Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 14:47:25 GMT From: ilga Subject: Kudos to SF Mayor from ILGA ILGA Press Release: 27 March 1996 "Gays and Lesbians from all over the world congratulate the mayor of San Francisco" San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown Jr. will soon be receiving a bouquet of pink roses on behalf of gays and lesbians around the world. On behalf of the International Lesbian Gay Association (ILGA), a federation of over 450 group and individual members from 75 countries, Secretaries-General of the International Lesbian Gay Association (ILGA), Jordi Petit and Inge Wallaert, sent the bouquet today as a congratulatory gesture to the mayor for his support for the rights of lesbian and gay couples. Petit and Wallaert chose the colour pink for the roses to recall the pink triangles used to mark homosexual prisoners in Nazi concentration camps; and since adopted as a symbol by the lesbian and gay movement. On Monday, March 25th, Mayor Willie Brown Jr pronounced nearly two hundred lesbian and gay couples husband and husband, or wife and wife in a mass wedding ceremony in the Golden Gate city. It was the first mass nuptial event to take place in San Francisco. While the "domestic partnership ceremony" holds no legal weight, Brown said in a statement "We're leading the way here in San Francisco...to fully embrace the diversity and legitimacy of people in love, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation." ILGA recognizes this as a good example for other mayors who have distinguished themselves for their opposition to gay rights. For example, the mayor of Guadalajara, Mexico who banned the 1991 ILGA World Conference (which relocated to Acapulco), or more recently, Rodolf Sohm, the mayor of the Austria city Dornbirn, who just banned a celebration of a meeting of lesbians and gays planned for next year with the lamentable reactionary argument that these people are a high risk group due to AIDS and drugs. Acts of recognition of the rights of lesbians and gays, such as that of Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco, indicate the unstoppable progressive advance of the recognition of same-gender couples in all the world. ILGA member groups are currently involved in high profile battles for the recognition of same-sex marriage in the Netherlands, Brazil, Finland, and Iceland. Other campaigns that are underway are taking place in countries such as Belgium, Spain, Germany, Latvia, the Czech Republic, and of course, the United States where all eyes are fixed on the battle for gay marriage in Hawaii. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ILGA - International Lesbian and Gay Association 81 Kolenmarkt, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium Phone/Fax +32-2-502-2471, E-mail: ilga@glo.be A federation of over 300 groups from 70 countries fighting for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.