World Report

by Rex Wockner

State police in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, have paid out $4 million dollars (US$3.1 million) to 250 of the 463 people they strip-searched in a 1994 raid on the gay nightclub Tasty.

The payouts have forced significant budget cuts in many areas of the force, according to a report in Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper.

At least 70 more victims of the raid have yet to settle their claims against the police department.

Australia's only openly gay member of parliament, Green party federal Senator Bob Brown, 52, was arrested June 13 in an anti- logging protest at Goolengook Forest.

A longtime environmental activist, Brown says newly authorized logging in the old-growth forest endangers numerous birds and ferns and one type of orchid. He faces a $2,000 fine.

In her maiden speech to the Western Australia state Legislative Council, Greens member of Parliament Giz Watson thanked her lover for her support and called for an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation, Capital Q reported.

Watson said she will take a keen interest in environmental policies and push for laws to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians in housing, education and services. She also called for the age-of-consent for gay sex to be equalized with that for straight sex.

Watson is Western Australia's first out lesbian MP.

The majority coalition of Belgium's Flemish regional government agreed June 9 to amend tax laws so that a surviving gay partner will pay lower inheritance taxes - but not as low as heterosexual spouses.

At present, opposite-sex spouses pay a two-percent tax while unrelated heirs pay up to 45 percent. Under the proposed changes, a gay partner would pay 10 percent. The changes are expected to take effect Jan. 1, 1998. To qualify, a gay partner would have to have lived with his or her lover for at least three years.

British Columbia Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh introduced legislation June 5 to recognize gay couples as legal spouses for purposes of child custody, maintenance and access.

"You cannot deny the fact that families aren't the same all over British Columbia," Dosanjh said "You have to recognize the reality of different families and provide security and benefits for the children of the families."

British Columbia previously legalized same-sex adoption with minimal fanfare or opposition.

Dosanjh also said he "will announce plans in the near future for a comprehensive review of the definition of spouse and its implications for all provincial legislation."

A Canadian Public Service Staff Relations Board granted gay Halifax resident Ross Boutlier marriage leave from his federal-government job June 10. "The granting of such family-related leave in situations such as the one I am faced with in this case, merely recognizes the fact that the homosexual community possesses the right to establish families in pursuance of their sexual orientation," Board Chair Yvon Tarte wrote.

An Ontario court last week granted lesbian mother Lorraine Greaves custody of her son and ordered her ex-lover, Margaret Buist, to make child-support payments.

The ruling allows Greaves to leave London, Ontario, to take a job in Vancouver as executive director of the British Columbia Women's Hospital and Health Center.

The two women lived together for seven years including during the conception and birth of the boy, who is now four and a half.

When Greaves announced plans to move to Vancouver, Buist, a lawyer, filed suit claiming sole or joint custody of the boy and seeking orders declaring that he could not be removed from London and that she was his "mother." Greaves counter-claimed for child support.

The Liquor License Board of Ontario has banned a Molson Dry beer ad in which two women kiss.

According to Toronto's Globe and Mail: "In the ad ... a young man asks his bartender to send a bottle of the beer to an attractive woman at the end of the bar. As he walks over to her, another woman sits beside her and gives her a lingering kiss. Then the three exchange glances, leaving the sexual possibilities open to interpretation."

Liquor Board officials declined to say why they rejected the commercial.

The Singapore gay group People Like Us has been denied registration with the government's Registrar of Societies and thus cannot operate legally.

"About 5 months after submitting our application ... the Registrar of Societies wrote to us rejecting our application," the group reported on its World Wide Web site. "No reason was given. We telephoned them to ask for the reason, but they said they did not entertain such requests over the phone. So ... we wrote to the Registrar formally. Meanwhile, we sent our Appeal to the Minister for Home Affairs, a route prescribed by the Societies Act. ... In the third week of May, we received a reply from the Registry saying that they would not accede to our request for the reason behind their rejection. We wrote immediately to the Minister to protest that unhelpful attitude."

Under Singapore law, any unregistered organization "shall be deemed to be an unlawful society." "Any person who is or acts as a member of an unlawful society, or attends a meeting of an unlawful society, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $3,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or both."

On July 1, Britain gave Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China and local gays are more than a little worried about their futures.

Hong Kong legalized gay sex in 1991 and gay life has begun to look like it does in most of the world's more-prosperous nations. In mainland China, on the other hand, homosexuals sometimes face prison and forced shock treatment.

"Of all the people in Hong Kong to worry about communist rule, gays probably have the most to fear," Toronto's Globe and Mail said recently.

"Deep down, we're scared," one Hong Kong gay man, Tim, told the paper. "Everyone is just celebrating [the handover to China] on the surface. We know it's very bad."

"I think the gay community will go underground now," added Andy, a 19-year-old airline manager.

