NOVEMBER 3.
partner Tomas Harila Carlgren live together in an
official registered partnership.
Reinfeldt also appointed the country’s first
black minister, Integration Minister Nyamko
Sabuni, and its first male minister with a ponytail,
Finance Minister Anders Borg.
fying public and social service sector “good practice
for families of homosexual young people” and to
produce educational material, a documentary video
and a Web site.
Dublin Police Set Up Pink Patrol
The first-ever seminar on gay rights has been
held in Mozambique, the Mozambique News
Agency reported Oct. 13. As a result, a gay “move
ment" likely will be launched within weeks, the
report said.
There is disagreement on whether to call the
new organization the “Mozambican Gay and
Lesbian Movement” or the less in-your-face
“Organization Against Sexual Discrimination.” At
the end of the two-day seminar, attendees called for
school-based sex education, gay-inclusive material
in libraries and bookstores and on television, and
dialogue with media editors and the journalists
union.
A special unit of plainclothes Dublin cops,
dubbed the “Pink Patrol," is targeting the city’s gay
community to catch gay-bashers.
Bashing has become particularly problematic in
the George's Street area on the city’s south side—
especially near the high-profile gay pub The
George. Several arrests have been made, and the
cases are working their way through the courts.
Netherlands Welcomes
Gay Iranians
MIDEAST/AFRICA
Gays Organize in Mozambique
In a reversal of policy, the Netherlands
announced Oct. 17 it will welcome most if not all
gay Iranian immigrants.
Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk previously
South African Civil Union Bill
had taken the position that Iranian gays were not
Criticized
at risk of government persecution or execution if
South Africa’s Human Rights Commission has
they lived their lives discreetly.
criticized the government’s Civil Union Bill,
Verdonk said she had a change of heart after which would create a separate institution essen-
reading parts of an
tiaily identical to marriage for same-
upcoming Human
sex couples.
Rights Watch report
The commission said the bill is
on Iran’s abuse of
unconstitutional, discriminatory and
homosexuals.
stigmatizing. It said the government
A recent Human
should instead amend the Marriage
Rights Watch press
Act to allow same-sex marriage.
release stated that it
The bill was introduced in
“has
documented
response to a 2005 Constitutional
torture and execu
Court ruling that gave legislators
tions for homosexual
until Dec. 1 of this year to end the
conduct in Iran.”
Marriage Act’s discrimination against
The organization has
same-sex couples. If lawmakers do
been under pressure
not take satisfactory action by that
from the British gay
date, the court said the Marriage Act
group OutRage and
automatically will be construed to
allow same-sex marriage.
other activists to Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk
welcomes gay Iranians to the
renounce its agnostic
Gay groups staged a march and
Netherlands after a change of heart
picket Oct. 17 against the Civil
position on Iran’s
about their persecution at home.
apparent executions
Union Bill in Pretoria.
“Civil partnerships are not equivalent to
of gay men.
One gay Iranian exile group, Sweden-based
marriage. They entrench institutional segregation
Homan, claims there have been some 4,000 such
in our law and a separate, inferior status for gay
executions since the 1979 revolution installed a relationships," organizer Alex Ringelman told
religious government.
The Independent newspaper.
Euro Commission Funds
Gay Youth Project
The European Commission has funded a two-
year project called “Family Matters—Supporting
families to prevent violence against gay and lesbian
youth."
It will be run by the Department of Social
Research at Italy’s University of East Piedmont and
by groups for parents, families and friends of gays in
Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
The commission said gay and lesbian youth
frequently lack support and role models within
their families and, as a result, might have trouble
accepting themselves and become vulnerable to
bullying, harassment and self-harming. Families of
gays and lesbians need help to accept their children
and assist them in dealing with discrimination, the
commission said.
The money will be spent on polling, on identi
AMERICAS
Marriage Official Sues
for Right to Discriminate
A marriage registrar in the Canadian province
of Manitoba has sued the province alleging
religious discrimination after he was stripped of his
position for refusing to conduct same-sex marriages.
Kevin Kisilowsky’s case will be heard by
Manitoba’s Court of Queen's Bench. The Manitoba
Human Rights Commission previously rejected a
similar complaint from him.
Canadian provinces began legalizing same-sex
marriage in 2003, and the federal Parliament did so
nationwide in 2005. •
R ex W ockner 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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