Just out., November 02, 2007, Page 21, Image 21

NOVEMBER 2. 2007 jUStlOUt ZI
Ma Ying-jeou, former Taiwan mayor and current
presidential candidate, vowed to support gay
rights at the city's Pride celebration.
tional clause that says “the state shall take the
necessary measures and establish the necessary
organization to ensure the peace and welfare of the
family" and a law that authorizes suspension of
organizations that contravene “public morality.”
The office also says the name “Lambda Istanbul”
is illegal because “lambda” is not a Turkish word.
A hearing on the matter was held Oct. 18 in
the Beyoglu Siiutluuce Court of First Instance
No. 5, and the case was continued until Jan. 31.
The judge appointed a legal expert from Istanbul
University to determine if Lambda’s claim that it is
not violating any laws is valid.
ASIA/PACIFIC
Thousands March in Taiwan
Some 10,000 queer people hit the streets of
Taipei for the city’s fifth Gay Pride parade Oct. 13.
The procession ended at City Hall with a rally
and a performance by pop diva A-Mei. The march’s
demands included passage of anti-discrimination
and same-sex partnership legislation.
The parade, which also included parents and
children of gays, is believed to be the largest such
event in Asia. Former mayor and current presiden­
tial candidate Ma Ying-jeou attended the pre-parade
kickoff and promised that, if elected, he would push
to enact the marchers’ demands.
Singaporeans Call
for Legalization of Gay Sex
Thousands of Singaporeans have signed an
online open letter to Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong urging legalization of gay sex.
Parliament reportedly is planning to decrimi­
nalize oral and anal sex between heterosexuals but
leave in force Penal Code Section 377A, which
bans “gross indecency” between men under penal­
ty of two years in prison.
Gays have found a friend in the nation’s
founding prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, who said
in April: “If in fact it is true—and 1 have asked
doctors this—that you are genetically bom a homo­
sexual, because that’s the nature of the genetic
random transmission of genes, you can’t help it—
so why should we criminalize it? Let’s not go around
like this moral police...barging into people’s rooms.
That’s not our business.”
The elder Lee is the current prime minister’s
father.
MIDEAST/AFRICA
Iranian President
Was Not Mistranslated
A spokesman for Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said Oct. 10 that Ahmadinejad was
misquoted when he said Sept. 24 at Columbia
University in New York that there are no homo­
sexuals in Iran.
"What Ahmadinejad said was...that, compared
to American society, we don’t have many homo­
sexuals,” presidential media adviser Mohammad
Kalhor told Reuters.
But the Persian-speaking communications
director of the International Gay and Lesbian
Human Rights Commission, Hossein Alizadeh,
a gay Iranian who won asylum in the United States
based on his sexual orientation, disagreed.
Asked for comment Oct. 10, Alizadeh played
an audio file on his computer over the telephone
and said: “Here is exactly what Ahmadinejad said
at Columbia University: ‘Absolutely not. We in
Iran—we in Iran, firstly, we don’t have hamjensbaz
(a derogatory term for homosexuals meaning peo­
ple with loose morals who chase people of the same
gender for sexual pleasure) like you have in your
country. In our country, there is no such thing. In
Iran, such a thing does not—in Iran, in Iran,
absolutely such a thing does not exist as a phenom­
enon. I don’t know who told you otherwise.’ ”
Alizadeh said Ahmadinejad again denied the
existence of Iranian gays a day later at a U.N. press
conference.
According to Alizadeh, a reporter for the Voice
of America’s Persian service asked him: “You men­
tioned that there is no such phenomena in Iran as
homosexuality. Could you please elaborate on that?”
Alizadeh said Ahmadinejad replied: “Seriously,
1 don’t know of any. As for homosexuality, 1 don’t
know where it is. Give me an address, so that we
are also aware of what happens in Iran.”
5,000 March in Johannesburg
Some 5,000 people took part in the 18th Joburg
Pride Parade on Oct. 6 in Johannesburg, South
Africa.
“The fact that thousands braved the rain and
cold to assert the importance of Pride shows that
the event remains entirely relevant,” said Pride
organizer Tracey Sandilands.
Police led the 90-minute, four-mile procession
of 30 floats and vehicles through the Rosebank
neighborhtxxl to a post-parade party back at the
parade’s starting point on the muddy fields of the
Zoo Lake Sports Club. •
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will
receive a letter from residents asking him to
legalize gay sex.
R ex WOCKNER 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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