October 8th, 1997 to October 14th, 1997

World Roundup

by Rex Wockner

Ecuadoran gays sue to overturn sex ban
The Ecuadoran gay group Andean Triangle Movement and the AIDS Education and Prevention Foundation filed suit against the nation's gay-sex ban Sept. 24. The Constitutional Tribunal case alleges that Article 516 of the Penal Code, which punishes gay sex with four to eight years in prison, is unconstitutional.

As required by law in such a challenge, the groups presented a petition signed by at least 1,000 citizens.

Ecuador is one of three Latin American nations that ban gay sex, along with Chile and Nicaragua.

Israeli TV ordered to air gay program
Israel's High Court of Justice Sept. 21 ordered the Ministry of Education to air a gay-themed film it had banned from the state-run Educational Television network.

"The film reflects a reality which is useless to try to avoid," Chief Justice Aharon Barak ruled in a case brought by gay organizations. "In a world progressing towards the year 2000, homosexuality no longer represents a perversion that needs to be denounced, condemned and fought. Hiding in the closet and denouncing it will not lead to a decrease in the extent of the phenomenon."

The film, in which gay/lesbian youth talk about their experiences, was produced by the Education Ministry itself for its Cards On The Table series.

After the ruling, Education Minister Zevulun Hammer, an Orthodox Jew, reiterated his opposition, calling the film "inappropriate" and "unbalanced."

"Approval of the program as it is depicts homosexuality to youths as an alternative to a normal, traditional family," he said. "It was important to ensure that this type of program display balance and present the nature, advantages and respect of the normal, traditional family unit in Israel."

Deputy Minister of Health and Knesset member Rabbi Shlomo Benizri was even more adamant.

"This is a poverty certificate for the High Court which is already lacking in spirituality and Judaism, Jewish ethics and values," he said. "This is the homosexual that broke the High Court's back. As far as I am concerned, the next stage of the Court's enlightenment is to appoint a declared homosexual to the Supreme Court, or that one of them, if there are any, will come out of the closet. ... Why not? There is nothing to be ashamed of. The restraints have been lifted and the perversion has been allowed."

Somali homosexual executed for rape
A Somali homosexual who confessed to raping a boy was machine-gunned to death by prison guards in north Mogadishu Sept. 16, the daily newspaper Qaran reported.

Islamic Court militiamen carried out the execution before Osman Abdi Haji had been tried or sentenced.

"He had committed a crime against nature," said Ahmed Abdullahi Aden, who was visiting a relative at the prison. "They gave him relief by machine-gunning him. ... We wanted Haji to be stoned to death."

North Mogadishu is controlled by Ali Mahdi Mohamed's Somali Salvation Alliance faction.

Banana sodomy trial begins
The sexual-assault trial of former Zimbabwean President Canaan Banana began last month in Harare's High Court but was promptly suspended to await a ruling on whether Banana can receive a fair trial.

He is charged with 11 counts of sodomy, attempted sodomy and indecent assault on seven aides, a cook, a gardener and a bodyguard.

Banana, 62, claims innocence. "The so-called allegations are a mortuary of pathological lies, a malicious vendetta of vilification and character assassination," he said.

Current President Robert Mugabe is viciously homophobic. Homosexuals are "repugnant to my human conscience ... immoral and repulsive," he has said. Gay sex is "an abomination" and "sub- animal behavior" and citizens should "hand [gays] over to the police. ... I don't believe they have any rights at all," he stated in 1995.

Chinese gays are more open
Shanghai, China, now has an openly gay-owned restaurant and gays there and in other cities say it is increasingly safe to hang out in gay circles.

"No one bothers about us anymore," a 32-year-old customer at the restaurant told The New York Times. "As long as we're not disturbing anyone else, we can enjoy ourselves and the police will leave us alone."

According to the Times, "[I]n cities all over the country, gay people gather and socialize in places openly known as gay hangouts like restaurants, bars and public parks, largely unafraid of the kind of police roundups that were common only a few years ago."

