Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 23:39:53 -0700 (PDT) From: Rex Wockner Subject: WOCKNER/INT'L NEWS #284/4 October 1999 ============================================= = INTERNATIONAL NEWS #284 - Oct 04, 1999 = = Rex Wockner = ============================================= --> UGANDA TO ARREST GAYS The president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, ordered the arrest of the nation's homosexuals Sept. 27. He said they are guilty of "abominable acts." "I have told the CID [Criminal Investigations Department] to look for homosexuals, lock them up and charge them," Museveni said in remarks to a meeting on reproductive health, according to the daily newspaper New Vision. "Even the Holy Bible spells it out clearly that God created Adam and Eve as wife and husband, but not men to marry fellow men," he said. Uganda's penal code considers gay sex "carnal knowledge of another against the order of nature." The punishment is up to life in prison. Meanwhile, a New Vision poll of 505 residents of Kampala, the Ugandan capital, found that 84 percent of those questioned believe homosexuality should be illegal. Fourteen percent believe gay sex should be permitted and two percent had no opinion. More men (17 percent) than women (10 percent) support legalization. The poll also found that 23 percent of the city's residents know someone who is gay. In a press release responding to Museveni's remarks, the group Gays and Lesbian of Zimbabwe said: "Same-sex sexual activity exists in a variety of forms in at least fifty-five African traditional cultures and these expressions are ancient and entirely indigenous to this continent. ... After centuries of slavery and colonialism, we remain at a loss to understand why African leaders continue to wallow in the language of oppression and domination." --> EURO COURT RULES AGAINST BRITISH MILITARY BAN Britain likely will drop its ban on gays in the military following a unanimous Sept. 27 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that the nation discriminated against four servicemembers who were discharged because they are homosexual. The court said Britain violated the servicemembers rights to privacy and family life and denied them adequate recourse in the British courts. "The investigations conducted into the applicants' sexual orientation together with their discharge from the armed forces constituted especially grave interferences with their private lives," the court said. British Defence Secretary George Robertson responded: "This government, like all governments, has to accept the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights. The detail of this complex judgement and the practical implications are presently being studied carefully." The government had argued that the mere presence of gays undermines military morale, fighting power and operational effectiveness. The court responded that the military has a duty to confront anti-gay bias among heterosexual soldiers because "those negative attitudes could not, of themselves, justify the interferences in question any more than similar negative attitudes towards those of a different race, origin or color." Homophobic soldiers should be subject to a strict code of conduct and disciplinary rules, the court said. The seven-member panel that heard the case was composed of judges from Albania, Austria, Britain, Cyprus, France, Lithuania and Norway. The European Court of Human Rights is the judicial organ of the Council of Europe, a grouping of 40 nations pledged to uphold human rights and cooperate in a variety of spheres of activity. The court enforces the 1952 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Four other Council of Europe member nations reportedly discriminate against gays in their armed forces. In Germany, open gays are disqualified from becoming officers or instructors. In Greece and Poland, gays are discharged for having a "personality disorder." And in Turkey, anyone who engages in "unnatural sexual intercourse" is separated from the services. Following the Euro Court ruling, the International Lesbian and Gay Association called on these nations to lift their anti-gay restrictions immediately. --> MEXICAN GAYS PARADE TO VIRGIN SHRINE About 150 gays, lesbians, transvestites and transsexuals marched through Mexico City Sept. 25 in a pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint. They carried balloons, chanted prayers, sang religious songs and handed flowers to onlookers. Rev. Jorge Sosa of the Metropolitan Community Church said the marchers sought an end to "intolerance, discrimination and violence" against sexual minorities. "We are here to give a testimony of faith and to ask the Virgin to renew the values of tolerance," he said. "The Virgin protects everyone and accepts everyone, and we're here to show her our devotion and to ask her protection as we fight for our rights in Mexico." Organizer Lilith Reyna, 22, told reporters: "I thought there would be a priest at the door sprinkling us [with so-called holy water], hoping we would change. ... This is great. I hope it opens a new door for Mexico." Marcher Guadalupe Rostro, 34, told Reuters: "I don't understand why somebody who is not straight can't manifest her faith in the Virgin. ... Some people think that all we do is go to orgies, but we have values." Catholic Cardinal Norberto Rivera denounced the procession. "Rather than an act of devotion this is a manipulative strategy," he said, adding that Mary would nonetheless bestow upon the marchers "her message of love, forgiveness and reconciliation." --> SWISS GAYS DEMAND RIGHTS Six thousand gays and lesbians demonstrated outside Switzerland's parliament Sept. 18 demanding legal recognition of gay relationships. Five registered-partnership proposals are awaiting legislative action. The protesters delivered a huge pink balloon signed by thousands of supporters. The demonstration was organized by the Swiss Lesbian Organization, Swiss PFLAG, and the gay group Pink Cross. Meanwhile, on Sept. 27, one of the legislative proposals received preliminary support when the Federal Assembly voted 105 to 46 to instruct the Legal Affairs Committee to draft a bill to reduce discrimination against gay couples. The proposal would extend marriage rights and obligations to same-sex couples in areas such as immigration, inheritance, mutual assistance, responsibility for debts, and income taxes. It would not allow for adoption or access to artificial-procreation procedures. Recent polls show that a majority of Swiss favor legal registration of homosexual partnerships. --> PERTH PRETTY POLICEMEN TAMED Police in Perth, Western Australia, will no longer use entrapment techniques to arrest men cruising for sex in places such as parks and toilets. Police gay liaison Sgt. Michelle Fyfe said new guidelines "draw attention to the need to avoid overzealous and possibly discriminatory action when dealing with members of the gay and lesbian community." "These include advice on the most appropriate way of policing public places, colloquially known as beats, frequented by homosexual or bisexual men seeking social or sexual encounters," she said. --> COLOMBIAN GAY EQUALITY BILL DEAD {~ on the n in Londono} The gay equality bill introduced in the Colombian Senate Sept. 9 by Sen. Margarita Londono is dead. It was killed by Sen. Carlos Corsi who received the assignment to oversee the bill's movement. The proposal banned anti-gay hate crimes, created partnership registration for gay couples, extended health-care benefits and Social Security to recognized gay families, covered sex-change operations under the national health-care plan, granted homosexuals "liberty of association and congregation," and banned anti-gay bias in textbooks. After the bill was withdrawn, Londono blasted Corsi in a letter to the daily newspaper El Diario. "The Colombian family has undergone deep changes and among them is the existence of families formed by homosexual partners," she said. "To not acknowledge this is to deny reality in Colombia and to legislate for a country that doesn't exist even in the most modest of the Honorable Senator Carlos Corsi's dreams. Mr. Corsi, in a moralistic fit worthy of a crusader in medieval times, demanded that the project be archived, using his Puritan blade to rip out the cancer that he likened to homosexuality. That is so macho!" -end-