In an e-mail message, Julian Chan, head of the Hong Kong gay group Isvara, detailed some of the concerns. "Though there isn't any law about gay in PR China, we all know that Beijing government is homophobic and nasty to gay population, and the new administration which lead by Tung Chee Hwa seem having a good 'obey' to Beijing," he wrote.

"For sure gay bar, Kara.O.K., sauna and disco can still run their business, but will there be raid? Do all 14 existing gay groups have to re-register? Will there be any difficulty for registration of new gay group and application of gay public gathering? ... Will gay rights movement be labeled as 'human rights action' and [thus] sentenced as 'danger to nation's security and social order?'"

Amnesty International June 18 called on Cyprus' House of Representatives to legalize gay-male sex. Cyprus was ordered to do so by the European Court of Human Rights in 1993 but legislators have procrastinated. The court said the nation's sodomy ban violates privacy rights.

Meanwhile, the European Commission on Human Rights has declared admissible an application from another Cypriot homosexual, Stavros Marongos, charging that his human rights are being violated by the ban.

The commission attempts to settle cases before handing them off to the European Court of Human Rights for a hearing.

The court, located in Strasbourg, France, 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. It enforces the 1952 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Forty gays marched through Cuenca, Ecuador, 180 miles southwest of Quito, July 3 demanding legalization of homosexuality.

The march was spurred by police raids of gay bars in preceding days.

Ecuador is one of three Latin American nations that ban gay sex, along with Chile and Nicaragua. The penalty is four to eight years in prison. Nicaragua re-criminalized homosexuality after the leftist Sandinistas were ousted from power in 1990.

The wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, attorney Cherie Booth, argued a landmark gay-equality case before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg July 9.

She represents railway clerk Lisa Grant who is suing for spousal benefits for her lover.

According to the BBC, "the case could prove embarrassing for Tony Blair as the new government is set to fight a gays-in-the- military case later this year based on the same point of European law ... the European Equal Treatment Directive."

If Grant wins, employers throughout Europe will be barred from treating gay and straight employees differently. Grant's employer, South West Trains, provides reduced-fare tickets only to employees' opposite-sex spouses or partners.

The European Court of Justice is the supreme court of the European Union, 15 western European nations working toward unification.

In other news, the new leader of Britain's Conservative Party, William Hague, approves of gay marriage. A protege of Margaret Thatcher, Hague, 36, succeeded former Prime Minister John Major. On most other issues, Hague is aligned with the party's right wing. Meanwhile, The Sydney [Australia] Sun-Herald reported June 22 there are rumors Hague is gay.

And finally, gay British Member of Parliament Ben Bradshaw's lover, Neal Dagleish, has been recognized as his spouse for purposes of House of Commons fringe benefits.

Two hundred fifty representatives of the 300 organizations that make up the International Lesbian and Gay Association staged the group's 18th World Conference June 29-July 5 in Cologne, Germany.

Delegates came from 48 nations, including Algeria, Guatemala, the Netherlands Antilles, Kazakhstan, Tanzania, Turkey and Zimbabwe.

On July 1, German Parliament Vice President Antje Vollmer met with a group of conferees from Argentina, Belgium, Israel, Lebanon, the Philippines, Romania, South Africa, Spain and Venezuela. Among other matters, she asked whether anti-gay bias in areas formerly colonized by Europeans is the result of "imperialism" or pre-existing traditions.

Activist Simon Nkoli responded that homophobia is indigenous to his native South Africa and to most other nations.

The delegates approved a new constitution that creates an executive board to manage ILGA between conferences, reduces the majority vote needed to make decisions at conferences from 80 to 50 percent, and inserts the aims of the bi and transgender movements into ILGA's mission. The executive board consists of one male and one female from each of the world's major regions.

ILGA's members come from 75 countries on five continents. Among other activities, the group publishes a bulletin, issues action alerts and networks Western nations with the growing gay movements of the Third World and the former communist nations

A registered-partnership measure that will grant registered gay and straight couples every right of matrimony except access to adoption and artificial insemination has now passed both chambers of the Dutch Parliament and is set to take effect Jan. 1.

Meanwhile, plans to open up regular marriage to homosexuals continue to move forward. Parliament has instructed the government to prepare preliminary legislation by August and a special committee is working to determine what being the world's first gay-marriage country would mean for Holland's international agreements and relationships.

At present, four countries offer marriage-like gay partnerships: Denmark (and Greenland), Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The laws grant all rights of matrimony except access to adoption, artificial-conception services and church weddings. In Iceland, though, partners can obtain joint custody of each other's biological children.

Hungary last year legalized common-law gay marriage after the Constitutional Court mandated the move. All matrimonial rights are included except access to adoption.

Foreign couples may not travel to Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Norway or Sweden for a gay wedding. At least half of a couple must be a citizen of the nation in question and must be living there when the wedding occurs.

Delfino Martinez Galvez, openly gay head of Mexico's Green Ecology Party, was found shot dead June 16 in a bathtub at his party's offices in Ometepec, Guerrero, NewsPlanet reported.

