From ecl@mtgzy.att.com Fri Jan 15 09:42:00 1993 Return-Path: Received: from rpi.edu by mail1.its.rpi.edu (4.1/SMHUB40); id AA28427; Fri, 15 Jan 93 09:41:55 EST for buckmr Received: from att.att.com (att-out.att.com) by rpi.edu (4.1/SMHUB41); id AA21204; Fri, 15 Jan 93 09:41:39 EST for buckmr@rpi.edu Message-Id: <9301151441.AA21204@rpi.edu> Date: Fri, 15 Jan 93 09:38 EST From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070) To: buckmr@rpi.edu Subject: World Status: U .H 1 "Lesbigay Rights Around the World" .H 2 "Russia" .BL .LI .I Outlines (Chicago Gay Paper), Sept. 1991, p.10 .R .P MOSCOW -- When the final tally was complete, it was estimated that nearly 20,000 people participated in the Soviet Union's first gay/lesbian-pride events July 23 - Aug. 3 in Moscow and Leningrad. .P ..."One year ago, it would have been incredible to think of events like this," said Roman Kalinin, founder of the Moscow Gay and Lesbian Union and, in essence, of the Soviet gay movement itself. "We will remember this forever. .P "I want to say to our American friends, you have infected us with the will to be free," Kalinin said. "I think we're sick with it now. Thank you. We owe you for the fact that when we started coming out, we were not alone ... I want to say to the Soviets in this room, we have received help from the West; now it's our turn to do our part to advance the movement." .P ... The Moscow film festival attracted 16,000 people, organizers said, making it the fifth-largest gay film festival in the world. It was staged by Frameline, which organizes San Francisco's film fest. There were several screenings each of "Coming Out" (East Germany), "Desert Hearts", "The Times of Harvey Milk," "Maurice," "My Beautiful Launderette" and "November Moon." .P ...Some delegates [to the Soviet gay pride events] wondered about the propriety of spending energy on an "advanced" issue like gay/lesbian rights in the midst of the squalor of the daily lives of Soviet citizens. But then they observed the pure joy in the eyes and faces of the Soviet gays and lesbians gathered publicly for the first time -- and remembered that freedom is as fundamental as anything. .LE .H 2 "Canada" .BL .LI .I Outlines (Chicago Gay Paper), Sept. 1991, p.8 .R .P CANADA -- The Nova Scotia legislature banned discrimination against gays and lesbians June 27 by adding "sexual orientation" to the provincial Human Rights Act. Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and the Yukon Territory have passed similar laws. The Nova Sotia legislation also protects people with AIDS and "contains broad prohibitions on the publication of discriminatory material," according to "Xtra!" .LI .I The New York Times, Jan. 14, 1992 (by Clyde H. Farnsworth). .R .P Homosexual is granted refugee status in Canada -- TORONTO, Jan 13 -- For the first time in Canada, a homosexual fearing persecution in his homeland because of sexual preference has been granted refugee status, under a Government decision that could have broad ramifications in North America. The case, involving a 28-year-old Argentine named Jorge Alberto Inaudi, was decided by a panel of the Immigration and Refugee board, an independent, quasi-judicial agency under the Minister of Immigration. Its rulings are usually final, although they can be appealed to federal courts. .P In Argentina, the law allows the police to arrest homosexuals. Mr. Inaudi, who has been in Canada since March 1990, testified that as a homosexual he had been arrested in 1989 and early in 1990, raped and tortured by Argentina's federal police and "completely terrorized." At the time he was studying engineering at the University of Cordoba. He said he had fled the country because he "could not tolerate this police terror," noting that "the fact they know me as a gay man and I am on file makes me very vulnerable." .P Michael Schelew, a Toronto immigration lawyer who took up the case for the Argentine, said his client had been able to establish "high credibility." Sexual orientation had been used as an argument in earlier Canadian refugee cases, but prior applicants were denied refugee status because their credibility was questioned, Mr. Schelew said. "This is the first case ever examined on the merits," he said. .P The decision, in effect, puts persecuted homosexuals in the same category as political leaders or others who upon repatriation might face life- threatening situations. .P ...Comparable decisions have been made over the last decade by immigration authorities in Germany and the Netherlands, but lawyers and academics here said this was the first time the definition of a refugee as someone facing reprisals because of sexual orientation had crossed the Atlantic. .P Rebecca Cook, a law professor at the University of Toronto and director of its international human rights program, said she expected the decision to affect