasive thinking you must do
I tion of New Men and
everything possible to encourage the laity in
Women of Panama is collecting
their special responsibility for evangelizing cul­
signatures to place a same-sex
partnership bill before the nation’s ture and promoting Christian values in society
Legislative Assembly. The organi­ and public life.”
Catholic teaching forbids all sex that is not
zation plans to collect four times
between a man and a woman who are married
the required 500 signatures and
to each other and prohibits any ejaculation,
will submit the proposal Sept. 1,
even within a marriage, that could not lead to
as the newly elected president and
legislators come into office.
pregnancy. i n
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London cops questioned Jamaican reggae star Beenie Man
about his anti-gay lyrics
A ffordable fitn e s s f o r p e o p le
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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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