The World Wide Web site said police have not identified any motive or suspects in the case.

Attacks from President Sam Nujoma have spurred gay organizing in Namibia. The Rainbow Project is speaking out in the media and working to repeal the nation's sodomy law.

The World Organization Against Torture (WOAT) is targeting Pakistan over the recent whipping of two males allegedly caught having sex in a public lavatory.

Mohammad Zaman, 38, a mosque worker, and Fahimullah, a 14-year-old student, were lashed publicly May 17 in Bara Bazar in Pakistan's western Khyber Agency, an area administered by local Afridi tribespeople.

Zaman received 75 blows and the boy got 32. They allegedly confessed to Maulana Abdul Hadi, head of Tanzeem Ittehad-e-Ulema-e-Qabail (TIUQ), the local Islamic ruling party, and to Afridi elders that they committed sodomy. Zaman allegedly paid Fahimullah 100 rupees ($3) to have sex with him.

The Pakistan government launched a paramilitary operation in August 1995 against the TIUQ following their establishment of a paramilitary force and an independent judicial system. TIUQ regained prominence earlier this year after the government extended voting rights to the tribespeople.

WOAT urges protest letters to Pakistani President Farooq Ahmad Leghari, Office of the President, Islamabad, Pakistan. Fax: 011- 92-51-811-390. And to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Office of the Prime Minister, Islamabad, Pakistan. Fax: 011-92-51-821-835.

ILGA-Portugal has launched a postcard campaign to Prime Minister Antonio Gutteres demanding recognition of same-sex partnerships. A group of Socialist members of Parliament is planning to introduce registered-partnership legislation for opposite-sex couples and, after it passes, amend it to include same-sex couples.

Russia recorded 1,300 AIDS cases in the first four months of this year, matching the number reported in all 1996. The figure also represents 31 percent of all recorded cases since 1987.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, has unveiled a new "Safe sex, My choice" ad campaign in Russian newspapers and on TV, buses and billboards.

The chair of the South African Human Rights Commission, Barney Pityana, an Anglican priest, says churches should accept the "reality of homosexuality" and stop trying to wish it away.

"It is important to affirm the humanity of others and recognize the full expression of that humanity," Pityana said in a prepared statement. "The reality of a gay Christian being loved and accepted would impact on and confront the Church's own teaching and challenge the prevailing prejudices.

"There can be no church without the difference and diversity that is provided by God as riches in race and gender and ethnicity, in male and female, in diversities of sexual orientation, in black, white and others," Pityana added in a recent speech.

Pityana's comments came after Pretoria City Council refused to let a local gay group display its "Gay is okay" ad campaign on city buses and the group filed a complaint with the commission.

Spain's new conservative People's Party government has killed off the Spanish Tourism Institute booklet Gay Spain: Feel the Passion, which had been distributed at Spanish tourism offices in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The gay group Coordinadora Gai-Lesbiana responded by posting the booklet on its World Wide Web site (http://www.pangea.org/org/cgl).

"The withdrawal of this official guide by the current State Tourism Secretariat, according to the political priorities of the right-wing Popular Party, is a nonsense [sic] which damages the tourism industry and is a spiteful form of aggression against alternative sexual orientation," CGL General Secretaries Jordi Petit and Gemma Sanchez said in a press release.

Turkish transsexual gay leader Demet Demir, a winner of this year's International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission award for outstanding contributions to the movement, was taken into custody by Istanbul police July 12.

The arresting officers said Demir had "insulted the police."

A spokesman for the gay group Lambda Istanbul said the arrest was probably related to a July 7 TV program, A Team, in which Demir complained of police mistreatment of transvestites and transsexuals.

"Lambda Istanbul is not hopeful about her situation at the police station," the spokesman said. "We assume that she is being treated awfully and she may get lost before she gets out of the station." Lambda can be reached atturkiye@qrd.org

"Homosexuality is taboo in the [United Arab] Emirates, however, it is considered normal for men to have sex with other men both before and during marriage," according to a report in Australia's Adelaide Gay Times.

ZIMBABWE

Former Zimbabwean President Canaan Banana has denied he had forced sex on male students, bodyguards and associates. "The so-called allegations are a mortuary of pathological lies, a malicious vendetta of vilification and character assassination," he said.

Police gave prosecutors nine sodomy and homosexuality charges against former Banana, who is accused of forcing sex on male associates during his presidency (1980-1987) and at the University of Zimbabwe where he chairs the Religion Department. Reports of Banana's alleged activities came to light in February during the trial of one of his ex-bodyguards, a policeman who murdered a fellow cop who had teased him by calling him "Banana's wife." The bodyguard claimed Banana raped him repeatedly during a three-year period.

A Methodist minister and chair of the University of Zimbabwe Religion Department, Banana is married and has four kids. He was president while current President Robert Mugabe - who is virulently anti-gay - was prime minister.