refugee cases in the United States. "They would have to consider it very carefully to see whether similar grounds apply to similarly persecuted people who apply to the U.S.," she commented. She cited the importance of a new precedent. .P In his arguments before the Canadian panel, Mr. Schelew pointed to the German and Dutch cases to bolster his arguments. Future asylum cases in the United States, Professor Cook noted, will now be able to cite a Canadian precedent as well. Professor Cook said the decision might also "cause Argentines to think twice about discriminating against homosexual people." .P ...In determining refugee status, the United States, Canada and the European countries are all bound by the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Under this formulation, a refugee is someone who "owing to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable, or is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country." Mr. Schelew argued successfully that Mr. Inaudi, as a homosexual, was part of a persecuted "social group." But he emphasized that the case did not suddenly mean that Canada would be- come a haven for all homosexuals who claimed refugee status. "You have to be able to show persecution, not harassment," he said. .P Reflecting a heightened concern for human rights, Canada has taken other steps recently to improve social conditions for homosexuals. It is about to end a policy of barring homosexuals from joining the armed forces and has moved to allowed conjugal rights for homosexual prisoners. .LE .H 2 "India" .BL .LI .I The New York Times, International Section, August 15, 1991, p. A4 .R .P ...And now, a group of young gay men and lesbians have begun publishing Bombay Dost, the country's first magazine for homosexuals, a magazine that had a brief underground existence before being registered by the Government permitting its legal distribution through the mails. .P In a country where the socially conservative strictures of Hinduism, and to a lesser extent Islam, have constrained candid discussion of sexuality and sexual behavior, this explosion of open gay behavior is startling. Although homosexual activity, in a holdover from the British colonial statutes, is illegal, the new gay assertiveness represents a willingness to skirt the statutory limits regulating sexual behavior. .P This new and public expression of homosexuality also reflects the emerging cultural and social complexity of India's growing middle classes. Most of the homosexuals here are young professionals who work in this city's expanding private sector and whose standard of living is well above the national average. .P Being a homosexual in India is often seen as clashing with the central role of the family, of a married man and woman, within society. "A single person is seen as an anti-social unit," said Ashok Row Kavi, the chief editor of Bombay Dost, whose first legal issue was published last month. "At a temple you can only do pooja as husband and wife. Even the gods are married." Pooja is a religious rite of idol-worship. .P ...At the same time, [Mr. Kavi] recognizes that on India's scale of human misery, the lack of legal rights for homosexuals is not likely to rivet the attention of social reformers. "According to Bombay City, two out of 10 people are living on the pavement here," he said. "So if 20,000 gays marched for sexual rights, no one would care. Probably no one should care." .P Sultan Khan, a friend of Mr. Kavi who works on Bombay Dost, said that while Indian culture militates against single people, it is not inherently hostile to homosexuality. "I don't think a homophobic culture exists in India," he said. "We've never had the physical elimination of gays. We've never had the type of physical barbarism and cruelty you had in Europe. So I don't see why we can't have a gay culture that's more relaxed here." .P ...In Indian religious texts and mythology, there has never been the disdain of homosexual relations that is present in Christianity, Judaism or Islam. In the Mahabharata, the classical Hindu epic poem about good and evil, the tale is told of the god Krishna dressing as a woman and giving himself as the first sexual experience for the first-born son of Arjun -- the greatest warrior of the epic -- who was heading off to war. And in Kerala, the most popular god, Ayyappa, is said to have been born of the homosexual union of the gods Shiva and Vishnu. "This god is so popular that 4.5 million people went there last year," Mr. Davi said. "It's a completely gay god. Of course, you're not supposed to mention it." .P "An important task for the magazine," Mr. Khan said, "is to give a sense of identity. People are recognizing that it's OK to be single. It's easier to do if you're in a city. In the countryside, everybody spies on you. Consciousness-raising is going to take a long