DECEMBER 7. 2007 lustoutii
world
EUROPE
Italian Gay Leader Dies
One of the most important gay activists in
Italian history died of colon cancer Nov. 4.
of other demonstrations, con
tion is in the army also.
[But] when they want, professional Americans
ferences, exhibitions, and
Go on working, raising
come [to Cubai via a third country and we have
artistic
awareness, doing things,
excellent relations and excellent e-mail contact.”
intellectual
and
events.
Massimo Consoli, 61, also was a journalist,
changing Cuban society,
Later, he also was an
and you’ll change every
translator,
AI DS and safer-sex organizer.
thing else, including our
archivist and historian. He wrote more than 30
“I’ve lived the history of
writer,
playwright,
poet,
theorist,
hooks, mostly on gay issues.
the
institutions.’ ”
ASIA/PACIFIC
Iranian s Sodomy
Death Sentence Lifted
It’s
Castro Espin said
After an international outcry by activists, a 21-
Among his many accomplishments, Consoli
inside me,” Consoli told The
she has taken a direct
year-old Iranian man sentenced to hang for alleged
founded two Italian gay organizations in the days
International I lerald-Tribune
interest in gay issues
ly committing sodomy and rape when he was 13
since 2004.
years old saw lus sentence commuted Nov. 14.
before the Stonewall Riots.
gay
movement.
last year.
In 1971 he wrote Gay Manifesto, which inspired
His Web site, www.cyber
the creation of other gay organizations, including
core.com/consoli, will remain
the important Italian Revolutionary Homosexual
online, maintained by friends.
Sex educator Mariela Castro Espin, daughter
of Fidel Castro's brother Raul, says her
father supports gays serving in the military.
United Front, Fuori.
In 1976 Consoli organized the nation’s first Pride-
related activities. He went on to organize hundreds
AMERICAS
Daughter: Raul Castro Supports
Gays in Military
Raul Castro, who is leading Cuba during his
brother Fidel’s lengthy illness, supports gays serving
openly in the military, says his daughter, Mariela
Castro Espin, director of the island’s National
Center for Sex Education, Cenesex.
Ayatollah Syed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi,
than 40 cross-dressers
the nation’s chief justice, nullified the death sentence
and transsexuals from Havana came to see me at
of Makvan Mouloodzadeh, apparently agreeing with
Cenesex to let me know about the difficulties they
Mouloodzadeh's lawyer that evidence of the alleged
were having with the police in the central La Rampa
crimes was lacking and that numerous elements of
zone, where they were meeting and still meet," she
the case violated proper procedure. Mouloodzadeh
said. “The police were arbitrarily arresting them and
remains jailed in the city of Kermanshah, and the
then letting them go without charges, just because
case will be returned to a local court for a retrial.
people were complaining [about them|.”
Three years later, Cuba is set to begin offering
sex-change surgery.
“The only reason this young man managed to
escape is that he had a relative in Germany that
knew someone in Iran, and that someone was a
“There are 27 transsexuals waiting for the oper- | reporter and she was brave enough to make a fuss
Castro Espin was asked about “gays in the mili
ation, [and] the medical team is being trained,"
about it,” said Hossein Alizadeh, communications
tary” in a Nov. 4 interview with the Buenos Aires
Castro Espin said. “As soon as it's ready...they will
director of the International Gay and Lesbian
daily newspaper Clarih.
start to operate.”
Human Rights Commission and a gay Iranian who
“I always say where there’s humanity there’s
Castro Espin also told Clarin that 80 percent of
won asylum in the United States based on Iran’s
diversity, and in the military world there are gays
people with 11IV in Cuba are men and that 85 per
treatment of gay people. “I’m sure there are many
also, but of course they are careful because it’s
cent of those are men who have sex with men,
a milieu that doesn’t accept them," Castro Espin
“often in connection with prostitution."
people like him who die because there was no one
to hear their story,” he told MSNBC. <©
said. “It is still considered that the conditions to
make changes do not exist. Well, my dad, the min
Gay Italian journalist, poet, playwright and
historian Massimo Consoli died Nov. 4.
“A group of more
She also mentioned that she wants to visit the
United States, “but they won’t give us a visa."
R f .X W i XKNER
has reported for the gay press since
ister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, says to me:
“I was there once and I’ve been invited back
‘Linik, I think that to the extent the population
twice since then, hut they didn’t give it to me,” she
Drake University and started his career as a radio
changes, the army will change, because the popula
said. “I asked for it, and they didn’t respond....
reporter.
1985. He hits a Bachelor’s degree in journalism from