From: [email-masked] (Rex Wockner)
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 00:39:30 -0700 (PDT)

{ SOME NEWS REPORTING BY JOURNALIST REX WOCKNER WILL BE POSTED TO GAYNET 
AND SENT TO THE QUEER RESOURCES DIRECTORY APPROXIMATELY ONE MONTH AFTER 
SYNDICATION TO 50-SOME GAY NEWSPAPERS. THESE BRIEFS WERE FILED MAY 12, 
1994. }

INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS #003
by Rex Wockner 
Internet: [email-masked] 
 
SWEDISH GAYS CELEBRATE 50 YEARS OF LEGAL SEX
 
        Gays and lesbians in Stockholm staged a press event last
month to celebrate 50 years of legal homosexuality.
        In 1944, the Second Chamber of Parliament abolished the law
that mandated a sentence of hard-labor for homosexual relations
between adults.
        What a difference 50 years makes: In June, Parliament is
expected to vote to make Sweden the world's third gay-marriage
country.
        More than 20 U.S. states still outlaw gay sex.

***

KENYA AIDS STATS CLIMB
 
        More than five percent of Kenyans over age 15 are HIV-
positive, the National AIDS Control Program reported in early
May.
        Up to 1.9 million people could be infected by the year 2005,
and some one million children will likely become "AIDS orphans,"
the report said.
        Also, an alarming number of children are becoming infected
in utero or from breast-feeding, officials said.

***

EGYPT DEPORTS HIV-POSITIVES
 
        Two hundred twenty-seven HIV-positive foreigners have been
deported from Egypt since the AIDS epidemic began, the deputy
health minister said May 8.
        Mohammed Aboul Nasr also reported that 178 Egyptians have
died of AIDS and another 167 are HIV-positive.

***

BRITISH MP RESIGNS POST AFTER REPORT OF GAY SEX
 
        British Member of Parliament Michael Brown, 42, resigned his
government post, but not his Parliament seat, May 8 after a
tabloid newspaper reported he had sex with a 20-year-old man
before the recent reduction in the homosexual age-of-consent from
21 to 18.
        Brown, a Tory, relinquished his junior-government-whip job.
A whip is an MP assigned to keep members of his party voting the
party line.
        Brown said he quit to "be free to take legal advice with a
view to instituting proceedings following allegations made
against me."
        Earlier this year, Brown voted to set the age-of-consent for
gay sex at 16; Parliament settled on 18.

***

SEX TOURISM FEEDS VIETNAM AIDS RATE
 
        Vietnam's HIV rate has climbed from one known infection in
1990 to more than 1,000 new infections last year alone, and
officials say the commercial-sex industry is a big part of the
problem.
        The government's AIDS plan predicts 570,000 people will be
infected by 1998, and calls for the eradication of prostitution
and drug use, as well as promotion of safer sex and condom
availability.

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