JUNE 16. 2006
stop discriminating in its future funding of non­
profit groups, Judge Judith Tsur ruled. “The
municipality...must treat this community with
equality, out of recognition of the supreme value
of equality and out of respect for the values of
tolerance and pluralism, which exist at the heart
of democratic society,” she said.
Gays March in Mauritius
Several hundred people staged the first Gay
Pride parade in the Indian Ocean nation of
Mauritius on May 20.
Reports said shoppers were shocked hy the
display in a busy section of Rose Hill. Drag queens
led the parade wearing feather boas and high heels,
Reuters said.
Attorney General Rama Valayden called the
march “a new page in the history of Mauritius...the
page of freedom.”
Located off the southeast coast of Africa,
Mauritius has a population of 1.2 million.
ASIA/PACIFIC
N.Z. Film Fest Prize Criticized
New Zealand’s gay film festival, Out Takes, has
been criticized by some community activists for
offering a trip to Fiji as a membership incentive
prize.
Fiji bans gay sex and reportedly blocks entry of
people who are HIV-positive.
The group Reel Queer, which stages the film
fest, defended the prize by arguing that a boycott of
Fiji would be less effective than “to stand up and be
present in the face of unjustified persecution.”
JUStlOUt 27
The Peel Region surrounds Toronto’s inter­
national airport.
Costa Rica Rejects
Same-Sex Marriage
Costa Rica’s Constitutional Court ruled 5-2
May 23 that same-sex couples do not have a right
to marriage.
At the same time, the court urged legislators to
grant gay couples justice and legal security by
creating a way to regulate stable, loyal same-sex
unions.
Plaintiff Yashin Castrillo, a gay lawyer, sought
to have the Family Code’s heterosexual definition
of marriage declared unconstitutional. He said he
will appeal to the Inter-American Court of Human
Rights.
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Killer of Jamaican Gay Leader
Gets Life
The man who killed leading Jamaican gay
activist Brian Williamson in 2004 was sentenced to
life in prison this month.
Dwight Hayden, 25, will be eligible for parole
after 15 years.
Williamson was stabbed and chopped 77 times
in the attack in his apartment. Amnesty
International called Williamson “a courageous
individual prepared to speak out for one of the most
marginalized and persecuted communities in
Jamaica: the gay and lesbian community.”
Jamaica is widely considered to be one of the
world’s most overtly anti-gay nations.
Mounties to Marry
Aussie P.M. Calls Gays
Fundamentalists
Australian Prime Minister
John Howard said May 24
that gays who seek full equal­
ity are fundamentalists.
Answering a question
about same-sex marriage
from a student at Ireland’s
University College Dublin,
Howard said, “I think it is a
form of minority fundamen­
talism to say that you have
to, in every aspect of one’s
institutions
and
one’s
arrangements in society,
have technical equivalence.”
AMERICAS
Transgender
Canadian Wins
Strip-Search Case
Two Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers
will marry each other June 30. It will be a first.
Constable Jason Tree, 27,
and
Constable
David
Connors, 28, will tie the
knot,
in
uniform,
in
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia,
before friends, family and co­
workers.
Canada legalized same-sex
marriage nationwide last July.
Nova Scotia legalized it in
September 2004, following in
the footsteps of British
Columbia, Manitoba, On­
tario, Quebec and the Yukon.
Tree and Connors have
been together for eight
years, since they were stu­
dents at University of New
Brunswick.
“The RCMP welcomes a
work force that is represent­
Australian Prime Minister John
ative of Canadian society,”
Howard called those seeking full
provincial RCMP spokesman
equality "fundamentalists.”
Sgt. Frank Skidmore told the
The
Human
Rights
Tribunal in the Canadian
province of Ontario ruled
May 25 that transgender
people who are strip-searched by police can choose
whether a male or female officer—or both—
conducts the search.
The case was brought by Rosalyn Forrester, a
preoperative transsexual who was searched by male
Peel Region police officers in 1999 and 2001,
despite her requests that women perform the
searches.
The tribunal found the police guilty of sex
discrimination and ordered the force to produce
and show its officers a video on transsexuality.
<1 Guides to Àree
Bors&TrMtet
Bus Routes.
Canadian Press news service.
But that doesn’t mean the couple haven’t
suffered jokes from fellow officers about “Brokeback
Mounties.”
“I’ve heard that, and it’s funny,” Connors
said. ©
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.
We are a proud sponsor of Hie 2006
Gay & Lesbian film Festival
and The New Q Center