But that doesn't mean gays are coming out to family or employers. There is still too great a risk of being rejected or fired, the paper said.

Lesbians are coming out too, though they have fewer meeting places.

"The pickup attitude that a lot of men have is less true for women," said a 29-year-old public-relations executive in Beijing. "We use more informal networks, going through friends."

Shanghai's main male pickup spot is across the street from a police station. "Hundreds of men gather there each evening, some holding hands as they wander along the tree-lined paths, while others chat as they congregate on low-lying benches," the Times said. "A murmur of conversation fills the summer air, relaxed and lively at the same time."

Netherlands halts AIDS funding
The Netherlands Ministry of Health, Well Being and Sport has ended its financing of AIDS research, withdrawing 8.6 million guilders (US$4.3 million) in funds.

Spokeswoman Wendy Reijmerink said the research had been funded "far longer" than other "special projects" and now it's time for AIDS researchers to compete for grants like other biomedical investigators.

The Dutch AIDS Fund has appealed the decision to Health Minister Els Borst-Eilers.

Argentine pensions delayed
Argentina's recent decision to pay widow/widower pensions to surviving same-sex partners has yet to result in any payments because of heavy pressure placed on Social Security Secretary Carlos Torres by right-wing politicians and the Catholic Church.

"The widower's pensions are in danger," said activist Rafael Freda. "Torres is under pressure for having granted them so he is trying to delay everything. We are trying to exert social pressure in order to grant the payment of the pensions."

Argentine PWAs stage sit in
About 100 Argentine AIDS patients occupied a floor of the nation's health ministry Sept. 16 demanding free access to anti- HIV "cocktail" treatments.

Health Minister Alberto Mazza responded that people with AIDS are, in fact, being treated and said the 1998 treatment budget will increase to $65 million.

Gays, Tranys demonstrate in Rosario, Argentina
Gay and transgendered members of Rosario, Argentina's Rainbow Collective picketed the Provincial Tribunal Sept. 18 "to present to the public and the media the situation of transvestites in our city and denounce the police and judges who violate our rights with total impunity."

"Transvestites are persecuted and arrested or detained every day by the police, mainly the Police Headquarters Morality Brigade headed up by Commissioner Jorge Arana," the group said in a press communique.

66 films at 1st Lisbon gay fest
Sixty-six films screened at Lisbon, Portugal's First Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Sept. 13-28.

The mayor and other dignitaries attended the kickoff presentation of The Celluloid Closet.
Sponsors included the federal and city governments and the Cinemateca Portuguesa museum.

Most of the screenings, at three theaters around the city, sold out.

Meanwhile, Portugal's first Gay and Lesbian Community Center opens Oct. 20 in downtown Lisbon.

"The community center will have one-on-one, telephone, legal, medical and psychological support and counseling," said a press release. "It will be equipped with a coffee-shop, a documentation center, a library, an internet access point and a small bookstore."

Space for the facility was donated to the gay group ILGA- Portugal by the City Council.

Aussie Premier blames gay people with AIDS
The head of the Australian state of Victoria, where Melbourne is, has little sympathy for people who catch HIV from sex, reported The Age.

On a radio talk show, Premier Jeff Kennett said: "Those who have been part of the AIDS movement have done a brilliant job ... of marketing their concerns. And they have now put such pressure on community and politicians that politicians have, for political correctness reasons, given that a higher priority than the biggest killer among our society in terms of health, which is breast cancer for women. [That is] absolutely immoral, and it is wrong. I feel very, very sorry for those with AIDS who have contracted it medically. I think that's an absolute tragedy. ... Those who contract it through their own performance I have not as much sympathy for. But the symptoms of the illness are so bad you still can't help being moved by it."

Bulgarians celebrate gay bar's anniversary
Gays in Sofia, Bulgaria, celebrated the one-year anniversary of the gay club Adonis this month, reports correspondent Nikolai Zhorov Georgiev of the gay organization Gemini.

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