JULY 20. 2007
Great
Healthcare...
Happy
People!
In Guayaquil, Ecuador, the second annual
Festival of Art and Diversity brought 300 people to
the Kennedy Mall district June 28 under the theme
“The problerp is not homosexuality hut rather
homophobia.” Stage performances ran from 6 p.m.
to midnight.
The third Pride parade in Panama City took
place June 30 on Argentina Way, ending at
Andrés Bello Park. Some 260 participants carried
signs demanding equal rights and urging tolerance
and safe sex. Organizers also announced 10
winners of their new Pink Egg prize, awarded to
people who “have committed the most acts of
discrimination against the GLBT population of
Panama.”
jUSt|OUt 19
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Diversity Matters -
Anti-Luzhkov Protesters
Arrested in Moscow
taenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri, who once
Three pro-gay protesters were arrested June 27
called homosexuality a “sickness," now opposes
outside the European Commission office in anti-gay discrimination.
Moscow during a picket by 25 people urging the
AMERICAS
European Union to revoke Mayor Yuri Luzhkov’s
right to travel in the 25-tountry bloc.
New Buenos Aires Mayor
The protesters said Luzhkov doesn’t deserve to
Was Once Anti-Gay
visit the EU because he has twice banned Moscow’s
Newly elected Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio
Gay Pride parade, calling it “satanic.”
Macri once told a daily newspaper that gay people
Police halted the protest and arrested its appar
are sick.
ent leaders even though the activists had a permit
In a 1997 interview with Página/12, Macri was
for the event. They were charged with “breach of asked if he’d accept gay players on the Boca Juniors
a street demonstration order.”
soccer team he owns.
“The formal reason {for the police action! was
He answered: “This situation hasn’t come up.
the construction which had suddenly appeared in
It’s a complicated situation. It’s a sickness. This is
front of European Commission office just a day
not a 100 percent healthy person. It’s an undesir
ago,” said gay activist Nikolai Baev. “The police
able deviation."
argued it could not protect demonstrators in this
The interviewer responded that seeing homo
situation.... There was no construction technique,
sexuality as a sickness is “a bit of an old-fashioned
just two holes digged on a huge and enclosed area.
idea."
Perhaps this ‘construction’ will disappear in few
And Macri replied: “Would you be happy if
days as suddenly as it appeared.”
your son were homosexual? Please. The world has
The picket had received approval from city
made us so we join with a woman. Why are we
officials June 25. The people who requested the
going to join with a man?”
permission were not known to the city as gay
By last month, however, Macri had moderated
activists. But the media then reported that the
his stance. Answering a candidate questionnaire
picket was related to Luzhkov’s anti-gay actions.
from the organization Argentina Homosexual
On June 26, the organizers received phone calls
Community, he said, “Society as a whole needs
from officials saying the picket could not be held
public campaigns that discourage and condemn all
because of street construction. On June 27, the
types of violence and discrimination, and that
authorities announced they could not guarantee
includes sexual orientation.”
the safety of the protesters. On June 28, at the pick
But Macri was otherwise cautious in answering
et itself, police then produced a document banning
several specific questions, choosing to speak against
the event.
discrimination in general and not committing to
“Activists applied [for] this picket as a demon
any other specific actions on behalf of gay people.
stration which formally was not related to the
ASIA/PACIFIC
Moscow gay community,” said Baev. “Among pick
Gays to Be Protected
et organizers was no one who was known by the
in New Thai Constitution
homophobic authorities as gay or lesbian activist.
Therefore, the picket was originally approved in
The Thai government’s Constitutional Drafting
such an easy way. But as soon as mass media
Assembly reportedly has agreed to include queer
announced the picket as a demonstration of LGBT
people in the new constitution, adding a clause
people, the Moscow authorities decided to cancel
protecting “those of other sexual identities” from
the rally.... This is a very clear example of homo-
discrimination.
phobic discrimination which is practiced by the
The vote by the 100-member committee was
Luzhkov administration."
unanimous. The draft constitution will be put to
The picketers did manage to deliver a letter to
a national referendum in August.
the European Commission office demanding that
The current Thai government was installed by
Luzhkov’s EU visa be revoked. Addressed to EC
the military after a coup d’état in September
2006. ©
President José Manuel Barroso, the letter detailed
Luzhkov’s “homophobic... violations of freedom of
R ex WOCKNER has reported for the gay press since
assembly.”
1985. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism from
For the past two years, attempts to stage banned
Drake University and started his career as a radio
Pride events in Moscow have ended in violence
reporter.
and bloodshed.
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