time." Part of that task, he said, was the popularization of the word "khush," or happy, to mean gay. "most people wouldn't know what it means yet," he said. "But that will change." .LE .H 2 "Latin America" .BL .LI .I Chicago Tribune, Jan. 28, 1992, p. 1 .R .P Buenos Aires -- The gay rights movement is still in its infancy throughout Latin America, but it is growing in a continent where a powerful Roman Catholic Church, a tradition of repressive military governments and a macho culture have pushed homosexuals to the edge of the law and forced them to live with humiliation and fear. .P "What American gays would consider repressive living conditions, Latin American gays would consider liberation. ... But the number of organizations in Latin America fighting for gay and lesbian issues has increased dramatically in recent years," said Robert Bray, an official at the Washington-based National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and a delegate to the International Lesbian and Gay Association, which represents 200 gay organizations worldwide. .P In Latin America, military regimes that governed during most of the last half-century either passed laws that outlawed homosexuality or made it difficult for homosexuals to act openly by allowing police to detain them for violating vague laws that prohibit everything from "offending public morality" to having "immoral purposes," according to lawyers and gay activists. .P Much of the impetus for such laws came from the Catholic Church, which considers homosexuality a sin and has had more influence in shaping Latin Americans' attitudes toward sex than any other institution, activists say. Cardinal Antonio Quarrancino, Argentina's most powerful cleric, described homosexuality as "animalism" after applauding last November's Supreme Court decision denying legal status to the country's only gay rights group, the Argentine Homosexual Community. .P Latin American gays face another problem: the existence of a macho culture in which male self-worth is linked closely to the sexual conquest of women, and where a conservative view of family and women's rights predominates. Several Latin American presidents, including Argentine President Carlos Menem, have carried out highly public romances that seemed to boost their popularity among male voters. .P "Most gays are still in the closet because the social pressure is incredible. I know lesbians beaten by their fathers when they tell them they're gay. I've been kicked by my neighbors," said Enrique Bossio, director of the Lima Homosexual Movement, Peru's only gay rights organization. Although being gay in Peru is not a crime, Bossio said, police often raid gay bars and discos to blackmail clients. The fear of AIDS also has stoked homophobia, he said. At least 40 male prostitutes, transvestites and gays have been murdered in the past two years by right-wing groups and leftist Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement guerrillas seeking to "clean up the streets," according to Bossio. .P Paramilitary squads linked to police and narco-traffickers have killed at least 320 male prostitutes, transvestites and gays in Colombia over the past seven years, according to Manuel Velandia, the country's most prominent gay activist. Similar groups in Brazil have killed more than 710 male prostitutes, transvestites and gays since 1980, according to Brazilian newspaper reports. Ironically, Brazil is considered among the most tolerant countries in Latin America for gays, along with Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Mexico. Cuba, where gays are prohibited from joining the Communist Party and have been jailed for long periods, is considered the region's worst country for homosexuals to live in, activists say. Chile and Ecuador also outlaw all homosexual acts. .P ...Freda [former president of the Argentine Homosexual Community] and other activists say police have stopped conducting massive raids at the city's [Buenos Aires] growing number of gay bars and discos; only two years ago hundreds of homosexuals were being jailed on a single night. The solidification of democracy and respect for rule of law is one reason for the change in police policy, they say. .P ..."There are no massive detentions now, in part because of democracy. There is more freedom for everybody ... Things are improving, but it's still a huge battle," said Monica Santino, 26, co-president of the Argentine Homosexual Community, explaining that fewer openly gay men and women are losing their jobs and a tiny but increasing number of gay men and lesbians are coming out of the closet. .LE .H 2 "Lesbigay Marriage" .BL .LI .I Outlines (Chicago Gay Paper), Sept. 1991, p.9 .R .P Denmark is the world's only gay-marriage country, but Czechoslovakia, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden are moving on the issue. .LE