"The Wedding Banquet" wins in all Nominations in Taiwanese Golden Horse Awards
Dec-4, 1993
        (translated by yours truly, Mr. Anonymous!)

        The biggest winner at the 30th Annual Golden Horse Award presentation,
the Taiwanese version of the Oscars, was "The Wedding Banquet."
        The film was nominated and won in the category of "Best Picture", "Best
Director", "Best Supporting Actress", "Best Supporting Actor", and "Best
Original Screenplay".
        The stunning victory of "The Wedding Banquet" was no surprise to
anyone.  It first won the "Golden Bear Award" at the Berlin Film Festival
and went on to become the most profitable film of 1993 in the Taiwanese
domestic market.  "The Wedding Banquet" was also the most, and perhaps, the
ONLY successful international release of a Taiwanese film with
impressive box office returns in Hong Kong, Germany, UK and the USA.
With the modest U.S. budget of $750,000, it grossed $4,000,000 in Taiwan
and over $5,000,000 in the U.S.  It will represent Taiwan in its entry
for the Academy Awards next year, while another gay feature, "Farewell to
My Concubine" will represent Hong Kong.  "Concubine" was recently selected
as the "Best Foreign Feature" by the LA and NY Critics Association.
        Although "The Wedding Banquet" was clearly the favorite of the 21-
member judging panel of the "Golden Horse Awards", one judge, a female
literary author, insisted that the scenes of two-men kissing was
"unbearable to watch" and worried that it would lead to collapse of
"family morality" and the "unhealthy spread of AIDS".  She was effectively
rebutted by 19 other judges who insisted that personal views toward
homosexuality should not be used in the judging of artistic works
and that their votes were a reaffirmation of the judges' nondiscrimination
attitude based on sex, race and sexaul orientation.
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Judge rules gays can march in Boston's St. Patrick's parade BOSTON (UPI)
(Dec. 16) - A judge has issued a permanent injunction allowing homosexuals to
march as a group without restrictions in Boston's annual St. Patrick's Day
parade. 

The veterans group that organizes the parade through predominantly Irish
South Boston vowed to appeal in order to keep the Irish-American Gay, Lesbian
and Bisexual Group of Boston from taking part in the March event. 

Suffolk Superior Court Judge J. Harold Flannery ruled Wednesday that sexual
orientation cannot be used to prevent anyone from marching in the parade that
celebrates both St. Patrick's Day and Evacuation Day, the day British
troopers were driven from Boston during the Revolutionary War. 

"History does not record that St. Patrick limited his ministry to
heterosexuals or that Gen. Washington's soldiers were all straight," Flannery
said. 

The parade organizers, the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, tried to
keep the homosexual group from marching in the past two parades, but
temporary injunctions allowed the homosexuals to participate, although with
restrictions. 

Flannery made that injunction permanent, and ordered the veterans to treat
the gay group the same as any other group that wants to march. 

However, Chester Darling, the lawyer for the parade organizers, said he will
appeal. 

MARYLAND News Briefs - 1:56 a.m. (Dec. 16) COMTEX -
BALTIMORE'S BOARD OF ESTIMATES HAS VOTED TO EXTEND HEALTH AND FAMILY LEAVE
BENEFITS TO GAY COUPLES. THE NEW POLICY MEANS PARTNERS OF GAY WORKERS CAN GET
THE SAME BENEFITS THE SPOUSE OF A MARRIED EMPLOYEE ENJOYS. DOMESTIC PARTNERS
CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE NEW POLICY IN 1995.