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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2007)
SEPTEMBER 21. 2007 justOUt;?1 world EUROPE Hungarian Radio Station Fires Anti-Gay Editors Budapest’s Lanchid Radio station fired two editors Aug. 29 after they posted a doctored pho tograph on the station’s Web site that showed openly gay government official Gabor Szetey wearing a pink triangle and standing outside the Auschwitz concentration camp. Szetey, the federal human resources secretary of state, publicly came out July 5 as he opened Budapest’s 12th Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans gender Festival of culture and arts. Responding to the photo incident, Szetey told reporters he “cannot be intimidated.” The radio station’s management called the pic ture “impermissible and offensive” and apologized to Szetey and anyone else who found it upsetting. Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany also denounced the image, calling it “a scoundrel act.” “The fascists are gathering,” Gyurcsany said. “They are not knocking on the door; they are right here among us.” Budapest’s Gay Pride parade was attacked July 7 by hundreds of skinheads, neo-Nazis and other thugs. They threw eggs, bottles, smoke bombs, Molotov cocktails and bags of sand at the 2,000 marchers, physically attacked several marchers and pelted police with beer bottles. The protesters chanted, “Faggots into the Danube, followed by the Jews," “Soap factory” and “Filthy faggots.” Dozens more Pride attendees were attacked in the vicinity of the post-parade party at the open-air, riverside Buddha Beach nightclub, the parade’s endpoint. In his coming-out speech, Szetey said: “It is not your choice whether you are gay or not, but it is your choice to accept it.... I believe in truth, and I am sick and tired of lies.... I believe that we can and we have to break the culture of silence. I have to say out loud who am I, so that finally my own decisions direct my destiny. We have to say it out loud so that we take control of our lives, so that we can be what we are meant to be...so that we don’t have to live two different lives, one public life and one secret life." ASIA/PACIFIC MCC's Founder Silenced in Singapore Metropolitan Community Churches founder Troy Perry was banned from giving a speech at a meeting of gay rights and Pride groups in Singapore last month. “I’ve had enough experiences for three life times, but this was the first time an entire country banned me from public speaking,” he said. Perry was allowed into Singapore but instruct ed by the authorities to speak with people only one on one. So he went to the meeting as scheduled, but instead of giving his speech, he answered ques tions for three hours, from one person at a time. “Of course, I was answering them out loud in front of the audience, so I was actually able to share far more information than if I had only delivered my speech,” Perry noted. Singapore has been on a gay-ban spree of late. The Media Development Authority prohibited July 30 an exhibition of 80 of photographer Alex Au’s pictures of gay people kissing. The censors said the exhibit would “promote a homosexual lifestyle and cannot be allowed." Gay sex is illegal in Singapore and punishable with two years in prison. The exhibition, which was part of two weeks of Pride activities, was replaced with a PowerPoint presentation during which some of the photos were projected and discussed. Organizers also set up a photo comer where attendees could have their own kissing photos taken, and Au showed some attendees his private album of the 80 pictures. The authorities banned Aug. 3 a Pride forum at which retired Canadian law professor Douglas Sanders was to discuss “Sexual Orientation in International Law: The Case of Asia.” Police with drew the license for the event, the immigration department canceled Sanders’ visa, and the Home Affairs Ministry stated that “foreigners should refrain from interfering [in] discourse over a domestic issue such as the laws that govern homosexuality in Singapore.” A third Gay Pride event was partially banned Aug. 2. The Media Development Authority approved a license for a story-reading event, but only on the condition that author Ng Yi-Sheng not read his story about sex between a young man and politicians and military officers. The agency said the story lacks “gtxxl taste and decency” and is “disparaging and disrespectful...of public officers." Mohd. Sufian Mohamad's (right) and Zaiton Aziz's marriage was voided by Malaysian Court because Sufian is female. Mohd. Sufian Mohamad, 40, and Zaiton Aziz, 43, were ordered to separate after a medical exam found that Sufian was a woman. The couple had been married for nearly five years but ran into trouble in registering their marriage with the state’s religiixis affairs department, which questioned Sudan's gender. Zaiton told the court “she had never seen or touched her husband’s private parts and had taken him to be a man all along and that she felt.. .satis fied,” Judge Che Saufi Che Husin said in his ruling. The couple have 14 days to appeal the decision. Malaysia does not permit sex-change operations. © Malaysian Court Voids Marriage An Islamic court in Malaysia’s Malacca state voided a couple’s marriage Sept. 4 after determin ing that the husband was female, local newspapers reported. Connecting the spectrum of Portland's LGBTQ community R f .X WoCKNER has reported for the gay press since 1 985. 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